Marion Zimmer Bradley – Page 3

New Releases

Here’s an Audible.com/iTunes exclusive that bends the Fantasy genre to the “extreme”…

Deep Inside: Extreme Erotic Fantasies
By Polly Frost; Read by Allison Frasier, Maggie Hoffman, Brian Mendes
Audible Download – 7 Hours 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible.com / Macmillan Audio
Published: February 2008
“A dominatrix with a discipline problem. A nervous virgin tempted by an unearthly sacrifice. Lust-crazed Viagra addicts. A sexual psychic who can foresee other people’s erotic adventures. And a street cop hooked on alien ecstasy…. The sensual men and women in this sizzling collection are all in search of the ultimate sexual high. No plain old vanilla sex here; driven by insatiable desires, they push their bodies and souls to the limits, exploring the outer limits of eroticism. From arcane sexual rituals to the heights of Hollywood decadence, Deep Inside breaks every taboo as it takes you inside the throbbing flesh and twisted urges of the kinky, the depraved, and the supernatural. Turn down the lights and enter a new realm of exotic and forbidden pleasures.”

This would be “book eight” of the “Legacy of the Force” series…

Star Wars – Legacy Of The Force – Revelation
By Karen Traviss; Read by Mark Thompson
5 CDs – 6 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: February 2008
ISBN: 9780739324011
In his new mantle as Sith Lord, Jacen Solo’s dark powers reach a peak as he continues to crush opposition across the warring galaxy and bring his dream of a new order closer to fruition. But those who once fought at his side now turn against him, and as his unexpected enemies rally to the Confederation, Ben Skywalker discovers the full and terrible truth of how his mother died.

Announced as exclusive to iTunes UK this “Pre-Release Audiobook” would be lovely if it was released wider…

Matter – A Culture Novel
By Iain M. Banks; Read by Toby Longworth
Audible Download – Approx. 18 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Hachette Audio UK / audible.co.uk
Published: February 2008
There was nobody of her own kind within several thousand light years of where Djan Seriy Anaplian sat. However, news from her home world of Sursamen would still reach her.

“A vivid, funny and utterly original debut novel that’s deeply charming” – and it sounds like a Neil Gaiman novel crossed with the TV show Big Brother…

Gods Behaving Badly
By Marie Phillips; Read by Tom Sellwood
5 CDs – 6 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Published: December 2007
ISBN: 1600240720
Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse-and none too happy about it. And they’ve had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ. Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees-a favorite pastime of Apollo’s-is sapping their vital reserves of strength.

Macmillan Audio has a whole subsite devoted to their Dune audiobooks…

Dune Messiah
By Frank Herbert; Scott Brick and others
7 CDs – 9 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillain Audio / BBC Audiobooks America
Published: October 2007
ISBN: 1427202362
This sequel to Dune explores new developments on the desert planet Arrakis, with its intricate social order and its strange threatening environment. Dune Messiah picks up the story of the man known as Maud’dib, heir to a power unimaginable, bringing to fruition an ambition of unparalleled scale: the centuries-old scheme to create a superbeing who reigns not in the heavens but among men. But the question is: Do all paths of glory lead to the grave?

“magical realism dusted with a bit of erotica” – and the cover is titillating…

Nawashi
By Graydancer; Read by Graydancer
Podcast Novel / Podiobook -[UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: February 2008 – ????
Nawashi is an erotic urban fantasy, the story of a man who discovers that underneath the world of kink and BDSM lies a global conflict of magical forces. Drawn into it, he struggles to develop his own powers and skill to protect his family from the forces which now consider him a threat.

Nominated for an Audie award…

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ravens Of Avalon
By Diana L. Paxson; Read by Lorna Raver
CDs – 16 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: August 2007
ISBN: 140013496X
Diana L. Paxson expands Marion Zimmer Bradley”s beloved and bestselling Avalon series in a dramatic new installment. Marion Zimmer Bradley”s Ravens of Avalon, the prequel to The Forest House, tells the story of the Roman conquest of Britain and the origin of the Forest House that preceded the return to Avalon.

A 1997 Lethem novel, that sounds like it’d fit nicely on a shelf next to Connie Willis’ …

As She Climbed Across The Table
By Jonathan Lethem; Read by David Aaron Baker
CDs – 5.75 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books on Tape / Random House Audio
Published: September 2007
ISBN: 0739357255
Philip is in love with Alice. As the novel opens, he is beginning to lose her. Not to another man, as he fears, but to, literally, nothing. Alice is a physicist, and a team at the University where both she and Philip work has created a hole, a vacuum, a doorway of nothingness inside the laboratory. They call it “Lack.” Alice becomes obsessed with Lack, as Philip is obsessed by Alice.

Lethem’s 1998 novel, according to wikipedia, is meant to evoke the classic western film The Searchers (1956)…

Girl In Landscape
By Jonathan Lethem; Read by David Aaron Baker
CDs – 6.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books on Tape / Random House Audio
Published: September 2007
ISBN: 0739357247
At the age of 13, Pella Marsh emigrates with her family to the Planet of the Archbuilders. These enigmatic aborigines have names like Lonely Dumptruck and and Hiding Kneel–and a civilization that baffles and frightens their human visitors.

Posted by Jesse Willis

2008 Audie Award Finalists

SFFaudio News

Audie Awards Logo Just in are the Audie Award Finalists for 2008. In the Science Fiction category:

• The Draco Tavern, by Larry Niven, narrated by Tom Weiner, published by Blackstone Audio Inc.
• Dune, by Frank Herbert, narrated by Scott Brick, Simon Vance and a full cast, published by Macmillan Audio
• The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney, narrated by Kristoffer Tabori, published by Blackstone Audio Inc.
• Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ravens of Avalon, by Diana L. Paxson, narrated by Lorna Raver, published by Tantor Media, Inc.
• Selections from Dreamsongs 1: Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi from Martin’s Early Years: Unabridged Selections, by George R.R. Martin, narrated by Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne and Adrian Paul, published by Random House Audio

That’s an excellent list. In other categories, Joe Hill is on there twice, once for 20th Century Ghosts (Short Stories/Collections category) and once for Heart-Shaped Box (Thriller/Suspense category).

That multi-voice production of Dune is also recognized in the Achievement in Production and Multi-Voiced Performance categories.

Neil Gaiman makes a strong showing as well, with a nomination for Neverwhere in the Narration by the Author or Authors category and two in the Children’s Titles – Ages 12+ category; InterWorld and M is for Magic.

Looks like 2007 was a very strong year for genre fiction audiobooks! Here’s a link to a PDF containing the full press release about this year’s Audies from the Audio Publishers Association.

Add – The Audie Awards, by the way, will be given on May 30, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. –sd

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

New Releases – Wonder Audiobooks’ Classic SF

New Releases

[editor’s note – Shameless plug time! My publishing venture, Wonder Audiobooks, has it’s first four releases through Audible. These titles are also available at iTunes. My goal–great unabridged vintage fiction read by great readers! I’m proud of these titles and encourage you to check them out.]

Beyond Lies the Wub & The Hanging Stranger
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Mac Kelly
48 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and

A trading spaceship often has to carry unusual cargo. None as strange as the blubberous pig-like alien known as the wub. The captain of the ship decides that the wub may make an excellent meal for him and the crew. But the wub might have something to say about it.

Beyond Lies the Wub was Philip K. Dick’s first published story and appeared in the legendary Planet Stories pulp magazine.

Also included, The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick. When Ed Loyce, a respected citizen in a small town, finds a man hanging by a rope in his town square, he is very upset. But why doesn’t the rest of the town’s people care. Ed Loyce is going to find out.

Philip K Dick is now considered one of the most important authors of the 20th century. Numerous stories and novels have been adapted into movies, including Blade Runner, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly and Next.

Coming Attraction
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Paul S. Jenkins
29 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and

A future New York City has changed since a nuclear bomb left areas of radiation that threaten the residents. Women wear coverings over their faces as the latest fashion trend.

An Englishman in New York saves a girl from a speeding coupe with fish hooks on its fender. He finds himself attracted and repelled by the girl in this classic story of future shock from a science-fiction grand master.

Anthropological Note
By Murray Leinster; Read by Tara Platt
54 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and

Miss Cummings, a female anthropologist, is set down in the middle of a Venusian Krug village to study the alien culture. Ray Hale, a scoundrel and murderer, is on his way to the very same village. Miss Cummings and Ray Hale have a past, but what of their future?

This story not only examines an alien society, but takes a look at our own strange relationships between the sexes.

Author Murray Leinster is often called “The Dean of Science Fiction”. Actress Tara Platt has voiced numerous anime characters, for Naruto, Ravemaster, Digimon, and many others.

The Wind People
By Marion Zimmer Bradley; Read by Candace Platt
51 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and

To save her newborn son, Dr. Helen Murray has to remain behind on an alien world. But is she alone? As her son, Robin, becomes older, he acts strangely and describes other people that Helen cannot see.

posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show

New FREE AUDIOBOOK: Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Colors Of Space

SFFaudio Online Audio

A new LibriVox title has piqued our interest. It’s Marion Zimmer Bradley’s 1963 novel The Colors Of Space. Sadly, this is not the ideal audio version of it as it has multiple readers – who seem to have randomly chosen their chapters. I think the ethos of LibriVox is absolutely wonderful, but the output, especially in cases like this seems more geared towards project completion and narrator convenience rather than listener preference. That said, the audiobook is 100% free and very easily downloadable either by a Zipped Folder full of MP3s, singly in individual file of MP3 or OGG Vorbis formats and by the podcast feed (including a one click iTunes subscription).

The Colors Of Space
By Marion Zimmer Bradley; Read by various readers
15 zipped MP3 Files or podcast – 5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: July 29th 2007
Bart Steele, a Space Academy graduate, has the potential to gain the secret of an alien “warp drive”, a super-fast technology for interstellar travel. He’ll have to get some surgery, and spy upon an alien race to do it but he’s . lucky because by a bit of genetic quirk Bart can see a wider optical range than ordinary humans. Still, countless human spies have already failed to gain the secret.

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

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-colors-of-space-by-marion-zimmer-bradley.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Door Through Space heading for LibriVox

SFFaudio News

Another entry in our challenge! Christie Nowak has written in to claim Marion Zimmer Bradley’s 1961 novel The Door Through Space. Christie sez she doesn’t expect to finish before August 2007, nevertheless we look forward to hearing it!

And to inspire her we’ve got art prepped and ready:

Here’s MZB’s introduction to The Door Through Space…

I’ve always wanted to write. But not until I discovered the old pulp science-fantasy magazines, at the age of sixteen, did this general desire become a specific urge to write science-fantasy adventures.

I took a lot of detours on the way. I discovered s-f in its golden age: the age of Kuttner, C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Ed Hamilton and Jack Vance. But while I was still collecting rejection slips for my early efforts, the fashion changed. Adventures on faraway worlds and strange dimensions went out of fashion, and the new look in science-fiction—emphasis on the science—came in.

So my first stories were straight science-fiction, and I’m not trying to put down that kind of story. It has its place. By and large, the kind of science-fiction which makes tomorrow’s headlines as near as this morning’s coffee, has enlarged popular awareness of the modern, miraculous world of science we live in. It has helped generations of young people feel at ease with a rapidly changing world.

But fashions change, old loves return, and now that Sputniks clutter up the sky with new and unfamiliar moons, the readers of science-fiction are willing to wait for tomorrow to read tomorrow’s headlines. Once again, I think, there is a place, a wish, a need and hunger for the wonder and color of the world way out. The world beyond the stars. The world we won’t live to see. That is why I wrote THE DOOR THROUGH SPACE.

—Marion Zimmer Bradley

posted by Jesse Willis

Wonder Audiobooks releases 3 classic short stories by Leiber, Bradley and Dick!

New Releases

Wonder Audio, which is the brainchild of our very own Time Traveler (Rick Jackson), has released its first batch of downloadable audiobooks under the banner of “Unabridged Vintage Fiction”. These are mighty fine tales to start a publishing company with! Cast your gaze on these lovelies and behold their utter coolity:

Coming Attraction
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Paul S. Jenkins
1 MP3 – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
An Englishman’s dark journey into post-nuclear New York for a masked woman.

The Wind People
By Marion Zimmer Bradley; Read by Candace Platt
1 MP3 – Approx. 50 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
A woman alone must raise a child on an alien planet. Is she really alone?

The Hanging Stranger
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Mac Kelly
1 MP3 – Approx. 30 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
What happens when you find a man hanging in your own town, but nobody seems to care?

This is so awesome! With prices of just $2 or $4 and secure payment via PayPal you can’t go wrong. They are simply Wonder-ful! Click on over to Wonder Audio and buy! Buy! BUY!

They make great gifts, and being downloadable, DRM-free MP3s they are both environmentally friendly and hassle-free!

Posted by Jesse Willis