StarShipSofa Podcast covers James Tripree Jr.

SFFaudio Online Audio

Starship Sofa PodcastStarshipSofa , the terrific U.K. podcast that specializes in Science Fiction authors has one heck of a show there. The hosts, Tony and Ciaran, have an especially crackin’ show this week, one that I am truly chuffed to tell you about. On offer today is a show on James Tiptree Jr. (AKA Alice Sheldon), a writer who lived a very extraordinary life. As the boys say, she “blazed across the Science Fiction skies” with her short stories of the 1970s. And stay tuned for her shocking ending!

Download the show direct |MP3| or subscribe to the feed:

And don’t forget to revisit their earlier subjects:

Show # 1: Classic Author: Alfred Bester |MP3|
Show # 2: Classic Author: John Brunner |MP3|
Show # 3: Classic Author: Algis Budrys |MP3|
Show # 4: Classic Author: Cordwainer Smith |MP3|
Show # 5: Classic Author: Stanislaw Lem |MP3|
Show # 6: Classic Film: Dark Star |MP3|
Show # 7: Classic Author: Philip K. Dick (Part 1) |MP3|
Show # 8: Classic Author: Philip K. Dick (Part 2) |MP3|
Show # 9: Classic Author: Philip K. Dick (Part 3) |MP3|
Show # 10: Classic Film: Capricorn One |MP3|
Show # 11: Classic Author: Henry Kuttner |MP3|
Show # 12: Classic Author: Robert Silverberg |MP3|
Show # 13: Classic Author: Joe Haldeman |MP3|
Show # 14: Classic Author: L. Ron Hubbard |MP3|
Show # 15: Classic Author: Harlan Ellison |MP3|
Show # 16: Classic Author: Douglas Adams (Part 1) |MP3|
Show # 17: Classic Author: Douglas Adams (Part 2) |MP3|
Show # 18: Classic Author: Robert Sheckley |MP3|
Show # 19: Classic Author: Roger Zelazny |MP3|
Show # 20: Classic Author: Iian M. Banks |MP3|
Show # 21: Classic Author: Ursula K. LeGuin |MP3|
Show # 22: Christmas Special Part 1 |MP3| & 2 |MP3|
Show # 23: Email Show |MP3|

Escape Pod Podcast has vintage Silverberg!

SFFaudio Online Audio

Escape PodEscape Pod has dug way back, to 1972 in fact, to bring us a vintage Robert Silverberg short story called When We Went To See The End Of The World. I liked it, and it is quite modern, despite being 34 years old.

EP086: When We Went To See The End Of The World
By Robert Silverberg; Read by J.C. Hutchins
1 MP3 File – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Escape Pod
Podcast: December 28th 2006

Here’s the Grand Master’s own description of his Hugo nominated and oft reprinted tale:

“In a time of constant turmoil and disaster (rampant mutant viruses, terrorist bombings, pollution, and so on), a travel agency starts offering time-travel trips to see the end of the world. Among the keep-up-with-the-Joneses crowd, it’s the fashionable thing to do. The odd part is, everybody who goes sees something different.”

Recent Arrivals

Science Fiction Audiobook Recent Arrivals

Science Fiction Audiobook - Draco Tavern by Larry NivenDraco Tavern
By Larry Niven; Read by Tom Weiner
5 CDs – Aprox. 6 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 9780786159475

When a tremendous spacecraft took orbit around Earth’s moon and began sending smaller landers down toward the North Pole, the newly arrived visitors quickly set up a permanent spaceport in Siberia. Their presence attracted many, and a few grew conspicuously rich from secrets they learned from talking to the aliens. One of these men, Rick Schumann, established a tavern catering to all the various species of visiting aliens, a place he named the Draco Tavern.

27 stories and vignettes collected for the first time in one volume.

Science Fiction Audiobook - Songmaster by Orson Scott CardSongmaster
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
10 CDs – Aprox. 12.5 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 9780786178421

Kidnapped at an early age, Ansset has been raised in isolation at a mystical retreat called the Songhouse. His life is filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a voice that is unlike any other. But Ansset’s voice is both a blessing and a curse—for it reflects all the hopes and fears of his audience, and, by magnifying their emotions, can be used either to heal or to destroy.
When it is discovered that his is the voice that the Emperor has waited decades for, Ansset is summoned to the Imperial Palace on Old Earth. Many fates rest in Ansset’s hands, and his songs will soon be put to the test: either to salve the troubled conscience of a conqueror or drive him, and the universe, into mad chaos.

One of Orson Scott Card’s favorite themes; a child’s protagonist coming-of-age story. One Orson’s earliest books and it’s beautifully/frighteningly effective.

Science Fiction Audiobook - Hitchhiker's Guide, Quintessential PhaseHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Quintessiential Phase
By Douglas Adams; Performed by FULL CAST
2 CDs – length 2:26 [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0792738586

Panic! It’s the last ever instalment of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, with a brand new full-cast dramatisation of Mostly Harmless, the final book in Douglas Adams’s famous “trilogy in five parts.” A stolen ship, a dramatic stampede and a new and sinister Guide lead to a race to save the Earth … again. But this time, will they succeed?

Science Fiction Audiobook - Super Pal by Great Northern AudioSuper Pal
By Great Northern Audio; Performed by FULL CAST
1 CD – Aprox. 70 min.
Publisher: Great Northern Audio
Published: 2006

SUPER PAL and The Jewels of the 11th Generation. Recorded live at the Mark Time Radio Shows in 2005 and 2006.

“Super Pal: The Saving of the World” – the rogue comet, Skippy, is headed right for Big City in this superhero mocumentary.

Backed by, “The Jewels of the Eleventh Generation” – treasure hunters board the 300-year-old generation starship, The Professor Irwin Corey, and, as usual, find pirates, love, adorable children and plenty of squeaky toys. Starring David Ossman of the Firesign Theatre.

Science Fiction Audiobook - The Children of Men by P.D. JamesThe Children of Men
By P.D. James; Read by John Franlyn-Robbins
9 CDs – 10.5 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 1993
ISBN: 1419323431

It is 2025, and the human race faces imminent extinction. Since 1994, not a single child has been born on earth. Now, a pervasive lethargy blankets the world. Anarchy reigns in the prisons; immigrants are enslaved; renegades terrorize the land. P.D. James, the “Queen of Crime,” takes a new path in this futuristic thriller, bringing to it her customary flair for drama, craftsmanship, and intriguing characters.

Adapted into a movie starring Julianne Moore.

Science Fiction Audiobook - Time of Changes by Robert SilverbergA Time of Changes
By Robert Silverberg; Read by Pete Bradbury
6 cassettes – 8.5 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 2002
ISBN: 1402537255

Blurp from back of the 1971 paperback: In a world numbed of feeling, he felt deeply. In a world drained of passion, he loved fiercely. In a land of anti-people, he dared to search his soul and find himself. Prince Kinnal Darival was an alien in his homeland, a traitor to the realm his fathers ruled. Yet it was Kinnal Darival who would decide the destiny of Velada Borthan. For the planet’s fate lay in a drug which promised any man a meeting with Infinity, a drug which could spread throughout the planet and destroy it — a drug contained in a small flask which the Earthman Schweiz was holding out to Kinnal Darival…

Winner of the 1971 Nebula award.

Modern Scholar - Rings, Sword, Monsters Rings, Swords, Monsters: Exploring Fantasy
Lectures by Professor Michael D.C. Drout
7 CDs – Approx. 7 hours [LECTURES]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Series: The Modern Scholar
Published: 2006
ISBN: 1419386956

Should fantasy be considered serious literature, or is it merely escapism? In this course, the roots of fantasy and the works that have defined the genre are examined. Incisive analysis and a deft assessment of what makes these works so very special provides a deeper insight into beloved works and a better understanding of why fantasy is such a pervasive force in modern culture.

The Time Traveler

Balticon Podcast’s Exclusive Scoop: From Worldcon, The Hugo Loser’s Party

SFFaudio @ Worldcon 2006

The Balticon PodcastPaul Fischer from the Balticon Podcast has posted an exclusive podcast recorded at the Hugo Loser’s Party (AKA The Hugo Nominees party) held at LACON IV (Worldcon 2006). Paul talked to some big names, David Brin, Robert Silverberg, Cory Doctorow, James Patrick Kelly, Peter S. Beagle and Ellen Datlow

Download the MP3 HERE or subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.balticonpodcast.org/bcpc.rss

Review of House of Bones by Robert Silverberg

Science Fiction Audiobooks - House of Bones by Robert SilverbergHouse Of Bones
By Robert Silverberg; Read by Jared Doreck
1 CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1884612431
Themes: / Science Fiction / Time Travel / Prehistory /

Another stunning audio achievement from Infinivox! House Of Bones is a unique time-travel story that imbues a deep sense of satisfaction on nearly every level. A top shelf reading by a dynamic reader, a dynamite story and an elegant production combine to make pure aural delight! House Of Bones is a modest tale, recounting the unfortunate fate of the world’s first and perhaps last time traveler. After a misguided test run he’s become trapped 20,000 years in our past, unequipped for survival his future is uncertain. What’s worse he’s surrounded by people so primitive they don’t even have a written language. So primitive they take in his unworthy and skilless self and accept him into their society. This glimpse of what life might have been like for Cro-Magnon man in the late Pleistocene epoch shows us precisely why we can’t judge a society by it’s lack of tool based technology. Silverberg skillfully extrapolates a fascinating working culture out of what little modern archaeologists and paleoanthropolgists know of these people, our ancestors and creates in the process something to think about when using words like “primitive”. House Of Bones is kind of a mirror image of Isaac Asimov’s The Ugly Little Boy. And like that tale this one is a keeper.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Listen to the GrandMasters of Science Fiction vi…

SFFaudio Online Audio

Listen to the GrandMasters of Science Fiction via online audio
Ever wonder what your favorite Science Fiction authors sound like? We can help. Here’s a complete list of the Science Fiction Writers Of America GrandMasters sorted by the year of their induction and the online audioclips and interviews that we know about.
PLEASE NOTE: File types vary ( .mp3 .m3u .ram .wav ).

Robert A. Heinlein (1974)

Stranger in a Strange LandTime Enough for Love
“Robert Heinlein Day”“eggs in one basket”
“colonies beyond Earth”“through the universe”

Jack Williamson (1975)

-An interview from the Fast-Forward archives

Clifford D. Simak (1976) – None known

L. Sprague de Camp (1978) – None known

Fritz Leiber (1981) – None known

Andre Norton (1983) – None known

Arthur C. Clarke (1985) – None known

Isaac Asimov (1986)
-Asimov interviewed by Terry Gross 1986
-A Wired for Books interview from 1987

Alfred Bester (1987) – None known

Ray Bradbury (1988)
-A Wired for Books interview from 1992
-A Wired for Books interview from 1993

Lester Del Rey (1990) – None known

Frederik Pohl (1992) – None known

Damon Knight (1994) – None known

A.E. van Vogt (1995) – None known

Jack Vance (1996) – None known

Poul Anderson (1997) – None known

Hal Clement (1998)
-An Hour 25 online interview

Brian W. Aldiss (1999)
-A Wired for Books interview from 1984
A Wired for Books interview from 1986

Philip José Farmer (2000) – None known

Ursula K. Le Guin (2002)
-Three Hour 25 Interviews: Sep 2000Oct 2001Aug 2003

Robert Silverberg (2003) – None known

Do you know of some other online audio interviews or sound clips featuring the SFWA GrandMasters? Let us know!

Posted by Jesse Willis