Roy Gray has pointed me in the direction of the BBC Audio website. On it there is a reading of Brian Aldiss’ Man In His Time to mark his 80th birthday.

Note that the link above lists the current Arts & Drama Audio listings which are updated almost constantly, so this will only be available for a short time.

Incidentally, there’s also listings for Doctor Who - Blood of the Daleks with Paul McGann as the Doctor.

Get it while it’s hot.

Episode 8 of Paul Levinson’s Light On Light Through podcast.

Episode 8 is entitled “Time Travel in Fiction and Fact” and I believe it features a brief clip and free MP3s of his Edgar-nominated radioplay, The Chronology Protection
Case.

It’s also available on iTunes.

Well worth a listen.

Kim Stanley Robinson on Hour of the Wolf

From Andy Porter and Roy Gray.

On recording from CapClave, Kim Stanley Robinson performs two readings. The first is from his novel, Fifty Degrees Below, and the second from the forthcoming sequel, Sixty Days and Counting.

This to be broadcast Saturday, November 4, between 5 and 7 AM on WBAI, 99.5 FM as part of Jim Freund’s radio program, Hour of the Wolf. The show is also streamed at http://stream.wbai.org/ and available ‘on-demand’ afterward. Go to http://www.hourwolf.com/toc.html a day or so after the broadcast, and I’ll have the link up by then.

Speaking of which, last week’s show was never aired, since our transmitter was kaput. However, guests Sarah Langan and JT Petty were troupers. We began recording the interview, only to discover trough listener calls that we were actually streaming online.

To hear this phantom show, click on this link: http://archive.wbai.org/pls.php?mp3fil=8717
After the intro, skip past the first 40 minutes, and you’ll come into the program midway, just as I turned on the mics. Most surreal, but an interesting discussion about
the nature of the horror genre(s).

Sci-fi on demand from www.area51radiostation.com. Get it when you want it!

If you’re into hearing interviews from key actors from TV SciFi shows, then you’ll probably like this. It allows you to download archived interviews. Personally, I can’t wait for the Battlestar Galactica interviews.

Content : Stuart Claw interviews Anthony Montgomery/Steve Yarwood’s Sci-fi Zone. Duration : 9 mins 49 seconds

This first show includes Part 1 of an exclusive interview between Area 51 Radio Station’s Stuart Claw and Anthony Montgomery, who played Ensign Travis Mayweather in Star Trek Enterprise. He gives us an insight into the Enterprise series and the part he played in it. As you will hear, he is clearly more than just an actor. (Part 2 of Stuart’s interview with Anthony will be available soon for a limited period only).

Also on this download is one of our excellent Sci-fi Zones with Steve Yarwood. In this one, Steve takes a look at a classic episode of Star Trek and explains why he thinks William Shatner was unsurpassed as captain of the Enterprise. (Will you agree? Listen to this Sci-fi zone and e-mail us your views. They will go out live on air.)

Information in respect of the next Sci-fi on Demand will be included in our newsletter.

The Area 51 Radio Station newsletter is a must for all sci-fi fans and includes the latest happenings at Area 51 Radio Station. If you haven’t signed up yet, be sure to do so now. There are no risks and it’s free. Why not have a look at the mailing list page and see how easy it is ?

Coming soon to Sci-fi on Demand

Jamie Bamber from New BattleStar Galactica
Captain Janeway from Star Trek Voyager
The Best of the Geoff Carter Show
Highlights from the Stuart Claw Show
Steve Yarwood’s engaging Sci-fi Zone
Interviews with the crew of Star Trek New Voyages

Online Radio Station Geared Around Science Fiction Fans.

A new online streaming radio station for scifi fans has been set up. Entitled area 51 radio station (AF1RS) it will include all manner of content such as live outside broadcasts from large events. The next big events are the California SciFi Convention and The London Expo (broadcasting to 30,000 people). There will be SciFi roundups and music from the 70s through until the present day.

There will also be guest appearences, including John Billingsley who plays Dr. Phlox in Star Trek Enterprise. John will officially open the station at 12:00 Midday on Saturday October 22 2005 - and it will run for 24/7.

At the time or writing, the radio station is being tested from October 15th, with the golive October 22nd. Therefore, until it is actually live, there may not be a stream available. Keep coming back to check.

Click on the logo to tune into world’s first SciFi Radio Station now! It will start up a popular media streaming program such as iTunes, WinAmp or RealMedia (depending on which you have installed). You can download winamp from here.

If you have any difficulties, please let us know on the contact form.

You can see the current agenda, programmes, news and extra info on the official radio site here.

Jim Kelly’s Experiment In Self-Audio-Publishing.

Jim Patrick Kelly has recorded some of his short stories and has posted them in the form of free audio books in MP3 files. They have all appeared in some outstanding journals such as Asimov’s Science Fiction, SciFiction, Realms Of Fantasy and The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction.

You can see from the list below that Jim has been writing for over two decades and the fact that he has put up his stories for free in audio format is a testement to his love of the genre.

You can tell this during his narrations too. As he says in the introduction, he is reading them as he thought them as he was writing them. His voice changes with the text, you can feel the emotion coming through every breath. The snippets of music during the start and at the end really add to the overall presentation. Thankfully there is no sound effects or added music during the text itself, making the true power of the words come through without any superfluous trimmings.

I hope that you get enjoyment from these free e-books, and in turn peruse his commercially available paperbound books and e-books.

• Bierhorst, R. G., Seera, B. L. and Jannifer, R. P. ‘Proof of the Existence of God and an Afterlife.’ Journal of Experimental Psychology. (August 1998)
• The Edge Of Nowhere (June 2005)
• Barry Westphal Crashes The Singularity (September 2002)
• Faith (June 1989)
• The Best Christmas Ever (May 2004)
• Serpent (May 2004)
• Bernardo’s House (June 2003) (Rated R)
• The Pyramid Of Amirah (March 2002)
• Itsy Bitsy Spider (June 1997)
• The Ice Is Singing (April 2003)
• Monsters (June 1992)
• Fruitcake Theory (December 1998)
• Unique Visitors (2001)

“We need med wagons for the wounded and meat wagons for the dead.”

Written By David Bishop

This time written by James Bishop, this episode gives all it should. Judge Steel is back again, getting her fair share of airtime. Death himself is played by The League Of Gentleman’s Mark Gatiss and plays the part with obvious glee (I can’t think of anyone else who would play Death so well).

The sound design is fitting, and it’s nice to know that the production team haven’t overused sound effects just because it’s aural.

Nice to see Walter is back, the poor sod.

The tale is pretty fast paced, and the crew come to together splendidly. I liked the almost comical ending. Though - no matter how hard I try, I can never read a Judge Death story with seeing some ‘tongue in cheek’ humour there, even if it maybe shouldn’t be. I guess you have to see it as that, or else you’d cry.

Recommended.

Dredd - “I allow every rookie one chance to foul up, you’ve just had yours.”

Written by James Swallow

This is the first release from Big Finish of an audio version of the 2000AD comic character Judge Dredd. At first I was in a state of trepidation as to whether this could be pulled off. I mean, comics and their characters are very visual, all the action is portrayed graphically. Would an attempt at converting visual phenomena into aural media be successful?

The story is based around a disease which affects Judges who use sleep machines. As Judges should be awake on the streets as much as possible, machines were devised to allow a Judge to get full sleep after only being in the machine for a few minutes; minimizing ‘downtime’. The disease may be tied in with the crime syndicate of Frendz.

I like the idea of introducing a recurring character in the form of Judge Steel, giving it an ‘epic’ feel as opposed to just some episodes which Judge Dredd just happens to be in. I also through that using the Mega City News in the form of bulletins and news flashes was a neat idea.

The sound effects and voices come off perfectly, from the jingles in the news to Dredd himself to the sound his Lawgiver makes.

For a first production, this is pulled off brilliantly; worth listening to rather than most of the banal crap you get on radio nowadays.