Episode #34 |MP3| of the Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas podcast is all about Larry Niven’s RINGWORLD! David, Brian and Summer discuss the Hugo and Nebula Award winning 1970 novel. The talk also ranges out into the spinoff Man-Kzin Wars novels, and the newest novel set in Known Space, Fleet of Worlds. Subscribe to the podcast with this feed:
http://www.kickassmysticninjas.com/shows/feed/
Posted by Jesse Willis
A substantial coup for Audible.com (and the iTunes Audiobook Store) this Hugo nominated and very popular novel is exclusively available as a download.
Old Man’s War
By John Scalzi; Read by William Dufris
Audible Download – Approx. 10 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: macmillan audio / audible.com
Published: October 2007
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First, he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce – and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So, we fight, to defend Earth and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea of what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine. And what he will become is far stranger.
The Orange Box is a bundle of Half-Life 2 games featuring an innovative new first person Science Fiction puzzle adventure game called Portal. I’ve just finished playing it. It’s absolutely wonderful, but just as wonderful is the closing theme song, written by the skullcrushingly genius Jonathan Coulton. Have a listen to “Still Alive” after completing the game, and then download the |MP3| of it.
Posted by Jesse Willis
New titles from Brilliance and Blackstone Audiobooks.
A Lick of Frost
By Laurell K. Hamilton; Read by Laural Merlington
8 CDs -9 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audiobooks
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781423340393
I am Meredith Gentry, princess and heir apparent to the throne in the realm of faerie, onetime private investigator in the mortal world. To be crowned queen, I must first continue the royal bloodline and give birth to an heir of my own. If I fail, my aunt, Queen Andais, will be free to do what she most desires: install her twisted son, Cel, as monarch…and kill me.
Dark Lord: Book One of the Falconfar Saga
By Ed Greenwood; Read by Christopher Lane
11 CDs – 14 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781423348917
When he mysteriously finds himself drawn into a world of his own devising, writer Rod Everlar is confronted by a shocking truth – he has lost control of his creation to a brooding cabal of evil. In order to save his creation – and himself – he must seize control of Falconfar and halt the spread of corruption before it’s too late.Dark Lord is the first epic installment in The Falconfar Saga from bestselling author Ed Greenwood.
Berserker Fury
By Fred Saberhagen; Read by Paul Michael Garcia
10 CDs – 12.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433207525
Before George Lucas’s Death Star, before Star Trek’s Doomsday Machine, came the Berserkers, intelligent, space-faring killing machines whose sole purpose is to destroy all life. The Berserkers have developed a new trick: Berserker units that can pass for human-created androids. They’re gambling on the advantage this gives them and massing for an all-out attack on human-held space.
But the humans have developed a trick of their own. They’ve cracked the Berserkers’ basic codes and know what their battle plans are. Both sides are betting everything they have. For one of them, it will be the beginning of the end.
The Sharing Knife; Vol. 2, Legacy
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Bernadette Dunne
11 CD, 13 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433207792
Here is volume two of this gripping adventure-romance filled with heroic deeds and wondrous magic. Fawn Bluefield, the clever young farmer girl, and Dag Redwing Hickory, the seasoned Lakewalker soldier-sorcerer, have been married all of two hours when they depart her family’s farm for Dag’s home on Hickory Lake Camp. But their arrival is met with prejudice and suspicion, setting many in the camp against them and threatening permanent exile for Dag.
Then Dag is called away by an unexpected and vicious malice attack on a neighboring hinterland, threatening Lakewalkers and farmers both. What his patrol discovers there will not only change Dag and his new bride but will call into question the uneasy relationship between their peoples and may even offer hope of a less divided future.
Here are a few reasons to buy stock in Random House Audio this winter!
Selections From Dreamsongs: Volume II
By George R.R. Martin; Read by various
14 CDs -17 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 11/27/2007 |AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW @ audible.com|
ISBN: 9780739357149
Included in VOLUME II are acclaimed stories such as Sandkings, which won both the Nebula® and Hugo awards, and the Bram Stoker Award–winning The Pear-Shaped Man. Featuring extensive author commentary, DREAMSONGS, VOLUME II, is an invaluable chronicle of a writer at the height of his creativity—and an unforgettable listening experience for fans old and new.
Selections From Dreamsongs: Volume III
By George R.R. Martin; Read by various
17 CDs – 20 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 11/27/2007 |AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW @ audible.com|
ISBN: 9780739357163
Included in Volume III are acclaimed stories such as the World Fantasy Award winner “The Skin Trade” as well as the first novella in the Ice and Fire universe, “The Hedge Knight,” plus two never-before-published screenplays. Featuring extensive author commentary, Dreamsongs, Volume III, is an invaluable chronicle of a writer at the height of his creativity–and an unforgettable listening experience for fans old and new.
The Darkest Evening Of The Year
By Dean Koontz; Read by Kirsten Kairos
8 CDs – 9 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 11/27/2007
ISBN: 9780739332962
Amy Redwing’s risk-taking on behalf of desperate dogs is legendary. With money she inherited from a source she will never discuss, she founded and runs a group that rescues abandoned or abused golden retrievers. She has a treasury of astonishing rescue stories — and she’ll be broke by the time she’s forty if she carries on funding the work. Is it this reckless devotion to her work that prevents her making a commitment to the love of her life, Brian McCarthy? It seems so when a particularly thrilling and bizarre rescue brings Nickie into her care. Nickie is instantly recognized as pack leader by Amy’s own two dogs, and her bond with Amy is like no other dog’s.
Blade Runner (AKA Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?)
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Scott Brick
8 CDs – 9 Hours 30 Mins. [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 11/27/2007
ISBN: 9780739342756
The future. The people who remain on Earth live in cluttered cities where radiation poisoning causes illness and gene damage. All animals are endangered. Rick Deckard owned a sheep once, it died, now an electric replica allows him to maintain the illusion of animal ownership – something important in his religion.
Star Wars: Legacy Of The Force – Fury
By Aaron Allston; Read by Marc Thompson
5 CDs – 6 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 11/27/2007
ISBN: 9780739324004
The seventh book in the “Legacy of the Force” series.
Posted by Jesse Willis
A “few” short hidden gems from Librivox.org. Among their short story collections, now up to number nineteen, are some very good short Fantasy, SF, and Horror stories. These stories run from two and a half minutes to nearly fifty two minutes long. All are good for a short listen between audiobooks.
Bread Overhead
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Cori Samuel
1 |MP3| – Approx. 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 25th 2007
The Staff of Life suddenly and disconcertingly sprouted wings — and mankind had to eat crow!
The Masque of the Red Death
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Juan Carlos Bagnell
1 |MP3| – 16 Minutes
Death comes to visit a prince who is trying to avoid a plague.
Themes: / Horror /
Dracula’s Guest
By Bram Stoker; Read by Dimitri Fotopoulos
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
A prequel to Dracula.
Themes: / Horror /
Ligeia
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 47 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
A haunting tale of lost love.
Themes: / Horror /
The Damned Thing
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Greg Elmensdorp
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
It shall not drive me away. No, this is my house, my land. God hates a coward….
Themes: / Horror /
Facts Concerning The Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
By H. P. Lovecraft; Read by Smokestack Jones
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
A tale of unusual genealogy.
The Cats of Ulthar
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Cow Nose the 50 Pound Cat
1 |MP3| – Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Feline revenge.
Themes: / Horror / Cats /
Charon
By Lord Dunsany; Read by Steven Collins
1 |MP3| – 2 Minutes 30 Seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Fantasy /
The ferryman Charon’s last duty.
The Music of Erich Zann
1 |MP3| Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Smokestack Jones
A college student wonders about the strange music played by an old man.
Themes: / Horror / Music /
In the Year 2889
By Jules Verne; Read by Esther
1 |MP3| – Approx 38 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Verne’s story about life in America a thousand years in the future.
Themes: / Science Fiction /
Crossroads of Destiny
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Trask
1 |MP3| – Approx. 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Science Fiction /
Parallel universes and a television show.
The Gifts of Asti
By Andre Norton; Read by Mark Nelson
1 |MP3| Approx. 41 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Fantasy /
Varta, the last priestess of Asti, lives alone with Lur, a telepath of the lizardfolk, in Asti’s isolated mountain retreat. Decadent Memphir has long since drifted away from the austere paths of Asti, and now the barbarians of Klem are sacking the city, and the smoke of its burning drifts up to the temple.
The Street That Wasn’t There
By Clifford D. Simak and Carl Richard Jacobi; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Science Fiction /
Classic pulp action.
Read by Peter Yearsley
The Hoard of the Gibbelins
By Lord Dunsany; Read by Mark F. Smith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Horror /
The Gibbelins eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man.
A World Is Born
By Leigh Brackett; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 52 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
The first ripples of blue fire touched Dio’s men. Bolts of it fastened on gun-butts, and knuckles. Men screamed and fell.
Themes: / Science Fiction /
Posted by Dave Tackett