Release Week: 15 November 2022
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Release Week: 15 November 2022
Posted on 2022-11-15 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction edited by Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight Narrated by: Amin El Gamal, Kim Staunton, Dele Ogundiran, Tony Tambi, Tamika Katon-Donegal, and Jamie Lincoln Smith for Recorded Books -- "From an award-winning team of editors comes an anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora."
Into Shadow: Where the Truth Lies By: Tomi Champion-Adeyemi, Lev Grossman, Alix E. Harrow, Nghi Vo, Tamsyn Muir, Veronica G. Henry, and Garth Nix, read by Keylor Leigh, Kimberly Woods, Saskia Maarleveld, Natalie Naudus, Susan Dalian, Kristyl Dawn Tift, and Timothy Campbell for Amazon Original Stories -- Also available individually: "Some truths are carefully concealed; others merely forgotten. In this spellbinding collection, seven acclaimed fantasy authors create characters who venture into the depths where others fear to tread. But when forbidden knowledge is the ultimate power, how far can they go before the darkness consumes them?"
Strega: A Novel By: Johanne Lykke Holm, translated by Saskia Vogel, read by Kristen Sieh for Penguin -- "Powerfully inventive and atmospheric, a modern gothic story of nine young women sent to work at a remote Alpine hotel and what happens when one of them goes missing."
Tread of Angels By: Rebecca Roanhorse, read by Dion Graham for Simon and Schuster -- "Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of advocatus diaboli, to defend her sister, Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue, a member of the ruling class of this mining town, in a new world of dark fantasy."
I Am the Light of This World By: Michael Parker, read by Michael Crouch for Algonquin -- "In the early 1970s, in Stovall, Texas, seventeen-year-old Earl—a loner, dreamer, lover of music and words—meets Tina, the new girl in town. Tina convinces Earl to drive her to see her mother in Austin, where Earl and Tina are quickly separated. Two days later, Earl is being questioned by the police about Tina’s disappearance and the blood in the trunk of his car. But Earl can’t remember what happened in Austin, and with little financial support from his working-class family, he is sentenced for a crime he did not commit. Forty years later, Earl is release into a world he can barely navigate. Settling in a small town on the Oregon coast, he attempts to establish a sense of freedom from both bars and razor wire and the emotional toll of incarceration. But just as Earl finds the rhythm he’s always sought, his past returns to endanger the new life he’s built."
The Weather Woman By: Sally Gardner, read by Sophie Roberts for W.F. Howes -- "Neva Friezland is born into a world of trickery and illusion, where fortunes can be won and lost on the turn of a card. She is also born with an extraordinary gift. She can predict the weather. In Regency England, where the proper goal for a gentlewoman is marriage and only God knows the weather this is dangerous. It is also potentially very lucrative. In order to debate with the men of science and move about freely, Neva adopts a sophisticated male disguise. She foretells the weather from inside an automaton created by her brilliant clockmaker father. But what will happen when the disguised Neva falls in love with a charismatic young man?"
Never the Wind By: Francesco Dimitri, read by Ben Allen for W.F. Howes -- "A bittersweet gothic fantasy of family, friendship, memory, and the uncanny told from the perspective of a blind teenager in Puglia, Southern Italy, set in the same world as The Book of Hidden Things, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman, Donna Tartt and Haruki Murakami."
The Wilderwomen: A Novel By: Ruth Emmie Lang, read by Anna Caputo for Macmillan -- "Five years ago, Nora Wilder disappeared. The older of her two daughters, Zadie, should have seen it coming, because she can literally see things coming. But not even her psychic abilities were able to prevent their mother from vanishing one morning."
How to Survive Everything: A Novel By: Ewan Morrison, read by Caitlin Kelly for Harper -- "Children of divorce, Haley and Ben live with their mother. But their dad believes there’s a new, much deadlier pandemic coming and is determined to keep them alive. He wants to take them to his prepper hideaway where they will be safe from other people. NOW. But there’s no way their mother will go along with his plan. Saving them requires extreme measures. Kidnapped by their father and confined to his compound far off the grid, Haley and Ben have no contact with the outside world. How can they save their mother? Will they make it out alive? Is the threat real—or is this all just a dark fantasy brought on by their conspiracy obsessed father’s warped imagination?"
The Ghost of Danny McGee By: Quinlan Grim, read by Patricia Santomasso for Tantor -- "Camp Phoenix is a controversial and expensive summer camp program that transfers adults' consciousness into a clone of their childhood selves. On the surface, it's an ordinary summer camp. Twelve-year-old Logan has come to have a relaxing, carefree summer. She wants to ride horses, make new friends, and she loves listening to ghost stories. Sam is a twenty-year-old counselor, taking on the responsibility of the kids' care by day, and riding the rollercoaster of a summer romance after hours. As Logan faces the ups and downs of puberty, Sam watches over her and struggles with the bizarre truth: the campers in her care are not kids at all, but wealthy adults immersed in the ultimate escape from reality."
The Perfect Assassin: Doc Savage Thriller, Book 1 By: James Patterson and Brian Sitts, read by Joshua Kane and Suzanne Elise Freeman for Grand Central -- "Prof. Brandt Savage—grandson of the legendary action hero—is forced into a top-secret training program where he discovers his true calling."
Time Enough by Jay Martel, read by Soneela Nankani and Vikas Adam for Audible Originals -- "Bobby N. Kowen is living his life to the fullest. He’s making friends, he’s learning new things all the time, he’s falling in love, he’s having adventures. He’s doing more in a single week than most of us experience in a lifetime. But that’s the thing. That one week is all that Bobby has. Birth to death… in just seven days. Bobby’s life is truly a race against time. No one who meets him will ever be the same. And they will each wonder: Do we live too long to really appreciate how precious life is?"
NON-FICTION WATCH:
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us By: Hanif Abdurraqib (2017), read by the author for OrangeSky -- "In the wake of the nightclub attacks in Paris, he recalls how he sought refuge as a teenager in music, at shows, and wonders whether the next generation of young Muslims will not be afforded that opportunity now. While discussing the everyday threat to the lives of black Americans, Abdurraqib recounts the first time he was ordered to the ground by police officers: for attempting to enter his own car."
Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius By: Nick Hornby, read by Alex Jennings for Penguin -- "From the bestselling author of Just Like You, High Fidelity, and Fever Pitch, a short, warm, and entertaining book about art, creativity, and the unlikely similarities between Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and modern American rock star Prince."
Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening By: Douglas Brinkley, read by Stephen Graybill for Harper -- "New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon."
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times By: Michelle Obama, read by the author for Random House -- "In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, #1 bestselling memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world."
MOST MISSING:
Pulling the Wings Off Angels by K.J. Parker (Tor.com) -- "Long ago, a wealthy man stole an angel and hid her in a chapel, where she remains imprisoned to this day. That’s the legend, anyway. A clerical student who’s racked up gambling debts to a local gangster is given an ultimatum—deliver the angel his grandfather kidnapped, or forfeit various body parts in payment."
Rainbear!!!!!!!!! by Never Angeline North (Apocalypse Party) -- "The story of a woman who lives in a coffee shop where she makes a job out of loving people while inventing worlds in her dreams. The coffee shop is staffed by a barista-cum-border-guard who people show up to stab every week. Later, the narrative channels 18th century Jewish folktales as she is told a bedtime story about two queer lovers, who are themselves then told a dreamlike, quasi-erotic tale of a pagan prophet without a home. In this way, narratives eat each other and turn inside out as stories are found within stories and new adventures are told by unexpected rainbow bears that are also mountains and pages of journals are found papered inside the nests of vomitbirds."
The Woods: Stories by Janice Obuchowski (University of Iowa Press) -- "Explores the lives of people in a small Vermont college town and its surrounding areas—a place at the edge of the bucolic, where the land begins to shift into something untamed."
SERIES WATCH:
The Fall of Númenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-Earth By: J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Brian Sibley, read by Samuel West for Harper -- "J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings on the Second Age of Middle-earth, collected for the first time in one volume."
Neom: A Central Station Novel By: Lavie Tidhar, read by Rasha Zamamiri for Dreamscape -- "The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. Neom is a tech wonderland for the rich and beautiful, an urban sprawl along the Red Sea, and a port of call between Earth and the stars. In the desert, young orphan Elias has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world from Central Station. But the desert is full of mechanical artefacts, some unexplained and some unexploded. Recently, a wry unnamed robot has unearthed one of the region’s biggest mysteries: the vestiges of a golden man. In Neom, childhood affection is rekindling between loyal shurta-officer Nasir and hardworking flower-seller Mariam. But Nasu, a deadly terror-artist, has come to the city with missing memories and unfinished business. Just one robot can change a city’s destiny with a single rose—especially if that robot is in search of lost love."
Wayward: Wanderers, Book 2 By: Chuck Wendig, read by Xe Sands and Dominic Hoffman for Random House -- "Five years ago, ordinary Americans fell under the grip of a strange new malady that caused them to sleepwalk across the country to a destination only they knew. They were followed on their quest by the shepherds: friends and family who gave up everything to protect them. Their secret destination: Ouray, a small town in Colorado that would become one of the last outposts of civilization. Because the sleepwalking epidemic was only the first in a chain of events that led to the end of the world—and the birth of a new one."
Flight Risk: Booking Agents Series, Book 2 By: Cherie Priest, read by Ulka Simone Mohanty, and Timothy Andrés Pabon for Simon and Schuster -- "Inconsistent psychic Leda Foley and Seattle detective Grady Merritt return to solve the case of a missing couple."
Heart of the Sun Warrior: Celestial Kingdom, Book 2 By: Sue Lynn Tan, read by Natalie Naudus for Harper -- "The stunning sequel to Daughter of the Moon Goddess delves deeper into beloved Chinese mythology, concluding the epic story of Xingyin—the daughter of Chang’e and the mortal archer, Houyi—as she battles a grave new threat to the realm, in this powerful tale of love, sacrifice, and hope."
1824: The Arkansas War: Trail of Glory Series, Book 2 By: Eric Flint, read by Franklin Pierson for Recorded Books -- "An astounding and provocative saga of heroism, battlefield action, racial conflict, and rebellion as a nation recovering from war is plunged into a dangerous era of secession."
Before Your Memory Fades: Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, Book 3 By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi, read by Kevin Shen for Harlequin -- "In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time."
A Ghost of Caribou: Alex Carter, Book 3 By: Alice Henderson, read by Eva Kaminsky for Harper
The Killing God: The Great God's War, Book 3 By: Stephen R. Donaldson, read by Scott Brick for Penguin
The Serpent in Heaven: Gunnie Rose, Book 4 By: Charlaine Harris, read by Eva Kaminsky
The Twist of a Knife: A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery, Book 4 By: Anthony Horowitz, read by Rory Kinnear
The Lost Metal: The Mistborn Saga, Book 7, Wax and Wayne, Book 4 By: Brandon Sanderson, read by Michael Kramer
BACKLIST WATCH:
Over the Wine-Dark Sea: Hellenic Traders, Book 1 By: Harry Turtledove (2001, as H.N. Turtletaub), read by Tim Campbell for Blackstone -- "Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper, the scholarly Sostratos, are sea-traders from the Greek island of Rhodes. Fearless sailors, they will travel any distance to make a profit or to search for rich treasures. While they trade in fineries such as wine and silk (and even, to the chagrin of many, peacocks), they live in dangerous times with pirates, thieves, and barbarians. As if avoiding death by the hands of these miscreants isn’t enough (particularly the barbarians from an obscure town called Rome), they are also caught between the political intrigues of Alexander’s former generals."
The Immortals of Meluha: Shiva Trilogy, Book 1 By: Amish Tripathi (2008), read by Manish Dongardive for Audible -- "The year 1900 BC. In what modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation. The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha–a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived."
Broken Souls: Eric Carter, Book 2 By: Stephen Blackmoore (2014), read by Rudy Sanda for Tantor -- "Sister murdered, best friend dead, married to the patron saint of death, Santa Muerte. Necromancer Eric Carter's return to Los Angeles hasn't gone well, and it's about to get even worse."
Heaven's Queen: Paradox, Book 3 By: Rachel Bach (2014), read by Emily Durante for Tantor -- "From the moment she took a job on Captain Caldswell's doomed ship, Devi Morris's life has been one disaster after another: government conspiracies, two alien races out for her blood, an incurable virus that's eating her alive. Now, with the captain missing and everyone—even her own government—determined to hunt her down, things are going from bad to impossible."
Behemoth: B-Max: Rifters Trilogy, Book 3, Part 1 By: Peter Watts (2004), read by Alison Ewing for Tantor -- "Redemption doesn't come easy with the blood of a world on your hands."
NEW EDITION WATCH:
The Wonder By: Emma Donoghue (2016), read by Tara Egan Langley for Little, Brown and Co -- A new narration replacing the original by Kate Lock: "An English nurse is brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle—a girl said to have survived without food for months—and soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life."
A Book of Tongues: The Hexslinger Series, Book 1 By: Gemma Files (2010), read by Donald Corren for Blackstone -- I loved this book in its former production from Iambik Audio, now it's back under new management: "Former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic. He uses his power to terrorize the Wild West, leading a gang of outlaws, thieves, and killers, with his cruel lieutenant and lover, Chess Pargeter, by his side. Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow is going undercover to infiltrate the gang, armed with a shotgun and a device that measures sorcerous energy. His job is to gain knowledge of Rook’s power and unlock its secrets. But there is someone else who has Rook in her sights: the Lady of Traps and Snares, a bloodthirsty Mayan goddess who will stop at nothing to satisfy her own desires."
Forever, Interrupted: A Novel By: Taylor Jenkins Reid (2013), read by Julia Whelan for Simon and Schuster -- New narration replacing the former Tara Sands performance for Dreamscape: "Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year’s Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn’t expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped. Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met—and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists."
INDIE WATCH:
- The Coming Darkness By: Greg Mosse, read by Gareth Armstrong for Moonflower -- "Paris, 2037. Alexandre Lamarque of the French external security service is hunting for eco-terrorists. Experience has taught him there is no one he can trust. Experience has taught him there is no one he can trust—not his secretive lover Mariam, not even his old mentor, Professor Fayard, the man at the center of the web."