Release week: Alif the Unseen; Guy Gavriel Kay; Alexei Panshin; White Trash Zombies; Prince of Thorns; and more

Posted on 2012-07-04 at 01:21 by Sam

While the first release week in July isn’t headlined with new star-powered releases — those might be found in the “seen but not heard” section, including a new Charles Stross “Laundry Files” novel — there are a few intriguing new titles along with another round of new Audible Frontiers productions of previously well-received novels.

The title that most intrigues me this week is shelved in the Mysteries/Thrillers section, but with both some near future cyberthriller elements, and supernatural fantasy elements as well: Alif the Unseen By the award-winning graphic novelist G. Willow Wilson, Narrated By Sanjiv Jhaveri for Brilliance Audio:

“In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients — dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups — from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif — the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to hide behind. The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the state’s electronic security force, putting his clients and his own neck on the line. Then it turns out his lover’s new fiancé is the “Hand of God”, as they call the head of state security, and his henchmen come after Alif, driving him underground. When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen.”

ALSO OUT TUESDAY:

Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged alexei panshin, alif the unseen, guy gavriel kay, release week, stefan rudnicki

Listening Report: May 2012

Posted on 2012-07-04 at 00:04 by Sam

April’s claim of 9 audiobooks was a bit of a “cheat”; I included the late Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 although I had actually read it in (very) early May. Here, things were going to again a bit stretched as it took a few days into June to finish the audiobook which took up most of my late May as well (Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312) but hey, again, it’s my blog, I include what I want, when I want, right? So. Six audiobooks in May, several outstanding including J.M. McDermott’s Last Dragon, Lavie Tidhar’s Osama, and KSR’s 2312.

REVIEWS:

Posted in Sam's Monthly Listening Report | Tagged 2312, david tallerman, giant thief, jm mcdermott, kim stanley robinson, last dragon, lavie tidhar, monthly listening report, osama

Wonderful 16-minutes of Oliver Wyman reading H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon"

Posted on 2012-07-02 at 18:25 by Sam

In a tweet, fantastically talented narrator Oliver Wyman (Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch, Frederik Pohl’s Gateway, on and on) mentions that he “Finally got around to recording some Lovecraft for #GoingPublic.” Well, I don’t know exactly what this particular Twitter tag is for yet, but I do know that Wyman gives a perfect rendition of the pulpish proto-weirdish story in question, and that you should go listen to it.

Posted in regular | Tagged GoingPublic, h.p. lovecraft, oliver wyman

Rush's Neil Peart to narrate the Brilliance Audio production of Kevin J. Anderson's Clockwork Angels: The Novel (based in turn on the Rush album)

Posted on 2012-06-27 at 20:01 by Sam

Via his blog, author Kevin J. Anderson mentions (among other things) something he’d apparently previously announced:

The hardcover, full-color novel comes out from ECW on September to coincide with the launch of the Rush Clockwork Angels tour. The unabridged audiobook from Brilliance is narrated by Neil Peart himself.

And, well, that’s not something I’d heard yet. Anderson is also giving away a free booklet preview of the novel:

Very interesting… The audiobook listing at Brilliance Audio gives a release date of September 1, and this description: “Rush’s upcoming Album Clockwork Angel tells a story throughout the Album, friend of the Band and major fan Kevin Anderson has spent the last two years working with the band to tell the story their album tells in prose novel form. The story is a young man’s quest to follow his dreams, he is caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. He travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy, with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life.”

Posted in regular | Tagged clockwork angels, kevin j anderson, rush

The Devourer of Books Audiobook Week, Wednesday: A short meme.

Posted on 2012-06-27 at 17:12 by Sam

Quoth The Devourer: “Here’s something quick and easy for the middle of the week, just a short meme. Just copy and paste to your own post (and, you know, obviously change the answers so they’re yours and not mine).”

Here’s something quick and easy for the middle of the week, just a short meme. Just copy and paste to your own post (and, you know, obviously change the answers so they’re yours and not mine).

Current/most recent audiobook:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, narrated by David Colacci for Brilliance Audio. (Yeah, I haven’t updated the sidebar yet…)

Impressions:

It’s hard to believe that until very recently there was only the “abridged” version, which stood at about one-third (eight hours vs. 26 hours) of the full book. This is a Pulitzer-winning novel which is fun to read and let yourself be carried away by, and Colacci’s accents — both Brooklyn and Czech, and beyond — add a lovely layer of flavor to it all.

Current/most recent favorite audiobook:

Whew. That’s a hard one, but for most recent I will go with Last Dragon by J. M. McDermott, read by Cori Samuel for Iambik Audio, which I listened to in May, by just a hair over Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 which I finished in early June. Last Dragon gets pretty darned close to cracking my all-time favorite audiobooks list (The Magicians, Finch, The Road, …), but I’ll need a little more time in the rearview to decide on that.

Favorite narrator you’ve discovered recently:

Hard to believe, maybe, but I only recently listened to my first Simon Vance audiobooks. Needless to say, more will be listened to in the near future.

One title from your TBL (to be listened) stack, or your audio wishlist:

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon and Iron Council by China Mieville. If either were available at Audible (US), I’d have already listened to both. I will break down fairly soon and order the CD set of the Chabon.

Your audio dream team (what book or author would you LOVE to see paired with a certain narrator, can already exist or not):

It already exists: Stefan Rudnicki reading Lewis Shiner’s Glimpses.

Posted in regular | Tagged devourer of books

Release week: The Age of Miracles, Logan's Run, and The Prince of Nothing

Posted on 2012-06-27 at 12:56 by Sam

The release week of June 26 brings a genre in the mainstream debut, a long-awaited classic read by one of my favorite narrators, and R. Scott Bakker’s Prince of Nothing series, among several other titles to check out.

That Genre-in-the-Mainstream debut is The Age of Miracles: A Novel By Karen Thompson Walker, Narrated by Emily Janice Card for Random House Audio — Length:9 hrs and 3 mins. A “coming of age set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world” sees the rotation of the Earth slowing down. AudioFile says that “Card’s mild, young voice suits Julia, and it softens some of the horrors she and everyone else on the planet experience—mysteriously dying birds and whales, the sun’s radiation let loose, a wholly uncertain future.”

Audible Frontiers has another busy week, with two very wished-for series. The first is one I did not even know was a “series”, having only been familiar with William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s 1967 classic sf novel Logan’s Run. But Nolan did write a decade-later sequel, Logan’s World (1977) and a third novel, Logan’s Search (1980). And now the entire series is available in audio, narrated by Oliver Wyman, whose work on Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch and Frederik Pohl’s Gateway established him as one of my favorite narrators.

The second series is more recent, R. Scott Bakker’s The Prince of Nothing, which I read in print and was blown away by its originality and scope. Starting with The Darkness That Comes Before: The Prince of Nothing, Book One (2003) and continuing with The Warrior-Prophet: The Prince of Nothing, Book Two (2004) and The Thousandfold Thought: The Prince of Nothing, Book Three (2006), the dark epic fantasy series follows the rising tides of war between religious schisms, schools of magic, and the machinations of Anasûrimbor Kellhus. Bakker continues this world with a second trilogy, The Aspect-Emperor, with novels The Judging Eye (2008) and The White-Luck Warrior (2011) already published. Here, the first trilogy is narrated by David DeVries.

One last note before the deluge below is that James S.A. Corey’s Caliban’s War, the sequel to Leviathan Wakes, is out today in print and e-book from Orbit, but the Recorded Books audiobook is not due out until September 1.

ALSO OUT TUESDAY:

Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged age of miracles, logan's run, oliver wyman, prince of nothing, release week

Review: Redshirts by John Scalzi, read by Wil Wheaton

Posted on 2012-06-26 at 19:10 by Sam

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas By John Scalzi

Narrated by Wil Wheaton for Audible Frontiers

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Release Date: 06-05-12 

Review by Dave Thompson: “Stay off the Bridge! Avoid the Narrative!”

“Is it just me…or is everyone on this ship monumentally fucked up about away teams?” asks one of the Redshirts early on in John Scalzi’s latest.  Redshirts is funny, exciting, and gets emotional and pretty heartfelt in the most surprising places. But what’s really unique about this one is how Meta it gets.  If you’ve ever been frustrated with some of the bad science in your science fiction, you’re going to get some good laughs out of this one. Scalzi plays with his narrative like a phaser set to disintegrate and aims it at all the tropes, poor logic, and shoddy science that badly made genre TV, film, and fiction have conjured for “dramatic purposes.”

There’s a twist early on in Redshirts that could be pretty divisive among the audience, and will make or break this story from some, but if you can go with it, it’s a very fun ride – even an inspiring one.

There are a lot of characters, and as a result, some of them feel a little more cookie-cutter than I’d prefer. Scalzi’s characters are never terribly complex, but the protagonist doesn’t stand out as much as some of the others he’s written. However, the way this story’s set-up, it can certainly be argued that that is the point. They are generic Redshirts after all, right? Still, I wish they could’ve been a little more distinct. (And the usual Scalzi stuff applies - the constant dialogue tags, the characters voices, etc.)

That said, Scalzi’s characters warn each other about being “Under the Influence of the Narrative” and “Death by Away Team” - and I have little doubt will become shorthand for all sorts of creative types in the future. And through it all, Scalzi throws down a challenge to not only live long and prosper, but to stop wasting time - to take advantage of your life and really live, and to do something worthwhile.

There’s been a decent amount of talk about the three Codas that conclude this book. My own reaction to them is somewhat mixed. They’re well-enough written, and the second and third hit emotional points I wasn’t expecting. The first coda, however, seems to be at direct odds with the end of the novel proper (as well as some of the main ideas) - to say more, I fear would be treading into spoiler territory.  

Wil Wheaton once again does a very strong job with the narration – and really, who else would you pick to narrate this book but the once and future Wesley Crusher? It’s great to hear him reading another Scalzi book, and one can only hope that if this ever gets made into a movie, Wheaton will get to play one of the lead roles (though I’m personally hoping he gets the part of poor Lt. Kerensky).

For Star Trek and SF fans, for creative types, for anyone who has ever watched a SF TV or film and wanted to throw something at the screen because it all suddenly stopped making sense - this is worth checking out. There’s a good chance you’ll be laughing while you do so.

——

Dave Thompson is the host and co-editor of PodCastle, the fantasy fiction audio magazine. His own fiction has been published by Bull Spec and Apex Magazine, among others. You can follow him on Twitter @krylyr.

Posted in regular | Tagged dave thompson, john scalzi, redshirts, review, wil wheaton

The Devourer of Books Audiobook Week, Monday: My Audiobook Year

Posted on 2012-06-25 at 17:07 by Sam

The Devourer of Books is having an Audiobook Week this week, encouraging other audiobooks bloggers to join in. Bob Reiss at The Guilded Earlobe has already done so. So I’ll chip in with something short and take a stab at the topic.

It was actually about a year ago (June 20th to be precise) that I first started seriously blogging about audiobooks here — though I back-posted a few months of “best of the month” picks, a feature I only continued forward a few months. My biggest feature ended up being the 4-part 2011 in review series, followed by a ridiculously huge preview of 2012 which I’ve referenced myself in putting together upcoming release schedules for my release week posts.

I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do, other than have a place to keep my own notes about audiobooks coming out that I wanted to listen to, and bemoan the list of books which weren’t available in audio. I found that I could receive review copies (awesome), interview authors and narrators (even more awesome), and finally start publishing reviews and interviews by contributors (I don’t have to do anything? sweet!). This year, I thought I would publish a feature every Friday, and an interview every Monday. Yeah, that fell by the wayside fairly quickly, though a few more are in the works. I started putting together a monthly listening report instead, which, yeah, I didn’t post May’s in early June, so I’m working on either putting together a 2-month report, or just scrapping that and putting out reviews as I put them together instead of in a monthly group.

It was July 9th of last year that I started finding out about the wider audiobooks blogging community, falling instantly in followship to The Guilded Earlobe, leading eventually to The Devourer of Books herself, and a few others. It’s definitely led to my listening to a lot, lot, lot more audiobooks than in previous years. Instead of a trickle of one audiobook a month or so, it’s 5, 6, 7, sometimes even more per month, in addition to reading more as well. And, and this is the best part, listening more often to books I enjoy — I’ve come to trust Bob’s reviews. Even the audiobooks he doesn’t like, his reviews sometimes convince me to listen myself. I think that’s the sign of a good audiobooks reviewer, and that’s something I’d like to be able to do more.

On that note, if I’m going to spend more time on the blog today, it should be on getting more of those May and June reviews finished…

Posted in regular | Tagged devourer of books, the guilded earlobe

Release Day: Ian McDonald's Brasyl and River of Gods

Posted on 2012-06-21 at 18:37 by Sam

I don’t generally post releases outside of the “release week” posts, but it’s a pretty big day for audiobooks as Ian McDonald’s River of Gods (published 2004, winner of the BSFA Award, nominated for a Hugo, Arthur C. Clarke, and Locus, and here read by Jonathan Keeble) and Brasyl (published 2007, winner of the BSFA Award, nominated for a Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell, and Locus, and here read by Nigel Pilkington) were just released by Audible:

“Ian McDonald’s River of Gods painted a vivid picture of a near future India, 100 years after independence. It revolutionised British science fiction for a new generation by taking a perspective that was not European or American. Brasyl will do the same for South America’s largest and most vibrant country.”

Posted in regular | Tagged brasyl, ian mcdonald, river of gods

Release Week: David Brin's Existence and Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's The Long Earth

Posted on 2012-06-20 at 02:31 by Sam

Second (or 1-B, or 1-A, or whatever) is The Long Earth: A Novel By Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, Narrated by Michael Fenton-Stevens for Harper Audio, concurrent with its hardcover and e-book release from Harper. A much smaller bite than Existence at 11.5 hours, it concerns the idea that many alternate worlds and Earths exist, and that people can learn to fairly easily step between them; the principle storyline follows an expedition into The Long Earth. “The first novel in an exciting new collaboration between Discworld creator Terry Pratchett and the acclaimed SF writer Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth transports readers to the ends of the earth - and far beyond. All it takes is a single step… .”

The first of two more novels I’ll note above the “read more” link is The Reckoning By Alma Katsu, Narrated by Laurel Lefkow for Simon & Schuster audio: “Alma Katsu delivers the highly anticipated follow-up to her haunting novel (The Taker) about an immortal woman learning firsthand that the heart wants what the heart wants … no matter how high the stakes.”

The second is The Mists of Avalon (1982) By Marion Zimmer Bradley, Narrated by Davina Porter for Recorded Books — collecting the previously released 4-part 1993 recordings into one nearly 51-hour audiobook, currently available for one credit. “In this epic work, Bradley follows the arc of the timeless tale from the perspective of its previously marginalized female characters: Celtic priestess Morgaine, Gwenhwyfar, and High Priestess Viviane.”

ALSO OUT TUESDAY:

Posted in regular, Release Week | Tagged david brin, existence, release week, stephen baxter, terry pratchett, the long earth