Release Week: 12 May 2026

Release Week: 12 May 2026

Posted on 2026-05-12 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

OF COURSE:

* A Parade of Horribles: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 8 by Matt Dinniman, read by Jeff Hays -- "As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon. Races."

PICKS:

* Star by Ann Leckie, read by Adjoa Andoh -- "Space opera's sharpest mind returns to the world of the Imperial Radch in this brilliant standalone from award-winning author Ann Leckie."

* 2084 by Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis, read by Keith Szarabajka, Eric Yang, Pun Bandhu, Eunice Wong, and Emily Woo Zeller -- "By the year 2084, the world is divided into the equatorial countries that bear the brunt of the climate crisis—led by Nigeria, Brazil, and Indonesia—and wealthier countries like China and the US, beset by their own problems after a series of civil wars. Tensions between the two sets of countries have reached a breaking point, until finally the so-called Reparationist nations of the equator decide that only military force can bring them justice."

* Make Me Better: A Novel by Sarah Gailey, read by Xe Sands -- "Celia is so tired of being alone. All she wants is to have a family—to belong to someone. That's why she's going to Kindred Cove for the annual Salt Festival held by the secluded community that lives there. They promise that healing is possible. They promise that transformation is inevitable. There is no grief at Kindred Cove, because there is no suffering. Nothing is ever lost. Celia knows that, at that mysterious island surrounded by that impossible, ever-growing reef -- she will find herself. She’s ready to be healed. She’s ready to be transformed. She's ready to believe."

* The Lost Book of Lancelot: A Novel by John Glynn, read by Thomas Delacourt -- "A queer retelling of the legend of Sir Lancelot, following the famous knight as he grows up orphaned, falls in love, and attempts to fulfill his destiny at the Round Table."

* Ignore All Previous Instructions by Ada Hoffmann, read by Nancy Wu - "A script supervisor for an AI media conglomerate is caught between her intense need for an orderly life and her deeper, darker queer desires."

* The Franchise by Thomas Elrod, read by John Pirhalla -- "The classic fantasy world of The Malicarn has been brought to life on the big screen in a series of phenomenally successful blockbuster movies, almost entirely populated by characters in total belief that their sham fantasy lives are real. A fan-favorite actor finds himself doubting the studio's work, but this franchise has an almost unstoppable momentum, and bringing freedom to a population that already believes itself to be free won’t be as easy as he thinks."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

* Take Me to Your Leader: Practical Advice for Your First Alien Encounter by Neil deGrasse Tyson, read by the author

* Beyond Life and Death: The Way of True Freedom by Jet Li, read by Justin Chien -- "The martial arts legend and international movie star distills ten powerful insights from his iconic career, his personal life and philosophies, and his thirty-year Buddhist practice."

* Kafkaesque: From Jorge Luis Borges to Primo Levi, Ten Writers Who Translated Kafka and Transformed Twentieth-Century Literature by Maïa Hruska, read by the author

* American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed by Isaac Fitzgerald, read by the author

* Torched: How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A. by Jonathan Vigliotti, read by the author -- "A searing firsthand account of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the failures that fueled the catastrophe, and the high-stakes battle over how the city will rebuild ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games."

* Redeem a Nation: The Century-Long Battle to Restore the Soul of America by Damario Solomon-Simmons -- "We all feel it, the teetering toward a place in America from which there is no return. The battle to remain hopeful in spite of injustice after injustice. In this powerful story of one lawyer’s fight for his community, both justice and hope are redeemed."

BACKLIST WATCH:

* David Starr, Space Ranger (1952) by Isaac Asimov, read by MacLeod Andrews -- "Conway could remember the day, the exact minute, when the news had reached Science Tower. Patrol ships had shot out into space, tracing the pirates; they attacked the asteroid lairs in a fury that was completely unprecedented. Whether they caught the particular villains who had gutted the Venus-bound ship none could ever say, but the pirate power had been broken from that year on. And the patrol ships found something else: a tiny lifeboat winding a precarious orbit between Venus and Earth, radiating its coldly automatic radio calls for help. Only a child was inside."

* Isle of the Dead by Roger Zelazny, read by Eric Jason Martin -- "Human Francis Sandow is amused when the alien Pei'ans mistake him for Shimbo of Darktree, God of Thunder, but the Shimbo's enemy, Belion—a true supreme being—arrives for a showdown."

* King Comus by William Demby

* Love Story Black by William Demby

NEW EDITION WATCH:

* This Census-Taker: A Novel by China Miéville, read by the author -- "In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries—and fails—to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?"

SERIES WATCH:

* The Tapestry of Fate: Amina al-Sirafi, Book 2 by Shannon Chakraborty, read by Lameece Issaq, Amin El Gamal, and Sneha Mathan -- "The second adventure of pirate Amina al-Sirafi as her quest to track down magical artifacts brings her to the island lair of a sorceress whose woven enchantments are impossible to flee."

* All Hail Chaos: Time of Iron, Book 2 by Sarah Rees Brennan, read by Moira Quirk and Shane East

The rest of my WATCH LIST for the week:

* Jeremiah Bourne in Time by Nigel Planer, read by the author -- "As Jeremiah Bourne is swept from his crumbling home in Blackfriars in 2019, to the same house but in 1910, he suddenly faces two questions: how did he get here, and how can he return to his own time? On his quest for answers, he encounters a cast of comic characters and situations: a coven of free-thinking spiritualists, a futuristic residents’ association, warring street gangs, eugenic scientists, aggressive domestic servants and a nudist magistrate."

* Seek the Traitor's Son by Veronica Roth, read by Imani Jade Powers, Max Meyers, Rebecca Soler, and Steve West -- "A new epic romantic, dystopian fantasy begins."

* Memory House by Elaine Kraf, read by Kristen Sieh -- "The never-before-published novel by the cult feminist author, exploring what happens when a drained writer fakes her death and joins a mysterious club for failing artists."

* Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know by K. J. Parker

* The May House by Jillian Cantor

* Deathbringer by Sonia Tagliareni

* Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray

* Femme Feral by Sam Beckbessinger

* Worthy of Fate by A.N. Caudle

* Mighty Real by Barry Walters

* The Bone Door by Frances White, read by Honi Cooke

* Moon Over Brendle by Jeff Noon, read by Tim Bruce

* We Dance Upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel, read by Nikita Tewani

* Model Actress Whatever by Kim Newman, read by Olivia Darnley, Finlay Robertson

Not sure what happened, but the title of the new Leckie book is "Radiant Star". I don't seem able to edit the comment, alas.

Posted in Release Week