October 2012
8 posts
1 tag
What's in a name? A farewell to "The Audible SF/F...
When I started “The Audible SF/F Blog” in June 2011, I was hoping that the double meaning of “audible”, that is both the well-known audiobook company and the state of being, er, audible, which is so very characteristic of audiobooks, wouldn’t create TOO much confusion. While the first words of the site description are “completely unaffiliated”, when people...
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All Hallow's Listen Part 1: Dave Thompson reviews...
[Editor’s note: “All Hallow’s Listen” will be a 3-part series this October, featuring Dave Thompson’s reviews on Halloween-suitable audiobooks. Stay tuned each Friday!]
The Halloween Tree By Ray Bradbury Narrated by Bronson Pinchot for Blackstone Audio Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins Release Date: 07-25-11
Review by Dave Thompson: All Hallow’s Listen #1: An October...
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First thoughts on Downpour: DRM-free and...
Downpour is a new multi-publisher DRM-free digital audiobook (and physical audiobook) website and iOS app launched by Blackstone Audio, with titles from Recorded Books, Hachette Audio, and more. The site is a bit slow at times (note: it is still in Beta) but it is certainly usable, though a link here and there is wonky (when browsing Science Fiction titles, which are by default and always by...
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Release Week: Tad Williams, Steven Erikson, Iain...
What the second release week in October lacks in the staggering numbers department, it makes up for with three absolutely stellar titles: urban fantasy from Tad Williams, the latest Iain M. Banks “Culture” novel, and the long-awaited first audio installment of Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen epic fantasy series. And! The long-awaited digital audio release of the Rob...
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Cory Doctorow's Pirate Cinema, DRM-free and direct...
Via author Cory Doctorow’s blog, he is selling direct, EULA- and DRM-free downloads of his latest audiobook, Pirate Cinema (Listening Library, read by Bruce Mann), from his own website. It’s also available DRM-free from Simply Audiobooks, eMusic, BooksOnBoard, and Barnes & Noble (probably among others), but this is the first I can remember seeing a publisher-published audiobook...
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Release week: Ironskin, Legion, Mr. Penumbra's...
Well, I tried. I put together an interstitial release week post on Friday. Then again Monday morning. And still what’s left in this week’s haul is more than enough to keep all the listening hours in a year occupied. So, since we can’t listen to everything, here are my picks for the week. Since Monday. Luckily, several of them are short. And one of them is even free....
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Listening report: July 2012
After ending a run of eight audiobooks in my June listening with the amazing The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I listened to seven audiobooks in August, with Michael J. Sullivan’s Theft of Swords, Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook, and G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen being the outstanding listens.
REVIEWS:
[[MORE]]
Earth Unaware By Orson Scott Card and...
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A weekend of new Dave Duncan audiobooks
Goodness. I put together a Friday “interlude” release week post, and then on Saturday 11 Dave Duncan audiobooks show up, all from Audible Frontiers:
Donald Corren narrates the Seventh Swordsman series:The Reluctant Swordsman, The Coming of Wisdom, and The Destiny of the Sword
Peter Ganim narrates Ill Met in the Arena
Derek Perkins narrates the Omar series: The Reaver Road, The...
September 2012
17 posts
2 tags
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Release week... Friday? Ben Aaronovitch, Greg...
It feels like I just wrapped up a huge release week post two days ago, because I did. But so much has already come out since Wednesday that, well, I’d better post now because next week should have a huge list of new audiobooks as well. So here’s an “interlude” release week post.
Leading the list is the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch, all narrated by Kobna...
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The Guilded Earlobe reviews Wool by Hugh Howey
I started hearing good things about Wool quite some time ago. Then Ridley Scott bought the film rights, and still I didn’t read it. Then Random House UK bought in, and still I didn’t read it. But now that The Guilded Earlobe has given the audiobook a “go for it” review, I’ll have to figure out how to fit it into a busy fall of listening.
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Release week: The Mongoliad, Embedded, The Freedom...
The last Tuesday of September brings a sizable haul of interesting-looking audiobooks, from new sequels, to some of 2011’s most missing, new Terry Pratchett, and the return of Neil Gaiman Presents.
The Mongoliad: The Foreworld Saga, Book 2 By Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Nicole Galland, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, and Cooper Moo comes with quite a busy byline from Brilliance Audio,...
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Audiobook review: Welcome to Bordertown
Welcome to Bordertown: New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands Edited by: Holly Black and Ellen Kushner Performances by: MacLeod Andrews, Cassandra Campbell, Ellen Kushner, and Holly Black Length: 18 hours and 8 minutes Release date: 10 April 2012
Review by Dave Thompson: Bordertown Lives!
I feel in love with Welcome to Bordertown well before I actually read any of the stories. In her...
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Release Week: Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber,...
The middle of September brings a few audiobooks of interest, but my first thoughts on the week are 1. that I was at first incredibly excited when I saw the new Tad Williams urban fantasy novel The Dirty Streets of Heaven: A Bobby Dollar Novel, Book 1 listed — but then it turned out I wasn’t logged in, so Audible was showing me titles not available in my country, and now I have only the...
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Interview: Tim Pratt, interviewed by Dave Thompson
Briarpatch By Tim Pratt Narrated by Dave Thompson via ACX for Timothy Pratt c/o Curtis Brown, LTD Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins Release Date: 08-27-12
Article and Interview by Dave Thompson
For the general public, Tim Pratt is one of the best kept secrets in fantasy fiction. I say this not just as someone who loves to read (and listen!) to Tim’s work, but as someone who who has bought...
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Dozens of free Audible titles through Amazon's...
It seems pretty far fetched, but Audiobooker reports that as part of Amazon’s push of their new “Whispersync for Voice” feature for Kindle and Audible that it has made $500 of audiobooks free. I’ve tried it, it does work, though I had to finally connect my Audible account with my Amazon account. The 26 titles are classics, including Frankenstein, The Wizard of Oz,...
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Afternoon Reading: Neil Gaiman and Felicia Day... →
ellenkushner:
victusinveritas:
“If you love clever, whimsical fantasy, you won’t want to miss the new audiobook version of Ellen Kushner’s novel The Privilege of the Sword. There’s nothing better than a Kushner novel on a long afternoon .”
Thank you! I loved getting to read my own work for posterity - and having Neil & Felicia in it was a real thrill … along with exalted audiobook stars...
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Release Week: Brent Weeks, Kameron Hurley, Adam...
The second release week of September still shows no sign of Brandon Sanderson’s Legion, read by Oliver Wyman; but I’m sure it’s coming soon. Not that I’m hitting reload that often…
The Blinding Knife: Black Prism, Book 2 By Brent Weeks, Narrated by Simon Vance for Hachette Audio — Series: Lightbringer, Book 2 — Length: 23 hrs and 48 mins — I...
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Listening report: June 2012
After six audiobooks in May (though KSR’s 2312 went on well into the first week of June) I listened to eight in June, with Tim Powers’s On Stranger Tides and Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay being the outstanding audiobooks, with plenty to recommend Mark L. Van Name’s No Going Back, John Scalzi’s Redshirts, and Jon Sprunk’s...
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Audible "Win-Win" $4.95 sale, through Sep 18
A members-only sale at Audible, this one dubbed Win-Win, with $4.95 titles running through September 18. The sale page sorts out titles by author last name groupings, so here is my scan-through for interesting titles:
LONGER LIST and LINKS:[[MORE]]
TEMPTING: The Heroes By Joe Abercrombie, Narrated by Michael Page — Length:22 hrs and 44 mins
The End of Eternity By Isaac Asimov,...
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Release week: Clockwork Angels, Ashes of Honor,...
September kicks off with quite a vengeance with new audio of both new, newly translated, and long-running series. As usual I have my “seen but not heard” complaints, led in a big way by the new widely-praised Tad Williams urban fantasy novel The Dirty Streets of Heaven and the Cory Doctorow/Charles Stross joint The Rapture of the Nerds but, I guess, you can’t have everything.
Out...
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Audible sale: $5.95 / $4.16 -- ends today (9/2)
It’s only today that I finally found the sale page, but I’d mentioned this somewhat “quiet” sale over on Facebook and Twitter. The long and short of it is that a whole big list of ACX (Audible’s Audiobook Creation Exchange) titles have been on sale for $5.95, with members still getting their discount which brings them down to $4.16. Among the full list of titles, this...
August 2012
14 posts
4 tags
A reddit /r/audiobooks AMA with award-winning...
Hey folks! Over on the reddit /r/Audiobooks community today is award-winning narrator Oliver Wyman for an AMA — which stands for “Ask Me Anything”.
He’s oft-mentioned here and has narrated some of my favorites — so go ask a question!
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Release Week: Chuck Wendig's Mockingbird, Adam...
Monday’s haul easily crossed the threshhold to put together the “earlier this week” releases, including several Stanislaw Lem novels (including Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age), the much-lauded self-published sf series Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1 - 5) By Hugh Howey, and Briarpatch By Tim Pratt (narrated by this blog’s own Dave Thompson). Meanwhile it’s a big...
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Release Day: Stanislaw Lem, Wool, and Tim Pratt's...
Well, it’s another off-Tuesday release day well worth a post, as Audible Frontiers has released a long list of science fiction from Stanislaw Lem, including The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age and Mortal Engines Narrated by Scott Aiello and The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy, The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy, and Peace on Earth Narrated...
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Audible's Beachcomber Sale
The complete list of 25 Beachcomber Sale titles has now been revealed, after this somewhat strange “follow the clues” sale placed 5 books on sale for $6.95 each day for 5 days. The prices will stick around until August 31, and here are the SF/F titles:
1984: New Classic Edition By George Orwell, Narrated by Simon Prebble — Length:11 hrs and 26 mins
Brave New World By...
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Release Week: Returns to Ringworld and Shannara
The release week of Tuesday August 21 brings another chapter to two classic series, one sf and one fantasy, along with an intriguing horror title.
Fate of Worlds: Return from the Ringworld By Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner, Narrated by Tom Weiner for Blackstone Audio — Series: Ringworld, Book 5 — Length:9 hrs and 54 mins —”The explosive finale to the Ringworld and the...
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Release Week: Caliban's War; Joe Haldeman's None...
While the release week for Tuesday August 14 is a bit quiet for concurrent new releases — again it’s the “Seen But Not Heard” list of Nick Mamatas’s Bullettime, collections from Kij Johnson and Jeffrey Ford, and some others which drive my thoughts on the week — there’s a sizable list of previously released books in audio for the first time, including a...
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Another Audible.com members-only sale: 2 for 1
Audible’s having another members-only 2-for-1 sale through August 14. Listed by author last name, here are the titles which catch my eye:
The Scar By Sergey Dyachenko and Marina Dyachenko, translated by Elinor Huntington, Narrated by Jonathan Davis for Audible Frontiers — Length:15 hrs and 17 mins — Release Date:02-28-12
The Magician King: A Novel By Lev Grossman, Narrated...
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New source for audiobooks reviews: Salon's "The...
A fledgeling 3 weeks old, Salon’s new column The Listener looks to be something to keep an eye on. In this week’s column, Laura Miller (author of The Magician’s Book) lends an ear to Heidi Julavit’s The Vanishers and Laura Groff’s Arcadia, both high-end “genre in the mainstream” titles from a bit earlier this year. Check it out!
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Release day: some Recorded Books titles come a bit...
I wasn’t expected this to arrive until September 1, but Recorded Books has just released a very anticipated fantasy audiobook: Heir of Novron: Riyria Revelations, Book 3 By Michael J. Sullivan, Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds — Length:31 hrs and 49 mins:
On the heels of Theft of Swords: Riyria Revelations, Book 1 (March) and Rise of Empire: Riyria Revelations, Book 2 (May), both...
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World Fantasy Awards 2012 nominees announced
The nominees for the 2012 World Fantasy Awards have been announced, and all five of the novels on the final ballot are available in audio. Let me run them down for you:
Those Across the River, Christopher Buehlman (Ace) — Those Across the River, Narrated by Mark Bramhall for Penguin Audiobooks — Length:9 hrs and 5 mins — Release Date:09-06-11 — this is one that...
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Release Week: King of Thorns; Laird Barron's The...
The first release week of August packs a pretty big whallop, though it doesn’t bring a couple of the titles I was most looking forward to (Jim C. Hines’s Libriomancer and T. Aaron Payton’sThe Constantine Affliction— Payton is a new pseudonym for Steampunk from the brilliant Tim Pratt) it does bring an anticipated sequel, one of my “most missing audiobooks” from...
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Release Week: Chimera, vN, and Zelazny's...
July goes out with quite a bang this release week, with two of my long-anticipated sf titles and an unexpectedly fantastic surprise with the Audible Frontiers release of Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber series under two all-star narrators.
Being quite a fan of the first and second books in the series, I’m already digging into Chimera: The Subterrene War, Book 3 By T. C....
July 2012
13 posts
2 tags
PW's ListenUp points us to William Dufris's... →
The samples sound a bit like GraphicAudio in terms of full cast, sound effects, etc. The Batsons title seems oriented for kids, which is a nice change of pace and a more unique direction. I wasn’t overly thrilled with the packed-to-the-earwalls sample for Titanium Rain, but as it was a battle scene, it’s hard to get an overall feel for a more typical section of the narrative. Something...
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It's Iambik Audiobooks day!
It’s been a while since I saw any Iambik titles showing up at Audible.com, but today has seen a long list arrive, including the absolutely fantastic, you should not miss, Last Dragon By J. M. McDermott, Narrated by Cori Samuel:
I bought this direct from Iambik earlier this year, and it immediately became one of my all-time favorites. As I said in my May listening report, “The book...
Audiobook Review: The Age of Miracles by Karen... →
Absolutely fascinating review of one of this year’s most anticipated “genre in the mainstream” titles.
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Release Week: Vlad; Neil Gaiman Presents Ellen...
The release week for Tuesday, July 24 brings quite a few titles I’m very interested in. Luckily, two of the audiobooks I’ve most got my eyes on are on the shorter side.
Vlad By Carlos Fuentes, translated by Alejandro Branger and Ethan Shaskan Bumas, narrated by Robert Fass for Dreamscape Media (Dalkey Archive Press, 112 pages) — Length: 2 hrs and 41 mins — “Where,...
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Another Audible sale: 3 for 2
Audible is already in the midst of its Paperback Sale and has announced as well a new 3 for 2 sale, ending August 1, with “each book a part of a popular series”.
The sale includes among others:
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars)
Dan Simmons’s Hyperion Cantos (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion)
Charles...
7 tags
Release week: Earth Unaware, Energized, Shine...
The release week for Tuesday July 17 sports a pair of anticipated sf audiobooks, along with a “genre in the mainstream” title and all-star cast zombie anthology.
The first of the sf titles is a the first in a planned prequel series to Ender’s Game, telling the story of first contact and the First Formic War, introducing (but only just) a young Mazer Rackham, and exploring both...
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Audible.com "Paperback Sale" through July 28
Billed as “100 audiobooks for as low as $5.95 each”, Audible.com is having a Paperback Sale through July 28, with a pretty good haul of interesting sf/f titles. Here’s the ones which most caught my eye, $5.95 unless otherwise noted:
The Rook: A Novel By Daniel O’Malley Narrated by Susan Duerden — Length:17 hrs and 51 mins
A Discovery of Witches By Deborah...
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The Guilded Earlobe reviews The Long Earth by... →
“The Long Earth is a wonderful tale of exploration and discovery by two authors that blend their styles so seamlessly that it becomes something unexpected.”
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Audiobook review: The Amazing Adventures of...
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Narrated by David Colacci for Brilliance Audio
Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
Release Date: 06-12-12
Review by Dave Thompson: “Why don’t you figure out where we’re going to put all your goddamn comic books!”
This is going to be something of a departure from the other reviews I’ve done here, and...
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Release week: Shadow Show, Caitlin R. Kiernan's...
July really gets rolling here in its second week, with a long list of big new releases, including Rob Reid’s Year Zero and Deborah Harkness’s Shadow of Night. Still, it’s another four books which most catch my eye this week, starting with the anthology Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle, narrated by George Takei,...
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Release week: Alif the Unseen; Guy Gavriel Kay;...
While the first release week in July isn’t headlined with new star-powered releases — those might be found in the “seen but not heard” section, including a new Charles Stross “Laundry Files” novel — there are a few intriguing new titles along with another round of new Audible Frontiers productions of previously well-received novels.
The title that most...
