Audiobook Fix: Poe’s Children

In Poe’s Children: The New Horror, an Anthology, editor Peter Straub explains in his introduction to this audiobook that stories like the ones here defy categorization, and that’s a good thing. He realizes that there is a group of writers that have more in common with each other than they do with writers “that were [...]

Audiobook Fix: METAtropolis

METAtropolis is an all-new, exclusive audio anthology from Audible.com. It’s not only exclusive to Audible, it’s exclusive to audio—as of now, anyway; these stories don’t exist in print. I hope folks who generally avoid audiobooks give these a try, because the stories are excellent, and they are performed by first-rate narrators.

Audiobook Fix: Fiction, Read by the Author

Audiobooks are as much about the narrator as they are about the author. If the narrator is an obstacle to the story, rather than being neutral or an enhancement, then I normally stop listening and find myself a print version, if the book is important enough to me. I’ve often found myself in conversations with [...]

Audiobook Fix: A Collection of Collections

Allan Kaster is no stranger to good short fiction. He’s been publishing excellent audio versions of short stories for several years over at Infinivox, and his latest title is a collection of short stories called Mini-Masterpieces of Science Fiction. The collection runs about three hours on three CDs and contains nine short stories.

Audiobook Fix: The Best Audio Collection of All Time (So Far)

Picking the best audio collection of all time is much more difficult than picking the best audio anthology. Like I mentioned last month, there are not a lot of anthologies out there, but there are plenty of collections to choose from. Still, one stands out more than any other: Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia [...]

Audiobook Fix: The Best Audio Anthology of All Time (So Far)

Choosing the best audio anthology ever made is actually not as hard a task as you’d think because audio anthologies are, unfortunately, not all that common. In the 1990s, Dove Audio and Durkin Hayes were active in publishing audio anthologies, and Caedmon did a few in the 1970s, but overall, there’s just not a [...]

Audiobook Fix: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft is an author that I didn’t read when I was young. I’m not sure why, because I treasured a Poe collection I owned, and I liked Stephen King quite a bit. I was no stranger to horror. Whatever the reason, I didn’t pick up a Lovecraft collection until I was out [...]

Audiobook Fix: Novellas from Audible Frontiers

As I’ve watched audiobooks climb in popularity over the past several years, I’ve wondered why short fiction hasn’t caught on more with listeners. Not short stories, generally, but rather novelettes and novellas, which, in my opinion, is where a lot of the best science fiction lives. On audio, most novelettes and novellas end [...]

Audiobook Fix: Arthur C. Clarke

When I heard that Arthur C. Clarke had passed away, my reaction was probably the same as a lot of other fans. I wanted to read him again, right away. In one of his last interviews, he said that of all the things he did, he most wanted to be remembered as a [...]

Audiobook Fix: Audio Stross

Over the past several years, Allen Kaster and his crew at Infinivox have selected and produced consistently excellent short fiction in their Great Science Fiction series of audiobooks. Amongst their recent releases are three stories by Charles Stross: “Antibodies,” “Lobsters,” and “A Colder War.”
Charles Stross’s work is dense with tech information and [...]

Audiobook Fix: Wonder Audiobooks

Audible.com has recently added a bunch of short speculative fiction to its catalog. One of the more interesting new publishers there is Wonder Audiobooks, which produces unabridged versions of vintage genre fiction. Here are a few of the titles they offer:

“Fondly Fahrenheit” is Alfred Bester’s most famous short story, and it contains echoes [...]

Audiobook Fix: WotF XXIII and A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card

Audible.com is not new to publishing audio short fiction. In 2003, they published audio “Best of 2002″ collections from Asimov’s, Analog, and Fantasy & Science Fiction magazines. They followed that up with a whole year of Fantasy & Science Fiction audio goodness. Here in 2007, Audible offers another innovative audio collection: L. [...]

Audiobook Fix: Dreamsongs Vol. 1 by George R.R. Martin

Audiobook Selections from Dreamsongs: Volume 1: Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi from Martin’s Early Years by George R.R. Martin, read by Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, and Adrian Paul, is the first of three George R.R. Martin short story collections, each of which contain unabridged selections from books [...]