Tag: science fiction

Norman Spinrad Audio Drama COMPLETED and DOWNLOADABLE

SFFaudio Update

Norman Spinrad's Voice OverBroken Sea Audio ProductionsTwo months ago we told you about an unproduced Norman Spinrad, audio drama that was written for Omni magazine, and that was languishing unrecorded. Broken Sea contacted Spinrad and secured the okay for go-ahead. Mark Kalita and the good folks at Broken Sea Audio Productions have now COMPLETED it. Reportedly, Spinrad has given the dramatization a thumb’s up and it is available for listening…

Voice Over by Norman SpinradVoice Over
By Norman Spinrad; Featuring a full cast
1 |MP3| – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Broken Sea
Published: August 2007
Talk radio shows are always a source of interesting characters, sometimes originating from the most unexpected places. But amiable, unflappable talk show host Bobby Edwards gets more than he bargains for when his airwaves are suddenly hijacked by a strange cast of callers from beyond the stars.

Featuring the vocal talents of:

Mark Kalita as Bobby Edwards
Elie Hirschman as: The Announcer, Debbie, Caller #3, Electronic Voice, Daffy Duck, JFK, Groucho Marx & Ma Bell
Chip Joel as: Mr. Spock, Porky Pig, Rod Serling, Orson Welles & Bert Parks
Doug Manllen as: Caller #2 & The Director

Directed by Mark Kalita
Post-production by Paul Mannering
Music by Scott Shannon – podsafeaudio.com

posted by Jesse Willis

2 John Kessel Audiobooks FREE on his website

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s a sweet find! John Kessel who’s story of A Clean Escape premiered on the new Masters Of Science Fiction anthology TV series a couple of Saturdays ago has made the original tale available to be heard as a regular audiobook reading on his website. Kessel, with help from friend, and fellow SF writer, James Patrick Kelly, has recorded his most adapted story and posted it for our listening pleasure. It was first published in 1985 in the pages of Asimov’s Science Fiction. Also available from Kessel is his short story, Some Like It Cold, which first appeared a 1994 issue of Omni. Grab the details for each below…

A Clean EscapeA Clean Escape
By John Kessel; Read by John Kessel
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: John Kessel’s website
Published: August 2007
A psychiatrist deals with a patient who seems to have lost his memory of the last twenty-four years. Or has he?

A Clean EscapeSome Like It Cold
By John Kessel; Read by John Kessel
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: John Kessel’s website
Published: August 2007
A time traveling talent scout from the future visits 1962 in search of his next recruit. But is she ready to come?

posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Where’s My Jetpack? by Daniel H. Wilson

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Audiobooks - Where's My Jetpack? by Daniel H. Wilson, PhDWhere’s My Jetpack?: A Guide To The Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived
By Daniel H. Wilson, PhD; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
1 MP3-CD – 3.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Sample: Click here
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 078617160X
Themes: / Science Fiction / Non-fiction / Technology / Teleportation /

The future is now. And we are not impressed. The future was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Our beloved scientist may be building the future, but some key pieces are missing. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? We can’t wait another minute for the future to arrive. The time has come to hold the Golden Age of science fiction accountable for its fantastic promises.

Finally, someone has come to take the Golden Age of science fiction to task for all that crap they told us would happen. Who is the hero that’s going to demand our cool stuff? None other than Daniel H. Wilson, PhD, that’s who. That’s right. The guy who saved us from all those robots in his previous book – How to Survive a Robot Uprising. (SFFaudio Review here – we’re on the ball with all this surviving stuff.)

Just like in How to Survive a Robot Uprising, Wilson takes real science facts and gives them to us in a way that will make you laugh out loud. For example, what about those jetpacks we were promised? (Wilson calls the jetpack the “Holy Grail of classic science fiction technology.”) In this book, we find out that Wendell Moore finished the Bell Rocket Belt in 1961. It was basically a rocket mounted to a backpack. He tested it himself. Yes, he strapped a rocket to his belt, and turned it on. We learn exactly how it worked, hydrogen peroxide fuel and all. It produced 300 lbs of thrust – just enough to get a grown man off the ground. The downside? It could only hold 30 seconds worth of fuel. Shockingly, none of the rocket pack pilots died. Wilson then laments the lack of serious innovation in the rocket pack industry since then. “If Wendell Moore could see the state of jetpacks today,” says Wilson, “he would be doing barrel rolls in his grave.”

Jetpacks are just the tip of the rocket. Orbital hotels, robot servants, space elevators, teleportation – it’s all in there.

Stefan Rudnicki delivers another quality narration. One of Wilson’s goals with both of his books was to take the material so seriously that absurdity shows through. Rudnicki understood this, and provided narration to match. Funny stuff.

To hear from the author himself about Where’s My Jetpack?, How to Survive a Robot Uprising, robotics in general, and future projects, check out his interview on the Talking Robots podcast, July 5, 2007 edition. Here’s the direct link to the MP3.

posted by Scott D. Danielson

BBC 7 re-airs Soldier by Harlan Ellison

Online Audio

BBC 7's The 7th DimensionBBC7’s the 7th Dimension is re-airing a classic and relatively famous SF story from Harlan Ellison over the next two Sundays. Soldier, originally published in 1957 under the title Soldier Of The Future this is a time travel tale. Not as well known is that Ellison was drafted into the U.S. Army that same year and was trained as an Army Ranger. After leaving the military Ellison later adapted his story for a 1964 episode of the original The Outer Limits, and still later it was adapted, in a completely unauthorized but brilliant 1984 SF film, The Terminator.

Understand by Ted ChiangSoldier
By Harlan Ellison; Read by John Sharian
2 half-hour segments – Approx. 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Sunday at 6:30pm and 12:30am U.K. Time
“Set a thousand years into the future, Earth has become a nightmare of high-tech battlefields where few survive. From this world, soldier Qarlo is accidentally teleported back to the U.S. city streets of 1964 – to warn the human race of its capacity for self-destruction.”

Both parts will be available via the Listen Again service for six days after each broadcast.

posted by Jesse Willis

AUDIBLE Sponsored Conversation with Orson Scott Card, Stefan Rudnicki and Ben Bova

Online Audio

Audible.comAudible.com has posted a new FREE audio interview/conversation between audiobook narrator Stefan Rudnicki and SF authors Orson Scott Card and Ben Bova. The talk is predominately about the role and value of audiobooks in the greater reading environment. Also covered is Card’s love of audiobooks (he’s a big big fan), Bova’s role in the creation of the Ender franchise and place of religion is science and Science Fiction. You can get the audio for it right HERE (but of course you’ll need to have an audible account).

Audible also tells us that: “Bova’s new book, The Aftermath (Book Four of The Asteroid Wars), is now available in audio at Audible.” That’s one of the many titles produced by Rudnicki for Audio Renaissance. OSC’s next “Ender” novel, A War of Gifts, will be released through Audio Renaissance and Audble October 30th 2007.

posted by Jesse Willis