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Release Week: Karen Lord's The Best of All Possible Worlds, Karen Russell's Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Ben Bova's Farside, and Hiroshi Sakurazaka's All You Need is Kill
Posted on 2013-02-14 at 03:50 by Sam
The second release week in February comes with quite a haul, with deep future sf from Mythopoetic Award-winner Karen Lord, a lush collection from Karen Russell, a pair of highly anticipated continued epic fantasy series from Recorded Books, new sf from Ben Bova read by Stefan Rudnicki, and one of the more unique audiobooks to come this year, All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. (And one of the more unique books of last year, Patrick Wensink's Broken Piano for President, gets a professional unabridged production as well.) Unfortunately no sign yet of Robert Jackson Bennett's latest, American Elsewhere, but there is a Recorded Books audiobook coming in the third quarter this year so there's some solace there. And of course, there's the latest in John Scalzi's best-selling series The Human Division, with this installment being Tales from the Clarke: The Human Division, Episode 5. Speaking of ongoing episodic audio, The Leviathan Chronicles continued this week with Snipe by Mur Lafferty and Christof Laputka, which "takes you on a round-the-world cat & mouse chase to keep a weapon of catastrophic power from falling into the wrong hands." And! At the bottom of the post I have a few more Whispersync for Voice "price quirk" deals, as well as a quick run-down of Audible.com's currently ongoing $4.95 "Win-Win" sale.
PICKS OF THE WEEK:
I had been expecting to lament that The Best of All Possible Worlds By Karen Lord was not in audio this week, but luckily indeed here it is, narrated By Robin Miles for Audible Frontiers -- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins. This was a very happy surprise, as I hadn't seen any concrete audio news for this book I've been eagerly anticipating for a very long time, having thoroughly enjoyed the Mythopoetic Award-winning Redemption in Indigo. And so seeing the book show up in audio concurrent with the US print release from Del Rey, with the fantastic narration of Robin Miles, well, there's a reason it's already over there under "Sam is currently listening to". I'm several chapters in and I'm very much enjoying this one, but: it's really not quite fair that Lord can go from mythopoetic oral storytelling to deep future interstellar sf as well as she does here. Instead of chasing down the well-trodden path of AI run amok (though perhaps that is in the background somewhere, not yet touched upon), Lord's far future comes with millenia of genetic selection to the near point of speciation -- and developed psi characteristics ranging from empathy to suggestion to telepathy to, well, the ability to pilot mind ships through deep space, though that last bit isn't yet explored in the story, which focuses on a bio-technician turned guide on a most unusual anthropological expedition across one of the melting plot planets. Here's both a review in Locus Magazine by Gary K. Wolfe, and lastly the publisher copy: "Karen Lord’s debut novel, the multiple-award-winning Redemption in Indigo, announced the appearance of a major new talent—a strong, brilliantly innovative voice fusing Caribbean storytelling traditions and speculative fiction with subversive wit and incisive intellect. Compared by critics to such heavyweights as Nalo Hopkinson, China Miville, and Ursula K. Le Guin, Lord does indeed belong in such select company—yet, like them, she boldly blazes her own trail. Now Lord returns with a second novel that exceeds the promise of her first. The Best of All Possible Worlds is a stunning science-fiction epic that is also a beautifully wrought, deeply moving love story. A proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an unprovoked act of aggression, and the survivors have no choice but to reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of life but come to discover that in order to preserve their culture, they may have to change it forever. Now a man and a woman from these two clashing societies must work together to save this vanishing race—and end up uncovering ancient mysteries with far-reaching ramifications. As their mission hangs in the balance, this unlikely team—one cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsive—just may find in each other their own destinies... and a force that transcends all."
Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories By Karen Russell, Narrated By Arthur Morey, Joy Osmanski, Kaleo Griffith, Mark Bramhall, Michael Bybee, Romy Rosemont, and Robbie Daymond for Random House Audio -- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins -- concurrent with print/ebook release from Knopf. Along with a great review by Elizabeth Hand in the Washington Post, here's the publisher copy: "From the author of the instant New York Times best seller Swamplandia! (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), a dazzling new collection of stories that showcases Karen Russell's gifts at their inimitable best. In the collection's marvelous title story, two aging vampires in a sun-drenched Italian lemon grove find their hundred-year marriage tested when one of them develops a fear of flying. In "The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach, 1979", a dejected teenager discovers that the universe is communicating with him through talismanic objects left in a seagull's nest. "Proving Up" and "The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis" - stories of children left to fend for themselves in dire predicaments - find Russell veering into more sinister territory, and ultimately crossing the line into full-scale horror. In "The New Veterans", a massage therapist working with a tattooed war veteran discovers she has the power to heal by manipulating the images on his body. In all, these wondrous new pieces display a young writer of superlative originality and invention coming into the full range and scale of her powers."
Out concurrent with its print/ebook release from Tor is Farside By Ben Bova, Narrated by the incomparable and always magnificent Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone Audio -- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins -- "Farside, the side of the moon that never faces Earth, is the ideal location for an astronomical observatory. It is also the setting for a tangled web of politics, personal ambition, love, jealousy, and murder. Telescopes on Earth have detected an Earth-sized planet circling a star some 30 light-years away. Now the race is on to get pictures of that distant world, photographs and spectra that show whether or not the planet is truly like Earth - and if it bears life. Farside observatory will have the largest optical telescope in the solar system as well as a vast array of radio antennas, the most sensitive radio telescope possible, insulated from the interference of Earth’s radio chatter by a thousand kilometers of the moon’s solid body. Building Farside is a complex, often dangerous task. On the airless surface of the moon, under constant bombardment by hard radiation and in-falling micrometeoroids, builders must work in cumbersome spacesuits and use robotic machines as much as possible. Breakdowns - mechanical and emotional - are commonplace. Accidents happen, some of them fatal. But what they ultimately find will stun everyone, and the human race will never be the same."
Originally published in Japan in 2004 and published in print and ebook in English in 2009 by Haikasoru, All You Need Is Kill By Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Narrated By Mike Martindale for Simon & Schuster Audio -- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins. Basis (though with many changes) of the planned 2014 film starring Tom Cruise. "There's one thing worse than dying. It's coming back to do it again and again. When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War. Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?"
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:
Read more...Posted in Release Week | Tagged ben bova, karen lord, karen russell, stefan rudnicki
Sam reviews: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, Read by Michael Fenton-Stevens for Harper Audio
Posted on 2013-02-11 at 17:19 by Sam
![The Long Earth: A Novel | [Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter] The Long Earth: A Novel | [Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mmsimDEGL._SL175_.jpg)
The Long Earth: A Novel by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (2012) Read by Michael Fenton-Stevens (2012) for Harper Audio (review copy)
Review by Sam: I'm completely of two minds on this audiobook. First, and this is not one of those minds but rather a comment, there isn't quite the humor and wit as in Pratchett's Discworld books, but then again this isn't at all that kind of story. It's a story that's more earnest than that, not a send-up or pastiche of the kind of novel it pretends to be on the surface. It really is a sf novel with two big ideas: a "stepper box" (simple Radio Shack level electronics and ... a potato) which allows humans to step between alternate worlds, and also a well-done distributed AI (also with a bit of a Pratchett-esque "hook", in that this AI gains legal recognition by claiming to be a reincarnated Tibetan motorcycle repairman). There's some interesting examinations of both ideas. With the alternate worlds, Pratchett and Baxter move on past the first and second ideas (e.g. jumping into another world, walking past the bank vault's wall, and jumping back to gather the cash; assassinations; heading for well-known gold mines and oil wells; etc.) and past even the new Pilgrim and "back to primitivism" colony expeditions to the social-political implications: the poor urban centers emptying out into the verdant, fertile, unclaimed wilds. Overpopulation and deep poverty in India? What if with a potato and some wires you could step into a world where an orchard of unpicked apples rests near a stream of fresh, unpolluted water, alongside a soft green field ready for planting? And the further implications of these get at least a cursory exploration, as nation-states grapple with this exodus of their tax base, etc. There are even some more twists, such as a minority who cannot step, or if they can step it is only with severe side effects beyond the "normal" nausea and vomiting. This creates a quasi-religious political movement, and an interesting side-plot through the novel.
Read more...Posted in reviews | Tagged harper-audio, michael fenton-stevens, stephen baxter, terry pratchett, the long earth
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 years and you get a book with interesting technical and social issues with well-rendered and well-voiced characters -- and particularly strong female characters. When I saw that it was coming out in audio, I knew it was time for a re-read.
Read more...Posted in reviews | Tagged blackstone audio, brenda cooper, building harlequin's moon, larry niven, tom weiner
The Human Division Listen-A-Long, Episode 4: A Voice in the Wilderness
Posted on 2013-02-08 at 07:25 by Dave
The Human Division, Episode 4: A Voice in the Wilderness by John Scalzi, read by William Dufris Length: 49 minutes.
Welcome back to the AudioBookaneers The Human Division Listen-A-Long! This week, we're discussing episode 4: A Voice In the Wilderness. This is spoiler territory, so if you haven't listened to the story yet, you may want to go do that.
Usually, I do a little recap before getting into my own thoughts, but today, well, screw that. Today, we're gonna honor a member of The Human Division who deserves to have his body cloned and turned green, or at least get some kind of honorary coat of jade. This man has a difficult, sometimes thankless job, but he continually handles it with staunch professionalism. Today, we're here to honor WILLIAM FREAKING DUFRIS with the ZOMG medal of Awesome. Because HOLY SHIT folks, Dufris killed in this week's episode.
Read more...Posted in The Human Division Listen-a-Long | Tagged john scalzi, the human division, william dufris
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" complaints, of which there are several this week led by A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan, which has been on my radar an awfully long time. And, also of course, a few more "Whispersync for Voice" price quirks at the bottom of the post, after the upcoming release calendar.
PICKS OF THE WEEK:
Concurrent with its hardcover/ebook release from independent NYC-based Soho Press is a book which had not even made it onto my radar before its release: Man in the Empty Suit By Sean Ferrell, Narrated By Mauro Hantman for AudioGO -- "Say you're a time traveler and you've already toured the entirety of human history. After a while, the outside world might lose a little of its luster. That's why this time traveler celebrates his birthday partying with himself. Every year, he travels to an abandoned hotel in New York City in 2071, the hundredth anniversary of his birth, and drinks 12-year-old Scotch (lots of it) with all the other versions of who he has been and who he will be. Sure, the party is the same year after year, but at least it's one party where he can really, well, be himself. The year he turns 39, though, the party takes a stressful turn for the worse. Before he even makes it into the grand ballroom for a drink he encounters the body of his forty-year-old self, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. As the older versions of himself at the party point out, the onus is on him to figure out what went wrong--he has one year to stop himself from being murdered, or they're all goners." This is an intriguing enough premise, but what pushes it over to edge to being the most tempting release for me this week is the blurb from Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: "Ferrell's humor and invention will draw you in, and the real emotion in his writing will keep you reading. A clever premise that deepens into a surprising and moving story about fate, identity, and how we shape our own lives and the lives of those around us." And The Guilded Earlobe has already reviewed the audiobook: "As a tale of time travel, with its intermingling concepts of fate and free will Farrell succeeds where so many other tales of time travel fails. Its brilliantly built plot, complicated character and hints of a near future world were enough to keep my brain spinning in a dizzying euphoria. It may not have had the emotional impact of many more character driven tales, but like the best puzzles, it will never truly leave your mind."
The Free Lunch By Spider Robinson was first published in 2001, and here is narrated by the author for Blackstone Audio -- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins. "Under the façade of the world’s finest theme park lies a secret which could alter the course of human history. Mike and Annie, refugees from the world outside, find a home underground, behind the scenes of Dreamworld, a theme park where hope exists as it does nowhere else. But Dreamworld is threatened by a jealous competitor who kills what he can’t have. As if this were not trouble enough, the two discover that each day there are more of the “trolls” who maintain Dreamworld than there were the day before. As the trolls continue to multiply, they must discover why, or it could mean the end of Dreamworld -and the real world. Knotted in conflict and turmoil, what was a wonderful, carefree place becomes a battleground on which Earth’s future is at stake. Only Mike and Annie, two unconventional heroes, can save it."
The City of Devi: A Novel By Manil Suri, Narrated By Vikas Adam and Priya Ayyar for Blackstone Audio -- "Editors Select, February 2013 - Mumbai is emptying out under the looming threat of a nuclear bomb. Amidst the chaos a woman sets out to look for her missing husband in a city now mostly occupied with marauding thugs. I love a good dystopian story, and Manil Suri's absurdist pre-apocalyptic novel has been praised for its astute insights into humanity, divinity, and love - all at the end of the world. —Michael, Audible Editor"
The Departure: The Owner, Vol. I By Neal Asher, Narrated By Steve West and John Mawson for Audible Frontiers -- out for a good bit in the UK, here an audiobook out in time for the US release from Night Shade Books -- "The Argus Space Station looks down on a nightmarish Earth. And from this safe distance, the Committee enforces its despotic rule. There are too many people and too few resources, and they need 12 billion to die before Earth can be stabilised. So corruption is rife, people starve, and the poor are policed by mechanised overseers and identity-reader guns. Citizens already fear the brutal Inspectorate with its pain inducers. But to reach its goals, the Committee will unleash satellite laser weaponry, taking carnage to a new level."
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:
Posted in Release Week | Tagged release week, sean ferrell, spider robinson
The Human Division Listen-A-Long, Episode 3: We Only Need the Heads
Posted on 2013-02-01 at 07:30 by Dave

The Human Division: Episode 3: “We Only Need the Heads,” by John Scalzi, read by William DufrisLength: 1 hour, six minutes
Hello, and welcome back to our latest Listen-A-Long for the Human Division. Be warned, as this is a discussion post, so spoilers ensue. Okay, let’s get moving.
Recap!
We kick off with Hart being summoned by Abumwe to watch as the Clarke is being dismantled both literally and figuratively. Abumwe’s diplomatic team is being split up, and she’s left with her least favorite diplomat: Hart. Poor Hart. He puts up with a lot of shit. She explains that they’re going into diplomatic negotiations with Bula over their uncolonized planet Wantji. Only problem is, a wildcat colony has taken up residence there, and while Abumwe and Hart are negotiating, Harry Wilson and the CDF will attempt to remove the colony, or traces of it’s existence.
Unfortunately, everyone in the colony (New Seattle, apparently, which was where last week’s entire episode was set - looks like they didn’t find the cargo) appears to be dead. One of the CDF Redshirts (Jefferson) pukes at what they find. The colonists appear to have been eaten.
Worse yet, Harry realizes that two of the dead people are CDF marines themselves, undercover. Harry has their heads (thus the title, kind of) taken back up to the ship to be scanned, and sure enough, they have BrainPals. Stupid CDF. After some more work, Harry figures out there was very likely a third CDF spy. They’ve found his body planetside. Bad news, though - his head is missing. Before they can get everyone off the planet, Bula ships show up, weapons hot.
Abumwe and Hart pretty quickly figure out that something is off with the ambassador they’ve been meeting with. Cols. Egan and Rigney show up to explain to Abumwe that yes, the CDF had planted spies in the wildcat colony. They order Abumwe to lie to her Bula counterpart if questioned.
Well, Abumwe is definitely questioned. She lies, saying she had no knowledge of the colony or the CDF. The Bula ambassador breaks off the negotiations, and presents Hart and Abumwe with a box. A box which contains something the Bula are returning to the CDF.
Well, you don’t have to be Brad Pitt or Morgan Freeman to figure this one out - even a headless CDF marine knows what’s in the box. But instead of having Abumwe and Hart open it, Scalzi chooses to let them stare at it in abject horror.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
My Thoughts!
Okay, I love this episode. It may be my favorite thus far. (I know we’re only three in. Still.) We’re back to our B-Team, and it’s great to watch them do what they do best. Especially when their best, at least at this point, just isn’t good enough to win the day.
Abumwe maybe moreso - we kind of hate how she keeps picking on Hart, calling him useless, etc. But I didn’t completely expect her to lie to the Bula ambassador at the end, and you could tell it cost her. Not only the negotiations, but something personal.
Harry is still smart, still figuring stuff out before most everyone else, but he’s not quite fast enough this time, and it looks like he and his new CDF compatriots will be captured.
I have to admit, I didn’t realize this wildcat colony was New Seattle at first, primarily because none of the characters from last week’s episode were found. Perhaps they’ll show up, somewhat intact, later? At least, I don’t think they were? Was one of the body’s found a medic? Is that who was recording the transcript last week?
Also what the hell is going on with that wildcat colony? Where’s Chen, and the medics? Who set them up? Why are the CDF spying on them? Is it just to gauge how the Conclave will react? We still don’t know who boarded the colony’s supply ship, or why. Part of me is wondering how innocent Col. Egan is in all this.
Narration-wise, Dufris continues to be in top form, here. No hyperventilating, no begging for water, just a little bit of vomit. Good job, Dufris! NOW JUST TELL US WHAT’S IN THE BOX! (Even though we already know!)
Those are my thoughts! What are yours?
Posted in The Human Division Listen-a-Long
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 Tad Williams (from Penguin Audiobooks):
And even two kids titles, digital review copies from Nation9, Sherlock Holmes - Speckled Band and he Dragon King:
And today to end the month, Hachette sent a review copy of Gun Machine by Warren Ellis:
![Gun Machine | [Warren Ellis] Gun Machine | [Warren Ellis]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zWvfC0RuL._SL175_.jpg)
And also a box came from Tantor Audio, with Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, Your House is on Fire, Your Children all Gone by Stefan Kiesbye, and Sold by Patricia McCormick:
And one more title from Brilliance Audio, Jasper Fforde’s The Last Dragonslayer, coming out Feb 5:
Whew. Luckily, several of these are quite short, and I’ve already listened to a few. (I’d already bought and listened to the first of Valente’s Fairyland books late last year.) I’ve got some good, varied listening ahead, though it’s a bit lacking in the science fiction department.
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 Human Division, Episode 3. And, also of course, and as has gotten to be the usual thing for these "release week" roundups, a few more "Whispersync for Voice Price Quirks" at the bottom of the post.
PICKS OF THE WEEK:
Kalimpura: Green Universe, Book 3 By Jay Lake, Narrated By Katherine Kellgren for Audible Frontiers -- Series: Green Universe, Book 3 -- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins. Out also in print/ebook from Tor, while this is third in a series, via author @jay_lake on Twitter: “KALIMPURA should stand alone, but will make more sense & have more depth if you’ve read the first two. Not a ‘tight’ series.” Here is the publisher copy: "This sequel to Green and Endurance takes Green back to the city of Kalimpura and the service of the Lily Goddess. Green is hounded by the gods of Copper Downs and the gods of Kalimpura, who have laid claim to her and her children. She never wanted to be a conduit for the supernatural, but when she killed the Immortal Duke and created the Ox god with the power she released, she came to their notice.Now she has sworn to retrieve the two girls taken hostage by the Bittern Court, one of Kalimpura’s rival guilds. But the Temple of the Lily Goddess is playing politics with her life."
The Aylesford Skull By James P Blaylock, Narrated By William Gaminara for Audible Ltd -- Recently at the sf convention illogiCon, I heard praise after praise for Blaylock's writing both from guest of honor Tim Powers and other attendees; here, the first new steampunk novel in over twenty years from one of the genre's founding voices: "It is the summer of 1883 and Professor Langdon St. Ives - brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer - is at home in Aylesford with his family. However, a few miles to the north a steam launch has been taken by pirates above Egypt Bay; the crew murdered and pitched overboard. In Aylesford itself a grave is opened and possibly robbed of the skull. The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of Langdon St. Ives. When Dr. Narbondo returns to kidnap his four-year-old son Eddie and then vanishes into the night, St. Ives and his factotum Hasbro race to London in pursuit."
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:
Read more...Posted in Release Week | Tagged james p. blaylock, jay lake, release week
The Human Division Listen-A-Long, Episode 2: Walk the Plank
Posted on 2013-01-25 at 07:13 by Dave
Walk the Plank (The Human Division, Episode 2) By John Scalzi, read by William Dufris Length: 39 minutes
Welcome to our second listen-a-long of John Scalzi's The Human Division. This week - Episode 2 - WALK THE PLANK!
But be warned! We're assuming you've heard the story (or read it), so spoilers abound!
Let's get started.
RECAP!
We listen to a transcript recording from a Wildcat colony (that is, an illegal colony unsupported by the CDF) who are looking for their supply freights. Their leader, Chenzira, is interrupted by two medic (Aurel and Magda) who have found a man who "isn't from around here." Malik is beaten up pretty bad, has some kind of disease, and will (at the very least) lose his leg.
Read more...Posted in The Human Division Listen-a-Long, Uncategorized
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 worlds will ever know, my brother and I fly recon through the land of the gods.") But... I was also getting back into audiobooks in a big way, and after listening to audiobooks from Shunn (the excellent novella Inclination) and Bacigalupi (the award-winning and Jonathan Davis-narrated The Windup Girl), not to mention podcasts of van Eekhout's short stories (the PodCastle miniature "Carnival Park" remains one of my favorites) I kept looking for news of Norse Code in audio, but alas, nothing. The print book got buried in a stack of "to reads" and there was only the nagging memory of a book that kept slipping further and further into the "regrets" column. But! Then I was very excited to hear late last year that The AudioBookaneers' own Dave Thompson would be narrating the audiobook, for Audible.com itself no less. Dave is of course an experienced narrator (innumerable episodes of PodCastle, and Tim Pratt's novel Briarpatch) and, as I hope readers here have learned, listener of audiobooks. Well, the audiobook is finally here, and I for one am looking forward to finally getting past the prologue. (Now, how about van Eekhout's next books, Kid Vs. Squid and The Boy at the End of the World? Meanwhile, this isn't the last we'll hear from Dave in the near future, as he's just announced that he'll be narrating the first book in James Maxey's Dragon Age series, Bitterwood.)
Norse Code by Greg Van Eekhout Narrated by Dave Thompson for Audible, Inc. Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
"Is this Ragnarok, or just California? The NorseCODE genome project was designed to identify descendants of Odin. What it found was Kathy Castillo, a murdered MBA student brought back from the dead to serve as a Valkyrie in the Norse god's army. Given a sword and a new name, Mist's job is to recruit soldiers for the war between the gods at the end of the world - and to kill those who refuse to fight. But as the twilight of the gods descends, Mist makes other plans. Journeying across a chaotic American landscape already degenerating into violence and madness, Mist hopes to find her way to Helheim, the land of the dead, to rescue her murdered sister from death's clutches. To do so, she'll need the help of Hermod, a Norse god bumming around Los Angeles with troubles of his own. Together they find themselves drafted into a higher cause, trying to do what fate long ago deemed could not be done: save the world of man. For even if myths aren't made to be broken, it can't hurt to go down fighting...can it?"
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged dave thompson, greg van eekhout, norse code
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