LibriVox – Page 31

LibriVox: A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

SFFaudio Online Audio

Back in 2008 Listener (of the Free Listens blog) reviewed for us Steve Anderson’s 2006 reading of A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court. That’s a freely available LibriVox audiobook. Shortly thereafter LibriVox published a second version and we’ve ignored it since then. No Longer!

John Greenman’s 2008 narration is 2 hours and 18 minutes shorter than Anderson’s and has an even better sound quality. As to whether he’s the better narrator try these two files on for size:

Steve Anderson’s 2006 |MP3|
John Greenman’s 2008 |MP3|

What do you think? Myself I can see merits for both. I like Anderson’s unaffected reading voice. Greenman’s narration has a certain folksy charm too. Sound quality is better with Greenman’s, but Anderson’s voice is just a little crisper with the words – that might make it easier to hear in a noisy environment. I can’t choose. Help!

Here’s the Greenman edition:

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court
By Mark Twain; Read by John Greenman
3 M4Bs, 44 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 11 Hours 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 03, 2008
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The work is a very early example of time travel in literature, anticipating by six years H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine of 1895 (however, unlike Wells, Twain does not give any real explanation of his protagonist’s traveling in time). Some early editions are entitled A Yankee At The Court Of King Arthur.

Part 1 |M4B| Part 2 |M4B| Part 3 |M4B|

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court-by-mark-twain-2.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Drama Pod: Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

Look what the dragnet dragged in! This is a complete and unabridged recording of a story that’s been suppressed by threats of a lawsuit. Originally recorded for inclusion in a LibriVox collection of short Science Fiction stories, Adjustment Team was unjustly subject to DMCA takedown notifications |HERE| and |HERE|. The facts are these: The story wasn’t actually copyright renewed as evidenced by this falsified document RE190631 (page 2 back). We can see that the true first publication date of Adjustment Team was in Orbit Science Fiction No.4 Sept-Oct 1954 (not Imaginative Tales September 1955). Thanks Drama Pod!

Adjustment Team
By Philip K Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 59 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Drama Pod
Podcast: November 14, 2011
“Something went wrong and Ed Fletcher got mixed up in the biggest thing in his life.” First published in Orbit Science Fiction, Sept-Oct 1954, No.4.

Illustrations by Faragasso:

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

[Thanks internet!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Diamond Lens by Fitz James O’Brien

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Diamond Lens by Fitz James O'Brien - illustration uncredited - December 1926 issue of Amazing Stories

I’ve created a |PDF| from the printing in the December 1926 issue of Amazing Stories.

Introduction to the October 1933 issue of Amazing in which The Diamond Lens was published

The Diamond Lens - Illustration by Morrey

I’ve created a |PDF| from the printing in the October 1933 issue of Amazing Stories.

In his introductory essay “Expanding The Lens“, found in to the story in The Road To Science Fiction: From Gilgamesh To Wells, editor James Gunn writes:

“[The Diamond Lens] is the first known story in which another world is perceived through a microscope… [this story] opened up another world, not just for readers, but for writers as well.” Gunn goes on to praise O’Brien’s “realistic treatment of the fantastic” and says that “‘The Diamond Lens‘” may be the first modern science-fiction story.”

LibriVox narrator Corrina Schultz describes The Diamond Lens this way:

“This story has a bit of everything – obsessive scientist, psychic medium contacting the dead, clever murder cover-up, racism, creepy stalker, college student shirking his studies, the painful results of pursuing forbidden knowledge, the noble savage…”

Atop those words I myself can heap a few other attractors:

1. The Diamond Lens is bizarre in both plot and focus, with episodic like writing <-Weird for a short story. 2. It has the sensibility of a foreign culture <-The 19th century attitude toward seances is pretty fucking foreign! 3. The protagonist is a mad microscopist. <-Perhaps he was demented by the illicit lure of science? 4. The story features a brutal killing. <-With a whackjob of added racism to complicate matters! 5. It has a noir ending. <-My favourite kind. As you may have guessed I quite enjoyed The Diamond Lens.

Stories like Harl Vincent’s Microcosmic Buccaneers (1929), Theodore Sturgeon’s Microcosmic God (1941) and both Sunken Universe (1942) and Surface Tension (1952) by James Blish all stem from the microscopic pioneering of The Diamond Lens. Whereas the theme, of an alien female object of adoration in an unreachable land, also brings to mind a mighty parallel with Jack Williamson’s The Green Girl (1930). And one final note, a quick read of the Wikipedia entry for Fitz James O’Brien makes me think some of the tale is autobiographical!

The Diamond Lens
By Fitz James O’Brien; Read by Corinna Schultz
1 |MP3| – Approx. 57 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox
Published: FORTHCOMING
A scientist, having invented a powerful microscope, discovers a beautiful female living in a microscopic world inside a drop of water. First published in the January 1858 issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

The Weird Circle The Diamond Lens
Based on the story by Fitz-James O’Brien; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: MBS, NBC, ABC
Broadcast: December 31, 1944
Provider: Archive.org

Arthur C. Clarke describes The Diamond Lens (from an article in Playboy)

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade by Edgar Allan Poe

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade by Edgar Allan Poe - illustration by Frank R. Paul

Here’s the uncredited editorial introduction, presumably by Hugo Gernsback himself, to The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade as it appeared in the May 1928 issue of Amazing Stories:

“When we realize that this story was written nearly 100 years ago, we must marvel at the extraordinary fertile imagination of Poe. Poe was probably the inventor of “Scientifiction” as we know it today, and just because the story was written almost a century ago, certainly does not make it less valuable. On the contrary, it becomes more valuable as time passes. It is just as applicable to the modern man, who is mostly in the fog about what goes on around him in science today, as his predecessors were a century ago.”

Indeed, if you read it straight through, without pausing to read the footnotes, you’ll probably only get a vague sense of what’s going on in this story. And though I think I tumbled to the idea pretty early on, I still found myself in many places echoing the king’s many harrumphs. I’m not one to use the term “genius” lightly, but if anyone is worthy of the term, it is certainly Edgar Allan Poe. Even in his lesser works, like The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade, there is a wry brilliance that may be entirely matchless.

The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 55 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox
Published: October 1, 2009
First published in the February 1845 issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

And here’s the matching |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Free Listens Review: The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

Source: LibriVox (zip ped mp3s)

Length: 2 hours, 21 minutes
Reader: Michael Thomas Robinson

The book: Considered one of the greatest stories in horror literature, The Willows lives up to its reputation. Two friends canoeing down the Danube stop for the night on an island in the middle of a huge expanse of willow trees. The place seems mystic, almost otherworldly, and in the night the two interlopers find out why.

Blackwood could have set this story in any exotic river in the world, but he chose the Danube. This river, which runs through the heart of Europe, is the wildness that runs through what was then the epitome of civilization. As the atmosphere of this turns from idyllic to terrifying, Blackwood is showing that the unknown horrors of the world can be anywhere, even where we should be the most safe. This, I think, is the most horrifying realization of all.

Rating: 9 / 10

The reader: At first, I was not impressed by Robinson’s voice. He’s somewhat nasal, and starts the book with a bored, straightforward style. As the story went on, though, I realized the initial bored tone was probably intentional, contrasting with the building dread of the story. His pace quickens and slows to build the tension, drawing the listener into the horror of what the narrator is experiencing. Despite my early misgivings, I greatly enjoyed this reading.

Posted by Seth

LibriVox: The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs

SFFaudio Online Audio

I read The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs in the book called SHOCKS edited by Burton Goodman. It was different, less detailed, than the Project Gutenberg edition. There are five actors playing all the characters in the audiobook below.

The Monkey’s Paw
By W.W. Jacobs; Read by David Barnes, Stuart Pyle, Cori Samuel, Jim Mowatt, Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 2, 2007
|ETEXT|

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-monkeys-paw-by-ww-jacobs.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Kevin Long