Decoder Ring Theatre’s Xmas Panda Spectacular! (a Red Panda episode, with a Xmas theme)

SFFaudio Online Audio

Decoder Ring TheatreI’ve found that regular listening to Decoder Ring Theatre is just way too painful. Even though their episodes are all 99.9% stand-alone independent all-in-one tales I find myself absolutely depressed to have to wait 13 days between shows. Whenever a season wraps I get a giant present all at once and that way I can listen to them back to back and avoid that depression.

But… I just can’t resist downloading the latest Red Panda episode. The Christmas themed show sounds soooo good…

A Red Panda Christmas Adventure

“Yes, kids, there’s a man in red on the rooftops, but it ain’t St Nick! In this very special slice of two-fisted pulp justice with all the trimmings, we tip our fedoras to the great Will Eisner and the classic Christmas stories he wrote for his much-loved Mystery Man ‘The Spirit’, and in so doing, turn 1930’s Toronto on its ear! Please enjoy, with our best wishes… Tis The Season!”

Get it here |MP3| or subscribe to the podcast feed and make Christmas come every two weeks:

http://decoderring.libsyn.com/rss

Posted by Jesse Willis

New superhero podcast novel Black Shadow by Steve Saylor

OnlineAudio

Half of the This Week In Geek team, Steve Saylor, has starting podcasting his superhero podiobook:

Black Shadow - PodiobookBlack Shadow
By Steve Saylor; Read by Steve Saylor
“In a world where evil walks the earth, where super villains are taken over by demonic beings . They all want one thing, and one thing only. To take over the world. There is only one man who can stop them. One man with the powers and abilities to kick some serious demon ass. In a race against time to stop a portal that opens to Hell itself. One man, one hero, one sonofabitch you don’t want to mess with. He is faceless, he is fearless, he is Black Shadow.”

The podcast promo for Black Shadow is here |MP3| and in the feed you’ll also find the first two episodes/issues too. Here’s the podcast feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of the The Secret World Chronicle by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey

SFFaudio Review

Fantasy Superheroes Podiobook -The Secret World Chronicle Book One Invasion by Mercedes Lackey and Steve LibbeyThe Secret World Chronicle – Book One – Invasion
By Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey; Read by Veronica Giguere
8 MP3 Files (podcast) – Approx. 10 Hours 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: SecretWorldChronicle.com / Podiobooks.com
Podcast: 2006 – 2007
Themes: / Fantasy / Superheroes / Supervillains / Nazis / Communism / Invasion /

The Secret World Chronicle opens with a metahuman named Eisenfaust (“Iron Fist”) warning of an imminent Nazi invasion. Of course the invasion occurs (from another spacetime) and this forms the backdrop for the story, in which heroic deeds are done – if at the high cost of both civilian and metahuman lives. Echo is an organisation of ‘metahumans’ (a word which you can freely translate into ‘superheros’ for our purposes). There are Echo offices and campuses around the world, from which private individuals, non-governmental orginizations and governments can hire superheroes to do good deeds. The Echo mandate is “To support security and peace through intervention by and collaboration between metahumans and international law enforcement.” Comprising over forty separate bases of operation across six continents. This plot may remind some of Jeffrey R. DeRego Union Dues stories that have been heard on Escape Pod. Like DeRego’s tales, The Secret World Chronicle superhumans all have comic book names and costumes, Handsome Devil, Red Saviour, Shahkti, and Yankee Pride. At the end of “book one” there are unresolved story threads around the whys and wherefores of the Nazi invasion, but it just feels like more to look forward to. It may have improved the telling to get inside the lives of the ordinary people, to understand just how the phenomena of the metahumans impacts the regular folks – perhaps that will happen in later books. I can’t say I’m very familiar with either Mercedes Lackey or Steve Libbey individually, but together they tell a good story. Characters are reasonably well drawn and sufficiently believable, but don’t expect any in-depth character analysis. Don’t listen to The Secret World Chronicle to learn about yourself, or the human condition, listen for fun.

People have different ways of classifying the content they put onto their MP3 players. I typically use either ‘drama’ or ‘books’ – the latter consisting of anything that’s read by one person. I break this rule for The Secret World Chronicle. Narrator Veronica Giguere does mostly a solo act in telling the story, the result though is that of discrete characters with whom we can really identify. It is an immersive experience. Veronica Giguere’s pacing is flawless, the variety of intonations and accents sufficient for the story. She gets the story straight into the brain’s pleasure zone with her terrific performance.

You can subscribe to the podcast feed for the series via this URL:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/secretworldchronicle

You can also get the complete book one via this feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/SecretWorldChronicleBookOne

Posted by Nick Gassman

New Releases

New ReleasesScience Fiction Audiobook - Escape Route by Peter F. HamiltonEscape Route
By Peter F. Hamilton; Read by Jared Doreck
– 2 hours and 35 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: 2007
The starship Lady Macbeth encounters a long-abandoned alien spacecraft, with its escape route still intact – but leading where? If the crew claims salvage rights, the technology inside could make them wealthy enough to buy planets. But first they need to make sure it’s as empty as it seems.
Listen to an |MP3| sample.

This one is a follow up to the “Infinite Crisis” series from DC Comics…

Superhero Audio Drama - 52 Part 1 - DC Comics52 – Part 1 (of 2)
By Greg Cox; Based on the DC Comics series; Performed by a full cast
6 CDs, 1 MP3-CD, or WMA Download – Approx. 6 hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Graphic Audio
Published: December 2007
ISBN: 1599503689
A year without Superman. A year without Batman. A year without Wonder Woman. But not a year without heroes… Earth’s most revered heroes have vanished. In their absence, the cities of Metropolis and Gotham have fallen prey to the machinations of super-villains and the criminal activities of Intergang. Booster Gold, a hero from the future, has stepped into Superman’s boots only to find them too big to fill, especially when rival hero Supernova arrives on the scene. Recruited by the mysterious crime fighter known as the Question, detective Renee Montoya investigates an even more mysterious vigilante prowling the streets: Batwoman. These and other veteran and rookie heroes around the world must unite against a vast conspiracy of evil about to usurp control of the Earth once and for all… (Part 1 of 2)

The first book in the Doc Smith’s “Skylark” series…

Science Fiction - Space Opera - Audiobook - The Skylark Of Space by E.E. Doc SmithThe Skylark Of Space
By E.E. Doc Smith; Read by Reed McColm
Audible Download, CDs, Tapes or MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books In Motion
Published: November 2007
ISBN: various
The Skylark of Space is the first and one of the best space operas ever written. Breezy dialogue, romantic intrigue, fallible heroes, and complicated villains infuse humanity and believability into a conflict of galactic proportions.

Two Neil Gaiman titles that somehow flew-in under the radar…

Science Fiction Audiobook - Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Christopher ReavesInterworld
By Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves; Read by Christopher Evan Welch
CDs – 5 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 0061254606
“Nationally best–selling, award–winning author Neil Gaiman teams up with Emmy Award–winning screenwriter Michael Reaves for an exciting science fiction tale of teenagers saving many universes from evil. Fourteen–year–old Joey Harker always had a terrible sense of direction–one day he gets lost in his own town and finds himself in another version, where there’s a family and a school almost like his. When an older version of himself tracks Joey down, Joey learns that he’s a Walker–one who can travel between dimensions–and that an army of different versions of himself is battling the two evils that want to conquer all the worlds. Joey finds himself in a battle against the forces of magic and science that could destroy him–and all the others like him.”

Fantasy Audiobook - M Is For Magic by Neil GaimanM Is For Magic
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman
CDs – 5 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 0061254592
“Stories to delight, enchant, and surprise you. Bestselling author and master storyteller Neil Gaiman here presents a breathtaking collection of tales that may chill or amuse readers—but always embrace the unexpected. Collection includes: The Case Of The Four And Twenty Blackbirds, Troll Bridge, Don’t Ask Jack, How To Sell The Ponti Bridge, October In The Chair, Chivalry, The Price, How To Talk To Girls At Parties, Sunbird, The Witch’s Headstone, Instructions.”

This one, from infrequent SFF provider Highbridge Audio, has one of the best titles ever…

HighbridgeAudio - Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin GrossmanSoon I Will Be Invincible
By Austin Grossman; Read by Coleen Marlo and Paul Boehmer
CDs – 10 Hours 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 1598870963
Listen to an |MP3| sample.
Doctor Impossible—evil genius, mad scientist, diabolical time-traveler, wannabe world dominator—has just broken out of prison�again. He�s tried to take over the world in every conceivable way: doomsday devices (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological), armies (robot, insect, dinosaur, fungus, fish), mass mind control, even a corporate conquest (Impossible Industries LLC). Each time, he has been foiled. This time, it’s going to be different.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 / The 7th Dimension premiers 1st PODCAST!

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC 7 and The 7th Dimension are premiering their very first podcast tomorrow! But it isn’t exactly what we were expecting…

BBC 7 HEROES The Official Radio ShowHEROES The Official Radio Show
20 Part Series in 15 minute episodes
Broadcaster/Podcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Saturday at 6.30pm and 12.30am (U.K. Time)
The NBC fantasy TV show Heroes just started airing on television channel BBC2 this week. The series is about ordinary people dealing with the discovery that they have extraordinary (superhuman) powers. This podcast (and broadcast) isn’t the actual series but instead it is what they are calling “the ultimate audio companion.” Features will include “in-depth discussions and analyses of the themes, characters and conundrums facing the characters.”

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/bbc7/heroes/rss.xml