Audible Announces ‘METAtropolis,’ an Innovative Collaboration
by Award-Winning Sci-Fi Authors
NEWARK, N.J. October 21, 2008 – The leading provider of premium digital spoken-audio information and entertainment, Audible Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (Nasdaq: AMZN), today announced the publication of “METAtropolis,” an original science-fiction collaboration written exclusively for downloadable audio. “METAtropolis” is available beginning today at www.audible.com/meta
“METAtropolis” is a unique collaboration of five interconnected novellas commissioned by Audible. It is the creation of today’s most-popular science fiction writers including 2008 Hugo Award winners John Scalzi and Elizabeth Bear; along with Campbell Award winner Jay Lake; Tobias Buckell; and Karl Schroeder.
Bringing this original project to life is a dream team of performers: “Battlestar Galactica’s” Michael Hogan (who plays Saul Tigh), Alessandro Juliani (Felix Gaeta) and Kandyse McClure (Anastasia Dualla); plus legendary audiobook narrators Scott Brick (“Dune”) and Stefan Rudnicki (“Ender’s Game”).
“METAtropolis” is “a fascinating project,” said author Elizabeth Bear, “and a chance to work with some of the most creative and ingenious minds in the genre.”
The creation of “METAtropolis” began long before the first word was written. The five authors brainstormed as a team to develop a “shared universe” — a structure and set of ground rules which link their stories together.
“What makes METAtropolis unique is that the authors not only teamed up to create a universe together, they wrote their stories with audio in mind,” said Beth Anderson, executive vice president and Publisher, Audible Inc. “They knew their work would be heard, and they told us that had a major influence on their creative choices.”
The world the team created is a near future where big cities are dying, dead or transformed; where the once-thriving suburbs are now the treacherous Wilds; where those who live for technology battle those who would die rather than embrace it. It is a world of zero-footprint cities, virtual nations and armed camps of eco-survivalists.
“It’s not just the standard-issue Jetsons future,” said author and project editor Scalzi. “It’s the idea that cities would be something like interstitial nations, where the people of Detroit or Portland might have more in common with the people in Hong Kong or Johannesburg than with the people right down the road.”
“One of the jobs of a science-fiction writer is to explore what happens if all the stuff going on around us continues as is, and try to engage with it,” added author Buckell. “In ‘METAtropolis’ we got to tussle with what the cities of the future might be like, if this goes on.”
The original novellas that comprise “METAtropolis” are:
* “In the Forests of the Night” by Jay Lake
* “Stochasti-city” by Tobias Buckell
* “The Red in the Sky Is Our Blood” by Elizabeth Bear
* “Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis” by John Scalzi
* “To Hie From Far Cilenia” by Karl Schroeder
Audible’s Director of Editorial Business Development, Steve Feldberg, served as Executive Producer for “METAtropolis”.
“METAtropolis” is the latest addition to the Audible science-fiction and fantasy catalog, available at www.audible.com/scifi, which now features nearly 2000 titles. Through its in-house sci-fi and fantasy imprint, Audible Frontiers, Audible has produced nearly 100 titles exclusively for digital audio.
About the Authors
– John Scalzi is the Hugo Award-winning author of “Zoe’s Tale,” the latest entry in his “Old Man’s War” series
– Elizabeth Bear is the Hugo Award-winning author of “All the Windwracked Stars” and other novels
– Jay Lake is the Campbell Award winning author of “Escapement” and more than 200 short stories
– Tobias Buckell, is the author of “Sly Mongoose” and other novels
– Karl Schroeder, is the author of “Pirate Sun” and other books in the “Virga” series
About Audible.com
Audible (www.audible.com) is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the internet. Content from Audible is downloaded and played back on personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady computer-based and wireless mobile devices. Audible has over 50,000 audio programs from more than 700 content providers that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store. Audible, Audible.com, AudibleListener, AudibleReady and AudibleKids are trademarks of Audible, Inc. or its affiliates. Other product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc., (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as books, movies, music & games, digital downloads, electronics & computers, home & garden, toys, kids & baby, grocery, apparel, shoes & jewelry, health & beauty, sports & outdoors, and tools, auto & industrial.
Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS), and Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and the Joyo Amazon websites at www.joyo.cn and www.amazon.cn.
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, significant amount of indebtedness, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, and subsequent filings.
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