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"Oh, my." How did I not know about eMusic audiobooks? (Or Simply Audiobooks?)

Posted on 2011-07-07 at 19:15 by Sam

Link: “Oh, my.” How did I not know about eMusic audiobooks? (Or Simply Audiobooks?)

I’ve looked a few times — I swear I have — for Cory Doctorow’s audiobooks in non-CD form. Well, it turns out that Little Brother, Makers, and For the Win are all available at eMusic’s audiobooks section. This gives me another world of possibilities beyond Audible.com, iTunes, direct from publishers, etc. But that’s longer term. In the short term, I get to enjoy these audiobooks and see what else from my “Most Wanted” list might be lurking in here…

Edit: Well, well, well. Simply Audiobooks has Makers and For the Win as well… Which I could have figured out had I just visited Random House’s page for the For the Win audiobook and clicked on some links. Still some learning to do, but: 1. It doesn’t appear that eMusic Audiobooks has credit rollover (every 30 days, poof) or (unsure) re-downloading before or after the membership plan is stopped and 2. I am unsure whether Simply Audiobooks allows re-downloading before or after the membership plan is stopped; their credits expire every 60 days, which is a little more flexible.

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Surprise Audible.com release: Naked City, an anthology of original urban fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow

Posted on 2011-07-07 at 03:32 by Sam

Link: Surprise Audible.com release: Naked City, an anthology of original urban fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow

A surprise new release yesterday at Audible.com is a Macmillan Audio production concomitant with the print release of the original urban fantasy anthology Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow, narrated by Eliza Foss, Nicola Barber, and Richard Topol.

The anthology presents original urban fantasies from Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Melissa Marr, Holly Black, Peter S. Beagle, Naomi Novik, Matthew Kressel, Lavie Tidhar, Lucius Shepherd, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Elizabeth Bear, and many more. It’s the first of the award-winning Datlow’s anthologies to be turned into an audiobook, Unfortunately the sample clip doesn’t get very far; Macmillan Audio, if you’re looking for a reviewer…

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Audible.com's July-long "ZombieFest" is here. Also: Audible.com SF/F July 6 releases.

Posted on 2011-07-07 at 00:34 by Sam

Link: Audible.com’s July-long “ZombieFest” is here. Also: Audible.com SF/F July 6 releases.

Another new feature at Audible.com, this one a month-long “ZombieFest”:

ZombieFest is here. Over the next month we’ll have four exclusive early-release zombie novels — starting with Ex-Patriots by Peter Clines. With each of the four books, you’ll get one of Clines’ interlocked stories from The Junkie Quatrain — written just for zombie fans like you, and available exclusively through Audible. Plus, check out our authors/zombie experts Iain McKinnon, Peter Clines, Craig DiLouie, and Bryon Morrigan providing video answers to your zombie questions below.

 

Ex-Patriots is the sequel to Ex-Heroes and does seem to fit the bill for being an exclusive early release — Amazon.com doesn’t have a mention of the new novel in print or other formats. At the bottom of the mini-site, 8 author videos discuss zombie topics such as: Tactics, Public Appetite, Provisions, Weaponry, Personnel, Safe Zones, Nautical Tactics, and Stiff Competition.

Also: Might as well use this space for July 6 updates to Audible.com. Not a busy day, but a long (long!) awaited 4th volume in the Gormenghast stories, and a nice new production of Kipling’s Mowgli stories.

(Note: this post mysteriously deleted earlier today… glad I still had the text lying around…)

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Audible.com's "The Paperback Sale" with a pile of good audiobooks. Also: July 5 Audible.com SF/F releases.

Posted on 2011-07-05 at 14:51 by Sam

Link: Audible.com’s “The Paperback Sale” with a pile of good audiobooks. Also: July 5 Audible.com SF/F releases.

Billed as “150 audiobooks at paperback prices as low as $5.95”, Audible.com’s “The Paperback Sale” is, well, pretty much that. The SF/F listings include, among classics from Asimov, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon, Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi, on and on, including Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi narrated by Joshua Swanson:

 

About half of this list is on my wish list — enough to fill up an entire summer very quickly.

Elsewhere in the sale there’s non-fiction:

Historical fiction: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett narrated by John Lee

Fiction:

Mystery/thriller:

And at least for this sale, there’s an advertised end date: July 19.

Meanwhile: July 5 sees another pair of my more-anticipated summer SF releases. The first is Robert Charles Wilson’s Vortex, narrated by Scott Brick. (A preceeding book, Axis, is in the paperback sale.)

The other is Steven Gould’s 7th Sigma, which has just been added along with older books Reflex and Jumper. 7th Sigma also John Scalzi’s Whatever’s Big Idea post for today).

Other “just added” and “new releases” (I still don’t quite understand the distinction between these…) include: Hammered: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book 3 by Kevin Hearne, Citadels of the Lost: The Annals of Drakis: Book Two by Tracy Hickman, Heaven’s Shadow by David S. Goyer, Summer of Night by Dan Simmons, and Open Your Eyes by Paul Jessup narrated by Tadhg Hynes (Iambik).

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Just added at Audible.com: Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Posted on 2011-07-05 at 02:37 by Sam

Link: Just added at Audible.com: Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Lost Voices: The Lost Voices Trilogy, Book 1 is the debut novel for Sarah Porter (YA: Harcourt Children’s) and offers a little break from zombies, vampires, aliens, robots, angels, demons, and witches by setting its sights on another creature of the fantastic: mermaids.

The publisher’s summary:

Fourteen-year-old Luce has had a tough life, but she reaches the depths of despair when she is assaulted and left on the cliffs outside of a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below, but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid. A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: the mermaids feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. Luce possesses an extraordinary singing talent, which makes her important to the tribe—she may even have a shot at becoming their queen. However her struggle to retain her humanity puts her at odds with her new friends. Will Luce be pressured into committing mass murder?The first book in a trilogy, Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive.

Booklist offers: “In this haunting debut, Porter reworks mermaid mythology to tell a story of abuse, revenge, and forgiveness.” The Audible.com sample has a bit of a Twilight feel, teen girl at school in a remote Pacific Northwest town. Though here, Luce is a couple of years younger than her Twliight counterpart: no driver’s license or sparkling vampires in sight. Though some similarities seem set to arise, as Luce struggles against a supernatural urge to feast on humans — er, no — to shipwreck and drown humans, with the protagonist’s age turned down a notch, we’re probably not going to see a sparkly mer-man and a were-walrus face off for her affections.

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Audible.com "First Friday" for July 2011 (and other July 1 goodies)

Posted on 2011-07-04 at 03:03 by Sam

Link: Audible.com “First Friday” for July 2011 (and other July 1 goodies)

An apparently new feature to post every “first Friday” of the month: “On the First Friday of every month, Audible will present a selection of exciting books, new in audio. Load up for the weekend and enjoy.”

From what I can see, this means previously released books that are now new in audio. For this first “first Friday” this includes a large selection of Kevin J. Anderson novels, including his 1988 novel Resurrection, Inc.

More notable July 1 new SF/F releases at Audible.com are Flashback by Dan Simmons and Heartless: The Parasol Protectorate, the Fourth by Gail Carriger.

But with the good comes some bad. The ITMS (Apple’s iTunes Music Store) “first in a series” sale has, apparently, ended.

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Previewing July 2011

Posted on 2011-07-01 at 09:00 by Sam

My most anticipated title this month is, not surprisingly, A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (Coming July 12, 2011) narrated once again by Roy Dotrice:

Another audiobook (among several!) to watch out for in July: Germline is the debut novel by South Carolina author T. C. McCarthy (Coming July 26, 2011) and is narrated by Donald Corren, beginning a new military SF series.

MORE IN JULY 2011:

  • Heartless by Gail Carriger (Coming to Audible.com July 1, 2011) continues her Steampunk series The Parasol Protectorate
  • Flashback by Dan Simmons (Coming to Audible.com July 1, 2011) is a new standalone novel: “The United States is near total collapse. But 87% of the population doesn’t care: they’re addicted to flashback, a drug that allows its users to re-experience the best moments of their lives. After ex-detective Nick Bottom’s wife died in a car accident, he went under the flash to be with her; he’s lost his job, his teenage son, and his livelihood as a result.”
  • The Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan (July 4, Night Shade Books) (discovered via Jonathan Strahan’s Coode Street Podcast) (no audio news) is built around a delicious hard sf conceit which changes a few laws of physics and lets the world proceed from there
  • Lost Voices by Sarah Porter (Harcourt Childrens) read by Julia Whelan (Blackstone Audio, July 4) is a debut fantasy novel of mermaids and humanity and begins The Lost Voices Trilogy
  • Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson (Coming to Audible.com July 5, 2011) continues the story of Spin and Axis
  • Heaven’s Shadow by David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt (Jul 5, 2011) (no audio news) which I discovered via an interview by Lou Anders on the SF Signal Podcast
  • 7th Sigma by Steven Gould (July 5)
  • Anthology: Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow is an anthology of original urban fantasy by Jim Butcher, Holly Black, Patricia Briggs, Lavie Tidhar, … Update: Oh, my! Macmillan Audio has produced this!
  • Rule 34 by Charles Stross (Coming July 5, 2011) (no confirmed audio)
  • Bloodshot by Cherie Priest (Titan, July 5) (no confirmed audio)
  • The First Days: As the World Dies, Book 1 by Rhiannon Frater (Tor, July 5) was originally published in August 2008 via Amazon.com’s CreateSpace
  • Titus Awakes by Maeve Gilmore based on a fragment by Mervyn Peake, narrated by Simon Vance (coming July 6, 2011) continues the Gormenghast trilogy
  • Anthology: Future Media (Tachyon) edited by Rick Wilbur: “This startling exploration of the mass-media age uniquely combines complex nonfiction and prescient fiction from the best and brightest visionaries of the future.” (no audio news)
  • Anthology: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibits, Oddities, Images, and Stories from Top Authors and Artists by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (Jul 12, 2011) (confirmed: no audio)
  • Anthology: Supernatural Noir edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse) with original fiction from Nick Mamatas, Joe Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Gregory Frost, and Jeffrey Ford
  • The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham edited by Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas (Dark Horse)
  • Heart of Iron by Ekaterina Sedia (Prime, July 28) which is introdcued as: “In a Russia where the Decembrists’ rebellion was successful and the Trans-Siberian railroad was completed before 1854 …” (no audio news)
  • The Goblin Corps by Ari Marmell (Pyr, July 28, 2011) (no audio news)
  • Out of the Waters by David Drake, sequel to The Legions of Fire (no audio news)
  • Ghost Story: The Dresden Files, Book 13 by Jim Butcher (Roc Hardcover, July 26; Penguin Audio)

LOOKING AHEAD:

The next round of Iambik Audiobooks titles should go live pretty much any time now, one to watch out for is Paul Jessup’s Open Your Eyes, among others (and if you can’t wait, they are already available direct from Iambik). I’m also hoping to see a title from Buzzy Multimedia show up sooner rather than later, that being last November’s The Greyfriar by Clay and Susan Griffith (Pyr). And while Jay Requard’s debut fantasy novel The Night doesn’t have a release date, I am fairly sure it’s coming fairly soon. Just not (yet?) in audio.

AUGUST 2011:

  • The Magician King by Lev Grossman, sequel to one of my favorite audiobooks of all time, The Magicians
  • A Blight of Mages by Karen Miller
  • Machine Man by Max Barry (author of such books as Jennifer Government)
  • Young reader alert: The White City by John Claude Bemis, rounding out his The Clockwork Dark trilogy (The Nine Pound Hammer; The Wolf Tree)
  • Dark Tangos (political thriller) by Lewis Shiner, author of Glimpses and Black & White (no audio news)
  • Anthology: The Wild Side: Urban Fantasy with an Erotic Edge edited by Mark L. Van Name (Baen) (no audio)
  • Circle Tide by Rebecca Rowe (EDGE)
  • The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara by Terry Brooks (Del Rey, Brilliance Audio)
  • Mayan December by Brenda Cooper (Prime)
  • YA: The Fox Inheritance (Jenna Fox Chronicles) by Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt) after 2008’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox

SEPTEMBER 2011:

OCTOBER 2011:

  • Non-genre alert: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
  • 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)

NOVEMBER 2011:

  • Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
  • The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel by Brandon Sanderson, narrated by Michael Kramer (Macmillan Audio)
  • Kafkaesque: Stories Inspired by Franz Kafka edited by John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly (Tachyon)
  • The Folded Word by Catherynne M. Valente, book 2 in her A Dirge for Prester John after 2010’s The Habitation of the Blessed
  • When We Were Executioners by J. M. McDermott (Night Shade Books) sequel to Never Knew Another)
  • Seed by Rob Ziegler (Night Shade Books), cover unveiled here
  • Anthology: Alien Contact by Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Orson Scott Card and Cory Doctorow (Paperback - Nov 22, 2011, Night Shade Books) edited by Marty Halpern
  • Anthology: Lightspeed: Year One (Nov 15, Prime Books)

DECEMBER 2011:

2012:

  • Greatshadow by James Maxey (Solaris) which begins a new fantasy series from the author of Bitterwood
  • 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)
  • 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 series A 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

Whew. So: what are you looking forward to in July? How about later this year?

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William Gibson's Neuromancer comes to Audible.com, narrated by Robertson Dean

Posted on 2011-06-30 at 21:55 by Sam

Link: William Gibson’s Neuromancer comes to Audible.com, narrated by Robertson Dean

Dean has done a fantastic job with Gibson’s “Big End” novels, particularly Spook Country and Zero History, and this one just popped up on Audible.com today, out of the blue, out of left field, out of a sky “the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

Neuromancer | [William Gibson]

I haven’t had a chance to listen to this one yet (hey, Penguin Audio, a little heads up next time!) but, well, the publisher’s summary does some justice:

Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn’t just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term “cyberpunk,” for easing the way into the information age and Internet society. Neuromancer’s virtual reality has become real. And yet, William Gibson’s gritty, sophisticated vision still manages to inspire the minds that lead mankind ever further into the future.

This is one of those foundational books of the genre, and I’ve re-read it several times over the years. Next time around, I’m looking forward to hearing Dean’s Case, Molly, Armitage, Lady 3Jane, and Wintermute — though on first sampling, I have my worries as to whether Dean is well-cast here or not.

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Best of June 2011 in Audible.com SFF: Karen Lord's Redemption in Indigo

Posted on 2011-06-30 at 09:00 by Sam

Link: Best of June 2011 in Audible.com SFF: Karen Lord’s Redemption in Indigo

Published by Small Beer Press in July 2010 and on several year’s best fantasy lists, Karen Lord’s Redemption in Indigo finally arrived at Audible on June 15, courtesy of a Recorded Books production, narrated by Robin Miles. Miles has 56 Audible titles to her credit, but this was my first, though her 2010 narration of Ekaterina Sedia’s The House of Discarded Dreams is waiting for me on my wish list for one of these days.

Enough digression, on to the publisher’s summary:

This fascinating debut by Karen Lord - a retelling of a Senegalese folktale - earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and won the Frank Collymore Award. When Paama finally leaves her gluttonous husband, she attracts the attention of the undying spirit Patience, who gives her Chance’s Chaos Stick as a gift. But Chance insists that only he should wield the stick’s powers.

Redemption in Indigo is a short listen at a shade under six and a half hours, and it’s well worth discovering. The overall arc of the story comes under the frame of a storyteller relating the events, complete with asides (such as “we’ll learn more about this later”) and informalities (such as “let us skip forward through time a bit so as to miss the boring parts”) and footnotes and digressions. The story comes across in a playful, light way, the way of an elder telling a favorite story around a village campfire. This is a wonderful change of pace not just from the battlefields and seriousness of much of the rest of fantasy these days, but also in its leisurely pace, delighting on simple surroundings imbued with the mythological references which have been passed down through the generations. As a work of oral storytelling goes, this one’s a keeper, and I’m glad I was able to enjoy it in this format.

HONORABLE MENTION:

An Occupation of Angels by Lavie Tidhar and narrated by Elizabeth Klett is a short Iambik Audio production of a little under 3 and a half hours, and Klett’s narration is clear, boldly taking us through Tidhar’s novella of archangels and post-WW2 international schemes.

ALSO IN JUNE:

And right at the end of the month, along with An Occupation of Angels, a list of titles from Iambik:

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

Whew. So: this is the first of these which is not back-dated, so it’s not a terrible place for discussion. What did you love in June? What did I miss?

Posted in link | Tagged audible.com, best-of-audible.com

A look at Amazon.com's best of the year so far in science fiction and fantasy, audio-style

Posted on 2011-06-27 at 17:58 by Sam

Link: A look at Amazon.com’s best of the year so far in science fiction and fantasy, audio-style

Amazon.com has put out a “year’s best so far” style list, with both a top-10 editor’s picks section and a science fiction and fantasy section. (And there’s some previously mentioned titles in the middle grade and teen lists as well.) On the SF&F list:

  1. Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor) has been on my “Most Wanted Audiobook” list since its publication in January; hopefully its appearance at the top of this list can get it a little more attention
  2. Embassytown by China Mieville (Del Rey, May) narrated by Susan Duerden (Random House Audio) was my pick for best Audible.com SFF release in May
  3. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Viking Adult, February) narrated by Jennifer Ikeda (Penguin Audio)
  4. 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks (St. Martin’ss Press, May) narrated by Dick Hill (Tantor Audio, June)
  5. Shadowfever: Fever, Book 5 by Karen Marie Moning (Delacorte, January) narrated by Natalie Ross and Phil Gigante (Brilliance Audio, January) is one I missed even noticing along the way; most likely that it is book 5 of a series I haven’t encountered before
  6. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (Orbit) narrated by Jefferson Mays (Recorded Books) is one of a crowded group of mid-June releases
  7. Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday) narrated by Mike Chamberlain (Random House Audio) is another of those mid-June releases
  8. The Wise Man’s Fear: Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 2 by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW Hardcover) narrated by Nick Podehl (Brilliance Audio) was one of March’s best
  9. The Dragon’s Path (The Dagger and the Coin)  by Daniel Abraham (Orbit, April) is another of those “Where’s the Audiobook?” books on the list
  10. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (Viking (YA), April) is another of those high up on my list of “Most Wanted” audiobooks for 2011; her previous adult novel Who Fears Death was one of the best of 2010, and I’m hoping some audiobook publisher sooner or later takes a look at this one as well
None of these titles made the top-10 editor’s picks, but there were a few non-genre books of interest there. So, check them out, and grow that “to read” and “to listen” pile.
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