Posts published in: 2013/05

And the Audie goes to...

Posted on 2013-05-31 at 15:32 by Sam

The 2013 Audie Awards have been announced, including Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint (for best Audio Drama), Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles (for best Science Fiction), the new Audible production of Claire Danes' narration of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (for best Fiction), the Neil Gaiman Presents production of Keith Roberts' Anita (for best Fantasy), and many more.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged audies, ellen kushner, neil gaiman presents, swordspoint

Release Week: Mur Lafferty's The Shambling Guide to New York City, Chuck Wendig's The Blue Blazes, Emma Newman's Any Other Name, and Hugh Howey's Shift

Posted on 2013-05-29 at 18:33 by Sam

MAY 22-28, 2013: It's a mammoth release week to (more or less) close May, ahead of a gigantic release day Wednesday (today) which I'll cover both in a post of its own and of course in a bit lesser detail in the next release week roundup. It's also a particularly big release week for self-published (a.k.a. "indie") titles again, and while Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio snags two of my picks of the week, my top pick is probably no surprise to anyone at this point. In the "seen but not heard" listings it's

Posted in Release Week | Tagged chuck wendig, emma newman, hugh howey, mur lafferty

The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long: Chapters 3 and 4 (and release day coverage!)

Posted on 2013-05-29 at 02:25 by Sam

Welcome to the third installment of The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long, covering both Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of Mur Lafferty’s The Shambling Guide to New York City. As usual, first up a recap of some recent news about the book, starting with last Monday's Orbit Books interview with the author: Mur Lafferty on THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY. But the big news is, of course, as Mur writes on her own blog, that The Shambling Guide to New York City is Out!

The big release-day coverage

Posted in The Shambling Guide to NYC Listen-a-Long | Tagged mur lafferty

Revisiting the regional digital divide, again

Posted on 2013-05-23 at 02:29 by Sam

It's been a year since I last turned too much attention to the regional digital divide, and it's high time to give the bee's nest another poke.

There's still! no sign of a US release for China Mieville's Un Lun Dun, The Scar, or Iron Council, and... well, on and on. We did get, from Tantor Audio, Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series, narrated wonderfully by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as in the UK edition.

And we also got one of the pair of the Iain M. Banks audiobooks I'd bemoaned lack of access to last

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ben aaronovitch, china mieville, elspeth cooper, hugh howey, stella gemmell

Release Week: Will Self's Umbrella, Mark T. Barnes' The Garden of Stones, Dan Krokos' The Planet Thieves, and a free Neil Gaiman short

Posted on 2013-05-22 at 14:25 by Sam

May 15-21, 2013: A bit of a lull after last week's haul, but certainly none the lesser in top-level impact as a long, long hoped-for literary fiction title is here this week in the form of Will Self's Booker-shortlisted Umbrella. But don't worry, sf/f fans, whether "sf" or "f" strikes your fancy there are a few audiobooks to check out this week as well, of course. There's also a particularly strong crop of "indie" releases (see a selection of those in the "also out this week" listings) as well as a few more

Posted in Release Week | Tagged dan krokos, neil gaiman, will self

The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long: Chapter 2

Posted on 2013-05-16 at 20:58 by Sam

Welcome to the second installment of The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long, covering Chapter 2 of Mur Lafferty's The Shambling Guide to New York City. First, there's now a book trailer up, she'll be appearing on a live chat event via Shindig.com next week, and great reviews keep popping up all over the place -- like this starred review from Booklist. Before I get into the write-up: a warning, that I'll repeat each episode, that the discussion here is oh-so-spoilerific, so if that's a concern

Posted in The Shambling Guide to NYC Listen-a-Long | Tagged mur lafferty

Release Week: Brandon Sanderson's The Rithmatist; Antti Tuomainen's The Healer; Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors; World War Z; The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl; Fiction River; and John Scalzi's The Human Division

Posted on 2013-05-15 at 17:15 by Sam

Posted in Release Week | Tagged brandon sanderson, john scalzi, neil gaiman, world war z

Review: The King's Blood

Posted on 2013-05-14 at 19:46 by Dave

The King's Blood, Book 2 in The Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham, Narrated by Pete Bradbury Length 15 hours, 42 minutes

The priests have spiders in their blood.

They worship a goddess that has spend centuries in hiding, "a spider" who blesses them with the power to divine whether or not someone is lying, as well as the ability to speak truth. When you hear them, you believe - despite the circumstances, or whether you have evidence to the contrary, you believe. And so what the priests say comes to

Posted in reviews

Featured author and narrator: Mary Robinette Kowal

Posted on 2013-05-14 at 17:36 by Sam

AudioBookaneers Features Presents: Mary Robinette Kowal, author, narrator, and puppeteer

By Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Hugo Award winning author Mary Robinette Kowal visited Raleigh's Quail Ridge Books on Friday, on her book tour for Without a Summer, the third book in her The Glamourist Histories series which began with 2010's Shades of Milk and Honey. Billed as, more or less, "the fantasy novel which Jane Austen might have written" the series is a Regency period historical fiction with plenty of manners,

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged mary robinette kowal

Review: Double Feature

Posted on 2013-05-13 at 19:50 by Dave

Double Feature by Owen King, read by Holter Graham Length: 16 hours, 11 minutes

Review by Dave Thompson:

When I was in college, I made a student film. I went to a Christian university, and so I decided to write and direct a movie about vampires. This was just as Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show came out, before it became "a thing." So, I spent a semester of my life and education attempting to make a horror movie - one that to this day has never actually been edited together and completed. One of the

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged double feature, holter graham, owen king