Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Source: Podiobooks (iTunes| individual mp3s)

Length: ~5.5 hr
Reader: Mark Douglas Nelson

The book: How great would it be to live in a world without death and without need? Would everyone be happy? Would everything be perfect? In his first novel, Cory Doctorow imagines a not-so-distant future in which people have the ability to upload their consciousness into a digital format, allowing them to "restore from backup" should anything go wrong with their physical bodies, such as death. Problems of food supply, basic needs, and pollution have been taken care of through technological advance, so there's no need for money as we think of it. Instead, people accumulate "whuffie," a digital currency based on social standing and creative accomplishments.

In this society, the protagonist Jules is living in Disney World and working on restoring the animatronics to the vision of the park's engineers. This puts him at odds with others who would like the attractions to be updated to the latest brain-immersive technology. If this doesn't seem like an incredibly important conflict, then we're in agreement. While the ideas and world expressed in this book are fascinating, the story and characters fall a bit flat.

Rating: 7 / 10

Reader: Mark Douglas Nelson has a radio announcer's voice that's clear and expressive. His declamatory style can seem a bit corny sometimes, but I've rather have his voice than someone who doesn't care. The recordings have a bit of music played over the beginning and end of each section, but the story itself is unaccompanied and clean.

Buy a paperback copy of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Source: Lit2Go (iTunes link)
Length: 14 hours, 23 minutes
Reader: Rick Kistner

The book: In 1864, the Confederate States Navy Huntley became the first submarine to sink a military vessel. Within a few years, most of the major navies of the world, including the French and British Navies, were experimenting with submarines. In this atmosphere of militarization of the ocean's depths, Jules Verne wrote Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, a novel about an advanced submarine that had great potential as a weapon, but was mainly used for exploration and science. The ship, and its enigmatic owner Captain Nemo, have become so well known in popular culture that it is worthwhile going back to the source to understand what their creator was trying to convey through their story.

As someone who first encountered the Nautilus through reruns of the 1954 Disney movie and the Disney World ride, I found the whole book to be a bit dry. Yes, there are some exciting parts like the voyage to Atlantis, the encounter with island natives, and the "devilfish" attack, but much of the book reads like a travelogue, with lists of destinations and types of fish seen there. Presumably this was more exciting in Verne's mind, exasperated as he was by politics and failed revolutions. Verne's novel encapsulates the fantasy of being able to escape the surface world and embrace the mysterious life of the ocean.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: I've commented many times on Kistner's reading. It's good without being outstanding. He does seem to rush his speech at times, but that is something the ear can adjust to within about 15 minutes. The recording is clear and well-produced. I recommend using the iTunes link for downloading even if you're not using an Apple device.

Buy a paperback copy of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

"Second Variety" by Phillip K. Dick

Source: Librivox (Part 1 | Part 2)
Length: 1 hour, 24 minutes
Reader: Greg Margarite

The story: In case you haven't noticed, I usually try to pair the stories I review with the book I've reviewed earlier in the week. I like the way that interesting comparisons sometimes result from the juxtaposition of two narratives. This week, the book was a science fiction novel that is no longer plausible because the basis in scientific fact has been overturned. In this science fiction story, the science aspect is still plausible, but the political situation it depicts is history.

In the story, a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the U.N. has turned Earth into a battlefield. American scientists left robots called "claws" to battle the Soviets, then fled Earth to the moonbase. When a U.N. General returns to Earth to negotiate a peace treaty, he discovers what the Russians already know -- that the robots have modified themselves into a human form to better trap unsuspecting soldiers. No one can be trusted - anyone could be a robot in disguise.

If you feel you've heard this before, it's because Dick's story has become hugely influencial in science fiction. The 1995 film Screamer's was directly based off the story. More significantly, both The Terminator and the newer version of Battlestar Galactica have elements of Dick's paranoid thriller.
Rating: 8 /10

The reader: I've reviewed Margarite's readings before on this blog, including his tendency to give a William Shatner-like delivery. The more I listen to him, though, the more I like him. It's a good thing that I 've grown to love his readings, since he has an extensive catalogue of science fiction stories that he's narrated for LibriVox.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

Source: The Drama Pod
Length: about 10 hours
Reader: Winfred Henson

The book: With modern science at our backs, it's hard to take Journey to the Center of the Earth seriously. We know that there's no secret chambers beneath the Earth's surface hiding dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. From the standpoint of modern geology and biology, calling this book science fiction rather than fantasy is only a matter of its place in the history of the genre.

Yet, in the book, Verne himself, through another character, ridicules his own concept of geology. This technique is also used in Conan Doyle's The Lost World (previously reviewed). In both cases, it gives the author the chance to have an exciting, yet improbable, adventure while also wink at his audience to let them know he's not totally taken in by his own fantasies.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: Henson has a deep clear voice. His speech pattern is precise, with distinctly enunciated words. He has a bit of a Southern accent in his narrating voice, but creates accents for the characters. The over-the-top voice he creates for the uncle may strike people as either silly fun or a bit annoying. The recording itself is well-produced with good quality sound.

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly

Source: Lit2Go (iTunesU download)
Length: 6.4 hours
Reader: Fadi Tavoukdjian

The book: Frankenstein  is one of those books that's more fun to talk about than it is to read. I rarely felt much excitement or suspense except for chapter in which Victor Frankenstein creates his monster and a few other isolated incidents. The first few chapters after the framing story were particularly dull.

In retrospect, however, it's a great book. The symbolism and thought experiments are classic. This is not just a fable about science overreaching itself; it's a examination of humankind's place in the cosmos. How do we live our lives rightly and well when we're left alone on Earth by our Creator? The religions of the world have attempted to answer this question but even with the wisdom of the Bible, I'm often as confused as the monster as to what to do in some particular situations. Shelly makes the monster more human than his creator, giving us  a stand-in for our sometimes bewildering exploration of our lives.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: Fadi (I'm not going to try to spell his last name more than once in this post) is one of the better readers I've heard from Lit2Go. He's got a smooth American accent, but affects his voice for the various narrators. He often speaks too quickly, and this speed sometimes causes him to make minor trips over consonants. There are occasional noises of page turns and bumps, but these may be overlooked.

"Moon Graffiti" by Jonathan Mitchell

Source: The Truth (mp3)
Length: 15 minutes
Readers: Matt Evans and Ed Herpsman

The play: In 1969, William Safire wrote a speech for Richard Nixon entitled "In the Event of Moon Disaster". It was to be read to the nation if the members of the Apollo 16 mission were not able to return to Earth. Jonathan Mitchell, of American Public Media, wrote "Moon Graffiti" as a dramatization of that very possible alternate history.

Having been born after the moon landing, I've always seen the event in terms of history - something that inevitably happened.  This play opened my mind to the danger and uncertainty that the astronauts were facing when they signed up for NASA. Confronted with the worst possible outcome of a space mission, not blowing up on the launchpad but being stranded in space, I have a greater appreciation for the bravery of the astronauts and cosmonauts who have explored our corner of the universe.

Rating: 8 / 10

The readers: Having directed for public radio's Studio 360 and other programs, Mitchell has great talent at creating a setting out of sound.  Here, he recreates the moon landing not as the broadcast audio that we all know, but from inside the landing module. The result is thrilling. In a few places, the audio is garbled, but this is on purpose -- not being able to understand everything that's happening is part of the program. Public radio continues to astound me with its great programs like this one. If you haven't donated to your local station yet, you should.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Public domain)

"A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum

Source: LibriVox (mp3)
Length: 58 minutes
Reader: Greg Margarite

The book:  In 1970, The Science Fiction Writers of America voted "A Martian Odyssey" as the second best science fiction story of all time, after Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall" (previously reviewed). While I disagree that it's that great of a story, I can appreciate how influential it was on all science fiction that came after it.

The tale is told by astronaut Dick Jarvis to his fellow explorers on the first human mission to Mars. After Jarvis's sidetrip from the expedition ends in a rocket crash, he sets out on foot for the main rocket. Along the way, he meets several alien species including the intelligent bird-like creature who introduces itself as "Tweel."

Tweel and Jarvis's attempts to communicate and understand one another comprises the leap that Weinbaum made over his contemporaries. Weinbaum imagines an intelligent being who is not just odd sounding or funny-looking, but actually alien in its thought patterns. This took the alien in science fiction from being either a bug-eyed antagonist or a green-skinned stand-in for other humans, to being a rational but unknown xenobiology species. Although this isn't among the best science fiction stories you'll ever read, it is a good one that all fans of the genre should know.

Rating: 7 / 10


The reader: Greg Margarite has read numerous science fiction stories for LibriVox. He has an expressive voice that clearly conveys the printed page. In this story, Jarvis is narrating his adventures to the other members of the crew, so Margarite gives the astronaut a cocky tone that fits well with his character. He emphasizes the international nature of the rest of the crew by giving them accents for their few lines. Margarite narrates other Weinbaum stories in the Collected Public Domain Works of Stanley G. Weinbaum at LibriVox, including the sequel to this story "The Valley of Dreams."

The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 6 hours, 6 minutes
Reader: Mark Nelson

The book: Philip Jose Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series, in which people from throughout history are reincarnated in a mysterious land with a river running through the center. That mish-mash of people from disparate times results in people like 19th century explorer Richard Burton meeting Nazi leader Herman Goring. In this standalone novel, Farmer does a similar mashup, this time with genres. The Green Odyssey reads like a combination of A Princess of Mars (previously reviewed) with a pirate adventure novel.

Astronaut Alan Green has been living as a harem-slave to a queen on a semi-barbarous planet since his spaceship crashed there two years ago. He manages to escape imprisonment and flee to a merchant ship so he can search for two other astronauts rumored to have recently crashed on another part of the planet. The science-fiction coolness factor is that that on this planet, ships don't travel across the water, but instead roll across giant plains of grass. Although I found the ending a bit disappointing, the rest of the novel was good pulpy adventure in an improbable, but interesting, setting.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: Mark Nelson is a great reader. I've reviewed his readings multiple times here at Free Listens: Right Ho, Jeeves, "The Call of Cthulu," Plague Ship, and the previously-mentioned A Princess of Mars.  I really can't think of anything else to say about him that I haven't already. He has everything you'd want in a LibriVox reader: a clear strong voice, a good sense of pacing, and the ability to do a few voices without going over the top.

"Eight Miles" by Sean McMullen

Source: StarShipSofa (mp3)
Length: 1 hr, 3 min (total episode is 1 hr, 47 min)
Reader: Simon Hildebrandt

The story: Like this week's audiobook review, this story harkens back to the 19th century, when balloons and steam engines were the cutting edge of technology. The "Eight Miles" in the title refers not to Eminem's movie, but the unheard-of distance into the air that a client wishes a balloonist to take him. Accompanying the two will be the client's unusual guest, Angelica.

You may have heard of the speculative fiction subgenre of Steampunk, or perhaps seen movies or comic books based on the genre. Steampunk combines science fiction with alternate history set in the Victorian Era, as in the works of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. "Eight Miles" is nominated for a 2011 Hugo Award in the "Best Novellette" category, so it makes for a great introduction to Steampunk.

Rating: 7 / 10


The reader: Simon Hildebrant has a marvelous voice for narration. He performs English and French accents with great skill. StarShipSofa's podcast is envisioned as an audio magazine, usually with multiple short articles and fiction leading up to the main fiction for the episode. The whole Hugo-Award winning podcast is hosted by the cheerful Scottish host Tony C. Smith. For this episode, the main fiction, "Eight Mile" starts at 43 minutes, following a few author interviews and an article on romance and speculative fiction author Ella Scrymsour.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

Source: Tantor Audio
Length: 4 hours
Reader: Scott Brick

The book: In one of the great classics of science fiction, an English gentleman-scientist introduces into science fiction canon a scientific means for traveling through time: by moving freely through the fourth dimension. After telling his friends and performing a test-run with a model, the time traveler proceeds to journey into the future. He expects technological marvels and enlightened humans, but finds something much different.

H.G. Wells shows himself to have an astute understanding not only of physics, but also of both sociology and biology. In a time when Progress and Eugenics were the watchwords, Wells was able to see the opposite side of these ideas. He knew that technological advance meant better lives for some, but not always for those at the lower end of the class structure. He understood that evolution has great power to change humanity, but that it is not progress to a more perfect being, but a process that reacts to the pressures of the environment. Forgive the pun, but Wells was ahead of his time.

Rating: 9 /10

The reader: Scott Brick is a professional reader and one of the best in the business. He reads this story with a cultured English accent, appropriate for the frame story narrator's position. The voice of the Time Traveler is performed with a weary dreaminess, similar to Gene Wilder's performance in the 1971 film Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

This book is being provided for free for a limited time by Tantor Media. Click the link to Tantor above, and sign up for a free account. You'll need a valid email address, but you will not need a credit card and you will not have to cancel any membership. The offer lasts until May 31, 2010.

Entered in Cym Lowell's Book Review Wednesday. Follow the link for book reviews from other bloggers.

"Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 1 hr, 13 minutes
Readers: Brett and Theresa Downey

The story: In the Italian city of Padua, medical student Giovanni takes up residence overlooking a garden. The garden is owned by the scientist Dr. Rappaccini who has bred the plants to produce the most deadly poisons known to man. Tending this deadly garden is the doctor's beautiful daughter, Beatrice, with whom Giovanni inevitably falls in love.

The garden in this story has clear allusions to the Garden of Eden. Beatrice, then, is both Eve and tempting fruit. But the Creator of this garden is not a righteous deity, but a cunning scientist. So, in addition to being a romance about forbidden love, this is also a fable about man's desire to embrace dangerous scientific knowledge, and the consequences of that act.

Rating: 8 / 10

The readers: Although two separate readers team up for this story, the recording is an unabridged reading, not a radio-style adaptation. Brett reads the narration and most of the voices, while Theresa reads the part of Beatrice. Brett is an expressive amateur reader, but his narration is handicapped by several glaring mispronunciations. His voices for the characters are appropriate and allow for easy identification of the speakers. Unlike many male readers, he knows his limitations and allows Theresa to perform the part of Beatrice, at which she does a fine job.

(Painting Lady Lilith (1868) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. No copyright restrictions.)

"The Library of Babel" by Jorge Louis Borges

Source: mpages.org (mp3)
Length: 21 minutes
Reader: George Guidall

The story: I've always dreamed of a massive home library, with books lining every wall and shelves reaching up multiple stories. In this story, one of his most famous, Borges extends this book-love into an entire universe of books. Each of these books is different, but where did they come from and what is their meaning?

In a story stripped down to just a setting without plot or characters, Borges still manages to keep my interest and introduce some thought-provoking themes. Throughout his work, Borges is obsessed with religion, perception vs. reality, and the power of the written word. In this story, the books, some of them unintelligible, are thought by some of the residents of this universe to have a hidden meaning, and by others to be completely random, having meaning only by chance.

In our own universe, we likewise have natural feature of great complexity, but also with randomness embedded in them. Are they created by a greater Intelligence or the result of a series of random events, replicated and built up over time to build complexity? I don't think this is a necessary dichotomy. I believe that it is possible, like the people of the Library of Babel, to have things arise from random events, but still contain meaning for an observer with the intelligence to interpret it.

Rating: 8 / 10

The reader: Guidall is a professional voice actor who reads this story with a calm, scholarly tone that fits this story perfectly. With little of plot or characters, this would be an easy story for a reader to fall into a drone. Instead, Guidall uses pauses and changes in pitch to emphasize his words and changes in thought. This is a great reading of a classic story. Note: This is a commercial recording under copyright. It is unclear whether the hosting website has permission to post it.

(etching by Erik Desmazieres)

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

Source: Lit2Go (iTunesU link)
Length: Approx. 4 hours
Reader: Lorraine Montgomery

The book: Have you ever stopped to consider the world from another perspective? I don't just mean looking through the eyes of another culture, gender, or ethnic group, though that certainly is important to being a humane thinking member of society. I mean a perspective so alien and different, it requires travel to another dimension.

In Flatland, Abbott imagines life in two dimensions, where all people are geometric figures. Abbott satirizes his own Victorian class-conscious society by making different geometric shapes correspond to different classes and relegates women to mere line segments. Beyond the social satire, Flatland provides an excellent introduction to the concepts of geometry and multi-dimensional space, as the main character, a square, visits one dimensional Lineland in a dream, then is visited in turn by a sphere from Spaceland.  Considering life in different dimensions is a mind-bending exercise that opened my comprehension of the world and forced me to think about the possibilities of other worlds beyond this one.

Rating: 8 / 10

The reader: Montgomery proves an excellent tour guide to the world of Flatland. She has a pleasant American accent that is clear and engaging. Since the book is told from the perspective of a male, the voice doesn't quite fit with the narrator, but that's a minor quibble. Like all publications of Lit2Go, these recordings are provided by the University of Central Florida as part of a Florida Department of Education grant. If you'd like an alternate reading of the same book, the LibriVox version of Flatland  (zipped mp3) read by Ruth Golding is equally good.

(Entered in the Book Review Wednesday contest at Cym Lowell. Follow the link for reviews of other books by various bloggers)

The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Source: Librivox (zipped mp3's or M4B file)
Length: 3 hr, 49 min
Reader: Ralph Snelson

The book: Set during World War I, this adventure novel starts with the sinking of an Allied ship by a German U-boat. Bowen Tyler, his dog, and the beautiful Miss Lys La Rue are rescued by a British tug, then captured by the same U-boat. Through a series of prisoner revolts, double-crosses and sabotage, the U-boat ends up at an uncharted island near Antarctica. Here, they are attacked by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts.

Sounds like a good, old-fashioned adventure, right? Well, it is for the first two-thirds of the book. The final third consists of Burroughs dragging his characters to an unsatisfying conclusion. As in The Lost World, I expect some amount of pseudoscience in these types of early science fiction adventures, but Burroughs' mystical version of evolution on the island severely strained my suspended believability. Perhaps the narrative is more fully resolved in the sequels, but after finishing, I felt cheated rather than wanting to know more.

Rating: 6 / 10

The reader: Snelson has a deep voice with an American Southern accent. His reading and recording quality are amateur, but satisfactory. His characters have distinctive, but not silly, voices. Snelson's matter-of-fact narrating tone doesn't add much to the story, but neither does he ruin the novel by trying to over-embellish the action.

"Firstborn" by Brandon Sanderson

Source: Tor.com (mp3)
Length: 1 hour, 13 minutes
Reader: Brandon Sanderson and Emily Sanderson

The story: If you keep up with fantasy literature, you probably know Brandon Sanderson from his own large fantasy novels, such as the excellent Mistborn, the juvenile fantasy Alcatraz series  or as the writer called in from the bullpen to finish the late Robert Jordan's sprawling Wheel of Time fantasy series. So for Sanderson to be writing space opera science fiction and a short story is two unusual situations at once. He's so successful, at least in this story, that I wonder why he doesn't write more short science fiction.

"Firstborn" is set in a galactic empire where space navies do battle with rebel forces, complete with space fighters dogfights. Dennison Crestmar, a young nobleman in the Imperial Navy, is struggling as an unsuccessful officer who is constantly compared to his older brother, the famed admiral Varion Crestmar, who has never lost a battle. The setting, plot, and characters seem ripe for a series of clichés, but somehow Sanderson crafts these parts into an engaging and inventive story.

Rating: 8/10

The reader: Sanderson, as he freely admits, is not a professional voice actor. He doesn't have the richness of sound that the pros have and the recording quality has a bit of hiss. Yet, Sanderson is a very good amateur reader. He is expressive and seems to be enjoying reading his own work. When his wife checks in to read some of the middle portion of the story, she does an equally fine job. Although he does a good job here, I don't think I'd like to see Sanderson narrate those fantasy novels he's best known for; those things are long and I'd rather have him writing sequels than reading!

Thousandth Night by Alastair Reynolds

Source: Subterranean Press (part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15)
Length: Approx. 3 hours
Reader: Sam A. Mowry

The story: In the far future when Thousandth Night is set in, humankind has advanced to the point where almost anything is possible: living for hundreds of thousands of years, travelling across the galaxy, and transforming the structure of the human body to almost any form. One thing that is not possible is breaking the laws of physics by travelling or communicating faster than the speed of light.

One group of humans, the Gentian line, meets every few thousand years. For 999 days each member shares his or her experiences from travelling through the galaxy. Then on the thousandth night, they elect the member with the most entertaining presentation to prepare the next reunion.

Reynolds introduces together a number of space opera technologies on the framework of a mystery during one Gentian reunion. He later reused these technologies in the setting for another novel, House of Suns.  Although the big science fiction ideas are the star, Reynolds never loses sight of the effects of science on humans. In fact, one of the major themes of the novella is our efforts change the physical world around us and the long-term consequences, good and bad, of those actions.

Note: This story contains sexual situations and may not be suitable for younger listeners.

Rating: 8 / 10

The reader: Mowry has a wonderfully smooth voice with a richness like a less gravelly Charlton Heston. His reading is clear and his pacing is rhythmic. He doesn't try to charge the reading with emotion that isn't there, but instead remains restrained. The only complaint I have is that his fairly straight reading sometimes makes it difficult to know what is narration and what is dialog. After a bit, I got into the story and had no trouble with knowing when characters were speaking and enjoyed his reading tremendously.

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

Source: Uvula Audio (part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 )
Length: 4 hours, 53 minutes
Reader: Craig Nickleson

The story: Traditionally, horror has explored the unknown and unknowable: ghosts, demons, and similar superstitions. With the coming of the 20th century and the seemingly inexorable progress of science, it appeared that these superstitions would be overcome by triumphant rationalism. In H.P. Lovecraft's horror, progress brought with it new horrors, not of the unknown, but of knowing too much.

This novella is Lovecraft's most critically admired, though I prefer some of his shorter stories. This tale follows an Antarctic expedition that makes some startling discoveries about prehistoric times and wakes something that should have been left undisturbed. . . If it sounds like you've heard this story before, that's because this novel was hugely influential on later writers. I usually am a bit disappointed to read an influential work, since the familiarity of the copies make the original seem, perversely, unoriginal. At the Mountains of Madness is no exception, but if you can ignore what you've seen or read before, this story still has the power to chill and thrill.


Rating: 7/10


The reader: Craig Nickerson's baritone works well as the voice of the narrator, geologist William Dyer, who tells the story of his polar expedition. When Dyer begins his story, Nickerson's strong voice reflects the hardness of a man who has experienced terror and is reluctantly sharing it. As the story progresses, he adds a quiver to his voice, bringing the listener along with Dyer's horror at his recollection. The recording does have a bit of an echo and some background noise, which can distract from the storytelling, but once again, Uvula Audio does a good job at bringing a classic to free audio.

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s or M4B file)
Length: 5 hr, 22 minutes
Reader: Alan Winterrowd

The book:  Halloween is getting close, so for the remainder of October, I'll be posting reviews of horror novels and stories here at Free Listens. House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson is the perfect place to start, since it was a major influence on the writing of H.P. Lovecraft and ushered in a new type of supernatural horror novels for the 20th century.

Two gentlemen vacationing in Ireland find a manuscript in the ruins of an old house. In it, the former owner of the house describes how his house lies on the border of a demonic realm and how he ends up having to defend himself against pig-like invaders from this other dimension. The beginning of this narrative is eerie while the climax is heart-thudding terrifying, but a large section of the middle, in which the narrator describes a hallucinogenic dream in which he travels to the end of the world, dips into boredom. Apart from this middle section, the novel is a short, spooky classic of horror literature.

Rating: 7/10

The reader: Winterrowd is a voice that I haven't come across before. His voice is strong and confident, with an American accent. He gives a fairly straight reading, without much emotion. This doesn't mean that his reading is dull - he varies his pace and emphasis - but he doesn't try to embellish the text, which can be good or bad, depending on your taste. In some early chapters, there's a faint ringing in the recording, but later on this problem seems to go away and the sound is fine.

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang

Source: StarShipSofa (mp3)
Length: 1 hr, 10 min (story is about 45 min)
Reader: James Campanella

The story: This time travel story, winner of the 2008 Hugo Award for best novellette, is set in caliphate Baghdad. This unusual setting for science fiction gives the story its unique flavor and allows it to feature an unusual approach to the old trope of a time travel story.  Chiang gives a nod to Arabian Nights by writing several stories within a framing story. Unlike Arabian Nights, where the framing story was simply an excuse to tell a diverse mix of unrelated stories, here the stories intertwine and touch one another.

Like many time travel stories, this one focuses on the consequences of our actions in life. Unusually for this genre, Chiang explores the uses of forgiveness and repentance on how we view the past. Interestingly, this echoes St. Augustine's views on the nature of time and forgiveness. We cannot travel through time in our own world, but by asking forgiveness we can try to change how we and others see our past.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: Every time I listen to Campanella narrate a story, I come away more impressed. The man is a master of voices. In this story, he mimics the melody of a Middle Eastern accent, then shifts it to create different characters. He is a middle-aged man, a young man, an old man, and an evil thief. He even reasonably impersonates a young woman and an old woman, a feat that I consider the pinnacle of achievement for a male narrator. The Starship Sofa podcast is a reliable source of good science fiction audio, winning a Hugo Award itself this year. This story fills the first half of the episode linked to above.

The Variable Man by Phillip K. Dick

Source: LibriVox (Zipped mp3s)
Length: 2 hr, 49 min
Reader: Gregg Margarite

The book: In the distant future, the expansion of Earth's colonies has stalled due to a cold war with the empire of Proxima Centauri. Like the Cold War of Phillip K. Dick's time, the war has ground to a stalemate because computer analysis shows that neither side can conclusively win. A new faster-than-light bomb may turn the tide in Earth's favor. As Earth mobilizes for war, a malfunction in a time probe brings Thomas Cole forward from the early 20th century into the far future.

Old science fiction tends to have the problem of newer technology passing it by. In this case, the entire motivation for the plot, the wiring of a faster-than-light bomb, was made irrelevant 5 years after publication with the invention of the integrated circuit. Science fiction isn't just about technology, though. At its heart, science fiction is about positing a world that is in some ways different from our own and conjecturing how people would act in this world. In this novella, humankind has given up control of their world; they've given control of decisions to computers, control of their electronics to the manufacture, and control of making things over to specialists. Although the specifics of this novel are far outdated, the themes are as important today as they were in the 1950s. 


Rating: 7/10


The reader: Greg Margarite has done a number of recordings of science fiction stories for LibriVox, but this is the first of his that I have reviewed at Free Listens. Margarite is a good match for classic science fiction since, like James T. Kirk, he has a habit of putting Emphasis on Almost Every other Word. After a brief time where I found this annoying, I quickly dropped in to the story and Margarite's narration seemed to fit the novella perfectly. His style may not be for everyone, but I thought it was well-done.