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 interested me last year, mainly due to my affection for Bramhall’s narration on Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, and reviewed fairly positively by Bob Reiss over at The Guilded Earlobe
  
• 11/22/63, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton as 11.22.63) — 11-22-63: A Novel, Narrated by Craig Wasson for Simon & Schuster Audio — Length:30 hrs and 44 mins — Release Date:11-08-11 — warmly reviewed (once again, it’s Bob at The Guilded Earlobe)
  
• A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK) — A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 5, Narrated by Roy Dotrice for Random House Audio — Series: Song of Ice and Fire, Book 5 — Length:49 hrs — Release Date:07-12-11 — ADwD made my top 10 list in sf/f audio last year
  
• Osama, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing) — Osama, Narrated by Jeff Harding for Audible Ltd — Length:8 hrs and 27 mins — Release Date:05-14-12 — two reviews here at Audible SF/F, the first by Dave Thompson, the second in my May listening roundup
  
• Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor) — Among Others, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren for Audible Frontiers — Length:10 hrs and 39 mins — Release Date:08-05-11 — a lovely audiobook, reviewed both here in my January roundup, and (of course!) by Bob over at The Guilded Earlobe
  

In the novella category, at least one of the stories is available in audio, as Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA Press; Clarkesworld) was podcast in three parts by the always-excellent Kate Baker at Clarkesworld.

In the short fiction category, “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld 4/11) was podcast first at Clarkesworld, read by Kate Baker, and later re-podcast at Escape Pod, read by Mur Lafferty; and “The Paper Menagerie”, Ken Liu (F&SF 3-4/11) are available in audio, with Liu’s story first podcast at PodCastle read by Rajan Khanna, and later re-podcast (with the same narration) at Escape Pod. (A fun note is that for the PodCastle recording, PodCastle editor and host Dave Thompson provides the introduction; Audible SF/F readers may recognize Dave as a frequent contributor to the blog.)

Whew! I am quite a fan of the World Fantasy Awards. The juries there seem to really find beautiful, well-written books (Among Others certainly qualifies), whether those released to great, best-selling fanfare (Stephen King, GRRM), those released by mainstream imprints (Those Across the River perhaps deliberately avoids outright classifying itself as having fantastic elements), or books you won’t find in any US bookstore — at least not yet (Lavie Tidhar’s Osama). In past years, the award has recognized Lewis Shiner’s shimmering Glimpses and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death, nominated Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch, Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City, Karen Lord’s Redemption in Indigo, and generally found the kinds of books that I love. If you’ve found yourself in sympathy with my thoughts on fiction and audiobooks here, I do urge you to check out these books, whether in print or in audio.

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, Carlos Fuentes asks, is a modern-day vampire to roost? Why not Mexico City, populated by ten million blood sausages (that is, people), and a police force who won’t mind a few disappearances? ‘Vlad’ is Vlad the Impaler, of course, whose mythic cruelty was an inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In this sly sequel, Vlad really is undead. More than a postmodern riff on “the vampire craze”, Vlad is also an anatomy of the Mexican bourgeoisie, as well as our culture’s ways of dealing with death. For - as in Dracula - Vlad has need of both a lawyer and a real-estate agent in order to establish his new kingdom, and Yves Navarro and his wife Asuncion fit the bill nicely. Having recently lost a son, might they not welcome the chance to see their remaining child live forever? More importantly, are the pleasures of middle-class life enough to keep one from joining the legions of the damned?”

The Privilege of the Sword By Ellen Kushner, Narrated by Ellen Kushner, Barbara Rosenblat, Felicia Day, Joe Hurley, Katherine Kellgren, Nick Sullivan, and Neil Gaiman for Neil Gaiman Presents — Length:15 hrs and 40 mins — won the 2007 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel — “A few words from Neil on Privilege of the Sword: Life hands us so many moments when we hover between who we were raised to be, who the people around us are trying to make us, and who we are trying to become. In Katherine’s case, that means encountering a range of people and behaviors her mother never prepared her for - including some shocking acts of violence, both physical and emotional. As one of Kushner’s most charming characters, an actress known as “The Black Rose”, sighs, “It’s all so very difficult, until you get the hang of it.”” Here The Privilege of the Sword is another “illuminated” production, with Kushner’s narration accompanied by a full cast, as was the case for fellow World of Riverside novel Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners.

Sorry Please Thank You: Stories By Charles Yu, Narrated by James Yaegashi, Johnathon Ross, Mark Nelson, Ramon De Ocampo, Richard Poe, and Johnny Heller for Recorded Books — Length:4 hrs and 50 mins — “New York Times Notable Book author Charles Yu wrote the best-selling novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. In his stunning, often humorous, collection Sorry Please Thank You, Yu draws on pop culture and science to make incisive observations about society - and to offer touching insight into the human condition. In two of Yu’s remarkable stories, he focuses on a big-box-store night-shift employee with girl trouble and a company that outsources grief for profit.”

And just out today (Wednesday July 25) is The Apocalypse Codex By Charles Stross, Narrated by Gideon Emery for Recorded Books — Length:11 hrs and 55 mins — “The winner of multiple Hugo Awards, Charles Stross is one of the most highly regarded science fiction writers of his time. In The Apocalypse Codex, occasionally hapless British agent Bob Howard tackles a case involving an American televangelist and a supernatural threat of global proportions.”

ALSO OUT TUESDAY:

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