Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

The Retrieval Artist is science fiction short story by author Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The story was originally published in Analog Magazine in 2000. The story was a Locus Poll Award Nominee, Hugo Award Nominee and AnLab Award Nominee.

In a future where humans engage in galactic commerce with a multitude of unscrupulous aliens, Earth’s mega-corporations are held to strict alien laws, and relatives of corporate executives are often abducted as cruel alien revenge for the slightest business infraction. The only chance for a target to hide … is to Disappear–erasure of all personal records, genetic alteration, and a new life with a new name in a new place. For an exorbitant fee under non-negotiable terms of employment, private detective Miles Flint finds the Disappeared.

Kristine Kathryn Rush is an award-winning mystery, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She is writing a series of novels based on the characters and universe set forth in this novella. She is the former editor of prestigious The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She lives and works on the Oregon Coast.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I just discovered that Scott Danielson, who amongst other things writes a column about AudioBooks for SFSite and contributes to SFFAudio, recently set up a company that offers top quality science fiction stories in MP3 audio format. Deuce Audio currently has two audiobooks available and one of them is The Retrieval Artist by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

This is a complete and unabridged narration of the novella by professional narrator Stefan Rudnicki. Scott has been listening to and writing about audio books for several years now, so he’s very knowledgeable about what makes a good audio version of a novel or short story. The single most important factor is the narrator and Stefan Rudnicki is an excellent narrator.

I don’t wish to put down authors who narrate their own books for the audio version, but a skilled narrator can take the experience of listening to an audiobook to a whole other level. They simply have a clarity of diction and an ability to imbue emotion into the words that most of us lack when reading from a book or script.

If you listen to the sample audio available for this story you will see what I mean. The full audio runs for 2 hours and is professional produced to a high standard. The audio files are in the MP3 format which means that can be easily played from any computer, iPod or other portable music player. Or if you prefer you can simply burn it off to CD and put the CD in your CD player. Its a wonderfully flexible way to receive the audio.

This then is the perfect marriage of an top quality science fiction story with a top quality audiobook production. If you have any interest at all in audiobooks you should take a moment to check this one out.