Review of Sci Phi: The Journal of Science Fiction In Philosophy – January 2008 (Volume 1 Issue 1)

SFFaudio Review

Sci Phi: The Journal of Science Fiction In Philosophy - January 2008 (Volume 1 Issue 1)Sci Phi: The Journal of Science Fiction In Philosophy – January 2008 (Volume 1 Issue 1)
Edited by Jason Rennie; Read by various
11 MP3s and PDF – Approx. 3.5 Hours or 33,000 Words [PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL]
Publisher: Sci Phi Productions
Published: January 2008
Themes: / Philosophy / Science Fiction / Religion / Fantasy / Cloning / Time /

“Sci Phi is a new popular level journal aimed at readers who like science fiction but want to think about its implications a little more. Each issue of Sci Phi will contain short stories and articles. The short stories will tend to have an interesting idea underlying them and the articles will look at various philosophical ideas through the lens of science fiction. Each issue comes in various ebook formats as well as all of the stories and articles in mp3 format for your listening pleasure. Each issue costs $7, and all of the contributors are paid on a royalty basis, with about 80% of the issue price being paid directly to contributors. Additionally after one year each issue of the journal will be released under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial license 3.0.”

The Journal of Science Fiction In Philosophy is a spin-off from the Sci-Phi Show podcast. The short introductory editorial, written and read by the journal’s editor Jason Rennie, defines what the journal will be about using examples from film and television – but despite these examples the stated focus is on making the journal more focused on the literary side of Science Fiction.

Next up, “What Is Sci-Phi” (introductory article) by Jason Rennie; read by TD-0013, introduces the philosophical content of modern Science Fiction. The stories are followed by “questions for reflection” which are a series of questions designed to provoke the philosophical spirit in the listener.

“Irwin Goes To Hell” by Jason Pomerantz is the first piece of fiction in the journal; it is a humorous and surrealistic tale of a hapless suitor determined to break all ten of the Ten Commandments. But the joke runs a little long with so many commandments to break and so many trips to hell (and heaven).

Geoffrey Maloney‘s “The Oracle In The Red Limousine,” read by Nathan Lowell, the next short story, offers a small reflection on the idea predestination and a large handful of humor.

“Requiem for a Harlequin: Two Perspectives on Time, and a Celebration of Kairos, in Three Stories by Harlan Ellison” by Michael Spence is a commentary on what he sees as a previously unnoticed theme in Harlan Ellison stories. Warning, pre-reading of the three Ellison tales is definitely required.

“You Pretty Thing” by Lee Battersby (and read by Rick Stringer) is short, unmemorable, fleeting. This, despite having some weighty ideas (life after death, cloning, consciousness-downloading).

“Requiem for a Silent Planet” by Stephen Dedman, read by TD-0013, stands out (with lines like “I’m loaded for pope.”. This one is an intriguing listen right up until its very abrupt end. This story feels terribly unfinished – which is a real shame.

Likewise, the serialized piece “The Big Questions” by Stephan Vladimir Bugaj and Ben Goertzel, read by Jeffrey Kafer, starts with a moon-smashing bang. It is a snappy first person tale of a head in the clouds solipsist asking many of the traditional questions of metaphysics – many questions, few answers – perhaps some will come in future issues of the journal.

“A First Look at Lookism” is an article with an argument at its center. The subject of which is an exploration of the “morally inappropriate discrimination,” phenomenon of visual discrimination. The author, Ryan Nichols is an assistant professor. He examines the moral status of lookism with special reference to a piece of literary science fiction (namely Ted Chiang’s Liking What You See: A Documentary). Nichols surveys the terrain and then mulls over an argument that he thinks may show precisely why lookism is so wrong. He’s thorough and the article runs about 25 minutes.

Next, “The Losting Corridor” by Matt Wallace, read by Drew Beatty, offers a dreamy entrance into a Twilight Zone-like world. A hardboiled detective on the trail of a shooter winds up in a Platonic blind-alley that he may never escape from. The tale is gritty and well written, but ultimately it is a shallow mirror pointed at a past that never was.

Finally, the issue is capped by “The Epilogue” which is, despite its title, actually a fiction piece. It’s an eight minute tale, by The Rev-Up Review‘s Paul S. Jenkins. A cryptic worldwide broadcast by an anonymous grey-bearded sky guy proves once and for all that the atheists were wrong, and will be right. Well written, but more of an exercise in storytelling than a story.

Magazines by their nature are extremely hard to review (their many small components needing to be examined in detail). There is something in the essential character of magazine reading that is always more ephemeral than novels or short stories alone. That said, after reading over what I’ve written above, it appears I have been more damning than praising – had I been merely a casual reader looking for something to listen to I bet I’d have been far less so. So let me clarify, for the first issue of a magazine the Sci Phi: The Journal of Science Fiction In Philosophy – January 2008 is extremely well put together. It doesn’t have any real dead weight, and I eagerly look forward to listening to future issues.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Philip K. Dick’s We Can Remember It For You Wholesale on BBC7

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7Dick. You know you want it. Indeed, a life without Philip K. Dick is hardly worth imagining! Thankfully the folks at BBC7 and The 7th Dimension agree and so they are re-running what I consider to be one of the best short stories ever written. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale posits a future world of memory implants and false vacations. Doug Quail, the shmendrik-hero of the tale, wants to visit the planet Mars. Unfortunately his shrewish wife vetos the idea whenever he mentions it. That all changes though when, after a mishap at a virtual travel agency, he discovers that he’s already been there! What’s real? What’s not? Dick explores these Cartesian questions better than any other writer (including Descartes himself) have a listen, you won’t be sorry…

BBC Broadcast - We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. DickWe Can Remember It For You Wholesale
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Hootkins
2 Parts 2 Broadcasts – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday March 16 & 23 @ 6.30pm & 12.30am (UK time)
This novelette was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction‘s in April 1966 issue and first broadcast on BBC 7 in September 2003. The reader is William Hootkins (aka “Red Six” from the original Star Wars).

Listeners unable to tune in can use the “Listen Again” service for a week after each broadcast.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum podcasting their novella True Names

SFFaudio Online Audio

Cory Doctorow’s Craphound PodcastCory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum are podcasting a new novella that they co-wrote. It will appear in print in the forthcoming anthology, Fast Forward 2. It’s an homage to Vernor Vinge’s famous story of the same name… Rosenbaum sez:

“This story came out of a conversation at the Hugo Loser’s party at Worldcon 2002 — the part about ‘the second law of thermodynamics as the ultimate party-spoiler in a transhuman utopia of self-spawning consciousness’; it acquired shades of Jane Austen, Voltaire, megamillion year ideological warfare, gender theory, coming-of-age story, and musical theater along the way.

We’ve pretty much been working on it for the past six years. It’s been a delight to work on, and it’s surprisingly exciting to have it done and ready for readers — or first, in this case, listeners.

See, Cory, inexhaustible font of energy that he is (for those who don’t know Cory and who think of me as energetic, talkative, and full of enthusiasm for various projects — Cory is me cubed; he makes me look like a laconic hermit), has declared that we are podcasting it.

And so we are! I just have to hunt down a decent microphone so I can record the next installment….”

Science Fiction Novella - True Names by Cory Doctorow and Benjamin RosenbaumTrue Names
By Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum; Read by Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum
Podcast – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Cory Doctorow’s Craphound
Podcast: March 2008 –
“Involves the galactic wars between vast, post-Singularity intelligences that are competing to corner the universe’s supply of computation before the heat-death of the universe.”

Subscribe to the podcast feed here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Canadia: 2056 – Season One

SFFaudio Review

CBC Radio - Canadia 2056Canadia: 2056: Season 1
By Matt Watts; Perfomed by a full cast
5 CDs – Approx. 5 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: CBC Audio
Published: January 21, 2008
Product ID: ERART00217
Themes: / Science Fiction / Humor / Canada / War / Toilets / Audio Drama / CBC /

This entertaining sci-fi comedy series is written by one of Canada’s best-loved comedy writers, Matt Watts. The United States has launched an armada to destroy an alien threat. Canada sends the nation’s only publicly-funded spacecraft, The Canadia – a ship with a single purpose – to plunge the Americans’ toilets.

There are lots of audio dramas out here on the internet, but if you want to hear a professional piece of work that will make you laugh out loud, you should give Canadia 2056 300 minutes of your time. Matt Watts and the entire cast and crew of Canadia 2056 have created something special. The show is an absolute gem.

The Canadia of the series is a Canadian spaceship that has been sent to war with a United States fleet, which in turn has been sent to perform a pre-emptive strike on a planet called Ipampilash. Midshipman Max Anderson is the only American member of the crew, and his relations with all of the Canadians is central to the comedy of the show. I’m not a Canadian, so I’m certain that I’m missing the deeper meaning of some of the jokes, but the scripts are crafted and performed in such a way that I really didn’t feel I was missing out.

An example of this occurs in the very first episode. The captain of the Canadia (hilariously performed by Paul O’Sullivan) is choosing a voice for the computer. He goes through a few, then settles on a gravelly female voice. I found the scene funny without knowing what I was told later – the voice selected was Shauna MacDonald, who is known as the Promo Girl in Canada. Apparently, her voice was heard all the time on CBC, and the debate between the folks that wanted her off the air and the folks who wanted her to stay made her famous. (I’d have wanted her to stay, by the way. I adore her voice.)

Max Anderson (played by series writer Matt Watts) makes an interesting representative of the United States. He’s cowardly, geeky, selfish, and his mother is an admiral in the US fleet. He feels his way around the crew, and finds his place among them eventually. Holly Lewis was captivating as Amanda Lewis, the engineer that Max spends the most time with. There’s a lot of tension between the two, and it’s wonderfully played.

I could sit here and start listing my favorite moments, but it’s suffice to say that I loved these shows enough that I listened more than once. There’s a short list of audio drama that’s really excellent, and even a shorter list of comedic audio drama that’s really excellent. Canadia 2056: Season One is one of those, and I urge you to give it a listen. It’s cruckin’ fanatastic!

Season Two of Canadia: 2056 starts next week on CBC Radio! It looks like the first airing will be at 11:00pm, Wednesday, March 19th. Click here to keep your eye on the CBC Radio schedule.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

StarShipSofa and the BSFA

SFFaudio Online Audio

Star Ship SofaStarShipSofa and the BSFA are now hitting the home stretch with Day Four. Today the Sofa brings you Ted Chiang’s story The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate. This was first published in September’s F&SF 2007.

O MIGHTY CALIPH AND Commander of the Faithful, I am humbled to be in the splendor of your presence; a man can hope for no greater blessing as long as he lives. The story I have to tell is truly a strange one, and were the entirety to be tattooed at the corner of one’s eye, the marvel of its presentation would not exceed that of the events recounted, for it is a warning to those who would be warned and a lesson to those who would learn.

So that leaves only one story to go. Be sure not to miss it tomorrow, then pop over to StarShipSofa Forums and cast your vote on which one you think will win the BSFA Best Short Story 2007.

Join the StarShipSofa today and subscribe free via iTunes or direct from the StarShipSofa website and collect all five short stories that are up for the award.

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:www.starshipsofa.com/rss

Posted by Tony C. Smith

Broken Sea does music: Electric Grasshopper – Soundtrack to an Alien Invasion

SFFaudio Online Audio

Electric Grasshopper - Soundtrack to an Alien InvasionElectric Grasshopper – Soundtrack to an Alien Invasion is an unusual project from the ever inventive folks at Broken Sea Audio Productions. Basically, it’s a “3 track Sci-Fi based music EP, that combines music with audio drama.” Producer Stevie K. Farnaby sez of it “I basically give the listener the seed of an idea, and they use their imagination to fill in the blanks.” The whole program can be downloaded at Broken Sea’s Electric Grasshopper subsite. Here’s the official description:

A unique and innovative form of story-telling, that combines elements of music and drama, to create an unnerving, disturbing tale of alien invasion, giant man-eating bugs, and hopelessness. Pure unadulterated atmospheric mayhem ensues…

Posted by Jesse Willis