Poul Anderson – Page 13

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Stories Collection #005

SFFaudio Online Audio

The “Short Science Fiction Collections” from LibriVox are FREE and FUN! Here’s the latest, which includes mostly new stories (a couple of stories previously recorded by other narrators). My recommended listens from this collection include: Summit, Crossroads Of Destiny and A Matter Of Magnitude. Also, listen to The Untouchable and Quiet, Please, if only for the voice of new narrator Jerome Lawson. Lawson is trying and achieving distinctive voices for each character – it’s not polished to perfection yet, but he’s really got something there. Lawson also has great sound set-up too. I’d like to hear more of his work in the next collection – or in novella or novel length work. And, thanks to all the narrators and the administrators at LibriVox for these! We appreciate it folks!

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 005
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 5.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
“Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, originally published between 1931 and 1962, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.”

Stories included:

2BR02B
By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; Read by Hoosemon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
In the not so distant future an over-populated planet requires that every birth be balanced by a death. When Edward K. Whelig, Jr.’s wife births triplets he needs to find three people willing to enter a local suicide booth and give him the receipt…

The Burning Bridge
By Poul Anderson; Read by Alex C. Telander
1 |MP3| – Approx. 52 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Usually there are two “reasons” why something is done; the reason why it needs to be done, and, quite separate, the reason people want to do it. The foul-up starts when the reason-for-wanting is satisfied … and the need remains! This story was first published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine’s January 1960 issue.
*From Worlds of If, January 1962.

Circus
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Not a strange-looking man, Morgan thought. Rather ordinary, in fact. A plain face, nose a little too long, fingers a little too dainty, a suit that doesn’t quite seem to fit, but all in all, a perfectly ordinary looking man. *First published in 1963 in “The Counterfeit Man -More Science Fiction Stories”.

Crossroads of Destiny
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Alex C. Telander
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
No wonder he’d been so interested in the talk of whether our people accepted these theories! *First published in the July 1959 issue of Fantastic Universe Science Fiction magazine.

Egocentric Orbit
By John Cory; Read by Elanor
1 |MP3| – Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
It took a long time for human beings to accept that our little piece of meteoric rubble wasn’t the exact and absolute center of the Universe. It does appear that way, doesn’t it? It may not take so long for a spaceman to learn … First published in Astounding Science Fiction’s May 1960 issue.

A Matter Of Magnitude
By Al Sevcik; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
When you’re commanding a spaceship over a mile long, and armed to the teeth, you don’t exactly expect to be told to get the hell out … *First published in the pages of Amazing Science Fiction Stories, January 1960.

Quiet, Please
By Kevin Scott; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Groverzb knew what he wanted—peace and quiet. He was willing to scream his head off for it!
*First published in Worlds of If magazine’s November 1961 issue.

The Untouchable
By Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
“You can see it—you can watch it—but mustn’t touch!” And what could possibly be more frustrating … when you need, most violently, to get your hands on it for just one second… *From Analog magazine’s December 1960 issue.

Summit
By Mack Reynolds; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Almost anything, if it goes on long enough, can be reduced to, first a Routine, and then, to a Tradition. And at the point it is, obviously, Necessary. *First published in Astounding Science Fiction’s February, 1960 issue.

The Yillian Way
By Keith Laumer; Read by John Larmour
1 |MP3| – Approx. 37 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
The ceremonious protocol of the Yills was impressive, colorful—and, in the long run, deadly!

Subscribe to the podcast feed via this url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-vol-005.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of A Galaxy Trilogy: Volume 1 by Poul Anderson, George H. Smith and Stanton A. Coblentz

SFFaudio Review

A Galaxy Trilogy: Volume 1
By Poul Anderson, George H. Smith and Stanton A. Coblentz; Read by Tom Weiner
12 CDs – 13.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433202255
Themes: / Science Fiction / Politics / War / Aliens / Space Travel / Galactic Civilization / Telepathy /

“Long before Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, or Isaac Asimov, there was an earlier generation of dreamers and writers who defined the science-fiction genre, in what today is affectionately known as the pulp era. Heralding back to the early television days of Flash Gordon and the earlier tales of Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells, these great science-fiction writers of the 1950s and 1960s included among their ranks such icons as Poul Anderson and the prolific Robert Silverberg, who would write some of the hippest genre literature of its era. Now you can experience this unique moment in genre literature with three exciting, imaginative short novellas from some of the pioneers of pulp science fiction.”

In Star Ways a mysterious plot my be behind the disappearance of a number of ships in the Terran sphere. This is the best of the three short novels in a fun collection. Star Ways posits a familiar ‘nomads in space’ idea and chucks in a plot about some truly totalitarian aliens. This short Science Fiction novel allows us to tag along on an interstellar nomad ship, with fascinating folkways. Also on board thanks to Poul Anderson’s magnetic writing are your regulation intergalactic troubleshooter, a wily space captain, a rustic crew of wanderers, an alien with telepathic powers and even a bit of romance. The tale’s end doesn’t go exactly where you’d expect, and that makes it all the more interesting.

In Druid’s World Adam MacBride is the stiff backbone of a sprawling empire, his Empress is smart but acts dumb, her lover scorns MacBride openly. When the novel begins MacBride has set his mine to retiring home to his fjords and his three wives and only an imminent threat to his beloved fleet and his unwarranted loyalty to his Empire keep him from returning home immediately. This novel is jammed to the rafters with swashbuckling action, ship-to-ship broadsides, many volleys of grapeshot, at least two rebellions and sickle wielding druids. What’s not to love? All these elements swirl about in a swift but realtively simple plot. I love the way this book was written, it’s small but denser than a neutron star. My guess, George H. Smith had just finished reading a stack of history books before sitting down to write this rollicking hodge-podge of science fiction, pre-Roman religion, and 18th century Imperialism. Druid’s World is a scattered but worthy listen – the kind of pulpy material you can crave on dark winter evenings. Druid’s World could happily sit on your audiobook shelf between The Green Odyssey and Star Surgeon. Druid’s World was the first book in Smith’s “Annwn” series and was first published in 1967.

The Day The World Stopped is set in 2020. In it the United States and “Red China” are deep into a new cold war when the testing of some super-weapons that can automate human destruction on an unprecedented scale are nearing the cusp of completion. This tale feels like a combination of The Manchurian Cantidate and The Day The Earth Stood Still. Clearly the worst of the three tales collected in A Galaxy Trilogy I’m sad to say The Day The World Stopped is weighed down by too much hokey dialogue, not enough thought given to pacing or plotting and a “deus ex-machina” ending that makes it feel like a bad Hollywood version of itself. First published in 1968 it was written at the beginning of the tail end of Coblentz’s writing career.

Narrator Tom Weiner lends a gravitas to all three novels, The Day The World Stopped needed it the most, given its weighty dialogue and scene after scene of back-room politics there was dozens of voices to work. The “Omegriconians” especially spoke English with a strange accent, Weiner does his best with it, to little avail. In Druid’s World the admiral MacBride character predominates the thoughts and dialogue of most of the novel. This works out well, Weiner’s got range but his natural growl fits just this kind of character. Star Ways has several strong characters all of which are distinctly rendered. Overall Weiner’s narrative authority elevates what really are three unremarkable pulp adventures into a worthy package.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases – 5 Classic SF Titles – Wonder Audio

SFFaudio New Releases

Five classic Science Fiction tales. Five more reasons to set up an audible.com or iTunes account.

[editor’s note – These titles below all come from a fellow editor’s audiobook company (Wonder Audiobooks). I’m begging you to give them a try. Its hard to appear purely fannish about these stories (given that I’m such good friends with the publisher) so I’ll just forget about trying to appear altogether unbiased and say these are really terrific listens. Fondly Fahrenheit alone will make you scream for joy. Reet!]

Fondly Fahrenheit & Will You Wait?
By Alfred Bester; Read by Pat Bottino
70 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and
Androids cannot kill! Yet that is the case for James Vandaleur’s rare multiple-aptitude android. Feeling he has no choice, Vandaleur flees the authorities, and finds himself in encompassed in even more horrendous murders. The heat is affecting the man-made servant, but scarier still is what is effecting Vandaleur’s mind. A pyrotechnic tour de forceby one the greatest writer and stylist of science fiction.

Chosen by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as one of the greatest science fiction stories.

It’s a Good Life
By Jerome Bixby; Read by William Dufris
51 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and
What is more idyllic than a small mid-western agricultural town? Peaksville would sound like a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Except , little Anthony is a monster! What happens when a child is omnipotent, and with his mind he can execute his every desire and petulant whim? Tonight, there’s a birthday party for Dan Hollis at Anthony’s house. It’s a party all the townspeople will remember . . . always!

Another story voted as one of the greatest stories by SFFWA. The story was adapted into a classic Twilight Zone episode.

The Devil on Salvation Bluff
By Jack Vance; Read by Candace Platt
61 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and
On the planet, Glory, missionaries live in a constant unpredictable environment. Sister Mary and her husband, Brother Raymond, try to contend with the flits, which live satyr-like existences. The missionaries are exasperated with this world’s seemingly disregard for cause and effect. The only constant is the clock that they brought with them. And therein lies the problem.

The Game of Rat and Dragon
By Cordwainer Smith; Read by Matthew Wayne Selznick33 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and
Future humanity has found the secret of faster-than-light travel, but it comes with great dangers. To minimize these dangers, man can pilot ships through the up-and-out with cats as their partners. Underhill share his mind with his cat-partner, the Lady May, and must travel to the terrible open places between the stars. Only be working together can they defend themselves and the ship’s passengers against the dragons in the emptiness of space.

The Last of the Deliverers
By Poul Anderson; Read by William Coon
32 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and
A small town in Ohio leads a peaceful Utopian existence in a world after the collapse of the super powers. Their pastoral existence is rattled when an old communist comes to their village. Uncle Jim, the resident old capitalist wages an ideological battle with the traveling guest to the townspeople’s dismay.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Stories Collection #002

SFFaudio Online Audio

Short Science Fiction Stories Collection #002
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s – Approx. 4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007
“Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is the second volume of reader-selected collection of short stories originally published between 1941 and 1963, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.”

Subscribe to the podcast feed via this URL:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-vol-002.xml

Or get the stories individually:

LibriVox - 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 2BR02B
By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr; Read by Bruce Bell-Myers
1 |MP3| – Approx. 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007
In the not so distant future an over-populated planet requires that every birth be balanced by a death. When Edward K. Whelig, Jr.’s wife births triplets he needs to find three people willing to enter a local suicide booth and give him the receipt…

The Answer
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Nicodemus
1 |MP3| Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007

The Blue Tower*
By Evelyn E. Smith; Read by Betsie Bush
1 |MP3| Approx. 34.5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007
*This is an SFFaudio Challenge #2 title!

Bread Overhead*
By Fritz Leiber;Read by Betsie Bush
1 |MP3| Approx. 33 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007
*There are two other readings of this story available too! Here and here.

The Burning Bridge
By Poul Anderson; Read by Nicodemus
1 |MP3| Approx. 57 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007

Second Sight
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Jodi Krangle
1 |MP3| Approx. 27 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007

Solomon’s Orbit
By William Carroll; Read by Anton
1 |MP3| Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007

The Troubadour
By Robert A.W. Lowndes; Read by Cori Samuel
1 |MP3| Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007

The Ultimate Experiment
By Thornton DeKy; Read by Nicodemus
1 |MP3| Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Untechnological Employment
By E. M. Clinton, Jr.; Read by Tysto
1 |MP3| Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 17, 2007

Posted by Jesse Willis

Public Domain Poul Anderson tale audiobooked, podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Maria Lectrix podcast and its prolific narrator, Maureen O’Brien, have just completed a recording of a novelette by Poul Anderson. The story was first (and last) published in the February 1953 issue of “Space Science Fiction” magazine. Here’s what Maureen has to say about her podcasting of this tale:

“The late Poul Anderson was a writer of infinite variety, whom I defy you to define. He was also a true gentleman of the old school, as I learned on the single occasion when I got to meet him and eat dinner with him (the con committee hath its perks!). I regard it as an honor to host this tale and adapt it to audio.”

Security
By Poul Anderson; Read by Maureen O’Brien
5 MP3s – 92 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Maria Lectrix
Podcast: August 2007
“Security introduces us to a mild-mannered scientist with a high clearance, living in what we gradually realize is a very unpleasant future.”

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3| Part 5 |MP3|

Check out the Maria Lectrix all Science Fiction podcast feed:

http://marialectrix.wordpress.com/tag/fiction/science-fiction/feed/

posted by Jesse Willis

New Arrivals – PKD, Bujold, Bova, and more

Science Fiction Audiobook Recent Arrivals

A big box of goodness from Blackstone Audio today! One title, includes a previously released title, the full length novel Martian Time-Slip (although this is a new recording with a new narrator) and a new short story The Golden Man, which is the basis for the new film Next.

A Galaxy Trilogy: Star Ways, Druids’ World, and The Day the World Stopped
By Poul Anderson, George H. Smith & Stanton A. Coblentz; Read by Tom Weiner
12 CD, 1 MP3CD, 12 cassettes; 13.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433202255 (CD), 9781433202261 (MP3CD), 9781433202247 (cassettes)

Long before Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, or Isaac Asimov, there was an earlier generation of dreamers and writers who defined the science-fiction genre, in what today is affectionately known as the pulp era. Heralding back to the early television days of Flash Gordon and the earlier tales of Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells, these great science-fiction writers of the 1950s and 1960s included among their ranks such icons as Poul Anderson and the prolific Robert Silverberg, who would write some of the hippest genre literature of its era. Now you can experience this unique moment in genre literature with three exciting, imaginative short novellas from some of the pioneers of pulp science fiction.

Martian Time-Slip & The Golden Man
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Grover Gardner
8 CDs, 1 MP3CD, 7 Cassettes; 9.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433200663 (CDs), 9781433200694 (MP3CD), 9781433200670 (cassettes)

–Martian Time-Slip:
On the arid colony of Mars, the only thing more precious than water may be a ten-year-old schizophrenic boy named Manfred Steiner. Although the UN has slated “anomalous” children for deportation and destruction, some suspect that Manfred’s disorder may be a window into the future. But what sort of future? In Martian Time-Slip, Dick uses power politics and extraterrestrial real-estate scams, adultery, and murder to penetrate the mysteries of being and time.
–The Golden Man:
In the post-nuclear America, monstrous mutants roam freely. A government agency, the DCA, is formed to rid the world of mutants. But there is one of the new species that is not a monster: eighteen-year-old Cris Johnson. He is a perfect specimen of young manhood, an icon of masculine beauty. He is the golden man. But the DCA’s fear that he might mate and produce a new race of golden men with survival skills far superior to ordinary men makes his destruction paramount.

Komaar: A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
10 CDs, 1 MP3CD, 9 cassettes; 12.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433202582 (CD), 9781433202599 (MP3-CD), 9781433202575 (cassettes)

Komarr could be a garden with a thousand more years’ work, or an uninhabitable wasteland if the terraforming fails. Now, the solar mirror vital to the terraforming of the conquered planet has been shattered by a ship hurtling off course. The Emperor of Barrayar sends his newest imperial auditor, Lord Miles Vorkosigan, to find out why. The choice is not a popular one on Komarr, where a betrayal a generation before drenched the name of Vorkosigan in blood. Thus, the Komarrans surrounding Miles could be loyal subjects, potential hostages, innocent victims, or rebels ready for revenge. Lies within lies, treachery within treachery, Miles is caught in a race against time to stop a plot that could exile him from Barrayar forever. His burning hope lies in an unexpected ally, one with wounds as deep and honor as beleaguered as his own.

Voyagers II: The Alien Within
By Ben Bova; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
11 CDs, 1 MP3CD, 9 Cassettes 13 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433202346 (CD), 9781433202353 (MP3CD), 9781433202339 (cassettes)

When Keith Stoner awoke, he found himself in a world changed almost beyond recognition. Eighteen years before, Stoner had been the American member of a joint U.S.-Soviet mission to capture an alien ship. The Soviets had to pull out, but Stoner persisted, and while on the strange ship, he fell into suspended animation.Jo Camerata, the ambitious young student who fell in love with Stoner, is now head of Vanguard Industries, which has recovered the alien ship. As a result, her company is now in control of its vast new technology and the fortune it reaps—and in control of Keith Stoner. What Camerata doesn’t know, however, is that someone else has been awake, someone who dwells within Stoner’s mind. The alien presence that has kept Stoner alive all this time is now free and intends to explore our world, letting nothing stand in its way.

posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show