Tell Me a Story

By: Arthur C. Clarke, William Gibson, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, Terry Bisson, Avram Davidson

Narrated by: uncredited

Length: 1 hr and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

Ready for a story? Author and editor Paul Williams has selected some of the finest science fiction short stories of recent years, including: Arthur C. Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of Gods," Isaac Asimov's "Insert Knob A in Hole B," William Gibson's "Cyber-Claus," Robert Sheckley's "The Perfect Woman" and "Beside Still Waters," Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out of Meat," Avram Davidson's "The Golem" and Philip K. Dick's "Expendable."

Recording (P)1997 by Audio Literature

Great stories, bad narration

This is a fascinating tour through old science fiction ... or would be, if the narration didn't suck so hard. Horrible intonation, awkward pauses -- it doesn't get much worse. Not a way to treat the masters.

Poor reader

Good content, enjoyed the stories. When I could get past the halting monotone of the reader.

Great Collection of Authors

Any additional comments?

My only complaint about this audio book is that it was a little too short (only 1.5 hours). The content within that short time is nearly all pure gold. There are one or two stories that had me wondering WHY they were added to the collection, but overall it's a great compilation of some of my favorite authors. The fact that the book contains Sheckley, Asimov, Dick, AND Clarke should be enough reason alone to check this one out.

8.3 / 10

Playback speed adjustment improves the listen

What did you like best about Tell Me a Story? What did you like least?

These are classic syfy stories, very enjoyable in themselves, however the reader does an unusually poor job. I found if I adjusted the playback speed to 1.5 most of the awkward gaps in the speech cadence were eliminated.

Get someone else to Tell Me a Story.

The reading is not very professional, and the collection of stories seems hap-hazard and somewhat dated. However, the William Gibson contribution is a rare short story.

Where have I heard that voice...

Narrator: Cartman

Reader sounds like a robot

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

no. The reader is awful

What did you like best about this story?

classic SciFi

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of the narrator?

Anybody human.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Its like trying to listen to HAL read a book, but HAL would have sounded more natural.

Good stories, bad narration

What did you like best about Tell Me a Story? What did you like least?

I enjoyed most of the stories in this book but I really wish I knew who narrated this book so I could avoid ever getting another by him.
By no means the best of what these authors. Many of the endings were a bit predictable and trite but I still enjoyed them. Just the constant hesitations and extremely odd breaks by the narrator detracted and made the book hard to listen too.

Would you be willing to try another one of the narrator’s performances?

Not by choice but I can't find his name.

Great authors ruined by a monotone robot

These are great SciFi authors that have been totally ruined by the guy chosen to narrate these stories. This is so painful that even though I've loved these authors over the decades, I can't continue. What a horrible choice of readers, no wonder it's "uncredited". Even the reader was ashamed of this reading.

Solid Sci Fi

Wonderful choice of classic short stories. Enjoyable for more than one listen. Good like for sci fi lovers' library.

Too short

Great collection of stories, thoroughly enjoyed it. Just wish it was a little bit longer.