November 2014 Whispersync Roundup: Octavia Butler's Dawn, Peter David's Artful, Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, and more

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November 2014 Whispersync Roundup: Octavia Butler's Dawn, Peter David's Artful, Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, and more

Posted on 2014-11-13 at 06:55 by Sam

Now that we’re about halfway through November, it’s past time to round up this month’s Whispersync (and other) deals. First up, the usual gold source for new Whispersync deals, the Kindle monthly deals. 12 books to send up this time:

Dawn: Xenogenesis, Book 1 | Octavia E. Butler Artful: A Novel | Peter David Fiend: A Novel | Peter Stenson

Dawn (The Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 1) By Octavia E. Butler, Narrated By Aldrich Barrett for Audible for $1.99+$3.49 — “In a world devastated by nuclear war with humanity on the edge of extinction, aliens finally make contact. They rescue those humans they can, keeping most survivors in suspended animation while the aliens begin the slow process of rehabilitating the planet. When Lilith Iyapo is “awakened”, she finds that she has been chosen to revive her fellow humans in small groups by first preparing them to meet the utterly terrifying aliens, then training them to survive on the wilderness that the planet has become. But the aliens cannot help humanity without altering it forever. Bonded to the aliens in ways no human has ever known, Lilith tries to fight them even as her own species comes to fear and loathe her. A stunning story of invasion and alien contact by one of science fiction’s finest writers.”

Artful: A Novel by Peter David, Narrated By James Langton for Brilliance Audio for $1.99+$1.99 — “Oliver Twist is one of the most well-known stories ever told, about a young orphan who has to survive the mean streets of London before ultimately being rescued by a kindly benefactor. But it is his friend, the Artful Dodger, who has the far more intriguing tale, filled with more adventure and excitement than anything boring Oliver could possibly get up to. Throw in some vampires and a plot to overthrow the British monarchy, and what you have is the thrilling account that Charles Dickens was too scared to share with the world. From the brilliant mind of novelist and comic book veteran Peter David, Artful is the dark, funny, and action-packed story of one of the most fascinating characters in literary history. With vampires.”

Fiend: A Novel By Peter Stenson, Narrated By Todd Haberkorn for Random House Audio for $3.79+$3.99 — “When Chase first sees the little girl in umbrella socks disemboweling the Rottweiler, he’s not too concerned. As a longtime meth addict, he’s no stranger to such horrifying, drug-fueled hallucinations. But as he and his fellow junkies soon discover, the little girl is no illusion. The end of the world really has arrived. And with Chase’s life already shattered by addiction, the apocalypse might actually be anopportunity—a last chance to hit restart, win back the love of his life, and become the person he once dreamed of being. That is, if the darkness inside him doesn’t destroy everything—again.”

Extinction Point: Extinction Point, Book 1 | Paul Antony Jones Exodus: Extinction Point, Book 2 | Paul Antony Jones Revelations: Exctinction Point, Book 3 | Paul Antony Jones

Paul Antony Jones’ Extinction Point series all read by Emily Beresford for Brilliance Audio for $1.99+$1.99 each: “First comes the red rain: a strange, scarlet downpour from a cloudless sky that spreads across cities, nations, and the entire globe. In a matter of panicked hours, every living thing on earth succumbs to swift, bloody death. Yet Emily Baxter, a young newspaper reporter, is mysteriously spared—and now she’s all alone. But watching the happy life she built for herself in New York City slip away in the wake of a monstrous, inexplicable plague is just the beginning of Emily’s waking nightmare. The world isn’t ending; it’s onlychanging. And the race that once ruled the earth has now become raw material for use by a new form of life never before seen…on this planet. With only wits, weapons, and a bicycle, Emily must undertake a grueling journey across a country that’s turning increasingly alien. For though she fears she’s been left to inherit the earth, the truth is far more terrifying than a lifetime of solitude.”

Resurrection | Arwen Elys Dayton The Immortalists | Kyle Mills Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After | Steve Hockensmith

Resurrection by Arwen Elys Dayton, read by Kate Rudd for Brilliance Audio for $1.99+$1.99: “The Kinley built a ship capable of traveling faster than light. It carried a group of scientists to a small, distant planet—a primitive place called Earth. It’s mission was peaceful observation. But when the ship was destroyed, the Kinley crew found themselves stranded in ancient Egypt, participants in the pageant of life in the time of the Pharaohs. They buried remnants of their technology deep beneath the desert and sent a last desperate message home… Five thousand years later, the Kinley homeworld hovers on the brink of extinction. An enemy that nearly obliterated their race has risen again—now with the ability to destroy them for good. A lone Kinley soldier named Pruit is sent on a desperate mission: to follow the ancient beacon back to Earth and recover the secrets to faster than light travel. It is their last hope. Technology that once allowed them to cross vast reaches of space might allow them to outrun their enemies and find a safe world to call their own. But Pruit’s mission will be harder than she can imagine. Her quest will draw her enemies after her and will awaken ancient foes on Earth. As she gets closer to what she seeks, she will find each adversary willing to risk everything to stop her. Each hoping to steal the knowledge for themselves. The rivals will meet in modern-day Egypt and their struggle will alter the fate of worlds.”

The Immortalists by Kyle Mills, Narrated By Benjamin L. Darcie for Brilliance Audio for $1.99+$1.99: “Dr. Richard Draman is trying desperately to discover a cure for a disease that causes children to age at a wildly accelerated rate—a rare genetic condition that is killing his own daughter. When the husband of a colleague quietly gives him a copy of the classified work she was doing before her mysterious suicide, Draman finally sees a glimmer of hope.  The conclusions are stunning, with the potential to not only turn the field of biology on its head, but reshape the world.  Soon, though, he finds himself on the run, relentlessly pursued by a seemingly omnipotent group of men who will do whatever it takes to silence him.”

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After By Steve Hockensmith, Narrated By Katherine Kellgren for Audible for $2.51+$3.49: “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and its prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, were both New York Times best sellers, with a combined 1.3 million copies in print. Now the PPZ trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After. The story opens with our newly married protagonists, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, defending their village from an army of flesh-eating unmentionables. But the honeymoon has barely begun when poor Mr. Darcy is nipped by a rampaging dreadful. Elizabeth knows the proper course of action is to promptly behead her husband (and then burn the corpse, just to be safe). But when she learns of a miracle antidote under development in London, she realizes there may be one last chance to save her true love - and for everyone to live happily ever after.” Book 2, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, is also a Whispersync deal at $2.24+$3.95.

The Boy from Reactor 4 | Orest Stelmach Leviathan | Scott Westerfeld The Dragonet Prophecy: Wings of Fire, Book #1 | Tui T. Sutherland

Teen: The Boy from Reactor 4 (The Nadia Tesla Series Book 1) By Orest Stelmach, Narrated By Tanya Eby for Brilliance Audio for $1.99+$1.99: “Nadia’s memories of her father are not happy ones. An angry, secretive man, he died when she was thirteen, leaving his past shrouded in mystery. When a stranger claims to have known her father during his early years in Eastern Europe, she agrees to meet—only to watch the man shot dead on a city sidewalk. With his last breath, he whispers a cryptic clue, one that will propel Nadia on a high-stakes treasure hunt from New York to her ancestral homeland of Ukraine. There she meets an unlikely ally: Adam, a teenage hockey prodigy who honed his skills on the abandoned cooling ponds of Chernobyl. Physically and emotionally scarred by radiation syndrome, Adam possesses a secret that could change the world—if she can keep him alive long enough to do it. A twisting tale of greed, secrets, and lies,The Boy from Reactor 4 will keep readers guessing until the final heart-stopping page.” The second book in the series, The Boy Who Stole from the Dead (The Nadia Tesla Series Book 2), is also a $1.99+$1.99 deal.

Kids: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, read by Alan Cumming for Simon & Schuster Audio is one of my all time middle grade audiobook favorites, for just $1.99+$3.99: “It is the cusp of World War I. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ genetically fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet. Aleksandar Ferdinand, a Clanker, and Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist, are on opposite sides of the war. But their paths cross in the most unexpected way, taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure….One that will change both their lives forever.”

Kids: Wings of Fire Book One: The Dragonet Prophecy By Tui T. Sutherland, Narrated By Shannon McManus for Scholastic Audio for $1.99+$3.49: “A thrilling new series soars above the competition and redefines middle-grade fantasy fiction for a new generation! The seven dragon tribes have been at war for generations, locked in an endless battle over an ancient, lost treasure. A secret movement called the Talons of Peace is determined to bring an end to the fighting, with the help of a prophecy — a foretelling that calls for great sacrifice. Five dragonets are collected to fulfill the prophecy, raised in a hidden cave and enlisted, against their will, to end the terrible war. But not every dragonet wants a destiny. And when the select five escape their underground captors to look for their original homes, what has been unleashed on the dragon world may be far more than the revolutionary planners intended …”

Next up, always another good (if verbose!) source of Whispersync deals, SF Signal’s monthly list has 222 titles, some of which are already included above, most of which don’t have audiobooks or Whispersync enablement or are still full-priced, but! it’s still a huge pile of inexpensive Kindle+Audible audiobooks to check out, in brief, alpha by author:

The Silent Tower: The Windrose Chronicles | Barbara Hambly Cold City: A Repairman Jack Novel | F. Paul Wilson Hunter's Run | George R. R. Martin,Gardner Dozois,Daniel Abraham Star Strike: The Inheritance Trilogy, Book 1 | Ian Douglas Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters | Jane Austen,Ben H. Winters Dawnbreaker: Dark Days, Book 3 | Jocelynn Drake The Human Division | John Scalzi The Sagan Diary | John Scalzi Ghost Road Blues: The Pine Deep Trilogy, Book 1 | Jonathan Maberry

Anna Dressed in Blood | Kendare Blake Airborn | Kenneth Oppel Dead Witch Walking | Kim Harrison Unbound | Kim Harrison,Melissa Marr,Jeaniene Frost,Vicki Pettersson,Jocelynn Drake The Hallowed Hunt | Lois McMaster Bujold Brilliance | Marcus Sakey Terms of Enlistment | Marko Kloos The Serpent Sea | Martha Wells ORBS | Nicholas Sansbury Smith Kindred | Octavia E. Butler More Than This | Patrick Ness The Knife of Never Letting Go: Chaos Walking, Book 1 | Patrick Ness The God Patent | Ransom Stephens Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders | Richard Ellis Preston Romulus Buckle & the Engines of War: The Chronicles of the Pneumatic, Book 2 | Richard Ellis Preston Disenchanted | Robert Kroese Starship Grifters: Rex Nihilo, Book 1 | Robert Kroese They Thirst | Robert McCammon Grail: The Pendragon Cycle, Book 5 (</p> <p>UNABRIDGED) by Stephen R. Lawhead Narrated by Robert Whitfield The Light Fantastic: Discworld #2 | Terry Pratchett The Magician's Guild: The Black Magician Trilogy: Book One | Trudi Canavan The Touch of Twilight: The Third Sign of the Zodiac | Vicki Pettersson ---

Whew! I was going to go down the checklist a bit, cross-referencing new Podium Publishing audiobooks, checking through the 47North catalog, etc., looking for previous books for new books in a series, but this list is already long, and it’s already mid-October. So! One more deal to pass along, a Scholastic Audiobook Humble Bundle where you name your own price for a pile of Scholastic Audio titles, including The Hunger Games, Spirit Animals, Infinity Ring, Goosebumps, and (if you pay more than the average) even more books including The 39 Clues, The Raven Boys, and War Horse. Enjoy!

UPDATE Nov. 19:

Through Nov. 23 Amazon’s The Big Deal is “save up to 85% on more than 400 Kindle books” and some Whispersync for Voice titles include:

Assault Troopers (Extinction Wars Book 1) by Vaughn Heppner for $1.99+$1.99

The Witch and the Gentleman (The Witches Series Book 1) by J.R. Rain

… and a fairly big pile of Mongoliad Side-World shorts for $0.99+$1.99

Posted in Whispersync Deals | Tagged alan cumming, discworld, humble bundle, james langton, john scalzi, luke daniels, macus sakey, octavia butler, patrick ness, paul antony jones, peter david, robert krose, robert mccammon, scholastic audio, scott westerfeld, terry pratchett, the hunger games