Iambik Audiobooks 1-year "birthday" giveaway

Posted on 2011-10-11 at 17:42 by Sam

Link: Iambik Audiobooks 1-year “birthday” giveaway

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Audiobook release day: In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood

Posted on 2011-10-11 at 16:18 by Sam

Today sees the audiobook (and Audible.com) release date for, among others: In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination By Margaret Atwood Narrated by Susan Denaker:

A collection of Atwood’s essays: “In Other Worlds: Science Fiction and the Human Imagination is Margaret Atwood’s account of her rela­tionship with the literary form we have come to know as science fiction. This relationship has been lifelong, stretch­ing from her days as a child reader in the 1940s through her time as a graduate student at Harvard, where she explored the Victorian ancestors of the form, and continuing with her work as a writer and reviewer.”

ALSO OUT TODAY:

• Snuff By Terry Pratchett Narrated by Stephen Briggs — a new Discworld novel
• Eyes to See: The Jeremiah Hunt Chronicle, Book 1 By Joseph Nassise Narrated by Anthony Boudin — billed as a hard-boiled, dark, new voice in urban fantasy, out concurrent with its hardcover from Tor Books
• YA: The Death Cure: The Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 3 By James Dashner Narrated by Mark Deakins — follows 2009’s The Maze Runner and 2010’s The Scorch Trials
• The Walking Dead: Rise of The Governor By Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga Narrated by Fred Berman
• Short: Brass and Bone By Cynthia Gael Narrated by Amanda Cobb — a new title from e-novella imprint Carina Press
• Prelude to Foundation By Isaac Asimov Narrated by Scott Brick — Asimov’s 1988 prequel to his Foundation series, chronicling the fictional life of Hari Seldon

And added Friday: Immortality, Inc. By Robert Sheckley Narrated by Bronson Pinchot — Sheckley’s 1958-1959 novella, serialized in Galaxy Science Fiction as “Time Killer” and nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, now in a little under 6 hours of audio from Blackstone Audio:

MISSING IN ACTION:

• Vernor Vinge’s The Children of the Sky is out in hardcover from Tor, and while an audiobook (narrated by Oliver Wyman, no less!) is in the works, apparently not quite in time for the book’s release.
• Richard K. Morgan’s The Cold Commands is out from Del Rey today, with the audiobook release from Tantor Audio due on October 13

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Audiobooks announced: Alan Baxter's RealmShift and MageSign

Posted on 2011-10-06 at 11:05 by Sam

Australian dark fantasy thriller author Alan Baxter announced that his two novels, RealmShift and MageSign, are coming soon to audio thanks to a successful ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange, by Audible.com) agreement with narrator Matt “Bentley” Allegre with RealmShift coming in time for Christmas, and MageSign to follow soon after.

RealmShift introduces both Baxter and his world, a modern day “underpinned by the somewhat less tangible balance and interplay of the gods”, along with the protagonist Isiah, a disillusioned agent maintaining the balance between good and evil:

And MageSign continues the story 3 years later:

I’ve heard some really good things about these novels, and I’m looking forward to finally getting to enjoy them in audio.

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Audiobook release day: Ganymede by Cherie Priest; Zoo City by Lauren Beukes; The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham

Posted on 2011-10-04 at 21:20 by Sam

Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century returns with Ganymede: Clockwork Century, Book 4:

The Clockwork Century began with 2009’s Boneshaker (narrated by Wil Wheaton and Kate Reading), followed by the short novel Clementine: A Novel of the Clockwork Century (read by Dina Pearlman and Victor Bevine) and a full-size follow-up, Dreadnought (once again narrated by Reading). Here, the Macmillan Audio production of Ganymede is narrated by Edoardo Ballerini.

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"Surprise" Audible.com release: REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

Posted on 2011-09-30 at 16:03 by Sam

After just having heard it would be delayed until mid-October, and checking pretty much daily anyway, surprise, surprise, oh, back-dated surprise, Neal Stephenson’s REAMDE is now available at Audible.com.

• Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner and out from Brilliance Audio the audiobook weighs in at 38 and a half hours. Well, whatever its actual Audible Release Date (it wasn’t the 27th, I tell you!) it is here now. I’ve been looking forward to Stephenson’s next book for a long time, and though I have my cranky whinges about this one going in, it pushes its way right to the top of the “to listen” list.

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Audible.com added yesterday: The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

Posted on 2011-09-30 at 15:56 by Sam

The Hum and the Shiver: The Tufa Novels, Book 1 By Alex Bledsoe was published in print by Tor Books on September 27. Yesterday, the Blackstone Audio audiobook was added to Audible.com, narrated by Emily Janice Card and Stefan Rudnicki. When I saw it yesterday:

I didn’t recognize the book as actually being one of those on my anticipated titles list, as the cover … well, compare it to the Tor print cover:

But seeing Rudnicki’s name attached (though the available audio sample is entirely from Card) kept some wheels turning, and I eventually put 2+2 together. Having recently listened to John Hornor Jacobs’s Southern Gods, my appetite for Southern and Appalachian fantasy is craving a little more, and the stolidly Tennessean Bledsoe’s novel looks to do just that:

No one knows where the Tufa came from or how they ended up in the mountains of east Tennessee. When the first Europeans came to the Smoky Mountains, the Tufa were already there. Dark-haired and enigmatic, they live quietly in the hills and valleys of Cloud County, their origins lost to history. But there are clues in their music, hidden in the songs they have passed down for generations. 

Private Bronwyn Hyatt, a true daughter of the Tufa, has returned from Iraq, wounded in body and spirit, but her troubles are far from over. Cryptic omens warn of impending tragedy, while a restless ”haint” has followed her home from the war. Worse yet, Bronwyn has lost touch with herself and with the music that was once a part of her life. With death stalking her family, will she ever again join in the song of her people and let it lift her onto the night winds?

I just spent some time in the NC “high country” near Boone and Blowing Rock, NC, and the area west (and up!) from there is even more cloaked in mist and forgotten rocks and dark earth. I’m hoping to find the time to sneak this audiobook in before October gets going — less compelling cover art or not. It will make my next trip to the western NC mountains, further and higher and more remote, all the more interesting.

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Audiobook release day: The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen

Posted on 2011-09-28 at 20:25 by Sam

A couple of new audiobooks today, the first being The Revisionists By Thomas Mullen Narrated by Robert Fass, out from Hachette Audio:

This one’s been on my anticipated titles list for a good bit, a far future dystopia of Departments and Revisionists. Out concurrent with its release in print.

Also out today is Terralus 4 By Lee Gimenez Narrated by Dave Courvoisier from Books in Motion — Out in February on Kindle and in print in April, from Salvo Press: “Life on Earth in the year 2074 is bleak following years of climate change, widespread viruses, and worldwide economic collapse. To save mankind, NASA prepares to send a starship with human colonists to Terralus 4, an Earth-like planet in the Alurian system. But then a powerful extraterrestrial race, the Believers, arrive on Earth, promising hope, peace and prosperity. At first they are welcomed as saviors, but over time a much darker side is revealed. Captain Aki Wu, smart and beautiful leader of the NASA crew, escapes Earth with her security officer Stuart (Mac) McKenzie, and travel to Terralus 4, where they land and attempt to colonize the planet. They battle the harsh climate and a variety of bizarre alien races that inhabit the planet, but finally succeed in establishing a human settlement. However, their efforts may prove futile when the Believers land on Terralus 4. Now, with the help of local aliens, they fight the Believers in an effort to ensure the survival of the human race.”

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Audiobook release day: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Posted on 2011-09-27 at 15:23 by Sam

In a busy day, particularly for books for young readers, it is the Hachette Audio young adult titleDaughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor which most strongly grabs my attention. Narrated by Khristine Hvam, the book comes with a pedigree of starred reviews, as from Publishers Weekly: “National Book Award finalist Taylor again weaves a masterful mix of reality and fantasy with cross-genre appeal. Exquisitely written and beautifully paced, the tale is set in ghostly, romantic Prague, where 17-year-old Karou is an art student—except when she is called “home” to do errands for the family of loving, albeit inhuman, creatures who raised her.”

More praise from Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011:

Karou is a seventeen-year-old art student with a most unusual family. From his desk in a dusty, otherworldly shop, her mysterious, monstrous father sends her on errands across the globe, collecting teeth for a shadowy purpose. On one such errand, Karou encounters an angel, and soon the mysteries of her life and her family are unraveled—with consequences both beautiful and dreadful. National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor has created a lushly imaginative, fully realized world in Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Taylor’s writing is as sumptuous as poetry, and the story overflows with dark and delightful magic, star-crossed love, and difficult choices with heartbreaking repercussions. Readers of all ages will be utterly enchanted. —Juliet Disparte

Meanwhile, it’s also a good day for collections and young readers, though, once again, no sign of Neal Stephenson’s Reamde. So, I turned to Brilliance Audio’s Kelsey Turek for news, and found that the audiobook is indeed delayed, as of now scheduled for 2011-10-18.

ALSO OUT TODAY:

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Just added at Audible.com: first books in series by Lin Carter and David Niall Wilson

Posted on 2011-09-22 at 19:20 by Sam

As I will be frequently checking the “Just Added” pages at Audible.com waiting for Neal Stephenson’s Reamde to arrive, Under the Green Star: Green Star, Book 1 By Lin Carter Narrated by Joel Richards is a short listen at under 5 hours, from an author from whom you may have read a lot without knowing, as some of his most well-known works are “posthumous collaborations” with Robert E. Howard (Conan, Kull) and Clark Ashton Smith. His “Green Star” novels from the early 1970s bring together influences from both Smith and Edgar Rice Burroughs. This production is the 10th Audible.com title for Wildside Press LLC, and the first of Carter’s books to become available at Audible.

Vintage Soul: The DeChance Chronicles, Volume 1 By David Niall Wilson Narrated by Corey Snow is a bit longer at under 7 hours, but still a short listen, from Wilson’s own Crossroad Press. Billed as “a dark urban supernatural mystery with a hint of romance”, it is the 10th of the prolific Wilson’s books to arrive at Audible.com, hot on the heels of yesterday’s release of The Second Veil: A Tale of the Scattered Earth.

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Audiobook release day: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

Posted on 2011-09-20 at 17:22 by Sam

Link: Audiobook release day: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

Completing his young reader trilogy which began with 2009’s Leviathan and continued with last year’s Behemoth, today sees Scott Westerfeld’s Goliath hit stores and Audible.com. Alan Cumming has been a wonderful narrator for this trilogy, and I’m looking forward to hearing how it ends.

And over on Westerfeld’s blog, there’s a video conversation/interview between author and narrator.

The biggest surprise today is the absence of Neal Stephenson’s Reamde which is out in print and, at least theoretically, in audiobook from Brilliance Audio. But no sign at Audible.com this morning, and a quick check at the “Coming Soon” page shows the book is now “scheduled” for “September/October 2011”. So: sometime soon. Not sure what the issue is, as Amazon.com owns both Audible.com and Brilliance Audio, but anyway: Tick, tick, tick, …

Also out today:

• Meeks By Julia Holmes (2010)Narrated by Tom Stechschulte, Jefferson Mays, George Guidall, and Scott Sowers — “Former Texas resident and current Rolling Stone editor Julia Holmes earned glowing acclaim for this darkly humorous dystopian novel. Ben has just returned from a war waged against a nameless enemy. To avoid being nabbed by police and forced to work in a factory, he’ll need to find a wife. But to do that, he must wear a bachelor’s suit—and the tailor won’t make one for him.” (Recorded Books)
• Deathworld 2: The Ethical Engineer By Harry Harrison Narrated by Jim Roberts
• The Second Veil: A Tale of the Scattered Earth By David Niall Wilson Narrated by Mike Spring (Crossroad Press)

Meanwhile, yesterday saw a couple of interesting things. Not so much (at least on a personal level) in terms of the books themselves, but where they came from as a signal for where audiobooks might be going. The first is Altered Destiny by Shawna Thomas narrated by Uma Incrocci from Harlequin e-imprint Carina Press, production copyright Audible, Inc. Released concurrently with a Kindle version, it is one of quite a few dual releases from the imprint, which mostly is more heavily romance line (which doesn’t get my interest) but from time to time puts forward a more earnestly fantasy or even science fictional book.

The second is Wasteland by Keith Crews narrated by John Bell. Originally self-published via Smashwords and on Nook, it’s Crews’s first audiobook. An earlier novel, Wraith, was published in December 2005 by PublishAmerica, notable for its inclusion on the Writer Beware “Thumbs Down” list. Narrator Bell is listed as a frequent narrator of dramaticized Bible stories. The audiobook publisher is listed as QC Computing, LLC which has one other title, also released yesterday, a self-narrated non-fiction self-help (ish) book Radically Simple Accounting: A Way out of the Dark and Into the Profit by Madeline Bailey. All of this is a bit rambling, but: this does look like a professional quality production, with a nice cover:

And it all adds up to something I can’t quite put my finger on, but something like: Even a self-published audiobook from a small, new publisher can look and sound professional. I’m not sold on the product description or the writing (your mileage may vary of course — I have fairly specific interests I suppose) but a world of audiobooks seems to be opening up. Here’s to a bright future for listeners. Something like that.

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