Tonight we begin the July podcasts and an all-science fiction series. We have a special treat for you: Each is a complete audio presentation so you can listen to the whole thing and won’t have to wait a week for another installment. It’s kind of like, um, going to the movies! So, watch out for monsters and instead watch your email tonight or tomorrow for the first sci-fi podcast from your friends here at the Fictional Café! Cheers, Jack
If Alexandre Dumas were alive today, he would be living fat, admired and happy with the royalties just from his two biggest hits, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. In all likelihood, you have read one or both of these novels, which are among the finest examples of the thriller genre – and glorious writing to book. Dumas, writing some 200 years ago, knew what audiences liked, and he gave it to them. Michael Ross writes in his biography, “Of ten plays by Dumas and Victor Hugo, eight of the characters are adulteresses; five are common prostitutes; six are seduced; four mothers are in love with their sons or son-in-law; eleven persons are murdered; and in no less than six of these plays the leading character is either a foundling or a…
The world is divided into two groups: those who have read the late David Foster Wallace’s masterpiece, Infinite Jest, and those who have not. Tipping in at just over a thousand pages, and described on Amazon as “A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America set in an addicts’ halfway house and a tennis academy,” it’s not for everyone. I confess I bought it with high enthusiasm. Couldn’t wait to read it. Now, twenty years on, it’s still resting on my bookshelf, unread. Yet after hearing the people in this New York Times Book Review podcast discuss it, upon the occasion of the 20th anniversary edition being published, I’m ready. Sometimes books are like that, aren’t they? You just have to wait until you’re ready to read it. This podcast was originally netcast…
“I confess that the sensation attaching to the name of an absent person bedazzled me. I became ambitious of this glory of making people talk about me places where I was not.” – Alexandre Dumas Paris, 13 Mai, 2016. In France, a country that reveres its authors, Alexandre Dumas is considered a national treasure. He was a prolific writer, most notably for stage plays, novels, and travel nonfiction. He is said to have written 100,000 words, an estimate which, given that he penned some 400 works, must certainly be a low estimate. Dumas was also a man who lived large and loved every moment of his life, which speaks to his character and a subject of equal or greater interest: Le Chateau de Monte-Cristo. [You might enjoy watching this short video, although it’s in French.]…
If you’re an avid bookie, you probably read The New York Times Book Review, which comes tucked inside the Sunday paper. For some time now Pamela Paul, the NYTBR’s editor, has been creating podcast interviews and other book news in a podcast. This month, we’re highlighting not one but several we think you’ll enjoy listening to. The first is an interview with a popular crime thriller author, LA’s own Michael Connolly, author of the fabulous Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer tales, discussing his most recent novel, The Crossing. It’s followed by Alexandra Alter’s in-depth exploration about how Stephen King came up with the ideas to write the short stories in his latest collection, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. A review of Adam Sisman’s biography of the king of spy novelists, John Le Carre, author of The Spy Who…
Paris, 2 Novembre, 2013. While on a writing retreat in rural France, I read an article about the famed author Alexandre Dumas’ magnificent Chateau de Monte-Cristo in France Today magazine. Located in the small village not far from Paris, the three-story home of the novelist who penned The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and hundreds of other works, gave me great cause to want to see his palatial estate. Most particularly, I wanted to visit his writing studio, the Chateau d’If, situated within the beautiful gardens. Dumas was born in 1802. He lived through – even participated in – the Second French Revolution of 1830. He was a prolific author who helped found Romanticism and is said to have written over a hundred thousand words [with a quill pen, mind you] for dramatic…
If you’re still hanging in there with our podcast, you’re probably thinking you’re getting close to the end. The happy news is, you are not. There are seventy – yes, 70 – chapters, plus the Prologue and Epilogue, so you have many hours of happy fun ahead of you. Would that we could drop a few clues about what’s going to happen, but we’re not spoilers, and even better, no spoiler alerts. We’re certain that’s the way Patrick would have it. Please click on the arrow below to listen to Chapters 9-12 of “How to Succeed in Evil.” Chapter 9: What Do You Want, Mr. Windsor? Chapter 10: Cassette Girl Chapter 11: Calling Home Chapter 12: Cindi with an “i” The further adventures of the Evil consultant and Excelsior, the Most Powerful Man in the…
Patrick, the seanachai, continues his engrossing tale in the following four episodes, deepening the story of Edwin Windsor, Evil Efficiency Consultant. You think this guy is fictional? Think again. Every corporation has one, and if they don’t they want one. But as you’ll see, even an Evil Efficiency Consultant has ethics. Just listen to his philosophy of playing golf. You’ll see. And, as you listen further, you’ll get to see Edwin at work. Please click on the arrows below to listen to the four next chapters of “How to Succeed in Evil.” Chapter 5: A Par Four Life Chapter 6: There’s Money, and Then There’s Money Chapter 7: Excelsior on the Beach Chapter 8: A Giant Laser in Space “McLean’s novel is a tongue in cheek investigation of the heroes and villains’ motivations. It’s laugh out loud funny…
I’ve spent the past few months reading Marcus Sakey’s Brilliance trilogy. It’s been a helluva trip. Set in the unspecified near future – maybe tomorrow? – it’s a story that could have come right off the front page of a major newspaper. Sakey has character development that makes a writer pine and a plotline that’s terribly engrossing. This is a trilogy, so it’s three full length novels: Brilliance, A Better World, and Written in Fire. You can get a plot briefing on Amazon, but the brilliant aspect, for me, is the brilliants. Sakey posits an event occurred some thirty years ago, that humans with extraordinary powers – in a word, brilliance – were unsuspectingly born. Over time, average mortals have grown largely resentful of the brilliants, and some have decided to assure they will never…
Do you remember the Malaysia Air Flight 370 that disappeared a few years ago? It seems Patrick McLean was prescient – he wrote about a similar disaster-in-the-making which occurred out over the Pacific…or maybe it’s something that happens all the time and we just don’t hear about it. But what we don’t hear about is a superhero named Excelsior [go ahead, Google that word, see what it means] who flies to the plane’s rescue. Or does he? Anyway, this is how this fabulous podcast, read most excellently by the author, kicks off. Over the next three Fridays we’ll post the first twelve episodes, just to make sure you’re hooked. But you probably will be by the time you finish the first one anyway. If you listen to these and just can’t wait to listen to more, please go…