Five Free Favourites #3

SFFaudio Online Audio

Five Free Favourites
Five more faves, five more of my best bets. These are stories to make your mind say “yum yum” and your wallet say “nightie-night”…

1.
Mech Muse - After A Lean Winter by David FarlandAfter A Lean Winter
By David Farland; Read by Rick Jelinek
1 |M4A| File – Approx. 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: MechMuse
Podcast: Spring 2006
I’m very pleased to see all the released MechMuse stories still available online. Of the dozen or so of stories released, I think this one is my favourite. It’s set six months or so after the events of H.G. Well’s The War Of The Worlds and features a protagonist named “Jack London,” who like the other residents of the Yukon, is still struggling against a Martian menace that still survives up there.

2.
The Time Traveler Show - Beyond Lies The Wub by Philip K. DickBeyond Lies The Wub
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Mac Kelly
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Time Traveler Show
Podcast: December 2006
The best Xmas gift I received in 2006 was this podcast short story! This was Dick’s first ever published tale, it’s one of his best too. And, I find holds up to multiple listenings. I recommend it often. Knowledge of Homer’s Odyssey is recommended.

3.
Librivox Audiobook - The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose FarmerThe Green Odyssey
By Philip Jose Farmer; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – 6 Hours 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Published: December 2006
Publisher: LibriVox.org
This FREE audiobook was created on a dare. As one of the titles from the first SFFaudio Challenge I asked budding narrators to make single-voiced audiobooks from a list of public domain titles. This was the very first to meet the challenge – it is also one of the best. Set on a grassy plain on an obscure alien planet – it’s fast, funny, and makes for quite a romp. A novel in the spirit of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court

Subscribe using this feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-green-odyssey-by-philip-jose-farmer.xml

4.
Science Fiction Audiobook - Star Surgeon by Alan E. NourseStar Surgeon
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Scott D. Farquhar
14 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – 5 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: October 2007
Dal Tigmar is an alien doctor with a sort of interstellar Médecins Sans Frontières. As a recent graduate of the Galaxy’s most prestigious medical school, on Earth, he’s been trained to treat every disease in the book. But racism isn’t a disease even he can treat. This is a real peppy 50 year old novel, that still crackles with energy. It plays out like a typical Heinleinian juvenile, minus the lectures. You’ll love it.

5.
X Minus 1X-Minus One: The Lifeboat Mutiny
Based on the story by Robert Sheckley; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: NBC Radio
Broadcast: September 11, 1956
Provider: Archive.org
I find a lot of X-Minus One hit or miss, but this Robert Sheckley story works. In fact, I’ve used the script for it twice just this month! Kids love it, adults love it. It’s funny, and it’s FREE! My only nit-pick is that the actor playing the lifeboat is not emotional enough – he totally underplays the scripted dialogue. When I do this part, I always play it highly emotional.

I’m still soliciting podcasters and bloggers for their lists, if you’ve a batch of five free faves you think just can’t be ignored, either post em below, or send me an email.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals – Blackstone Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

A pentaverate from Blackstone Audio! :)

Science Fiction Audiobook - Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules VerneJourney to the Center of the Earth
By Jules Verne; Read by Simon Prebble
7 CDs – 7.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433243806

Geologist Otto Lidenbrock is perusing an ancient Icelandic manuscript when he discovers a mysterious encrypted note. The message reveals the account of a sixteenth-century explorer who claims to have found a passageway to the center of the earth.

In his quest to penetrate the planet’s primordial secrets, the impetuous professor, together with his quaking nephew, Axel, and their devoted guide, Hans, sets off immediately for Iceland. Descending through the belly of a volcano into the bowels of the Earth, they discover an astonishing subterranean world of prehistoric proportions.

A classic of science fiction that helped give birth to the genre, this imaginative speculation on the earth’s nature is both a rousing adventure story and an apt portrait of the psychology of the questing scientist.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Wyrms by Orson Scott CardWyrms
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Emily Janice Card
9 CDs – 11.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433218542

The sphere is alien in origin but has been controlled by Man for millennia. A legend as old as the stars rules this constructed world: when the seventh seventh seventh human heptarch is crowned, he will be the Kristos and will bring either salvation or destruction.

Patience is the only daughter of the rightful heptarch, but she, like her father, serves the usurper who has destroyed her family, for she believes that duty to one’s race is more important than duty to one’s self. But the time for prudence has passed, and Patience must journey to the heart-soul of this planet to confront her own destiny and her world’s.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. DickThe Man in the High Castle
By Philip K Dick; Read by Tom Weiner
7 CDs – 8.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433214523

It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that first established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction, breaking the barrier between genre fiction and the serious novel of ideas. Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to awake.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Already Dead by Charlie HustonAlready Dead
By Charlie Huston; Read by Scott Brick
8 CDs – 9 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433235795

From the Battery to the Bronx, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe Pitt is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. Now some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. It ain’t easy going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan. But it’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition and finds himself searching for a little rich girl who’s gone missing. Now anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, a crazy cult is stalking him, and Joe’s got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the sun comes up.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Winterfair Gifts by Lis McMaster BujoldWinterfair Gifts
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
2 CDs – 2.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433250170

This Hugo-nominated novella adds a delightful extra chapter to Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, describing the wedding of Miles and Ekaterin and events leading up to it.

In the festive season of Winterfair on the planet Barrayar, Lord Miles Vorkosigan is making elaborate preparations for his wedding. The long-awaited event stirs up romance and intrigue among his eccentric family and friends, particularly for bioengineered space mercenary Sergeant Taura and shy, diffident Armsman Roic. But Miles also has an enemy who is plotting to turn the romantic ceremony into a festival of death.
 
 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Recent Arrivals – Dick, Heinlein, Card, Bujold, Robinson

Science Fiction Audiobook Recent Arrivals

We’ve got five new arrivals from Blackstone with the top names in the business–again!

dr_bloodmoney150.jpgDr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Tom Weiner
7 CD, 8.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433245503

Philip Dick’s post-nuclear-holocaust masterpiece presents a mesmerizing vision of a world transformed, where technology has reverted back to the nineteenth century, animals have developed speech and language, and humans must deal with both physical mutations and the psychological repercussions of the disaster they have caused. The book is filled with a host of Dick’s most memorable characters: Hoppy Harrington, a deformed mutant with telekinetic powers; Walt Dangerfield, a selfless disc jockey stranded in a satellite circling the globe; Dr. Bluthgeld, the megalomaniac physicist largely responsible for the decimated state of the world; and Stuart McConchie and Bonnie Keller, two unremarkable people bent the survival of goodness in a world devastated by evil. Epic and alluring, Dr. Bloodmoney brilliantly depicts Dick’s undying hope in humanity.

SF audiobook - Memory of Earth by Orson Scott CardThe Memory of Earth; Homecoming Vol. 1
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
9 CD, 10.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433218705

High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet, to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats. To protect them, most of all, from themselves.The Oversoul has done its job well. There is no war on Harmony. There are no weapons of mass destruction. There is no technology that could lead to weapons of war. By control of the data banks, and subtle interference in the very thoughts of the people, the artificial intelligence has fulfilled its mission.But now there is a problem. In orbit, the Oversoul realizes that it has lost access to some of its memory banks, and some of its power systems are failing. And on the planet, men are beginning to think about power, wealth, and conquest.

SF Audiobook - Stardance by Spider and Jeanne RobinsonStardance
By Spider & Jeanne Robinson: Read by Spider Robinson
7 CD, 8 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433244827

Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but she could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth. So she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance.

The Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Stardance series pioneered the concept of zero gravity dance, which even sparked the interest of NASA and shortlisted co-author Jeanne Robinson for a seat on a space shuttle to become the first actual freefall dancer in space. Though the Challenger explosion cancelled that dream, now Jeanne is being given a second chance to choreograph dance in space…on film. See Stardance Home Page for more.

SF audiobook - Friday by Robert A. HeinleinFriday
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Hillary Huber
11 CDs – Approx. 14 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433246502
Engineered from the finest genes and trained to be a secret courier in a future world, Friday operates over a near-future Earth, where chaos reigns. North America has become Balkanized into dozens of independent states, sharing only a bizarrely vulgarized culture. Now, Friday finds herself on shuttlecock assignment at the seemingly whimsical behest of her secret employer, known to her only as “Boss”. Traveling from one to another of the new states of America’s disunion, she is confronted with a series of professional as well as personal crises that put her to the test.

SF audiobook - Passage: The Sharing Knife part 3 by Lois McMaster Bujould TNThe Sharing Knife, Passage, Vol. 3
By Lois McMaster Bujould; Read by Bernadette Dunne
12 CD, 15 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433234910

Filled with magic, heroism, and all-too-human characters, Bujold’s Sharing Knife saga is both a gripping adventure and a poignant romance. In this third volume, Fawn, the young farm girl, and Dag, the seasoned soldier-sorcerer, set off to find fresh solutions to the perilous split between their peoples and encounter new hazards both human and uncanny.

The farmers and riverfolk have long distrusted the power of the mysterious and aloof Lakewalkers, even though they depend on them for protection from the evil malices. The proud Lakewalkers, meanwhile, have exiled Dag after learning of his marriage to Fawn, the first outsider to be bound to a Lakewalker in their magical way. But as Dag’s natural Lakewalker ability to manipulate “ground energy” begins to develop in dangerous directions, he and Fawn realize that big changes are ahead.

Durkin Hayes Audiobooks for sale

SFFaudio News

Durkin Hayes Audiobooks

I’ve been selling Durkin Hayes Paperback Audio audiobooks for about 10 years. None of them are available on Audible.com as DH Audio (formerly Durkin Hayes, formerly Listen For Pleasure) was going bankrupt about the same time Audible.com took off. These are all out-of-print audiobooks, and I think they’re some of the very best ever put to tape. Anybody want to buy some?

All of these are $5.00 each (U.S. or Canadian). That’s $0.01 above the original retail price. Buy 6 or more and I’ll throw in free shipping to the USA. For other countries (including my own country of Canada) I’ll charge a flat shipping fee of $5.00 for an unlimited number of audiobooks. All of these are single cassette audiobooks. They’re all “brand new” and “shrinkwrapped”. I’ve heard all of them, some pretty recently. If you have any questions please post em below or email. Money orders and PayPal are both ok. Details follow the pics:

First up an anthology of awesomeness selected by Isaac Asimov (for print) and Martin Greenberg (for audio) in 7 parts…

Durkin Hayes Audiobooks

Isaac Asimov’s All Time Favorite Science Fiction Stories – Volume I
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg; Read by Rene Auberjonois
1 Cassette – Approx. 60 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Includes: “Captive Market” by Philip K. Dick and “The Last Of The Deliverers” by Poul Anderson
*The cover incorrectly states the title of the Poul Anderson story as (The Last Of The Defenders) , it is actually “The Last Of The Deliverers”
ISBN: 0886469481
QUANTITY IN STOCK: VERY FEW

Isaac Asimov’s All Time Favorite Science Fiction Stories – Volume II
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg; Read by Rene Auberjonois
1 Cassette – Approx. 72 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Includes: “World Of A Thousand Colors” by Robert Silverberg and “Impostor” by Philip K. Dick
ISBN: 0886469430
QUANTITY IN STOCK: A FEW

Isaac Asimov’s All Time Favorite Science Fiction Stories – Volume III
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg; Read by Rene Auberjonois
1 Cassette – Approx. 80 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Includes: “Silent Brother” by Algis Budrys and “Ishmael In Love” by Robert Silverberg
ISBN: 0886469511
QUANTITY IN STOCK: A FEW

Isaac Asimov’s All Time Favorite Science Fiction Stories – Volume IV
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg; Read by Rene Auberjonois
1 Cassette – Approx. 80 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Includes: “The Victim From Space” by Robert Sheckley and “Honorable Enemies” by Poul Anderson
ISBN: 0886469570
QUANTITY IN STOCK: A FEW

Isaac Asimov Presents Volume 5
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg; Read by Rene Auberjonois?
1 Cassette – Approx. 93 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Includes: “Wings Out Of Shadow” by Fred Saberhagen and “Exposure” by Eric Frank Russell
ISBN: 0886468612
QUANTITY IN STOCK: VERY FEW

Isaac Asimov Presents Volume 6
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg; Read by Rene Auberjonois?
1 Cassette – Approx. 93 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Includes: “The Ship Who Sang” by Anne McCaffrey and “Though Dreamers Die” by Lester del Rey
ISBN: 0886469732
*This one says its abridged by I believe that is an error.
QUANTITY IN STOCK: A FEW

Isaac Asimov Presents Volume 7
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg; Read by Rene Auberjonois?
1 Cassette – Approx. 104 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Includes: “Allamagoosa” by Eric Frank Russell, “The Last Monster” by Poul Anderson, and Why Johnny Can’t Speed by Alan Dean Foster
ISBN: 088646983X
QUANTITY IN STOCK: A FEW

Next 5 assorted short story collections…

Durkin Hayes Audiobooks

Unicorn Variation
By Roger Zelazny; Read by Rene Auberjonois
1 Cassette – Approx. 83 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Includes:
Unicorn Variation by Roger Zelazny and “Angel Dark Angel” by Roger Zelazny
ISBN: 0886467365
QUANTITY IN STOCK: A FEW

Tales By American Masters: The Masque Of Read Death
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Win Phillips
1 Cassette – Approx 60 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
ISBN: 0886468949
Includes:
The Masque Of Read Death and Silence, A Fable by Edgar Allan Poe
QUANTITY IN STOCK: A FEW

Points Of Departure
By Pat Murphy; Read by Brenda Vaccaro
1 Cassette – [UNABRIDGED]
ISBN: 0886466296
QUANTITY IN STOCK: A FEW

Over The River And Through The Woods
By Clifford D. Simak; Read by Jonathan Frakes
1 Cassette – Approx. 97 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
ISBN: 0886467624
Includes:Over The River And Through The Woods“, “Founding Father” and “Beachhead” all by Clifford D. Simak
QUANTITY IN STOCK: VERY FEW

Neighbor
By Clifford D. Simak; Read by Jonathan Frakes
1 Cassette – Approx. 84 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
ISBN: 0886467616
Includes:Neighbor“, and “Desertion” both by Clifford D. Simak
QUANTITY IN STOCK: VERY FEW

Posted by Jesse Willis

PRI’s Selected Shorts: Beyond Lies The Wub by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

Public Radio International’s Selected ShortsPublic Radio International’s Selected Shorts (an event at New York’s Symphony Space, in which actors read classic and new short fiction before a live audience) recently had Art Spiegelman (comic book auteur) and Françoise Mouly (art editor of The New Yorker) pick some short stories for a series of live readings. One of them was Philip K. Dick’s Beyond Lies the Wub! Spiegleman introduces the tale. It’s interesting to hear this familiar and excellent tale read live. Narrator Denis O’Hare doesn’t perform it as a regular audiobook narrator would, but it’s kind of fun to hear a different take on it. Compare this version to the excellent Wonder Audio version.

Beyond Lies The Wub
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Denis O’Hare
1 |MP3|* – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: PRI / Selected Shorts
Broadcast: April 13, 2008
*The story runs from 13:54-35:05

Here’s the podcast feed:


http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510202

[Thanks Esther!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hey Want To Watch A Movie? Blade Runner – The Final Cut

SFFaudio Online Audio

Hey Want To Watch A Movie? Blade Runner - The Final CutThe latest Hey Want To Watch A Movie? podcast (which is a fan commentary track for DVDs) talks about Blade Runner – The Final Cut. And I’m one of the commentators! Join Christiana Ellis, Mike Meitin, Brandon Hill, Adam Morey, MA in PA, Dan Taber, Susan Z, The Biscuit and me!

We talk about the different versions of BR, Bubblegum Crisis, the Blade Runner PC adventure game, Twin Peaks, Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, the essential character of film (vs. books), I Am Legend (movie and novel), eXistenZ, Adam Smith’s The Theory Of The Moral Sentiments, Impostor, Dark City, Back To The Future, Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure, David Lynch’s Dune, the audiobooks of Dune, Chinatown, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Scott Brick, George Guidall, Gremlins, Callista Flockhart, and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, E.T. and lots more. Needless to say we come to dozens of conclusions, including the fact that every single person in the movie is a replicant (actors too) – or something like that.

Listen now |MP3| or take it portable by subscribing to the podcast feed via this link:

http://watchamovie.libsyn.com/rss

Posted by Jesse Willis