Stephen Coonts – SFFaudio

The SFFaudio Podcast #054

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #054 – Jesse and Scott talk about audiobooks, the recent arrivals, the new releases and the current listens.

Talked about on today’s show:
Full Cast Audio, Kenneth Oppel, Starclimber, alternate, Lionsgate City (aka Vancouver), Space Station Rat by Michael J. Daley, Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein |READ OUR REVIEW|, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow |READ OUR REVIEW|, 1984 by George Orwell, Brilliance Audio, A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal, Where Angels Fear To Tread by Thomas E. Sniegoski, angels, Roger Zelazny, Blackstone Audio, Frostbite by David Wellington, werewolves, 13 Bullets by David Wellington, vampires, Let The Right One In, Dead Snow, David Wellington’s “Monster Trilogy”, zombie apocalypse, Survivors (2008), Terry Nation, Survivors (1975 – 1977), 30 Days Of Night, dreamy vampires, Blackstone Audio, Vampire$ by John Steakley, John Carpenter’s Vampire$, bounty hunting, Dark Is the Sun by Philip Jose Farmer, Recorded Books, Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross, LibriVox.org, Rastignac The Devil by Philip Jose Farmer, Gregg Margarite, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert, Love Bites by Lyndsay Sands, the paranormal romance problem, Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton, Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton, Single White Vampire by Lyndsay Sands, Penguin Audio, The Silent Sea by Clive Cussler and Jack DeBrule, Dirk Pitt, “Jacque Cousteau as James Bond”, Cujo by Stephen King, Firestarter by Stephen King, The Monster Of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Running Man by Stephen King = reality television, Robocop, Thinner by Stephen King, The Long Walk by Stephen King, The Long Walk by Sławomir Rawicz, Siberia, walking from Siberia to India, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins |READ OUR REVIEW|, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, Cube, dragons, How To Train Your Dragon, Anne McCaffrey, Eragon, Around The World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne, Komodo dragons, Dragonslayer, Dragonheart, Smaug, The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy podcast, DragonLance, Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George, Roadwork by Stephen King, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy meets The Omega Man, where the pseudonym “Richard Bachman” came from, “everything comes back to Donald E. Westlake”, Blackstone Audio, Empire Builders by Ben Bova, Nova Audiobooks, NASA, cutting the Constellation program, CBS coverage of Apollo 11, Robert A. Heinlein was a commentator for Apollo 11, why do we have so little Heinlein audio and video?, Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon, Oath Of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon, Graphic Audio, The Serrano Legacy, Galaxy Press, A Matter Of Matter by L. Ron Hubbard, The Crossroads by L. Ron Hubbard, time travel, Captive Market by Philip K. Dick, economics, Brilliance Audio, Saucer by Stephen Coonts Saucer: The Conquest by Stephen Coonts, Peter Watts, The Eyes Of The Overworld by Jack Vance, Breaking Point by James Gunn |READ OUR REVIEW|, Tales Of Dying Earth by Jack Vance, “Vance has ideas and style”, The Last Castle by Jack Vance, The Moon Moth by Jack Vance |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy interviews The Tolkien Professor.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals from Brilliance Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Live Free Or Die
By John Ringo; Read by Mark Boyett
17 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2010

FIRST CONTACT WAS FRIENDLY

When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the solar System, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. The first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief.

WHO CONTROLS THE ORBITALS, CONTROLS THE WORLD

When the Horvath came through, they announced their ownership by dropping rocks on three cities and gutting them. Since then, they’ve held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. With their control of the orbitals, there’s no way to win and Earth’s governments have accepted the status quo.

LIVE FREE OR DIE

To free the world from the grip of the Horvath is going to take an unlikely hero. A hero unwilling to back down to alien or human governments, unwilling to live in slavery and with enough hubris, if not stature, to think he can win.
Fortunately, there’s Tyler Vernon. And he has bigger plans than merely getting us from under the fist of the Horvath.
Troy Rising is a book in three parts — Live Free or Die being the first part — detailing the freeing of Earth from alien conquerors, the first steps into space using off-world technologies and the creation of Troy, a thousand trillion ton battlestation designed to secure the Solar System.

Saucer: The Conquest
By Stephen Coonts; Read by Eric Conger
9.5 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2010

After discovering the secrets of a 140,000-year-old spacecraft in Saucer, Rip Cantrell and beautiful test pilot Charley Pine think their days of high-flying extraterrestrial adventure are over. But when Pine takes up flying spaceplanes to the moon for the French lunar base project, she discovers that the project director has installed a world-threatening antigravity beam.

The French kidnap Rip’s Uncle Egg and force him to fly a saucer, hidden in Area 51, to the moon. Rip and Charley have no choice; to rescue Egg and save the world, they must steal the first saucer from its new home, the National Air and Space Museum, and hit the not-so-friendly skies again.

Stephen Coonts’s first Saucer was a smash-hit nationwide. Now the unlikely duo of Rip Cantrell and Charley Pine are back, so strap in and leave your passports behind as the fight for freedom on the new frontier begins.

Where Angels Fear to Tread
By Thomas E. Sniegoski; Read by Luke Daniels
9 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2010

Six-year-old Zoe York has been taken, and her mother comes to Remy for help. He thinks the cops would be a better choice—until the desperate woman shows Remy why she chose him out of all the private detectives in Massachusetts.

There are drawings. Crude childlike drawings that show Zoe’s visions of the future. Everything leading up to her abduction, and some beyond. Such as the picture of a man with wings who would come and save her—a man who is an angel. This is more than a mere kidnapping.

Zoe’s preternatural gifts have made her a target for those who wish to exploit her power for their own destructive ends. And the search takes Remy to dark places he would rather avoid. But to save an innocent, Remy will ally himself with a variety of lesser evils—and his soul may pay the price.

The Lost Fleet: Fearless
By Jack Campbell; Read by Christian Rummel
10 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2010

Outnumbered by the superior forces and firepower of the Syndicate Worlds, the Alliance fleet continues its dangerous retreat across the enemy star system. Led by the legendary Captain John “Black Jack” Geary, who returned to the fleet after a hundred-year suspended animation, the Alliance is desperately trying to return home with its captured prize: the key to the Syndic hypernet, and the key to victory…

Geary is convinced that the Syndics are planning to ambush the fleet and finish it off once and for all. Realizing the fleet’s best (and only) chance is to do the unexpected, Geary takes the offensive and orders the fleet to the Sancere system. There, a multitude of possible routes home give the Alliance fleet a better chance of avoiding their pursuers — and an attack on the Sancere shipbuilding facilities could decimate the Syndic war effort.

Weary from endless combat, the officers and crew of the Alliance fleet can’t see the sense in charging deeper into enemy territory — prompting a mutiny that divides them and leaves Geary with higher odds against him than ever before…

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

New Releases

Audio Renaissance

Saucer: The Conquest by Stephen Coonts in both abridged and unabridged versions. This is a sequel to a novel about the discovery of a 140,000 year-old spacecraft. I missed the first one, but would like to hear if it exists on audio – Audio Renaissance does not carry it if it does. Kirkus calls Saucer “a comic, feel-good SF adventure.”

First Meetings in the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card, read by Gabrielle de Cuir, Amanda Karr, and Stefan Rudnicki

I’m a fan of Orson Scott Card’s Ender novels, so this was a real treat. It contains 4 stories, one of which is the original Ender’s Game novella, the others stories from various places on the Ender timeline. All of Card’s unabridged Ender novels are being re-released by Audio Renaissance.

Saturn by Ben Bova, read by Amanda Karr and Stefan Rudnicki and others

Here’s the latest of Ben Bova’s Solar System novels. I’ve heard Mars and Return to Mars, but I’m not sure how these novels are related to this one, Venus and Jupiter.

Blackstone Audio

Ringworld’s Children by Larry Niven

I talked a bit about this last month, but it was really released in September, so here it is again.

Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell by Pat Murphy

I’ve got this one in my to-be-heard pile and I’m eager to get to it. I know very little about Pat Murphy, but I see she won a Nebula Award for the novel The Falling Woman, which I don’t think is available on audio.

Jesse: Pat Murphy won a hugo and a nebula for a short story called “Rachel In Love”, which is a love story from the point of view of a chimpanzee. It’s been recorded a couple of times. There was also a single cassette collection of her short stories published by Durkin Hayes called “Points Of Departure”.

Brilliance Audio

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, read by Jim Dale

I’m starting to see this one everywhere, but haven’t received any feedback from anyone on it. It’s aimed at the YA market – 9-12 year-olds – and is a prequel to Peter Pan. I may have to listen just to hear another Jim Dale performance. There’s an audio sample on Brilliance’s website.

Free Reads

James Patrick Kelly adds three more stories to Free Reads, a section of his site where you can download free audiobooks (MP3 format) of his stories. Included now are “Faith”, “The Best Christmas Ever”, and “Serpent”.

Jesse: This is an awesome value – cool and funny stories read by James Patrick Kelly and all it costs you is guilt if you don’t donate something to his future recording fund.

Harper Audio

The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection by Neil Gaiman, read by Neil Gaiman

This is an hour-long CD that contains readings of some children’s books by Neil Gaiman. Included are: The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, Wolves in the Walls, Cinnamon, and Crazy Hair.

Jesse: Looking forward to this collection. I was worried this was just another repackaging of Coraline and the two Seeing Ear pieces. Glad to see it is all new to audio!

Paperback Digital

As reported here early this month, Paperback Digital is online with two new MP3 format audiobooks for sale: Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint and 1634: The Galileo Affair by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis. I haven’t heard either of them, but they appear to be professionally done with William Dufris and Christine Marshall narrating. These books are available as downloads or on MP3-CDs.

Also from Paperback Digital is the X Minus One episode “Drop Dead” by Clifford D. Simak, which is available on Fictionwise.com, a site well-known for eBook sales. Paperback Digital is editing out commercials and doing what they can to improve the sound quality of several old radio shows. Next week they will be releasing these episodes:

The Green Hills of Earth and Destination: Moon by Robert A. Heinlein

The Orson Welles/Mercury Theatre Halloween broadcast of The War of the Worlds

The Orson Welles/Mercury Theatre broadcast of Bram Stoker’s Dracula

With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson

Colony by Philip K. Dick

The Coffin Cure and Prime Difference by Alan E. Nourse

Protective Mimicry by Algis Budrys

The Merchants of Venus by A.H. Phelps, Jr.

Jesse: Coming out of the blue as it did, Paperback Digital is the most exciting and surprising news in Science Fiction and Fantasy audiobooks so far this year!

Recorded Books

Swords of Night and Day, a science fantasy by David Gemmell and narrated by Christopher Kay. I’m unfamiliar with this, but it’s part of a something called the Drenai series.

Last, but certainly not least, here’s what Audible.com has added in the last month, many of which were mentioned above:

An updated edition of First Meetings by Orson Scott Card

Saucer: The Conquest by Stephen Coonts

Saturn by Ben Bova

High Druid of Shannara: Tanequil by Terry Brooks

Dune: The Battle of Corrin by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Ringworld’s Children by Larry Niven

Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card

The Dragon’s Son by Margaret Weis

Stalking Darkness (Nightrunner #2) by Lynn Flewelling

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke

Several titles from Brian Jacques’ Redwall series

Bimbos of the Death Sun and Zombies of the Gene Pool by Sharyn McCrumb

Titles from the Wingman series by Mack Maloney

Golem’s Eye by Jonathan Stroud

Titles from the Deathstalker collection by Simon R. Green

Collections of Arthur C. Clarke’s stories (The Nine Billion Names of God, The Songs of Distant Earth, etc.)

Wow! An excellent month for science fiction audio. Happy listening!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson