Page 29 of posts by: Sam

Sam reviews: Building Harlequin's Moon by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper, read by Tom Weiner for Blackstone Audio

Posted on 2013-02-10 at 12:32 by Sam

Building Harlequin’s Moon by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper (2005) Read by Tom Weiner (2012) for Blackstone Audio (review copy)

Review by Sam: This is a book I was very interested in when it was originally published back in 2005, but it was another year before I finally picked it up. It quickly became one of my favorite science fiction novels, and remains one of my favorites of the 2000s. Combine Larry Niven's geo-engineering and orbital mechanics with Cooper's humanism and futurism, add a few thousand

Posted in reviews | Tagged blackstone audio, brenda cooper, building harlequin's moon, larry niven, tom weiner

Release Week: Sean Ferrell's Man in the Empty Suit, Spider Robinson's The Free Lunch, Manil Suri's The City of Devi, and Neal Asher's The Departure

Posted on 2013-02-06 at 14:39 by Sam

Led by an intriguing concurrent new release, the first release week of February also brings an author-narrated science fiction novel a bit over 10 years in the waiting since its print publication, several other good-looking concurrent release titles, another big haul of Audible Frontiers titles, and, of course, the next installment in John Scalzi's The Human Division, A Voice in the Wilderness: The Human Division, Episode 4. Of course, no release week would be complete without my "seen but not heard

Posted in Release Week | Tagged release week, sean ferrell, spider robinson

Received, January 2013

Posted on 2013-02-01 at 02:51 by Sam

It started with a couple of boxes from Brilliance Audio, with Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, both of Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland books, Steven Erikson's Forge of Darkness, and This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong:

And continued with a pair of digital download review copies, Lost Things: The Order of the Air by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham (from Crossroad Press) and The Dirty Streets of Heaven: Bobby Dollar, Book 1 by

Posted in received

Release Week: Jay Lake's Kalimpura, James P. Blaylock's The Aysleford Skull, Norse Code, and (of course) another episode of The Human Division

Posted on 2013-01-30 at 19:43 by Sam

Now that's what I'm talking about -- an absolutely monstrous release week, with a long list of concurrent new releases, exciting previously released books coming to audio for the first time, and even another haul of Dungeons and Dragons audiobooks. And that's just the past few days -- already this week had brought us Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout and The Disaster Diaries by Sam Sheridan, and of course it also brings the next installment of John Scalzi's The Human Division, with We Only Need the Heads: The

Posted in Release Week | Tagged james p. blaylock, jay lake, release week

Release Day: Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout, read by Dave Thompson

Posted on 2013-01-24 at 19:12 by Sam

Back in the summer of 2009 I was getting back into reading and, ok, writing a bit, and started discovering some very interesting authors on Twitter -- in particular the trio of William Shunn, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Greg van Eekhout. I had actually even picked up van Eekhout's Spectra-published debut novel from a bit earlier that year, Norse Code, plucked from the bottom shelf of the B&N fantasy section, based on the clever title and strong opening line and chapter. ("On the last true day of spring the nine

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged dave thompson, greg van eekhout, norse code

Release Week: Miles Cameron's The Red Knight, two from Iambik, and Scalzi's The Human Division continues with "Walk the Plank"

Posted on 2013-01-23 at 17:31 by Sam

Another fairly quiet week in terms of highly-anticipated concurrent releases, though a new 30-hour epic fantasy audiobook from Hachette Audio certainly raises some interest, and two Iambik Audio productions of recent small press releases are certainly quite intriguing. And, of course, Scalzi's The Human Division continues. (And! At the bottom, again some "Whispersync for Voice" price quirks I stumbled across this week.)

The Red Knight By Miles Cameron, Narrated By Matthew Wolf for Hachette Audio — Length

Posted in Release Week, Uncategorized | Tagged david nickle, iambik audio, jennifer pelland

Another battle of audiobook sales

Posted on 2013-01-17 at 18:10 by Sam

Downpour.com is having a 30% off every title sale, through January 21:

Meanwhile, Audible.com's latest sale is a 48-Hour "Wishes Granted" sale which lists 100+ books at $6.95. It's not sorted by any category, so here's my scan-through, which includes several excellent choices labeled PICK, including 1Q84, The Name of the Wind, Redshirts, Snow Crash, Theft of Swords, Nine Princes in Amber, and Among Others, er, among others:

• by Margaret Atwood
• Narrated by Claire Danes

Posted in Uncategorized

Release Week: The Human Division, Glamour in Glass, Shades of Earth, Rage is Back, and Impulse

Posted on 2013-01-16 at 20:41 by Sam

Well, it's the middle of January and 2013 is getting into full swing, and though there's not a big crop of highlight-reel concurrent releases this week, one of my most-missing titles of 2012 is here, along with the first installment of John Scalzi's serial novel The Human Division. Also: at the bottom, three five more "Whispersync for Voice" deals I stumbled across this week.

The Human Division gets underway with a double-length (bit under 2.5 hours) first episode, The B-Team: The Human Division, Episode 1

Posted in Release Week | Tagged john scalzi, mary robinette kowal, release week

Dave reviews: The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley, read by Susan Duerden

Posted on 2013-01-16 at 01:44 by Sam

The Rook, by Daniel O’Malley, read by Susan Duerden for Dreamscape

 Review by Dave Thompson:

Imagine if J.K. Rowling had decided to do a Ministry of Magic novel and you’ve basically got the set-up for The Rook.

The Rook has a little bit of everything in it: It’s as if O’Malley took some of the best (and worst) tropes from the last 20 years of genre fiction, tossed them into a blender with his own special ingredients, and served up a tasty little cocktail with fruit and an umbrella. It starts off a bit

Posted in reviews | Tagged daniel o'malley, dave thompson, dreamscape, susan duerden, the rook

Untitled

Posted on 2013-01-15 at 16:52 by Sam

The first installment of John Scalzi's new serialized Old Man's War-universe novel, The Human Division, is out: "The B-Team", with the remainder of the episodes up for pre-order for $0.99/$0.69. And Audible is doing a "first one's free" deal if you Like their Facebook page. A couple "missing" things are (1) for ease of use, just let me spend one credit and pre-order all of them? (2) I can't (yet at least) "gift" future episodes, and (3) I really wish Audible would NOT default to using a full credit on

Posted in Uncategorized