Star Trek – Page 22

The SFFaudio Podcast #055

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #055 – Jesse and Scott talk to Jack J. Ward of The Sonic Society podcast about audio drama.

Talked about on today’s show:
Electric Vicuna, The Library Of Jack And Shannon, Sonic Gold, Shannon Hilchie, audio drama is the hardest kind of podcasting, Phil Morris: Celestial Lawyer, Robert E. Howard, Conan, The Muse Of Madness, H.P. Lovecraft, The Deadline, The Twilight Zone, Darker Musings, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wavefront, Rod Serling, recording methods, BrokenSea Audio Productions, Decoder Ring Theatre, community theater, modern audio drama, amateur audio drama, Sonic Gold, paid subscription podcasts, Colonial Radio Theatre, Radio Repertory Company Of America, Jim French Productions, AM/FM Theatre, Powder River, Captain Blood, King Solomon’s Mines, adapting public domain stories to audio drama, CPI vs. BrokenSea, adapting modern novels, Voyage by Stephen Baxter, BBC, licensing Zorro, Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason, imagine Ringworld as an audio drama, LibriVox, The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley, Rick Jackson, The Time Traveler Show podcast, Science Fiction Oral History Association, Spaceship Radio podcast, Dimension-X, X-Minus One, OTR Swag Cast, The Radio Memories Network, Sci Fi Friday podcast, Wander Radio interview with Jack Ward, J.C. Hutchins, Commentary: Amateur Audio Drama & What’s Wrong With It, generational differences, Sage RSS for Firefox, Sonic Society in the Summer, Gate, The First Nighter Program, Bill Hollweg, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Howard Hawks, Bringing Up Baby, Audio Drama Review blog, James Snowe, Jerry Stearns, Sound Affects, KFAI, the Audio Drama Talk forums, carpeting the audio drama world, Jerry Robbins, Groucho Marx, audio drama or audio theater, subtract the narrator, Dirk Maggs, Superman: Doomsday and Beyond |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Adventures Of Superman |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Hunter, Kung-Fu Action Theatre, Star Trek and Star Wars audiobooks, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, serial storytelling, Full Cast Audio, Graphic Audio, Elantris by Brandon Sanderson |READ OUR REVIEW|, Searcher & Stallion, audiobooks with sound effects SUCK, podiobooks.com, Tom Swiftians, J.K. Rowling, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies For Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark, the Elmore Leonard school of writing, audio drama vs. audiobooks, Matt Watts, The Gemini Apes by Drik Maggs, Batman: Nightfall, Christopher Lee, An American Werewolf In London |READ OUR REVIEW|, BBC radio drama, The Lord Of The Rings, The Bradbury 13, A Sound Of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, Brigham Young University, A Gun For Dinosaur, CBC radio drama, Nightfall, Vanishing Point, Booster McCrane, P.M. by Paul Ledoux, Alan Maitland (aka Fireside Al, Frontporch Al, Graveside Al), The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth, Paul Gross, H2O, Due South, strong>Psi Factor Chronicles Of The Paranormal, Matt Frewer, Intelligence, Da Vinci’s Inquest, Men With Brooms, The Trojan Horse, Johnny Chase Secret Agent Of Space, Jeffrey Adams, The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al, Cato the Elder.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #046 – Jesse and Scott talk audiobooks, hard SF, current theatrical movies, Kenneth Oppel‘s Skybreaker and the new Gene Wolfe audiobooks at Audible.com! We also debut a new feature (boldly stolen from the late lamented Sofanauts Podcast). RIP.

Talked about on today’s show:
bananas, Smoke by Donald E. Westlake, invisibility, humor, the Richard Stark novels are only funny to psychopaths, crime, Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You by Donald Westlake (Westlake’s open letter to Science Fiction on why he’s not writing SF anymore), Philip K. Dick’s interview on Hour 25, Those Sexy Vintage Sleaze Books: A Blog About Vintage Soft Core Paperbacks, Robert Silverberg, Lawrence Block, paperbackswap.com, The Ax and The Hook by Donald E. Westlake, The Engines Of God by Jack McDevitt, Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, aliens, xenoarcheology, terraforming, Tom Weiner, hard SF, 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke, exoplanets, social science fiction, soft SF, The Windup Girl by Paulo Bacigalupi, androids, first contact, Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer |READ OUR REVIEW|, how to win any argument about modern SF: bring up Ted Chiang, The Story Of Your Life by Ted Chiang, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, Starship: Flagship by Mike Resnick, hero characters doing villainous things, Island Of The Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, Summer Of The Monkeys by Wilson Rawls, Dolphin Island by Arthur C. Clarke, hovercraft, Australia, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, marine biology, District 9, the MacGuffin in District 9 is stupid, Avatar, Sharlto Copley, Star Trek, Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel, Full Cast Audio, audio drama, Science Fiction, alternate history, Fantasy, airships, pirates, lifting gasses, phrenology, Howard Hughes, Thomas Edison, Graphic Audio, Brandon Sanderson‘s Warbreaker, Elizabeth Moon‘s Serrano Legacy series, audio drama is for truckers!, Jesse’s pick of the week: William Friedkin‘s Sorcerer (1977), laserdiscs, the great thing about laserdiscs!, VHSrips!, The Wages Of Fear (1953), Scott’s Pick of the week: Gene Wolfe’s The Book Of The New Sun (a novel in four parts), narrated by Jonathan Davis, the SFFaudio Yahoo! Group, Audible.com, Blake’s 7 The Early Years – Jenna: The Trial / The Dust Run (Vol. 1.5), Carrie Dobro, Babylon 5: Crusade, the Blake’s 7 television series, Blake’s 7 is the best audio drama space opera series ever!, Brian Aldiss‘ Helleconia series, Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss, Best SF Stories of Brian W. Aldiss, the fix-up novel, Dreamsongs by George R.R. Martin |READ OUR REVIEW|, Maps In A Mirror by Orson Scott Card, short stories turned into novels, Karen Makes Out (a short story), Out Of Sight (a novel) by Elmore Leonard, Out Of Sight (the film), Karen Sisco, Meatball Fulton‘s Ruby The Galactic Gumshoe, NPR, Recorded Books, The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross, what Jesse wants for his birthday: the complete fiction of Ted Chiang in audio, The Bishop’s Heir by Katherine Kurtz, the Deryni series, David Weber, series should end!

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Spell Of The Yukon by Robert W. Service

SFFaudio Online Audio

I’m not much for either poetry or magic. But some poems are magic. Here’s one…

The Spell Of The Yukon
By Robert W. Service; Read by Mark F. Smith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 4 Minutes [POEM]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 10, 2010

There are another dozen recordings of The Spell Of The Yukon by Robert W. Service available at LibriVox.org. I chose to point you towards Mark F. Smith’s version, but maybe you think another reader captures the poem better.

Here’s my annotated text version (can you spot the Star Trek connection?)…

The Spell Of The Yukon
by Robert W. Service

I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy — I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it —
Came out with a fortune last fall, —
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn’t all.

No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it
For no land on earth — and I’m one.

You come to get rich (damned good reason);
You feel like an exile at first;
You hate it like hell for a season,
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;
It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it’s been since the beginning;
It seems it will be to the end.

I’ve stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I’ve watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I’ve thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o’ the world piled on top.

The summer — no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all athrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness —
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.

The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I’ve bade ’em good-by — but I can’t.

There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land — oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back — and I will.

They’re making my money diminish;
I’m sick of the taste of champagne.
Thank God! when I’m skinned to a finish
I’ll pike to the Yukon again.
I’ll fight — and you bet it’s no sham-fight;
It’s hell! — but I’ve been there before;
And it’s better than this by a damsite —
So me for the Yukon once more.

There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting;
It’s luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It’s the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge

SFFaudio Commentary

The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge For the past few years, on November 11th, we’ve offered the following challenge to SFFaudio readers:

“We’ll give you an audiobook if you make one for everyone else.”

Sweet deal huh?

And, we’re offering the same deal this year. We’ll give you a BRAND NEW audiobook if you make make an audiobook out of one of the eTexts we provide you links to. All you’ll need to do is claim a title (by email), record the audiobook using your own voice, and follow the rules (see the first comment of this post for the rules).

Still feeling a little unclear on how it all works? Then have a look at our past SFFaudio CHALLENGES:

This year we’ve got 20 ebooks that need turning into audiobooks and we’ve got 20 BRAND NEW audiobooks to give away as prizes! No matter where you are on the planet Earth, if you finish and release your claimed audiobook, we will ship you your prize!

Interested?

If so, THE FIRST THING you need to do is PICK ONE OF THESE ebooks…

Challenge Titles:

***[CLAIMED BY Krisztina Hidasi on NOV. 29, 2009]
Star Dragon*
By Mike Brotherton
A 2003 novel.
*This novel is released under a Creative Commons license. I recommend confirming the audiobook version being okay with Mike Brotherton before claiming this title.
|MIKE BROTHERON’S WEBSITE|
***

***[CLAIMED BY Jerry Pyle on NOV. 13, 2009] COMPLETED
D-99*
By H.B. Fyfe
A 1962 Novel.
*This novel comes courtesy of WONDER AUDIO |HTML|PDF|***

***[CLAIMED BY Mike Hagerty on NOV. 15, 2009]
The Inheritors (An Extravagant Story)
By Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford
A 1901 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|
|WIKIPEDIA ENTRY|***

***[CLAIMED BY Scott Hall on NOV. 13, 2009]
The Planet Strappers
By Raymond Z. Gallun
A 1961 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Julie Davis on NOV. 12, 2009]
Breaking Point
By James E. Gunn
A novelette.
From Space Science Fiction, March, 1953
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Evan Wade on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Night Of The Long Knives
By Fritz Leiber
A novella.
From Amazing Science Fiction Stories January 1960.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Kevin Jackson on NOV. 13, 2009]
Pariah Planet
By Murray Leinster
A novella (34,000 words) – but advertised as a novel.
From Amazing Stories, July 1961.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Matt Soar on NOV. 13, 2009]
The Iron Heel
By Jack London
A 1908 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|
|WIKIPEDIA ENTRY|***

***[CLAIMED BY David Sobkowiak on NOV. 12, 2009]
Empire
By Clifford D. Simak
A 1951 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Danielle Blake on NOV. 15, 2009]
Pagan Passions
By Randall Garrett and Larry M. Harris
A 1959 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Kelly Fann on NOV. 13, 2009]
Ministry Of Disturbance
By H. Beam Piper
A novelette.
From Astounding Science Fiction, December 1958.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Chris Johnson on NOV. 13, 2009]
A Slave is a Slave
By H. Beam Piper
A novella.
From Analog Science Fact—Science Fiction April 1962.
PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Ross Smith on NOV. 13, 2009]
Sweet Their Blood And Sticky
By Albert R. Teichner
A short story.
From “Worlds of If” November 1961.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Ted Puffer on NOV. 18, 2009]
The Impossibles (Book 2 in the Psi-Powers series)
By Randall Garrett and Laurence M. Janifer (writing as Mark Phillips)
A 1963 novel.
Published in Analog as “Out Like a Light. This is the sequel to Brain Twister.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Bruce M Campbell on NOV. 13, 2009]
Cubs Of The Wolf
By Raymond F. Jones
A novelette.
From Astounding Science Fiction November 1955.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Karen Savage on NOV. 13, 2009]
Ultima Thule
By Mack Reynolds
A novella.
From Analog Science Fact & Fiction March 1961.
Part of the “United Planets” series.
|GUTENBERG.ORG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Lee Huttner on NOV. 12, 2009]
Spring-Heeled Jack – The Terror of London
By anonymous
A 1840s penny dreadful novella.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|

***[CLAIMED BY David Drage on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Thing On The Roof
By Robert E. Howard
A short story.
First published in Weird Tales February 1932.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|***

***[CLAIMED BY Mary Casey Walsh on NOV. 13, 2009]
Pigeons From Hell
By Robert E. Howard
A novelette.
First published by Weird Tales in 1938.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|***

***[CLAIMED BY John Aho on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Air Ship Boys (or The Quest of the Aztec Treasure)
By H.L. Sayler
A 1909 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

SECONDLY, you’ll want to DEEPLY CONSIDER all that your project will entail. [THINK AHEAD, PLAN IT OUT]

After you’ve carefully thought it through you can write me an email, with the details of your plan.

Answer these questions:

1. How are you planning to release your audiobook? Via LibriVox? Podiobooks.com? In your own podcast? Through Audible.com? Somehow else?

2. How long do you expect it to take? When will you be finished? How many hours will it take to record it? Will you proof listen as you go?

Answer those questions in your email to me. Emails that show a lack of forethought WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. So, have a bit of a read of the ebook you’re interested in narrating. Consider the difficulty involved, and then, if you’re still excited about The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge, email me with your plan.

My email address is:

[email protected]

Make the subject line:

“The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge”

Once an email is received, showing the appropriate forethought required, I will stake your claim in this post.

LASTLY, here are the goodies available (provided by Simon And Schuster Audio, Brilliance Audio, Poe Audio and The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society)…

Prizes:

Swoon
By Nina Malkin; Read by Caitlin Greer
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: May 2009
ISBN: 0743582004

Star Trek (Movie Tie In)
By Alan Dean Foster; Based on the movie written by Roberto Orci and Alex Hurtzman; Read by Zachary Quinto
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780743598347
|READ OUR REVIEW|

The Dragon’s Eye (Book 1 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: April 2009
ISBN: 0743581393

The Monsters Of Otherness (Book 2 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: April 2009
ISBN: 0743581415

Search For Truth (Book 3 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
11 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: June 2009
ISBN: 0743583868

The House Of The Scorpion
By Nancy Farmer; Read by Raul Esparza
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 0743572467

Leviathan
By Scott Westerfeld; Read by Alan Cumming
CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 0743583884

The Mortal Instruments (includes City of Ashes, City of Bones, and City of Glass)
By Cassandra Clare; Read by Ari Graynor and Natalie Moore
MP3 3 CDs? – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 1442303778

Hush, Hush
By Becca Fitzpatrick; Read by Caitlin Greer
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 074359956X

The Search For The Red Dragon
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: January 2008
ISBN: 074356913X

Here There be Dragons
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
7 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: January 2008
ISBN: 0743569105

The Shadow Dragons
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 0743583744

The Indigo King
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 0743574710

Earth Abides
By George R. Stewart; Read by Jonathan Davis
13 CDs – 15 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781441806147
|Listen to an AUDIO SAMPLE|

H.P.Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2007
|READ OUR REVIEW|

H.P.Lovecraft’s The Shadow Out of Time
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2008

H.P.Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2008

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 6-8: The Cask of Amontillado and Other Stories
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
3 CDs – Approx. 3 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058147

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 9: The Pioneers
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
6 CDs – Approx. 7 Hours 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058154

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 10: Deus et Machina
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
4 CDs – Approx. 4 Hours 39 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: September 2009
ISBN: 9780980058161

As claims are accepted they will be noted on the list. As prizes are shipped they will be noted on the list. Links to where the completed audiobooks can be found will be added to this post!

Get selecting folks!

[extra thanks to Gregg Margarite and Rick Jackson]

COMPLETED TITLES:

Ultima Thule
By Mack Reynolds; Read by Karen Savage
13 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 23, 2009
Ronny Bronston has dreamed all his life of getting a United Planets job that would take him off-world. He finally gets the opportunity when he is given a provisional assignment with Bureau of Investigation, Section G. But will he be able to complete his assignment and find the elusive Tommy Paine? First published in Analog Science Fact & Fiction March 1961.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/rss/3735

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

D-99
By H.B. Fyfe; Read by Jerry Pyle
20 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 03, 2010
EARTHMEN IN TROUBLE Harris was caged in an underwater “zoo” by a pack of blue lobsters. Maria drew a five-year sentence on a puritanical planet for trying to buy a souvenir–and for being excessively feminine. Taranto and Meyers had committed the crime of being shipwrecked on a planet that didn’t like strangers. Gerson was simply kidnapped. And nobody had any idea why five citizens of Terra were being held on other worlds–and the ultra-secret Department 99 existed only to set them, and others like them, free. This tense novel is the story of one evening’s work for Department 99–their successes and failures–and of the strange crisis that almost wrecked D-99.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/3755

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

The audiobook is also available in two etext formats |PDF | and |HTML| – in case you’d like to read along!

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #041

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #041 – Jesse and Scott are joined by SF author Robert J. Sawyer to talk about his audiobooks, writing Science Fiction novels, and the TV show based on his novel FlashForward.

Talked about on today’s show:
FlashForward (the TV series), FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer, Blackstone Audio, David S. Goyer, Marc Guggenheim, Jessika Borsiczky, Brannon Braga, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, does the TV show of FlashForward have a plan?, idea based SF, time travel, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells |READ OUR REVIEW|, differences between the television show and the novel versions of FlashForward, WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer |READ OUR REVIEW|, Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven, philosophy in Science Fiction, Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer |READ OUR REVIEW|, Jonathan Davis, Audible Frontiers, atheism and religion in SF, scientific institutions in Science Fiction, The Royal Ontario Museum, CERN, The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, science, Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, Launchpad Astronomy Workshop, Edward M. Lerner, Joe Haldeman, science literacy amongst Science Fiction authors, Karl Schroeder, Charles Stross, post-singularity SF, Clarke’s Third Law, NASA Ames Research Center, TRIUMF, Human Genome Project, Neanderthal Genome Project, military SF, S.M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove, alternate history, consciousness, aliens, spaceship, time travel, the WWW trilogy, Audible.com, Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer, Star Trek, alien aliens, Larry Niven, Niven’s aliens, Golden Fleece by Robert J. Sawyer, how did fantasy and Science Fiction get lumped together? Donald A. Wollheim, dinosaurs, artificial intelligence, genetics, time travel, the Internet, quantum physics, CBC Radio’s version of Rollback, Alessandro Juliani.

Jessika Borsiczky on adapting the novel of FlashForward to television:

Trailer for Sawyer’s WWW trilogy:

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster

SFFaudio Review

Star Trek
By Alan Dean Foster, Based on the movie, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Hurtzman
Read by Zachary Quinto
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780743598347
Themes: / Science Fiction / Time travel /

|HEAR AN EXCERPT – Kirk on Trial|

Star Trek is dead. Long live Star Trek! Like lots of others, I went to the film expecting to hate it, but came away liking it, even though it was not the Star Trek I knew. In fact, the film pretty much killed Star Trek as I knew it. A bad thing? I’d use the word “unfortunate” because I look at Star Trek and see a huge missed opportunity for intelligent television. I don’t see any thoughtful writing in the franchise’s future – we didn’t see much of it in Voyager and Enterprise either. It had nearly turned into every other show, and this movie just finished the job.

Yet, it wasn’t a bad movie. It was very much a product of the Hollywood Blockbuster machine. Danger, action, sex, witty dialogue, big special effects, some things that make zero sense… it’s all here. It was exciting, it looked great, I liked the actors, and I liked recognizing things that they threw in there from the Original Series. It was fun.

But I’m not here to review the movie. This is Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of the film, read by Zachary Quinto, who portrayed Spock. Back in the 1970’s, Alan Dean Foster wrote one of the best novelizations I’ve run across – Alien. I must’ve read it three or four times as a kid. And he’s no stranger to Star Trek – he wrote the Star Trek Logs which were novelizations of the episodes of the Animated Series. He did a great job with this book, too.

Zachary Quinto also did a great job narrating. The voices are new, even if the characters weren’t. Quinto was an inspired choice to play Mr. Spock, and of course plays that character in the reading as it was on the screen. The others weren’t exactly attempts at mimicry, but rather more subtle changes in cadence. With Chekov and Scotty, he did the accents, and is real good at both of them. An excellent performance, throughout.

In eight hours of unabridged narration there is nothing here that deviates in any significant way from the movie. It just takes longer, but that’s not a bad thing. You come away with what a novel gives you that movies can’t: the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters. Also, there are some scenes from Kirk and Spock’s childhoods that weren’t in the movie, and other things scattered through the book.

So that’s the new Trek. We’ll see what happens from here.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson