Audio Book Drama Looks to The Skies
Zarr Khonar's Alien Marcabs Steal Sun's Energy - Earth Reels

Hollywood California, January 2011 -  All eyes are on the sky. The sun is being extinguished, its energy slowly drained by an unknown force. The crisis has come to the attention of Starlab -- an ISA (International Space Auhority) manned space laboratory whirring quietly through space 21 miles above earth in geo-synchronous orbit. “Alien Worlds: On The Threshold Of The Unknown,” emerges as a continuing series of half-hour dramatic science-fiction radio programs that can be aptly described as “theatre-of-the-mind.” The 30 episode series was recently heard worldwide on Sirius XM Satellite radio and has now been released as a science fiction audio book adventure series by Addlink in Hollywood.

The series takes place on various ‘alien worlds’ and aboard a giant observatory space station called Starlab, all of which are governed by the International Space Authority (ISA) and its director, Commissioner Matthew C. White. The series unfolds its many colorful original stories with an ongoing cast of characters and special guest appearances by some of Hollywood’s leading actors. The programs boast an impressive music score by The London Symphony Orchestra.

Dramatic radio and audio books should entertain audiences on a level that is more thought-provoking than just music or a simple reading alone. Radio has turned into a jukebox since the advent of television, and most audio books are boring readings. Series producer Lee Hansen explains, "We feel that ‘ALIEN WORLDS’ offers a new direction for radio listeners. And we are now moving that concept over to the audio book world.”

“I needed talented radio actors and actresses more than I needed talented voice-over people, Hansen explained. “There is a big difference. Voice-over people are accomplished at reading copy for commercials, but when it comes to believable interactive performances among actors, the task becomes very difficult and touchy. With radio-drama, the use of the actor’s voice is entirely dependent upon a performance capable of sustaining and supporting the believability of the story’s dialogue. The people involved in ‘ALIEN WORLDS’ have all been involved in radio acting in one form or another. So they perform well together. However, I quickly found out that there are only a small number of seasoned radio-drama performers available. It makes casting a bit more difficult,” Hansen explains. Good writing plays a major role also, and Alien Worlds assembled a fantastic writing team supervised by Hansen including Ron Thompson and one outstanding episode written by J. Michael Straczynksi of Babylon 5 who recently penned the film script “Changeling” directed by Clint Eastwood.

Hansen has been noted for having created “state-of-the-art radio theatre” through his offering of Alien Worlds. “None of the acting scenes last more than two minutes” Hansen explained. “There's a continual start and stop action format which I formulated based on the attention-span of radio audiences that are conditioned to listening to the Top-40 music radio format with records lasting around 2 to 3 minutes. The program scenes are continually changing with new action, sound effects and music to keep the pace moving to hold the short attention span of most modern day listeners,” says Hansen as he continues to describe the new dimensions in radio theatre that “ALIEN WORLDS” creates. It's unlike anything else that's been done before in radio theatre. The program’s recording studios utilized the most technologically advanced equipment available in the recording of the series. They experimented with sound altering phasers and various digital voice processors, like the Vocoder 2000, to create new sounds and alien voices. The results are fantastic recordings that trigger the enormous power of human imagination that paint unique pictures in the mind for each and every individual listener. The entire series now re-mastered as a unique audio book experience that can be downloaded at http://www.alienworlds.com.

The classic dramatic radio sci-fi adventure series, Alien Worlds, now available as an audiobook series with a free episode at http://www.alienworlds.com/Free-Sci-Fi-Audio-Book.html

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