Official Blurb
Published in 1909, this science fiction short story takes place in a future where mankind, seemingly no longer able to survive on earth’s surface, exists in a vast underground civilization known as “The Machine”. Each individual lives in an isolated, fully-automated cell-like room, connected to global information and communication systems, but cut off from all direct experience. The narrative focuses on Vashti, an “advanced” mother whose total dependence upon The Machine has led her (like most others) to increasingly reverence and even worship it; and her “untechnological” son, Kuno, who has begun to deny The Machine’s omnipotence and even seeks to escape if possible. Kuno’s radical views are validated as the The Machine’s systems begin to malfunction and eventually fail completely.
The story has proved to be far ahead of its time, with remarkably accurate predictions of modern technologies, and paints a chilling picture of over-dependence on them. This recording marks the 100th anniversary of the original publishing.
My Review
This a short story presented here in three chapters. It's a sci fi story set in a world where man is organised, fed, watered and clothed by "the machine". It's one womans story as she discovers her son who has been outside of the machine.
It's well written and kept me listening. The story has a way of constantly revealing facts about this odd ( to us anyway ) future where all wants are met. A very interesting society has developed with odd behaviours and attitudes.
The story ends with a pathos filled creshendo that I found appealing.
It's not a high action story nor a terrible high tech one, it's about the people in this strange environment.
I listened to the whole thing in one sitting when I hadn't meant to, the reader was a joy his presentation excellent. However if this reader doesnt appeal to your preferences I've noticed that Librivox has a second version of the story by others.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first chapter
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Darkfever
Official Blurb
Enter the world of Karen Marie Moning's New York Times bestselling Fever series with her first ever audiobook podcast, Darkfever. MacKayla Lane's life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she's your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks...until something extraordinary happens.
When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death-a cryptic message on Mac's cell phone-Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister's killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed-a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae....
As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister's death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac's true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book-because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands....
My Review
Yuk.
Oh.. you want more?
This is a part of the urban fantasy boom that's been going on for a few years and this is one of my few dips into this particular pond. It's not a genre I dislike it's just not one that I normally choose.
So when this started I was impressed with the reader although the intro/outro guy got right on my nerves from the first chapter.
The lead character is presented as a Barbie girl from the south and sadly ends up having about as much character. The story is presented as a kind of diary and sufferes terribly from too much diaretric eccentricity and naval inspections.
For example, I don't care what the characters are wearing and the author seems in love with the idea of dressing her barbie doll character and friends. For goodness sake nearly every scene seems to start with the character getting dressed and telling us about their socks, shoes and shirt etc etc etc , who cares(!) where's the plot?
So as you can gather, I didn't like it. It had it's moments of action and occasional horror but between these were far too many "filler sections" that padded out the story and consisted mostly of inane drivel.
Harsh? Yep, but I really disliked this story, and resented what started out with such promise turning into mush.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3
Total Score 5/9
Download it from Podiobooks ( but only if you dont like yourself! )
Listen to the first chapter
Enter the world of Karen Marie Moning's New York Times bestselling Fever series with her first ever audiobook podcast, Darkfever. MacKayla Lane's life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she's your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks...until something extraordinary happens.
When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death-a cryptic message on Mac's cell phone-Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister's killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed-a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae....
As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister's death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac's true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book-because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands....
My Review
Yuk.
Oh.. you want more?
This is a part of the urban fantasy boom that's been going on for a few years and this is one of my few dips into this particular pond. It's not a genre I dislike it's just not one that I normally choose.
So when this started I was impressed with the reader although the intro/outro guy got right on my nerves from the first chapter.
The lead character is presented as a Barbie girl from the south and sadly ends up having about as much character. The story is presented as a kind of diary and sufferes terribly from too much diaretric eccentricity and naval inspections.
For example, I don't care what the characters are wearing and the author seems in love with the idea of dressing her barbie doll character and friends. For goodness sake nearly every scene seems to start with the character getting dressed and telling us about their socks, shoes and shirt etc etc etc , who cares(!) where's the plot?
So as you can gather, I didn't like it. It had it's moments of action and occasional horror but between these were far too many "filler sections" that padded out the story and consisted mostly of inane drivel.
Harsh? Yep, but I really disliked this story, and resented what started out with such promise turning into mush.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3
Total Score 5/9
Download it from Podiobooks ( but only if you dont like yourself! )
Listen to the first chapter
Monday, 29 June 2009
Last Enemy
Official Blurb
An undercover Paratimer has disappeared on assignment while in an alternate time line, and it’s up to Verkan Vall of the Paratime Police to save her. To do so, he must infiltrate a universe in which assassination is an honorable profession, and reincarnation a scientific fact. Will Verkan Vall survive in a world of killers and the undead?
My Review
This is one of H. Beam Pipers time line traveling para-time stories. The plot is given away in the official blurb.
The story itself is a little slow in getting started, or at least slower than is usual in Pipers stories, but progress' and builds towards a great and exciting end. What more can you want? All in all there is not a lot of sci fi. The time travel is incidental in the story and does not feature, the weapons and tech are meerly incidental. What it does feature is an investigation into the behaviour of a society where reincarnation is a fact and assassination is common thing and death nothing to be feared.
The reader is Mark Douglas Nelson who is an excellent reader. He's done an outstanding job in reading this story.
Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 7/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first chapter
An undercover Paratimer has disappeared on assignment while in an alternate time line, and it’s up to Verkan Vall of the Paratime Police to save her. To do so, he must infiltrate a universe in which assassination is an honorable profession, and reincarnation a scientific fact. Will Verkan Vall survive in a world of killers and the undead?
My Review
This is one of H. Beam Pipers time line traveling para-time stories. The plot is given away in the official blurb.
The story itself is a little slow in getting started, or at least slower than is usual in Pipers stories, but progress' and builds towards a great and exciting end. What more can you want? All in all there is not a lot of sci fi. The time travel is incidental in the story and does not feature, the weapons and tech are meerly incidental. What it does feature is an investigation into the behaviour of a society where reincarnation is a fact and assassination is common thing and death nothing to be feared.
The reader is Mark Douglas Nelson who is an excellent reader. He's done an outstanding job in reading this story.
Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 7/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first chapter
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 014
Official Blurb
Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, first published between 1951 and 1962, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.
My Review
This offering from the Librivox community really surprised me. I've listened to their Sci Fi collection offerings before and as a rule find that I dont like the differing voices and differing subjects which dont blend into what I consider a pleasant whole. The individual stories might be good but I can't listen to them "as a book". I hope that makes sense.
This collection surprised me because I really enjoyed it! All of the readers were very good and all of the stories hit it off with me. I thought all of the selected stories were interesting and of good quality.
The story "R.S.V.P." even had me laughing. The story "vanishing point" put me in mind of a Lovecraft type story, very insightful.
So overall, if you're thinking of trying one of Librivox's Sci Fi collections this is one I reccomend.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to one of the stories
Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, first published between 1951 and 1962, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.
My Review
This offering from the Librivox community really surprised me. I've listened to their Sci Fi collection offerings before and as a rule find that I dont like the differing voices and differing subjects which dont blend into what I consider a pleasant whole. The individual stories might be good but I can't listen to them "as a book". I hope that makes sense.
This collection surprised me because I really enjoyed it! All of the readers were very good and all of the stories hit it off with me. I thought all of the selected stories were interesting and of good quality.
The story "R.S.V.P." even had me laughing. The story "vanishing point" put me in mind of a Lovecraft type story, very insightful.
So overall, if you're thinking of trying one of Librivox's Sci Fi collections this is one I reccomend.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to one of the stories
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Hunters out of Space
Official Blurb
Originally published in the May, 1960 issue of Amazing Science Fiction Stories. Jack Odin has returned to the world of Opal, the world inside our own world, only to find it in ruins. Many of his friends are gone, the world is flooded, and the woman he swore to protect has been taken by Grim Hagen to the stars. Jack must save her, but the difficulties are great and his allies are few.
My Review
It took me a while to realise what was going on in this story. It starts with a man decending by ropes to the the inside of the earth to reach this land called Opal. That threw me because I thought I was getting into a sci fi novel. As it turns out I was.
The book reads like a sequel, not a part-two type sequel but rather a story where the characters have a history and shared events that I know nothing about. It is a story in and of itself.
After descending to the bowels of the earth the story takes a jaunt out into space and becomes the science fiction story I thought I had downloaded. It is not a high tech type of sci fi, but has a rather Barsoomian feel. The space ships throw nuke's at each other and burning rays but every one goes about armed with a sword and uses it too!
The reader has a nice voice and releates the story at a good pace and uses a smattering of voices to brighten the story and characters.
Over all a good story that started a little odd for a sci fi novel but the end result was as good and as much fun as any of the John Carter-Burroughs novels.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first chapter
Originally published in the May, 1960 issue of Amazing Science Fiction Stories. Jack Odin has returned to the world of Opal, the world inside our own world, only to find it in ruins. Many of his friends are gone, the world is flooded, and the woman he swore to protect has been taken by Grim Hagen to the stars. Jack must save her, but the difficulties are great and his allies are few.
My Review
It took me a while to realise what was going on in this story. It starts with a man decending by ropes to the the inside of the earth to reach this land called Opal. That threw me because I thought I was getting into a sci fi novel. As it turns out I was.
The book reads like a sequel, not a part-two type sequel but rather a story where the characters have a history and shared events that I know nothing about. It is a story in and of itself.
After descending to the bowels of the earth the story takes a jaunt out into space and becomes the science fiction story I thought I had downloaded. It is not a high tech type of sci fi, but has a rather Barsoomian feel. The space ships throw nuke's at each other and burning rays but every one goes about armed with a sword and uses it too!
The reader has a nice voice and releates the story at a good pace and uses a smattering of voices to brighten the story and characters.
Over all a good story that started a little odd for a sci fi novel but the end result was as good and as much fun as any of the John Carter-Burroughs novels.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first chapter
Monday, 1 June 2009
Tom Swift and his Electric Runabout
Official Blurb
Tom Swift enters an upcoming race with his specially-designed prototype electric race car. But as he makes the final preparations and adjustments, days before the race, he discovers a plot that would bankrupt not only his family, but also everyone else that relies on the local bank (which is the target of a nefarious bank-run scheme). Tom must solve the mystery and stop the criminals behind the plot before he’ll test himself on a 500 mile race against some of the best electric cars and skilled drivers in the United States. Listeners are forewarned that some elements and characters included in Tom Swift books portray certain ethnic groups in a very dated manner that modern readers, and listeners, may find offensive. Despite the racially stereotyped behavior and pronunciation in the books, the Reader believes it makes sense to read what’s written in order to be faithful to the author’s intent.
My Review
This is a fun little story, an example of speculative fiction of it's day. the Tom swift stories are all light hearted stories where you are always guarenteed a happy ending.
The cuteness of the lead character constant enemy being referred to as "the bully" gets me everytime. It's oldy worldy to me and I find that appealing.
As with the other Swift novels it all hinges around a new invention of the young Tom Swift, a genius inventor of devices. In this case the driving force is a Prize race for electric cars. We follow the hero of the story as he conceives the invention, makes it a reality and then enters the race. Along the way there are adventures and troubles and of course run ins with "the bully" and his pals.
All in all a really fun little story. the reader in this case was perfect for the story. His voice is upbeat and matches the tone of the story itself
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first chapter
.
Tom Swift enters an upcoming race with his specially-designed prototype electric race car. But as he makes the final preparations and adjustments, days before the race, he discovers a plot that would bankrupt not only his family, but also everyone else that relies on the local bank (which is the target of a nefarious bank-run scheme). Tom must solve the mystery and stop the criminals behind the plot before he’ll test himself on a 500 mile race against some of the best electric cars and skilled drivers in the United States. Listeners are forewarned that some elements and characters included in Tom Swift books portray certain ethnic groups in a very dated manner that modern readers, and listeners, may find offensive. Despite the racially stereotyped behavior and pronunciation in the books, the Reader believes it makes sense to read what’s written in order to be faithful to the author’s intent.
My Review
This is a fun little story, an example of speculative fiction of it's day. the Tom swift stories are all light hearted stories where you are always guarenteed a happy ending.
The cuteness of the lead character constant enemy being referred to as "the bully" gets me everytime. It's oldy worldy to me and I find that appealing.
As with the other Swift novels it all hinges around a new invention of the young Tom Swift, a genius inventor of devices. In this case the driving force is a Prize race for electric cars. We follow the hero of the story as he conceives the invention, makes it a reality and then enters the race. Along the way there are adventures and troubles and of course run ins with "the bully" and his pals.
All in all a really fun little story. the reader in this case was perfect for the story. His voice is upbeat and matches the tone of the story itself
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Librivox
Listen to the first chapter
.
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Beautiful Red
Official Blurb
The future is boring. Technology has solved the world's most pressing problems, leaving people with tedious work and mundane play. Jack is a Security Officer Class 5, which sounds important, but isn't. However, her banal life as a cubicle worker by day and tinkerer by night is interrupted when she discovers that her employer's computer system has been invaded.
Jack enlists the help of her only friends – her co-worker, Gilles and Adrian, an online friend she's never met – to help her track down the source of the invasion. Her investigation leads her to a shadowy group called the Red, where Jack learns that not everyone lives a life of quiet servitude.
Even though she believes that the Red are responsible for a series of gruesome attacks, Jack begins to become attracted to their worldview. In her search for the people responsible for the attacks, she confronts the leaders of the group as well as her own burgeoning sense of self-awareness.
My Review
I really can't tell you any more about the story than the blurb has given away but I can tell you that this is a near future that appeals to my geeky side.
The internet has been replaced with the everywhere-nets. People dont use computers to access the nets but rather use implants in their heads. A person walking past you on the street with glazed eyes is likely to be accessing the nets and either checking their bank details or on "the boards" chatting with friends.
People are also getting body mods, physical changes to their bodies for arts sake, fancy a pair of horns!?
The reader is good. Took me a little while to tune in to her style, but once there it is was worth the effort. She has a lilt and a way of applying tone that is both subtle and engaging.
All in all I really liked the story, the ending caught me off guard and it was a fun trip. Dont expect high action or laser guns but you will find you self in a very high tech future.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Podiobooks
Listen to the first chapter
The future is boring. Technology has solved the world's most pressing problems, leaving people with tedious work and mundane play. Jack is a Security Officer Class 5, which sounds important, but isn't. However, her banal life as a cubicle worker by day and tinkerer by night is interrupted when she discovers that her employer's computer system has been invaded.
Jack enlists the help of her only friends – her co-worker, Gilles and Adrian, an online friend she's never met – to help her track down the source of the invasion. Her investigation leads her to a shadowy group called the Red, where Jack learns that not everyone lives a life of quiet servitude.
Even though she believes that the Red are responsible for a series of gruesome attacks, Jack begins to become attracted to their worldview. In her search for the people responsible for the attacks, she confronts the leaders of the group as well as her own burgeoning sense of self-awareness.
My Review
I really can't tell you any more about the story than the blurb has given away but I can tell you that this is a near future that appeals to my geeky side.
The internet has been replaced with the everywhere-nets. People dont use computers to access the nets but rather use implants in their heads. A person walking past you on the street with glazed eyes is likely to be accessing the nets and either checking their bank details or on "the boards" chatting with friends.
People are also getting body mods, physical changes to their bodies for arts sake, fancy a pair of horns!?
The reader is good. Took me a little while to tune in to her style, but once there it is was worth the effort. She has a lilt and a way of applying tone that is both subtle and engaging.
All in all I really liked the story, the ending caught me off guard and it was a fun trip. Dont expect high action or laser guns but you will find you self in a very high tech future.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 6/9
Download it from Podiobooks
Listen to the first chapter
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