Audiobook release day: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

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Audiobook release day: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Posted on 2011-09-27 at 15:23 by Sam

In a busy day, particularly for books for young readers, it is the Hachette Audio young adult titleDaughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor which most strongly grabs my attention. Narrated by Khristine Hvam, the book comes with a pedigree of starred reviews, as from Publishers Weekly: “National Book Award finalist Taylor again weaves a masterful mix of reality and fantasy with cross-genre appeal. Exquisitely written and beautifully paced, the tale is set in ghostly, romantic Prague, where 17-year-old Karou is an art student—except when she is called “home” to do errands for the family of loving, albeit inhuman, creatures who raised her.”

More praise from Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011:

Karou is a seventeen-year-old art student with a most unusual family. From his desk in a dusty, otherworldly shop, her mysterious, monstrous father sends her on errands across the globe, collecting teeth for a shadowy purpose. On one such errand, Karou encounters an angel, and soon the mysteries of her life and her family are unraveled—with consequences both beautiful and dreadful. National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor has created a lushly imaginative, fully realized world in Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Taylor’s writing is as sumptuous as poetry, and the story overflows with dark and delightful magic, star-crossed love, and difficult choices with heartbreaking repercussions. Readers of all ages will be utterly enchanted. —Juliet Disparte

Meanwhile, it’s also a good day for collections and young readers, though, once again, no sign of Neal Stephenson’s Reamde. So, I turned to Brilliance Audio’s Kelsey Turek for news, and found that the audiobook is indeed delayed, as of now scheduled for 2011-10-18.

ALSO OUT TODAY:

  • Collection: Steel and Other Stories by Richard Matheson narrated by Scott Brick — “Imagine a future in which the sport of boxing has gone high-tech. Human boxers have been replaced by massive humanoid robots. And former champions of flesh-and-blood are obsolete … . Richard Matheson’s classic short story is now the basis for Real Steel, a gritty, white-knuckle film starring Hugh Jackman. But “Steel,” which was previously filmed as a powerful episode of the original Twilight Zone television series, is just one of over a dozen unforgettable tales in this outstanding collection, which includes two new stories that have never appeared in any previous Matheson collection.”
  • Collection: Looking for Jake: Stories by China Miéville narrated by Jonathan Cowley, Enn Reitel,Gildart Jackson, Peter Altschuler, Robin Sachs, Bruce Mann, and Dominic Burgess — 14 of Mieville’s short fictions, originally published in 2005 from Del Rey and now out from Random House Audio
  • To Sail Beyond the Sunset: The Life and Loves of Maureen Johnson (Being the Memoirs of a Somewhat Irregular Lady) by Robert A. Heinlein narrated by Bernadette Dunne — “Maureen Johnson, the somewhat irregular mother of Lazarus Long, wakes up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat is Pixel, well-known to fans of the New York Times best sellerThe Cat Who Walks through Walls. The man is a stranger to her, and besides that, he is dead.”
  • Anniversary Day: A Retrieval Artist Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch narrated by Jay Snyder
  • YR: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu , Erin McGuire narrated by
  •  Kirby Heyborne — “
    • Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. But that was before he stopped talking to her and disappeared into a forest with a mysterious woman made of ice. Now it’s up to Hazel to go in after him. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.”
  • YA Short: Laddertop by Orson Scott Card and Emily Janice Card narrated by Emily Janice Card and Stefan Rudnicki — “An original science fiction manga by the bestselling author of Ender’s Game and his daughter. Twenty-five years ago, the alien Givers came to Earth. They gave the human race the greatest technology ever seen— four giant towers known as Ladders that rise 36,000 miles into space and culminate in space stations that power the entire planet. Then, for reasons unknown, the Givers disappeared. Due to the unique alien construction of the Laddertop space stations, only a skilled crew of children can perform the maintenance necessary to keep the stations up and running. Back on Earth, competition is fierce to enter Laddertop Academy. It is an honor few students will achieve. Robbi and Azure, two eleven-year-old girls who are the best of friends, are candidates for the Academy. They will become entangled in a dangerous mystery that may help them solve the riddle of the Givers…if it doesn’t destroy the Earth first!”
  • Very short: The Discovery of Witches by Matthew Hopkins narrated by Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot — a 17th century document concerning the infamous witch trials, tortures, and murders by Hopkins
  • YR: The Flint Heart by Katherine Paterson and John Paterson narrated by Ralph Lister sees award-winning children’s author Katherine Paterson freely abridge from Eden Phillpotts’s 1910 fantasy
  • YR: City of Lies by Lian Tanner narrated by Claudia Black — “Goldie Roth is a trained thief and a skilled liar. Along with her friend Toadspit, she’s supposed to be one of the Keepers of the mysterious Museum of Dunt. But although she desperately wants to be a Keeper, she will not leave her sick parents to do so.”
  • Non-genre: River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh narrated by Sanjiv Jhaveri

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