StarShipSofa: Science Fiction Audio Podcast

Gigantic

by Steve Aylett

Strange aircraft arrived with the sky that morning, moving blood-slow. And Professor Skychum was forced from the limelight at the very instant his ranted warnings became most poignant. ‘They’re already here

Narration for Gigantic by Gareth Stack

This week its the turn of British SF writer Stephen Baxter. Join Tony on this trip into the unknown for all things Baxterish. Calling at his books Voyage, Timeships  and Evolution and also checking in to see about his attempt to join Mir as a guest cosmonaut. Blast Off!

Likely Lad

by Kage Baker

“Alec’s growing up into such a nice boy,” said Mrs. Lewin fondly, pouring out a cup of herbal tea. “So thoughtful. Do you know, he’s doing all his own laundry now? I never have to remind him at all.”

                Lewin grunted acknowledgement, absorbed in his cricket match. It was only a holo of a game played a century earlier—competitive sports had been illegal for decades now—but it was one he had never seen.

This week StarShipSofa announces a new format and a new name. No longer is it the StarShipSofa Podcast, now the good ship Sofa goes by the name of The StarShipSofa Audio Science Fiction Magazine, following in the great traditions of Analog, Asimov and F&SF. Included in this show is poetry and flash fiction as well as a cracking story from Kage Baker.

Narration for Likely Lad by MCL Studios

Peter Watts

Bruce Boston

Laurel Winter

Diane Severson

Julie Davis

This week Tony starts a new aspect of the show - The Editorial. Following in the footsteps of some of the great SF magazine editorials from the likes of John W Campbell, Ben Bova and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, join Tony for his once a month editorial as he plots the Sofa's route for world globalisation.

Solar Flare

John Kessel

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lad

Distraction

by Spider Robinson

Today the StarShipSofa travels along to Alan Moore and his comics. Join Tony as he himself learns all about Alan Moore and his life. Including Hugo winning comic Watchman. Get ready, Blast Off

La Cenerentola

by Gywneth Jones

Act I: The Scholar Gypsies
My first thought, when I saw the sisters, was that they were simply too perfect. They had to be identical twins: about sixteen years old: tall but not too tall, sun-kissed golden skin; rounded and slender limbs, long golden hair, blue eyes. They were walking in step, arm in arm, whispering together; identical even in their graceful movements. One pushed back her hair, the other brushed an insect from her immaculate white shorts. Each gesture seemed a mirror image of the other. Impossibly perfect! Then I saw the mother, strolling along behind (she had to be their mother, the likeness was too close for any other relationship), and I thought perhaps I understood. The older model -or should one say, the original- was a very goodlooking woman; a blonde with long legs, regular features and lightly tanned skin. Her eyes behind her sunglasses were no doubt just as blue. But there were details -lips that were a little narrow, a square jaw, a figure not so exactly proportioned- that added up to something less than flawless beauty.

Narration by Julie Davis

This week StarShipSofa looks towards the novel Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. Is this one of the greatest SF novels ever written or is it a over hyped load of old tosh? Spoiler warnings... Tony C Smith will tell all about this novel. You have been warned. Blast Off.

 Graves

Winner of the Nebula for Best Short Story 1993

Winner of the World Fantasy Award 1993

by Joe Haldeman

I have this persistent sleep disorder that makes life difficult for me, but still I want to keep it. Boy, do I want to keep it. It goes back twenty years, to Vietnam. To Graves.

Dead bodies turn from bad to worse real fast in the jungle. You've got a few hours before rigor mortis makes them hard to handle, hard to stuff into a bag. By that time, they start to turn greenish, if they started out white or yellow, where you can see the skin. It's mostly bugs by then, usually ants. Then they go to black and start to smell.

They swell and burst.

Joe Haldeman's latest book The Accidental Time Machine

Narration by James Campanella

Today the StarShipSofa blasts off into the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Join Tony as he guides the Sofa across all the years of the magazines long life, from it's initial concept with editors Anthony Boucher and J Francis McComas, to present editor and publisher Gordon Van Gelder. Get ready... Blast Off!