Tag: science fiction

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

1900 SF tale audiobooked :The Moon Metal by Garret P. Serviss

SFFaudio Online Audio

Garret P. Serviss‘ first audiobook has just been posted to LibriVox. Serviss was a popularizer of astronomy and late 19th and early 20th century SF author. His writing is stiff and strangely formal. Still, you may find yourself reminded of Heinlein here and there while listening. The audiobook, completely narrated by the admirable Betsie Bush is 100% free and available for download by several methods. Get a Zipped Folder full of MP3s, each chapter singly in MP3 or OGG Vorbis formats or grab the podcast version.

LibriVox audiobook - The Moon Metal by Garret P. ServissThe Moon Metal
By Garret P. Serviss; Read by Betsie Bush
14 zipped MP3 Files or podcast – 2 Hours 38 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: July 31st 2007
The discovery of a vast quantity of gold in Antarctica undermines the world’s economy. This leads to a need for a new precious metal standard – – enter a mysterious scientist, his proposal, and new invention.

You can get the entire novel in podcast form, via this handy url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/moon-metal-by-garrett-p-serviss.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

2nd audiobook version of Andre Norton’s Star Hunter available

SFFaudio Online Audio

This may be a first, at least for a relatively modern Science Fiction novel – there are now TWO unabridged single voiced narrations of Andre Norton’s public domain novel Star Hunter. Both are available for free download. The first one, which we told you about earlier this year was read and archived by Maureen O’Brien of the Maria Lectrix Podcast. That version is available through the Internet Archive. Now, LibriVox narrator Leonie Rose has completed a second version, available for download in a zipped bundle or by podcast feed. And here it is…

Science Fiction Audiobook - Star Hunter by Andre NortonStar Hunter
By Andre Norton; Read by Leonie Rose
13 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – 3 Hours 33 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: Aug. 5th 2007
Somewhere on the jungle world of Jumala hid a man whose mind had been reconditioned with another’s brain pattern. There was a fabulous reward out for him. And so began another-worldly game of hide and seek. Between a man who did not know his own powers and an interstellar safari that sought something no man had a right to find.

You can subscribe to the podcast for this novel with this feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/star-hunter-by-andre-norton.xml

Now the big question – which version is the better narrated?

posted by Jesse Willis