Monday, May 25, 2009

Free fiction: Audio of Arthur Clarke's "Summertime on Icarus" & "Before Eden"

Both as BBC radio dramatizations. Can only play from browser; no download. Both are included in his Collected Stories.

  1. "Before Eden"; play audio: This may be the classic story of the kind where earth bacteria infect an alien virgin world; at least it's the oldest I've read of the type. In this case, Venus is not quite virgin & has primitive native life in high elevations at certain places where temperature & pressure are relatively saner; but natives doomed because earth bacteria have arrived.

    I read a flash fiction variation of this story a few weeks back - Ian Rennie's "Eden". Far less rigorous than Clarke's, but it's text is online.
  2. "Summertime on Icarus"; play audio: Shipwreck & rescue aboard an asteroid rather close to Sun.

    Its downloadable MP3 has already been online for a while - so the BBC version may not be so interesting.
[via SF Signal]

Related: Arthur Clarke's short fiction, novels, collections.

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