Release week: Clockwork Angels, Ashes of Honor, Infidel, Battle Royale, and Felix J. Palma

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Release week: Clockwork Angels, Ashes of Honor, Infidel, Battle Royale, and Felix J. Palma

Posted on 2012-09-05 at 13:39 by Sam

September kicks off with quite a vengeance with new audio of both new, newly translated, and long-running series. As usual I have my “seen but not heard” complaints, led in a big way by the new widely-praised Tad Williams urban fantasy novel The Dirty Streets of Heaven and the Cory Doctorow/Charles Stross joint The Rapture of the Nerds but, I guess, you can’t have everything.

Out on September 1 was Clockwork Angels: The Novel By Kevin J. Anderson, Narrated by Neil Peart for Brilliance Audio. “International best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson teams up with Rush lyricist and drummer Neil Peart to expand the story set out in Clockwork Angels, the 20th studio album by the legendary rock band. For more than two centuries, the land of Albion has been ruled by the supposedly benevolent Watchmaker, who imposes precision on every aspect of life. Young Owen Hardy from the village of Barrel Arbor dreams of seeing the big city and the breathtaking Clockwork Angels that dispense wisdom to the people, maybe even catching a glimpse of the Watchmaker himself.”

 

Ashes of Honor: An October Daye Novel, Book 6 By Seanan McGuire, Narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal for Brilliance Audio — Series: October Daye, Book 6 — Length:12 hrs and 26 mins — “It’s been almost a year since October “Toby” Daye averted a war, gave up a county, and suffered personal losses that have left her wishing for a good day’s sleep. She’s tried to focus on her responsibilities - training Quentin, upholding her position as Sylvester’s knight, and paying the bills - but she can’t help feeling like her world is crumbling around her, and her increasingly reckless behavior is beginning to worry even her staunchest supporters.”

Infidel: Bel Dame Apocrypha, Book 2 By Kameron Hurley, Narrated by Emily Bauer — Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins — While book 1, God’s War, remains very high on my “where’s the audiobook?” list, book 2’s appearance may be a good sign. “Nyx used to be a bel dame, a government-funded assassin with a talent for cutting off heads for cash. Now she’s babysitting diplomats to make ends meet and longing for the days when killing was a lot more honorable. When Nyx’s former bel dame “sisters” lead a coup against the government that threatens to plunge the country into civil war, Nyx is tasked with bringing them in. The hunt takes Nyx and her inglorious team of mercenaries to one of the richest, most peaceful, and most contaminated places on the planet - a country wholly unprepared to host a battle waged by the world’s deadliest assassins.”

 

The book (much more often experienced in the US as the film) to which The Hunger Games was most often compared is the controversial 1999 Japanese dystopian novel Battle Royale By Koushun Takami, translated in 2009 by Yuji Oniki and now available in English language audio for the first time. Narrated by Mark Dacascos for Simon & Schuster Audio; Length:19 hrs and 34 mins. “Battle Royale, a high-octane thriller about senseless youth violence in a dystopian world, it is one of Japan’s best-selling - and most controversial - novels. As part of a ruthless program by the totalitarian government, ninth-grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons. Forced to wear special collars that explode when they break a rule, they must fight each other for three days until only one “winner” remains. The elimination contest becomes the ultimate in must-see reality television. A Japanese pulp classic available in English-language audio for the first time, Battle Royale is a potent allegory of what it means to be young and survive in today’s dog-eat-dog world. The first novel by small-town journalist Koushun Takami, it went on to become an even more notorious film by 70-year-old director Kinji Fukusaku.”

The Map of the Sky: A Novel By Felix J. Palma, Narrated by James Langton — Length:22 hrs and 38 mins — “The New York Times best-selling author of The Map of Time returns with a mesmerizing novel casting H.G. Wells in a leading role, as the extraterrestrial invasion featured in The War of the Worlds is turned into a bizarre reality. A love story serves as backdrop for The Map of the Sky when New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the extraterrestrial invasion featured in Wells’s War of the Worlds. What follows are three brilliantly interconnected plots to create a breathtaking tale of time travel and mystery, replete with cameos by a young Edgar Allan Poe, and Captain Shackleton and Charles Winslow from The Map of Time.”

 

Lastly, the big Audible Frontiers haul this week is the Liaden Series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, narrated variously by Kevin T. Collins (Books of Before — Free Excerpt: Crystal Soldier), Bernadette Dunne (Space Regencies — Free Excerpt: Local Custom), Andy Caploe (Agent of Change — Free Excerpt: Agent of Change), and Eileen Stevens (Theo Waitley — Free Excerpt: Fledgling).

ALSO OUT TUESDAY:

EARLIER THIS WEEK:
SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:
  • Anthology: Mirages: Tales From Authors of the Macabre edited by Trent Zelazny (Black Curtain Press, August 30) — stories from Tom Piccrilli, Joe R. Lansdale, Jeffrey Thomas, Curt Jarrell, and more.
  • Legion, by Brandon Sanderson (August 31, Subterranean) — the recording is “in the can” from narrator Oliver Wyman but not out yest
  • Collection: No Sharks in the Med and Other Stories by Brian Lumley (Subterranean, Aug 31)
  • Collection: Near + Far by Cat Rambo (Hydra House, September 1, 2012)
  • The Dirty Streets of Heaven: Volume One of Bobby Dollar by Tad Williams (Sep 4, DAW Hardcover) — one of my favorite authors for his fantasy series “Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn”, Williams turns to urban fantasy and is getting rave reviews:  “When I heard that Tad Williams was writing an urban fantasy novel, I got all tingly. Now I’ve read it, and it’s even better than I’d dared to hope. It’s snarky, fast-paced, and above all, original. You should be tingly, too.” (Patrick Rothfuss, New York Times bestselling author of The Name of the Wind) — no audio news, sadly
  • The Skybound Sea (Aeons’ Gate, #3) by Sam Sykes (Pyr, Sep 4)
  • The Rapture of the Nerds: A tale of the singularity, posthumanity, and awkward social situations by Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross (Tor, Sep 4)
  • Clean by Alex Hughes(Roc, Sep 4) — “I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault.”
  • YA: Be My Enemy (Everness #2) by Ian McDonald (Pyr, Sep 4) — sequel to 2011’s Planesrunner and subject of a very nice review at BoingBoing, quoting Cory Doctorow: “absolutely triumphant”.
  • Dead Mann Running by Stefan Petrucha (Roc, Sep 4) — zombie detective novel where the detective is a zombie? interesting…
  • Slow Apocalypse by John Varley (Ace Hardcover, Sep 4) — “Despite wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as 9/11, the United States’ dependence on foreign oil has kept the nation tied to the Middle East. A scientist has developed a cure for America’s addiction—a slow-acting virus that feeds on petroleum, turning it solid. But he didn’t consider that his contagion of an Iraqi oil field could spread to infect the fuel supply of the entire world.”
  • The Salt God’s Daughter by Ilie Ruby (Soft Skull Press, Sep 4) — “Set in Long Beach, California, beginning in the 1970s, The Salt God’s Daughter follows Ruthie and her sister, Dolly, as they carve out a life in a place filled with meteorological myths and exotic folklore, where female rites of passage are met with startling discoveries.”
  • Lord of Mountains: A Novel of the Change by S.M. Stirling (Roc, Sep 4) — audio coming Sep 10th from Tantor
  • 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
  • Non-Fiction: Punk: An Aesthetic by Jon Savage, William Gibson, Linder Sterling and Johan Kugelberg (Rizzoli, Sep 4, 2012) — this “heavily illustrated” book is not a good match for audio, but it’s on my list anyway, well, because Gibson and punk. So there.
  • Fiction: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (published overseas in 2011 by Myrmidon, US release Sep 4, 2012 by Weinstein Books)
  • Teen: Origin by Jessica Khoury (Razorbill, Sep 4)
  • Teen: The Broken Lands by Kate Milford (Clarion, Sep 4) — prequel to The Boneshaker
  • Teen: Blackwood by Gwenda Bond (Strange Chemistry, Sep 4) — subject of Tuesday’s Big Idea piece at Scalzi’s Whatever blog — “If you’re like me, these words will give you a little spine tingle, an automatic thrill, the promise of mystery and intrigue: The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.”
  • Outpost by Ann Aguirre (Sep 4)
  • Collection: At the Edge of Waking by Holly Phillips (Prime, September 4) — “With In the Palace of Repose, her debut collection of mostly unpublished work, Holly Phillips accomplished the improbable. The unknown Canadian author received critical acclaim and numerous honors including the 2006 Sunburst Award and nominations for the World Fantasy and Crawford Awards. Her accomplished prose sang with a unique voice, seamlessly blending emotion, insight, and craft. Now, At the Edge of Waking presents her latest tales written with even more depth and range-including a new, never-published story. Portraying human reaction to dire change or extreme circumstance, combining the real intruded upon by the fantastic or the fantastic grounded in reality, Phillips describes the world as it is, as it may be, as something impossible yet entirely acceptable, enthralling the reader with her words.”
  • Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top (anthology)  by Peter Straub, etc (Sept. 5th)
  • Anthology: Dark Faith: Invocations edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon (Apex Publications, September 6, 2012) — the second anthology in this series after the well-received Dark Faith
  • The City’s Son by Tom Pollock (Flux Books, Sep 8 — originally published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books in August) — a PW-starred review urban fantasy set in modern London
NEXT WEEK (Sep 11): TWO WEEKS (Sep 18):
  • The Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson (Tor, Sep 18)  — begins a new trilogy “that takes place millennia before the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and introduces readers to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness.”
  • Midst Toil and Tribulation (Safehold) by David Weber (Tor, Sep 18)
  • Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff (Thomas Dunne, Sep 18 — Tor UK, Sep 1) — via Patrick Rothfuss: “honestly, you had me at ‘Japanese Steampunk.’”
  • YA: Adaptation by Malinda Lo (Little, Brown, Sep 18)
  • The Diviners by Libba Bray (Little, Brown, Sep 18) — audio coming Sep 25 from Listening Library
  • Collection: Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley (Shock Totem Press, Sep 22)
  • Non-genre: Winter of the World (The Century Trilogy #2) by Ken Follett (Sep 18, 2012)
THREE WEEKS (Sep 25):
  • Alchemystic by Anton Strout (Ace, Sep 25) — Book One of The Spellmason Chronicles — “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-grandfather. But the truth of her bloodline is revealed when she is attacked on the street and saved by an inhumanly powerful winged figure.”
  • Crown Thief by David Tallerman (Angry Robot, Sep 25)
  • Bad Glass by Richard E. Gropp (Del Rey, Sep 25) — winner of the Del Rey/Suvudu Writing Contest from the author of the powerful 2011 short story “Filling up the Void”
  • Dodger by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins, Sep 25) — audio coming Oct 1 from Isis
  • The Wrong Goodbye by Chris F. Holm (Angry Robot, Sep 25) — sequel to Dead Harvest — “Because of his efforts to avert the Apocalypse, Sam Thornton has been given a second chance – provided he can stick to the straight-and-narrow.”
  • Bad Glass by Richard E. Gropp (Del Rey, Sep 25) — author of an excellent short story “Filling up the Void” in Daily Science Fiction last year, here: “Something has happened in Spokane. The military has evacuated the city and locked it down.”
  • The Mongoliad: Book Two (The Foreworld Saga) by Neil Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, et al. (47North, Brilliance Audio, Sep 25)
  • The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Sep 25) — “Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in.”
  • Fiction: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (Little, Brown, Sep 27)
  • Ecko Rising by Danie Ware (September 28th 2012 by Titan Books)
  • Collection: Don’t Pay Bad for Bad & Other Stories by Amos Tutuola (Cheeky Frawg, “late September”) — A selection of previously uncollected and rare tales by the Nigerian master storyteller. Blurbed by Nnedi Okorafor. Introduction by Tutuola’s son and afterword by Matthew Cheney. (E-book only.)
  • Space Is Just a Starry Night, a collection of short fiction by Tanith Lee (Aqueduct, September 2012)
FOUR WEEKS (Oct 2):
  • The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente  (Feiwel & Friends, October 2, 2012)
  • Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow (Tor, Oct 2) — audio coming Oct 9 from Listening Library — “Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In the dystopian near-future Britain where Trent is growing up, this is more illegal than ever; the punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household’s access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal.”
  • Ironskin (Ironskin, #1) by Tina Connolly (Tor, Oct 2) — audio coming narrrated by the wonderful Rosalyn Landor (Joan Slonczewski’s A Door Into Ocean)
  • This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It by David Wong (St. Martin’s, Oct 2) — coming to audio from Brilliance Audio — sequel to John Dies at the End
FIVE WEEKS (Oct 9): SIX WEEKS (Oct 16):
  • Only Superhuman by Christopher L. Bennett (Tor, Oct 16) — “2107 AD: A generation ago, Earth and the cislunar colonies banned genetic and cybernetic modifications. But out in the Asteroid Belt, anything goes. Dozens of flourishing space habitats are spawning exotic new societies and strange new varieties of humans. It’s a volatile situation that threatens the peace and stability of the entire solar system.”
  • The Twelve (The Passage, #2) by Justin Cronin (Ballantine, Oct 16) — sequel to The Twelve
SEVEN WEEKS (Oct 23):
  • Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (Orbit, Oct 23) — “Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried.” (emphasis mine…)
EIGHT WEEKS (Oct 30):
  • YA: Ruins by Orson Scott Card, from Brilliance Audio, simultaneously released with the hardcover from Simon Pulse — continuing the story of 2010’s Pathfinder (Simon Pulse, October 30)
  • The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon, Nov 1)
Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged ashes of honor, battle royale, clockwork angels, felix j palma, infidel, kameron hurley, kevin j anderson, mary robinette kowal, neil peart, release week, seanan mcguire