Release week: Earth Unaware, Energized, Shine Shine Shine, and 21st Century Dead

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Release week: Earth Unaware, Energized, Shine Shine Shine, and 21st Century Dead

Posted on 2012-07-18 at 15:41 by Sam

The release week for Tuesday July 17 sports a pair of anticipated sf audiobooks, along with a “genre in the mainstream” title and all-star cast zombie anthology.

The first of the sf titles is a the first in a planned prequel series to Ender’s Game, telling the story of first contact and the First Formic War, introducing (but only just) a young Mazer Rackham, and exploring both the powerful reach of interstellar corporations and the tightly-knit lives of independent mining families. The book is Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, and is narrated for Macmillan Audio by a full cast including Stefan Rudnicki, Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, Vikas Adam, Emily Janice Card, Gabrielle de Cuir, and Roxanne Hernandez. “The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador’s telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it’s hard to know what to make of it. It’s massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. El Cavador has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big for the ship. There are claim-jumping corporate ships bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt. Worrying about a distant object that might or might not be an alien ship seems…not important. They’re wrong. It’s the most important thing that has happened to the human race in a million years. The first Formic War is about to begin.”

 

The second sf title is Energized by Edward M. Lerner, narrated by Grover Gardner for Blackstone Audio. “No one expected the oil to last forever. How right they were…. A geopolitical miscalculation tainted the world’s major oil fields with radioactivity and plunged the Middle East into chaos. Any oil that remains usable is more prized than ever. No one can build solar farms, wind farms, and electric cars quickly enough to cope. The few countries still able to export petroleum and natural gas - Russia chief among them - have a stranglehold on the world economy. Then, from the darkness of space, came Phoebe. Rather than deflect the onrushing asteroid, America coaxed it into Earth’s orbit. Solar power satellites - cheaply mass-produced in orbit with resources mined from the new moon to beam vast amounts of power to the ground - offer America its last, best hope of avoiding servitude and economic ruin.”

The “genre in the mainstream” title is Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer, narrated by Joshilyn Jackson for Macmillan Audio concurrent with the print and e-book release from St. Martin’s Press. “When Maxon met Sunny, he was seven years, four months, and 18 days old. Or, he was 2693 rotations of the Earth old. Maxon was different. Sunny was different. They were different together. Now, 20 years later, they are married, and Sunny wants, more than anything, to be “normal”. She’s got the housewife thing down perfectly, but Maxon, a genius engineer, is on a NASA mission to the moon, programming robots for a new colony. Once they were two outcasts who found unlikely love in each other: a wondrous, strange relationship formed from urgent desire for connection. But now they’re parents to an autistic son. And Sunny is pregnant again. And her mother is dying in the hospital. Their marriage is on the brink of imploding, and they’re at each other’s throats with blame and fear. What exactly has gone wrong?”

 

And the zombie anthology is 21st Century Dead: A Zombie Anthology by Christopher Golden (editor), Amber Benson, S. G. Browne, Chelsea Cain, Orson Scott Card, Dan Chaon, Simon R. Greene, Brian Keene, Caitlin Kittredge, and Jonathan Maberry, narrated by Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Bernadette Dunne, Paul Michael Garcia, Kirby Heyborne, Malcolm Hillgartner, Chris Patton, John Pruden, Renée Raudman, and Stefan Rudnicki. “The Stoker Award-winning editor of the acclaimed, eclectic anthology The New Dead returns with 21st Century Dead and an all-new lineup of authors from every corner of the fiction world, shining a dark light on our fascination with tales of death and resurrection—and with zombies!”

ALSO OUT TUESDAY:

EARLIER THIS WEEK:

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

  • Salsa Nocturna: Stories by Daniel Jose Older (Crossed Genres, July 13) — “The bits I’ve heard/read of this are *great*: dark fantasy Nueva York noir” — Saladin Ahmed
  • Anthology: Wilde Stories 2012: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction edited by Steve Berman (July 13, Lethe Press)
  • Anthology: Imaginarium 2012: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing edited by Sandra Kasturi and Halli Villegas (ChiZine Publications, July 15 in e-book)
  • Sharps by K.J. Parker (Orbit, 17 July 2012) — a fantasy in which neighboring kingdoms long at war might finally forge a truce; two fencers come together to represent their nations
  • Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City by Kai-cheung Dung (Columbia University Press, July 17)
  • Anthology: Solaris Rising 1.5 edited by Ian Whates (Solaris, July 17) — table of contents via SF Signal
  • Dead Space by BK Evenson (Titan, July 17)
  • Queen’s Hunt by Beth Bernobich (Tor, July 17) — second in a fantasy series after 2010’s Passion Play
  • Ripper by David L. Golemon (St. Martin’s, July 17) — “SF thriller, seventh in the “Event Group” series following Event (2006), Legend (2007), Ancients (2008), Leviathan (2009), Primeval (2010), and Legacy (2011), about a secret US government agency investigating the paranormal” (via Locus Online)
  • Collection: You Will Meet a Stranger Far from Home by Alex Jeffers (Lethe Press, July 14)
  • Non-Fiction: Judith Merril: A Critical Study by Dianne Newell and Victoria Lamont (McFarland, July 15)

LATER THIS WEEK:

  • Empty Space by M. John Harrison (Gollanz, Jul 19, 2012) — “Harrison’s literary space opera, The Kefahuchi Tract (which began with Light and Nova Swing), was met with wide acclaim. Now, the third book in the trilogy is finally here. Empty Space, structured in three alternating stories that merge to its grand conclusion, promises to mess with your head, but in a good way.” (via Kirkus Reviews)
  • The Stranger’s Magic: The Labyrinths of Echo, Book Three by Max Frei (Overlook, July 19)
  • Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino (Titan, July 20)

NEXT WEEK (July 24):

TWO WEEKS (July 31):

  • Chimera by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit in print and e-book, Blackstone Audio, July 31, 2012) — The Subterrene War, Book 3 — “Escaped Germline soldiers need to be cleaned up, and Stan Resnick is the best man for the job—a job that takes him to every dark spot and every rat hole he can find.”
  • Shadows Before the Sun by Kelly Gay (July 31, Pocket Books) — no audio news — the next book in Gay’s Charlie Madigan series
  • vN (Von Neumann Sisters #1) by Madeline Ashby (Angry Robot/Brilliance Audio, Jul 31, 2012) — ““Amy Peterson is a self-replicating humanoid robot known as a VonNeumann. For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive. Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she’s learning impossible things about her clade’s history - like the fact that she alone can kill humans without failsafing…”
  • The Crown of the Usurper by Gav Thorpe (Angry Robot, Jul 31, 2012)
  • Devil’s Wake by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due (Atria, July 31, 2012) — “In this sci-fi thriller, the world is ovecome by a deadly new infection that transforms those infected. A group of teenagers navigates across this apocalyptic landscape seeking safety and community, but must overcome deadly obstacles every step of the way. Devil’s Wake seeks to reinvent the zombie novel by simulating a zombie-like apocalypse without actually using the word “zombie.”” (via Kirkus Reviews)
  • Blood and Feathers by Lou Morgan (Solaris, July 31) — “Morgan’s promising first novel features Alice, a seemingly normal woman with an uneventful life. That is, until she is visited by angels who not only inform her of the war between the angels and the Fallen, but also that she is to play an integral part in helping the angels win. Guided by a disgraced angel named Mallory, Alice comes to learn about her own history—secret even to herself—and why the angels must send her to hell.” (via Kirkus Reviews)
  • An Officer’s Duty (Theirs Not to Reason Why #2) by Jean Johnson (Ace, July 31) — “An Officer’s Duty is the second book in the Theirs Not to Reason Why series, an exciting military science fiction series featuring the tough-as-nails female protagonist named Ia. The first book, A Soldier’s Duty, was a Philip K. Dick award nominee. What sets this series apart from other military sf series is that Ia can foresee all the possible futures of mankind, and in all but one of them, her home galaxy will be destroyed. The series depicts her attempts to steer human history to that one golden future. The catch: she cannot tell anyone about her abilities or all will be lost.” (via Kirkus Reviews)
  • Blood of the Emperor: The Annals of Drakis: Book Three by Tracy Hickman (DAW, Brilliance Audio, July 31)
  • Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch (Del Rey, July 31, 2012)
  • Carry the Flame by James Jaros (Harper Voyager, July 31)
  • Exile: The Outcast Chronicles by Rowena Cory Daniells (Solaris, July 31)
  • The Wanderers (Veiled Isles Trilogy) by Paula Brandon (Spectra, July 31)
  • Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz (Coming July 31, 2012)
  • Collection: Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Subterranean, July 31)
  • Collection: The Incarceration of Captain Nebula and Other Lost Futures by Mike Resnick (Subterranean, July 31)
  • Collection: The Woman Who Married a Cloud: The Collected Short Stories of Jonathan Carroll by Jonathan Carroll (Subterranean, July 31)
  • Anthology: Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel (Tachyon, Aug 1, 2012)
  • NONE SO BLIND (TKTK) by Joe Haldeman, read by Robertson Dean — Available 1 August 12 from Blackstone Audio
  • THE WYRMLING HORDE (TKTK) by David Farland, read by Ray Porter — Blackstone continues its production of Farland’s Runelords series, here with book 7 — Available 1 August 12  from Blackstone Audio
  • ICE PROPHET (1983) by William R. Forstchen — author of One Second After — Available 1 August 12  from Blackstone Audio
  • Forge of Darkness (Kharkanas Trilogy #1) by Steven Erikson — “set 300,000-odd years before the main Malazan series. It tells the story of Anomander Rake, Silchas Ruin, Mother Dark…” (August 2nd 2012 by Bantam Press)
Some selections in August and early September:
  • The Spark by Susan Jane Bigelow (Candlemark & Gleam, August) — book three after 2011’s well-received Unbroken and January’s Fly Info Fire from this high quality small press
  • Libriomancer (Magic Ex Libris Book 1) by Jim C. Hines (August 7, DAW Hardcover) — “Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of the secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg.  Libriomancers are gifted with the ability to magically reach into books and draw forth objects.”
  • Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Morton, read by David Tennant for Dreamscape (August 7) — “A compelling sequel to Treasure Island from Poet Laureate Andrew Motion”
  • Bullettime by Nick Mamatas (ChiZine, August 14)
  • Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye by Paul Tremblay (ChiZine, August 14)
  • Collection: At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories by Kij Johnson (Small Beer, August 14)
  • Collection: Crackpot Palace: Stories by Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow, August 14)
  • The Legacy of Lord Regret: Strange Threads: Book 1 by Sam Bowring (Orbit, August 14)
  • A Guile of Dragons by James Enge (Pyr, August 24) — “It’s dwarves versus dragons in this origin story for Enge’s signature character, Morlock Ambrosius! Before history began, the dwarves of Thrymhaiam fought against the dragons as the Longest War raged in the deep roads beneath the Northhold. Now the dragons have returned, allied with the dead kings of Cor and backed by the masked gods of Fate and Chaos.”
  • Heir of Novron by Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit, January 2012) — the third volume (collecting books 5 and 6) of Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations is due in audio from Recorded Books on September 1
  • The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross — just published in print and e-book, coming in audio from Recorded Books, read by Gideon Emery, on September 1
  • Seawitch by Kat Richardson (Greywalker Series book 7, Recorded Books, September 1)
  • Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, book 2, Recorded Books, September 1) — recently published follow up to Leviathan Wakes
  • Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama (FS&G, September 4) — “Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.”
  • The Kingmakers by Clay and Susan Griffith (Pyr, September 4) — the conclusion of their Vampire Empire series which began with 2010’s The Greyfriar and 2011’s The Rift Walker — book one came to audio earlier this year from Buzzy Multimedia, read by James Marsters, and the remaining books will be coming along eventually

Just added to the long range radar:

Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged earth unaware, edward m lerner, energized, orson scott card, release week, shine shine shine, stefan rudnicki