LibriVox release of Jules Verne’s The Fur Country

SFFaudio Online Audio

More happy CANADA DAY releases! Completed a full month ahead of schedule, The Fur Country is a lenghty unabridged novel from LibriVox and public domain audiobook narrator extraordinaire Esther (AKA Starlite). Set at “Seventy Degrees North Latitude” in Canada’s far north, this is one of Jules Verne’s least known novels. The perfect choice for a July 1st release!

The Fur Country by Jules VerneThe Fur Country
By Jules Verne; Read by Esther
47 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 13.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: July 1st 2007
“In 1859, officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company are given the mission to found a fort at 70 degrees north of the polar circle. At some point, an earthquake occurs, and from then on, laws of physics seem altered (a total eclipse happens to be only partial; tides are not perceived anymore). They eventually realise that they are not where they are supposed to be.”

Get the entire novel in podcast form via this feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-fur-country-by-jules-verne.xml

Final episode of Canadia: 2056 airs today on CBC Radio One

SFFaudio OnlineAudio

Canadia 2056The concluding episode of Canadia: 2056 airs today on all CBC Radio One stations across Canada. Tune in and listen @ 11:30am or listen using the Streaming Radio Map. And, just one day prior to the conclusion Canadia: 2056 earned an “honorable mention” for the 2007 Mark Time Awards.

Here’s the official CBC Radio hotsheet description for the final show:

“An illegal upload adversely affects the computer. The Canadia finally reaches the planet Ipampilash, but Faverau and Pickens can’t agree on what to do. Anderson and Lewis take matters into their own hands when the captain is unable to answer the call of duty. Faverau comes across a Canadian on board the USS Pickens and brings them back to the Canadia. Canadia 2056, this morning at 11:30 (noon NT) on CBC Radio One.”

What will the ultimate fate of Canadia: 2056 be? We’ve got no idea. But Matt Watts has posted a bit of info to his site. Matt sez:

“Overall, I’m pretty happy with the quality of the writing. I think I managed to write a couple of great episodes (along with a couple of clunkers.) The two episodes that were co-written turned out great, and I’m glad I had Dave Tomlinson and Bryan Lee O’Malley to write them. I couldn’t have done it at all without Joe Mahoney as my story editor – Thanks, Joe. The cast and crew were fantastic to work with. The whole thing was a great ride, and I hope we get picked up for more. I left the story open ended and there’s nothing I’d like more than to do a second season.”

And he’s posted a pic of the 2056 cast and crew:

Canadia 2056 Cast and Crew

The series seems to have really struck a chord with listeners. One listener compared it with the original broadcast of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, and I think that’s a fair comparison, Matt Watts is not unlike a Canadian Douglas Adams.

I’ve personally received several emails requesting places where previous episodes can be downloaded. Unfortunately I’m not personally able to help you with these requests. But nothing is stopping you from trading files yourselves.

Other than that, for those who missed episodes, or would like to hear the show again all I can say is that the show may be re-run in years to come, or like the two previous CBC SF series by Matt Watts, they may be released on CD. We’ll let you know when and where you can get Canadia: 2056.

Mark Time/Ogle Winners Announced!

SFFaudio News

Presented by

The American Society For Science Fiction Audio
(ASFSFA)

The winners of the Mark Time/Ogle Awards have been officially announced! Boy it was difficult keeping my mouth shut for so long!

Mark Time Awards / Ogle Awards
Winners – 2007
Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Audio Production
http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com/MarkTime/MarkTime.html

Mark Time Award
SILVER

Through the Turnstiles
Produced by Sam A. Mowry
Written by Carole Dane
Willamette Radio Workshop
www.radiowork.com

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Canadia: 2056
Produced by Joe Mahoney
Written by Matt Watts
CBC Radio A & E
www.assortednonsense.com

Tears of the Tin God
Produced by Richard Sellers
Story by T. Ray Gordon
www.apexaudiotheatre.com

Ogle Award
GOLD

God of the Razor
Produced by Scott Hickey
Story by Joe R. Lansdale
The Grist Mill
www.amfmtheater.com
and
Dandelion Wine
Produced by Jerry Robbins, & Mark Vander Berg
Script by Ray Bradbury
The Colonial Radio Theatre On the Air
www.colonialradio.com

SILVER

HURF
Produced by Sam A. Mowry
Written by Craig Kenworthy
Willamette Radio Workshop
www.radiowork.com

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
In Science Fiction Audio

* Norman Corwin
* Ray Bradbury

A Gold and a Silver Mark Time Award, and a Gold and a Silver Ogle Award, will be awarded at CONvergence,, July 6-7-8 of 2007.

Zombie Astronaut collects BBCR4’s Chillers – Four Tales Of Terror

Online Audio

MP3 webzine - Zombie AstronautIn early 2002 a limited run series of chilling Science Fiction tales aired on BBC Radio 4. The series was entitled Chillers (or Chillers – Four Tales of Terror). The scripts were by Gold Sony award winning dramatist Mike Walker, the original stories were by top SF authors. Before today I’d recommended to everyone who’d listen, the first of these, Who Goes There?. It is the finest half-hour of Science Fiction Audio Drama I’ve ever experienced. But now the entire four episode series is available in the Zombie Astronaut‘s latest issue. I’m going to be savoring the rest thanks to ZA!

Chillers Four Tales Of TerrorChillers – Four Tales of Terror
Dramatized by Mike Walker; Performed by full casts
4 x 30 Minute Programs – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Jan. – Feb. 2002

“Who Goes There?”
Based on story by John W. Campbell; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Penned under the name Don A. Stuart, the novelette that this play was based on was first published in the August 1938 issue of Astounding Stories.
An alien being is found frozen in the ice of Antarctica. When it is thawed, it awakens, to become a threat to the small base camp. In fact, it’s a threat to all life on earth, as it can change shape and absorb the life and bodies of every living thing it comes in contact with.

“I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream”
Based on story by Harlan Ellison; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
The Hugo Award winning short story this play was based on first appeared in the March 1968 issue of Worlds Of If.
This is a tale of five people kept alive by AM, a computer that came alive, waged war and won against mankind. It’s hatred of mankind is so profound, that it kept these five alive only to torture them.

“Delta Sly Honey”
Based on story by Lucius Shepard; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
First appeared in a 1987 anthology entitled In the Field of Fire, which was a collection of SF and Fantasy stories dealing with Vietnam.
Taking place in the Vietnam War era, this is the story of a Southern country boy who exorcises his demons making late night broadcasts to phantom military units. Then, one answers.

“Corona”
Based on story by Samuel R. Delaney; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
First published in Fantasy And Science Fiction Magazine‘s October, 1967 issue.
This is the story of an injured man and a girl who seeks death to free her from the pain that comes from her telepathic ability. Their common bond is a pop musician who offers peace to both.

Andre Norton’s The Defiant Agents claimed for our SFFaudio Challenge

SFFaudio News

Meta SFFaudio - SFFaudio Contest - Make audiobook win an audiobookCindy Woods, a repertory player and producer for the long running Arbiter Chronicles, has written in to claim The Defiant Agents by Andre Norton. Yep, this is one of the titles in our SFFaudio ‘Make An Audiobook Challenge.’

Cindy is aiming to finish the recording by summer’s end, though as an already busy contributor and editor for the Prometheus Radio Theatre podcast it may take a bit longer.

While this novel fits into the variously titled, “Time Trader,” “Ross Murdock” and “Time War” series it is eminently readable on its own.

The novel’s premise posits a future “cold war” background in which the opposing Russian and U.S. governments use two of their subject peoples (Apache and Mongol) to colonize a distant planet. What starts off as two colonization programs soon escalates into an all-out proxy war. The Defiant Agents is a fun Science Fiction adventure tale from 1962. Here’s the Manybooks.net description:

Alien technology scavenged by U.S. and Russian scientists has started a race to colonize planets outside our solar system — and the U.S. scientists are losing! In a desperate move the American government decides to use a group of Apache volunteers in an experimental attempt to colonize a primitive planet, but before they can even begin their spaceship crashes on the planet Topaz…

And to help Cindy reach her Summer 2007 completion date here’s our inspirational art:Science Fiction Audiobook - The Defiant Agents by Andre Norton

Go Cindy! Go!

SFFaudio Challenge title: Star Surgeon by Alan E. Nourse COMPLETED

SFFaudio Online Audio

Meta SFFaudio - SFFaudio Contest - Make audiobook win an audiobookScott D. Farquhar from Prometheus Radio Theatre has written in with some exciting news. He tells me that his unabridged reading of Alan E. Nourse’s novel Star Surgeon has been completed! This is one of the titles from in our SFFaudio Challenge! Scott took slightly longer than he’d expected to, but it was well worth the wait, the extra and attention Scott put into it has really paid off. The 1959 novel is now a 2007 audiobook!

This is one of those rare novels that tells its story from the point of view of an alien. One of those novels that make you dig deeper. It is the kind of Science Fiction that makes you think harder about human attitudes and prejudices, to really look beyond the surficial.

Star Surgeon is the story of Dal Timgar, a medical student, the first alien to attend a universally prestigious earth medical school. If Dal is to become the first fully-fledged star surgeon, he must fight the prejudices of his superiors, and then the rigors of an interstellar emergency.

This novel is widely respected by readers who’ve read it, and many think it represents Alan Nourse at his very best. In writing it, Nourse is expressing a subject dear to his heart as he himself was a doctor.

LibriVox Science Fiction Audiobook - Star Surgeon by Alan E. NourseStar Surgeon
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Scott Farquhar
14 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – 5 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 2007
When Dal Timgar, of all in his medical class, was denied assignment to a general practice patrol ship going out from Hospital Earth to serve the medical needs of the Galactic Confederation, it seemed to him that his eight years of study in the great medical center of the galaxy had ended in failure. He had worked hard and stood at the head of his class, but Dal was different from his medical colleagues in one important way. Born on a planet of a distant star, he was the first son of an alien race to attempt to become a qualified physician of Hospital Earth. Dr. Thorvold Arnquist, a power in Earth’s medical council, is determined that Dal Timgar shall have an equal chance with his Earth-born classmates to prove his skill as a physician and to earn his rank as Star Surgeon. He succeeds in getting Dal assigned, under protest, to the patrol ship Lancet, where Dal is faced with the full responsibilities of a patrol physician as well as the hostility of some of his crewmates. As the Lancet responds to calls of all kinds on planets of distant and unknown star systems, Dal’s skill and judgment as a surgeon are tested to the utmost. But it is not until he is confronted with a dreadful decision, which he alone must make, that Dal faces the final test–a test that will determine once and for all whether he is ever to become a Star Surgeon.

Subscribe to the podcast feed via this URL:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/star-surgeon-by-alan-edward-nourse.xml

Scott also sez:

“FYI… I’m doing another edit of the recording to submit to Podiobooks.com. It will be mostly the same, but I’ve cleaned up some minor issues and I’m adding only a bit of effects in some places like filters for loudspeaker and radio dialogue and such. Nothing really fancy, but just a bit cleaner and slicker. If I get a little batch of donations through podiobooks I may just have to pick another one to read….!”

Way to go Scott! Your hear that everybody? As soon as Podiobooks gets a copy of the revised edition of Star Surgeon hit that donation button!