Audiobook release: Mr. Fox: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi

Posted on 2011-10-26 at 20:42 by Sam

Out today, after yesterday’s big releases and news: Mr. Fox: A Novel By Helen Oyeyemi Narrated by Carol Boyd From AudioGO:

I must have overlooked this book in the Amazon.com October Best Books of the Month, and missed her interview with Fantasy Matters despite a mention on the World SF blog, but I *just* read in more detail about this novel via Jeff VanderMeer’s Omnivoracious blog and, well, pretty much everything he recommends I’ll at least check out. (And with good results, as Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death, Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City, Charles Yu’s How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and Karen Lord’s Redemption in Indigo ended up becoming four of my favorite audiobooks. When he says things like: “One of the best of the next generation of writers working in the interstices of realism and the fantastical, Oyeyemi seems set to keep delivering up thought-provoking, emotive, and unclassifiable fiction for a long time to come.” — I will be checking out said book.)

And, thanks to the (until October 31) “Frighteningly Low Prices” sale, the audiobook is a scant $8.60. (Speaking of low prices, Zoo City is $5.24 and Who Fears Death is $8.74 — both well worth it.)

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Audiobook release day: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami; and "Neil Gaiman Presents..."

Posted on 2011-10-25 at 17:34 by Sam

Billed (perhaps justifiably) as “The Most Anticipated Novel of the Year”, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami has finally arrived. Translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel, narrated by Mark Boyett, Marc Vietor, and Allison Hiroto, and out from Audible, Inc.:

The book has been subject to quite a flurry of interviews, reviews, and other oddities. Oddities? Yes. TIME magazine’s “Cat Power” article, which rates Murakami’s books on their cat content, would apply. But more typical profiles and reviews have abounded as well, from the NY Times’s “The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami” to Vanity Fair, Salon.com, and NPR, to being Amazon.com’s choice as its Spotlight Selection in its October Books of the Month. Heck, even the cover design has its own story. 

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Untitled

Posted on 2011-10-20 at 18:12 by Sam

Audiobook received: Reamde by Neal Stephenson read by Malcolm Hillgartner from Brilliance Audio. Upon starting the audiobook (it being on sale for $13.64 made it worth buying rather than ripping in the 32 discs of the review copy, and I’d actually started even earlier thanks to Reamde: Free First Chapter) I discover that the title is pronounced “reamed”. I enjoy wordplay, and so the title having 3 one-letter transposition re-spellings (reamed, readme, remade) tickles my brain in the right places. Now several chapters in, and there’s some familiar territory for Stephenson readers (virtual worlds, computer security) which keeps my “… but I really don’t like thrillers very much” doubts at bay, as do glowing reviews from Lev Grossman in TIME and Elizabeth Hand in The Washington Post. And a long history of my loving Stephenson’s novels — yes, even The Big U. I’ve loved them both as a reader (Snow Crash, Anathem, The Baroque Cycle, Cryptonomicon) and as a listener (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age) and I’m more than willing to follow him onto a 1000 page / 32 disc / 38 hour adventure into more William Gibson-esque (or in this case, so far I might say Michael Crichton-esque?) territory of the numenous “now” of tomorrow’s speculative fiction. Onward! For there are many hours to go.

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Audiobook release day: On the Beach by Nevil Shute!

Posted on 2011-10-19 at 17:12 by Sam

On the Beach is Nevil Shute’s 1957 masterpiece, a defining work of speculative fiction born of its time in the cold war, where global nuclear annihilation seemed a turnkey away. Narrated by Simon Prebble From Recorded Books, this appears to be the stellar 1991 production, now made available at Audible.com:

At 9.5 hours, it’s not a long listen. But this novel, along with Walter M. Miller’s 1959 novel of nuclear cataclysm A Canticle for Leibowitz, are among by all-time favorite books. Shute’s is by far the more accessible, both in its time and to modern readers, and it’s a novel I can thank my wife for recommending to me some years ago and which has never been far from memory. There is a 2010 AudioGO Ltd. production of a BBC Audiobooks of a James Smillie narration already available at Audible, so there’s now a choice of narrators available.

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Audiobook release day: Zone One by Colson Whitehead, Richard Kadrey's Aloha from Hell, and more

Posted on 2011-10-18 at 16:35 by Sam

On the heels of a brief mention in TIME magazine and a glowing review by Jeff VanderMeer for Barnes & Noble, Zone One: A Novel By Colson Whitehead is out from Random House Audio, concurrent with its release in hardcover from Doubleday:

Narrated by Beresford Bennett, Zone One is both a zombie novel and a wry satire and it’s been on my watch list for a good bit. (Again, hat tip to Jeff VanderMeer, the source of many books in my too-long “to read” list.) There’s been plenty of building attention to the novel, from an interview and excerpt in Harper’s Magazine (with another excerpt in Equire, another glowing review in The Guardian, and another interview in GQ) to being named Oprah’s Book Of The Week. Heck, it’s even Bookrageous’s first pick for its book club. (And the book is featured in The Atlantic’s recent explorative article on literary/genre boundaries, with yet another interview in The Atlantic besides.)

Also out is Aloha from Hell (a Sandman Slim novel) By Richard Kadrey, from Brilliance Audio and narrated by MacLeod Andrews continuing as the voice of Sandman Slim and Kill the Dead:

All three Sandman Slim books are part of Audible.com’s “Frighteningly Low Prices” sale which started today and continues through October 31, with Aloha from Hell coming in at $5.87 — there probably won’t be a better time to pick up the third installment.

Also member/sale priced at $5.87 are a pile of new Philip K. Dick audiobooks from Brilliance Audio:

• The Simulacra Narrated by Dick Hill
• Lies, Inc. Narrated by Luke Daniels
• Now Wait for Last Year Narrated by Luke Daniels
• The Divine Invasion: VALIS, Book 2 Narrated by Dick Hill
• The Transmigration of Timothy Archer: VALIS, Book 3 Narrated by Joyce Bean

More? There’s more.

Posted in regular | Tagged audible, audiobooks, zone one

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life

Posted on 2011-10-17 at 00:38 by Sam

Link: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life

If it were not for the Apple //e, the IIgs, and the original Mac, I have no idea who I’d be or what I’d be doing. But they were built, and here I am, writing code, publishing a science fiction magazine, and listening to audiobooks on my iPod and now iPhone.

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Audible.com release day: The Ringworld Engineers: The Ringworld Series, Book 2 by Larry Niven

Posted on 2011-10-14 at 21:33 by Sam

The Ringworld Engineers: The Ringworld Series, Book 2 By Larry Niven Narrated by Paul Michael Garcia From Blackstone Audio, Inc. Niven’s 1980 novel picks up 20 years after Ringworld:

ALSO OUT TODAY: A seven-pack of titles from Iambik Audio with Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland and Chill by Elizabeth Bear being the ones which most catch my eye.

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Sneak peek at James Marster's narration of Clay and Susan Griffith's Vampire Empire: The Greyfriar

Posted on 2011-10-14 at 21:24 by Sam

Over at Buzzy Multimedia, The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire, Book 1) is available for pre-order, with a nearly 20 minute preview excerpt from narrator James Marsters.

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Untitled

Posted on 2011-10-12 at 16:12 by Sam

Audiobook received: The Alloy of Law (A Mistborn Novel) by Brandon Sanderson, read by Michael Kramer. Out November 8, 2011 from Macmillan Audio. “Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.” Continuing Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy: The Final Empire: Mistborn Book 1, The Well of Ascension: Mistborn, Book 2, and The Hero of Ages: Mistborn, Book 3 under the same narrator, both also known for their work on The Wheel of Time and having joined forces for last year’s The Way of Kings: Book One of The Stormlight Archive. The Alloy of Law comes in a much leaner book, 11 hours on 9 discs, and will be my first of the Mistborn books.

Posted in photo | Tagged audiobooks-received

Audiobook release day: The Cold Commands by Richard K. Morgan; and: Steampunk!

Posted on 2011-10-12 at 15:13 by Sam

On the heels of the Del Rey hardcover release yesterday comes The Cold Commands: A Land Fit for Heroes, Book 2 By Richard K. Morgan Narrated by Simon Vance:

Out from Tantor Audio, The Cold Commands continues Morgan’s foray into sword & sorcery which began with 2009’s The Steel Remains. Morgan is best known for The Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy: Altered Carbon, Broken Angels & Woken Furies but his new series has been greeted with good reviews and the sequel has been quite anticipated. If the cover doesn’t look quite familiar, here’s the book cover:

And here’s a review from Tor.com: “A Hard But Worthy Read”: “The complex thematic arguments about religion, society, sexuality, morality and what becomes necessary for survival that underlie the book make its adventure-and-intrigue plots emotionally engaging, the world-building is absolutely genius, and the characters are gripping. The Cold Commands does what a second book should do: resolves a conflict of its own while opening up a greater, much more dangerous challenge for the next book.”

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