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Review: American Elsewhere

Posted on 2013-09-19 at 06:00 by Dave

American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett, Read by Graham Winton Length: 22 hours, 23 minutes

If you have to stand against the great lurking darkness that’s encroaching upon you from the edge of universe, I recommend cranking up The Best of Erich Zann's Violin Classics, inviting over Chuthulu’s rebellious teenage children to stand by your side, and having  Robert Jackson Bennett’s American Elsewhere in hand to keep said Darkness at bay.

I’ve been looking forward to this book pretty much since I’d heard about it – especially after listening to Bennett’s “The Troupe,” which was my favorite audiobook last year. It’s also safe to say, I had some apprehension. Something about the book seemed to invoke Gaiman’s American Gods, which is one of my favorite books of all time. That said, Bennett’s become an author I can trust to spin a wickedly dependable yarn. I'm happy to say, American Elsewhere didn't disappoint.

Mona Bright is a damaged ex-cop who, upon her estranged father’s death finds out that she’s inherited a house in a town she’s never heard of from her late mom. The house, and the town it is in, has all kinds of strange shit happening around it.  It seems way too perfect. Weird things happen at night. And also, there's an abandoned science research facility on the mountain. To give away too much more of the plot would be spoiling too much of the fun, so I'll stop there.

Bennett’s mentioned before that he drew inspiration for this novel from David Lynch, H.P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury. I don’t know whether or not he would cop to LOST being an inspiration as well, and I realize bringing it up is a double-edged sword, but most weeks, it left me with a big grin on my face saying WTF as the word LOST pounded on the screen. Now, imagine if LOST had ended the way you hoped it would – giving you just enough answers, not to mention good ones, leaving you completely satisfied when it ended. That’s essentially what American Elsewhere did for me. It is, as Bob Reiss called it earlier this year, a glorious “Kaleidoscope of What the Fuckery.”

(It also made me think a lot of Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, and maybe someday I’ll write an essay about that.)

This is my first experience with reader Graham Winton, and really my only criticism regarding the narration cannot be blamed on him. In short, this book was about a woman, and it’s kind of a shame we have a male reader for it. It’s really too bad that a female reader couldn’t be brought in, someone like Kate Mulgrew, or M.K. Hobson (if she did feature-length novels) who could nail Mona’s attitude. With that in mind, Winton’s reading is pretty excellent. He was able to nail Bennett’s sick sense of humor, and got me to laugh out loud several times on my commute. I’d be happy to hear him narrate more stories, and particularly more of Bennett’s stories.

In the end, when the darkness is just barely at bay, this book is evidence why Robert Jackson Bennett continues to be an author I’ll continue to trust.

Special thanks to Recorded Books for providing me with a review copy of this audiobook.

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged american elsewhere, kaleidoscope of wtfery, recorded books, robert jackson bennett

Release Week: Happy Hour in Hell, Neptune's Brood, The Rose and the Thorn, Bleeding Edge, and Neil Gaiman's Fortunately, the Milk

Posted on 2013-09-18 at 17:17 by Sam

SEPTEMBER 11-17, 2013: Urban fantasy, deep future sf, adventure fantasy, early 21st century technothriller, and more await listeners in this week's round of picks -- and even more await the "also out this week" reader/listener. (Let alone the "also also out this week" listings. Yes, I've gone Full Monty Python.) Near future, backlist epic fantasy, special edition audio anthology re-issues, resurrecting zombie Taft to run for president, Kafka-esque kittens, nuclear and non-nuclear non-fiction, and more. Whew. And next week is every bit -- if not yet more -- crowded. So many books to... Enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

I thoroughly enjoyed Tad Williams' excursion into urban fantasy, last year's first "Bobby Dollar" book, The Dirty Streets of Heaven. Narrator George Newbern is back for the sequel, Happy Hour in Hell, out from Penguin Audio this week after early September print/ebook publication from DAW. "I've been told to go to Hell more times than I can count. But this time I'm actually going. My name's Bobby Dollar, sometimes known as Doloriel, and of course, Hell isn't a great place for someone like me - I'm an angel. They don't like my kind down there, not even the slightly fallen variety. But they have my girlfriend, who happens to be a beautiful demon named Casimira, Countess of Cold Hands. Why does an angel have a demon girlfriend? Well, certainly not because it helps my career."

Happy Hour in Hell: Bobby Dollar, Volume 2 | [Tad Williams] Neptune’s Brood

Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross is a follow-on -- not a direct sequel -- to his 2008, Hugo-nominated novel Saturn’s Children. Here the deep future sf ideas come thousands of years later: "The year is AD 7000. The human species is extinct - for the fourth time - due to its fragile nature. Krina Alizond-114 is metahuman, descended from the robots that once served humanity. She’s on a journey to the water-world of Shin-Tethys to find her sister Ana. But her trip is interrupted when pirates capture her ship. Their leader, the enigmatic Count Rudi, suspects that there’s more to Krina’s search than meets the eye." Narrated for Recorded Books by Emily Gray (Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate, Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next) it's a welcome, shorter-than-expected wait for an audio edition of this highly-anticipated new novel from Stross, published in print/ebook in early July by Ace -- the physical audiobook isn't due out until early December.

The Rose and the Thorn by Michael J. Sullivan continues his Riyria Chronicles prequel series with book 2, retelling the origins of the characters in his Riyria Revelations series. Narrator Tim Gerard Reynolds has performed magnificently on the four previous audiobooks, including an Audie Award nomination for Theft of Swords. Here: "Two thieves want answers. Riyria is born." Again, for now it's a digital-only release from Recorded Books, with the physical audiobook edition due out in November.

The Rose and the Thorn Bleeding Edge | [Thomas Pynchon]

Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon (The Penguin Press / Penguin Audio) — Read by Jeannie Berlin, another new voice to me and apparently newcomer to audiobooks in general, though she has an Academy Award nomination for her 1972 performance as Lila Kolodny in The Heartbreak Kid and will appear as Aunt Reet in the 2014 film adaptation of Pynchon's Inherent Vice. Here, a technothriller: “It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11th. Silicon Alley is a ghost town, Web 1.0 is having adolescent angst, Google has yet to IPO, Microsoft is still considered the Evil Empire. There may not be quite as much money around as there was at the height of the tech bubble, but there’s no shortage of swindlers looking to grab a piece of what’s left.” The book has been reviewed quite positively by Slate's Troy Patterson, ranging it among the more comprehensible of Pynchon's novels, writing that it "slow boils a noir fantasy pointing toward the character of America’s future." The genre world is also taking a good look at the novel, with Jenn Northrington’s review at Tor.com saying “If that doesn’t sound so far off from Neuromancer or Ready Player One it’s because, in essence, it’s not. Bleeding Edge is both a literary and a genre masterpiece, a cyberpunk epic and a memorial to the pre-9/11 world.”

Lastly, Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman:

Fortunately, the Milk | [Neil Gaiman]

Gaiman narrates an hour of storytelling for children, but no small number of grown-ups will be listening, too, to this "story of time travel and breakfast cereal".

"I bought the milk," said my father. "I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: T h u m m t h u m m. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road."

"Hullo," I said to myself. "That's not something you see every day. And then something odd happened."

There's a five-minute preview up at SoundCloud for the curious as well.

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Read more...
Posted in Release Week | Tagged charles stross, michael j sullivan, neil gaiman, tad williams, thomas pynchon

Release Week: The Thicket, Zombie Baseball Beatdown, Dissident Gardens, and The New Space Opera 2

Posted on 2013-09-11 at 14:19 by Sam

SEPTEMBER 4-10, 2013: After closing the summer months with Jason Mott's debut The Returned (Brilliance Audio) and Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman's 2003 novel The Fall of the Kings (Neil Gaiman Presents), the fall audiobook release schedule got off to a cracking start last week with early September releases of Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam (Random House Audio), Kim Stanley Robinson's Shaman (Hachette Audio), and Nancy Farmer's The Lord of Opium (Simon & Schuster Audio). This week brings western storytelling from Joe R. Lansdale, a zombie beat-down "for the kids!" from Paolo Bacigalupi, fiction from Jonathan Lethem, and a star-studded sf anthology. In other audiobook news of importance this week, the coming soon listings now includes Tad Williams' new Bobby Dollar book, Happy Hour in Hell: Bobby Dollar, Volume 2 read by George Newbern, which is scheduled for a Thursday release, just a bit more than a week after the print publication last week. Look for more on that score in next week's write-up, but for now: Enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland Books / Hachette Audio) — Narrator Will Collyer was quite good on Austin Grossman's YOU, another Mulholland title in a string of excellent reads and listens from them in 2013 along with Warren Ellis' Gun Machine and Lauren Beukes' The Shining Girls -- only The Shining Girls is overtly speculative, so I think I've found an imprint to confidently follow out of genre, or at least into the wild underbrush between bookstore sections. Where is the line between tall tale and myth, anyway? Here: ‘In the throes of being civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. Oil wells spurt liquid money from the ground. But as Jack’s about to find out, blood and redemption rule supreme. In The Thicket, award-winning novelist Joe R. Lansdale lets loose like never before, in a rip-roaring adventure equal parts True Grit and Stand by Me–the perfect introduction to an acclaimed writer whose work has been called “as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm–or Mark Twain” (New York Times Book Review).’ Another pre-release review, from Kirkus Reviews, calls the book: "Alternately violent and tender, with a gently legendary quality that makes this tall tale just about perfect."

The Thicket | [Joe R. Lansdale] Zombie Baseball Beatdown | [Paolo Bacigalupi]

Zombie Baseball Beatdown by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers / Listening Library) -- Narrator Sunil Malhotra is new to me, and is also the voice of one of the big fiction releases this fall, Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland. Bacigalupi, of course, is the award-winning author of the 2009 biopunk science fiction The Windup Girl and the ecopunk YA novels Shipbreaker and The Drowned Cities. Here Bacigalupi aims for an even younger readership: "The zombie apocalypse begins on the day Rabi, Miguel, and Joe are practicing baseball near their town's local meatpacking plant and nearly get knocked out by a really big stink. Little do they know the plant's toxic cattle feed is turning cows into flesh-craving monsters!" Knopf will publish Bacigalupi's return to adult fiction, The Water Knife, in 2015, and in today's Big Idea on Scalzi's Whatever blog, Bacigalupi explains this "shortest path detour" through writing a zombie book for kids instead of that next "serious" book.

Dissident Gardens: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday / Random House Audio) -- Read by Mark Bramhall, one of my favorites for his performance in Lev Grossman's The Magicians and The Magician King, this one's slotted fairly solidly in fiction. But it still gets my interest as Lethem is one of those "literary" authors who doesn't merely dabble in writing sf from time to time -- he co-edited The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick for goodness sakes -- but breathes it into his works, whatever label ends up being slapped on the end. There's a sensibility at work. Granted, it isn't one that I always "get" but a Lethem novel is always one to check out. Dissident Gardens follows "three generations of all-American radicals" from the 30s, the 70s, and the 2010s. Library Journal's starred review calls it "a moving, hilarious satire of American ideology and utopian dreams" which certainly catches my interest as well.

Dissident Gardens: A Novel | [Jonathan Lethem] The New Space Opera 2 | [Gardner Dozois (editor), Jonathan Strahan (editor)]

And this week brings another fantastic-looking sf anthology, this one from Blackstone Audio, narrated by a full cast: The New Space Opera 2 edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan was published in 2009 by Eos, bringing a second batch of original space opera short fiction (mostly of novelette length) after 2007's The New Space Opera -- which itself came to audio last month. Here, narrated by Tom Weiner, Bahni Turpin, Caroline Shaffer, Paul Michael Garcia, Hillary Huber, Marguerite Gavin, Xe Sands, and Erica Sullivan bring stories from Neal Asher, John Barnes, Cory Doctorow, John Kessel, Jay Lake, John Meaney, Elizabeth Moon, Tad Williams, Bruce Sterling, Peter Watts, Garth Nix, Sean Williams, John Scalzi, Robert Charles Wilson, and more to life. Several of these stories were included in the annual "year's best" anthologies as well. Definitely an audio anthology to dip into.

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Read more...
Posted in Release Week | Tagged gardner dozois, joe lansdale, jonathan lethem, jonathan strahan, new space opera, paolo bacigalupi, the thicket

Release Week: Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam, Kim Stanley Robinson's Shaman, Toby Barlow's Babayaga, and Seanan McGuire's Chimes at Midnight

Posted on 2013-09-04 at 19:05 by Sam

AUGUST 28-SEPTEMBER 3, 2013: September kicks off with two of my most anticipated titles of the year, Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam and Kim Stanley Robinson's Shaman. It also brings news from The Hugo Awards at this weekend's World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio, where Mur Lafferty (The Shambling Guide to New York City) won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author, and John Scalzi's Redshirts was named Best Novel. This week does not, however, bring all the audiobooks that were hoped for: in particular, I was very surprised to see that Happy Hour in Hell, the second Bobby Dollar novel by Tad Williams, was not (yet?) in audio, after a fantastic first audiobook, The Dirty Streets of Heaven, read by George Newbern. Still, with these four picks and the rest of this week's haul, there's more than plenty to listen to and enjoy. So... Enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

MaddAddam: A Novel by Margaret Atwood is now out in the US after a brief bit of Canadian exclusivity, from Nan A. Talese and Random House Audio. “Bringing together Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate endurance of community, and love.” Read by Bernadette Dunne, Bob Walter, and Robbie Daymond, it's the conclusion to one of the defining speculative fiction series of the early 21st century: "Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it's left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb."

MaddAddam: A Novel | [Margaret Atwood] Shaman | [Kim Stanley Robinson]

Shaman: A novel of the Ice Age by Kim Stanley Robinson, narrated by Graeme Malcolm for Hachette Audio concurrent with the print/ebook release from Orbit. After last year's solar-system-spanning sf 2312 comes an historical fiction “novel set in the ice age, about the people who made the paintings in the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France, about 32,000 years ago”. First, the book description: "There is Thorn, a shaman himself. He lives to pass down his wisdom and his stories -- to teach those who would follow in his footsteps. There is Heather, the healer who, in many ways, holds the clan together. There is Elga, an outsider and the bringer of change. And then there is Loon, the next shaman, who is determined to find his own path. But in a world so treacherous, that journey is never simple -- and where it may lead is never certain. SHAMAN is a powerful, thrilling and heartbreaking story of one young man's journey into adulthood -- and an awe-inspiring vision of how we lived thirty thousand years ago." And I encourage you to check out this week's Locus Online New Books posting to see excerpts of very interesting reviews from Gary K. Wolfe and Cecelia Holland.

Babayaga by Toby Barlow was published in print/ebook by FSG on August 6, and here comes to audio read by Dan Miller  for Tantor. “By the author of Sharp Teeth, a novel of love, spies, and witches in 1950s Paris—and a cop turned into a flea: Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It's 1959 and the Cold War is going strong. But Will doesn't think he's a warrior—he's just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can't seem to figure out Parisian girls.  Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, and coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe's wars. Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea."

Babayaga | [Toby Barlow] Chimes at Midnight: An October Daye Novel, Book 7 | [Seanan McGuire]

Chimes at Midnight: An October Daye Novel by Seanan McGuire is the 7th in McGuire's urban fantasy October Daye series, all narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal for Brilliance Audio -- one of those enduring, perfect matches of author, character, and narrator. Here: "Things are starting to look up for October "Toby" Daye. She's training her squire, doing her job, and has finally allowed herself to grow closer to the local King of Cats. It seems like her life may finally be settling down…at least until dead changelings start appearing in the alleys of San Francisco, killed by an overdose of goblin fruit."

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Read more...
Posted in Release Week | Tagged babayaga, kim stanley robinson, maddaddam, margaret atwood, mary robinette kowal, seanan mcguire, shaman, toby barlow

Review: The Great Gatsby

Posted on 2013-09-02 at 06:10 by Dave

The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald, narrated by Jake Gyllenhall
Length: 4 hours, 49 minutes

Happy Labor Day, folks! How does a trip deconstructing the American Dream sound?

Last month I talked about the delights of comfort food, but sometimes you're in the mood for what my family calls "growing food," which is part of the reason I decided to give The Great Gatsby a whirl. I'd been assigned to read it twice in high school, but hadn't revisited it since, and my wife just got assigned to teach it, so another reason I decided to pop it in was a sense of camaraderie with her.

I more or less enjoyed reading Gatsby in high school. Reading it now as an adult, it's easy to see why the book is considered such a classic. It's a critique of the American Dream - that you can become whatever you want to be. It's a story of the disenfranchised taking a shot, and being put down for it. It has a memorable cast of characters - most of them loathsome (Tom Buchanan most of all - he's a raging knot of contradictions, and a great foil for Gatsby). There's some intense social commentary - part of what we loathe so much about Tom is his classism and racism. The former I think has probably been easy for Americans to loathe for a long time; the latter is easy for us to loathe today, but keep in mind this book was written in the 20s, a good 40 years before the Civil Rights movement. (You go, Fitzgerald!) Also, and this is emphasized in the audio format - it's a very short, economic book, and at under 5 hours, packs a pretty mean punch.

Some things that I didn't appreciate so much as a 14 or 17 year-old which I found fascinating as an adult: that the whole story is set during Prohibition, and what a bizarre and bullshit era that was. There was so much booze flowing, so much partying, so much philandering...it's ridiculous to me that the United States thought it would be moral to outlaw alcohol. I was also surprised by how funny it was when it wasn't such a downer - particularly at Gatsby's parties. There's a scene where we find a man sitting in the library of Gatsby's house and the stranger says: "I've been drunk for about a week now and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library." That line just tickles me in so many ways, and I enjoyed discovering Fitzgerald's sense of humor this time out.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives a very solid narration as Nick Carraway, our portal into Gatsby's world, who proclaims he's "the only honest man he's ever met." Gyllenhaal's performance isn't a flashy one, and I think that's a wise choice on his part - it matches the understated power of the book, and let's Fitzgerald's prose carry the story. He's received a lot of praise for his reading of this novel, and it's well-deserved.

The Great Gatsby continues to be a serious book with a lot on it's mind. It was a treat to revisit, and I feel healthier already! Actually, inspired to add a little more peas and carrots to my reading/listening diet.

Posted in reviews, Uncategorized

Release Week: The Returned, The Fall of the Kings, Ice Forged, Abaddon's Gate, Reanimators, and Shadows of the New Sun

Posted on 2013-08-28 at 17:55 by Sam

AUGUST 21-27, 2013: It’s quite a release week haul this week: a powerful debut in the form of Jason Mott’s The Returned, the return of Neil Gaiman Presents with another full cast “illuminated production” in Ellen Kushner’s Riverside series, a pair of Recorded Books titles first published in print by Orbit Books earlier this year, a concurrent new release read by one of the best narrators in the business, and a star-studded all-original anthology set in Gene Wolfe’s New Sun milieu. And! There’s several more titles well worth checking out in the “Also Out This Week” listings, including a pair of complete series in audio for the first time (Sevenwaters and the Cleric Quintet) and the late James Herbert’s terrifying novel The Fog, read by the masterful Sean Barrett. Meanwhile, in the “Seen but Not Heard” listings this week, there’s just about as long a list of compelling titles, led by SFWA Grand Master James Gunn’s first novel in several years, Transcendental (which seems perfectly suited for a Stefan Rudnicki narration, Blackstone Audio I’m looking at you) and Billy Moon, both out from Tor Books, Ramez Naam’s Crux (which should be coming any day now), and sf author Kay Kenyon’s “first foray into fantasy”, A Thousand Perfect Things, along with a pair of tempting anthologies. The week also brings a free prologue plus first five chapter preview of the audiobook for Brandon Sanderson’s first YA novel, Steelheart, ahead of the full audiobook’s September 24 release date. As usual: Enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

The Returned: A Novel by Jason Mott, narrated by Tom Stechschulte for Audible Inc. and Brilliance Audio, is being reviewed highly for both its compelling, moving story and — with no surprise as the author is a well-regarded poet with two collections under his belt — the language and composition. Mott’s debut novel (out in print/ebook from Harlequin MIRA) has been the subject of a three-week free audiobook campaign of prequel stories, and will in March 2014 come to the small screen on ABC from Bratt Pitt’s Plan B production company [trailer]. Here, narrator Stechschulte (Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Mark Van Name’s Children No More and No Going Back, Robert McCammon’s Swan Song, and Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish, among other favorites) navigates a “beautiful meditation on what it means to be human” (Booklist), centered on the inexplicable return of a long-dead child: “Harold and Lucille Hargrave’s lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they’ve settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time…. Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep—flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old. All over the world people’s loved ones are returning from beyond.” I’ve already had the chance to talk to Mott about the book [interview] and look forward to ruminating over this novel with friends once I convince them all to read it — or listen to it.

The Returned: A Novel | [Jason Mott] The Fall of the Kings | [Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman]

The Fall of the Kings (2003) continues the Riverside series by Ellen Kushner after (Audie Award winning) Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword, adding co-author Delia Sherman. Neil Gaiman Presents returns with another full cast “illuminated production” adaptation, narrated by Ellen Kushner, Nick Sullivan, Neil Gaiman, Ryan McCabe, and Katherine Kellgren, visiting Riverside a generation after the events of the previous books: “In this stunning follow-up to Kushner’s The Privilege of the Sword and the Audie-award winning Swordspoint, co-author Delia Sherman (The Freedom Maze) joins Ellen to return to that world of labyrinthine intrigue, where sharp swords and even sharper wits rule. This time, they explore the city’s University, where a troubled young nobleman and his scholar lover find themselves playing out an ancient drama destined to explode their society’s smug view of itself.” Also this week, Tor.com is running a sweepstakes which will give out free downloads of all three Riverside books.

Ice Forged: Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, Book 1 by Gail Z. Martin was published in print/ebook by Orbit in January, beginning a new world for veteran epic fantasist Martin after six books in the world of her Chronicles of the Necromancer series. Here, narrated by fellow epic fantasy veteran Tim Gerard Reynolds (Michael J. Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations) for Recorded Books, Martin takes a starker approach: “Condemned as a murderer for killing the man who dishonored his sister, Blaine “Mick” McFadden has spent the last six years in Velant, a penal colony in the frigid northern wastelands. Harsh military discipline and the oppressive magic keep a fragile peace as colonists struggle against a hostile environment. But the supply ships from Dondareth have stopped coming, boding ill for the kingdom that banished the colonists. Now, as the world’s magic runs wild, McFadden and the people of Velant must fight to survive and decide their fate.”

Out from Orbit in June, Abaddon’s Gate By James S.A. Corey is the third book in Corey’s (a pseudonym for the combined pen of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) well-received space opera series The Expanse after Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War. Here, the book is once again narrated by Jefferson Mays for Recorded Books: “For generations, the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt - was humanity’s great frontier. Until now. The alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has appeared in Uranus’s orbit, where it has built a massive gate that leads to a starless dark. Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artifact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.”

Reanimators by Peter Rawlik is out this week from Night Shade Books, a novel in the Lovecraftian bent complete with Dunwich, Miskatonic University, and “unspeakable horrors”. Here it’s narrated by Oliver Wyman for Audible Frontiers, and follows in a wonderful pattern of some of my favorites of Wyman’s narrations by beginning with: “My name is…” — OK, it begins with “For the record, my name is” but still, this is how both Pohl’s Gateway and Brandon Sanderson’s Legion, both narrated marvelously by Wyman, begin, and let’s not let mere facts get in the way of good fun, shall we? “Two men, a bitter rivalry, and a quarter-century of unspeakable horrors. Herbert West’s crimes against nature are well-known to those familiar with the darkest secrets of science and resurrection. Obsessed with finding a cure for mankind’s oldest malady, death itself, he has experimented upon the living and dead, leaving behind a trail of monsters, mayhem, and madness. But the story of his greatest rival has never been told until now.”

Reanimators | [Pete Rawlik] Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe | [J. E. Mooney (Editor), Bill Fawcett (Editor)]

Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe is an all-original anthology edited by Bill Fawcett and Bill J.E. Mooney for Tor Books, read by MacLeod Andrews (Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim, Steven Gould’s Jumper, Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart) and Amy McFadden (Liesel Schwarz’s A Conspiracy of Alchemists) for Brilliance Audio. “In this volume, a select group of Wolfe’s fellow authors pay tribute to the award-winning creator of The Book of the New Sun, The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Soldier of the Mist, The Wizard Knight, and many others, with entirely new stories written specifically to honor the writer hailed by The Washington Post as “one of America’s finest."" The stories include: “A Lunar Labyrinth” © 2013 by Neil Gaiman; “The Island of the Death Doctor” © 2013 by Joe Haldeman; “A Touch of Rosemary” © 2013 by Timothy Zahn; “Ashes” © 2013 by Steven Savile; “Bedding” © 2013 by David Drake; ”… And Other Stories” © 2013 by Nancy Kress; “The Island of Time” © 2013 by Jack Dann; “The She-Wolf’s Hidden Grin” © 2013 by Michael Swanwick; “Snowchild” © 2013 by Michael A. Stackpole; “Tourist Trap” © 2013 by Mike Resnick and Barry Malzberg; “Epistoleros” © 2013 by Aaron Allston; “Rhubarb and Beets” © 2013 by Todd McCaffrey; “Tunes from Limbo, But I Digress” © 2013 by Judi Rohrig; “In the Shadow of the Gate” © 2013 by William C. Dietz; “Soldier of Mercy” © 2013 by Marc Aramini; “The Dreams of the Sea” © 2013 by Jody Lynn Nye; “The Log” © 2013 by David Brin; and “The Sea of Memory” © 2013 by Gene Wolfe.

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Children of Fire: The Chaos Born, Book 1 | [Drew Karpyshyn] Daughter of the Forest: Sevenwaters, Book 1 | [Juliet Marillier] Canticle: Forgotten Realms The Cleric Quintet Book 1 | [R. A. Salvatore]

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

Glitter & Mayhem

  • Exorcising Aaron Nguyen (The Millroad Academy Exorcists) by Lauren Harris (Aug 22, 2013)
  • Anthology: Manifesto UF edited by Tim Marquitz and Tyson Mauermann (Angelic Knight Press, August 26) -- "From angels to vampires, dragons to wizards, Manifesto brings together twenty-three stories full of action, snark, and unadulterated badassery. Featuring stories from Lucy A. Snyder, Jeff Salyards, William Meikle, Teresa Frohock, Zachary Jernigan, Betsy Dornbusch, and more."
  • Anthology: Glitter and Mayhem edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas (Apex Books, August 26) — “Welcome to Glitter & Mayhem, the most glamorous party in the multiverse. Step behind the velvet rope of these fabulous Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror tales of roller rinks, nightclubs, glam aliens, party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, and debauchery.”
  • Collection: Celestial Inventories by Steve Rasnic Tem (ChiZine, Aug 27)
  • Transcendental by James Gunn (Tor, Aug 27, 2013) — SFWA Grand Master Gunn’s first novel in several years: “Riley, a veteran of interstellar war, is one of many beings from many different worlds aboard a ship on a pilgrimage that spans the galaxy. However, he is not journeying to achieve transcendence, a vague mystical concept that has drawn everyone else on the ship to this journey into the unknown at the far edge of the galaxy. His mission is to find and kill the prophet who is reputed to help others transcend. While their ship speeds through space, the voyage is marred by violence and betrayal, making it clear that some of the ship’s passengers are not the spiritual seekers they claim to be.” -- there's also an excerpt up at Tor.com
  • Billy Moon: A transcendent Novel Reimagining the Life of Christopher Robin Milne by Douglas Lain (Tor, Aug 27, 2013) -- a magical realism weaving its way through the turbulent streets of Paris in 1968: "In Douglas Lain's debut novel set during the turbulent year of 1968, Christopher Robin Milne, the inspiration for his father’s fictional creation, struggles to emerge from a manufactured life, in a story of hope and transcendence."
  • Crux by Ramez Naam (Angry Robot, Aug 27, 2013) -- sequel to hard sf thriller Nexus -- was scheduled to be a Brilliance Audio concurrent release, but this seems to have slipped
  • A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon (Premier Digital Publishing, Aug 27) -- "In this epic new work, the award-winning Kenyon creates an alternate 19th century with two warring continents on an alternate earth: the scientific Anglica (England) and magical Bharata (India). Emboldened by her grandfather's final whispered secret of a magical lotus,Tori Harding, a young Victorian woman and aspiring botanist, must journey to Bharata, with its magics, intrigues and ghosts, to claim her fate. There she will face a choice between two suitors and two irreconcilable realms."
  • The Crown and the Dragon by John D. Payne (WordFire Press, Aug 27, 2013) -- "The land of Deira burns. Two decades of war have laid waste to this once-green paradise . . . but even more destructive than rampaging armies is the wrath of the dragon—an uncontrollable living weapon unleashed by the invaders. Some brave rebels struggle against impossible odds. Others turn outlaw just to stay alive."
  • Cast in Sorrow (Luna Books) by Michelle Sagara (Aug 27, 2013)
  • The Time of Contempt (The Witcher) by Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit, Aug 27, 2013)
  • Spirits From Beyond (A Ghost Finders Novel) by Simon R. Green (Aug 27, 2013)
  • Chosen (ALEX VERUS) by Benedict Jacka (Ace, Aug 27, 2013) -- feature of today's Big Idea piece on Scalzi's Whatever log: The Big Idea: Benedict Jacka
  • Saxon’s Bane by Geoffrey Gudgion (Solaris, Aug 27)
  • Collection: Tell My Sorrows to the Stones by Christopher Golden with an introduction by Cherie Priest (ChiZine, Aug 27, 2013)
COMING SOON:

Babayaga Tales of Jack the Ripper

  • Kingmaker By Christian Cantrell, Narrated By Will Damron for Brilliance Audio -- Release Date: 08-28-13
  • Babayaga by Toby Barlow and Dan Miller (Tantor Audio, Aug 30, 2013) — “By the author of Sharp Teeth, a novel of love, spies, and witches in 1950s Paris—and a cop turned into a flea.” — out in print from FSG on August 6
  • Anthology: Tales of Jack the Ripper edited by Ross E. Lockhart (Word Horde, August 31)
SEPTEMBER and LATER:

  Channel Zilch book cover

OCTOBER and LATER:

 

NEXT YEAR:

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer Southern Reach trilogy the-girl-in-the-road-monica-byrne

  • The Swords of Good Men by Snorri Kristjansson (Jo Fletcher Books, January 7, 2014) — a “Viking fantasy novel” by a new Icelandic author
  • The Girl with All the Gifts by M.J. Carey (Orbit, Jan 7, 2014) — “Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her ‘our little genius’. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.” — link to cover
  • Rex Regis by L. E. Modesitt (Tor, Jan 7, 2014)
  • Fury of the Demon by Diana Rowland (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Work Done for Hire  by Joe Haldeman (Ace Hardcover, January 7, 2014) — novel about an ex-sniper turned sf screenwriter turned reluctant hitman; I’ve hear Haldeman read from this novel in draft and am very much looking forward to its release
  • Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh by Jay Lake (Prime Books, January 7, 2014) — “Markus Selvage has been bent by life, ground up and spit out again. In San Francisco’s darkest sexual underground, he is a perpetual innocent, looking within bodies – his own and others’ – for the lost secrets of satisfaction. But extreme body modification is only the beginning of where he will go before he’s finished…”
  • Rex Regis (Imager Portfolio)  by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Jan 7, 2014)
  • 1636: Seas of Fortune  by Iver Cooper (January 7, 2014)
  • Black Arts: A Jane Yellowrock Novel  by Faith Hunter (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Darkest Fear (Birthright) by Cate Tiernan (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Watchers in the Night (Guardians of the Night) by Jenna Black (Jan 14, 2014)
  • The Man Who Made Models: The Collected Short Fiction  by R.A. Lafferty (Centipede Press, January 14, 2014)
  • Dawn of Swords (The Breaking World)  by David Dalglish (Jan 14, 2014)
  • Dirty Magic (Prospero’s War) by Jaye Wells (Jan 21, 2014)
  • Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, January 21, 2014) — book 2 in The Stormlight Archive after The Way of Kings
  • The Book of the Crowman by Joseph D’ Lacey (Jan 28, 2014)
  • A Darkling Sea by James Cambias (Tor, Jan 28, 2014)
  • Maze by J.M. McDermott (Apex, January 2014)
  • Leaving the Sea: Stories by Ben Marcus (Knopf, January 2014)
  • The Emperor’s Blades (The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #1) by Brian Stavely (Tor, January 2014) — “follows siblings Valyn, Kaden, and Adare, who are in different parts of the world when they learn about the assassination of their father, the Emperor. All of them are in danger of being the next targets, and all of them are caught in the maelstrom of conspiracy, intrigue, treachery, and magic that sweeps through Staveley’s auspicious debut novel.”
  • Reign of Ash (Book Two in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga) by Gail Z. Martin (Orbit, January 2014) — follow-on to Ice Forged
  • Annihilation (Southern Reach, Volume 1) by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Feb 4, 2014) — the first of a trilogy of “Southern Reach” novels being published in 2014 — “For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious, remote, and concealed by the government as an environmental disaster zone even though it is to all appearances pristine wilderness. For thirty years, too, the secret agency known as the Southern Reach has monitored Area X and sent in expeditions to try to discover the truth. Some expeditions have suffered terrible consequences. Others have reported nothing out of the ordinary. Now, as Area X seems to be changing and perhaps expanding, the next expedition will attempt to succeed where all others have failed. What is happening in Area X? What is the true nature of the invisible border that surrounds it?”
  • Like a Mighty Army (Safehold) by David Weber (Feb 4, 2014)
  • The Crimson Campaign (The Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 2) by Brian McClellan (Orbit, February 2014)
  • Like a Mighty Army (Safehold)  by David Weber (Feb 4, 2014)
  • V-S Day: A Novel of Alternate History  by Allen Steele (Feb 4, 2014) — narrated by Ray Chase
  • Empire of Men by David Weber and John Ringo (Feb 4, 2014)
  • The Waking Engine by David Edison (Feb 11, 2014)
  • The Judge of Ages (Count to a Trillion) by John C. Wright (Feb 25, 2014)
  • The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison (Feb 25, 2014)
  • Dreamwalker by C.S. Friedman (February 2014)
  • Night Broken (A Mercy Thompson Novel)  by Patricia Briggs (Mar 4, 2014)
  • Ghost Train to New Orleans (The Shambling Guides) by Mur Lafferty (Orbit, Mar 4, 2014) — sequel to The Shambling Guide to New York City
  • The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent (A Natural History of Dragons) by Marie Brennan (Mar 4, 2014)
  • Hope Rearmed by S.M. Stirling and David Drake (March 4, 2014)
  • Blood and Iron (The Book of the Black Earth) by Jon Sprunk (Pyr, March 11)
  • Resistance by Jenna Black (Mar 11, 2014)
  • Working God’s Mischief (Instrumentalities of the Night)  by Glen Cook (Mar 11, 2014)
  • Mentats of Dune  by Brian Herbert (March 11, 2014)
  • Lockstep  by Karl Schroeder (Mar 25, 2014)
  • The Burning Dark by Adam Christopher (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Anthology: The Time Traveler’s Almanac by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (Tor, Mar 18, 2014)
  • City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown/Broadway and Recorded Books, April 1, 2014) — “a second-world story of spies, subterfuge, and statesmanship set in a nation of dead gods.”
  • The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (April 1, 2014)
  • Cauldron of Ghosts (Crown of Slaves) by David Weber (April 1, 2014)
  • Baltic Gambit: A Novel of the Vampire Earth by E.E. Knight (April 1, 2014)
  • Shipstar  by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford (Tor, April 8, 2014)
  • Transhuman  by Ben Bova (April 15, 2014)
  • The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes (Gollanz UK, 17 Apr 2014) — from the author of Tome of the Undergates
  • Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (Hodder & Stoughton, April 2014) — “The Nigerian megacity of Lagos is invaded by aliens, and it nearly consumes itself because of it.”
  • The Moon King by Neil Williamson (Newcon, April 2014) — Debut novel: “The story of The Moon King grew out of its setting, the sea-locked city of Glassholm, which is a thinly veneered version of Glasgow, Scotland where I live. Glasgow is a city of mood swings, brilliant with sun and warm sandstone one minute and dour with overcast and rain soaked tarmac the next. Summer days are long and filled with light. The winter months pass mostly in darkness. Living here, your spirit is tied to the city’s mood. As soon as I hooked that almost bipolar sense to the idea of natural cycles, the story blossomed. In Glassholm, the moon never sets and everything, from entropy to the moods of the populace, is affected by its phasing from Full to Dark and back to Full again. I wanted to know what would life be like there, what quirks nature might throw into the mix. And what would happen if it was discovered that the cyclic euphorias and depressions were not natural after all.”
  • Immolation (Children, #1) by Ben Peek (Tor UK, Spring 2014) is “set fifteen thousand years after the War of the Gods. The bodies of the gods now lie across the world, slowly dying as men and women awake with strange powers that are derived from their bodies. Ayae, a young cartographer’s apprentice, is attacked and discovers she cannot be harmed by fire. Her new power makes her a target for an army that is marching on her home. With the help of the immortal Zaifyr, she is taught the awful history of ‘cursed’ men and women, coming to grips with her new powers and the enemies they make. The saboteur Bueralan infiltrates the army that is approaching her home to learn its terrible secret. Split between the three points of view, Immolation‘s narrative reaches its conclusion during an epic siege, where Ayae, Zaifyr and Bueralan are forced not just into conflict with those invading, but with those inside the city who wish to do them harm.”
  • Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson (Tor, Spring 2014) — “Caeli-Amur: a city torn by contradiction. A city of languorous philosopher-assassins and magnificent creatures from ancient myth: minotaurs and sirens. Three Houses rule over an oppressed citizenry stirring into revolt. The ruins of Caeli-Amur’s sister city lie submerged beneath the sea nearby, while the remains of strange advanced technology lie hidden in the tunnels beneath the city itself.”
  • The Furies: A Thriller  by Mark Alpert (April 22, 2014)
  • Authority: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy) by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 1, 2014)
  • The Sea Without a Shore by David Drake (May 6, 2014) — Lt. Leary series
  • Graphic novel: All You Need Is Kill: The Graphic Novel by Nick Mamatas, Lee Ferguson, Fajar Buana, and Zack Turner, based on the novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (VIZ Media/Haikasoru, May 6, 2014)
  • The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (Random House/Crown, May 2014) — “traces the harrowing twin journeys of two women forced to flee their homes in different times in the near future. The first, Meena, is a Brahmin-caste student whose odyssey takes her from the coastal city of Mumbai toward Djibouti across a futuristic but treacherous bridge that spans the Arabian Sea. The second, Mariama, escapes from slavery as a small child in Mauritania, joining a caravan heading across Saharan Africa toward Ethiopia.”
  • The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones (Greenwillow, Summer 2014) — “Fans of the late writer Diana Wynne Jones – who died in March 2011 – are in for an unexpected treat. In the summer of 2014, Greenwillow will publish a new title from the acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author. Titled The Islands of Chaldea, the book is a standalone novel unconnected to any of the author’s earlier works. It is also the result of an unusual, asynchronous collaboration between the writer and her younger sister, Ursula Jones.”
  • The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (Viking, August 2014) — book three after The Magicians and The Magician King
  • The Chaplain’s War by Brad Torgerson (Baen, 2014)
  • Colossus by Stephen Messer (Random House Children’s Books, 2014)
  • The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3) by Brent Weeks (Orbit, 2014)
  • The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books, 2014) — the first of an announced trilogy of translated editions of this 400,000-copy-selling Chinese sf series
  • Frostborn (Thrones & Bones #1) by Lou Anders (Random House Children's Books, August 2014) -- longtime Pyr editor Anders' debut novel, a young reader book which "introduces Karn, who would rather be playing the board game Thrones and Bones, and Thianna, half-frost giant, half-human, who team up when they are chased by wyverns, a dead Viking sea captain, and a 1200-year-old dragon."
Posted in Release Week | Tagged brandon sanderson, ellen kushner, gail z martin, gene wolfe, james mott, james sa corey, neil gaiman presents, oliver wyman, steelheart, the expanse

The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long: Chapters 6-17

Posted on 2013-08-26 at 17:28 by Sam

Welcome to the, er, latest installment of The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long, covering Chapter 6 through Chapter 17 of Mur Lafferty’s The Shambling Guide to New York City. Whew. Well, I fell right off the wagon — some of that was picking up the audiobook when it was released and getting to listen all the way to the end right away, rather than waiting week by week, but most of it has just been the complete failure to make the time to write up a proper Listen-a-Long. I’m even more impressed than I already was, which was not an inconsiderable amount, not only with the podcasters who week after week produce episode after episode, but also with Dave for being able to keep up with Scalzi’s The Human Division Listen-a-Long so well. Simply put: these are better humans than I am.

There’s been so many reviews and episodes since I last “followed” along — here’s a choice one, io9’s “Now This is the Urban Fantasy Heroine We Want” ahead of io9 selecting the book for its August 27 book club discussion — and I’m finally just posting here to say: hey! This is a cool thing that you should check out! Rather than again failing to make the time to write up a summary.

As a reminder: Lafferty is podcasting, chapter-by-chapter, week-by-week, the Hachette Audio production of The Shambling Guide to New York City — available free in this format for a limited time. Snap it up and listen along! When I last left off, Zoë was settling in for an evening of wine and reading. Since then she’s met more co-workers, had adventures and mis-adventures, encountered SPOILERS and found out that SPOILER is really a SPOILER. And things got naughty in Chapter 14.

Cover art by Jamie McKelvie
Posted in The Shambling Guide to NYC Listen-a-Long

Review: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Posted on 2013-08-23 at 05:45 by Dave

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister Length: 15 hours, 54 minutes

The farther I get from Robert Galbraith's (aka J.K. Rowling) The Cuckoo's Calling, the more impressed I am with it - and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.

To be fair, I don't listen to or read a ton of mysteries. I'm not entirely sure why that is, since I like the genre, and I love watching them. What I have read of mysteries are classics like Doyle, Chandler, Hammett, and some of the contemporaries like James Lee Burke, James Ellroy, and Elmore Leonard (though I suppose some of those are maybe more crime novels than mysteries), etc., and a fair bit of paranormal detective stuff.

So what surprised me about The Cuckoo's Calling was how different it felt form my other experiences in this genre. Yes, there's a down on his luck detective. Yes, there are beautiful women - and one of who, model Lula Landry, is dead when the book opens. But there aren't any car chases, fist fights, or shoot-outs. It's not a fast-paced action thriller, but it's certainly not boring. Instead, we follow private investigator Cormoran Strike as he goes about interviewing Landry's friends, family, and acquaintances. Occasionally, he's assisted by his new temp secretary Robin. And that's pretty much it. And I think that's a big part of what made this book so attractive to me in hindsight. It's a novel that feels very grounded in reality, exposing the seedy, often racist underside of London's Upper Class, as well as celebrity life dissected by the paparazzi and the internet. Rowling paints an incredible portrait of a victim we only encounter through other people's (often contradictory) accounts. She make Landry feel like an authentic, compelling, life-like character - even though she's dead the entire book.

Rowling's other triumph is Strike himself. Strike could almost be seen as fascinating foil to Lee Child's Jack Reacher. Like Reacher, Strike is a big man, ex-Military Police, but you won't see him throwing a lot of punches. He's a very sympathetic, likeable person who is easy for us to root for. But he's damaged and more vulnerable than Reacher - Strike lost his leg in Afghanistan, his fiancee walked out on him, he lives in his office, and his estranged rock star father has spoken to him only twice in his life. And he wants to do good. What's not to love?

Read more...
Posted in reviews

Release Week: The People in the Trees, Of Dice and Men, Night Film, and Lookaway, Lookaway

Posted on 2013-08-21 at 18:21 by Sam

AUGUST 14-20, 2013: This week brings a strange speculative fiction from Hanya Yanagihara, a non-fiction on Dungeons & Dragons, a haunting literary mystery, a satirical historical fiction, and a pretty good crop of "also out this week" including the latest fantasy novels from Naomi Novik (with narrator Simon Vance) and Mark Lawrence, and the anticipated dystopian debut of young British writer Samantha Shannon, The Bone Season. As usual: Enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

The People in the Trees By Hanya Yanagihara, Narrated By Arthur Morey, William Roberts, and Erin Yuen for Dreamscape Audio. Published in print/ebook by Doubleday last week, its slight audio slip in date pushes it from a crowded field last week to leading my picks this week. “In 1950, a young doctor, Norton Perina, signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote island of Ivu’ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub “The Dreamers,” who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price. As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating consequences.”

http://imagestore.brillianceaudio.com/CoverArt/978-1-4805-2461-3.jpg

Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It by David M. Ewalt is out today from Scribner, and Brilliance Audio has the audiobook edition, read by Mikael Narramore. I've been on the lookout for another non-fiction title of interest, and along comes this combination memoir/journalism/narrative book that while it doesn't roll a natural 20, fits the bill quite nicely. "Ancient red dragons with 527 hit points, +44 to attack, and a 20d10 breath weapon, to be specific. In the world of fantasy role-playing, those numbers describe a winged serpent with immense strength and the ability to spit fire. There are few beasts more powerful—just like there are few games more important than Dungeons & Dragons. Even if you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, you probably know someone who has: the game has had a profound influence on our culture. Released in 1974—decades before the Internet and social media—Dungeons & Dragons inspired one of the original nerd subcultures, and is still revered by millions of fans around the world. Now the authoritative history and magic of the game are revealed by an award-winning journalist and lifelong D&D player."

That haunting literary mystery is Night Film: A Novel By Marisha Pessl, Narrated By Jake Weber for Random House Audio -- also being called a "literary psychological thriller" from the author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics that I'm hearing more and more good things about. Here's the pitch: "On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive, cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova - a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than 30 years."

Night Film: A Novel | [Marisha Pessl] Lookaway, Lookaway: A Novel | [Wilton Barnhardt]

That satirical historical fiction novel is Lookaway, Lookaway: A Novel By Wilton Barnhardt, Narrated By Scott Shepherd for Macmillan Audio concurrent with print/ebook release from St. Martin’s. "Jerene Jarvis Johnston and her husband, Duke, are exemplars of Charlotte, North Carolina’s high society, a world where old Southern money and the secrets behind it meet the new wealth of bankers, real estate speculators, and carpetbagging social climbers. Steely and implacable, Jerene presides over her family’s legacy of paintings at the Mint Museum; Duke, the one-time college golden boy and descendant of a Confederate general, whose promising political career was mysteriously short-circuited, has settled into a comfortable semi-senescence as a Civil War reenactor. ... In Lookaway, Lookaway, Wilton Barnhardt has written a full-bore, headlong, hilarious narrative of a family coming apart, a society changing beyond recognition, and an unforgettable woman striving to pull it all together."

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Read more...
Posted in Release Week, Uncategorized

Review: The Drowned Cities

Posted on 2013-08-19 at 17:54 by Dave

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi, Read by Joshua Swanson Length: 9 hours, 58 minutes

In Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Drowned Cities, the American Dream has shifted into an apocalyptic nightmare, and its legacy is a devastating cycle of violence ripping the country into warring factions. The surviving casualties are quickly drafted into the oppressing armies to perpetuate the cycle of violence. Armies made of children.

The Drowned Cities is a story about child soldiers, the seduction of violence, and survival and it’s the most brutal, unrelenting story I’ve read or listened to in a while time. Like Bacigalupi’s other books, it’s drenched with social commentary that manages not to get in the way of the story or come off as preachy. Instead, we see the effects of rhetoric as we’re thrust through a violent, possible future.

I made a conscious decision to listen to this book without listening to Ship Breaker, which shares the same world with this story (though not any characters), and it held up just fine on its own. If anything, it made me very anxious to go listen to Ship Breaker.

We follow several children - a girl named Mahlia who lost one of her arms to a group of soliders and is apprenticed to the town doctor; Mouse - a boy, who knows the swamps and terrain; Ocho - a wounded soldier boy; and a genetically engineered monster named Tool. Mahlia and Mouse discover Tool dying in a swamp after an escape from one of the armies, and do their best to nurse him back to health. Mahlia hopes that Tool might be their ticket out of the war-torn environment of the Drowned Cities. Unfortunately, the half-man’s been a tool of war mongers his whole life, and is violently opposed to being chained again.

At one point, Mouse and Mahlia get split up, and it’s interesting to see how both of them have to accept violence to survive. They both become child soldiers, in a fashion. Something Bacigalupi did incredibly well was give the murderous squad of soldier boys a sense of humanity. It’d be easy to play them as wicked, child-like monsters absent of concsciences, but Bacigalupi captures their lost humanity in  painful way, showing us they’re victims as much as anyone else, and I was surprised by how much I ended up caring about their fates, despite all the horrible atrocities they’d helped commit.

This is my first experience with Joshua Swanson as a narrator, and he was more than up to the task. It’s not a flashy narration, and Swanson is smart enough to realize it doesn’t need to be for it to be as compelling as it is.

All in all, The Drowned Cities is a violent, gut-wrenching listen, about how violence and rhetoric effect children. It is not for the faint of heart, but it’s an absorbing listen, and highly recommended.

Posted in Uncategorized
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