The Guilded Earlobe reviews Jonathan Maberry's Dead of Night

Posted on 2011-11-30 at 15:34 by Sam

Link: The Guilded Earlobe reviews Jonathan Maberry’s Dead of Night

“Quick Thoughts: Dead of Night does what few Zombie novels have, scared me to the point where I felt a burning desire to build my own heavily armed bunker in preparation for the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse and for this, I am not sure whether I should thank the author, or run screaming at the very thought of him.”

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Audiobook release day: Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners by Ellen Kushner

Posted on 2011-11-29 at 20:39 by Sam

Neil Gaiman Presents continues with its next selection, Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners By Ellen Kushner Narrated by Ellen Kushner, Dion Graham, Katherine Kellgren, Robert Fass, Nick Sullivan, and Simon Jones:

This is an “illuminated” audiobook with sound effects like doors closing, background noise at a restaurant, “the ring of steel”, and a full cast of characters around Kushner’s narration of her 1987 novel. (Elsewhere, Gaiman talked with Salon.com about audiobooks — very much worth checking out!)

ALSO OUT TODAY:

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The Guilded Earlobe reviews Stephen King's 11/22/63

Posted on 2011-11-29 at 17:40 by Sam

Link: The Guilded Earlobe reviews Stephen King’s 11/22/63

“Quick Thoughts: People who think they know King from his labels as a horror novelist and pop icon will say that 11/22/63 is a departure from his other work. They are wrong. 11/22/63 is classic Stephen King full of the subtle horror themes that permeate his best works as well as an amazing cast of fascinating characters, all of whom, for good or ill adds something to the overall story.”

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Audible.com release day: The Ringworld Throne, and Wake Up and Dream

Posted on 2011-11-25 at 19:38 by Sam

Two titles came across the wire late Wednesday. The first is The Ringworld Throne: The Ringworld Series, Book 3 (1996) By Larry Niven Narrated by Paul Michael Garcia For Blackstone Audio, Inc. — hot on the heels of last month’s The Ringworld Engineers: The Ringworld Series, Book 2:

The second is Wake Up And Dream By Ian R MacLeod Narrated by Jeff Harding For Audible Ltd — this one is billed as “a dazzling collision of science, fantasy and history. Like the feelies themselves … film noir with Technicolor wraiths”:

This one’s interesting on its own — though it’s a real pity this is an abridged version — but also because it is a new 2011 release from UK-based PS Publishing, well-reviewed in The Guardian (which says MacLeod should win the Arthur C. Clarke Award again for this novel, which he won for Song of Time). Why should the publisher excite me so? Well, I’m hoping this continues as a trend, and we get an audiobook for fellow 2011 PS Publishing novel Osama by Lavie Tidhar one of these days. But please. Stop abridging books. I’m holding out for unabridged recordings of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and … don’t get me started on this topic. Really.

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Audible.com's "Black Friday" sale: $4.95 audiobooks through Nov 29

Posted on 2011-11-25 at 15:25 by Sam

Link: Audible.com’s “Black Friday” sale: $4.95 audiobooks through Nov 29

Once again it’s not sorted into any categories, so Audible.com’s “Black Friday” sale is just a big long unsorted list. But I’m here to help, so here’s a run down of the ones that caught my eye. And don’t forget, you can pretty easily give Audible audiobooks as gifts these days:

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen Narrated by Katherine Kellgren
• The Lost Gate: Mithermages, Book 1 by Orson Scott Card Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Emily Janice Card
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein Narrated by Lloyd James
• The Farseer: Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb Narrated by Paul Boehmer
• Wizard’s First Rule: Sword of Truth, Book 1 by Terry Goodkind Narrated by Sam Tsoutsouvas
• The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds Narrated by John Lee
• One Second After by William R. Forstchen Narrated by Joe Barrett
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll Narrated by Michael Page
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card Narrated by David Birney and Stefan Rudnicki
• Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book 1 by Kevin Hearne Narrated by Luke Daniels
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Narrated by Christopher Hurt
• Fool Moon: The Dresden Files, Book 2 by Jim Butcher Narrated by James Marsters — but not book 1, argh! one of these days I’m going to be sucked into this series, but I’ll start with book 1…
• Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer Narrated by Jonathan Davis and Robert J. Sawyer
• The Iliad & The Odyssey by Homer Narrated by John Lescault — and while I’m looking at one of the classics, one which is more history than mythology: I, Claudius By Robert Graves Narrated by Nelson Runger
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Narrated by Michael York
• The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov Narrated by William Dufris
• ]The Road by Cormac McCarthy Narrated by Tom Stechschulte — wonderful, bleak, heartbreaking short novel of a father and son traveling through a post-apocalyptic wasteland
• Non-genre: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon Narrated by Jeff Woodman
• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire Narrated by John McDonough
• Masques: Aralorn, Book 1 by Patricia Briggs Narrated by Katherine Kellgren,  Patricia Briggs — one of these days I need to investigate this genre of books…
• Hissers by Ryan C. Thomas Narrated by Macleod Andrews
• Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton Narrated by John Lee
• Catching Fire: Hunger Games, Book 2 by Suzanne Collins Narrated by Carolyn McCormick — but not book 1 of this addictive series
• Day By Day Armageddon by J L Bourne Narrated by Jay Snyder
• Orion and King Arthur by Ben Bova Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Narrated by Davina Porter — 32 hours to begin a long series of long books
• Seeker: An Alex Benedict Novel by Jack McDevitt Narrated by Jennifer Van Dyck,  Jack McDevitt
• Non-fiction: The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, The Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick Narrated by Alan Sklar
• Non-fiction: The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance by Anthony Gottlieb Narrated by Nadia May
• Anthology: METAtropolis: Cascadia by Jay Lake, Mary Robinette Kowal, Elizabeth Bear, Ken Scholes, Karl Schroeder, and Tobias Buckell Narrated by Rene Auberjonois, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, and Jay Lake — not quite as strong as the first installment of this all-novella (with a novelette snuck in there from time to time) shared world anthology of a “soft crash” near future world of peak oil, ecology, and economic devestation but still very much worth checking out; Kowal’s “Water to Wine”, Lake’s gold man, Buckell’s mock turtle (with Wheaton’s narration of the same) all stick out here as very much worth the price of admission, and, hey, the narrators are a blast from the past of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation:

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Audible.com asks: What's Your Pick for Audiobook of the Year?

Posted on 2011-11-23 at 16:24 by Sam

Link: Audible.com asks: What’s Your Pick for Audiobook of the Year?

My pick is Glimpses By Lewis Shiner Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat Productions:

Still under $7, a March 2011 audiobook release for Shiner’s 1993 novel, winner of the 1994 World Fantasy Award. I don’t have a final count handy, but I’ve listened to 40-50 audiobooks this year, 20-25 of which were published at Audible.com in 2011. Glimpses takes the take. Anyway, go vote! And because I’d love to know, come back here and comment and let me know what you voted for. Audible.com will announce their editors’s picks and customer favorites on December 1.

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Audiobook review: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Posted on 2011-11-22 at 22:12 by Sam

WHAT: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes narrated by Justine Eyre from Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio:

HOW: Bought a-la-carte from Audible.com

WHY: Jeff VanderMeer’s NY Times review; Arthur C. Clarke Award; Kitschies Red Tentacle Award; shortlisted for BSFA; World Fantasy Award nomination; I’m publishing an interview of Beukes in Bull Spec #7; and after I listened to the sample I decided not to wait for the CD review copy set to jump into this discount-priced, full-valued audiobook.

THE STORY: Zinzi December is living in “Zoo City” — a Joburg (Johannesburg, South Africa) ghetto — so named because its residents are “animaled”. In Beukes’s only slightly alternate fantasy reality to our own, those who are guilty of murder are attached to a familiar (a physical spirit animal) which is a literal monkey on their backs. In Zinzi’s case this animal is a sloth. In her boyfriend Benoit’s, it’s a mongoose. Some murderers get butterflies. Others get goldfish. Others get wolves. These things happen.

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Audiobook release day: Non-genre, young readers, zombies, and missed opportunities.

Posted on 2011-11-22 at 20:44 by Sam

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The Guilded Earlobe reviews Swan Song by Robert McCammond

Posted on 2011-11-22 at 15:58 by Sam

Link: The Guilded Earlobe reviews Swan Song by Robert McCammond

“Quick Thoughts: While Swan Song is one of my favorite all time books, and a must read for fans of Post Apocalyptic fiction and Dark Fantasy, I found the experience of it much more rewarding than remembered. Maybe it’s being older, or experiencing it as an audiobook, but revisiting this world only made me love it more. Grade: A.”

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Audiobook review: Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy

Posted on 2011-11-21 at 21:48 by Sam

WHAT: The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie narrated by Steven Pacey for Orion Publishing Group Limited. The trilogy comprises The Blade Itself: The First Law: Book One, Before They Are Hanged: The First Law: Book Two, and Last Argument of Kings: The First Law: Book Three:

HOW: Bought a-la-carte from Audible.com.

WHY: Over the years, some books just keep popping up. In writing back and forth with Pyr editor Lou Anders over the past couple of years, two names kept coming up when we’d write about what Pyr books might most interest me: Joe Abercrombie and James Enge. Then, when I profiled and interviewed Lou for Bull Spec #4, the same two books came up in conversation with TIME books editor Lev Grossman. Well, I decided to start with Abercrombie for a few reasons:

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