Ghost Rider
© Pocket Star Books
To Read or Not to Read: The Rise of the Audio Book
By: Pat FerraraDate: Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Greg Cox gives Ghost Rider its film tie-in book treatment, Kage Baker releases a collection of never-before-published The Company stories, and a handful of Anne McCaffrey classics move to the audio book realm in this week’s Book Buzz.
Happy Tuesday everyone! This week we’ll be briefly looking at the conception of the audio book and its possible directions as a new media format for our beloved paper and ink counterpart. Due to their increasing popularity (and growing number of releases) an ‘Audio Books’ section will now be included in this column when applicable. But first let’s talk about our more traditional publications…
Aussie native Juliet Marillier, author of such popular fantasy series as the Sevenwaters Trilogy and the Bridei Chronicles, ventures into the young adult fiction realm with her first teen release, Wildwood Dancing, on hardback. Corgi Books re-releases Robert Swindells’ award-winning, chronologically spliced thriller Timesnatch (1995) on paperback while Kage Baker’s The Company series gets fleshed out a little more with a collection of eight brand new stories in the hardcover release Gods and Pawns.
Acclaimed science fiction writers Frederik Pohl and William Hodgson get their own collections via Tor and Night Shade Books, respectively. Pohl’s compilation, Platinum Pohl is released on paperback today with his award-winning “Fermi and Frost” novelette among many other ‘best of’ stories. William Hodgson’s hardback The Dream of X and Other Fantastic Visions marks the fifth volume of Hodgson’s collected fiction and features the novel The Dream of X as well as other ghost related fiction.
Speaking of ghosts, the film tie-in edition of the Ghost Rider novel by Greg Cox gets its paperback debut, featuring the trials and tribulations of daredevil Johnny Blaze and his fight against one of hell’s deadliest escapees, Blackheart. Although I initially thought this movie had tanker written all over it, I’m not afraid to admit what many of you may be thinking after watching the extended trailer… it could be half decent!
Brilliance Audio backs fantasy and sci fi author Anne McCaffrey with five new MP3 CD releases of her work from four different series, which brings us to this Weekly Book Buzz’s main topic. Let me first of all preface this discussion by stating that I’ve never listened to a book on tape, CD, or any other format. Personally I think I’d find the narration of another person a little distracting; Why settle for someone else’s rendition when you have the almighty power of the mind’s eye to bring any story to life?
Despite what I may think, however, my opinions haven’t limited the success of this fairly new market. Originating with the tape adaptation of Colombian author David Sanchez Juliao’s short stories back in 1975, the audio book industry has expanded to encompass books of every genre from around the globe. It wasn’t up until just recently though that the audio book was really able to jump off your local library’s shelves and into consumer bookstores.
First looked at as a venture to primarily serve the blind and to help curb illiteracy, the audio book (or “book on tape”) has been able to find its niche as new media technologies improved. The hard to toggle tape was overtaken by the easy to search CD (with handy chapter selection tracks), and now the comparatively clunky CD is being faded out as MP3 and WMA files become the dominant mode for book transmittance.
It’s not hard to imagine how the audio book has found such a dedicated audience in the US. As work commutes get longer and early morning radio shows remain annoyingly abrasive, it makes sense that people would prefer to listen to a book on tape during the bulk of their solitary driving. The easy to digest format of the audio book is great for those who need their eyes elsewhere and, as some of my friends always like to claim, for those who simply don’t have time to read. While I think the latter statement is a thinly-veiled copout for people who don’t enjoy reading for fun, they do have somewhat of a point: the audio book appears to be the logical next step in an age of instant gratification for a generation of multi-taskers.
Think that audio books are confined to just a small group of listeners and public domain radio stations? The Audio Publisher’s Association (yep they have their own .org) estimates that the audio book industry in 2004 was worth around 800 million bucks and current estimates have the market generating around two billion dollars a year. The APA even sponsors the industry’s own Audie Awards banquet every Spring with close to thirty categories including best unabridged (word for word) narration and multicast.
Multicast audio books go above and beyond simple narration by turning the source material into a scaled down, soundtrack-only production with dozens of voice actors, sound effects, and separate music tracks. As downloadable audio books grow in popularity and portable music players get cheaper you can expect that the jogger running by your window is listening to Dan Brown’s latest rather than his or her favorite music.
Whether this new type of format is a novel way of getting people interested in books (The National Endowment of the Arts’ “Reading at Risk” study shows audio books are one of a select few ‘reading’ types that is actually increasing public literacy) or just a reflection of our stimulus craving, fast food culture I can’t really say. What’s clearly evident though is that the audio book market is here to stay, and has nowhere to go but up.
New in Hardcover:
Wildwood Dancing © Random House Children's Books
High in the Transylvanian woods, at the castle Piscul Draculi, live five daughters and their doting father. It's an idyllic life for Jena, the second eldest, who spends her time exploring the mysterious forest with her constant companion, a most unusual frog. But best by far is the castle's hidden portal, known only to the sisters. Every Full Moon, they alone can pass through it into the enchanted world of the Other Kingdom. There they dance through the night with the fey creatures of this magical realm. But their peace is shattered when Father falls ill and must go to the southern parts to recover, for that is when cousin Cezar arrives. Though he's there to help the girls survive the brutal winter, Jena suspects he has darker motives in store. Meanwhile, Jena's sister has fallen in love with a dangerous creature of the Other Kingdom—an impossible union it's up to Jena to stop. When Cezar's grip of power begins to tighten, at stake is everything Jena loves: her home, her family, and the Other Kingdom she has come to cherish. To save her world, Jena will be tested in ways she can't imagine—tests of trust, strength, and true love.
The White Tyger, Paul Park (Tor Books)
This is a magical tale, full of strangeness, terrors and wonders. Many girls daydream that they are really a princess adopted by commoners. In the case of teenager Miranda Popescu, this is literally true. Because she is at the fulcrum of a deadly political battle between conjurers in an alternate world where "Roumania" is a leading European power, Miranda was hidden by her aunt in our world, where she was adopted and raised in a quiet Massachusetts college town. The narrative is split between our world and the people in Roumania working to protect or to capture Miranda: her Aunt Aegypta Schenck versus the mad Baroness Ceaucescu in Bucharest, and the sinister alchemist, the Elector of Ratisbon, who holds her true mother prisoner in Germany. This is the story of how Miranda, with her two best friends, Peter and Andromeda, is brought back to her home reality. Each of them is changed in the process and all will have much to learn about their true identities and the strange world they find themselves in. This story is a triumph of contemporary fantasy.
The Dream of X and Other Fantastic Visions - Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson Vol.5 © Night Shade Books
The fifth of a five volume set collecting all of Hodgson's published fiction. Each volume contains one of Hodgson's novels, along with a selection of thematically-linked short fiction. This installment contains The Dream of X as well as condensed versions of The Ghost Pirates and Carnacki, The Ghost Finder. A slew of short fiction, an unfinished novel round out this exhaustive collection with an introduction by Jeremy Lassen and illustrations by Jason Van Hollander.
Gods and Pawns of The Company Series © Tor Books
In the Company, you’re either a God or a Pawn, but sometimes you have to be both. These eight stories, reprinted for the first time, delve further into the history and exploits of the Company and its operatives, including Mendoza, Lewis, and Alec. The book opens with the novella, To the Land Beyond the Sunset, starring Lewis and Mendoza, and involving a strange tribe in Bolivia whose members claim to be gods. Their ability to grow a small tropical paradise in the middle of the desert certainly seems godlike, and its Mendoza’s job to figure out their secret. Standing in His Light features Van Drouten and her role in the career of the artist Jan Vermeer. The story illustrates how, with a little help from the Company, lost masterpieces can be found (or created) easily. Other stories include the original novelette, Hellfire at Twilight, that concludes the volume and tells of Lewis infiltrating the famous Hellfire Club in the England of the eighteenth century. This book is a compelling read for every Baker fan and essential for The Company series addicts.
New in Paperback:
Timesnatch, Robert Swindells (Corgi Books)
Once a creature is extinct, it’s gone for ever, isn’t it? The physicist mother of Kizzy Rye and Fraser Rye has invented an amazing time machine that can travel back into the past, snatch a plant or animal now extinct and bring it back into the present. But the machine - 'Rye's Apparatus' - has a horrifying potential. Suddenly Kizzy and Fraser find themselves caught up in a terrifying spiral of events.
Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories, Frederik Pohl (Tor Books)
For over forty years Frederik Pohl has been a famous science fiction writer, and much of his fame is due to his wonderful short stories. He's won the Hugo and Nebula Awards as well as many other awards for both novels and shorter works. Included in this new collection is "Fermi and Frost," the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novelette that perhaps best exemplifies the qualities that have made Pohl's SF so popular for so long: an intriguing science fictional premise, a bold political assertion, subtly shaped characters who command your respect and engage your sympathy, and a surely told narrative that holds you to the end. In all the tales in this wonderful collection of memorable stories, Pohl draws you into a delightful multitude of worlds and times, some familiar, some utterly alien, but all compulsively inviting. Which is why this is Platinum Pohl—only the highest standard applies! A special treat exclusive to Platinum Pohl is a never-before-published Heechee story!
Ghost Rider © Pocket Star Books
When he was seventeen, motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze proved he would do anything to save his terminally ill father—even make a deal with the sinister Mephistopheles that would cost him everything, from the woman he loved, the beautiful Roxanne Simpson, to Johnny's own immortal soul. Years later, as Roxanne re-enters Johnny's life, Mephistopheles returns to collect on his part of the deal… and as night falls and evil rises, Johnny Blaze becomes his bounty hunter—the Ghost Rider—a flaming host of vengeance and twisted justice annihilating anything daring to escape from the depths of the abyss. Now charged with destroying Mephistopheles' greatest nemesis, Blackheart, Johnny Blaze's curse becomes his power, and perhaps his destiny…
Brass Man of The Polity Series © Tor Books
From the Philip K. Dick Award nominee author of Cowl, an adrenaline-powered new SF adventure: Brass Man. Neal Asher returns to his trademark Polity future setting, in a sequel to Gridlinked (2004), which SFRevu.com called "brilliant and audacious work, chock-full of cutting-edge ideas." Ian Cormac, a legendary Earth Central Security agent, the James Bond of a wealthy future, is hunting an interstellar dragon, little knowing that, far away, his competition has resurrected a horrific killing machine named "Mr. Crane" to assist in a similar hunt, encompassing whole star systems. Mr. Crane, the insane indestructible artificial man now in a new metal body, seeks to escape a bloody past he can neither forget nor truly remember. And he is on a collision course with Ian Cormac.
Audio Books:
The Rowan, Anne McCaffrey (Brilliance Audio Unabridged)
The Rowan was one of the strongest Talents ever born, but she was also lonely and without family, friends --or love. Then a telepathic message came from a distant world facing an alien threat, a message sent by an unknown Talent named Jeff Raven, and be it power, danger, or love--the Rowan is about to meet her match. The first book of The Tower and Hive series. Ready by Jean Reed-Bahle.
The Tower and the Hive of the Tower and Hive Series © Brilliance Audio Unabridged
For generations, the descendants of the powerful telepath known as The Rowan have used their various talents to help mankind. They have led Earth to ally itself with the peaceful alien Mrdini, and together the two races have held back the predatory Hivers, who once laid waste entire planets. Like all powerful families, the Rowan's descendants have also made enemies. Especially on Earth, there are those who charge that the treaties with the Mrdini gave away too much, and that the Mrdini receive more than their fair share of new living space as habitable planets are discovered. There are also complaints that the Hivers should have been exterminated, rather than contained and studied, and that such concentration of power in the hands of one family is dangerous. The Rowan and her daughter Damia, with their beloved husbands and extended families have seen their share of personal tragedy and loss. Now, with their goals of peace and plenty apparently in sight they face whispering campaigns, sabotage, and even assassination attempts aimed at destroying all they have worked for. The fifth book of The Tower and Hive series. Read by Susan Ericksen.
Nimisha’s Ship, Anne McCaffrey (Brilliance Audio Unabridged)
On Vega III, Lady Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense loves the challenging world of her father, Lord Tionel, owner and principal starship designer of the famous Rondymense Ship Yards. Precociously gifted, Nimisha becomes his secret assistant—and, in the aftermath of a shocking tragedy, his chosen successor at the helm of the Ship Yards. When Nimisha takes an experimental ship on a solo test flight, something goes horribly awry, marooning her light-years from home on a planet as deadly as it is beautiful. Now the ruthless members of a rival branch of the Rondymense family are given the chance they've been waiting for: to reclaim the Ship Yards by any means necessary. Only Nimisha's ingenious child, Cuiva, stands in their way. But for how long? For just when her daughter needs her most, Nimisha is in a precarious situation herself—and unable to help. But Nimisha has never given up in her life—and she's not about to start now… The second book of the Coerula series. Read by Susan Ericksen.
Freedom's Challenge of the Freedom Series © Brilliance Audio Unabridged
When the Catteni ships descended on earth it was one of the most terrifying experiences humankind had ever known. Kris Bjornsen, along with thousands of others, found herself herded by forcewhips into the hold of giant spaceships to be transported to the slave compounds of an alien planet. And even then it wasn't over. For, after a partially successful escape attempt, Kris was once more shipped across space - to an apparently empty and untamed planet. The Catteni just dumped an assorted load of humans and aliens on the strange world and left them to see what would happen. Brilliantly the refugees began to organize themselves into a pattern of survival. The planet was eerie and not as empty as it seemed. For someone - something - had built giant storage barns - the planet was being used as a huge larder - for an entity they could not comprehend. As Kris and her patrol set out to explore the enigmatic world she had yet another problem to contend with - the presence of Zainal, the high-ranking patrician Catteni who had been abandoned with the rest of them. Zainal was strong, brilliant, and . . . kind, and Kris was puzzled by this presence, his personality, and above all by the tenuous tie she felt towards this man - who was not a man but one of the hated Catteni. Book one of the Catteni or Freedom series. Read by Susie Breck.
Freedom’s Choice, Anne McCaffrey (Brilliance Audio Unabridged)
Beloved science-fiction and fantasy writer Anne McCaffrey returns to the world of Freedom's Landing in this compelling sequel, Freedom's Choice, which finds the unwilling colonists truly beginning to make that world a home. When Kris Bjornson and her fellow slaves were left by the Catteni on an uninhabited planet in Freedom's Landing, their survival seemed unlikely. Zainal, a Catteni outcast, helped them learn to fight the terrifying predators of the new world. The colonists have learned to survive, and have begun to create a new civilization on the planet they call Botany. But as the colony grows, differences begin to divide the colonists. One faction believes that they should settle here, bearing children and populating their new home. But the other insists that they should return to Earth to help their compatriots fight off the Catteni oppressors. For Kris Bjornson, who is in love with Zainal, the choice is particularly difficult. She wants more than anything to see Earth again. But this life—building a new home with Zainal, exploring a new world of their very own—is the best she has ever known. Book two of the Catteni / Freedom series. Read by a multicast.
Freedom’s Challenge, Anne McCaffrey (Brilliance Audio Unabridged)
The inhabitants of Botany - a mixture of humans and extraterrestrials - had managed to build a thriving and productive world out of what had originally been intended as a slave planet. And now they had plans to overthrow the terrible Eosi, who for centuries had existed by subsuming members of the Catteni race, living in their bodies, and ruling space through them. The Botanists had received mysterious and unexpected help from the great beings they knew only as 'Farmers'- for the 'Farmers' had thrown up a huge impervious space bubble round Botany. Even as the Eosi ships tried to pulverize the rebellious planet, the bubble held firm. But, safe though they were behind the protective device, Kris Bjornsen, Zainal, and all of the Council knew they had to go out and destroy the Eosi on their own ground. It fell to Zainal to risk his life in a desperate and daring mission to vanquish the monster life forms forever. Book three of the Catteni / Freedom series. Read by a multicast.
That’ll do it for this week’s Book Buzz. Be sure to keep reading (or listening to) your sci fi, fantasy, and horror and check back next Tuesday for all the latest on new releases. Questions or comments? Hit me up at PFerrara.mania@gmail.com.
