Star Wars – Page 9

Review of Star Wars: Millennium Falcon by James Luceno

SFFaudio Review

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon
By James Luceno, Read by Marc Thompson
8 CDs – 10 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9780739377130
Themes: / Star Wars / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Religion / Space Travel / Adventure / Hardware /The Star Wars audiobook has been around for a long time. I use them often to illustrate the evolution of the audiobook: they started with two cassette abridgments, moved to CD, then the abridgments got longer, and now, as we are seeing the rest of the industry move (nearly) completely away from abridged audio, Star Wars novels are now… unabridged.

Marc Thompson does the reading here, after a very long stretch of excellent Star Wars narration by Jonathan Davis. The series is in good hands. Marc Thompson is a bit of a impressionist, able to invoke Harrison Ford’s Han Solo merely by the tone and meter of his voice. Most of the time it works great, but every now and then I got a clear view of David Puddy in my head (Elaine’s boyfriend from Seinfeld, played by Patrick Warburton). Who knew that Ford’s and Warburton’s voices were so near each other? These times are few, though, and Marc Thompson is a narrator I’d listen to any time.

Star Wars: Millenium Falcon spans a lot of history. The famous ship has been around, and James Luceno takes us on a tour of its busy life. Han Solo and Leia are married, for those who haven’t been keeping up, and have grandkids (yes, a LOT has happened), one of which is named Allana. One day she asked Han about the history of the ship, which prodded him into looking more into it.

In the meantime, a previous owner of the ship (before Lando) has been in stasis for quite a few years. He wakes up and immediately goes after something he left on the ship. Eventually, their paths cross.

This is an entertaining adventure that ties together the whole Star Wars saga through the history of the Millenium Falcon. It’s extremely well done, and lots of fun for a fan like me.

Random House Audio Star Wars page

After listening to this audiobook, I was curious – did the Millennium Falcon make an appearance in Episodes I, II, or III? The answer is yes, but only briefly:

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #024

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #024 – Jesse and Scott discuss hardware (which is the best iPod), comics (graphic novels to some), movies (bad and worse) and even a few audiobooks (not so bad at all).

Talked about on today’s show:
Recent arrivals, Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip, Blackstone Audio, Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint, urban fantasy, Pebble In The Sky by Isaac Asimov, BBC Audiobooks America, Gentleman Of The Road by Michael Chabon, In The Electric Mist With The Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke, New Orleans, why there’s no such thing as a “noir” series, Montana, film: Taken, ViolentWorldOfParker.com, Duplicate Effort by Kristine Katherine Rusch, the Moon, Audible.com’s Short Story sale, Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber, LibriVox + SFFaudio = Instant iTunes Audiobooks, “Here Comes The eBook Revolution” by Mike Elgan, the e-ing of magazines, review of The Book Of Lies by Brad Meltzer, Phantoms by Dean Koontz, revisionism – what authors shouldn’t go back and revise (or update) their published novels, evidence: Star Wars, Star Trek: Amok Time, Escape Pod returns! with a new Ken Scholes short story, Lamentation by Ken Scholes, Springtime for Hitler (and Germany), iPhone’s drawback (battery life), iPod Nano vs. iPod Classic vs. iPod Touch, The Cutie by Donald E. Westlake comes to audiobook on March 1st 2009, Decoder Ring Theatre, Gregg Taylor’s Black Jack Justice is now a webcomic!, Sandman: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman, Gaiman on CBC.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #022

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #022 – Jesse and Scott are guestless so they decide to talk about themselves and audio in the third person.

Talked about on today’s show:
LibriVox’s releases 1, 2, Wonder Audio, Mark Douglas Nelson, Audible.com’s “first book in a series” offer, Mike Resnick’s Starship Mutiny, Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon, Robert J. Sawyer’s Hominids, the Science Fiction Book Review Podcast, Robert J. Sawyer, Wake, Golden Fleece, multiple voice recordings, Dune, Ted Chiang (“best short story writer ever”), Exhalation, Nightshade Books, Eclipse Two, British Science Fiction Awards, Tony Smith’s StarShipSofa, The Merchant And The Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang; read by James Campanella |MP3|, Gene Wolfe, The Tree Is My Hat |MP3|, Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday, Wayne June‘s readings of Poe Into That Darkness Peering Vol. 1 |READ OUR REVIEW|, Mars, Usher II by Ray Bradbury, Leonard Nimoy, Tommorow’s Crimes by Donald E. Westlake, Anarchaos, Drukin Hayes, Nackles, Santa’s Twin by Dean Koontz, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein, By His Bootstraps, The Green Hills Of Earth, Gentlemen Be Seated, psychedelic William Shatner readings, Mimsy Were The Borogroves, Star Trek: New Voyages (aka Phase II), Star Trek audiobooks, Star Wars: Millennium Falcon by James Luceno; read by Mark Thompson, Star Wars: Splinter In The Minds’s Eye by Alan Dean Foster, Jonathan Davis, radio drama: Slipsteam by Simon Bovey, WWII, Fallout 3, The Adventures Of Herbert Daring Dashwood, 1950s, The Republic of Dave, Agatha’s song.

Posted by Jesse Willis

new PC game inspired by radio drama Lights Out

SFFaudio News

Rich Carlson, an SFFaudio contributor and the webmaster of Radio Tales Of The Strange And Fantastic (his own excellent radio drama website) has (along with a few other folks at Digital Eel Games) created new PC game called Brainpipe.

So, I’ve been playing Brainpipe all weekend!

This is one of those “casual games” – so the story is basically nonexistent – it’s an action oriented game that’s fun and highly addictive. So why am I telling you about it? Other than a vaguely science fictional premise, and terrific audio (by Rich) it isn’t exactly all that SFFaudio related.

Brainpipe looks kind of like a screensaver crossed with the old 1983 vector graphics Star Wars arcade game and it controls like a Nintendo Wii’s (it would make a great WiiWare game come to think of it). The whole production is super-slick.

The last time I played, a few hours ago, after getting to level five and achieving “dissonance” I died (I think), and the game ended. It was then that I noticed something in the credits…. a nod to “Lights Out” the old radio drama show! I asked Rich if there was any particular episode that inspired the it and Rich said: The Meteor Man (aka The Hungry One)

So, got a few spare minutes? Go have a listen to The Meteor Man |MP3| and then go try the Brainpipe demo – it’ll blow yer brainpipe!

Posted by Jesse Willis

UPDATE: In level 7 more Doctor Who-ish audio turns up too!

The SFFaudio Podcast #016

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #016 – is really strange and very good – we talk about Dean Koontz, talking dogs, praise Robert J. Sawyer, his audiobooks and much more! Book covers, cover art, they matter!

Talked about on today’s show:
Audible.com, the new Audible Frontiers new releases, review of The Speed Of Dark, Mary Robinette Kowal, Blackstone Audio, The Selected Stories Of Philip K. Dick, Star Trek, Pandora’s Star, Judas Unchained, Peter F. Hamilton, Star Wars, Mike Resnick, The Last Colony, John Scalzi, Zoe’s Tale, William Dufris, Anathem, Robert J. Sawyer, Flashforward, Tantor Media, A Case Of Conscience, James Blish, 100% FREE Audiobook Black River by Dean Koontz (which is an SF suspense novella), Microsoft’s Zune now compatible with Audible.com, Dean Koontz, Dragon Tears, Jay O. Sanders, talking dogs, our new DEAN KOONTZ author page, Intensity, Seize The Night, Fear Nothing, Dean Koontz short stories that should be audiobooked: Nightmare Gang, Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein, RJS’ Flashforward as a TV series? = they’ll do it like the did The 4400, CERN, RJS predicted the current pope!, murder mystery Science Fiction, Illegal Alien, review of Calculating God, Golden Fleece, dinosaurs, Robert J. Sawyer’s weakest novel = End Of An Era (?), review of The Terminal Experiment, Wake, the WWW trilogy, available RJS audiobooks, Shed Skin, BBC Radio documentary on Wikipedia: The Wikipedia Story, Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation, The Wordy Shipmates, Vowelette, what “they” are doing wrong with audiobooks: no table of contents sux! No map sux!, Stefan Rudnicki‘s Skyboat Productions, Resonance, A.J. Scudiere, geology, magnetic polar reversal, review of Posing As People, Orson Scott Card, Mike Resnick’s Audible.com editorial, Stalking The Unicorn, Stalking The Vampire, cover art matters, Total Dick Head’s 2 hour celebration of Philip K. Dick’s 80th birthday.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #013

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #013 – We’ve got an absolutely unique interview with the incredibly cool Mister Ron from the Mister Ron’s Basement podcast! Mister Ron has a podcast devoted to humorous fiction from the 19th and early 20th century.

In the interview we talked about Mister Ron’s podcast, H.G. Wells, Sherlock Holmes spoofs, August Derleth, Solar Pons, O. Henry, Stephen Leacock, Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, Edgar Allan Poe, Benjamin Franklin, Bud Grace, Piranha Club, Stanley Huntley, A Journey To The Sun, Pfaff’s Beer Cellar, Mortimer Thomson, podcasting, archive.org.

Also talked about on today’s show:
Audiobooks, The Little Book, Selden Edwards, The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman, time travel, James P. Hogan, Thrice Upon A Time, movies, what’s right with Frequency, what’s right and wrong with the Star Wars: Clone Wars movie, and what’s worrisome about the new Star Trek movie trailer and finally what’s playing this week on BBC7.

Posted by Jesse Willis