The SFFaudio Podcast #036

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #036 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Julie of Forgotten Classics to talk with Allan Kaster, the editor of Infinivox’s new audiobook anthology: The Year’s Top Ten Tales Of Science Fiction! We discuss this terrific audiobook, in depth, as well as a few other new releases and recent arrivals.

Talked about on today’s show:
Infinivox (an imprint of Audiotext), biology, study guides, chemistry, Great Science Fiction Stories, Bioware (from medical software to video games), Mass Effect, The Year’s Top Ten Tales Of Science Fiction, A Walk In The Sun by Geoffrey A. Landis |READ OUR REVIEW|, Guest Of Honor by Robert Reed, The Shobies’ Story by Ursula K. Le Guin, Hollywood Kremlin by Bruce Sterling, immortality, Hard SF, Robert Reed, vampires are rather liberal (for being immortal), Five Thrillers by Robert Reed, sociopathy, Ted Chiang, StarShipSofa’s (#88) interview with Ted Chiang, Exhalation by Ted Chiang, consciousness, souls, religion, transcendence, Ray Gun: A Love Story by James Alan Gardner, meta-science fictional stories, “ray guns and spaceships”, Adrift by Scott D. Danielson, World Of The Ptavvs by Larry Niven, Star Trek Animated Series (The Slaver Weapon), “The Soft Weapon” by Larry Niven, romance, Galileo’s Children: Tales of Science vs. Superstition edited by Gardner Dozois, The Dream Of Reason by Jeffrey Ford, The Empire Of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford, The Dreaming Wind by Jeffrey Ford (on StarShipSofa AD #75), sense of wonder, 26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss by Kij Johnson, Fantasy vs. Science Fiction, Mini-Masterpieces Of Science Fiction, The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi, Fast Forward 2, Fencon 2009 (Dallas, TX), Aliens Rule edited by Alan Kaster, How Music Begins by James Van Pelt, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Laws Of Survival by Nancy Kress, City Of The Dead by Paul McAuley, Shoggoths In Bloom by Elizabeth Bear, H.P. Lovecraft, lovecraftian homage, we need an audio collection of stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, frontier, space western, archaeology, aliens, Ray Bradbury, Mrs. Carstairs And The Merman by Delia Sherman, Dercum Audio, 1930s, 19th century, sea creatures, squids, Greg Egan, Peter Watts, The Art of Alchemy by Ted Kosmatka, industrial espionage, The N Word by Ted Kosmatka, Seeds Of Change edited by John Joseph Adams, future releases from Infinivox, Infinivox on Audible.com, Mike Resnick’s Kirinyaga cycle, Guest Law by John C. Wright, Beggars In Spain by Nancy Kress, physics, pirates, Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, Charles Stross, Antibodies, Lobsters, A Colder War, The Chief Designer by Andy Duncan |READ OUR REVIEW|, Michael Swanwick, The Edge Of The World by Michael Swanwick, The Griffin’s Egg by Michael Swanwick, the state of the magazine industry, Fast Forward 2, Sidewise In Time, Eclipse 2, Extraordinary Engines, Penguin Audio, Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski, Brilliance Audio, The Beastmaster by Andre Norton, Richard J. Brewer, Audible Frontiers, The Short Victorious War by David Weber, The Rise Of Endymion by Dan Simmons, caterbury tales in space, Luke Burrage’s SFBRP on the Hyperion series, Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas on Simmons’ Hyperion series, Ilium by Dan Simmons, The Terror by Dan Simmons, novella length stories, Escape Route by Peter F. Hamilton, a recent interview with Audible’s founder, The Law Of Nines by Terry Goodkind, Mark Deakins, Rammer by Larry Niven, narrator Pat Bottino, the MP3-CD format vs the CD format, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Gateway by Frederik Pohl, Robert J. Sawyer, Man Plus by Frederik Pohl

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrival: Infinivox’s Year’s Top Ten!

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science FictionThe Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction
Edited by Allan Kaster
8 CDs – 9 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781884612855

It’s no secret that we love a new Infinivox release around here. The squees of joy were a little embarrassing, though, when the latest title came in. A ten story collection, edited by Allan Kaster, called The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction. It’s like ten Infinivox releases at once!

Included are:

“Turing’s Apples” by Stephen Baxter
“Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear
“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang
“The Dream of Reason” by Jeffrey Ford
“The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner
“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson
“The Art of Alchemy” by Ted Kosmatka
“The City of the Dead” by Paul McAuley
“Five Thrillers” by Robert Reed
“Fixing Hanover” by Jeff VanderMeer

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Commentary: “Best of” and “Book of” books

SFFaudio Commentary

SFSignal.com recently asked me to participate in another of their “Mind Melds.” The topic:

Q: What are the “Forgotten Books” of science fiction/fantasy/horror?

Here was my answer:

Best Of/Book Of/Many Worlds Of books (spines)

I spend most of my time worrying about which lost gems deserve audiobook editions. But, there are quite a paperbooks I’d like to be able to lay my grubby mitts on too. Just lately I’d been thinking about the “Best Of AUTHOR NAME” and “Book of AUTHOR NAME” books that I’ve collected and cherished over the last twenty years or so. There was a big wave of them in the 1970s but most have been out of print forever. These are seriously in need of reprints. I’m a sucker for a carefully edited short story and novella collections with introduction by another SF author (and often an afterward by the author himself). Maybe it is a conservative streak in me. I don’t love these books because they’re old, though that doesn’t hurt. I love them because they’ve collected stories by authors who’ve had a chance to stand the test of time. It’s hard to judge the recent crop of SF authors and say exactly who’ll be the next grandmaster of SF, a grand old man of the genre – someone worth reading a “best of” collection without even having read a page of their work before. Innovation, style, a few solid hits is great, but to stand the burning acid of just a few years of history is by far a greater test. A good new book only wins you a second chance with me but a “best of” or “book of” book is the proof that you’ve stuck around long enough that you’ve been shown to be the genuine article – an author whose work is to be remembered.

If some publisher does pick up the idea of printing “best of/book of” collections again they can always throw in a “Best of Charlie Stross” and a “Book of Ted Chiang” into the mix too. In fact I’d love to read The Book Of Ted Chiang with an introduction by Charlie Stross and a Best Of Charlie Stross with an introduction by Ted Chiang.

To read everyone else’s check out the ORIGINAL POST.

And here are more images of these notable paperbooks:

The Best Of C.L. MooreThe Best Of C.M. KornbluthThe Best Of Edmond HamiltonThe Best Of Eric Frank RussellThe Best Of Frederik PohlThe Best Of Fritz LeiberThe Best Of Hal ClementThe Best Of Henry KuttnerThe Best Of John W. CampbellThe Best Of Leigh BrackettThe Best Of Lester Del ReyThe Best Of L. Sprague De CampThe Best Of Murray LeinsterThe Best Of Cordwainer SmithThe Best Of Raymond Z. Gallun






















Posted by Jesse Willis

Podcast feeds for our AUTHOR PAGES

SFFaudio Online Audio

metaSFFaudioSFFaudio now has two more podcasts (!) – sort of anyway. First up is the new Ted Chiang podcast feed, which we previewed late last month (there’s new content in it). There’s also a new Poul Anderson podcast, which includes all the MP3 files from our Anderson AUTHOR PAGES.

Ted Chiang podcast feed:

http://huffduffer.com/jessewillis/tags/ted_chiang/rss

Poul Anderson podcast feed:

http://huffduffer.com/jessewillis/tags/poul_anderson/rss

We’ll also be adding more feeds over the coming months.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7: Understand by Ted Chiang

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7Tuesday will see another broadcast of Understand by Ted Chiang. If you haven’t heard it before, don’t miss it! Understand was originally published in “Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine” in 1991. This outstanding novelette is one of the very best stories I’ve ever heard on radio. It was produced by Gemma Jenkins for the BBC and first broadcast in 2004 on BBC 7. Re-broadcasts of this popular tale have been heard in 2006 and 2007.

BBC Radio 7 - Understand by Ted ChiangUnderstand
By Ted Chiang; Read by Rashan Stone
4 half-hour segments – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Tuesday April 7th to Friday April 10th 2009 (6.30pm and 12.30am)
Leon is a former coma victim, who has gone experimental medical treatment to repair the massive trauma his brain received after he was trapped under ice for more than an hour. He’s regained consciousness, found he has all of his faculties back and a whole lot more. In the tradition of Daniel Keyes’ Flowers For Algernon.

If you don’t live in the U.K., or even if you do, I highly recommend you try out Radio Downloader, it takes the streamed broadcasts and converts them to MP3s with nary a trouble once its set up.

Posted by Jesse Willis

TED CHIANG gets his own AUTHOR PAGE

SFFaudio News

Ted Chiang (source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/1283502265/sizes/l/)I’ve added a new TED CHIANG listing to our AUTHOR PAGES section. There you’ll find all and every Ted Chiang story and audio interview that we know about. And, I’ve created a special Ted Chiang podcast through a service called HuffDuffer. In it you’ll find all three known podcast Ted Chiang stories and an interview with him too. If you haven’t tried a Ted Chiang tale, now’s your perfect chance. Plug this feed…

http://huffduffer.com/jessewillis/rss

…into your podcatcher, or use the iTunes 1-click HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis