Posts published in: 2012/12

Battle of the download sales: Downpour's 40-50% off through Tuesday

Posted on 2012-12-29 at 19:54 by Sam

I posted yesterday about Audible's $7.95 sale (on 100+ audiobooks) which also runs through Jan. 2, but I should also mention that Downpour.com (Blackstone Audio's new multi-publisher DRM-free audiobook store) is also running a sale. Theirs is 40% off all downloads, 50% off of "Classics", as well as a wide selection of MP3-CD and CD audiobooks for sale, through Tuesday. Enjoy! Among other selections, I can certainly recommend, on sale for $11.97:

The Testament of Jessie Lamb (UNABRIDGED)

Posted in Uncategorized

Audible's $7.95 sale through January 2, including Lev Grossman, Haruki Murakami, Cherie Priest, and more

Posted on 2012-12-28 at 14:20 by Sam

Audible is having a "Holiday Relief Sale" which lists 100+ audiobooks for $7.95 through January 2, and includes quite a few good sf/f listings. In particular, if you haven't yet picked up Lev Grossman's The Magicians: A Novel, narrated wonderfully by Mark Bramhall, now is absolutely the time. The best "deal" appears to be on Haruki Murakami's Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World which normally lists for $44. And! Two books in Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century. There are also plenty of new

Posted in regular

Release Week: Alchemystic, The Ramal Extraction, Half Life, and more

Posted on 2012-12-28 at 03:41 by Sam

The last release week (though not quite the last releases) of the year brings a few interesting titles, but all in all a quiet week.

Alchemystic: A Spellmason Chronicle, Book 1 by Anton Strout, narrated by Linda Borg for Audible, Inc. -- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins. Out in the early fall in print/ebook from Ace: "Alexandra Belarus is a struggling artist living in New York City, even though her family is rich in real estate, including a towering Gothic Gramercy Park building built by her great-great

Posted in Release Week, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemystic, anton strout, release week

The Guilded Earlobe's Top 20 Audiobooks of 2012

Posted on 2012-12-28 at 02:13 by Sam

The Guilded Earlobe's Top 20 Audiobooks of 2012 are a must-listen list, and, eep, I've only gotten to two of them, The Rook and Throne of the Crescent Moon. The question isn't, really, if I'll get to his #1 pick for the year (A Gift Upon the Shore by M. K. Wren) but rather, when. (It will be a bit longer before I'll get to the nearly 48 hours of The Stand.)

Posted in Uncategorized

Release Week: Rip-Off!, Mayan December, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Terry Goodkind's The First Confessor, and more

Posted on 2012-12-21 at 19:00 by Sam

The middle of December brings some ear candy for the holiday season, including an all-star author/narrator anthology, the end of the world, secondary world fantasy, and quite a bit more. Still, with all that, my mind's on a "missing" audiobook, that for Jesse Bullington's The Folly of the World, my most-anticipated title this week. And at the bottom, details for another "Whispersync for Voice" price quirk, this time netting you both the Kindle and Audible formats of Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim. (Sorry for

Posted in Release Week | Tagged brenda cooper, gardner dozois, john scalzi, mayan december, rip-off, sfwa, wil wheaton

Dave Reviews: The Troupe

Posted on 2012-12-20 at 20:13 by Dave

The Troupe, by Robert Jackson Bennett Read by Luis Moreno for Recorded Books Length: 18 hours, 10 minutes

The Troupe is the best new novel I've listened to this year – let’s get that out of the way from the start. There are several other books I want to hit before the end of the year, and I’ll be the first to say that what I have listened to is hardly comprehensive of all the amazing books that have come out over the past 12 months. That said, I can confidently say that The Troupe is one of those books

Posted in reviews | Tagged dave thompson, luis moreno, magic, robert jackson bennett, vaudeville

Release Week: Falling Kingdoms, Tears of Rain, Joel Rosenberg, and Dean Ing

Posted on 2012-12-12 at 16:01 by Sam

Posted in Release Week | Tagged falling kingdoms, joel rosenberg, mary robinette kowal, release week, tears in rain

Today's Audible.com Daily Deal: Neil Gaiman and Neil Gaiman Presents

Posted on 2012-12-07 at 16:40 by Sam

Audible.com has been offering Daily Deals this December, and today (Friday, Dec 7) brings a 50% off deal on a list of titles by Neil Gaiman and from Neil Gaiman Presents.

From Gaiman's American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition (A Full Cast Production) to Anansi Boys, Good Omens to The Graveyard Book; to the "Presents" titles Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners (by Ellen Kushner), Light (by M. John Harrison), and my pick for best new novel of 2012, The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan.

The sale

Posted in regular | Tagged caitlin r kiernan, ellen kushner, neil gaiman, neil gaiman presents

Release Week: The Testament of Jessie Lamb, A Red Sun Also Rises, and Shadow and Bone

Posted on 2012-12-05 at 18:02 by Sam

The first release week in December brings an Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, along with the latest from Mark Hodder and a much-anticipated young adult release, and, well, a few dozen more audiobooks, besides. The most missing audiobook this week for me is a debut novel, Ink, by Damien Walters Grintalis. (More on those after the avalanche of new audiobooks.)

The Testament of Jessie Lamb: A Novel By Jane Rogers, Narrated by Fiona Hardingham for Blackstone Audio -- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins. Published

Posted in Release Week | Tagged jane rogers, leigh bardugo, mark hodder, me and the devil, nick tosches, release week, shadow and bone, the testament of jessie lamb

Dave Reviews: The Company Man

Posted on 2012-12-05 at 07:25 by Dave

The Company Man, by Robert Jackson Bennett Read by Richard Poe, for Recorded Books Length: 16 hours, 4 minutes

There’s an argument these days that the “punk” in steampunk is really superfluous – that generally, the genre isn’t punk at all. It's not attempting to rebel against anything. Instead, we get comfortable (often fun) stories dressed up in Victorian clothes. As Cherie Priest succinctly put it, “Steampunk is fun with hats.”

For those of us looking for steampunk with a little more edge and cynicism

Posted in reviews | Tagged dave thompson, reviews, robert jackson bennett