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Audiobook review: The Passage by Justin Cronin
Posted on 2011-11-21 at 20:55 by Sam
WHAT: The Passage By Narrated by Random House Audio:
HOW: Borrowed from the Durham County Library as 29 discs.
WHY: Explained this pretty well (and at some length) in my Currently Listening To post for the audiobook. Summary: Lev Grossman recommended it. It was at the library. I was between credits.
THE STORY: The first segment of the book was very well done: a rainforest expedition encounters some really nasty bats and unleashes a strange sickness; the government launches “Project Noah” to investigate the possibilities of the disease, enlisting Agent Wolgast to round up death row convicts and eventually bring in a young abandoned girl, Amy; and all that. As society started to collapse in the wake of the Colorado outbreak, however, so did my ability to suspend my disbelief: 1. No, this doesn’t seem at all the way in which a war and quarantine might happen; 2. No, this system of trains and colonies doesn’t seem at all the way in which society would attempt to save itself — and if it were, it doesn’t seem at all a way which would work. But I’ll forgive these bridge concerns; there are plenty of interesting novels set in future worlds that probably wouldn’t happen — even if you grant superhuman vampire zombie telepaths, etc.
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SFFaudio Challenge #6 -- make an audiobook, get an audiobook
Posted on 2011-11-18 at 19:27 by Sam
I hadn’t seen this in previous years, but the SFFaudio Challenge #6 is open, where if you record a public domain book from their list, you can get a new audiobook. If I had the time, I’d really like to take on Animal Farm — because, well, er… I’ve still not read it in full.
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Untitled
Posted on 2011-11-17 at 16:19 by Sam
Fun times, we just found a great interview between Wired.com and Guillermo Del Toro:
Wired.com: What made you want to write an apocalyptic vampire tale?
Del Toro: Originally I wanted very much to try and present the origins of the vampire plague in very modern terms. And then little by little, with each book, go back to finding the spiritual in the biology and finding the biology in the myth.
I feel like science and religion are like a Möbius strip. When you dig deep enough into religion, you find science to explain it, and when you dig deep enough and long enough into science you find things that are unexplained.
And I wanted very much for the books to come full circle. There’s a passage at the end of The Night Eternal where one of the characters, Mr. Q, says, “The language of God is biology.” Essentially he says that god sends the letter, but he doesn’t send the dictionary.
You can read the full interview online. In the meantime we hope you enjoy a little snippet of the audiobook, The Night Eternal!
An interview with Del Toro, and a little snippet of the audiobook The Night Eternal:
Posted in audio
A trickle of releases, meanwhile the semi-annual half price sale...
Posted on 2011-11-16 at 21:18 by Sam
After a huge day of releases last Tuesday, thing have been pretty slow this week. Still, a few things have show up, including:
- Cain By Narrated by For Audible, Inc. — 5.5 hours — “The late Nobel laureate’s final novel, a radical retelling of the Old Testament.”
- Swan Song By Narrated by For Audible, Inc. — classic (well, 1980s!) sf novel about a post-nuclear-apocalypse United States
- Collection: The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories By Narrated by For Simon & Schuster Audio — a multi-narrator collection of the American novelist DeLillo’s short fiction across his writing career
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The Guilded Earlobe reviews The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill
Posted on 2011-11-16 at 20:16 by Sam
3 weeks ago, Audible.com launched a specially branded ACX line called Neil Gaiman Presents. One of the launch titles was The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill. Today, Bob Reiss at The Guilded Earlobe grades it quite highly: “The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break is an audiobook experience that will play with your emotions. As the novel progresses “M” becomes inexplicably important to you, as he awkwardly attempts to bond with his coworkers and tries to find a place in this world. I challenge anyone to take a listen to this audiobook, and not be moved by this wonderfully conceived character.”
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Untitled
Posted on 2011-11-16 at 19:55 by Sam
The Thirteen Hallows - front w/postcard
The Thirteen Hallows - back w/postcard
Audiobook received: The Thirteen Hallows by Michael Scott and Colette Freedman, read by Kate Reading for Macmillan Audio. 9 CDs. “The Hallows. Ancient Artifacts imbued with a primal and deadly power. But are they protectors of this world, or the keys to its destruction?” Scott is the author of bestselling series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, and Reading is the award-winning narrator of The Wheel of Time, Boneshaker, and The Way of Kings (among many others). It’s not one I had on my radar, and it’s set to be released simultaneously with the print edition from Tor on December 6. First in a series, with an audio excerpt available, along with a text excerpt. I’ve started to take a liking more and more to fantasy overlays on our modern world — from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods to Lev Grossman’s The Magicians and Orson Scott Card’s The Lost Gate to Alex Bledsoe’s The Hum and the Shiver … I’m not sure why all of a sudden these stories are attracting me more and more; it’s not as if I have rediscovered some belief that secret, magical powers really do abound beneath the mundane surface of the world. But, still, there’s something there.
Posted in photo | Tagged audiobooks-received
Untitled
Posted on 2011-11-10 at 01:20 by Sam
Audiobook received: Anthology: Wild Cards I edited by Walter Jon Williams here…)Lewis Shiner, Roger Zelazny, Howard Waldrop, Michael Cassutt, and Martin himselfNarrated by Brilliance Audio In the aftermath of WWII, an alien virus struck the Earth, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Originally published in 1987, the newly expanded saga contains additional original stories by eminent writers.” — an audiobook for Volume II is coming on December 20 — and this first audio volume is glowingly reviewed by The Guilded Earlobe yesterday as well.
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Audiobook release day: The Alloy of Law, 11-22-63, Inheritance, Wild Cards, ...
Posted on 2011-11-08 at 17:13 by Sam
Well, well, well. It’s quite a day for audiobooks, from epic fantasy to epic fantasy turned Steam-age, to superheroes, to zombies, to the conclusion of a 4-book series begun by a now-famous then-teenager. Welcome to November 8, 2011.
The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel By Narrated by Macmillan Audio — set three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages) The Alloy of Law combines magic, metal, guns, and a bit of steam (in a way that Sanderson’s 14-Year-Old Self Might Take Issue with but which Tor.com reviewer Chris Lough appreciates) in a tidy package of just under 11 hours:
11-22-63: A Novel By Narrated by
Inheritance: The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini narrated by Gerard Doyle and published by Listening Library — 31 hours, 2 credits — Concludes the erstwhile trilogy which began with Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr with a much-anticipated fourth book:
Anthology: Wild Cards I edited by Walter Jon Williams here…)Lewis Shiner, Roger Zelazny, Howard Waldrop, Michael Cassutt, and Martin himselfNarrated by Brilliance Audio In the aftermath of WWII, an alien virus struck the Earth, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Originally published in 1987, the newly expanded saga contains additional original stories by eminent writers.” — an audiobook for Volume II is coming on December 20 — and this first audio volume is glowingly reviewed by The Guilded Earlobe today as well:
ALSO OUT TODAY:
Read more...Posted in regular
Audible.com dipping its toes into the world of Pre-Orders?
Posted on 2011-11-07 at 17:40 by Sam
Perhaps this has been done with other books, but Pre-Order ‘Locked On’ by Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney read by Lou Diamond Phillips is the first I’ve noticed:
It’s a 44-minute recording of the first three chapters, with the description leading with: “Simply pre-order Locked On now and you’ll get to hear the book’s first three chapters before anyone else. And when the complete book - which is more than 20 hours long - releases on December 13, it’ll be waiting for you in My Library.”
What do my fellow listeners think? I’m mainly interested in pre-orders as a source of more concrete release date information and availability notification, rather than actually buying titles ahead of their release date. However, this “3 chapter” sneak preview feature on top is a pretty interesting and tempting carrot.
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Audiobook release day: The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells and The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
Posted on 2011-11-05 at 01:35 by Sam
The Cloud Roads By Narrated by Audible Frontiers:
This is a book I picked up earlier this summer at my local library when doing a little cover browsing of new hardcovers. (Along with Greg Egan’s The Clockwork Rocket and Col Buchanan’s Farlander — quite a haul!) I read the opening, found it interesting, and marked it as one to look for in audio. And here it is: “Moon has spent his life hiding what he is - a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself… someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn’t tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power… that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony’s survival… and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save himself - and his newfound kin.”
ALSO OUT TODAY:
- The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham — a well-received 2011 fantasy novel that has been on my watch list a good long while
- Powersat: The Grand Tour Series By Narrated by From Blackstone Audio, Inc. — 2005 novel, 2010 production of one of Bova’s Grand Tour novels
- Rogue By Narrated by
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