The SFFaudio Podcast #231 – Jesse and Luke Burrage (from the Science Fiction Book Review Podcast) talk to audiobook narrator Simon Vance.

Talked about on today’s show:
Jonathan Davis, Pat Fraley, Scott Brick is the Brad Pitt of audiobooks and Simon Vance is the George Clooney of audiobooks, how Simon Vance got started, reel to reel tape recorder, Winnie The Pooh, BBC Radio 4, 1980s, Brighton, RNIB, Grover Gardner, George Guidall, The Book At Bedtime, Margaret Thatcher, California, San Francisco, Christian and devotional audiobooks, “we sound more intelligent (but we’re not)”, Stieg Larsson, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Audiofile Magazine, Earphone Awards, England, Sweden, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the apprenticeship, Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan, a classic dystopia, Thirteen (aka Black Man), The Steel Remains, The Cold Commands, artfulness and in-artfulness of narration, Doctor Who, overwhelming music -> overwhelming emotion, The Lord Of The Rings, the good narrators do the unexpected, “boo”, Dune by Frank Herbert (the full-cast audiobook), Goodreads.com, Simon Prebble, V For Vendetta by Steve Moore, the comic + the movie + Simon Vance = great audiboook, Natalie Portman was awesome, Stephen Rea, most novelizations are terrible, Hugo Weaving, James Bond, Ian Fleming, AudioGo, Blackstone Audio, the Green Knowe books, Listen And Live, Kate Fleming, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, a complicated book, a second chance, The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast review of The Prestige (episode #177), the movie of The Prestige, a final trick, one of the best Science Fiction movies of the last ten years, a thinking man’s book (and movie), The Illusionist, stage magic vs. CGI magic, The Magic Circle, Left for Dead: The Untold Story Of The Tragic 1979 Fastnet Race by Nick Ward and Sinead O’Brien, survival, Antarctica, fiction vs. non-fiction, a cabinet of heads, WWII, the Patrick O’Brian books (the Aubrey–Maturin series), Master And Commander, the incomplete book 21, Robert Hardy and Tim Piggot-Smith, what SFF Simon Vance book should we check out?, The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough, The Exodus Towers, The Plague Forge, zombie apocalypse, aliens, “good honest adventure”, Pan Books Of Horror, c, Rama, Rama II, The Man In The High Castle, Philip K. Dick, Mark Twain, Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, a PDF listing Simon Vance’s audiobooks, out of print audiobooks, Audible.com, Christopher Priest’s other audiobooks are done by other audiobook narrators, Peter Ganim, Robert J. Sawyer, The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks, rights issues, keep your audiobooks.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Luke and Juliane review The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds (also reviewed in epiisode 019) and share their top five science fiction weapons.

Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp.

Buy this book at Amazon, or discuss this book at Goodreads.com

Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog

Follow Luke on twitter: http://twitter.com/lukeburrage

Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and “The Monster Story Conference”, so download them for free at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/fiction.html

Check out listener recommended books: http://www.goodreads.com/lukeburrage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

As part of the Culture series book club, Luke and Juliane review Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks.

Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp.

Buy this book at Amazon, or discuss this book at Goodreads.com

Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog

Follow Luke on twitter: http://twitter.com/lukeburrage

Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and “The Monster Story Conference”, so download them for free at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/fiction.html

Check out listener recommended books: http://www.goodreads.com/lukeburrage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Luke reviews Last Argument of Kings and the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp.

Buy this book at Amazon, or discuss this book at Goodreads.com

Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog

Follow Luke on twitter: http://twitter.com/lukeburrage

Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and “The Monster Story Conference”, so download them for free at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/fiction.html

Check out listener recommended books: http://www.goodreads.com/lukeburrage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The SFFaudio Podcast #230 – The Red Room by H.G. Wells, read by Simon Vance. This is a complete and unabridged reading of the story (24 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Luke Burrage, Bryan Alexander, and Simon Vance.

The Red Room (aka The Ghost Of Fear) was first published in The Idler, March 1896.

Talked about on today’s show:
Are there any supernatural elements in The Red Room?, what is the genre of this story?, Gothic Fiction, a deconstruction of the gothic, the ultimate psychological horror story, the apparatus of gothic horror, a psychoanalysis of horror, what we do to ourselves, we scare ourselves, the scary clothes horse, “as long as this house of sin endures”, what happened to the candles, Luke’s theory, what is the sin?, the old people, bad candles?, trick candles?, a Scooby Doo interpretation of the story?, coincidence, how reliable is the narrator?, the origins of the horror are in a fake scare, the changing description of the men, distorted and crouching, the man with the shade, shadow?, ghost?, a blue phial, a green shade, a story of generational transfer, the rising generation of science, the significance of the narrator’s age (28 years), what’s up with the gun?, an impossible sturdiness, the unknowableness of your own mind, the final word – or is it?, The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James, Eric S. Rabkin, an evil relationship, Ganymede with an eagle (Zeus), cup-bearer is a euphemism, does the Chinaman statuary represent the Yellow Peril?, clothing fashioned in dead brains, the generational interpretation, the grotesque, why not three norns?, the three disabilities, a tremendous tremor, 150% spillage, a mocking shadow, a pro-science story, fire = knowledge, the light of science, the return of ignorance with the return of darkness, why is the narrator there?, is this a Hound Of The Baskervilles situation, the previous tenant, the glass before the fire, the three mirrors, Mise en abyme, “your own choosing”, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, what side in the public debate of new spiritualism, it felt modern to Luke, The Pit And The Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, Dracula is a contemporary of The Red Room, the subterranean passage, Eric is a big Freudian, a meticulous forensic analytic description, this isn’t Mulder this is Scully, Simon Vance has voiced Dracula twice, Fangland (a modern 60 Minutes style retelling of Dracula), updates to Dracula, The Dracula Tapes, The Stone Tape (1972), byte by byte, Nigel Kneale, The Quatermass Experiment, Lorraine Castle, generic European castle, skeptics haunted by a ghost that isn’t a ghost, a modern Gothic horror story, is it the carbon monoxide coming off the fungus?, the stone as a medium, solid state recording, a scientific explanation, a Lovecraftian pre-human recording, it may not be need to be remade, Quentin Tarantino remakes bad movies as a good movies, haunted digital media, Alien, MOTHER is basically HAL, Demon Seed, the anti-Japaneses bias as a more modern Yellow Peril, the medium of the tale, the staircase, “it’s not there’s nothing there”, the good-time gal, the wrong interpretation, The Crawling Chaos by H.P. Lovecraft and Winifred V. Jackson, becoming lost in your own head, he brought the ghost into the room, spirits as ghosts, why is it a red room?, red in the flames, it’s like the grate is a prison, a slick tunnel to the red room, a womb like room, a beige room, Ash spurting sperm everywhere, a haunted castle in space, Alien as the opposite of Star Wars, the science hero angle, gothic explique, teasing out a Gothic reading, in medias res, Freudian spaces, on this night of all nights, its like their casting a spell, is he a journalist?, Simon thinks the narrator is the new owner, Christopher Priest, The Prestige, why Christopher Priest is not as popular as he should be, his head and his lips are bloody, a bashed face, The Door In The Wall by H.G. Wells, is the story open, Luke is skeptical about the openness and the double blooding, belying the begrudgement, the curious escape,”H.G. Wells is a genius writer”, The War Of The Worlds from the alien perspective, Little Wars, “a heavy blow at last upon my forehead”, an almost 2nd person POV shift, “global warming is a fake”, the haunted man not the haunted room, Gene Wolfe, gothic markers, Henry James, Boon, the judgements of history, Wells’ agenda, The Time Machine, The Chronic Argonauts, horrific jellyfish and rabbits, nameless characters, minimal information, the Wells-Wolfe connection, The Shadow Of The Torturer, the always unreliable narrator, Understanding Comics by Scott Mccloud, Hello Kitty, part of the appeal of the Twilight books is in how badly drawn Bella is, inviting blankness, Things To Come.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Luke and Juliane review Player of Games by Iain M Banks.

Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp.

Buy this book at Amazon, or discuss this book at Goodreads.com

Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog

Follow Luke on twitter: http://twitter.com/lukeburrage

Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and “The Monster Story Conference”, so download them for free at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/fiction.html

Check out listener recommended books: http://www.goodreads.com/lukeburrage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Luke and Juliane introduce their upcoming read-through of the Culture novels as a tribute to the late Iain M Banks.

Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp.

Buy this book at Amazon, or discuss this book at Goodreads.com

Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog

Follow Luke on twitter: http://twitter.com/lukeburrage

Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and “The Monster Story Conference”, so download them for free at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/fiction.html

Check out listener recommended books: http://www.goodreads.com/lukeburrage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Luke runs down some top five lists of best classic science fiction novels, top science fiction novels since starting the SFBRP, most disappointing science fiction novels, top science fiction series, plus other top five lists by SFBRP listeners.

Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp.

Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog

Follow Luke on twitter: http://twitter.com/lukeburrage

Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and “The Monster Story Conference”, so download them for free at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/fiction.html

Check out listener recommended books: http://www.goodreads.com/lukeburrage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Luke reviews Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie.

Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp.

Buy this book at Amazon, or discuss this book at Goodreads.com

Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog

Follow Luke on twitter: http://twitter.com/lukeburrage

Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and “The Monster Story Conference”, so download them for free at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/fiction.html

Check out listener recommended books: http://www.goodreads.com/lukeburrage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Luke reviews Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K Dick.

Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp.

Buy this book at Amazon, or discuss this book at Goodreads.com

Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog

Follow Luke on twitter: http://twitter.com/lukeburrage

Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and “The Monster Story Conference”, so download them for free at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/fiction.html

Check out listener recommended books: http://www.goodreads.com/lukeburrage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download