SFFaudio Challenge #1: This World is Taboo by Murray Leinster CLAIMED

SFFaudio News

This World is Taboo by Murray LeinsterTaylor Kent, of the Snark Infested Waters and Misfit Christians podcasts, has claimed This World Is Taboo by Murray Leinster from our First Annual SFFaudio Challenge!

Taylor is shooting for a completion date of “Winter of 2008” (so before the new year begins) and plans on releasing the audiobook as either a zipped file, a podcast, and/or via Podiobooks.com. Taylor and I are both big Murray Leinster fans, if you haven’t read any Leinster you’ve missed out. Check out Anthropological Note (available from Wonder Audio), it’ll help tide you over until This World Is Taboo comes out.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases – John Scalzi, Murray Leinster, Robert Sheckley, H. Beam Piper

New Releases

Audible has just posted a new title from WonderAudio.com (WOOHOO!)… And it’s a two for one – two classic tales from the Dean of Science Fiction – Murray Leinster.

‘Sam, This Is You’ and ‘The Other Now’ by Murray Leinster“Sam, This Is You” and “The Other Now”
By Murray Leinster; Read by Mac Kelly
Audible Download – 65 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio / Audible
Published: March 2008
“Sam, This Is You” is a humorous look at Sam, a telephone lineman and inventor. Sam’s invented a device to talk to himself back in time. Unfortunately, Sam’s main interest is courting Rosie, and his love life is being sabotaged by his worst enemy – his future self. “The Other Now” is a poignant love story. When Jimmy Patterson loses his beloved wife, Jane, in a car accident, he believes he begins to get messages from her. Can their love be enough to reunite them?

The next release, a three story collection, includes a terrific tale by Robert Sheckley. I’ve even used The Monsters in the classroom, it showcases one of the very deeply central ideas of Science Fiction in a incisive and funny POV shift – the other two, I look forward to as well as they offer the same, tales told from the alien perspective…

A Is For AlienA is For Alien
By Robert Sheckley, Miriam Allen DeFord & Evelyn E. Smith; Read by Pat Bottino, Sam Mowry & Candace Platt
Audible Download – 67 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio / Audible
Published: March 2008
In these three tales, you’ll experience stories from an alien perspective:
In “The Apotheosis of Ki“, by Miriam Allen DeFord, Ki, a primitive savage, encounters a spaceman. Can the two cultures communicate? In “Captain’s Mate“, by Evelyn E. Smith, we hear the tribulations of a crustacean-like alien who is captain of an all-human crew. The trouble begins as the ship drops out of hyperspace. They’re stranded a million miles from anywhere and the captain is acting strangely, even by her own standards. What passes for a moral is turned upside down in “Monsters“, by Robert Sheckley. Different rules of morality create havoc when a spaceship full of humans lands.

Equally as exciting is the follow up to John Scalzi’s SFFaudio essentially designated Old Man’s War

Science Fiction Audiobook - The Ghost Brigades by John ScalziThe Ghost Brigades
By John Scalzi; Read by William Dufris
Audible Download – 10 Hours 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillan Audio / Audible.com
Published: March 2008
The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF’s toughest operations. They’re young, they’re fast and strong, and they’re totally without normal human qualms. For the universe is a dangerous place for humanity – and it’s about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space. Their linchpin: the turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF’s biggest military secrets. To prevail, the CDF most find out why Boutin did what he did.

From the pages of Astounding Science Fiction (February and March 1955 issues), Podiobooks.com and Nathan Lowell comes the latest title in The Second Annual SFFaudio Challenge

Science Fiction podiobook - Time Crime by H. Beam PiperTime Crime
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Nathan Lowell
Podiobook – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: March 2008
“The Paratime Police had a real headache this time! Tracing one man in a population of millions is easy—compared to finding one gang hiding out on one of billions of probability lines! This story from 1955 has rocket ships, time travel, slaves, post-hypnotic suggestions, drugged citizens, and a complete disregard for human rights. And those are the good guys. As a look back in time at “classic” science fiction, it’s an interesting snapshot of a time when tobacco was common, sexism was unconscious, and female characters were a long way from Lara Croft.”

Posted by Jesse Willis

2 Seeing Ear Theatre plays, and an Asimov short story podcast + MORE

Online Audio

Pirate TV Theatre Classic Radio DramaDiscovered this cool podcast in the iTunes podcast directory… Pirate TV Theatre Classic Radio Drama is an unwieldy name for a podcast with this much terrific audio content. Some of it is classic Radio Drama, some of it is more modern Audio Drama (Radio Drama that was never broadcast on radio), none of it is “TV” and some of it is audiobook. The site itself doesn’t allow direct downloads (only online listening) but if you subscribe to the podcast you can access all of the following in the ubiquitous MP3 format…

Included in the feed are radio drama episodes from:

Suspense (The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft)

Dimension X (includes The Green Hills Of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein and First Contact by Murray Leinster, plus more)

X Minus 1 (includes Surface Tension by James Blish, and Colony by Philip K. Dick, plus many more)

Skeleton
By Ray Bradbury; Performed by a full cast
(a 1996 BBC4 Radio Drama, part of the “Tales of the Bizarre” series, introduced by Bradbury himself)

As well as two Seeing Ear Theatre audio dramas:

Murder Mysteries
By Neil Gaiman; Performed by a full cast
(a Seeing Ear Theatre audio drama in two parts)

Orson The Alien! The Untold Story Behind The War Of the Worlds
By Terry Bisson, Brian Smith and George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
(a Seeing Ear Theatre audio drama)

And one story from an audiobook:

It’s Such A Beautiful Day
By Isaac Asimov; Read by Ed Bishop
(from a 1986 audiobook in two parts – from defunct audiobook publisher Listen For Pleasure)

Plug this podcast feed into your podcatcher to get started:

http://www.nomig.net/radiodrama/itunesrss.xml

Or, visit the site and listen online – where you’ll find plenty more, including:

The Caves Of Steel
By Isaac Asimov; Performed by a full cast
(The 1989 radio dramatization that aired on BBC Radio 4)

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.]

Audiobook - Beyond Lies the Wub and the Hanging StrangersBeyond 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.

Audiobook - Coming AttractionComing 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.

Audiobook - Anthropological NoteAnthropological 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.

Audiobook - The Wind People by Marion Zimmer BradleyThe 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.

New Releases

SFFaudio New Releases

Leading the pack, with a Murray Leinster classic …

Science Fiction Audiobook - Anthropological Note by Murray LeinsterAnthropological Note
By Murray Leinster; Read by Tara Platt
1 MP3 Dowload – 55 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: February 2007
Miss Cummings, a female anthropologist, is set down in the middle of a Venusian Krug village to study the alien culture. Ray Hale, a scondrel and murderer, is on his way to the very same village. Miss Cummings and Ray Hale have a past, but what of their future?

Audio Renaissance has much lengthier modern titles…

Science Fiction Audiobook - Empire by Orson Scott CardEmpire
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Stephan Rudnicki
9 CDs – 11 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Published: November 2006
ISBN 1593979800 (CD)
The American Empire has grown too fast, and the fault lines at home are stressed to the breaking point. The war of words between Right and Left has collapsed into a shooting war, though most people just want to be left alone. The battle rages between the high-technology weapons on one side, and militia foot-soldiers on the other, devastating the cities, and overrunning the countryside. But the vast majority, who only want the killing to stop, and the nation to return to more peaceful days, have technology, weapons and strategic geniuses of their own. When the American dream shatters into violence, who can hold the people and the government together? And which side will you be on?

Science Fiction Audiobook - Halo Ghosts Of Onyx by Eric NylandHalo: Ghosts Of Onyx
By Eric Nylund; Read by Jonathan Davis
CD or Digital Download – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Published:
ISBN: 1593979835
Covenant forces are sweeping through the outer colonies, glassing the planets and taking no survivors. But humans have a super weapon more powerful then one-hundred covenant troops, Spartans. These super soldiers are part human part machine, tactical and strong, and spell one word for the covenant, Death. Few are left, so ONI decides to mass produce them in a remote planet Onyx.

A freshly minted Octavia E. Butler novel, perhaps her last publication…

Science Fiction Audiobook - Fledgeling by Octavia E. ButlerFledgling
By Octavia E. Butler; Read by Tracey Leigh
10 CDs – 12 Hr 19 Min [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Published: February 2007
ISBN: 0792746716 (CD)
The late Octavia E. Butler’s final novel: The story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted–and still wants–to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of “otherness” and questions what it means to be truly human.

CBC Ideas Podcast has Richard Dawkins skirting Science Fiction

SFFaudio Online Audio

Podcast - CBC Radio One - The Best Of IdeasThe chance to plug my favorite CBC podcast twice within the span of two weeks is a rare event. IDEAS does not often offer SFFaudio related programmes, but the latest entry in The Best Of Ideas podcast reveals a slight connection that’s just too good not to mention. The lecture, by none other than Richard Dawkins, is called Queerer Than We Suppose: The Strangeness Of Science.

This lecture was conducted on October 21st 2006 under the auspices of the Beatty Memorial Lecture as conducted at McGill University. The Beatty Memorial Lecture was created in 1952 to honour the legacy of McGill Chancellor Sir Edward Beatty.

You’ll find only tangential Sience Fiction references in the lecture itself |MP3|. Dawkins quotes from Douglas Adams – illustrates how quantum mechanics and its alternative explanations, “Many Worlds Interpretation” and “Copenhagen Interpretation” seem less like Science and more like Science Fiction to us. Indeed, quantum mechanics and natural selection are ripe fodder for Speculative Fiction. For natural selection think of Rudy Rucker’s Ware Tetralogy. For Quantum mechanics you need only think of George Alec Effinger‘s Schrodinger’s Kitten, Robert J. Sawyer‘s Neanderthal Parallax trilogy or any of the multitude of Parallel Universe stories all the way back to Murray Leinster‘s 1933 tale Sidewise In Time. I won’t try to digfest it all for you, check it out for yourself via direct download |MP3|. Or by pasting this feed into your podcatcher:

http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/ideas.xml