LibriVox Forum

I can suggest a sort of science fiction French solo which I recently was DPLing. The story explains how Edison (yes: THE Edison) not only invents the phonograph but creates the first android. The author even coins the word "andréide" (female android) which may be the first time this word is mentioned in literature (not sure though). Apart from the scientific (more or less science-fiction-ish ) explanations how this andreide has come into being and how she works, this is a sort of dramatic love-story too. A rich young man is disillusioned by his mistress and turns to Edison who offers him the deal that he will create a robot looking like his beloved but being perfect for him. It actually reminded me a lot of Stepford Wives Of course the ending is not a happy ending.

https://librivox.org/eve-future-by-auguste-villiers-de-lisle-adam/

more about it here, in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future_Eve

Sonia

Now that's what I'm talking about - wonderful!

Availle wrote: ↑February 2nd, 2021, 7:08 am Edit: That one's not PD Canada - check the translator...

50+1970=2020. So it was PD-CAN on Jan 1, 2021.

(The cutoff year is getting dangerously close to my birthday.)

TriciaG wrote: ↑February 2nd, 2021, 7:14 am 50+1970=2020. So it was PD-CAN on Jan 1, 2021.

(The cutoff year is getting dangerously close to my birthday.)

Right... it's getting late over here.
As for the cutoff, I feel you.

TriciaG wrote: ↑February 2nd, 2021, 7:14 am

Availle wrote: ↑February 2nd, 2021, 7:08 am Edit: That one's not PD Canada - check the translator...

50+1970=2020. So it was PD-CAN on Jan 1, 2021.

(The cutoff year is getting dangerously close to my birthday.)

Happy birthday Tricia!

Thanks, but that's not what I meant. My birthday's in September. It's just that I'm inching ever closer to 50 myself.

Well, happy-birthday-in-seven-months then!

hm availle and mc know them all, no use in suggesting books she knows for sure.. like these
well, here are some i know of:

outer space scifi in german: https://librivox.org/wunderwelten-by-friedrich-wilhelm-mader/

androids: https://librivox.org/the-jewel-of-bas-by-leigh-douglass-brackett/

aliens machines waves strangely smashing receivers - version 1 was in the staff picks 2014 https://librivox.org/the-machine-that-saved-the-world-by-murray-leinster-2/

utopia is a wide range of literature, but: https://librivox.org/the-coming-race-by-edward-george-bulwer-lytton/
it is a mixture of journey to the center of the earth and the time machine!
after an accident, a man finds an underground-living human race, livig in a society system which is quite ideal! strangely, the roles of men and women are changed and mixed up.
sadly, in certain politicial german areas some discussions about this book are going on. because of race, occult energies and angel-like humans, according to my research.

not a utopia, nor an alternative world or physics story, but somehow i always thought https://librivox.org/the-wasters-by-arthur-adams/ is a sort of scifi, describing us as we are?

Those are interesting, thank you!

Of course I know the whole catalog inside and out and backwards. But it's nice to get reminders.

TriciaG wrote: ↑February 2nd, 2021, 9:51 am Thanks, but that's not what I meant. My birthday's in September. It's just that I'm inching ever closer to 50 myself.

50 was easy. Just wait til...

Here's one that I had fun DPLing: https://librivox.org/baron-trumps-marvellous-underground-journey-by-ingersoll-lockwood/

The Little Baron (so called because of his diminutive size) sets off on a journey to find the Giant's Well, which he has learned will give him access to the World within a World, and all the wonderful sights, sounds, and people who live beneath the earth's crust.

i am very hesitating to suggest these...
a jewish state, in the catalogue in three languages: english, hebrew and german https://librivox.org/author/4901

there is not much fun about it. there is warfare to this date...
it is more a plan than an utopia and it is more the science or hard facts branche of science fiction utopias, when seeing that at all.

well, it was published ~50 years before the founding of israel.
and some elements are utopian.
at least in western countries like austria, which extended these not so long ago: herzl suggested 7 working hours per day, which herzl wanted to be the idea behind a flag, also.

the flag he actually drew https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herzl_sketch_flag.jpg
the flag he designed in the text https://archive.org/details/ajewishstateana00herzgoog/page/n122/mode/2up?q=hours
the text about the thoughts about work-management https://archive.org/details/ajewishstateana00herzgoog/page/n70/mode/2up?q=hours
(not the english reading source! the english version has a google books link as source)

too much of text already, but to explain my suggestion...
...maybe the greatest utopia of them all...

a good month for scifi as topic!
saw 3? suiting books getting into to the catalogue in the last few days

In terms of plays, I can't really think of anything other than R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). I'm planning on doing Back to Methuselah eventually, but that obviously doesn't help you at the moment.

https://librivox.org/rur-rossums-universal-robots-by-karel-capek/

No clue what kind of poetry collection might be SF-flavored.

The staff has picked for March - thanks for your suggestions! Please have a look at this page for the current pickings. You can also check out our wiki page for a plain vanilla list that will contain all the staff picks for this year plus the readers once I get around to set it up... (yeah, I know. Still working on this one)

I don't know if this is just me, but my attention span is getting shorter and shorter these days...
Therefore, for next month, the topic is:

Shorts

I'd like to see the best short story collections, short essays, maybe biographies of short story writers? As long as it's not too mentally taxing. (Sorry you lovers of Russian epics, War and Peace has to wait. )

Especially welcome are suggestions of plays and poetry, as always.

As always: All languages welcome!