Release Week: Bitterwood, Sister Mine, Intermusings, and Morlock Night

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Release Week: Bitterwood, Sister Mine, Intermusings, and Morlock Night

Posted on 2013-03-13 at 19:36 by Sam

MARCH 6-12, 2013: Well it’s a fairly quiet second release week in March, though not without a few audiobooks very much worth checking out. (It’s even quieter on the “seen but not heard” front, as it really appears that both book and audiobook publishers had some manner of aversion to the Ides of March… though there is an intriguing anthology and a slowly picking up buzz novel from a small press to check out.) Meanwhile, John Scalzi’s The Human Division marches on with episode 9, The Observers.

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

Bitterwood: Dragon Age, Book 1 by James Maxey, narrated By Dave Thompson — OK, yeah, I admit it, I’m biased as all hell on this one. As I mentioned on its release day late last week, having my fellow AudioBookaneer Dave as narrator and friend James combine on this long-awaited fantasy audio title (first published in print by Solaris in 2007) has me very excited to get started listening: “Bitterwood has spent the past twenty years hunting down dragons, one at a time. But he is getting old and the hate that he has carried in his heart since a group of dragon-soldiers killed his family is beginning to fade. When he kills the royal prince dragon, the king decides the only retribution is genocide of the human race. Bitterwood is forced to enter the Free City, the grand trap designed to eradicate mankind, with thousands of others. Can he lead from within, or can a select few dragons unite to stop the king’s madness from becoming reality. Full of rich characters and drama, this is an amazingly astute vision of our own culture by way of a feudal kingdom where dragons rule, and humans are used as workers or pets.”

Bitterwood: Dragon Age, Book 1 | [James Maxey] 

Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson, read by Robin Miles for Dreamscape Audio, concurrent with print/ebook release from Grand Central Publishing. It isn't showing up at Audible/Downpour/iTunes yet, but as I can "Add to Cart" at Dreamscape it appears to be here and ready to go: "From acclaimed author Nalo Hopkinson comes a magical tale of independence and sisterhood. 'We'd had to be cut free of our mother's womb. Abby and I were fused, you see. But here's the real kicker; Abby had the magic, I didn't.' Now adults, Makeda and Abby still share their childhood home. The surgery to separate the two girls left Makeda with what feels like an even worse deformity: no mojo. The daughters of a celestial demigod and a human woman, Makeda and Abby were raised by their magical father. Today, Makeda has decided it's high time to move out and make her own life. In Cheerful Rest, Makeda finds exactly what she's been looking for: an opportunity to live apart from Abby. But when her father goes missing, Makeda will have to discover her own talent if she's to have a hope of saving him..."

Intermusings by David Niall Wilson, Richard Rowand, John B. Rosenman, Stephen Mark Rainey, Brett A. Savory, Brian Keene, Brian A. Hopkins, and Patricia Lee Macomber, narrated By John Lee for Crossroad Press — already mentioned via Facebook/Twitter that this “collection of collaborations” by David Niall Wilson had piqued my interest: “All are the result of two muses meeting on paper. Meet a modern day Don Quixote, fighting Y2K bug nightmares, and striving to save the woman of his dreams. Learn how Edgar Allen Poe might have found his tales. Face off on a lonely mountaintop with Lovecraftian nightmares. Join a young man in a ghostly race to save a relative from cancer. Follow a cross-wired detective in his hunt for a lycanthropic killer bent on ending every serial killer she encounters.”

Intermusings | [David Niall Wilson, Richard Rowand, John B. Rosenman, Stephen Mark Rainey, Brett A. Savory, Brian Keene, Brian A. Hopkins, Patricia Lee Macomber] Morlock Night | [K. W. Jeter]

Morlock Night by K. W. Jeter, narrated By Michael Page for Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio. First published in 1979, this parallel novel to H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine is being lovingly re-released by Angry Robot, complete with an audiobook treatment by one of the industry’s best narrators, so definitely one to check out: “Just what happened when the Time Machine returned? Having acquired a device for themselves, the brutish Morlocks return from the desolate far future to Victorian England to cause mayhem and disruption. But the mythical heroes of Old England have also returned, in the hour of the country’s greatest need, to stand between England and her total destruction.”

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

A Tale for the Time Being | [Ruth Ozeki] The Lords of Salem | [Rob Zombie, B. K. Evenson] MILA 2.0 | [Debra Driza]

PENGUIN AUDIO: A Tale for the Time Being By Ruth Ozeki, narrated by the author [note: I missed seeing this book while putting together my release week coverage; now nearly a year later I am quite glad that The Kitschies awarded this book as the best novel of the year and put it in front of me.]

HACHETTE AUDIO: The Lords of Salem By Rob Zombie and B. K. Evenson

HARPER AUDIO: MILA 2.0 By Debra Driza

RANDOM HOUSE AUDIO: Bloodfire Quest: The Dark Legacy of Shannara, Book 2 By Terry Brooks, Narrated By Rosalyn Landor (Second in a new Shannara series after last year’s Wards of Faerie: The Dark Legacy of Shannara); Child of Vengeance: A Novel By David Kirk, Narrated By Mark Bramhall (“A bold and vivid historical epic of feudal Japan, based on the real-life exploits of the legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto.”); and The Andalucian Friend: A Novel By Alexander Söderberg, Narrated By Gildart Jackson (“Imagine if Quentin Tarantino directed The Godfather”)

SIMON & SCHUSTER AUDIO: Chasing the Prophecy: Beyonders, Book 3 By Brandon Mull

LISTENING LIBRARY: Strands of Bronze and Gold By Jane Nickerson

AUDIOGO: Shade’s Children By Garth Nix

BRILLIANCE AUDIO: Seven Kinds of Hell: Fangborn, Book 1 By Dana Cameron; Area 51: Nosferatu By Bob Mayer, Narrated By Eric G. Dove; Destroying Angel: Righteous Series, Book 5 By Michael Wallace

CANDLEWICK on BRILLIANCE AUDIO: Mirage: Above World, Book 2 By Jenn Reese, Narrated By Kate Rudd

AUDIBLE INC: Marriage of Sticks By Jonathan Carroll; Darkwood By Molly Breen; The Dust Devils: Broken Land, Book 2 By Sean Williams

AUDIBLE FRONTIERS: The Ruined City: Veiled Isles, Book 2 By Paula Brandon, Narrated By J. Michael McCullough; The Descent of Anansi By Larry Niven and Steven Barnes; along with titles by (among others) Michael McCollum, David B. Coe, Robert Randall, Jody Lynn Nye, Carol Berg, Mercedes Lackey, Jack L. Chalker, Fred Saberhagen, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Melinda Snodgrass, Diana Pharoah Francis, Elizabeth Moon, Glen Cook, William C. Dietz, Susan R. Matthews, and Larry Niven and Steven Barnes

INDIE: The Hurricane by Hugh Howey, narrated By Tim Gerard Reynolds

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Evolution, and Revolution
  • Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Evolution, and Revolution edited by Victoria Blake (Underland Press, March 12)
  • The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata (Book View Cafe, Mar 12) -- "Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive—because in a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him—but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger . . . as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear."
  • Rebel Angels (Lady Lazarus, Book 3) by Michele Lang (Tor, Mar 12, 2013)
COMING SOON:

The Rift Walker (Vampire Empire, #2) The Office of Mercy

APRIL:

Life After Life A Stranger in Olondria

MAY:

The Kings and Queens of Roam: A Novel The Shambling Guide to New York City

JUNE and LATER:

The Shining GirlsNorth American Lake Monsters: Stories

  • The Shining Girls by (Mulholland Books, 6/04/2013) — “A time-traveling serial killer is impossible to trace–until one of his victims survives. In Depression-era Chicago, Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women, burning with potential.” No audio news.
  • Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse) by James S.A. Corey (Orbit, Jun 4, 2013)
  • In Thunder Forged: Iron Kingdoms Chronicles (The Fall of Llael Book One) by Ari Marmell (Jun 4, 2013)
  • Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X) by Richelle Mead (Penguin Audio, Jun 4, 2013)
  • Fiction: The Blood of Heaven by Kent Wascom (Grove Atlantic, Jun 4, 2013) — “an epic novel about the American frontier in the early days of the nineteenth century”
  • Siege and Storm (Grisha Trilogy (Shadow and Bone)) by Leigh Bardugo (Henry Holt, Jun 4, 2013)
  • After the End: Recent Apocalypses by Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow, Margo Lanagan and Nnedi Okorafor (Jun 5, 2013)
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow and Harper Audio, Jun 18, 2013)
  • The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Harper, Jun 18, 2013) — sequel to The Long Earth
  • The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn (47North and Brilliance Audio, Jun 18, 2013)
  • The Adjacent by Christopher Priest (Orion UK, Jun 20, 2013) — no US release news
  • Divinity and the Python by Bonnie Randall (Panverse, June 21)
  • Cold Steel (The Spiritwalker Trilogy) by Kate Elliott (Orbit, Jun 25, 2013)
  • Anthology: Aliens: Recent Encounters by Alex Macfarlane (Prime, Jun 25, 2013)
  • Thieves’ Quarry by D.B. Jackson (Tor, July 2) — sequel to Thieftaker
  • Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross (Ace, Jul 2, 2013) — “The year is AD 7000. The human species is extinct—for the fourth time—due to its fragile nature. Krina Alizond-114 is metahuman, descended from the robots that once served humanity. She’s on a journey to the water-world of Shin-Tethys to find her sister Ana. But her trip is interrupted when pirates capture her ship. Their leader, the enigmatic Count Rudi, suspects that there’s more to Krina’s search than meets the eye.”
  • A Discourse in Steel by Paul S. Kemp (Angry Robot: 2 Jul 2013)
  • Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond (Jul 2, 2013)
  • The Thousand Names: Book One of The Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler (Roc Hardcover, Jul 2, 2013) — “Enter an epic fantasy world that echoes with the thunder of muskets and the clang of steel—but where the real battle is against a subtle and sinister magic.”
  • Anthology: Wastelands II: More Stories of the Apocalypse by John Joseph Adams (Night Shade Books, Jul 2, 2013)
  • North American Lake Monsters: Stories by Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press, July 16)
  • Beacons edited by Gregory Norminton (Oneworld Publications, Jul 16, 2013) — “Beacons throws down the gauntlet, challenging best-selling and award-winning authors to imagine where we, and out planet, might be headed and, in imagining, help us transform the way we look at our world and change things for the better. From Joanne Harris’ powerful vision of a near future where ‘outside’ has become a thing of history to Nick Hayes’ beautifully illustrated tale of the bond between man and nature, Beacons sees the coming together of dystopian satire, speculative and historical fiction, metaphorical flights of fancy, quiet tragedy, and farcical comedy in stories that are as various as our possible futures. Provocative, encouraging, and deeply moving, Beacons represents the best of short story writing — and collectively illuminates the immediacy of the ecological problems at hand. All author royalties will go to the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, one of the largest groups of people dedicated to action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world’s poorest people.”
  • Anthology: Carniepunk (Pocket Books, July 30)
  • Anthology: Impossible Monsters edited by Kasey Lansdale (Subterranean Press, July 2013) — “The Lansdale name is legendary in the horror field. Now acclaimed musician and actress Kasey Lansdale follows in her father’s footsteps, making her editing debut with this anthology of monstrously innovative stories. The twelve creatures that stalk the pages of Impossible Monsters spring from the twisted imaginations of a dozen of today’s most noted authors.” This anthology includes Neil Gaiman’s “Click-Clack the Rattlebag” among other tales.
  • Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan (Kickstarter, July 2013) — “Ellis Rogers is an ordinary guy who has always done the right things and played by the rules. But like many, his life didn’t turn out as he had planned. Facing a terminal disease, he’s willing to gamble that a cure could exist in the future, and although it is insanely dangerous to try, he really has nothing to lose. There are many books that explore what life might be like many years from now, and they cover the spectrum from the idealized world of the original Star Trek, with its progressive stance on equality and civil rights, to Huxley’s dystopian Brave New World. For years I’ve been fascinated by the observation that perception can make people see the same thing in very different ways. So I created a future, which if I’ve done my job properly, will be seen by some as a utopia and by others as exactly the opposite.”
  • Darwen Arkwright and the School of Shadows (Darwen Arkwright #3) by AJ Hartley (Razorbill, August 1)
  • The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles #1) by Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit, August 3)
  • The Emergence of the Digital Humanities by Steven E. Jones (Routledge, Aug 3, 2013)
  • Wrath-bearing Tree (A Tournament of Shadows Book Two) by James Enge (Pyr, Aug 6, 2013)
  • Emperor of Thorns (The Broken Empire) by Mark Lawrence (Ace, Aug 6, 2013)
  • Kindred and Wings (A Shifted World Novel) by Philippa Ballantine (Pyr, Aug 6, 2013)
  • Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik (Del Rey, Aug 13, 2013)
  • The Time of Contempt (The Witcher) by Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit, Aug 27, 2013)
  • Billy Moon: A transcendent Novel Reimagining the Life of Christopher Robin Milne by Douglas Lain (Tor, Aug 27, 2013)
  • The Swords of Good Men by Snorri Kristjansson (Jo Fletcher Books, August 2013) — a “Viking fantasy novel” by a new Icelandic author
  • Super Stories of Heroes and Villains edited by Claude Lalumiere (Tachyon, August 2013) — Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola, Jonathan Lethem, Cory Doctorow, Kelly Link’s “Origin Story”, Carol Emshwiller, Gene Wolfe, GRRM, …
SEPTEMBER and LATER:
  • Shaman: A novel of the Ice Age by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, 3 Sep 2013) — UK release date, US date not confirmed for this historical fiction “novel set in the ice age, about the people who made the paintings in the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France, about 32,000 years ago”
  • Constellations: A Play by Nick Payne (Faber and Faber Plays, Sep 3, 2013) — already available in Kindle and in the UK — via an interesting review on Tor.com
  • Monsters of the Earth (Books of the Elements #3) by David Drake (Tor, September 2013)
  • Three (Duskwalker Cycle #1) by Jay Posey (Angry Robot, Autumn 2013)
  • Fiddlehead by Cherie Priest (Tor, Autumn 2013)
  • Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (Scribner and Simon & Schuster Audio, September 24) — King returns to The Shining
  • Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, Sep 24, 2013)
  • Dead Run, The by Adam Mansbach (HarperCollins, Sep 24, 2013)
  • Hero by Alethea Kontis (Harcourt Children’s Books, October 1)
  • Pandemic by Scott Sigler (Crown, Oct 1, 2013)
  • The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3) by Scott Lynch (Spectra, October 8)
  • Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer and Jeremy Zerfoss (Abrams Image, Oct 15, 2013) — an audiobook for this doesn’t make sense and so there isn’t one and won’t be one, but definitely a project I’m looking forward to
  • Copperhead by Tina Connolly (Tor, October 15, 2013) — follow-on to Ironskin – cover revealed
  • The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder UK, October 2013) — just announced — “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy meets Watchmen in Tidhar’s The Violent Century, the thoughtful and intensely atmospheric novel about the mystery, and the love story, that determined the course of history itself. The Violent Century is the sweeping drama of a time we know too well; a century of fear and war and hatred and death.  In a world where everyday heroes may become übermenschen, men and women with extraordinary powers, what does it mean to be a hero? To be a human? Would the last hundred years have been that much better if Superman were real? Would they even have been all that different?”
  • Collection: Kabu Kabu by Nnedi Okorafor (Prime, October 2013)
  • Parasite by Mira Grant (Orbit, November 1) — I know nothing about his other than the quite interesting cover…
  • Twenty-First Century Science Fiction by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor, Nov 5, 2013)
  • Maze by J.M. McDermott (Apex, January 2014)
  • The Crimson Campaign (The Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 2) by Brian McClellan (Orbit, February 2014)
  • The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (Viking, Early 2014) — book three after The Magicians and The Magician King
  • Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2014) — the first of three “Southern Reach” novels being published in 2014 — “For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious, remote, and concealed by the government as an environmental disaster zone even though it is to all appearances pristine wilderness. For thirty years, too, the secret agency known as the Southern Reach has monitored Area X and sent in expeditions to try to discover the truth. Some expeditions have suffered terrible consequences. Others have reported nothing out of the ordinary. Now, as Area X seems to be changing and perhaps expanding, the next expedition will attempt to succeed where all others have failed. What is happening in Area X? What is the true nature of the invisible border that surrounds it?”
  • City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown/Broadway and Recorded Books, April 1, 2014) — “a second-world story of spies, subterfuge, and statesmanship set in a nation of dead gods.”
  • The Moon King by Neil Williamson (Newcon, April 2014) — Debut novel: “The story of The Moon King grew out of its setting, the sea-locked city of Glassholm, which is a thinly veneered version of Glasgow, Scotland where I live. Glasgow is a city of mood swings, brilliant with sun and warm sandstone one minute and dour with overcast and rain soaked tarmac the next. Summer days are long and filled with light. The winter months pass mostly in darkness. Living here, your spirit is tied to the city’s mood. As soon as I hooked that almost bipolar sense to the idea of natural cycles, the story blossomed. In Glassholm, the moon never sets and everything, from entropy to the moods of the populace, is affected by its phasing from Full to Dark and back to Full again. I wanted to know what would life be like there, what quirks nature might throw into the mix. And what would happen if it was discovered that the cyclic euphorias and depressions were not natural after all.”
  • Anthology: Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (May 2014) — table of contents includes Joe Abercrombie, Lev Grossman, and Pat Cadigan, among others
Posted in Release Week, Uncategorized