Robert A. Heinlein – Page 43

SFFaudio Challenge MET with an unabridged reading of The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer!

SFFaudio News

MORE BIG BIG NEWS!

Mark Nelson, a prolific narrator at LibriVox.org has written in to announce he has already COMPLETED and RELEASED one of the public domain Speculative Fiction novels listed in the SFFaudio ‘make an audiobook, win an audiobook’ challenge!

In an email dated “Sun, 17 Dec 2006 15:39:27 -0800” Mark wrote:

“I don’t know if any others took you up already and recorded any of the others on your list, but a complete audiobook of The Green Odyssey has just been published on LibriVox”

Well Mark, at least one other person has recorded one of the public domain novels, but it appears you are the first to both complete and release one which is what is required by the challenge. And The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer |Manybooks.net| was indeed one of the novels from the challenge!

For those playing along at home… in mid-November I challenged anyone to turn any one of a number of previously unreleased public domain novels into an unabridged single voiced audiobook. As an incentive, I offered a BRAND NEW unabridged commercial audiobook to the first person to complete and release one from the list. It appears Mark has, in fact, done that!

All that is necessary now is the verification – namely me listening to the novel and comparing it to the Maybooks.net text – but by all accounts it certainly appears that Mark has met this challenge! This therefore, almost certainly, means that Mark will be receiving a free audiobook of his choice. Either Galactic Pot Healer by Philip K. Dick, Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein or Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Now, if you are CURRENTLY making, or were PLANNING on making your very own novel based on the challenge, don’t stop now! Let me know which novel you are working on. I’d like to know what you’re doing. And, we might even be able to scrounge up a BRAND NEW professionally narrated audiobook for you too!

In the meantime SFFaudio is proud to present the first (provisionally) completed Speculative Fiction novel in our ‘Make an Audiobook, Win an Audiobook Challenge’:

The Green Odyssey
By Philip Jose Farmer; Read by Mark Nelson
10 MP3s or 10 OGG Vorbis files – 6 Hours 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Published: December 2006
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Alan Green is a space traveler stranded on a barbaric planet who has been taken slave and made a consort to an insipid and smelly queen. His slave-wife, though beautiful and smart, nags him constantly. He’s given up hope of ever returning to Earth when he hears of two astronauts who have been captured in a kingdom on the other side of the planet, and sets out on an action-packed journey on a ship sailing across vast grasslands on rolling pin-like wheels in a desperate scheme to save them and return home.

Click HERE to get it directly from LibriVox!

Congratulations Mark and thanks!

posted by Jesse Willis

FULL CAST AUDIO tells us to expect Tamora Pierce, Shannon Hale, Robert A. Heinlein and Kenneth Opel AUDIOBOOKS!

Daniel Bostick, producer director and actor at Full Cast Audio tells us…

“The following recordings are coming down the pipline in the next few of months:

THE WILL OF THE EMPRESS by Tamora Pierce (December 2006)
PRINCESS ACADEMY by Shannon Hale (January 2007)
THE STAR BEAST by Robert A. Heinlein (1st quarter 2007)

For trivia fans: Fantasy Author Tamora Pierce and her husband Timothy Liebe will play cameo voice roles in PRINCESS ACADEMY.

Breaking news: We are in the casting stage of SKYBREAKER, Kenneth Oppel’s sequel to AIRBORN [SFFaudio Review Forthcoming]. It will record in February 07 for release later in the year.

We’re also considering participation in the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial in Kansas City next summer.”

Cool stuff.

posted by Jesse Willis

Blackstone Audiobooks to release Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson

SFFaudio News

During Worldcon, we met up with our Blackstone Audiobooks Aquisitions Manager Haila Williams in the Hilton’s Starbucks. We chatted about the upcoming Blackstone releases, Science Fiction and Fantasy in general, the Hugo awards, and a whole lot more. It was one of the highlights of the whole Worldcon event for me. One of the questions I put to her was with regard to the upcoming release of the novel Variable Star. This will be a “collaboration” between Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson. She confirmed my hope that Blackstone will be releasing an unabridged version of it and that it will be read by Spider Robinson! This is so cool! I expect this book to make a big splash in mid-September. There’s already a website up for it HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Caedmon’s Science Fiction Soundbook

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Soundbook
By Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein
Read By Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner
4 hours – 4 Cassettes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Caedmon
Published: 1977
Themes: / Science Fiction / Mars / Edgar Allan Poe / Computers / Mathematics / Sociology / Space Travel /

This out-of-print Caedmon set was a wonderful find (thanks, Esther!) because it contains two cassettes (four stories) that are amongst the earliest science fiction audio I ever heard. The stories are “The Green Hills of Earth” and “Gentlemen, Be Seated” by Robert A. Heinlein, and “There Come Soft Rains” and “Usher II” by Ray Bradbury, all read by Leonard Nimoy. Also included here is “The Psychohistorians” by Isaac Asimov and “Mimsy Are the Borogroves” by Henry Kuttner, both read by William Shatner. The audio was originally published in 1977.

I found Leonard Nimoy’s readings to be excellent. In Bradbury’s “Usher II”, he delivers a passionate speech about the evils of book burning with perfection. In “Gentlemen, Be Seated” and “The Green Hills of Earth” he portrays working class spacemen with complete success.

William Shatner, though, was disappointing. I’ve heard him read some Star Trek titles, and felt his delivery was pretty good, but here, on both cassettes, he reads as if he needs to be across town in fifteen minutes. He zips through the text, sometimes fast enough to affect my comprehension.

The stories are all bona-fide 5-star classics:

“There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury, read by Leonard Nimoy
This famous story is about a house. That’s it, just a house. An automatic, programmed house that keeps running and running… but where are its inhabitants? Bradbury manages to tell a very human tale without any actual people.

“Usher II” by Ray Bradbury, read by Leonard Nimoy
A fantastic story, passionately read, about a man who builds Poe’s House of Usher on Mars. Because of the social climate on Earth, it would be illegal to build such a fantastic structure, because stories of fantasy are simply no longer allowed. If you agree with that policy, this fellow would be happy to show you around, and he does get that opportunity. As I mentioned earlier, a highlight is a speech on censorship that was an obvious precursor to Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

“The Psychohistorians” by Isaac Asimov, read by William Shatner
This is the first novelette in the first book of Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. In it, you meet Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick in an introduction to some of the key elements of the Foundation story, including the Empire in decline and the mathematics of psychohistory. However, I did have difficulty get into Shatner’s narration.

“The Green Hills of Earth” by Robert A. Heinlein, read by Leonard Nimoy
Rhysling is a Spacer who lost his eyesight in a reactor pile accident. Now, he’s a famous bard, and this is his story. The story is an excellent portrayal of what spaceflight might be like from the working stiff’s point of view, once flight becomes common. At least from the perspective of a science fiction writer in 1948. No NASA engineers here.

“Gentlemen, Be Seated” by Robert A. Heinlein, read by Leonard Nimoy
This story is similar to “Green Hills” in that the characters are working class spacemen. One agrees to take a reporter through some new buildings on the moon (yes, he does get overtime pay for it), but an accident occurs during the tour. Another story from the late 1940’s, which is the part of Heinlein’s long career that I enjoy most.

“Mimsy Were the Borogroves” by Henry Kuttner, read by William Shatner
This story fared better under Shatner’s cadence than did “The Psychohistorians”. I was captured by it within 5 minutes or so of concentrated listening, and Kuttner’s story held my attention even when Shatner didn’t. The story involves some toys that were sent back in time by a far-future scientist with too much time on his hands. The toys are found by some kids, who play with them, and are changed by them. The story plays with the ideas of how people think – how kids think, how adults think, and how it could possibly be different. I found it a well-written and entertaining exploration of these ideas. Great science fiction.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

2006 starts with some fine titles: Anne Manx on A…

SFFAudio Header New Releases

2006 starts with some fine titles:

Anne Manx on Amazonia, audio drama from Radio Repertory Company of America, starring Claudia Christian, Pat Tallman, and Barbara Harris
This audio drama is excellent entertainment – a comic book for your ears!

Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries by Jeffrey A. Carver, read by Jonathan Davis, Audio Renaissance, Abridged
In the tradition of Star Trek and Star Wars audiobooks, here’s the first audiobook from the best current show on television.

The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein, read by Patrick Lawlor, Blackstone Audio, Unabridged
Click here to listen to a sample.
Another classic Heinlein novel from Blackstone Audio!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase by Douglas Adams, performed by BBC Radio, Audio Partners
The penultimate Hitchhiker’s radio show.

H.P. Lovecraft Collection – Volume 3 by H.P. Lovecraft, Audio Realms
More Lovecraft from Audio Realms! This one contains “The Horror at Red Hook”, “The Statement of Randolph Carter”, “The Outsider”, and “Herbert West Reanimator”. The first Lovecraft collection from Audio Realms landed on our SFFaudio Essential List.

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson, read by Yuri Rasovsky, Blackstone Audio, Unabridged
Click here to listen to a sample.
A classic novel by Richard Matheson read by the mighty Yuri Rasovsky.

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock, Audio Realms
The second of the original Elric saga from Audio Realms. If quality is half of the first one (Click here for the SFFaudio review of Elric of Melnibone) then this is a must-have.

Star Wars: The Dark Nest III: The Swarm War by Troy Denning, read by Jonathan Davis, Random House Audio, Abridged
The latest in the long-running Star Wars audio series.

Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe, read by various readers, Blackstone Audio, Unabridged
Click here to listen to a sample.
Contains some of Poe’s greats – “The Tell Tale Heart”, “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, and others.

If you are a publisher and have titles that you’d like to be included here, then contact Scott or Jesse.

Our recently reviewed Special Collector’s Editio…

News

Blackstone Audiobooks Logo Our recently reviewed Special Collector’s Edition of King Kong isn’t the only 800 ton gorilla making waves over at Blackstone Audiobooks… they’ve got plenty more new titles:

The Door Into Summer
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Patrick Lawlor
5 cassettes, 6 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: January 2006
ISBN: 0786136782, 078617692X, 0786179546
Dan Davis, an electronics engineer, had finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot that could do almost anything. Wild success was within reach—and Dan’s life was ruined. In a plot to steal his business, his greedy partner and greedier fiancée tricked him into taking the “long sleep”—suspended animation for thirty years. But when he awoke in the far different world of A.D. 2000, he made an amazing discovery. And suddenly Dan had the means to travel back in time—and get his revenge.

The Incredible Shrinking Man
By Richard Matheson; Read by Yuri Rasovsky
6 Cassettes, 7 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: January 2006
ISBN: 0786137924, 0786175761, 0786178515
Inch by inch, day by day, Scott Carey is getting smaller. Once an unremarkable husband and father, Scott finds himself shrinking with no end in sight. His wife and family turn into unreachable giants, the family cat becomes a predatory menace, and Scott must struggle to survive in a world that seems to be growing ever larger and more perilous—until he faces the ultimate limits of fear and existence.

The Worthing Saga
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Scott Brick
13 Cassettes, 15 CDs or 2 MP3-CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: January 2006
ISBN: 0786129360, 0786181869, 0786183012
It was a miracle of science that permitted human beings to live, if not forever then for a long, long time. Some people, anyway. The rich, the powerful, they lived their lives at the rate of one year every ten. Somec created two societies: that of people who lived out their normal span and died and those who slept away the decades, skipping over the intervening years and events. It allowed great plans to be put into motion. It allowed interstellar empires to be built. It came near to destroying humanity. After a long, long time of decadence and stagnation, a few seed ships were sent out to save our species. They carried human embryos and supplies and teaching robots and one man. The Worthing Saga is the story of one of these men, Jason Worthing, and the world he found for the seed he carried.

Tales of Terror
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by a FULL CAST with music by David Thorn
5 Cassettes, 5 CDs or 1 MP3-CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: January 2006
ISBN: 0786144327, 0786173785, 0786177535
This special audio collection features some of Poe’s best known classic stories, including “The Tell Tale Heart,” “Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” “Hop Frog,” “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “Masque of the Red Death,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Cask of Amontillado.”

How to Survive a Robot Uprising
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
3 Cassettes, 4 CDs or 1 MP3-CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Published: January 2006
ISBN: 0786144629, 0786172908, 0786177128
This is an inspired and hilarious look at how humans can defeat the inevitable robot rebellion, as revealed by a robotics expert. The robots are coming. Are you ready? How do you spot a robot mimicking a human? How do you recognize and deactivate a rebel servant robot? How do you escape a murderous “smart” house, or evade a swarm of marauding robotic flies? In this dryly hilarious survival guide, roboticist Daniel H. Wilson teaches worried humans the secrets to quashing a robot mutiny. From treating laser wounds to fooling face and speech recognition, outwitting robot logic to engaging in hand-to-pincer combat, How to Survive a Robot Uprising covers every possible doomsday scenario facing the newest endangered species: humans.

And Coming in April, no foolin’:

The Martian Child
By David Gerrold; Read by Scott Brick
5 Cassettes, 6 CDs, 1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Published: April 2006
ISBN: 0786144092, 0786174277, 0786177640
Winner of the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Winner of the 1994 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Gerrold, a science fiction writer from California, adopts a son who has a slight behavioral problem. He believes himself to be a Martian. Gerrold begins the long, involving work of trying to earn the acceptance of Dennis, a hyperactive eight-year-old who desperately wants a father’s love, but is so insecure he feels he must be an alien. Gerrold’s memoir of the first two years with Dennis ends with the climax of Dennis running away and waiting in a city park at night for the flying saucers to come and reclaim him. Funny, endearing, and at times, heartbreaking, this is a beautifully written testament to fatherhood. This book is semi-autobiographical. Gerrold did adopt a son, but he heard about a boy who thought he was a Martian from another adoptive father.

posted by Jesse Willis