Sharon Miller and Steve Miller are authors surprised that audiobooks aren’t audio drama. Their reaction to hearing the audiobook version of one of their novels: “freaky” and “odd” and “with any voice tricks”! Yikes!
The rest of the interview is available HERE. |READ OUR REVIEW| of Local Custom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
[via the Buzzy Multimedia Blog]
Posted by Jesse Willis
The SFFaudio Podcast #007 is so lucky! We’re super hoop-jumping, in this deadly to DRM show – we’re unspooling fences and digging ditches – working around the work-arounds – so, the long and the short:
Scott: Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.
Jesse: No it isn’t.
Topics discussed include:
Golden Age Comic Book Stories, Argosy magazine covers, Pellucidar, At The Earth’s Core, Edgar Rice Burroughs, LibriVox, A Princess Of Mars, multiple narrators, Ender’s Game, Stephen King, The Dark Tower, Frank Muller, George Guidall, Criminal Minds, Peter Coyote, Isaac Asimov, The Foundation Trilogy, more new LibriVox titles, The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole, The Last Man, Mary Shelley, The Wood Beyond the World, William Morris, Cori Samuel, On The Beach, Nevil Shute, The 2nd SFFaudio Challenge, Julie D., A House-Boat On The Styx, John Kendrick Bangs, Mur Lafferty, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, public libraries, NetLibrary.net, Recorded Books, DRM, overdrive.com, Bill C-61, blank media and iPod levies, what makes DRM evil, Blackstone Audio‘s solution, MP3-CD players, the proper settings for blog RSS feeds, “people will never pay for something they can get for free”, donation models, the Liaden book model, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Only two more chapters are left to go before the latest Liaden Universe novel by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is entirely available as a podcast novel. I listened and reviewed the first novel in this series, it was released by Buzzy Multimedia. This is about the 12th novel in the series (it’s hard to tell exactly), but as the official website says:
Fledgling is a “side book.” A “side book” is a book that is coincidental to the main action of a series, which is expected to be of little interest, except to stalwart fans — and to the authors.
There are also plans to release the next novel (Saltation) as a podcast too. If you’re a Liaden Universe addict you probably already know about this, if you’re not, have a listen to a few chapters of this podcast – those who love it, REALLY LOVE IT!
Fledgling (a Liaden Universe novel)
By Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; Read by Sam Chupp
Podcast – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Fledgling Podcast
Podcast: January 2007 – ???? 2008
This is the story of Theo Waitley and how she came to have a “kind of complicated” problem to lay before the delm of Korval.
You can subscribe to the podcast via this feed:
http://fledgling.fireheartfoundry.com/?feed=podcast
[Thanks Esther!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Local Custom
By Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; Read by Michael Shanks
1 MP3-CD or 8 CDs – Approx. 10.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Buzzy Multimedia
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0979074916 (MP3-CD); 096572557X (CDs)
Themes: / Science Fiction / Romance / Space Opera / Galactic Civilization / Love /
“Each person shall provide his Clan of origin with a child of his blood, who will be raised by the Clan and belong to the Clan, despite whatever may later occur to place the parent beyond the Clan’s authority. And this shall be Law for every person of every Clan.”
So far there are seven novels set in the Liaden Universe, though this one isn’t the first published it is chronologically the first to happen. Local Custom is a simple story, a Romeo And Juliet, tale, except with a happy ending and a few more spaceships. Master trader Er Thom yos’Galan is from the planet Liaden, an honour based society of humans. His family, and especially his mother are demanding an heir from Er Thom, as is only right and proper. But Er Thom cannot think of the traditional contract-marriage to some Liaden clan daughter when his true love is back on Terra. Anne Davis, a professor of Liaden studies on Terra had a brief affair with Er Thom years ago. When Er Thom shows up on her doorstep her secret and his duty will embroil them in a galaxy spanning scandal which threatens the honour of clan Korval.
Much of the interest here is in the worldbuilding, Liaden culture is richly imagined and the idea of “melant’i” is fodder for lots of drama. Melant’i, is a conveyed honour, not dissimilar from that created by Jack Vance for The Moon Moth. While the resolution of complex culture clashes makes for good drama, the effect here also makes many long dialogue scenes.This was coupled with a general lack of description – I didn’t know what anybody or anything looked like. The plot, centering around Er Thom’s marital fate, is spread thinly – while the novel never actually bores I kept wondering when something meaty was going to happen – very little did, this is a personal family drama set in a science fiction setting. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have obviously built themselves an interesting universe here, and I think it’d be one worth visiting again, especially if there is a story in it with a wider-ranging plot. Fans of the series are vehement in their ardor for it.
Some of the exposition is placed at chapter or scene beginnings, mostly notes on Liaden history and cultural norms. This helped the general flow of the telling. Also helpful was Buzzy Multimedia’s engagement of screen actor Michael Shanks for the narration. Shanks appears as Dr. Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG1, but he’s a capable narrator, giving distinction to male and female character alike. There were a few times where I thought I heard Shanks stumble over a word, but generally these were in dialogue, and they may have been deliberate – they certainly didn’t detract from the production. The first three chapters are available for FREE MP3 download on the Buzzy website.
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Forgotten Classics podcast offers readings from the neglected books of yesterdecade. The latest episode |MP3| is right up our alley, as it features a short reading from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Scout’s Progress, which is a feisty Space Opera set in Lee and Miller’s “Liaden Universe.” Also on tap for this particular show is a mini-review of SFFaudio itself – thanks Julie! – though we should point out that despite being the “featured podcast” on this particular show, we don’t actually have a podcast feed. Go check out the excerpt, and bask in all our glory.
To subscribe, get the podcast feed here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/forgottenclassics
A new publisher to SFFaudio sent us these interesting titles. Buzzy Multimedia likes to use actors from SFF fandom’s beloved TV shows as their narrators.
Storm Front: Book 1 of the Dresden Files,
By Jim Butcher;
Read by James Marsters (Spike from Buffy & Angel)
MP3 Disc or CDs, Approx. 10.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Buzzy Multimedia
Published: 2004
ISBN: 0965725561(MP3 disc); 0965725502(CDs)
From the back cover:
My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. I’m a wizard. I work out of an office in midtown Chicago. As far as I know, I’m the only openly practicing professional wizard in the country. You can find me in the yellow pages, under Wizards. Believe it or not, I’m the only one there.
Fool Moon: Book 2 of the Dresden Files,
By Jim Butcher;
Read by James Marsters
MP3 Disc or CDs, Approx. 10hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Buzzy Multimedia
Published: 2004
ISBN: 0965725588 (MP3 disc); 0965725553 (CDs)
From the back cover:
With little more than his integrity left, Harry Dresden accepts an offer of work from Lt. Karin Murphy of Chicago’s Special Investigations Unit. He wants to redeem himself in Murphy’s eyes and make enough money to quiet his rumbling stomach.
Soon he finds himself pinned between trigger-happy FBI agents, shape-shifiting motorcycle gang members, a threatened mobster boss, and an heir to an ancient curse along with his primal fiance. Thrown in environmental activists and a pair of young werewolves in love and you have something of Fool Moon.
Grave Peril: Book 3 of the Dresden Files,
By Jim Butcher;
Read by James Marsters
MP3 Disc or 10 CDs, Approx. 12 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Buzzy Multimedia
Published: 2004
ISBN: 0965725596(MP3 disc); 0965725553(CDs)
From the back cover:
Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden has had a rough couple of weeks. As the only openly practicing professional wizard in the Chicago area, he has squared off against a multitude of supernatural bad guys. Harry has won the day against demons, poltergeists, sorcerers, trolls, vampires, werewolves, and even an evil faerie godmother. You might think nothing could spook him. You would be wrong.
Local Custom
By Sharon Lee & Steve Miller;
Read by Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson From Stargate SG1)
MP3 Disc or 8 CDs, Approx. 10.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Buzzy Multimedia
Published: 2004
ISBN: 0965725596 (MP3 disc); 096572557x (CDs)
READ OUR REVIEW
From the back cover:
The first of the seven books set in the Liaden Universe tells a rich and sweeping story of warring families and star-crossed lovers in a fantastic, other-world galaxy. Master trader Er Thom knows the local custom of Liaden is to be matched with a proper bride, and provide his prominent clan Korval with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk his honor and reputation. But when he discovers that their brief encounter years before has resulted in the birth of a child, even more is at stake than anyone imagined. Now, an interstellar scandal has erupted, a bitter war between two families-galaxies apart-has begun, and the only hope for Er Thom and Anne is a sacrifice neither is prepared to make…
Interlopers
By Alan Dean Foster;
Read by Ben Browder
(John Crichton from Farscape & Cameron Mitchell from SG1)
MP3 Disc or 8 CDs, Approx. 9 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Buzzy Multimedia
Published: 200?
ISBN: 09790749078 (MP3 disc); 0965725545(CDs)
From the back cover:
Cody Westcott, a young archeologist, returned from a dig at Apachetarimac with more than he bargained for. Seems the Chachapoyans that he had been studying had a lot to teach us all. Soon he steps through the looking glass but unlike Alice its no fairytale world that he finds. Instead it is our own world teeming with Interlopers-Those Who Abide. Unseen by the mass of humanity they are aware that Cody can now see them. They dont like it. Thrust into a fight which finds him allied with highly unlikely characters he travels around the world to ancient centers of power. He calls on strength he never knew he possessed to save his wife and the future of humanity.