LibriVox – Page 53

LibriVox: Miss Pim’s Camouflage by Lady Stanley

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s another LibriVox release that, had I not found something similar recently, I probably normally wouldn’t mention. The reader, Grant Hurlock, uses absolutely no inflection in his narration, so it’s not really a great reading. But, the book’s plot is kinda quirky cool. It’s very much like a 1942 propaganda movie I watched recently, The Invisible Agent; it featured the grandson of Dr. Jack Griffin (the protagonist of H.G. Well’s The Invisble Man), who decides to use his grandfather’s invisibility formula to spy on Nazi Germany. Miss Pim’s Camouflage, the new LibriVox.org audiobook, on the other hand, features a patriotic spinster who wants to do her fair share in fighting The Great War! She comes from a long line of soldiers, but, having been born a woman, she is only able to do her part of the “war work” by gardening in her onion fields. One day, too long in the sun, she finds herself having been turned completely invisible. So now this will be Miss Pim’s chance to win herself a VC by going behind enemy lines and spying on the Germans. Neat huh?

LibriVox - Miss Pim's Camouflage by Lady Stanley Miss Pim’s Camouflage
By Lady Stanley; Read by Grant Hurlock
31 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 28, 2009
Mid-WWI, staid Englishwoman Miss Perdita Pim suffers a sunstroke gardening & gains the power of invisibility. She becomes a super-secret agent, going behind German lines, sometimes visible, sometimes not, witnessing atrocities & gleaning valuable war information

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/miss-pims-camouflage-by-dorothy-stanley.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[Thanks to Barry Eads and Tricia G too!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson

SFFaudio Online Audio

There are a lot of new audiobooks showing up on LibriVox every day of the week. This means I get to pick and choose amongst a vast roster of titles that I could possibly tell you about. One that I was not planning to post about was a 1759 Fantasy novel by Samuel Johnson. I had nothing against Johnson. I just hadn’t read any of his books. Sure I knew he had written a dictionary, but it wasn’t one of the ones that I had read. The problem really was I just didn’t know enough about Johnson to be interested in his novel. Frankly, the first thing that came to mind when I thought of Dr. Samuel Johnson was how great a character he was in the “Ink and Incapability“ episode of Blackadder. That one never gets old.

But, then today I was listening to my favourite Australian podcast, ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone, and they mentioned this book. I suspect this wasn’t fated, it being the 300th anniversary of Johnson’s birth people around the world are thinking about old Johnson – but even if it was fate – either if I changed my mind or my mind was changed – after listening to that show I’m telling you about this novel now. The show |MP3| was actually on Johnson’s stoic christian philosophy – or rather his reaction to the ancient stoics. Host Alan Saunders, and guest, John Wiltshire, talked about a poem and then this book and it’s position in Johnson’s philosophy. It was fascinating! Now to listen…

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
By Samuel Johnson; Read by Martin Geeson
17 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 25, 2009
In this enchanting fable (subtitled The Choice of Life), Rasselas and his retinue burrow their way out of the totalitarian paradise of the Happy Valley in search of that triad of eighteenth-century aspiration – life, liberty and happiness. According to that quirky authority, James Boswell, Johnson penned his only work of prose fiction in a handful of days to cover the cost of his mother’s funeral. The stylistic elegance of the book and its wide-ranging philosophical concerns give no hint of haste or superficiality. Among other still burning issues Johnson’s characters pursue questions of education, colonialism, the nature of the soul and even climate alteration. Johnson’s profoundest concern, however, is with the alternating attractions of solitude and social participation, seen not only as the ultimate life-choice but as the arena in which are played out the deepest fears of the individual: “Of the uncertainties of our present state, the most dreadful and alarming is the uncertain continuance of Reason.”

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/rasselas-prince-of-abyssinia-by-samuel-johnson.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

In addition to the reader, Martin Geeson, this audiobook was produced by:

Dedicated Proof-Listener: Stav Nisser
Meta-Coordinator/Cataloging: Leni

[Thanks to all three LibriVoxateers]

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Brighton Boys In The Radio Service by

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVox What ho chaps! Now that it’s 1918 and all let’s all go fight in The Great War! It’ll be trenches of fun. Hey look our teacher thinks it’s a smashing idea! Even better, our parents seem to have no objections at all! Now we’re being trained by these jolly good officers! I tell you Uncle Sam is doing us the favor here. My don’t our uniforms look smart.

Yep. You see where this is going don’t you?

Early on in this whip-fast boy’s adventure the bad boy of Brighton, an evil sort named Herbert Wallace, tries to discourage Slim Goodwin, one of our heroes, from enlisting in the U.S. Army’s signal corp. He is of course soundly trounced by the school’s headmaster:

“Well, Wallace,” said the principal of Brighton, “I hear you’ve been studying up on military subjects. Intending to get into the fight?”

Herbert Wallace hung his head and muttered an unintelligible reply.

“Now look here, Wallace,” spoke the headmaster sternly, “where did you get the military manual from which you gave Goodwin the information that he could not pass the examination for the army?”

“I—I got it from the library, sir.”

“Got it without permission, too, didn’t you?” pursued the headmaster.

“Yes, sir,” said Wallace, in confusion.

“And didn’t know that it was out of date, and that the requirements were completely changed after the United States entered this war, eh?”

“No, sir,” answered Wallace, on the verge of a breakdown.

“I’ll decide upon your punishment later,” announced the headmaster. “See me here at four o’clock. Meanwhile, Wallace, be careful where you get information, and be careful how you dispense it.”

Yep. Almost 100 years after the event itself I’m still freaked out by the prospect of shipping off to fight in meat-grinder that was World War I. I find it hard to make a case for censorship. But if I was forced to write an essay arguing in favour of it I would present this book as my primary evidence. And since when should you get permission to go to the school library?

Still, narrator Tom Clifton seems to be having a lot of fun reading this adventure. He’s also added in some morse code transmissions with the actual sounds rather than just reading the dot dashes as they appear in the text.

The Brighton Boys In The Radio Service
By Samuel Frances Aaron; Read by Tom Clifton
20 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 41 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21, 2009
The Brighton Boys in the Radio Service is a boys adventure story set in WWI – Three College Chums join the military and face the perils of spies, submarines and enemy soldiers in the trenches of embattled Europe. An engaging story set in a period where good guys wore white hats, bad guys wore black hats and every chapter ends with a cliffhanger so you have to come back for more!

Podcast feed:
http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-brighton-boys-in-the-radio-service-by-james-driscoll.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy

SFFaudio Online Audio

The newest release over on LibriVox is a solo reading of an 1888 SF novel. It should be of interest to our regular SFF literati and pretty much anyone else interested in things going on in 20th century history and modern American politics. Edward Bellamy’s novel, Looking Backward: 2000-1887, describes: unregulated stock markets, the use (and abuse) of credit cards, the rise of big box stores like Costco, socialism, and music downloading. In fact, Bellamy’s novel reflects certain aspects of our world rather uncannily! In particular: the present of the United States of America and the past of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

In addition to the narrator, Anna Simon, this audio book was produced dedicated proof-listener Marian Martin. Thanks ladies!

Looking Backward: 2000-1887
By Edward Bellamy; Read by Anna Simon
17 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 19, 2009
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian novel by Edward Bellamy, first published in 1888. It was the third largest bestseller of its time, after Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The book tells the story of Julian West, a young American who, towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up more than a century later. He finds himself in the same location (Boston, Massachusetts) but in a totally changed world: It is the year 2000 and, while he was sleeping, the U.S.A. has been transformed into a socialist utopia. This book outlines Bellamy’s complex thoughts about improving the future, and is an indictment of industrial capitalism.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/looking-backward-2000-1887-by-edward-bellamy.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

SFFaudio Online Audio

Listening For The League's Gentlemen At LibriVox Alan Moore’s comic The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen is chock- full of public domain literary references (and characters). This is the third in a series of posts in which I root out the freely available audiobooks (at LibriVox.org) that either feature the characters in “the league” or which are at least alluded to in passing in the story. What’s especially interesting in this case is that Moore’s wasn’t the first comic book to take inspiration from Henry Jekyll’s chemically induced bipolarity. Marvel comics had its own take on Jekyll and Hyde with Bruce Banner’s transformation into The Incredible Hulk. Indeed it seems rather strange that I never saw this until I saw Moore’s own re-purposing.

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
By Robert Louis Stevenson; Read by Kristin Hughes
10 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 24, 2009
After hearing Mr. Enfield’s account of a distressing event involving Edward Hyde, the heir of his friend, Henry Jekyll, John Utterson is convinced that Jekyll’s relationship with Hyde is built on something sinister. Utterson’s concern for his friend is not unfounded but the reasons aren’t quite what he, at first, believes.
Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-strange-case-of-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde-by-robert-louis-stevenson-2.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Styles Gannett

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVox

This audiobook is made from a respected kid’s fantasy book from 1948. It has a unusual narrative voice being the adventures of the narrator’s father. Even better the actual narrator of this audiobook is himself a kid! Yup, it’s made of pure awesomeness. Seriously, it’s got a drippy cat, a kid named Elmer Elevator, a baby dragon and 25 peanut butter sandwiches! What more do we need? Maybe seven tigers who love chewing gum? Check!

My Father’s Dragon
By Ruth Styles Gannett; Read by Gregory Holdsworth
10 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 51 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 14, 2009
A story about a boy who befriends a cat and then sets off on an adventure to rescue a dragon.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/my-fathers-dragon-by-ruth-stiles-garnett.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

The eText version of this book is also available at the University Of Pennsylvania’s Digital Open Library’s website. It’s definitely worth checking out as each chapter of this book has wonderful illustrations! See it |HERE|.

You can’t build up a proper Fantasy world without giving your reader a map, so here it is:

My Father's Dragon - Map Of The Island Of Tangeria And Wild Island

Also check out the Wikipedia.org entry for this book, it details the history, sequels and filmic adaptation.

Posted by Jesse Willis