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Interviews and conversations at Locus

Posted on 2011-08-14 at 18:19 by Sam

Link: Interviews and conversations at Locus

merumsal:

I’ve been terrible at updating here over the past week, for which I beg you to accept my sincerest apologies. There are two new things to mention:

1) an amazingly fun podcast I did with Karen…

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The Guilded Earlobe reviews Albert Brooks's 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America

Posted on 2011-08-11 at 12:58 by Sam

Link: The Guilded Earlobe reviews Albert Brooks’s 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America

The Guilded Earlobe has quickly gone from being unknown to me to being my absolutely favorite source of audiobook interviews. Today he takes a look at one of the audiobooks I passed on along the way this year, Albert Brooks’s 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America:

Here’s the start of the review:

Genre: Future History

Quick Thoughts: While 2030 has its flaws, I found it to be a compelling read, full of interesting characters living in a very flawed potential America. Dick Hill’s narration, while a little slow in the beginning, picks up as the story progresses and adds a lot to the overall listening experience.

Grade: B

I think one of the toughest things for an author to do is to write a fictional tale dealing with real life political issues without being called out by people of every political slant as overly dogmatic towards their hated political group. I think it’s impossible if …

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Audiobook release day: The Magician King by Lev Grossman, read by Mark Bramhall

Posted on 2011-08-09 at 13:51 by Sam

Link: Audiobook release day: The Magician King by Lev Grossman, read by Mark Bramhall

Leading a 4-pack of interesting releases at Audible.com today is Lev Grossman’s The Magician King, read by Mark Bramhall:

It’s a wonderful novel, and already a few chapters into the audiobook … so very happy once again with Bramhall’s narration of this world. Several reviews have started showing up (last month The Guilded Earlobe reviewed the audiobook as an A+), yesterday CNN had a brief review along with an interview, and today includes a glowing review from NPR. On Tumblr, Grossman was recently featured at the excellent Write Place, Write Time. Also yesterday, Tor.com posted a “spoiler free” review and an excerpt of Chapter 4, which starts the “Julia chapters” of Julia’s backstory. Go read! Go listen!

Also out today: Machine Man by Max Barry (author of Jennifer Government) narrated by Sean Runnette (whom I last heard read David Halperin’s excellent Journal of a UFO Investigator: A Novel) as well as two novels from the late Kage Baker: The House of the Stag read by the incomparable Oliver Wyman (Finch, Gateway) and Empress of Mars read by Nicola Barber. Machine Man is a book I was expecting to hear, the two Baker novels are a very pleasant surprise.

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Untitled

Posted on 2011-08-09 at 13:39 by Sam

bookrageous:

Out today!!! Many exclamation points!!!!

Josh raved about The Magician King on our “To BEA and Back Again” ep. Jenn is reading it now in prep for Lev Grossman’s release party at WORD Brooklyn tonight (if you are in New York, YOU SHOULD GO!) and sharing quotes here, here, and here. Rebecca just read The Magicians and can’t wait to get to this one.

It’s unanimously a Bookrageous favorite! And if that doesn’t convince you, can we tell you about the time Lev Grossman recited “The Owl and the Pussycat” at our BEA Bash and it. was. awesome.

YES YES YES. I woke up at 7 and pretty much the first thing I did was go to Audible.com and download the Mark Bramhall narrated audiobook and press play. “Quentin rode a gray horse with white socks named Dauntless.” … Ah … good to be back.

Posted in photo | Tagged a thousand yays, bookrageous favorites, lev grossman, lit, the magician king

Previewing August 2011 (and remarking on its first week)

Posted on 2011-08-05 at 19:53 by Sam

August is already well upon us, with the first week bringing a spectacular list to audio. I already noted the First Friday titles Among Others (by Jo Walton) and All the Lives He Led (by Frederik Pohl), and there’s a few more already out this month that warrant immediate notice: 1968’s Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner and 1960’s A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller. Brought to Audible.com via Macmillan Audio and Blackstone Audio, respectively, they are two of the great works of sf and I’m very happy to see them come to Audible.com. Still, in light of their having already been released, it’s hard to pick them as my most anticipated title for August. That “honor” goes to Lev Grossman’s The Magician King:

Sequel to the 2009 novel The Magicians, and narrated once again by Mark Bramhall, I had the pleasure of reading the book several months ago as an early reader. But there’s something about Bramhall’s narration of The Magicians which has me quite giddy with excitement about being taken back into Grossman’s world. While reading, the book’s words played tricks in my ears as I imagined Bramhall’s voice and inflections, and, really, I just can’t wait to hear it. Some early reviews of the audiobook are out (an A+ review on The Guilded Earlobe) and all signs point to another wonderful experience.

 

ALSO COMING IN AUGUST 2011:

SEPTEMBER 2011:

OCTOBER 2011:

  • Non-genre alert? 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Knopf, Oct 25, 2011)
  • Non-genre? Cain by Jose Saramago (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct 4, 2011)
  • The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin
  • The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge
  • The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (Outspoken Authors) by Cory Doctorow (Paperback - Oct 1, 2011, PM Press)
  • Non-fiction collection: Context by Cory Doctorow (Paperback - Oct 1, 2011, Tachyon)
  • Non-genre: The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf, Random House Audio, Oct 4, 2011)
  • Non-genre: Parallel Stories: A Novel by Péter Nádas (FS&G, Oct 25, 2011)

NOVEMBER 2011:

DECEMBER 2011:

2012:

  • Greatshadow by James Maxey (Solaris) which begins a new fantasy series from the author of Bitterwood
  • Giant Thief by David Tallerman (Angry Robot, January 2011)
  • The Dread by Gail Z. Martin (Orbit) sequel to February 2011’s The Sworn
  • The Great Game: The Bookman Histories, Book 3 by Lavie Tidhar (Jan 31, 2012)
  • Exogene by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit, March) sequel to 2011’s Germline
  • Punk: An Aesthetic (non-fiction) by Jon Savage, William Gibson, and Johan Kugelberg (Rizzoli, April) (really, really doubtful in audio!)
  • 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, February 3, 2012)
  • Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell (Tor, February 28, 2012)
  • Mark L. Van Name’s next Jon & Lobo novel (May 2012, Baen)
  • Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow (Tor Books, May 2012)
  • The Drowned Cities: Ship Breaker #2 by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little Brown, May 2012)
  • We Leave Together by J. M. McDermott (June 2012, Night Shade) concludes his Dogsland Trilogy
  • The Spindle of Necessity by Catherynne M. Valente, concluding her seriesA Dirge for Prester John (Night Shade Books, November 2012)
  • Anthology: Armored edited by John Joseph Adams (Baen) which serves up mech and power armor short stories
  • Ironskin by Tina Connolly (Tor)
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Best of July 2011 in Audible.com SFF: T.C. McCarthy's GERMLINE

Posted on 2011-08-05 at 19:24 by Sam

Link: Best of July 2011 in Audible.com SFF: T.C. McCarthy’s GERMLINE

In a month of blockbusters (A Dance with Dragons, Ghost Stories, Vortex, Flashback) it was a more under-the-radar release which most impressed me in July. So, a bit belatedly, my pick for the best of July 2011 in Audible.com SFF is: Germline: The Subterrene War, Book 1 by T. C. McCarthy narrated by Donald Corren:

One of the reasons this “Best of July” post is coming almost a week into August is that Germline was released near the end of the month, and I knew fairly quickly it was one I needed to finish before making a call on the month’s releases. In her review for Bull Spec #6, C.D. Covington called Germline ”equal parts The Forever War and Hammer’s Slammers” and that’s pretty high praise. The book doesn’t have the star-spanning scope of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, and it doesn’t have the attention to detail of Hammer’s Slammers. But neither of these is the point. The novel is a first person foray into a future war through the eyes of an increasingly strung-out failed journalist. There is no lengthy exposition of how the battle suits work, what the weapons or countryside look like, or, in fact, lengthy exposition at all. There are missteps (particularly in some of the major transitions) and the book doesn’t achieve perfection, but there’s just something to it: something which vaguely recalls Vonnegut, or even Kerouac, in its bouncing, drug-blurred narrative. Publishers Weekly name-checks “Remarque, Willi Heinrich, and especially Michael Herr” but these names don’t mean much to me (though a quick trip to Wikipedia was quite informative). At a brisk 9 hours, very well-cast with Corren’s narration, it was exactly the summer change-up I needed from the 40-50 hour epics of George R.R. Martin. (Which I enjoyed immensely in that mode, but there’s a certain discount factor when comparing books of 9 and 50 hours!)

ALSO IN JULY:

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

Whew! Summer is definitely in full swing.

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James Marsters to narrate the audio version of The Greyfriar: Vampire Empire!

Posted on 2011-08-05 at 18:22 by Sam

Link: James Marsters to narrate the audio version of The Greyfriar: Vampire Empire!

Raleigh authors Clay and Susan Griffith, primarily known for their work on comics, burst onto the f/sf scene with their 2010 Pyr novel The Greyfriar, book 1 in their Vampire Empire trilogy. Earlier this year, Buzzy Multimedia announced it had acquired the audio rights to the series, and the speculation began on who would be picked to narrate the series. Well, the speculation is over, as James Marsters (“Spike” on the television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”, and previously the voice of the Jim Butcher Dresden Files series) has started production, with a Spring 2012 planned release date for the first audiobook. Meanwhile, book 2 of the series, The Rift Walker, hits bookstores this September.

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Audible.com "First Friday" for August 2011: Among Others and All the Lives He Led

Posted on 2011-08-05 at 17:52 by Sam

Link: Audible.com “First Friday” for August 2011: Among Others and All the Lives He Led

It’s here! I’ve been waiting for this to come out in audio since January. Narrated by none other than Katherine Kellgren, Jo Walton’s novel Among Others (Tor, January 2011) leads off Audible.com’s “First Friday” for August.

Described as: “Startling, unusual, and yet irresistibly listenable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment. Read beautifully by Katherine Kellgren, Jo Walton’s novel combines magic with elements of autobiography for an unforgettable imaginative romp through a fantastical and often unforgiving world.”

And, thanks to Audible Frontiers, now in audio. A delightful surprise. Not to be outdone, another Audible Frontiers production pairs an all-star narrator with a 2011 novel of import: All the Lives He Led: A Novel by Frederick Pohl narrated by Oliver Wyman.



This new novel (April 2011) brings Wyman back to a first person Pohl narrative, which Wyman delivered perfectly on Gateway. Two huge surprises for me, and very, very welcome ones.

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Audible.com July 2011 Customer Favorites

Posted on 2011-08-05 at 17:43 by Sam

Link: Audible.com July 2011 Customer Favorites

Another month, another top-10 from Audible.com in their Monthly Customer Favorites series. It’s a genre-heavy month, with:

But there’s also a non-genre book I keep hearing about:

(Side note: I know, I’m behind schedule this month! Trying to catch up…)

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Audio release day: T.C. McCarthy's GERMLINE

Posted on 2011-07-26 at 13:57 by Sam

Link: Audio release day: T.C. McCarthy’s GERMLINE

Germline: The Subterrene War, Book 1 is just out at Audible.com and elsewhere. It’s the debut novel from South Carolina author T. C. McCarthy and Bull Spec reviewer C.D. Covington calls it “equal parts The Forever War and Hammer’s Slammers”. McCarthy, a former CIA analyst, weaves a tale of genetically engineered soldiers at war in a future Russia-US conflict in Kazakhstan. An embedded journalist begins to lose himself in the war and the drugs the soldiers use to keep super-ready. Publisher’s Weekly calls it “Compelling…. Recalling the work of Remarque, Willi Heinrich, and especially Michael Herr, McCarthy’s delirious narrative avoids cliché and raises intriguing questions about what it means to be human.”


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