Posts published in: 2012/10

Release Week: A Sudden Outbreak of Magic, Ruins, and a Neil Gaiman gift edition and charity short

Posted on 2012-10-31 at 17:43 by Sam

The last release week in October has a few intriguing new titles, along with a new "gift edition" of Neil Gaiman's Stardust and, as Dave already mentioned, a free short story by Gaiman as well.

A Sudden Outbreak of Magic: Contagious Magic By Michael Jasper, Narrated by Alyson Grauer is the one I've been waiting on the longest. At 8 hrs and 16 mins it is the first book in a series, in which book two is out in print and ebook, and book three is coming soon. I've been following the route of this book from

Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged emily janice card, michael jasper, neil gaiman, orson scott card, release week, stardust, stefan rudnicki

All Hallow's Listen, Featuring Neil Gaiman Himself

Posted on 2012-10-26 at 15:27 by Dave

Click-Clack the Rattlebag Written and Performed by Neil Gaiman Length: 12 minutes

Neil Gaiman and Audible have teamed up to produce a Halloween treat, "Click-Clack the Rattlebag," a short story that's available as a free download through October 31.

Yes, a free Neil Gaiman short story, read by Neil Himself! But it gets better! For each download, Audible will donate money to DonorsChoose.org, an educational charity! So click that link and get to downloading!

The story itself is 10 minutes of spooky fun,

Posted in All Hallow's Listen, Uncategorized | Tagged all hallows listen, free-audiobooks, neil gaiman

All Hallow's Listen Part 3: Dave reviews George R.R. Martin's Fevre Dream

Posted on 2012-10-25 at 05:00 by Dave

Fevre Dream, by George R.R. Martin Narrated by Ron Donachie Length: 13 hours, 37 minutes

There’s a lot of talk these days about vampire fatigue, and whether or not vampires should hole up in their coffins for a few years until they figure out how to be scary or interesting again.

George R.R. Martin’s Fevre Dream probably isn’t going to change anyone’s mind about the state of vampires in literature, and since the book was written in 1982, that’s really only fair. It is, however, solid proof that vampire

Posted in All Hallow's Listen, reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged audiobooks, Fevre Dream Ron Donachie, George R.R. Martin, reviews, southern lit, vampires

Release Week: Rudnicki's Fantastic Imaginings, and more of Pohl's Heechee Saga read by Oliver Wyman

Posted on 2012-10-24 at 16:55 by Sam

A pretty quiet release week, made even more so considering the deafening absence on this side of the pond that is the lack of Red Country By Joe Abercrombie, available earlier this week in the UK -- narrated by the voice of Abercrombie's First Law series no less, Steven Pacey. Will a US publisher do the right thing and back up the appropriately sized money truck(s) and bring us this next chapter in the story of Logen Ninefingers? Pretty please? (Update: Via The Guilded Earlobe, I find that this audiobook is

Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged fantastic imaginings, frederik pohl, harlan ellison, heechee, oliver wyman, release week, stefan rudnicki

Scalzi's The Human Division Audiobook to be Serialized?

Posted on 2012-10-23 at 21:24 by Dave

John Scalzi, author of Redshirts, Fuzzy Nation, and Old Man's War has just announced that he's completed his new novel (set in the Old Man's War universe): The Human Division.

Scalzi has been talking for a while how this book is made up of a series of interlocking stories, and will be released serially as eBook episodes, with the collected edition coming out around the same time as the final story. But in his post today, Scalzi mentions that this might not only happen for the eBook, but for the audiobook

Posted in regular | Tagged human division, john scalzi, news, serialized audiobooks

Listening report: August 2012

Posted on 2012-10-22 at 20:33 by Sam

After seven audiobooks in July, three excellent, I managed just six in August, with one absolutely year's-best fantastic (The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan) another excellent (non-fiction, How to Build an Android), and three more well worth the listen, including science fiction (Chimera), fantasy (A Book of Tongues), and a collection (Fragile Things).

REVIEWS: (Caveat from the last two "monthly" reports also applies here; fairly off-the-cuff reviews, trying to claw back to the present and

Posted in regular, reviews, Sam's Monthly Listening Report | Tagged a book of tongues, chimera, fragile things, glory road, how to build an android, monthly listening report, reviews, the drowning girl

All Hallow's Listen Part 2: Dave reviews Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury

Posted on 2012-10-19 at 14:00 by Dave

Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle Stories by: 26 writers including Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Audrey Niffenegger, Margaret Atwood, Alice Hoffman, Robert McCammon, and more Narrated by: George Takei, Edward Hermann, Kate Mulgrew, F. Murray Abraham, Neil Gaiman, Peter Appel, and James Urbaniak for Harper Audio Length: 14 hours, 11 minutes

Review by Dave Thompson

For me, Ray Bradbury’s name is more synonymous with October and Halloween than any

Posted in All Hallow's Listen, regular, reviews | Tagged all hallows listen, dave thompson, george takei, joe hill, kate mulgrew, neil gaiman, ray bradbury, reviews, shadow show

Received: Nine titles from Blackstone Audio

Posted on 2012-10-18 at 14:58 by Sam

First, though chronologically last, the physical mp3-cd shipment, which includes Crossing Overby Anna Kendall (2010, The Soulvine Moor Chronicles, Book One), The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe (read by Stefan Rudnicki, 2009, The Eddie LaCrosse Mysteries, Book 1), None So Blind by Joe Haldeman, Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce (read by John Lee), and The Fullness of Time by Kate Wilhelm:

Second, though chronologically first, four digital review copies:

• V Wars Edited by Jonathan Maberry, Read

Posted in received

Release Week: The Twelve, Bowl of Heaven, Roadside Picnic, and George R.R. Martin

Posted on 2012-10-17 at 20:05 by Sam

Vampires and aliens are featured in two new highly-anticipated books in this mid-October release week, and aliens and vampires are also featured in new audiobooks of highly-regarded books published in past years.

The Twelve by Justin Cronin, read by Scott Brick for Random House Audio continues the story from Cronin's post-apocalyptic vampire novel The Passage which introduced a set of death row inmates used as experimental subjects for a virus discovered by an unfortunate South American expedition and the

Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged bowl of heaven, george rr martin, gregory benford, justin cronin, larry niven, mike mignola, release week, roadside picnic, scott brick, the twelve

Received: 3 titles from Harper Audio

Posted on 2012-10-15 at 17:49 by Sam

Received: More review copies from our fall requests are coming in, this batch includes three titles from Harper Audio:

• The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
• Some Remarks by Neal Stephenson
• Dodger by Terry Pratchett

Posted in received, regular | Tagged dodger, harper-audio, neal stephenson, received, some remarks, terry pratchett, the long earth