Free audiobook publisher LibriVox seeks funds

Dearest LibriVox listeners, volunteers, & supporters:

For four-and-a-half years, LibriVox volunteers have been making audiobooks for the world to enjoy, and giving them away for free. We’ve made thousands of free audiobooks that have been downloaded by millions of people; our site gets 400,000 visitors every month. To date, all our costs have been borne by a few individuals, with some generous donations from partners. However, these costs have become too big...

Learn more about LibriVox and find out how you can make a donation! Award-winning Canadian science fiction author and copyright activist Cory Doctorow sez he kicked in $100!

Robert J. Sawyer’s 2005 hard-boiled detective novella “Identity Theft” available as audiobook

"Identity Theft" (2005), a Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated hard-boiled detective novella written by Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer and set on the Red Planet, is now for sale as a downloadable audiobook from Audible.com. Narrated by Anthony Heald and produced by Blackstone Audio, "Identity Theft" is about 25,000 words long and the audiobook runs about 2.5 hours. According to a post on Sawyer’s blog, “A motion-picture version of "Identity Theft" is in the works from Snoot Entertainment in Los Angeles.”

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

Here’s an update to the list of book, magazine, newspaper and publishing stocks I’m watching, ranked by performance since January 1, 2009:

1. Books-A-Million (+ 149%)

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

Here’s an update to the list of book, magazine, newspaper and publishing stocks I’m watching, ranked by performance since January 1, 2009:

1. Borders Group (+ 195%)

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

Here’s an update to the list of 14 book, newspaper, magazine and publishing stocks I’m watching, ranked by year-to-date performance:

1. Borders Group (+ 250%)

New audio adaptation of The Martian Chronicles coming down the canal

Phil Nichols, a Ray Bradbury media aficionado and collector stationed in the UK, announced recently that The Martian Chronicles will be given its first complete full-cast audio production. Based on a fresh script written by Jerry Robbins with input from Mr. Bradbury, the full-length dramatization will be produced by The Colonial Radio Theatre of Boston.

"I plan on adapting the entire book, so I'm not sure on the running time yet. I hope to have the script finished mid-December for Ray to read through. At that time I should have a rough idea as to the length. I don't plan on an abridgment of content by any means. If we're going to do Martian Chronicles, we're going to DO Martian Chronicles," Robbins said.

Stay tuned for more info. Meanwhile, check out Tor.com’s sixth in a series of seven interviews with Ray Bradbury on the “visual nature of his fiction, the art of collaboration and the process of writing.”

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

As someone who is interested in the history and future of books, newspapers, magazines and publishing, I have been watching the year-to-date share price performance of a selected group of publicly-held companies whose business activities include the publication, sale, and/or distribution of books, newspapers, and/or magazines (and/or their electronic equivalents). Here’s the list of 14 stocks I am watching, ranked by YTD performance:

10 awesome The War of the Worlds items for bibliophiles listed on AbeBooks

1) The War of the Worlds (1897)
By H.G. Wells
Bound volume of the 1897 Cosmopolitan serialization, published simultaneously with the Pearson Magazine serialization in Great Britain. This is the first appearance of the work in the United States and predates the 1898 first edition novel; illustrated. $5,000

2) The War of the Worlds: A Newly Illustrated Digest of H.G. Wells' Famous Story (1939)
Dell Publishing's 48-page digest adaptation with comic-book style cover and b&w illustrations; tied to the famous 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles; front cover touts “When they told it on the radio … It terrified the whole country"; rear cover displays headlines from The New York Times and New York Post. $225

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

As someone who is interested in the history and future of books, newspapers, magazines and publishing, I have been watching the year-to-date share price performance of a selected group of publicly-held companies whose business activities include the publication, sale, and/or distribution of books, newspapers, and/or magazines (and/or their electronic equivalents). Here’s the list of 14 stocks I am watching, ranked by YTD performance:

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

As someone who is interested in the history and future of books, newspapers, magazines, publishing and technology, I have been watching the year-to-date share price performance of a selected group of publicly-held companies whose business activities include the publication, sale, and/or distribution of books, newspapers, and/or magazines (and/or their electronic equivalents). Here’s the list of 14 stocks I am watching, ranked by YTD performance:

1. Borders Group + 718%

2. Books-A-Million + 389%

3. Apple Inc. + 105%

4. Amazon.com + 63%

5. Google Inc. + 55%

6. News Corp. + 47%

7. Barnes & Noble + 46%

8. Pearson PLC (ADR) + 30%

9. McGraw-Hill Companies + 17%

10. The New York Times Co. + 8%

11. Thomson Reuters + 6%

12. John Wiley & Sons – 2%

13. Courier Corp. – 15%

14. Bertelsmann AG – 22%

The data, derived from Google Finance, is as of the close of business on September 15, 2009. Note that I’ve rounded up or down to the nearest whole percentage. I’ll be updating the list at the end of every month. And, yes, I'm well aware that I'm comparing apples to oranges to bananas.

Top Mars SF audiobook on iTunes

In August 2008, I put together a post about the four “Top Martian Sci-Fi Audiobooks on iTunes,” based on the iTunes official list of the Top 100 purchased Sci-Fi & Fantasy audiobooks. Now, in August 2009, I have decided to review the iTunes Top 100 to see how the list has changed over the past year. While it is unclear to me how the Top 100 is calculated and how often iTunes updates the list, only one Martian SF audiobook is ranked:

#27. Out of the Silent Planet, by C. S. Lewis (1938)

No Bradbury, Burroughs, or Wells? Go figure!

Audiobook review of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s 2005 novel Buried Deep: A Retrieval Artist Novel

Mervi’s Book Reviews has a recent and lengthy audiobook review of Buried Deep (2008, 13 hours, unabridged), a 2005 SF-CSI novel written by award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy author Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The fourth novel in Rusch’s Retrieval Artist series, Buried Deep is set on Mars and seems to have many of the elements I enjoy in a Red Planet novel. Here’s a synopsis, taken from Audible.com:

Forensic anthropologist Aisha Costard has been summoned to Mars to examine skeletal remains recently discovered beneath a building erected by the Disty aliens. The bones belong to a human woman who vanished 30 years ago with her children. She is believed to have been one of the Disappeared, outlaws wanted for crimes against alien civilizations.

To investigate the mystery of the skeleton, Aisha turns to Retrieval Artist Miles Flint. Following the trail back three decades and seeking the whereabouts of the victim's missing children, Miles discovers a deadly secret that could threaten the stability of the entire solar system.

Mervi’s audiobook review concludes that Rusch’s Buried Deep is “Another excellent addition to the series.”

Got a few minutes? Listen to narrator Jay Snyder read a sample of Buried Deep at Audible.com.

University of Liverpool acquires rare first edition of 1905 Gullivar Jones of Mars novel

According to a press release issued by the University of Liverpool on August 18th, the institution's Science Fiction Foundation Collection has acquired a rare first edition of Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905), an influential science fiction novel written by British author Edwin L. Arnold that tells the story of an American soldier’s journey to Mars. The novel was "poorly received upon publication in 1905, but has since earned a reputation as one of the most important works of 20th century science fiction." According to Andy Sawyer, the university's SF librarian, “Due to the lack of interest in the original publication of Gullivar Jones, however, the first edition of the book became rare and collectors have not seen a copy come up for sale for more than 20 years." The university acquired its copy through a bequest from the late British book dealer Ken Slater, who died in February 2008.

While first edition copies of Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation are "extremely rare and have been known to attract valuations of more than £1,000 at auction" ($1,109 on AbeBooks), you can read the novel online or download it as an e-book through Project Gutenberg or ManyBooks.net. Or, if you prefer, you can listen to a reading of the novel thanks to the folks at LibriVox.

Some SF scholars consider Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation to be the inspiration behind Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel A Princess of Mars (1912, 1917).

Pictured: University of Liverpool Science Fiction Librarian Andy Sawyer holding first edition of Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation.

Listen to a reading of author Charles Stross’s recent novelette “Trunk and Disorderly”

Published in the January 2007 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, “Trunk and Disorderly”, a comical novelette written by British SF author Charles Stross, was recorded as a free audiobook for the Winter 2008 issue of Subterranean Online magazine. Read by Sam Mowry, the recording is about 1.5 hours long and is divided into thirteen MP3 files.

Billed as “a P. G. Wodehouse meets Robert A. Heinlein as filtered through Mr. Stross’s sensibilities” work, here’s a synopsis of “Trunk and Disorderly”, taken from the review site Tangent: “The avuncular hero, Ralph, a neo-Edwardian lush who enjoys extreme Martian sky-diving, has to deal with a host of problems: his ex-robotic girlfriend, his new butler, his half-sister’s smelly and ornery pet mammoth, and, oh yes, being held hostage by an insane evil Vizier.”

The first ten pages of Charles Stross’s “Trunk and Disorderly” are available on the website of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine.

Listen to a reading of Gulliver of Mars, a classic novel by Edwin L. Arnold

Thanks to a recent post by the blog QuasarDragon,
I’ll have to make some time to listen to fan James Christopher read Gulliver of Mars (1905), a long-lost classic of Martian SF adventure written by Edwin L. Arnold that predates Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel
A Princess of Mars (1912), which starred character John Carter of Mars. The audio files of Christopher’s reading of Gulliver of Mars, which is more than 6 hours, can be downloaded for free from LibriVox.

Here’s a synopsis of Gulliver of Mars, taken from LibriVox’s website:

This escapist novel first published in 1905 as Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation follows the exploits of American Navy Lieutenant Gulliver Jones, a bold, if slightly hapless, hero who is magically transported to Mars; where he almost outwits his enemies, almost gets the girl, and almost saves the day. Somewhat of a literary and chronological bridge between H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jones’ adventures provide an evocative mix of satire and sword-and-planet adventure.

Interested in old libraries? Checkout “The Library in Edwin Lester Linden Arnold's Gulliver of Mars (1905)", a piece which I posted on this blog back in October 2008.

Pictured above: Cover of the 1964? Ace paperback, with artwork by Frank Frazetta.

A Reading of Rebels of the Red Planet, a novel by Charles L. Fontenay

Thanks to a recent post by the blog QuasarDragon, I’ll be spending some time this weekend listening to voice actor Mark Nelson read Rebels of the Red Planet (1961), a classic SF novel written by Charles L. Fontenay and one that is in the public domain. The audio files of Nelson’s reading, which is about 5 hours, can be downloaded for free from LibriVox.

Here’s a description of Rebels of the Red Planet:

Dark Kensington had been dead for twenty-five years. It was a fact; everyone knew it. Then suddenly he reappeared, youthful, brilliant, ready to take over the Phoenix, the rebel group that worked to overthrow the tyranny that gripped the settlers on Mars.

The Phoenix had been destroyed not once, not twice, but three times! But this time the resurrected Dark had new plans, plans which involved dangerous experiments in mutation and psionics.

And now the rebels realized they were in double jeopardy. Not only from the government’s desperate hatred of their movement, but also from the growing possibility that the new breed of mutated monsters would get out of hand and bring terrors never before known to man.

Note the cool cover art by Ed Valigursky!

Ben Bova’s trilogy of Mars novels recorded as unabridged audiobooks

Blackstone Audio has recorded as unabridged audiobooks a trilogy of Mars novels written by six-time Hugo Award-winning science fiction author
Ben Bova. All of the works feature character Jamie Waterman, a geologist, and are read by voice actor Stefan Rudnicki.

Mars (1992/2009), the first audiobook in Bova's trilogy, is comprised of 15 CDs and is about 18 hours long. Here’s a detailed description, taken from the website of Blackstone Audio:

This grand epic adventure from six-time Hugo Award–winning author Ben Bova tells the irresistible story of man’s first mission to that great unconquered frontier, Mars. Technically plausible and compellingly human, Bova’s story explores the political, scientific, and social repercussions of our greatest quest yet: the search for evidence of life beyond Earth’s boundaries.

Half-Navajo geologist Jamie Waterman has been selected for the ground team of the first manned expedition to our mysterious neighbor planet. Joining an international team of astronauts and scientists, he endures the rigors of training, the dangers of traveling an incredible distance in space, the challenges of an alien landscape, and the personal and political conflicts that arise when the team must face the most shocking discovery of all.

Return to Mars (1999/2009), the second audiobook in Bova's trilogy, is comprised of 13 CDs and is about 16 hours long. Here’s a detailed description, taken from the website of Blackstone Audio:

Six years after the first manned Martian expedition, a second has been announced, one motivated purely by its profit potential. Jamie Waterman, half-Navajo, half-Anglo geologist, is commander of the new exploratory team and thus must contend with a bitter rivalry, a disturbing new emotional attraction, and deadly “accidents” that appear to be sabotage, all of which could doom the mission to failure. But there is more at stake than these concerns for there are still great secrets to be uncovered on this cruel and enigmatic world, not the least being something he glimpsed in the far distance during his first Martian excursion: an improbable structure perched high in the planet's carmine cliffs, a dwelling that only an intelligent being could have built.

Mars Life (2008/2009), the third audiobook in the Bova's trilogy, is comprised of 10 CDs and is about 12 hours long. Here’s a detailed description, taken from the website of Blackstone Audio:

Jamie Waterman has made an important discovery on Mars. A cliff dwelling reveals the fact that an intelligent race lived on the red planet sixty-five million years ago, only to be driven into extinction by the crash of a giant meteor. But now the exploration of Mars is itself under threat of extinction, as the ultraconservative New Morality movement gains control of the U.S. government and cuts off all funding for the Mars program.

Meanwhile, Carter Carleton, an anthropologist who was driven from his university post by unproven rape charges, has started to dig up the remains of a Martian village. Science and politics clash on two worlds as Jamie desperately tries to save the Mars program and uncover who the vanished Martians were.

You can listen to samples of all three audiobooks or purchase them from Blackstone Audio in other formats, such as tape or MP3-CD.

Thanks to the blog SFFaudio for the tip!

Authors Guild responds to protest by Reading Rights Coalition over attempt to mute Amazon's Kindle 2 e-reader

Here’s the opening paragraph in a statement from the Authors Guild in response to a protest held yesterday afternoon in New York City by the Reading Rights Coalition, a nonprofit organization that represents millions of disabled people who cannot read print, over the Authors Guild’s attempt to mute the text-to-speech function in Amazon’s new Kindle 2 e-reader:

“April 7, 2009. Today, the National Federation of the Blind led a protest in front of the Guild's offices in Manhattan. This protest stems from Amazon's announcement in February that it would allow publishers to disable the voice-output feature of its Kindle 2 after we had objected that the feature threatened audio markets, violated authors' copyrights and exceeded the e-rights licenses that authors granted publishers. ..."

Read the entire statement from the Authors Guild.

Reading Rights Coalition to protest Authors Guild’s opposition to text-to-speech feature in Amazon's Kindle 2 e-reader

The next battle in the war over the text-to-speech feature in Amazon’s Kindle 2 e-reader will be fought tomorrow afternoon in New York City. According to a statement from the Reading Rights Coalition, a nonprofit organization that represents millions of disabled people who cannot read print, the Coalition will “protest the threatened removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2 which promised for the first time easy, mainstream access to over 255,000 books. Hundreds of disabled Americans (the blind and people with dyslexia, learning difficulties, spinal cord injuries, seniors losing vision, stroke survivors) will march to demand that the Authors Guild reverse its decision.”

The informational protest will take place outside the headquarters of the Authors Guild in New York City at 31 East 32nd Street on April 7, 2009, from noon to 2:00 p.m.

If you support the Reading Rights Coalition but cannot attend the protest, consider signing a petition: Allow Everyone Access to E-books. At the moment 1,786 people have signed the petition. The goal is 10,000 signatures.

Nominated for Nebula Award, Ruth Nestvold’s short story “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide” now a free aural delight

Thanks to the hard work of the folks at the audio science fiction magazine StarShipSofa, you can listen to a reading of “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide”, a short story written by Ruth Nestvold that was published in the January 2008 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and which has been nominated for a 2008 Nebula Award. You can download the audio through iTunes or as a mp3 file (about 18 minutes).

Also, thanks to the generosity of Gordon Van Gelder, editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, you can read Ruth Nestvold’s “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide” online for free.