The Voice from the Edge: Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral by Harlan Ellison, read by the author. Fantastic Audio, runs approx. 5 hours.
Harlan Ellison's voice has been as busy as his pen. He recently appeared as narrator in the excellent Beyond 2000 series of radio shows (more on that in a future column) and was one of the readers in the Arthur C. Clarke short story collection I reviewed in November.

Here, he reads his own material in a collection made for audio, The Voice from the Edge: Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral. Ellison is an excellent performer. His voice adds even further energy and character to each story.

There are 11 masterful stories here, with a bit of commentary by the author. Every one was a gem, but those that stand out most for me were the title story "Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral," the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning "Jeffty is Five," and the incredible "The Function of Dream Sleep." His "Rat Hater" out-Sopranos the Sopranos. These stories defy categorization and are all moving. Ellison is a master of the form, and this audio collection is a treasure.

The Elephants of Posnan and Other Stories by Orson Scott Card, read by several different readers. Fantastic Audio, runs approx. 9 hours.
Here is another diamond from Fantastic Audio. The Elephants of Posnan and Other Stories is a collection of fiction from Orson Scott Card, many of which appeared in his 1990 Maps in a Mirror collection. Two of the stories are read by Card himself (another talented reader) and the rest by various others, notably Michael Gross, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roddy MacDowell, and Scott Brick. Every story is wonderfully performed; there wasn't a weak link in the bunch.

This collection could be viewed as a summary of Card's career in science fiction. Due to his penchant for rewriting stories into longer works, there are original, short versions of some of his greatest work here. "Ender's Game," for example, is presented here in the original version as published in Analog in 1977. This was Card's first published science fiction story, and in its novel length it has grown to be one of science fiction's finest works. Read by Michael Gross, it makes for fine listening.

This 12-story collection also contains "The Lost Boys," an emotional story of loss, which was later expanded into a novel of the same name. "Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow," an epic poem, is here too. "Unaccompanied Sonata" rings of Card's later Songmaster, even though the novel wasn't directly based on the story.

Also here is the title story, a thought-provoking tale of elephants and their role as inheritors of the earth. The last story is an excellent mainstream tale of desire called "Feed the Baby of Love."

All the stories are a testament to Card's ability as a storyteller -- I thoroughly enjoyed this collection.

NOTES

How about some stunning non-fiction? Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time made for great listening in an unabridged version performed by Michael Jackson (no, not THAT Michael Jackson...). Hawking's follow-up, The Universe in a Nutshell, was released on abridged audio by Audio Literature and read by Simon Prebble. I'm still sorting it all out in my head -- fantastic, thought-provoking, paradigm-shifting... great stuff.