May goes out fairly quietly in terms of raw numbers, but there are still two audiobooks I am pretty excited about, led for me by No Going Back: Jon & Lobo, Book 5 By Mark L. Van Name, Narrated by Tom Stechschulte for Audible Frontiers. Out concurrently with its print and e-book release from Baen, the book continues the Jon and Lobo series, which came to audio in one giant gulp last month. “Jon and Lobo are back–and everything is about to change. If they both survive. Haunted by memories of children he could not save, Jon Moore is so increasingly self-destructive that even his best friend, the hyper-intelligent Predator-Class Assault Vehicle, Lobo, is worried. When Jon risks meeting a woman from his distant past and undertakes a high-stakes mission, Lobo fears this will be their last. The job is illegal. They have to take on one of the oldest, most powerful men alive. Two different security forces are tracking them. And Jon is falling in love. Desperate and out of options on a world so inhospitable that its statues and monuments outnumber its living inhabitants, Jon and Lobo encounter their deadliest challenges yet. They must make decisions from which there truly is No Going Back.”
The second audiobook I’m most excited about this week is The Tel Aviv Dossier By and Yir Yaniv, Narrated by for Audible Ltd. Originally published in print by ChiZine in 2009, it’s the third of Tidhar’s books to come to audio after the mid-May release of his 2011 novel Osama and his novella An Occupation of Angels last year. Here’s the pitch for The Tel Aviv Dossier: “Through a city torn apart by violence they cannot comprehend, three disparate people: a documentary film-maker, a yeshiva student, and a psychotic fireman must try to survive, and try to find meaning - even if it means being lost themselves. As Tel Aviv is consumed, a strange mountain rises at the heart of the city and shows the outline of what may be another, alien world beyond. Can there be redemption there? Can the fevered rumours of a coming messiah be true? As the city loses contact with the outside world and closes in on itself, as the few surviving children play and scavenge in the ruins, can innocence survive? And is it possible for hope to spring amid such chaos?”
ALSO OUT TUESDAY:
The Guilded Earlobe's Top 10 Zombie Novels and Series (with audiobook notes) -
Led by Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series (bumped up to #1 due to Bob’s very positive thoughts on the final, just-released Blackout) and including several other books and series available in audio (and some which are not). My own write-in, though as much, much less a zombie connoisseur is Boneshakerby Cherie Priest, read wonderfully by Kate Reading and Wil Wheaton. Anyway — go check out the list and add your own favorites.
The absolutely mammoth release week for Tuesday, May 23, is led for me by the much-anticipated and well-regarded 2312 by arrated by for Hachette Audio, out concurrently with its publication in hardcover and e-book by Orbit. At 19 hrs and 15 mins, it seems a pretty good length for exploring a science fiction world (not too long, not too short). Over on Scalzi’s Whatever blog, Robinson talks about the Big Idea behind the novel, there’s an official site which lets you build your own asteroid terrarium, and here’s the publisher description: “The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity’s only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future. The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen. For Swan Er Hong, it is an event that will change her life. Swan was once a woman who designed worlds. Now she will be led into a plot to destroy them.”
The Alchemist of Souls: Night’s Masque, Book 1 By , Narrated by — Length:15 hrs and 9 mins — Out just a bit earlier this year in print and e-book, read by Page, the narrator of the (deservedly) award-winning audiobook for Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora. Again, there’s a Big Idea piece from the author, and here’s the publisher: “When Tudor explorers returned from the New World, they brought back a name out of half-forgotten Viking legend: skraylings. Red-sailed ships followed in the explorers’ wake, bringing Native American goods - and a skrayling ambassador – to London. But what do these seemingly magical beings really want in Elizabeth I’s capital? Mal Catlyn, a down-at-heel swordsman, is appointed to the ambassador’s bodyguard, but assassination attempts are the least of his problems. What he learns about the skraylings and their unholy powers could cost England her new ally – and Mal his soul.”
Seed (2011) By , Narrated by — Length:12 hrs and 45 mins. Seed is Ziegler’s debut novel: “It”s the dawn of the 22nd century, and the world has fallen apart. Decades of war and resource depletion have toppled governments. The ecosystem has collapsed. A new dust bowl sweeps the American West. The United States has become a nation of migrants - starving masses of nomads who seek out a living in desert wastelands and encampments outside government seed-distribution warehouses. In this new world, there is a new power. Satori is more than just a corporation, she is an intelligent, living city that grew out of the ruins of Denver. …”
Out last Wednesday from Recorded Books was All Men of Genius (2011) By Lev AC Rosen, Narrated by Emily Gray — Length:16 hrs and 57 mins — “Set in a steampunk version of Victorian England, Lev AC Rosen’s acclaimed debut novel, All Men of Genius, follows the fantastical adventures of Violet Adams. Determined to attend the prestigious Illyria College, Violet gains entrance by masquerading as her twin brother Ashton. But continuing the scheme turns out to be difficult - especially when “Ashton” is faced with blackmail, killer automata, and possible romance with a young duke.”
And continuing its almost weekly march upon bigtime backlists, Audible Frontiers this week brings us a wide selection of the works of science fiction author David Brin, in the run-up to Brin’s forthcoming Existence (June 17). The post-apocalyptic 1985 novel The Postman, which indeed spawned the Mel Gibson film, is narrated by
Also new in audio are: Earth (1990 Narrated by Kiln People (2002) and The Practice Effect (1984, Narrated by Glory Season (1993, Narrated by
Lastly, also new from Audible Frontiers are the first two books in Tim Akers’s Burn Cycle, both narrated by beginning with Heart of Veridon: Burn Cycle, Book 1 (2009, Solaris Books):
And continuing with Dead of Veridon: Burn Cycle, Book 2 (2011) — 9.5 hours each, these novels follow “Jacob Burn: pilot, criminal and disgraced son of one of the founding families of the ancient city of Veridon.”
ALSO OUT TUESDAY:
Dave Thompson to narrate Tim Pratt's Briarpatch -
Quoth Dave: “I get to read the audiobook for Tim Pratt’s amazing fantasy novel Briarpatch! … I am so stoked beyond words about this, I don’t even know what else to say! I keep expecting people to email me that they’ve changed their minds. I love this book. I loved it immediately - as soon as I started reading it when it came out last year.”
This is absolutely awesome news all around: 1. An audiobook for Briarpatch 2. I get to make Dave interview himself. (Hey, if he can handle a whole cauldron of witches, he can surely handle himself.) It should be available via ACX (Audible) late this summer. Yeah!
Through Noon Eastern Time on May 21, Audible.com is having a 48-hour Customer Favorites $7.95 sale. There is a handy Sci-Fi & Fantasy tab, though there are sf/f titles lurking under the Thriller, Fiction (a lot), and Romance tabs as well. Here’s what most caught my eye in the sf/f tab:
And there’s a whole lot more worth giving a look at:
For the third week in a row there are multiple major releases in the YA SF & F section, led by Railsea, a foray into a younger age category by the always brilliant Narrated by
In adult sf/f and released Monday was another long-anticipated audiobook, Osama (2011) By arrated by
In a world without global terrorism Joe, a private detective, is hired by a mysterious woman to find a man: the obscure author of pulp fiction novels featuring one Osama Bin Laden: Vigilante…Joe’s quest to find the man takes him across the world, from the backwaters of Asia to the European Capitals of Paris and London, and as the mystery deepens around him there is one question he is trying hard not to ask: who is he, really, and how much of the books is fiction? Chased by unknown assailants, Joe’s identity slowly fragments as he discovers the shadowy world of the refugees, ghostly entities haunting the world in which he lives. Where do they come from? And what do they want? Joe knows how the story should end, but even he is not ready for the truths he’ll find in New York and, finally, on top a quiet hill above Kabul—nor for the choice he will at last have to make….”
Who likes this novel? Jeff VanderMeer, Christopher Priest, Paul Kincaid, theBSFA, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award jury, … I was very excited when Tidhar announced a multi-book audio rights deal with Audible, and Osama is here much, much sooner than I expected. Delightfully so! I am nearing the halfway point and am starting to put together my thoughts so far.
More! Thus far in 2012, Audible Frontiers has nearly every week produced a major author’s backlog in audio, and this week is another huge haul of audiobooks centered around a single author’s backlog as C. S. Friedman’s Magister Trilogy and Coldfire trilogy are both now out in audio, along with several standalone novels. (To toot my Bull Spec horn a bit here, I carry a review of Friedman’s Magister Trilogy along with an interview of the author by Dan Campbell in the current issue.) The Magister Trilogy is narrated by Feast of Souls: Magister Trilogy, Book 1 (2007), Wings of Wrath: Magister Trilogy, Book 2 (2009), and Legacy of Kings: Magister Trilogy, Book 3 (2011):
Meanwhile, the Coldfire Trilogy is read by Black Sun Rising: Coldfire Trilogy, Book 1 (1991), When True Night Falls: Coldfire Trilogy, Book 2 (1993), and Crown of Shadows: Coldfire Trilogy, Book 3 (1995), alongDominion: A Coldfire Novella. Also new in audio are: The Madness Season (1990, Narrated by This Alien Shore (1998, Narrated by In Conquest Born (1987, Narrated by The Wilding (2004, Narrated by
ALSO NEW TUESDAY:
Using a special mini-cart, and if you happen to have piles of credits lying around you can “3 for 2” more than once, Audible.com has been running a 3 books for 2 credits sale for the past week which ends tonight at midnight Eastern Time (US). In the sale are books by David Anthony Durham (books 2 and 3 of Acacia), Robert J. Sawyer (WWW: Watch and Wonder), R. A. Salvatore (Forgotten Realms: Transitions), Jo Walton (Small Change trilogy), Margaret Weis (Dragonvarld trilogy), Scott Westerfield (Behemoth and Goliath in his Leviathan trilogy), Peter F. Hamilton, Mark Hodder (Burton & Swinburne series), and more. It’s organized by author last name across 5 partitions, so… happy hunting.
Audiobook release day: Osama by Lavie Tidhar -
I don’t always do a release day post these days, usually saving things up for one week-in-recap. But sometimes an audiobook comes along off-Tuesday that I’m really excited about, and today has one such audiobook. Coming in at about 8.5 hours, Osama By Narrated by
In a world without global terrorism Joe, a private detective, is hired by a mysterious woman to find a man: the obscure author of pulp fiction novels featuring one Osama Bin Laden: Vigilante…Joe’s quest to find the man takes him across the world, from the backwaters of Asia to the European Capitals of Paris and London, and as the mystery deepens around him there is one question he is trying hard not to ask: who is he, really, and how much of the books is fiction? Chased by unknown assailants, Joe’s identity slowly fragments as he discovers the shadowy world of the refugees, ghostly entities haunting the world in which he lives. Where do they come from? And what do they want? Joe knows how the story should end, but even he is not ready for the truths he’ll find in New York and, finally, on top a quiet hill above Kabul—nor for the choice he will at last have to make….”
Who likes this novel? Jeff VanderMeer, Christopher Priest, Paul Kincaid, the BSFA, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award jury, … I was very excited when Tidhar announced a multi-book audio rights deal with Audible, and Osama is here much, much sooner than I expected. Delightfully so! I expect to start listening tonight, pushing my planned next listen of China Mieville’s Railsea (due out tomorrow) off a day or two.
ALSO OUT TODAY: Lightspeed Year One: From the Hugo Award Nominated Magazine which is a (slightly incomplete in audio) anthology from the excellent online/e-zine Lightspeed, edited by John Joseph Adams. The Skyboat Audio production collects the high-production value podcast of the first year of the magazine, including stories by arrated by
Twenty-first stop on the DWJ blog tour -- The Functional Nerds! -
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn (who is also behind the very terrific Bull Spec) provides a comprehensive overview of DWJ audiobooks. You’d be surprised by some of the narrators!
“[Howl’s Moving Castle] is done so well, so earnestly, and so authentically that those with an ear for dialects might begin to wonder why Howl speaks with a ‘tapped r’ long before we find out what’s sewn across one of his shirts.”
Thanks for letting me play along! (And for the Bull Spec comment, too.)
Received: from Blackstone Audio, two MP3-CD audiobooks: HAMLET’S FATHER by Orson Scott Card, read by Stefan Rudnicki (published May 1); and A SHORT, SHARP SHOCK by Kim Stanley Robinson, read by Paul Michael Garcia (published April 1).
