Release Week: 16 August 2022
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Release Week: 16 August 2022
Posted on 2022-08-16 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
The First Binding: Tales of Tremaine, Book 1 By: R.R. Virdi, read by Vikas Adam for Macmillan -- "All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first. I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I've stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved, and wanted to save. I've called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster. My name is Ari. And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil."
Witches By: Brenda Lozano, translated by Heather Cleary, read by Kyla García for HighBridge -- "Paloma is dead. But before she was murdered, before she was even Paloma, she was a traditional healer named Gaspar. Before she was murdered, she taught her cousin Feliciana the secrets of the ceremonies known as veladas, and about the Language and the Book that unlock their secrets. Sent to report on Paloma's murder, Zoe meets Feliciana in the mountain village of San Felipe. There, the two women's lives twist around each other in a danse macabre. Feliciana tells Zoe the story of her struggle to become an accepted healer in her community, and Zoe begins to understand the hidden history of her own experience as a woman, finding her way in a hostile environment shaped by and for men."
Touch: A Novel By: Olaf Olafsson, read by Peter Noble for Harper -- "A mesmerizing, panoramic story of one man’s search to find a lover who suddenly disappeared decades before."
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs By: Sidik Fofana, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Nile Bullock, Sidik Fofana, Dominic Hoffman, DePre Owens, André Santana, Bahni Turpin, Jade Wheeler for Simon and Schuster -- "Set in a Harlem high rise, a stunning debut about a tight-knit cast of characters grappling with their own personal challenges while the forces of gentrification threaten to upend life as they know it."
A History of Present Illness: A Novel By: Anna DeForest, read by Helen Laser for Little, Brown and Company -- "A novel of meticulous brevity and a tone and vision all its own, transmuting the practice of medicine into a larger exploration of humanity, the meaning of care, and the nature of annihilation—physical, spiritual, or both."
Elizabeth Finch By: Julian Barnes, read by Justin Avoth for Recorded Books -- "We'd like to introduce you to Elizabeth Finch. We invite you to take her course in Culture and Civilisation. Her ideas are not to everyone's taste. But she will change the way you see the world."
No Kindness Too Soon By: Sylvain Neuvel, read by Melanie Nicholls-King, Deepti Gupta, Neil Hellegers, Gabriel Vaughan, Kathy Searle, Imani Jade Powers, Nicolette Chin, Gopal Divan, and Garrett Michael Brown for Audible Originals -- "A mysterious radio signal is picked up from a neighboring star system. A group of experts is brought to the floor of the Grand Canyon to investigate its origin and its meaning as the planet suffers one natural disaster after another. Cut off from the rest of the world, they must question everything, including each other, if they hope to solve the mystery."
BACKLIST WATCH:
- Go Back at Once By: Robert Aickman (1975), read by Kim Howsley for Audible -- "A delicious, delirious comic fantasy about the joys and terrors experienced by two young women seeking to escape the degradations of our technological and conformist age by fleeing to a chaotic, poet-ruled utopia."
SERIES WATCH:
The Oleander Sword: Burning Kingdoms, Book 2 By: Tasha Suri, read by Shiromi Arserio for Orbit -- Sequel to The Jasmine Throne. "The prophecy of the nameless god—the words that declared Malini the rightful empress of Parijatdvipa—has proven a blessing and curse. She is determined to claim the throne that fate offered her. But even with the strength of the rage in her heart and the army of loyal men by her side, deposing her brother is going to be a brutal and bloody fight."
Second Spear: Mkalis Cycle, Book 2 By: Kerstin Hall, read by Michael Braun for Recorded Books -- "After surviving the schemes of a vengeful goddess and learning some shattering truths about her former life, the warrior Tyn feels estranged from her role guarding her ruler. Grappling with knowledge of her identity, she unleashes her frustration on all the wrong people."
Dawnshard: Stormlight Archive, Book 3.5 By: Brandon Sanderson, read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer for Recorded Books -- "Taking place between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, this tale (like Edgedancer before it) gives often-overshadowed characters their own chance to shine."
TIE-IN WATCH:
Star Wars: The Princess and the Scoundrel By: Beth Revis, read by Saskia Maarleveld and Marc Thompson for Random House -- "You are cordially invited to the wedding of Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo."
Assassin's Creed:The Magus Conspiracy By: Kate Heartfield, read by Moira Quirk for Recorded Books -- "The war between Assassins and Templars wreaks havoc in the Victorian era."
Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War By Weston Ochse and Yvonne Navarro, read by Kate Rudd for Blackstone -- "The planet LV-363 teems with exotic life, including a plant growing in the shadows of its deep rifts. The plant’s flower yields a valuable narcotic, and people are forced by the cartels to harvest it. When a Yautja (Predator) ship arrives for a hunting ritual, the Predators seed the rifts with Xenomorph eggs. The aliens emerge and the result is bizarre and deadly hybrids, with humans trapped between the Predators and their prey. These deadly Xenomorph hybrids—some of which possess the ability to fly—swarm out of control and may prove more than either the Yautja or the humans can defeat."
MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:
Dark Harvest By: Will Jordan, read by Bradford Hastings for Blackstone -- "For fans of World War Z, a chilling mystery, an ancient threat, and a race against time to save humanity—inspired by the true events of the Dyatlov Pass incident."
Tune in Tomorrow By: Randee Dawn, read by Rebecca LaChance for Penguin -- "She's just a small town girl, with big mythic dreams. Starr Weatherby came to New York to become...well, a star. But after ten years and no luck, she's offered a big role—on a show no one has ever heard of. And there's a reason for that. It's a 'reality' show beyond the Veil, human drama, performed for the entertainment of the Fae."
MOST MISSING:
The Year's Best Fantasy: Volume One edited by Paula Guran (Pyr) -- "This superbly curated collection explores myth and fable, dark and light—a heroic creature facing a dangerous demon; an earthly love facing the mossy decay of death. With tales of living ball gowns and timid monsters, of modern witches and multidimensional magic, these twenty-four stories will transport you from fantastical realms that push the limits of imagination to alternative realities mirroring much of our own. Discover bewitchment and wonder, the surreal and the chimerical, in a fantasy anthology representing a diverse array of accomplished talent from around the world . . . and perhaps beyond."
Warlady: The Calpurnian Wars, Book 2 by Jo Walton (Candlemark and Gleam) -- "The Warlady of Morrigan has been assassinated, and it’s up to her military attaché, Sandrine Dal-Vesta, to find the killer. For Sandrine and her former secret lover, the electromancer Jauffre Castal-Edo, it’s a race against time with control of the planet hanging in the balance."
A Spaceship Repair Girl Supposedly Named Rachel by Richard Roberts (Crossroad Press) -- "One minute, Rachel is taking a break from babysitting. The next, she's escaping the Earth on a pedal-powered interplanetary bus. It could happen to anybody."
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