Free Doctor Who: Freakshow

It’s been a good week for free Doctor Who stuff! Once again, Doctor Who Magazine has teamed up with Big Finish Productions to offer an exclusive audio adventure free for DWM readers.

Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles – Freakshow
A new adventure for the Fifth Doctor, Turlough and Tegan
Starring Mark Strickson as Turlough and Toby Longworth as Winklemeyer

Aboard the TARDIS, Turlough records a testimony about a recent adventure. A trip to Buzzard Creek in the USA, where he encountered the sinister Winklemeyer, who claims to have discovered a cure for every known illness…

If you missed it on page 12 of the 31 March issue, hit up www.bigfinish.com/dwm and enter the code 5844.  The offer has been running for awhile and expires 26 May 2010, so don’t delay.

While you’re there, why not subscribe to some of their ranges?  I currently subscribe to two.

Finally, A Warcraft Audiobook

There have been talks of Warcraft audiobooks for more than a year.  As I posted in November 2008, Tantor Media recorded 3 books narrated by Dick Hill, but then they were mysteriously delayed and dropped off the radar.  Now Simon & Schuster is reporting that the new novel by Richard A. Knaak, World of Warcraft: Stormrage, is getting the audiobook treatment, with an eAudio version read by Richard Ferrone.  Still no word on the other three, but it’s a start.

The book will be available from Simon & Schuster’s website on February 23, 2010.

Book Impressions: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

I jumped right from A Game of Thrones to A Clash of Kings, Book 2 of “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R.R. Martin.  Once again I listened to the unabridged 36+ hour audiobook read masterfully by Roy Dotrice.  The book unapologetically picks up right where the first book left off, with very little in the way of recap. What else would happen to the Starks, the Lannisters?  How would Daenerys and her newborn dragons play a part?  Or John Snow up in the frozen north?  Most improtantly…

…is it a worthly continuation of the series?

Book Impressions: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve gotten some of my reading inspiration over the past year or more from the reading selections of The Sword and Laser group.  I don’t participate in their discussions very often, and I’m a pretty slow reader and am usually behind their pace, but I’ve read quite a few things I would not have looked twice at before because of the The Sword and Laser group.  One of those is A Game of Thrones, Book One of A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin.

It’s been made into a board game, a LCG, a CCG, an RPG, and soon an HBO pilot, but somehow it all slip past me.  So is the novel worthy of all the attention?

Book Impressions: The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub

Upon hearing of upcoming adaptations of The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub, I decided that it might be a good time to read the novel, before those adaptations hit.  The Talisman was published in 1984 and is the story of 12-year-old Jack Sawyer, and his cross-country journey to find an object that might cure his ailing mother of the cancer she is dying of.  But of course, this is King and Straub we’re talking about, so you have to throw in a good mix of parallel worlds you can “flip” to where your “twinner” might exist, and werewolves and maniacal preachers and … well, all manner of things you might expect from those two authors. 

 

Warcraft Audiobooks Delayed

Update:  Finally, A Warcraft Audiobook.  Click here for details.

I’ve been on the lookout for the Warcraft audiobooks from Tantor Media ever since I posted about them last November.  I noticed that they had disappeared from Tantor Media’s website, and their release dates came and went without a word.  By all accounts, they were recorded by Dick Hill already, so the delay is perplexing.

The World of Warcraft site WoWInsider.com is reporting that they heard from Tantor Media that the audiobooks have been postponed.  No further news as to whether that means temporarily delayed or permanently cancelled.  I’ll be keeping an eye out for further news.

Warcraft Audiobooks

Update:  The audiobooks are delayed!  See my update here.

Update 2:  Finally, A Warcraft Audiobook.  Click here for details.

I’m super excited about this one.  Blizzard Entertainment is partnering with Tantor Media to release the first three Warcraft novels in audiobook form.  They will be read by Dick Hill, who I personally don’t recall hearing but who has 400+ audiobooks on his resume, and has won numerous awards.

• Warcraft: Day of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak – December 2008 (11 hours)
• Warcraft: Lord of the Clans by Christie Golden – February 2009 (7 hours)
• Warcraft: The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb – April 2009 (7 hours 30 minutes)

Retail CD, Library CD, and mp3 versions are available for preorder on Tantor Media’s website.  No sign yet that they’ll be available on Audible.com or Amazon.com.

I have all of the Warcraft books, but I’ve only ever gotten around to reading Day of the Dragon.  I look longingly at the rest of the stack but never seem to find the time.  I get a lot more “reading” done on audio these days, and these will move right up to the top of my audiobook list.