satire – Page 11

FREE @ Audible.com: A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

SFFaudio Online Audio

Hot on the heels of the FREE Ringworld download from yesterday comes another FREE classic novel of a very different and wonderful kind of fantastik. A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole would never have been published had the author’s mother not found a smeared carbon copy of the manuscript after her son’s 1969 suicide at age 31. She took it to Loyola University in New Orleans and demanded someone read it. Reluctantly, Walker Percy (himself an author), began to read through the manuscript. He became more and more captivated with each page. When the book was eventually published in 1980 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction!

Blackstone Audio - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces: Free Version
By John Kennedy Toole; Read by Barrett Whitener
FREE Audible Download – Approx. 13 Hours 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2005
Provider: Audible.com
A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs.

So enters one of the most memorable characters in recent American fiction: Ignatius J. Reilly, an obese, self-absorbed, hapless Don Quixote of the French Quarter, whose half-hearted attempts at employment lead to a series of wacky adventures among the denizens of New Orleans’ lower depths.

This offer expires December 15, 2009.

[via Audible.com’s Twitter feed]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Marvellous Hairy – a podcast novel

SFFaudio Online Audio

With the number of university professors talked about on SFFaudio I think we’ve got staff enough to fill almost every department in a virtual university! I’m adding one more to the roster. From the faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario comes Mark A. Rayner and his second novel. This is simultaneous release with the print publication. Here’s the blurb:

So hair is sprouting in unspeakable places and you can no longer carry a tune, but if you’re a surrealistic artiste with an addiction to Freudian mythology and guilt-free sex, turning into a monkey has its upsides.

Nick Motbot may be evolving as a novelist, but his friends aren’t too sure about his DNA — at least, not since Gargantuan Enterprises started experimenting with it. And once they figure out what’s happening to him, they decide to set things right. MARVELLOUS HAIRY is a satirical novel about a group of friends sticking it to the man the only way they know how, with equal parts grain alcohol and applied Chaos Theory.

Part literary fun-ride, part fabulist satire, and part slapstick comedy, MARVELLOUS HAIRY is about the power of friendship and love, the evils of power, and the dangers of letting corrupt CEOs run our world.

And here’s the podcast feed:

http://markarayner.com/feed/podcast/

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

SFFaudio Online Audio

Mark F. Smith, of Simpsonville, South Carolina, is the sole narrator of the latest LibriVox gothic novel. It’s author, Thomas Love Peacock, was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s and an employee of the East India Company. Writes Mark F. Smith:

“Peacock wrote Nightmare Abbey as a satire, and he has folded in allusions to or quotations from literally dozens of other works [the details of which are HERE]. He makes use of many long, impressive-sounding words (some of which he very possibly made up!). Ignore these and his occasional Latin phrase, treat the rest as a farce, and you’re on track for a fun listen!”

Nightmare Abbey
By Thomas Love Peacock; Read by Mark F. Smith
15 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 26, 2009
Deep in the fens of the British coast sits the gloomy mansion that goes by the name Nightmare Abbey. It is inhabited by persons of very low opinion of the human race, and in fact they pride themselves in the depths of their detestation. Others of its denizens believe the ultimate exercise and product of the human mind ought to be chaos. Now let the young master of the house get snared by the wiles of a beautiful young lady. And for good measure, toss in another beautiful young lady. Now Scythrop (named in honor of an ancestor who became bored with life and hanged himself) is about to find that two such make too much of a good thing!

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/nightmare-abbey-by-thomas-love-peacock.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Mister Ron’s Basement: A Journey To The Sun & The Ghost Exstinguisher

SFFaudio Online Audio

Mister Ron, from Mister Ron’s Basement Podcast has a couple of vintage spoofs of SF and Fantasy for us. Ron writes:

“it turns out that Stanley Huntley must have had a passion for spoofing Jules Verne. Just a few months after he had put A Trip to the South Pole in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1880, he went after Around the World in Eighty Days with the story A Journey to the Sun by Jules Verne, Jr. It features the English Baronet Sir Fillemup Frog, who bets his friends that he can climb up to the Sun. It’s a silly, but fun story.”

A Journey to the Sun
By Jules Verne, Jr. (aka Stanley Huntley); Read by Mister Ron
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Mister Ron’s Basement
Podcast: November 17th 2008
Also up from the basement, from 1905, what may be the original ghost-busting story…

The Ghost-Extinguisher
By Gelett Burgess; Read by Mister Ron
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Mister Ron’s Basement
Podcast: October 2008
A scientist discovers perfects the Japanese technique for disabling ghosts and putting them in jars.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Orson Scott Card Selects #6 – Sirens Of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

SFFaudio Online Audio

Orson Scott Card’s October essay is available over on Audible.com. His subject this month is Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Sirens Of Titan!

“The job that science fiction is supposed to make us rethink reality, make us live in a different universe”

You can check it out on the site itself, or simply listen direct |MP3|. Sirens Of Titan is literary fiction using SF set-dressing – Card promises we’ll love it, even when we hate it.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

SFFaudio Review

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court
By Mark Twain; Read by Steve Anderson
45 Zipped MP3 files or Podcast – 13 Hours 43 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Librivox.org
Publshed: 2006
Themes: / Fantasy / Time Travel / Satire /

“This is the first book I recorded for LibriVox. As is the first recording, it is a bit rough in places, but I am happy with it, it is certainly enjoyable listening, if you are not me; and you are not. The Yankee is a long time favorite of mine, though some might be surprised to know that. I encourage you to download and listen, it’s free. Give copies to your friends.” – Narrator, Steve Anderson

In the opening chapters of A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain magically transports the titular Yankee, Hank Morgan, into the mythical world of King Arthur and sets him up to be burned at the stake, then lets Hank weasel his way out with his modern knowledge. The plot is nothing more than a constant rehash of this same type of set-up and escape, but the character is what is most memorable about the book. Twain has a talent for making his characters simultaneously over-the-top and real, creating a person both exasperating and fascinating. Hank, as “The Boss”, is constantly making grand plans and trying to convince his medieval compatriots to adopt a late 19th century lifestyle.

Apart from the unforgettable characters, the other hallmark of Twain’s works is his misanthropy. Toward the end, the sarcasm becomes a bit too harsh to be enjoyable as Twain’s love for persons individually begins to be outweighed by his distaste for people in general. Before this vitriol starts to take effect, though, Twain gently but effectively ridicules organized religion, politics, advertising, personal hygiene, war, and, of course, the Arthurian legend. It helps if you have tried to read (and, perhaps, failed to finish) Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, but anyone familiar with chivalrous tales of knights in shining armor is bound to get the joke.

Librivox volunteer Steve Anderson’s reading is full of enthusiasm. He lends just the right amount of sarcasm to his telling and makes Hank’s story come alive with wit. Anderson doesn’t “do voices” for other characters very often, which since the story is told as a 1st person narrative, is just fine. There’s a bit of background hum and the louder tones are cut off, giving the voice a tinny character at times. The sound quality, however, should not distract most people from Twain’s excellent story or the reader’s infectious love of the book.

Here is the podcast feed for the audiobook:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court-by-mark-twain.xml

Posted by Listener of the Free Listens blog