LibriVox – Page 73

Review of Star Sugeon by Alan E. Nourse

SFFaudio Review

Star Surgeon
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Scott D. Farquhar
14 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – 5 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org / Podiobooks.com
Published: June 2007 / October 2007
Themes: / Science Fiction / Medicine / First Contact / Galactic Civilization / Symbiosis / Space Travel / Juvenile /

Dal Tigmar is an alien, he’s also a red braid, that’s a “Red Doctor” in the “Red Service of Surgery.” As a recent graduate of the Galaxy’s most prestigious medical school he’s the only non-human doctor to ever train on “Hospital Earth.” Earth became “Hospital Earth” shortly after humans discovered a faster than light technology. It seems that Earth’s doctors are the best in the entire galaxy, and that fact may soon gain humanity a permanent membership in the Galactic Federation. Earth is currently only a trial member – and some of medical brass of Hospital Earth think that Dal’s graduation may threaten permanent membership. So Dal’s been isolated by his alienness, and was pushed around during his training. But little more stands in his way, as his final test is about to begin. For it, Dal must join two other doctors in a series of planetary housecalls, providing service for Earth’s medical contracts, proving his skills to Hospital Earth. During the voyage Dal is accompanied by his symbiotic pet “fuzzy” a pink blob of protein that is more than it appears, his one pal from Medical School “Tiger” Martin, and a hostile young blue braid named Jack Alvarez, from the diagnostic services. Their ship is “The Lancet” a small patrol ship packed to the rafters with medical supplies. They’ll command the ship jointly.

Alan E. Nourse sure knew how to write! This is a peppy little novel, that though first published nearly 50 years ago, still crackles with energy. It plays out like a typical Heinleinian juvenile, minus the lectures. Especially interesting is the Pre-Star Trek galactic federation angle, with all those colour coded uniforms. Red Service of Surgery, Blue Service of Diagnosis, Green Service of Medicine. Black Service of Pathology, White Service of Radiology. It makes for a very visual audiobook. There aren’t that many characters, and curiously enough, not one female is even mentioned – someone forgot about the Pink Service of Gynecology I guess. And while were at it, what of the Brown Service of Proctology? But seriously, this is one of those rare novels that tells its story from the perspective of an alien. It deals with solid juvenile SF material, prejudices, core values and science, all to good effect. I’m pleased to be able to recommend it as a listen to just about anyone.

Scott Farquhar reads the novel with a clinical precision, he enunciates each word loud and clear. This is important as there is usual slathering of SF technospeak atop the real and futurized medical jargon. Amateur narrators looking for a role model, should look towards Farquhar!

You can subscribe to the LibriVox podcast feed via this URL:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/star-surgeon-by-alan-edward-nourse.xml

Alternatively, there is a slightly enhanced Podiobooks.com version available now too. This version has the addition of musical cues at the start each chapter, there’s a brief biographical note about Dr. Alan Nourse in the final chapter as well as some outtakes from the recording. A portion of all proceeds donated through Podiobooks.com goes to AIDS Research or Safe Sex Education programs (two subjects important to Nourse).

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Greylorn by Keith Laumer

SFFaudio Online Audio

More goodies from the LibriVox audiobook collective… Greylorn was the first published Science Fiction story by Keith Laumer. It went to press in the April 1959 issue of Amazing Science Fiction Stories. The 41 page novelette gets a reading by veteran amateur narrator Mark F. Smith. Smith may be familiar SFFaudio visitors as he was the reader for LibriVox’s releases of Tarzan Of The Apes and The Mysterious Island. The Keith Laumer blog, a fan blog for the late author, had this to say about Greylorn:

“It’s a typical Laumer story … My impression though is that it’s not one his best stories. It’s pretty cliche. It has a great prologue, a fairly good middle, but the end is pretty bad and not very convincing. Instead of a twist we get a story from the hero, in his old days, how he saved the earth in a not so convincing explanation of the events layed out in the middle of the story and in such a way that the reader is not interested anymore anyhow. There are however many memes in the story which can find it’s way to the subconsciousness of the reader, of which the trade of human flesh is probably the greatest one.”

Mark F. Smith says of it:

“Written in an era when radios used vacuum tubes, the scientific component of the story is quaint and dated. But Laumer makes the centerpiece of his tale the retelling of how, four years out on the voyage, his crew decides it wants to give up and go home when it meets an alien race… that apparently breeds humans in captivity as food animals! Beating the aliens, shanghaiing the crew, finding the colony and saving Mother Earth – just the ingredients for a rattling good yarn!”

Greylorn
By Keith Laumer; Read by Mark F. Smith
Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 24th 2007
Commander Greylorn has a problem. No, actually he has two of them. It’s not enough that the remaining residents of Earth have pinned their last hope of salvation on him and his mission. He has to find a colony that presumedly was established at an unknown star two centuries before and beg their help. But first, he has the small matter of a mutiny on board his starship, and people are trying to kill him!

You can download the MP3s individually, in one big zipped folder or get the entire novel in podcast form via this feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/greylorn-by-keith-laumer.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox release of An antarctic Mystery by Jules Verne

OnlineAudio

A while back we brought you the story of LibriVox’s release of an audiobook version of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Narrative Of Arthur Godron Pym. Now, we can tell you about the sequel, written decades later by another author. An antarctic Mystery (AKA An Antarctic Mystery or The Sphinx of the Ice Fields) is a newley released unabridged audiobook read by Esther (AKA Starlite).

Listening to just chapter one, you’ll notice straight away the mention of what sounds like a fictional place. Namely, the “Kerguelen Islands”, a place so remote, so alien, it was the 19th century equivalent of the moon. The Kerguelen archipelago exists, it and a few other remote sub-Antarctic islands fly under French flags and are mostly used as research stations today. But, Kerguelen has a fascinating history. During World War II, Christmas 1940 in fact, a Nazi Kriegsmarine ship, named “Atlantis” visited and there dug “the most southerly German soldier’s grave.” In the 1960s and 1970s Kerguelen was used as an experimental rocket base, sending French and American rockets into suborbital flight. All rumors of secret Chinese or Nazi military bases on Kerguelen are completely unsubstantiated.

Back to the audiobook…

An Antarctic Mystery
By Jules Verne; Read by Esther
Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 8.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 23rd 2007
“Edgar Allan Poe’s telling of Arthur Pym is shown to be true as events come together that bring out clues that help Captain Len Guy trace the fate of his brother’s ship the Jane; the very ship that Arthur Pym was on board at the time of his disappearance. Through the efforts of Mr. Joerling, the crew of the Halbrane is enticed to make the trip to Antarctica to search for any survivors of the Jane.”

You can download the MP3s individually, in one big zipped folder or get the entire novel in podcast form via this feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/an-antarctic-mystery-or-the-sphinx-of-the-ice-fields.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Librivox Audiobook: The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit

SFFaudio OnlineAudio

Edith Nesbit’s classic fantasy novel The Enchanted Castle is a delightful children’s story, but one that is likely to have limited appeal for older listeners. Fantasy scholars, however, will find much of interest in it. Here is an author that C. S. Lewis listed as an influence and this is the story of a magic ring that, at first, seems merely an invisibility ring but turns out to be much more. Peter Eastman, the reader of this public domain audiobook, does a better than average job of handling the near impossible task of doing several different children’s voices.

The Enchanted Castle
By E. Nesbit; Read by Peter Eastman
12 zipped MP3s or podcast – 7 Hours 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Librivox.org
Published: September 27, 2007
“Three children, forced to remain at school during the holidays, go in search of adventure. What they find is a magic castle straight out of a fairy tale, complete with an enchanted princess at the center of a maze. Or is it? The castle turns out to be just a country estate, and the princess is only the housekeeper’s niece, playing at dressing up. But the magic ring she shows them proves — to her surprise and horror — to really be magic. Soon they are caught in an adventure where statues come alive, lost lovers are reunited, and wishes can be granted — but always for a price. (Summary by Peter Eastman)”

You can get the entire novel in podcast form, via this handy url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-enchanted-castle-by-e-nesbit.xml

posted by David Tackett

Public domain audiobook from LibriVox: Tarzan Of The Apes

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVox, that massive library of public domain audiobooks, has just catalogued its first public domain reading of the first Tarzan novel, Tarzan Of The Apes. Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan is arguably the most enduring pulp fiction character in history. Its on its digital shelves now, go get it in a zipped download, by individual file or even easier for portable listening via the podcast feed. This audiobook/podiobook, completely narrated by the savagely swashbuckling reader, Mark F. Smith, who previously performed Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island. Details follow…

Tarzan Of The Apes
By Edgar Rice Burroughs; Read by Mark F. Smith
28 zipped MP3s or podcast – 9 Hours 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: Sept. 7th 2007
The exciting, if improbable, story of an English lord, left by the death of his stranded parents in the hands of a motherly African ape who raises him as her own. Although he is aware that he is different from the apes of his tribe, who are neither white nor hairless, he nevertheless regards them as his “people.” When older, larger, stronger apes decide that he an undesirable to be killed or expelled from the tribe, it is fortunate that Tarzan has learned the use of primitive weapons.

You can get the entire novel in podcast form, via this handy url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/tarzan-of-the-apes.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

1900 SF tale audiobooked :The Moon Metal by Garret P. Serviss

SFFaudio Online Audio

Garret P. Serviss‘ first audiobook has just been posted to LibriVox. Serviss was a popularizer of astronomy and late 19th and early 20th century SF author. His writing is stiff and strangely formal. Still, you may find yourself reminded of Heinlein here and there while listening. The audiobook, completely narrated by the admirable Betsie Bush is 100% free and available for download by several methods. Get a Zipped Folder full of MP3s, each chapter singly in MP3 or OGG Vorbis formats or grab the podcast version.

The Moon Metal
By Garret P. Serviss; Read by Betsie Bush
14 zipped MP3 Files or podcast – 2 Hours 38 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: July 31st 2007
The discovery of a vast quantity of gold in Antarctica undermines the world’s economy. This leads to a need for a new precious metal standard – – enter a mysterious scientist, his proposal, and new invention.

You can get the entire novel in podcast form, via this handy url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/moon-metal-by-garrett-p-serviss.xml

posted by Jesse Willis