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Audiobook review: Viriconium by M. John Harrison, read by Simon Vance

Posted on 2012-02-16 at 14:02 by Sam

Last month the blog welcomed contributor Dave Thompson with his review of Tim Powers’s The Stress of Her Regard, read by Simon Vance. Today he returns with another review, setting his ears on Viriconium by M. John Harrison, read by Vance for Neil Gaiman Presents:

Review by Dave Thompson: “A Not As Young Man’s Return Journey to Viriconium”

I have been to Viriconium once before – and appropriately – I find that the landscape of the city seems to have shifted since the last time I was here. Sometimes, it’s a bit difficult to find your way around, because as author M. John Harrison once stated, Viriconium is a place that cannot be mapped. It is its own mythology.

Viriconium is three novels and a collection of short stories. The first book – The Pastel City was my favorite last time, and might still be. It’s a tale of technological wastelands millennia in the future, filled with heroes, villains, princesses, and magic. It had lightsabers – baans, or energy swords, years before Star Wars came out. It has teagus-Cromis, the finest swordsman in the land, who was an even better poet. It’s a straightforward epic fantasy that isn’t a doorstop, and it’s the epitome of cool.

A Storm of Wings is the second novel, and Harrison makes some incredibly interesting choices, working very hard to do something radically different than he did the last time he brought us here. It’s a difficult listen at times because instead of fighting monsters, the heroes of the story are fighting something that ends up being much more abstract. It’s the longest of the stories, and it feels the longest. That said, it might also be the one I’m most eager to revisit.

The third novel is In Viriconium. Again, very different from the two that went before it, but this time the experiment is a glorious one – like watching the Coen Brothers make an urban fantasy farce riffing on epic fantasy tropes. It’s laugh-out-loud hilarious at one moment, then deeply disturbing in the next.

Then we get to Viriconium Nights, the short story collection, which is really interesting. Occasionally, characters from the previous books appear, but not always, and almost never quite how we remember them. Here is where Viriconium truly becomes an unmapped city – where all the contradictions of what’s come before in its history and characters are put on display. 

Simon Vance is our tour guide through all this, showing off the different existences of a world, and tying them all together. He does a fantastic job reading Harrison’s stories.

It’s challenging, yes. It might even be frustrating. But I’ll be damned if I’m not already fantasizing about a return trip.

—-

Dave Thompson is the host and co-editor of PodCastle, the fantasy fiction audio magazine. His own fiction has been published by Bull Spec and Apex Magazine, among others. You can follow him on Twitter @krylyr.

Posted in regular | Tagged dave thompson, m john harrison, neil gaiman presents, review, simon vance, viriconium

Release Week: Stephen King's The Stand; Reese, Kittredge, and Simmons; Zebrowski, Gunn, and Lieber

Posted on 2012-02-15 at 15:30 by Sam

Coming in at nearly 48 hours, the big title this audiobook release week is The Stand By Stephen King, narrated by Grover Gardner for Random House Audio:

Not only is the recording unabridged, it’s the “complete and uncut” version of King’s classic post-apocalyptic tale, “includ[ing] more than 500 pages of material previously deleted, along with new material that King added as he reworked the manuscript for a new generation.” First published in it’s “abbreviated” (yet still doorstopping) form in 1978 and nominated for a World Fantasy award, Books on Tape released a two-part audio cassette version in 1987, read by Gardner, long out of “print”.

ALSO OUT TUESDAY:

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Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged release week

Steampunk'd : Audible.com "asked Mark Hodder, author of the Burton and Swinburne series and steampunk aficionado, to fill us in on what the genre is all about"

Posted on 2012-02-14 at 16:15 by Sam

Link: Steampunk’d : Audible.com “asked Mark Hodder, author of the Burton and Swinburne series and steampunk aficionado, to fill us in on what the genre is all about”

Includes a little 4-paragraph answer from Hodder, along with a selection of 15 audiobook titles, including Hodder’s Burton and Swinburne series, along with Boneshaker, The Dream of Perpetual Motion: A Novel, The Difference Engine, Infernal Devices, and more:

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The Coode Street Podcast (Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe) talk audiobooks with Ellen Kushner

Posted on 2012-02-12 at 02:23 by Sam

Link: The Coode Street Podcast (Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe) talk audiobooks with Ellen Kushner

“This week we invited award-winning actor, broadcaster, editor and writer Ellen Kushner to join us to discuss the excellent audiobook adaptation of her novel Swordspoint, which was recently released by Audible, her thoughts on the rise of audiobooks, and her many other projects.”

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SF/F for Dog-Lovers?

Posted on 2012-02-12 at 02:20 by Sam

Listening to Kevin Hearne’s Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book 1 this weekend two things struck me. First, that narrator Luke Daniels, whom I enjoyed on the first two volumes of the Wild Cards series and have spotted as the voice behind a Red Bull radio spot, really is darn near a soundalike for Nick Podehl, the voice of Patrick Rothfuss’s KingKiller Chronicles. (Side note: Hounded and The Name of the Wind are both on sale for $4.95 right now.)

Second, and the reason for this post, is that one of the characters of Hounded is Oberon, a sausage and tummy rub focused Irish wolfhound who the eponymous Iron Druid has taught to speak telepathically, and that both Hearne’s and Daniels’s characterizations are very enjoyable. This led me to try to remember some memorable dogs in recent sf/f audiobooks, and I came up close to empty — Carl from John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation, read by Wil Wheaton, being another memorable dog which immediately came to mind, and he made do without benefit of telepathy!

A cursory search turned up high marks for the Disreputable Dog in Garth Nix’s Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr, read by Tim Curry, but I’m not personally familiar with that series, and so I decided to simply ask the question: what are some good science fiction and fantasy books, preferably in audio, that feature memorable dogs?

(Going a bit further afield to wolves, such as the direwolves in George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series seems fair play, but let’s leave the werewolves out of the discussion, shall we?)

Posted in regular | Tagged questions

Problem

Posted on 2012-02-08 at 15:06 by Sam

harpermedia:

charmedchancer:

Do I want to buy “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac? or “The Great Gasby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald? 

Both.  

(It’s possible we may have a slight bias, but they’re both great recordings)

One vote for the excellent Tom Parker narration of On the Road. Though I’ve heard good things about Harper’s production, too. :)

Posted in regular

The Guilded Earlobe gives an "A" to Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon

Posted on 2012-02-08 at 14:49 by Sam

Link: The Guilded Earlobe gives an “A” to Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon

“Quick Thought: Throne of the Crescent Moon is the rare fantasy that seems to do everything right in an accessible, highly readable way. This book will thrill fantasy fans, and make them long to discover even more about Saladin Ahmed’s intriguing world. Even better, this is the type of accessible fantasy that I would have no trouble recommending to people whether they are fans of the genre or not.”

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Audible.com week-long $4.95 sale on first books in a series

Posted on 2012-02-07 at 21:08 by Sam

Ending Feb 14, Audible.com has unveiled a $4.95 sale for first books in a series. Making things easier on sf/f fans is that this time, the sale does have a dedicated sf/f category. Making things harder is that there are still 85 audiobooks in the category! So, here are the titles which most catch my eye:

 

And if your interests can sometimes run into the young reader / young adult category, there’s a pretty good list in there as well:

Posted in regular

The Guilded Earlobe reviews Wild Cards Vol. 2: Aces High

Posted on 2012-02-07 at 15:52 by Sam

Link: The Guilded Earlobe reviews Wild Cards Vol. 2: Aces High

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Release Week: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, Oliver Wyman narrates a Swanwick masterwork, and the return of Neil Gaiman Presents

Posted on 2012-02-07 at 15:24 by Sam

My most anticipated release of a packed week in audiobooks is Throne of the Crescent Moon By Saladin Ahmed, Narrated by Phil Gigante for Brilliance Audio [IndieBound MP3-CD link | iTunes Audiobook link]:

Published concurrent with the DAW hardcover, Ahmed’s debut is a welcome new voice in fantasy. Beginning with a short, dark prologue of torture which introduces us to a powerful, evil raiser of ghuls known as “the gaunt man” and his jackal-faced assistant, we are then introduced to our atypical hero, Dr. Adoulla, ghulhunter: set in a teahouse rather than an inn; set with cardamon tea and a book of poetry rather than stew and a tankard of ale; set with a 60-year old, portly, tired protagonist who longs for retirement rather a group of young adventurers longing for fame and treasure. Haunted by a lingering dream of his beloved city run through by a river of blood — a vision introduced in more sinister detail by the jackal-faced ghul in the prologue — Adoulla nonetheless finds the strength to… stand up from his tea and face the day. In terms of the audiobook, Gigante’s characterizations really are something here, from the voices of demonic jackal-ghuls to Adoulla, to a far-flung cast of characters from cross-eyed restaurateurs to the regal Falcon Prince, beggars, on and on. The principal narration is performed in a tone which fits both the dark and yet somehow also, in its way, playful content, as Ahmed’s abiding love for fantasy and D&D as source material are evident. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of this first book in a series. Related: Ahmed is the subject of today’s “Big Idea” piece on Scalzi’s Whatever blog.

Today also brings Stations of the Tide (1991) By Michael Swanwick to audio, narrated by the outstanding Oliver Wyman for Audible Frontiers — “a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.”

 

And it’s not the only Swanwick which Audible Frontiers published today, as 2002’s Bones of the Earth is also out, narrated by Kevin Pariseau, along with 1993’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter (above right), narrated by Eileen Stevens. The latter, a World Fantasy, Locus, and Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist, is a book I’ve heard a lot about and look forward to finally getting a chance to “read”.

Today also marks the return of Neil Gaiman Presents after an almost 2 month hiatus with The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy By Avram Davidson, Narrated by Robert Blumenfeld, and White Apples (2002) By Jonathan Carroll, Narrated by Victor Bevine:

 

A few words from Neil on The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy: ”We picked the Eszterhazy stories for Neil Gaiman Presents because I wanted to convey the joy and delight of Avram Davidson’s short stories. This is the first place all of the Eszterhazy stories have been collected together, including “The Odd, Old Bird”, which was not part of the print edition of The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy, but could be found instead in the collection The Other Nineteenth Century. If you love fantasy, if you love alternate worlds, or if you just love good stories well-told, that’s who Avram Davidson is - someone who knows a great deal more than you do and is damned if both of you aren’t going to have a great time in Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania.”

A few words from Neil on White Apples: ”In his performance, Victor Bevine manages to convey three aspects of Vincent’s personality: the womanizing hedonist he was in life, the now-dead fellow trying to control his rising panic who realizes his one-night-stand knows today is his mother’s birthday; and, ultimately, the loving, heroic family man who undertakes a big task for the sake of his unborn son and - incidentally - the rest of humanity. That’s a tall order for any narrator, but I wasn’t surprised when the accomplished actor Victor Bevine made the character come alive.”

ALSO OUT TUESDAY:

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Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged oliver wyman, release week, saladin-ahmed
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