Publisher Description
Sixteen all-new stories by science fiction’s top talents, collected by bestselling author George R. R. Martin and multiple-award-winning editor Gardner Dozois
From pulp adventures such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Carson of Venus to classic short stories such as Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain” to visionary novels such as C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra, the planet Venus has loomed almost as large in the imaginations of science fiction writers as Earth’s next-nearest neighbor, Mars. But while the Red Planet conjured up in Golden Age science fiction stories was a place of vast deserts and ruined cities, bright blue Venus was its polar opposite: a steamy, swampy jungle world with strange creatures lurking amidst the dripping vegetation. Alas, just as the last century’s space probes exploded our dreams of Mars, so, too, did they shatter our romantic visions of Venus, revealing, instead of a lush paradise, a hellish world inimical to all life.
But don’t despair! This new anthology of sixteen original stories by some of science fiction’s best writers—edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois—turns back the clock to that more innocent time, before the hard-won knowledge of science vanquished the infinite possibilities of the imagination.
Join our cast of award-winning contributors—including Elizabeth Bear, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Gwyneth Jones, Mike Resnick, Eleanor Arnason, Allen M. Steele, and more—as we travel back in time to a planet that never was but should have been: a young, rain-drenched world of fabulous monsters and seductive mysteries.
FEATURING ALL-NEW STORIES BY
Eleanor Arnason • Elizabeth Bear • David Brin • Tobias S. Buckell • Michael Cassutt • Joe Haldeman • Matthew Hughes • Gwyneth Jones • Joe R. Lansdale • Stephen Leigh • Paul McAuley • Ian McDonald • Garth Nix • Mike Resnick • Allen M. Steele • Lavie Tidhar
And an Introduction by Gardner Dozois
Stories and Narrators:
Introduction by Gardner Dozois read by Roy Dotrice
“Frogheads” read by Jake Weber
“The Drowned Celestial” read by Roy Dotrice
“Planet of Fear” read by Tisha Donnelly
“Greeves and the Evening Star” read by Stephen Fry
“A Planet Called Desire “ read by Jake Stormoen
“Living Hell” read by W. Morgan Sheppard
“Bones of Air, Bones of Stone” read by Gethin Anthony
“Ruins” read by Mandy Williams
“The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss” read by Wil Wheaton
“By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers” read by Harry Lloyd
“The Sunset of Time” read by Matt Frewer
“Pale Blue Memories” read by Prentice Onayemi
“The Heart’s Filthy Lesson” read by Janis Ian
“The Wizard of the Trees” read by Michael Dorn
“The Godstone of Venus” read by Ron Donachie
“Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts” read by Dame Diana Rigg
Interstitial author biographies read by Scott Brick
Download and start listening now!
About George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin sold his first story in 1971 and has been writing professionally ever since. He spent ten years in Hollywood as a writer-producer, working on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and television pilots that were never made. In the mid ’90s he returned to prose, his first love, and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever he’s allowed to leave, he returns to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with the lovely Parris, a big white dog called Mischa, and two cats named Augustus and Caligula, who think they run the place.
About the Narrators
Jake Weber was born
in London, the son of a British socialite and a race car driver. He is best known for his role as Michael in Dawn of the Dead and as Drew in Meet Joe Black. He plays Joe DuBois,
husband of medium/psychic, Allison DuBois, in the popular television show Medium. He was also a regular on HBO’s The Mind of the Married Man, and has
made appearances on Law & Order:
Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue.
Ron Donachie
is a Scotish actor who has appeared in over one hundred films and television
shows, though he is also prolific in theater and voice-over work. Among his
many credits are Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Titanic, Hamish Macbeth, and Waterloo Road.
Stephen Fry is a celebrated actor, novelist, journalist, presenter, intellectual, wit, and winner of several award for narration. He has produced four novels and two volumes of autobiography and has written for radio shows and television. His television credits include Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder, and he hosted the BBC TV series QI.
W. Morgan Sheppard is an award-winning British actor who has appeared on Broadway and in major films and television shows. His audiobook narrations have garnered several Audie Awards and an AudioFile Earphones Award. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, including Star Trek, Mad Men, and the movie Transformers, among many others, and has won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
Wil Wheaton is an award–winning actor, voice artist, author, and audiobook narrator. Among his movie credits are Stand by Me and Toy Soldiers. His many television credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Big Bang Theory, and Generator Rex. As a narrator of more than a dozen audiobooks, he has twice won the prestigious Audie Award, twice been a finalist for the Audie, and earned an Earphones Award from AudioFile magazine.
Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.
Jon Gauger is the announcer for Dr. Paul Nyquist’s weekly teaching
program, Moody Presents. He writes
and produces a weekly commentary, creates special documentaries, and has
traveled to thirty countries covering stories for Moody Radio. Gauger has also
done extensive freelance voice-over work, including a number of audiobook
projects.
Eric Jason Martin is an Earphones Award–winning narrator. He has narrated many dozens of audiobooks in fiction and nonfiction. He is also the host and producer of the award-winning This American Wife, a popular podcast, and now web series, that features original comedy and stories, as well as interviews with authors such as Robert Greene and Amy Tan.