post-apocalypse – Page 7

New Releases – Wonder Audio, Leiber and Weinbaum

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Did you know you can get either of these titles, as well as any other Wonder Audio title for free? Just sign up at Audible.com/WonderAudio

The Night of the Long Knives
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
3hr, 37 min.- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2009

Available at Audible & iTunes

A Deathlander’s life is a rough one. Atomic radiation, murder and sex preoccupies the sparse inhabitants of what used to be a great portion of America’s West. Kill or be killed is the law of this sickened land. Multicolored radioactive dusts floats in the atmosphere of this nuclear desert.

When Ray Baker meets a woman on his sojourn, he doesn’t know if he wants to kill her or sleep with her. Ray doesn’t understand his urge to murder. But he feels it like all the other Deathlanders. Just as he knows the girl feels it. Laying down their arsenal of weapons will leave them both vulnerable. The cost of a moment of intimacy may lead to the last moments of their lives. And what to do when the act is over, and both their minds turn back to murder.

Parasite Planet: The Ham & Pat Stories
By Stanley G. Weinbaum; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
3hr, 47 min.- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2009

Available at Audible & iTunes

The short and meteoric career of Stanley G. Weinbaum produced many instantly hailed classics. None had the breadth of wonder, and adventure with philosophic insight as the trilogy of stories that feature Ham Hammond and Patricia Burlingame.

Parasite Planet begins with Ham Hammond trekking across the surface of Venus. The environment is parasitic, filled with bizarre alien life forms like the lasso throwing Jack Ketch Trees and the doughpots, a mindless omnivorous ball of animate cells that devour all living things in their path. When Ham meets the contentious Patricia Burlingame, they have to march across Venus to safety. It’s not clear what is going to kill them first, Venus’s hostile environment or each other.

In The Lotus Eaters, Ham and Pat are on a special scientific expedition to the dark-side of Venus. They discover a strange warm-blooded plant. The most disconcerting thing about the plant is when it begins speaking English and waxing philosophically.

The Planet of Doubt brings the duo to Uranus on another special scientific expedition. The cloudy shrouded terrain strikes terror into the heart of Ham as tries to find the lost Pat who he hopes is still be alive!

Posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show

Galaxy News Radio: The Adventures Of Daring Dashwood!

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Adventures Of Herbert Daring Dashwood

The latest dispatch from the Zombie Astronaut includes crystal clear recordings of The Adventures Of Herbert “Daring” Dashwood. This is the “radio drama” found within Fallout 3! Enjoy…

Episode 1 Escape From Paradise Falls |MP3|

Episode 2 Super Mutant Mayhem |MP3|

Episode 3 In The Black Widows Web |MP3|

Episode 4 Between Rockopolis And A Hard Place |MP3|

Thanks ZA!

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: On The Beach by Nevil Shute dramatized

SFFaudio Online Audio

Roy of the U.K. writes in to say there’s a “Classic Serial” on BBC Radio 4 that is worthy of our attention. It’s a BBC dramatisation of this recently mentioned Nevil Shute novel: On The Beach…

A 1957 novel set in the then future 1963. A nuclear conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with radioactive fallout and killing all animal life. While the nuclear bombs were confined to the northern hemisphere, global air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the southern hemisphere. The only part of the planet still habitable is the far south of the globe, specifically Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America, although all of these areas are slowly succumbing to radiation poisoning as the fallout continues to circulate southwards!

On The Beach
Based on the novel by Nevil Shute; performed by a full cast
2 Parts – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / Classic Serial
Broadcast: Sunday Nov. 2nd 2008 & Sunday Nov. 9th 2008 @ 15:00-16:00

These will each be repeated once at 21:00-22:00 on the following Saturdays.

And, Roy tells us to stick around for the “Bookclub programme” that immediately follows the first broadcast of Part 1 as it features Fay Weldon discussing her 1989 novel The Cloning Of Joanna May. That’s later repeated the following Thursday at 16:00 (30 minutes).

Thanks Roy!

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Mary Shelley, William Morris and Horace Walpole

SFFaudio Online Audio

A recent flurry of furious audiobook cataloging over the past week on LibriVox.org has resulted in a massive new library of old SFF listens! Here are three old novels, almost ancient in fact. Now before you get too excited, they will be rather difficult listening for beginners – but, for a select few connoisseurs, these are priceless gems.

First up, from the author of the first Science Fiction novel….

The Last Man
By Mary Shelley; Read by various
32 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 18 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 9th, 2008
The Last Man is an early post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826. The book tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. The plague gradually kills off all people. Lionel Verney, central character, son of a nobleman who gambled himself into poverty, finds himself immune after being attacked by an infected “negro,” and copes with a civilization that is gradually dying out around him.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-last-man-by-mary-shelley.xml

Next, the first modern Fantasy novel (chosen from our 2nd Annual SFFaudio Challenge and nearly a year in the making) way to go Cori!

The Wood Beyond the World
By William Morris; Read by Cori Samuel
12 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 9th, 2008
The Wood Beyond The World is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. His use of archaic language has been seen by some modern readers as making his fiction difficult to read, but brings a wonderful atmosphere to the telling. Morris considered his fantasies a revival of the medieval tradition of chivalrous romances. In consequence, they tend to have sprawling plots of strung-together adventures. In this story, Walter leaves his father and his own unfaithful wife and sets sail in search of adventure. This he finds aplenty, encountering love, treachery and magic in the Wood of the title and travelling through the Mountains of the Folk of the Bears. But can he find happiness and peace by means of this Quest?

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-wood-beyond-the-world-by-william-morris.xml

And, The forerunner for both, the first gothic novel!

The Castle of Otranto
By Horace Walpole; Read by Great Plains
6 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 6th, 2008
The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally held to be the first gothic novel, initiating a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th century and early 19th century. Thus, Castle, and Walpole by extension is arguably the forerunner to such authors as Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Daphne du Maurier, and Stephen King.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-castle-of-otranto-by-horace-walpole.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Review

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Tom Weiner
7 CD – 8.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433245503
Themes: / Science Fiction / Telepathy / Post Apocalypse / Nuclear War / Satellites / Psychokinesis / California /

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.

The subtitle, of Dr. Bloodmoney is or How We Got Along After the Bomb, the idea for it came from the original publisher (ACE Books) who wanted to capitalize on the subtitle of the movie Dr. Strangelove. I can almost see it too. For me, this wasn’t Philip K. dick’s best novel. But, if you liked his best novel, you’ll like this one. I did. The thing is, no matter which one of Dick’s novels is your favourite, Doctor Bloodmoney will remind you of it – if only for the author’s voice. Dick, more than with any other emotion, writes with sympathy. You feel for his characters, their petty goals, their yearnings, their little prejudices. The plot on this one is almost unimportant, it’s also hard to sum up in a sentence, but I’ll try: A radio repairman with no limbs (due to phocomelia) has superpowers, which he uses to predict/cause WWIII, then becomes ultra-powerful as a big fish in a small pond.

The rule about writing what you know is more difficult in Science Fiction. Nobody’s been to Mars yet. Nobody has met an alien. But you can clearly see what Dick knows showing up on the pages of his SF novels. When he wrote Dr. Bloodmoney he was really into Jungian and Freudian analysis, he was reading Of Human Bondage and was probably an avid mushroom picker. The plot doesn’t really matter as this is a situation with a set of Dickian characters. What stands out, what will remain in my memory are the scenes, characters interacting with each other and themselves. Thinking their thoughts, acting their acts. When we meet the title character, Bruno Bluthgeld, for the second time later in the book, (he’s not the star), he’s showing off his talking sheep dog to a little girl. She asks to hear the dog speak. It does, and the tears came to my eyes. When Stuart McConchie goes into San Fransisco he parks his horse only to come back and find it eaten by the city’s underclass. It really is all there: The salesmen, the repairmen, the cheating wives, the murderous children and the sympathetic animals. Everything we expect from a Dick tale.

Blackstone Audio narrator Tom Weiner is fast becoming a new favourite. His natural timbre is basso but he can do a lot with it. Performance is the key, everybody gets a voice of their own. In this novel that’s especially necessary as there are more than a dozen characters sharing the plot and dialogue. Blackstone has more Dick headed to audiobook too. The Man In The High Castle has already been released. Ubik is winging it’s way to us right now and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, Valis, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch should be released over the next few months. We are living in very Dickian times my friends.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

SFFaudio Audiobook Review

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
By Max Brooks; Read by a full cast
5 CDs – 6 hours – [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 0739340131 ;ISBN-13: 9780739340134
Themes: / Horror / Zombies / War / Politics / Apocalypse

For my birthday last year, my wife got me a subscription to The Believer, a magazine for bibliophiles put out by the good people at McSweeney’s Publishing (Dave Eggers, Michael Chabon, Nick Hornby, and Rick Moody have all been involved with McSweeney’s in one way or another; sci-fi fans would do well to check out both McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales and their Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories I was pleasantly surprised to open up to the 2006 Believer Book Awards in the last issue and find at least two science fiction novels listed in the top 40 (two that I recognized as such, anyway). Cormac McCarthy’s The Road was number one; not too shocking given McCarthy’s extensive, “respectable” (read: non-sci-fi) bibliography. The other was more of a surprise; Max Brooks’ World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. I’d listened to the audio version of the novel months ago, and enjoyed the hell out of it, but it was kind of shocker to see a book about zombies written by Mel Brooks’ kid rubbing elbows with the new ones from Pynchon, Munro, Roth, and Virgil. Chalk some of the success up to Brooks’ connections, chalk some of it up to the inexplicably universal appeal of zombies, but give credit where it’s due and realize that World War Z is a well-written novel, and remarkable, given the crudity of the titular characters, in its subtlety and nuance.

Brooks presents the novel as an actual historical document of the spread of the virus that results in “zombiism,” and the reaction of the various nations to the problem. The book is structured as a series of interviews with representatives from around the world with Brooks himself as interviewer, and the device works well. Brooks has obviously done his homework; it’s not much of a reach to imagine Chinese bureaucrats engaging in an elaborate coverup of the spread of the virus (poisoned dogfood anyone?), South Africa deciding on a cold-hearted but necessary policy of abandoning the portion of the populace exposed to the virus, or the U.S. entertainment industry attempting to make a reality show of the zombie attack. The only part of the political description that felt a little unrealistic was Brook’s characterization of Israel’s generosity in its offer of asylum to Palestinian refugees before completely closing its borders for the duration of the war.

The decision to paint something as visceral as a zombie attack in the broad strokes of policy and strategy is an interesting one. Zombies have heretofore been portrayed mostly in the more action-friendly medium of cinema, and mostly from an up-close, short-term perspective. Brooks avoids the trap of becoming too impersonal and detached from the war by grounding the novel in the first-person reminiscences of the folks who lived through it. It’s impossible not to develop some attachment to the Canadian girl who describes the effects of the northern winter on the ill-prepared refugees looking to escape the warm-weather-dependent zombies, and the blind Japanese gardener’s account of his daily battles with the walking dead is strangely tranquil and moving.

The first thing you’ll notice about the audio version of World War Z are the cast members listed on the cover. Alan Alda, John Tuturro, Henry Rollins and, wait for it, Mark Hamill all contribute their voices to the project. Not quite A-listers, maybe, but definitely in the B or B+ range. Give it a little more time and Hamill might start being known first as a solid voice actor and secondly as that guy from the Star Wars that didn’t suck. He’s particularly effective in this production, as an American soldier reminiscing about the ups and downs of the military’s encounter with the zombies. Turns out the U.S. military was operating on an obsolete wartime paradigm and was ill-equipped to deal with an enemy that doesn’t fit the old model of nation-on-nation warfare. Hm.

The rest of the cast fares as well as Hamill; it’s admirable that the producers of the audiobook went to the trouble of securing actors that actually hail from the area they represent in the book. The genuineness of the accents is apparent and is definitely preferable to having some Rich Little-type give his impersonation of a Cuban.

So, whether you’re a zombie-loving, George Romero-worshiping, Shaun Of The Dead-reciting, walking dead aficionado; a history-channel-watching, political science-junkie; or just an audiobook listener with a taste for the unique, you’ll be welcome among the growing ranks of the scholars of dubya-dubya Z.

posted by Cory Myer