Release Week: 17 May 2022
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Release Week: 17 May 2022
Posted on 2022-05-17 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
All the Seas of the World By: Guy Gavriel Kay, read by Simon Vance for Penguin -- "Returning triumphantly to the brilliantly evoked near-Renaissance world of A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky, international bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay deploys his signature "quarter turn to the fantastic" to tell a story of vengeance, power, and love."
This Time Tomorrow: A Novel By: Emma Straub, read by Marin Ireland for Penguin -- "On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday."
Another Now: A Novel By: Yanis Varoufakis, read by Kevin Kenerly for Blackstone -- "Imagine a world with no banks. No stock market. No tech giants. No billionaires. Imagine if Occupy and Extinction Rebellion actually won. In Another Now, world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis shows us what such a world would look like. Far from being a fantasy, he describes how it could have come about—and might yet. But would we really want it?"
Razzmatazz: A Novel By: Christopher Moore, read by Johnny Heller for Harper -- "Repeat New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns to the mean streets of San Francisco in this outrageous follow-up to his madcap novel Noir."
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile By: Candice Millard, read by Paul Michael for Random House -- "For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe–and extend their colonial empires."
MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:
The Stardust Thief By: Chelsea Abdullah, read by Nikki Massoud, Sean Rohani, and Rasha Zamamiri for Orbit -- "Inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, this book weaves together the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp."
The Collarbound By: Rebecca Zahabi, read by Lara Sawalha and Peter Kenny for Gollancz -- "A man marked by magic. A woman marked by her past. On the other side of the Shadowpass, rebellion is brewing and refugees have begun to trickle into the city at the edge of the world. Looming high on the cliff is The Nest, a fortress full of mages who offer protection, but also embody everything the rebellion is fighting against: a strict hierarchy based on magic abilities. When Isha arrives as a refugee, she attempts to fit in amongst the other mages, but her Kher tattoo brands her as an outcast. She can't remember her past or why she has the tattoo. All she knows is that she survived. She doesn't intend to give up now. Tatters, who wears the golden collar of a slave, knows that this rebellion is different from past skirmishes. He was once one of the rebels, and technically, they still own him. He plans to stay in the shadows, until Isha appears in his tavern. He's never seen a human with a tattoo, and the markings look eerily familiar...."
The Watchers By: A.M. Shine, read by Jacqueline Milne for Head of Zeus on WF Howes -- "You can't see them. But they can see you. This forest isn't charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina's is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams."
Out of the Earth: Out of the Earth Series, Book 1 By: Jake Bible, read by Eric Michael Summerer for Tantor -- "The Yellowstone supervolcano has begun to erupt, sending North America into chaos and the rest of the world into a panic. People are dangerous and desperate, knowing this will plunge the continent, and the world, into perpetual winter. Until they realize that the eruption is the least of their worries . . . Out of the massive chasm comes more than ash and lava. Giant monsters emerge, bent on destroying everything in sight."
A Rumor of Kings: Kingdom of Ghosts, Book 1 By: Victor Gischler, read by John Lee for Tantor -- "He's a gambler, womanizer, opportunist, and inebriate . . . and the kingdom's only chance. Greymond, the Scattered Kingdom, has been without a king for hundreds of years, a place ruled by squabbling barons and dukes. Occasionally, rumors arise: a king of the old blood has returned to claim his throne. These days, such claims are met with groans and eye-rolls. Pretenders abound . . . and are generally ignored. But scheming powers are plotting, machinations that have been in the works for years, and this time . . . Enter Merrik Niles. A thief hired by dangerous people to steal a map, he instead keeps it for himself, hoping to follow it to some mysterious prize."
Nine Tenths By: Jeff Macfee, read by Rob Brinkmann for OrangeSky -- "Augment phase technology was rare. The last appearance of anything resembling phase technology was 15 years ago. I knew the date.... It was the date of the Doctor Dimension repo. In a world full of “Augments”—humans who use technology to imbue themselves with superpowers of every sort—being an average man would seem a good way to keep out of trouble. Not so for repo man Gayle Harwood. It’s his job to seize enhancements from Augments who fall behind on the payments for their high-tech advantages. And they rarely part with them easily. Now an infamous job Gayle was a part of long ago has come back to haunt him."
BACKLIST WATCH:
The Din of Celestial Birds By: Brian Evenson (1997), read by Jonathan Beville for Audible -- "Though published second after Altmann's Tongue, The Din of Celestial Birds (1997) consists of the best of Evenson's early stories. They take place in a country (perhaps several countries) that seems at once everywhere and nowhere, haunted by birds, ghosts, poverty, tyranny, and the permeability of the line between the living and the dead."
Archform: Beauty By: L. E. Modesitt Jr. (2010), read by BJ Harrison and Tina Wolstencroft for Tantor -- "Four centuries in the future, the world is rich—nanomachines watch the health of the wealthy and manufacture food and gadgets for everybody—but no utopia, as we see in the lives of five very different people: a singing teacher, a news researcher, a police investigator, a politician, and a ruthless businessman."
Armageddon's Children: Pre-Shannara: Genesis of Shannara, Book 1 By: Terry Brooks (2006), read by Dick Hill for Random House -- "The perfect opportunity for listeners unfamiliar with Brooks’s previous work to experience an author at the height of his considerable storytelling powers. It is a gripping chronicle of a once-familiar world now spun shockingly out of control, in which an extraordinary few struggle to salvage hope in the face of terrifying chaos."
The Palace of Love: The Demon Princes Series, Book 3 By: Jack Vance, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat -- "Five intergalactic criminal masterminds raid the tranquil world of Mount Pleasant, leaving behind only ruin and slaughter—and the orphaned child Kirth Gersen, who comes to manhood swearing to take bloody revenge. Now Gersen roams the galaxy, bringing vengeance to the Demon Princes one by one, in Jack Vance’s classic series of hardboiled space opera."
SERIES WATCH:
The Hourglass Throne: The Tarot Sequence, Book 3 By: K. D. Edwards, read by Josh Hurley for Audible -- "As Rune Saint John grapples with the challenges of assuming the Sun Throne, a powerful barrier appears around New Atlantis’ famed rejuvenation center. But who could have created such formidable magic...what do they want from the immortality clinic...and what remains of the dozens trapped inside?"
Vampire Hunter D: Tale of the Dead Town: Vampire Hunter D Series, Book 4 By: Hideyuki Kikuchi, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, translated by Kevin Leahy, read by Paul Boehmer
The Lost Journals: Zombie Fallout, Book 17 By: Mark Tufo, read by Sean Runnette