Ron Cocking – SFFaudio

Commentary: LibriVox makes being cool look easy

SFFaudio Commentary

I really like the attitude of the people over on LibriVox.org. In one thread on the LibriVox forums a first time poster makes note that ‘LibriVox titles are being sold on eBay for $’. Like that guy I too was quite shocked and a little dismayed when I found that out. Here’s me thinking:

These audiobooks are available for free and yet some people are actually SELLING them!?!?! How dare they!

But as Puffin1, a long time LibriVoxateer so sensibly points out…

“It’s okay. We [LibriVox] don’t mind. Everything we do is in the public domain. Thanks for your concern. Welcome to LibriVox. Have fun!”

How cool is that?

It really sums up the LibriVox attitude too. Another LibriVoxer, David Barnes (AKA earthcalling), pointed out that… ‘the seller credits LibriVox … and is providing a service that LibriVox doesn’t provide – namely audiobooks on CD.’

Their whole attitude is positive and relaxed, their idea is “the more recordings are ‘out there’, the better!” As it turns out, it’s actually a very good thing that a lot of the sellers on eBay are selling these audiobooks. eBayers looking for audiobooks can discover LibriVox that way.

One such person is a Texan named R. J. Davis (aka Rick).

Rick described himself as “mostly retired” and a “two year cancer survivor.” I’d describe him as one cool mostly retired cancer survivor who narrates audiobooks. Rick found LibriVox through one of these eBay retailers, and has, since joining in December 2007 (!), started narrating public domain Science Fiction for LibriVox! He’s already read individual short stories like:

“Time and Time Again” by H. Beam Piper
“Warning from the Stars” by Ron Cocking
“Stairway To The Stars” by Larry Shaw

And he’s solo-completed entire novels like:

Key Out of Time by Andre Norton
The Time Traders by Andre Norton

And Rick’s got two more Norton novels forthcoming…

Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton
The Defiant Agents by Andre Norton

Rick is what I’d call a real audiobook fan. LibriVox makes being cool look easy, and that’s pretty amazing because narrating an audiobook is bloody hard work.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox – Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 003

SFFaudio Online Audio

“It’s sci fi. It’s short. It’s stories. Done!”

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 003
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: February 2008
This is the third volume of reader-selected short stories originally published between 1941 and 1963, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.

And All the Earth a Grave
By C.C. MacApp; Read by Mark F. Smith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 17 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: February 2008
From Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1963. There’s nothing wrong with dying—it just hasn’t ever had the proper sales pitch!

The Big Bounce
By Walter S. Tevis; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Dark Door
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Bruce Bell-Myers
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Gambler’s World
By Keith Laumer; Read by Mark F. Smith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 55 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: February 2008
This is one of Laumer’s “Retief” tales. Starring Jame Retief, the main character in a series of satirical adventures detailing the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne and their interaction with alien cultures. This tale was first published in the Worlds of If’s November 1961 issue.

An Incident On Route 12
By James H. Schmitz; Read by Grumpy Old Squid
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: February 2008
First published in the pages of the January 1962 issue of Worlds of If magazine.

The Repairman
By Harry Harrison; Read by Taras Shuper
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Tight Squeeze
By Dean Ing; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| – Approx. 35 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
He knew the theory of repairing the gizmo all right. He had that nicely taped. But there was the little matter of threading a wire through a too-small hole while under zero-g, and working in a spacesuit! From Astounding Science Fiction February 1955.

Time and Time Again
By H. Beam Piper; Read by R. J. Davis
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Warning from the Stars
By Ron Cocking; Read by R. J. Davis
1 |MP3| – Approx. 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The White Feather Hex
By Don Peterson; Read by Karen Wolfer
1 |MP3| – Approx. 33 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Subscribe to the podcast version via this url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-vol-003.xml

Go back and get Volume #001 and Volume #002 too!

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 001

OnlineAudio

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 001
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s – 5.5 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 a reader-selected collection of short stories originally published between 1931 and 1963, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.”

Get the individual stories:

1 . The 4D Doodler
By Graph Waldeyer; Read by Elanor
1 |MP3| – Approx 34 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
First published in the July 1941 issue of Comet magazine

2. Bread Overhead*
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Mark F. Smith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 38 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
*There is also a variant reading of the same story by another LibriVox reader HERE.

3. Image Of The Gods
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Jodi Krangle
1 |MP3| – Approx. 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
First published in Orbit magazine’s September 1954 issue.

4. Martian V. F. W.
By G. L. Vandenburg; Read by Qhali
1 |MP3| – Approx. 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
From Amazing Science Fiction Stories May 1959.

5. One Shot
By James Blish; Read by Reynard T. Fox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 33 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
“You can do a great deal if you have enough data, and enough time to compute on it, by logical methods. But given the situation that neither data nor time is adequate, and an answer must be produced… what do you do?”

6.
Out Around Rigel
By Robert H. Wilson; Read by Anton
1 |MP3| – Approx. 43 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
“An astounding chronicle of two Lunarians’ conquest of time and interstellar space.”

7. Pygmalion’s Spectacles
By Stanley G. Weinbaum; Read by Chrystal Layton
1 |MP3| – Approx. 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

8. The Repairman*
By Harry Harrison; Read by Anton
1 |MP3| – 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
*There is another reading of this tale HERE.

9. Toy Shop
By Harry Harrison; Read by Cori Samuel
1 |MP3| -12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

10.
Warning From The Stars
By Ron Cocking; Read by Rowdy Delany
1 |MP3| – Approx. 42 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
The box read: TO BE OPENED ONLY BY: Dr. Richard Forster, Assistant Director, Air Force Special Research Center, Petersport, Md. CAUTION: Open not later than 24 hours after receipt. DO NOT OPEN in atmosphere less than equivalent of 65,000 feet
above M.S.L.

Or get the whole collection via the unique podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-vol-001-by-various.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis