Miette’s Bedtime Story Podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

Miette’s Bedtime Story PodcastHere’s a podcast that I’ve been listening to, on and off (mostly off), for years. Miette is a mystery to me and seemingly pretty much everyone else. She’s been putting out a weekly (or so) podcast since 2005 and yet we don’t know a lot about her. We know she loves to read short stories. That she’s got an accent people don’t easily pin down, and that she’s got a dog. Other than that…. well, we really don’t know.

What makes it all even more puzzling is that she’s an “obscurantist.”

Now I like the obscure, but she, well… she’s just out there – Miette has gone past the obscure and into the hinterlands of the truly odd. Every once in a while I want to throw her a lasso (or a lifeline) but I’m kind of afraid because she might pull me out there with her!

That sheer out-there-ness also makes me feel so normal. Miette’s the absolute omega to the omnivorous celebrity mainstream and me I’m just the guy who gets to say “sorry I don’t have TV” three or four times a week.

Perhaps Miette is from a parallel universe?

It would explain a lot.

Assembled below are some of the Miette-read tales that attracted me to her podcast. None of them are youur typical short story – most are experimental in some way, usually they’re at least odd, strange, or weird. The thing is though, these tales that I’ve picked here are the most centric of Miette’s stories!

SFFaudio interest:

Fun With Your New Head
By Thomas Disch; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Cask of Amontillado
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race
By J.G. Ballard; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Red Room
By H.G. Wells; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

I See You Never
By Ray Bradbury; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

How the World Was Saved
By Stanislaw Lem; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Necrophil
By Felipe Alfau; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
A story about a woman who dies too much.

The Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Aprrox. 47 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Ghosts
By Lord Dunsany; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Aprrox. 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

On An Experience In A Cornfield
By Robert Sheckley; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Judgment
By Franz Kafka; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

A World of Sound
By Olaf Stapledon; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
By Ursula K. Le Guin; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

of Aural Noir interest:

A Letter to A.A. (Almost Anybody)
By Charles Willeford; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Lost Soul
By Ben Hecht; Read by Miette
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

It Had To Be Murder
By Cornell Woolrich; Read by Miette
2 MP3s – Approx. 84 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|

Podcast feed:

http://www.miettecast.com/feed/

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Audiobooks - Little Fuzzy by H. Beam PiperSFFaudio EssentialLittle Fuzzy
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Brian Holsopple
5 CDs – 5 Hours 53 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Realms
Published: November 2006
ISBN: 9781897304617
Themes: / Science Fiction / Planetary Colonization / Sapience / Law / Mining /

The chartered Zarathustra Company had it all their way. Their charter was for a Class III uninhabited planet, which Zarathustra was, and it meant they owned the planet lock stock and barrel. They exploited it, developed it, and reaped the huge profits from it without interference from the Colonial Government. Then Jack Holloway, a sunstone prospector, appeared on the scene with his family of Fuzzies and the passionate conviction that they were not cute animals but little people…

Little Fuzzy is a novel cherished by a smallish but passionate group of admirers. They seem to love it for its portrayal of the fuzzies themselves. It may be a “furry fandom” book too (but I’m a little afraid to do the research on that). I myself hadn’t heard of the novel, or much of the author, H. Beam Piper, until Little Fuzzy and pretty much everything else written by H. Beam Piper began being posted to Project Gutenberg.

My initial sense of the book was that Little Fuzzy would act as a lens through which historical colonizations could be examined – something like what was done in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word For World Is Forest. But it didn’t work out that way. Piper was not trying to explore historical events as much as what we mean by the word “sapience.” The verdict on the Fuzzies is obvious from the begining, but curiously enough the Fuzzies are still somewhat treated like children even by their human champions. Perhaps this was the only way Piper could easily characterize the right minded human’s benevolence? I wish he were alive so I could ask him about this. For the infantilization of the Fuzzies parallels some attitudes towards the aboriginal peoples facing colonization here on Earth. But like I said, the general focus is on a philosophical examination of the concept of sapience – not colonization.

After some initial trepidation I found myself hanging on the every word of this WONDERFUL audiobook. H. Beam Piper is an amazing storyteller. His homespun folksiness allows him to make grammatically wrong choices, but none that ever misconstrues his intended meaning. For example:

“He dropped into a chair and lit a cigarette. It tasted badly, and after a few puffs he crushed it out.”

I think Grammar Girl would have a problem with this noting that ‘cigarettes don’t have tongues so they can’t taste well or badly’ – despite this, I think Piper’s Little Fuzzy is some of the most transparent and plainspoken prose that I’ve ever read. Narrator Brian Holsopple doesn’t have a vast range with which to pitch his voice, but he subtly manages to give accent and attitude to every character. His voicing of the entire fuzzy vocabulary (just the one word: “yeek”) is nearly as broad – giving curiosity, understanding, determination and suggestion to every yeek in the book. There was a small editing gaffe on disc 3, a repeated line, and another similar one on disc 5 but otherwise the production was perfect.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: Ursula K. Le Guin biographical documentary NOW an MP3

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4The now 80 year old Ursula K. Le Guin looks back on her life and career and the Ursula K. Le Guin’s website is hosting the MP3 file made from the March 17th 2009 BBC broadcast interview. Have a listen |MP3|.

Writer China Mieville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.

Le Guin was a trailblazer – writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.

Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain M. Banks and Margaret Atwood.

This documentary aired Tuesday March 17th 2009 @ 11:30-12:00 BBC R4: Ursula Le Guin At 80

[via SFsignal.com and our ORIGINAL POST]

Posted by Jesse Willis

To The Best Of Our Knowledge: The Future of Science Fiction

SFFaudio Online Audio

To The Best Of Our KnowledgeTo The Best Of Our Knowledge on The Future of Science Fiction (broadcast November 23rd, 2008) features two exclusive interviews. One with Ursula K. Le Guin, in which she calls herself a “geek” and one with George R.R. Martin who thinks the distinctions between literary genres are rather unimportant. Also on board are excerpts from two audiobooks (Dreamsongs by George R.R. Martin – Random House Audio and The Call Of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft – Landfall Productions). Consequently this is my kind of show!

Here’s the official description:

Space, the final frontier. But is science fiction the final frontier when it comes to being a literature of ideas? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll wax philosophical about science fiction with two of the genre’s greatest writers — George R.R. Martin and Ursula K. Le Guin. And we’ll explore H.P. Lovecraft’s literary philosophy of “Cosmicism.”

SEGMENT 1:

George R.R. Martin has been called the American Tolkien. His epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire is up to the forthcoming volume five; and he’s published two volumes of Dreamsongs, a career-spanning anthology of his science fiction, fantasy and horror short stories with short connective essays. Martin tells Jim Fleming that he thinks all fiction is about ideas and that only the furniture changes, that is the details of setting, character and storytelling style that the author chooses to use. And we hear Martin read an excerpt from Volume I of Dreamsongs. Also, Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the most honored writers of science fiction we have. Her latest book is called Lavinia. She talks with Steve Paulson about science fiction as a literature of ideas.

SEGMENT 2:

We hear an excerpt from the Landfall Productions audiobook production of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1926 The Call of Cthulu, read by Garrick Hagon. And Jim Fleming talks with S.T. Joshi, author of the acclaimed 700 page biography H.P. Lovecraft: A Life. Joshi says Loveraft was always interested in pure science and has many imitators among contemporary writers. And we hear some music from the band H. P. Lovecraft.

SEGMENT 3:

Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. is the author of The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction. He tells Anne Strainchamps where the title of his book came from, and outlines several of the beauties

Have a listen |MP3| to the 53 minute show.

[via HuffDuffer.com]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: Ursula K. Le Guin biographical documentary

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4 Coming up on BBC R4
Ursula K. Le Guin looks back on her life and career…

Writer China Mieville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.

Le Guin was a trailblazer – writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.

Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain M. Banks and Margaret Atwood.

Airs Tuesday March 17th 2009 @ 11:30-12:00 BBC R4: Ursula Le Guin At 80

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

StarShipSofa: Aural Delights No. 68 – Kim Newman

SFFaudio Online Audio

StarShipSofa Aural Delights No. 68 – Kim Newman |MP3|

StarShipSofa Aural Delights #68 COVER

Aural Delights No. 68 Kim Newman

Editorial: “Kindle the Savior of Book Publishing” by Tony C. Smith 00:10

Poetry: “Angle Bites” by Tim Pratt 15:30

Flash Fiction: Brothers and Sisters by Matthew Sanborn Smith 18:00

Fact: Sofa Art Cover by Skeet 24:00

Fiction: The House Beyond Your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum 32:00

Fact: Movie Talk by Rob Barnett 01:03:00

Main Fiction Serial: The Serial Murders Kim Newman Part 1 of 4 01:12:00   

Fact: Fiction Crawler No. 5 Matthew Sanborn Smith 02:06:11

Narrators: Kate Baker, Gareth Stack, Paul W Campbell, JJ Campanella

Twitter #futuerjer http://tinyurl.com/futurejer

Links to Fiction Crawler No. 5:

At the Bottom of the Garden by Jo Walton

Non-Disclosure Agreement by Scott Westerfeld

The Support Technician Tango by Daniel Abraham

Big Man: a Fable by Joe R. Lansdale

The Shangri-La Affair By Lavie Tidhar

Things by Ursula K. Le Guin

Posted by Tony C. Smith