Release Week: 7 February 2023
← Release Week: 31 January 2023Release Week: 14 February 2023 →
Release Week: 7 February 2023
Posted on 2023-02-07 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
FEATURED PICK:
- Victory City: A Novel By: Salman Rushdie, read by Sid Sagar for Random House -- "In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—“victory city”—the wonder of the world."
FEATURED BACKLIST:
- The Alteration By: Kingsley Amis (1976), read by Michael Fox for Penguin (2020) -- Available overseas for a couple of years, finally in the US store: "In Kingsley Amis’s virtuoso foray into virtual history it is 1976, but the modern world is a medieval relic, frozen in intellectual and spiritual time ever since Martin Luther was promoted to pope back in the sixteenth century. Stephen the Third, the king of England, has just died, and Mass (Mozart’s second requiem) is about to be sung to lay him to rest. In the choir is our hero, Hubert Anvil, an extremely ordinary ten-year-old boy with a faultless voice. In the audience is a select group of experts whose job is to determine whether that faultless voice should be preserved by performing a certain operation. Art, after all, is worth any sacrifice."
FEATURED SERIES:
The Mountain Shadow: Shantaram, Book 2 By: Gregory David Roberts (2015), read by Humphrey Bower for Audible Australia -- "It has been two years since the events in Shantaram, and since Lin lost two people he had come to love."
Don't Fear the Reaper By: Stephen Graham Jones, read by Isabella Star LaBlanc, Jane Levy, Alexis Floyd, Pete Simonelli, Ali Andre Ali, Timothy Andrés Pabon, Marni Penning, Dan Bittner, Corey Brill, Matt Pittenger, Jesse Vilinsky, Migizi Pensoneau, Lee Osorio, and a full cast for Simon and Schuster -- "December 12, 2019, Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw."
MORE NEW FICTION:
The Fires: A Novel By: Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir, translated by Larissa Kyzer, read by Nina Yndis for Brilliance -- "From Icelandic author Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir comes a heart-wrenching thriller about a woman’s desperate quest to save the people she loves from a natural disaster."
Our Share of Night: A Novel By: Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell, read by Frankie Corzo for Random House -- "A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family in the first novel to be translated into English by the International Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed."
A Spell of Good Things: A Novel By: Ayobami Adebayo, read by Babajide Oyekunle and Ore Apampa for Random House -- "A dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two families caught in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession, and political corruption from the celebrated author of Stay with Me."
Hungry Ghosts: A Novel By: Kevin Jared Hosein, read by Don Warrington for Harper -- "From an unforgettable new voice in Caribbean literature, a sweeping story of two families colliding in 1940s Trinidad—and a chilling mystery that shows how interconnected their lives truly are."
What Napoleon Could Not Do: A Novel By: DK Nnuro, read by Kofi Boakye, Ana Hoffman, Adam Lazarre-White for Penguin -- "When siblings Jacob and Belinda Nti were growing up in Ghana, their goal was simple: to move to America. For them, the United States was both an opportunity and a struggle, a goal and an obstacle. For these three, their desires and ambitions highlight the promise and the disappointment that life in a new country offers."
Meru: The Alloy Era, Book 1 By: S.B. Divya, read by Deepa Samuel for Brilliance -- "One woman and her pilot are about to change the future of the species in an epic space opera about aspiration, compassion, and redemption by Hugo and Nebula Award finalist S. B. Divya."
VenCo: A Novel By: Cherie Dimaline, read by Michelle St. John for HarperCollins -- "Métis millennial Lucky St. James is barely hanging on when she learns she’ll be evicted from the tiny Toronto apartment she shares with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella. But then one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. She burrows through a wall to find a tarnished silver spoon, humming with otherworldly energy, etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM. Lucky is familiar with the magic of her indigenous ancestors, but she has no idea that the spoon connects her to a teeming network of witches across North America who have anxiously awaited her discovery. Enter VenCo, a front company fueled by vast resources of dark money (its name is an anagram of “coven.”) VenCo’s witches hide in plain sight wherever women gather: Tupperware parties, Mommy & Me classes, suburban book clubs. Since colonial times, they have awaited the moment the seven spoons will come together and ignite a new era, returning women to their rightful power. But as reckoning approaches, a very powerful adversary is stalking their every move. He’s Jay Christos, a roguish and deadly witch-hunter as old as witchcraft itself."
Stone Blind: A Novel By: Natalie Haynes, read by the author for Harper -- "The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman."
The Spite House: A Novel By: Johnny Compton, read by Adam Lazarre-White for Macmillan -- "Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he's desperate for money—it's not easy to find steady, safe work when you can't provide references, you can't stay in one place for long, and you're paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you. When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them."
Cold People By: Tom Rob Smith, read by Rebecca Lowman for Simon and Schuster -- "From the brilliant, bestselling author of Child 44 comes a suspenseful and fast-paced novel about an Antarctic colony of global apocalypse survivors seeking to reinvent civilization under the most extreme conditions imaginable."
Wild Massive By: Scotto Moore, read by Suzy Jackson for Recorded Books -- "When the Architects of the Multiverse were in their infancy and the cosmos was but a seed in the minds of gods, they called together their Artists and their Muses to construct The Building. A grand experiment in trial and error, The Building would serve as a safe space for the experimental crafting of worlds, honing their skills with each successive attempt—wars, and civilizations recorded in spreadsheets for later analysis. Carissa loves her elevator. Up and Down she goes, content with the sometimes chewy food her reality fabricator spits out, as long as it means she doesn’t have to speak to another living person. But when a mysterious shapeshifter from an ambiguous world lands on top of her elevator, intent on stopping a plot to annihilate hundreds of floors, Carissa finds herself stepping out of her elevator—and her comfort zone—risking her life and the secrets of her past in order to preserve the future."
The Hollows By: Daniel Church, read by Gloria Sanders for Isis Audio -- "In a lonely village in the Peak District, during the onset of a once-in-a-lifetime snow storm, Constable Ellie Cheetham finds a body. The man, a local ne'er-do-well, appears to have died in a tragic accident: he drank too much and froze to death. But the facts don't add up: the dead man is clutching a knife in one hand, and there's evidence he was hiding from someone. Stranger still, an odd mark has been drawn onto a stone beside his body."
Gods and Mortals: Ancient Greek Myths for Modern Readers By: Sarah Iles Johnston, read by Vivienne Leheny for Recorded Books -- "An enticing and entrancing new telling of ancient Greek myths."
NON-FICTION WATCH:
The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel by Meredith Bagby, read by the author for Harper -- "The never-before-told story of NASA's 1978 astronaut class, which included the first American women, the first African Americans, the first Asian American, and the first gay person to fly to space. With the exclusive participation of the astronauts who were there, this is the thrilling, behind-the-scenes saga of a new generation that transformed space exploration."
People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account by Mark Pomerantz, read by the author for Simon and Schuster -- " People vs. Donald Trump is a fascinating inside account of the attempt to prosecute former president Donald Trump, written by one of the lawyers who worked on the case and resigned in protest when Manhattan's district attorney refused to act."
YOUNG ADULT WATCH:
- Wildblood: A Novel By: Lauren Blackwood, read by Kerri McLean for Macmillan -- "Eighteen-year-old Victoria is a Wildblood. Since she was kidnapped at the age of six and manipulated by the Exotic Lands Touring Company, she’s worked as a tour guide ever since with a team of fellow Wildbloods who take turns using their magic to protect travelers in a Jamaican jungle teeming with ghostly monsters. When the boss denies Victoria an earned promotion to team leader in favor of Dean, her backstabbing ex, she’s determined to prove herself. Her magic may be the most powerful on the team, but she’s not the image the boss wants to send their new client, Thorn, a renowned goldminer determined to reach an untouched gold supply deep in the jungle."
BACKLIST WATCH:
Dragon Wing: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 1 and Elven Star: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 2 By: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (1990), read by Fajer Al-Kaisi for Random House -- FINALLY! While best known for their DragonLance books, Weis and Hickman's Death Gate Cycle was an absolute favorite for me in high school. Looking forward to the revisit! "Ages ago, sorcerers of unmatched power sundered a world into four realms—sky, stone, fire, and water—then vanished. Over time, magicians learned to work spells only in their own realms and forgot the others. Now only the few who have survived the Labyrinth and crossed the Death Gate know of the presence of all four realms—and even they have yet to unravel the mysteries of their severed world."
Kunti: Sati, Book 1 and Ahalya: Sati, Book 2 By: Koral Dasgupta (2021 and 2020), read by Mahjabeen Ali for Audible -- "In the Sati series, Koral Dasgupta explores the lives of the Pancha Kanyas from Indian mythology, all of whom had partners other than their husbands and yet are revered as the most enlightened women, whose purity of mind precedes over the purity of body. The five books of the Sati series reinvent these women and their men, in the modern context with a feminist consciousness."
The Cursed and the Broken: Cursed Blood Series, Book 1 By: Chloe Hodge (2022), read by Romy Nordlinger for Tantor -- "Years ago, the dark queen was executed by witches, her cultists hunted down like rats and forced into hiding. Their black magic buried and put to rest, all was well in the world . . . or so we thought."
SERIES WATCH:
The Cradle of Ice: Moon Fall, Book 2 By: James Rollins, read by Nicola Barber for Macmillan -- "A heart-pumping tale of action, adventure, betrayal, ambition, and the struggle for survival in a harsh world that hangs by a thread."
Maureen: A Harold Fry Novel By: Rachel Joyce, read by Penelope Wilton for Random House -- "From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes a moving novel told from the point of view of Harold’s wife, Maureen. Now undertaking her own pilgrimage, Maureen will discover a way to reconnect with the world she’s closed a door on."
INDIE WATCH:
- Brigand's Choice: A Privateer's Legacy: The Afterwar Saga, Book 1 By: Jamie McFarlane Narrated by: Mikael Naramore for Fickle Dragon Publishing -- "Chasing his twin sister through an unstable wormhole connects Quinn Hoffen with long-lost family struggling to overcome unscrupulous brigands."
MOST MISSING:
The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium) -- "World Fantasy Award winner Cooney takes readers on a journey of wonder, terror, and joy in this mind-bending, heartfelt novel. Contained inside impassable walls of ice, the city of Gelethel endures under the rule of fourteen angels, who provide for all their subject's needs and mete out grisly punishments for blasphemous infractions, with escape attempts one of the worst possible sins."
Virgin Land by Chloe Smith (Luna Press) -- "Shayla Gainrad is a young woman raised in a splinter community of reactionary would-be settlers who abandon interplanetary society for newly discovered planets. Shayla has achieved the settler dream—a home on the frontier world Erde, surrounded by rich and fertile lands—but she is increasingly lonely, homesick, and alienated from her husband. Although Shayla has told herself to endure, events on Erde begin to push her new life into disarray. The arrival of spacers from outside the settler community, a freak accident, and the persistence of Erde’s wild flora and fauna all add to Shayla’s growing realisation."
The Lies We Tell Ourselves by L.K. Kitney (Luna Press) -- "In a world still bearing the scars from an ancient magical conflict, those who wield magic – or are changed by it – are condemned as abominations, their lives forfeit. Raised at sea under the tyrannical rule of his father, there is nothing the young Captain Fiaer Dradorn won’t do for the knowledge of a lost treasure that drove his father’s obsession. Even start a war."
Miasma by Jess Hyslop (Luna Press) -- "Living alone with his mother on the edge of an ever-encroaching swamp teeming with toxic magic, young Nereus Vestryn has grown up hearing stories about the feral people the ‘miasma’ has infected. So when one morning he finds his mother crawling sickened from the swamp, he has no choice but to summon a mage to help her."
The Night Begins by Abigail F. Taylor (Luna Press) -- "Freshman, Darcy Mills, wants nothing more than to repair a strained relationship with her mother. When Darcy receives a letter from Althea asking for help with a downsizing move to Dallas, she is excited at the prospect of reconnecting. Facing the frightening memories trapped in the walls of her childhood home, is daunting, but Darcy is determined to have Althea back. Unfortunately, the past isn’t the only thing to haunt Darcy. An evil lurks in the nearby woods, and It has noted her arrival."
Ashes of the Ancestors by Andrew Knighton (Luna Press) -- "In a haunted monastery at the heart of a crumbling empire, a lone priest tends the fires for the dead. A servant bound by the bones of her family, Magdalisa is her people’s last link to the wisdom of the past. But as the land around them dies, new arrivals throw the monastery into turmoil. A dead warlord demanding recognition. Her rival, seizing the scraps of power. Two priests, both claiming to serve the spirits, both with their own agendas."
Broken Paradise by Eugen Bacon (Luna Press) -- "After falling out with her brothers, Samaki the goddess of water flees to Earth where she must mask her trace by splitting into a quadruplet of magi. A quadruplet is perfect, but all things are never equal."