Just posted over on SFSite.com several reviews of audiobooks:
A review ofNightmare at 20,000 Feet by Richard Matheson
Narrated by various readers, unabridged, Blackstone Audio, 10.5 hours
review by Susan Dunham |MP3|
A review ofAliens Rule edited by Allan Kaster
Narrated by Vanessa Hart and Tom Dheere, unabridged, Infinivox, 3 hours, 43 minutes
review by Susan Dunman
The SFFaudio Podcast #037 – Jesse and Scott talk about the latest audiobook releases, audiobook narrators and plenty more. It’s a show full of “stage-actory goodness” in which we learn the ultimate truth:
“the monster frozen in the ice is definitely alive”
Talked about on today’s show:
Scott is living the sequel to High Plains Drifter, Hercules by Geraldine McCaughrean, Full Cast Audio, Who was the greatest Greek hero?, Perseus, Odysseus by Geraldine McCaughrean, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Achilles, Guest Law by John C. Wright, Infinivox, Aliens Rule edited by Allan Kaster, “How Music Begins” by James Van Pelt, Listening Library, the Becka Cooper series, Terrier by Tamora Peirce, Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce, Random House Audio, The Year Of The Flood by Margaret Atwood, Audible addiction, Audible Frontiers, The Wind Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, Jonathan Davis, Infinivox’s The Fluted Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, Recorded Books, Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross, Wild Voices Audio, The City And The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke, Blind Lake, Bridge Of Years, Darwinia, Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson, Hachette Audio, Transition by Iain M. Banks (UNABRIDGED), also the podcast version, Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks, Dune: House Atredies by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Blackstone Audio, Treason by Orson Scott Card, Audible.com’s latest sale includes: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Ringworld by Larry Niven, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Stalking The Vampire by Mike Resnick, Waystation by Clifford Simak, Grover Gardner, Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, The Jerk, Macmillan Audio, The Box: Uncanny Stories by Richard Matheson, The Twilight Zone (1985), “Button Button” by Richard Matheson, (the collection also includes: Girl Of My Dreams, Dying Room Only, A Flourish Of Strumpets, No Such Thing As A Vampire, Pattern For Survival, Mute, Creeping Terror, Shock Wave, Clothes Make The Man, The Jazz Machine, ‘Tis The Season To Be Jelly, The Mystery Of Grace by Charles de Lint, Slings & Arrows – Series 1, Podkayne Of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein, Armor by John Steakley, John Carpenter’s Vampires FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer, Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster, FlashForward (the TV series), revealing or realizing the solution to a mystery in fiction, Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child, Zachary Quinto, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Shed Skin by Robert J. Sawyer, Burn Me Deadly by Alex Bledsoe, Sword Edged Blond, Blood Groove, Escape From Hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Mote In God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first contact, gender, feminism, The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, iPhone, audiobook functionality, CBC Radio and NPR apps.
Harper Audio, as part of their “Summer of Books” promotion, is giving away three must download short stories from their recent and upcoming audiobook releases. These are “limited time” releases, so download them right away.
Duel (from Road Rage)
By Richard Matheson; Read by Stephen Lang
1 |MP3| – Approx. 63 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: February 2009 “Driving to San Francisco, a businessman finds himself the victim of a deadly game being played by the driver of a huge, mysterious truck. Later to become Steven Spielberg’s classic 1971 film.”
A Study In Emerald (from Fragile Things)
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman
1 |MP3| – Approx. 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: September 2006 Alluding to both the Sherlock Holmes canon and the Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos, this Hugo Award winning short story will delight fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft, and of course, Neil Gaiman. A Study in Emerald draws listeners in through carefully revealed details as a consulting detective and his narrator friend solve the mystery of a murdered German noble. But with its subtle allusions and surprise ending, this mystery hints that the real fun in solving this case lies in imagining all the details that Gaiman doesn’t reveal, and challenges listeners to be detectives themselves.
Can You Hear Me Now (from Two Of The Deadliest)
By Marcia Talley; Read by
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: July 2009 “Need can make men desperate, but greed, in my experience, makes men stupid.” – From a new collection of short stories featuring “Lust, Greed, and Murder from Outstanding Women of Mystery”
The coming week on BBC Radio 7 is chock full of must listen content. These are all re-runs so you’ve probably heard at least one or two of them before. Myself, I’m most excited about hearing Anton Lesser’s reading of the Wells story. I’ve only known his work in one series, that FALCO radio drama series I’m always telling everyone about. Also, this 1970s by Wally K. Daly “Scream” series could be good. I’ll check it out, as this week sees its first two (of three) stories airing. Likely next week will see the rebroadcast of the final chapter. So which of these draws your interest?
The Little Sister
Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 90 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Saturday at 1pm and 1am The search for a missing man deepens into an investigation of several brutal murders. Philip Marlowe’s enquiries take him to a Hollywood film set where he wonders which of the suspects is putting on the best performance. Ed Bishop stars as Raymond Chandler’s quick-witted, sharp-talking private eye in a 1977 production dramatised by Bill Morrison and produced by John Tydeman.
Before The Screaming Begins
By Wally K. Daly; Performed by a full cast
3 Broadcasts – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Wednesday at 6pm and Midnight When Tom Harris is abducted by aliens whilst celebrating his wedding anniversary, the police are understandably sceptical of his wife’s account. But the disappearances continue. Stars
Hannah Gordon, James Laurenson, Patrick Troughton, Jennifer Piercey and Robert Trotter, First broadcast in 1978.
The Silent Scream
By Wally K. Daly; Performed by a full cast
2 Broadcast – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Thursday and Friday at 6pm and Midnight James Laurenson returns as Tom Harris in the sequel to Before The Screaming Begins. The threat from the aliens increases. First broadcast in 1979. Martin Jenkins production co-stars Hannah Gordon, Donald Hewlett and Colin Douglas.
Fantastic Journeys: The Door In The Wall
By H.G. Wells; Read by Anton Lesser
1 Broadcast – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Saturday at 6.30 pm and 00.30am On the eve of great success in public life, Lionel Wallace is troubled by the vision of a lost childhood paradise behind a mysterious door in a wall. Will he concentrate on his career – or succumb to the temptation to pursue this vanished world? First heard earlier this year (2009). The first of a five part series of short stories.
Duel By Richard Matheson; Read by Nathan Osgood 1 Broadcast – Approx 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED] Broadcaster: BBC 7 / 7th Dimension Broadcast: Saturday at 6.30pm and 12.30am “Driving to San Francisco, a businessman finds himself the victim of a deadly game being played by the driver of a huge, mysterious truck. Later to become Steven Spielberg’s classic 1971 film.” Previously broadcast in 2006 and 2007.
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson; Read by Angus McInnes
9 Broadcasts – approx 5 Hours [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 6.30pm and 00.30am “Taking place in New York, it’s a tale of vampires and a man immune to the plague that has decimated most of the population.” Adapted by Scott Stainton Miller.Produced by Eilidh McCreadie. Previously broadcast in 2006 and 2007.
Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption
By Stephen King; Read by Clarke Peters
5 Broadcasts – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 1.30pm, 8.30pm and 1.30am In a brutal American prison, wrongly-convicted Andy Dufresne develops an ingenious method of survival – and conceives an even more resourceful plan of escape. This was the story that inspired the film The Shawshank Redemption.
Flashforward
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Mark Deakins
10.5 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: everyone in the world goes to sleep for a few moments while everyone’s consciousness is catapulted more than twenty years into the future. At the end of those moments, when the world reawakens, all human life is transformed by foreknowledge.
Was that shocking revelation a peek at the real, unalterable future, or was it only one of many possible futures? What happens when a man tries to change it, like the doctor who has twenty years to try to prevent his own murder? How will the foreknowledge of a part of “then” affect the experience of the “now”?
A great book! And it’s going to be a TV series this fall on ABC:
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Various
10.5 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
One of the finest and most influential horror writers of the twentieth century, Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Somewhere in Time) has left his stamp on the collective imagination. Here are more than twenty of Matheson’s most memorable tales of fear and paranoia, personally selected by the author himself. Many of these stories have already entered into popular culture, including the title story, which became a landmark episode of The Twilight Zone, and “Duel”, the nail-biting tale of man versus machines that inspired Steven Spielberg’s first film.
Other stories include “First Anniversary,” “Dress of White Silk,” “Witch War,” “Dance of the Dead,” “Mad House,” “Prey,” “Blood Son,” “Crickets,” “Wet Straw,” “The Children of Noah,” “Through Channels,” “Old Haunts,” “Disappearing Act,” “The Holiday Man,” “Legion of Plotters,” “The Distributor,” “Long Distance Call,” “Slaughter House,” and “The Likeness of Julie.” Find out why Stephen King (who writes the introduction) has called Matheson one of his favorite writers.
And here is part of the famous Twilight Zone episode based on the cover story:
The Invisible Man
By H. G. Wells; Read by James Adams
5.5 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
On a freezing February day, a stranger emerges from out of the gray to request a room at a local provincial inn. Who is this out-of-season traveler? More confounding is the thick mask of bandages obscuring his face. Why does he disguise himself in this manner and keep himself hidden away in his room?
Aroused by trepidation and curiosity, the local villagers bring it upon themselves to find the answers. What they discover is a man trapped in a terror of his own creation, and a chilling reflection of the unsolvable mysteries of their own souls.
And here’s the trailer for The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains:
The SFFaudio Podcast #032 – Jesse and Scott are ramifying and missling things as they talk about recently arrived and newly released audiobooks. We’ve got fists the size of baked hams in this episode so we say crazy things like:
“Soccer is cool!” – “The great thing about Laserdiscs…”
“Tele-Vision. It’s a Science Fiction-sounding word” – “…stupid Morlocks!”
We’re also asking the deep questions like: “Is there anybody more exciting than Robert Silverberg?” Indeed, it’s our most Reganesque show.
Just posted over on SFSite.com several reviews of audiobooks:
