Release Week: 30 April 2024
← Release Week: 23 April 2024Release Week: 7 May 2024 →
Release Week: 30 April 2024
Posted on 2024-04-30 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
Oracle by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, read by Nathaniel Priestley for Macmillan -- "On a foggy winter morning, high school kids Luca and Emma discover the impossible: the wreck of an eighteenth-century ship stranded in a flower field. Emma enters the hatch on the deck and is never seen again. And she isn’t the last to disappear. Soon a government agency begins to investigate, determined to uncover the ship’s secrets before a media storm erupts. They enlist Robert Grim, a retired specialist of the occult, to unravel the mystery, and he soon realizes the ship could be a harbinger of an ancient doom awakened under the sea. In a maelstrom of international intrigue and pure terror, Grim and Luca must race against time as they come face-to-face with an open doorway to the apocalypse."
City of Blows By: Tim Blake Nelson, read by the author for HighBridge -- "It's early 2020, and legendary producer Jacob Rosenthal is eager to make his next film, Coal, adapted from the bestselling novel by the celebrated writer Rex Patterson. The project-which takes on the controversial topic of race in America-is Jacob's envisioned magnum opus, and likely his swan song. He selects David Levit to direct, a major opportunity for the classically trained actor/director whose own films, while garnering critical acclaim, have not resulted in box office success. But the announcement of David's hiring doesn't sit well with a producer from David's past, Brad Shlansky, who channels the last remaining vestiges of his creativity into a revenge plot that could very well scupper the making of Coal, and ruin the lives of its producer and director in the process."
Mother Doll: A Novel By: Katya Apekina, read by Christina Delaine for Tantor -- "Zhenia is adrift in Los Angeles, pregnant with a baby her husband doesn't want, while her Russian grandmother and favorite person in the world is dying on the opposite coast. She's deeply disconnected from herself and her desires when she gets a strange call from Paul, a psychic medium who usually specializes in channeling dead pets, with a message from the other side. Zhenia's great-grandmother Irina, a Russian Revolutionary, has approached him from a cloud of ancestral grief, desperate to tell her story and receive absolution from Zhenia."
Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose, read by Cassandra Campbell for Blackstone -- "While going through their parents' belongings, three siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends."
Real Americans: A Novel by Rachel Khong, read by Louisa Zhu for Books on Tape -- "From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures?"
Weird Tales Magazine No. 368: Occult Detective Issue edited by Jonathan Maberry, read by a full cast for Blackstone -- "All-original tales about people who peer into the shadows in order to solve a mystery. Sometimes successfully … and sometimes the darkness wins."
NON-FICTION WATCH:
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson, read by Will Patton for Books on Tape -- "On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter."
The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni, read by the author for Simon and Schuster -- " From the bestselling author and longtime New York Times columnist comes a lucid, powerful examination of the ways in which grievance has come to define our current culture and politics, on both the right and left."
BACKLIST WATCH:
The Curse of the Mistwraith: The Wars of Light and Shadow, Book 1 By: Janny Wurts (1993), read by Colin Mace for Harper -- "Let each who reads determine the good and the evil for himself. Athera is besieged by the Mistwraith, which blights the land and dims the mysteries guarded by the last fugitives of the old bloodlines. But from a prophecy springs hope: the gifts of two brothers – one dark, one fair, raised on opposite sides of a relentless war – when paired may challenge the Mistwraith’s invasion, though at brutal cost…"
Wraithbound: Spiritbinder Saga, Book 1 By: Tim Akers (2023), read by Eric Jason Martin for Tantor -- "Since he was a boy, Rae Kelthannis has dreamed of being a stormbinder like his father, with an air elemental stitched into the fabric of his soul and the winds of heaven at his command. Those dreams died when his father, through no fault of his own, fell into disgrace and was banned by the justicars of the Iron Council. The family fled to the edge of the Ordered World, to live in fear in the shadow of encroaching Chaos. When Rae defies his father's orders and attempts to stitch an air elemental to his soul, he instead binds himself to a mysterious wraith. That's when things get complicated and the world starts to fall apart around him. Literally."
SERIES WATCH:
Disquiet Gods: Sun Eater, Book 6 by Christopher Ruocchio, read by Samuel Roukin for Recorded Books -- "Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire."
Relics of Ruin: Books of the Usurper, Book 2 By: Erin M. Evans, read by Imogen Church for Orbit -- "The captivating second novel in a trilogy featuring an unlikely team who must find a way to work together and solve an empire-spanning mystery to defend the last place they call home."
Corpselight: Verity Fassbender, Book 2 By: Angela Slatter (2018), read by Taryn Ryan for WF Howes -- "Life in Brisbane is never simple for those who walk between the worlds."
City in the Clouds: Rise of Kers, Book 2 by Daniel Weber, read by a full cast for Soundbooth Theater -- "Despite his victory against the Guild, Kers soon learns that there is now an even greater target upon his cloudy back. Typical."
INDIE WATCH:
Bang Bang Bodhisattva By: Aubrey Wood, read by Adi Cabral for Tantor -- "It's 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule's social score is so dismal they're about to lose their crib. That's why she's out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P. I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. Then the latest job cuts too deep-hired to locate Herrera's ex-best friend (who's also Kiera's pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Their only lead: a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene. Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missing-sans a hand (the real one, not the cybernetic), and there's the familiar stink of sandalwood across the apartment. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit."
The Atrocity Engine: Custodians of the Cosmos, Book 1 by Tim Waggoner, read by Joe Hempel for Aethon -- "Creatures from dark dimensions infesting your home? Demonic beings trying to drive you insane? Alien gods attempting to destroy your universe? Just call Maintenance. This underpaid and overworked secret organization is dedicated to battling forces that seek to speed up Entropy and hasten the Omniverse’s inevitable death."
Department of Dungeon Studies: A Magic Academy LitRPG by J Pal, read by Eric Jason Martin for Aethon -- "Fate dealt Nox the Alchemist unfavorable cards, but he has learnt to compensate for his shortcomings with scholarly pursuits, tenacity, and sheer grit. Fortunately, for him Woodson University and their scouts are always seeking individuals with his work ethic. The Department of Dungeon Studies sees the value of the mind and its ability to overcome all limitations. After all, they stripped the divine of their titles. The department turned gods into Dungeon Lords and their domains into Dungeons. Now, the department can teach Nox how to use magic to stand strong in a broken world. It will give him the tools to achieve his ambitions and his limitations will force him to the forefront of arcane discovery. Unfortunately, more immediate challenges await Nox, too. He lacks the means to pay the university’s ridiculous tuition. Only alchemy and smart business deals will earn him the hundreds of gold coins he needs."
In the Roses of Pieria: Blood Files, Book 1 By: Anna Burke, read by Savannah Rivers for Tantor -- "When Clara Eden is offered a job as an archivist working for eccentric estate owner Agatha Montague, she thinks her prayers have been answered. Soon, she finds herself sucked into the world of her research, captivated by a romantic correspondence thousands of years old. But as her feelings for her employer's assistant, Fiadh, deepen, so too does her suspicion that something about Agatha Montague isn't quite right. Unfortunately for Clara, by the time her suspicions are confirmed, it is far too late to run."
A Tangled Road to Justice: Paladins of Distant Suns, Book 1 By: Olan Thorensen, read by Scott Aiello for Podium -- "When former soldier Everett Cole signed on to help colony planets prepare for joining the Federation, his employers were disconcertingly vague about their identity and his duties. Yet, the pay was good, and it got him off Earth and on the way to a fresh start. More reservations arose when, 11 light-years from Earth, he met his partner, Edgar Millen, an enigmatic man with a penchant for violent solutions and a fetish for the mythology and language of the American Wild West. It wasn't until they reached the colony world of Astrild that the mission became somewhat clearer. They were players in multi-faceted efforts to steer colony worlds in preparation for joining the Federation."
MOST MISSING:
- Hurled Headlong Flaming: The Bishop's Tale by Matt Holder (Spiral Tower Press) -- "A dark fantasy novella that follows a priest on a perilous quest to a hellish underworld to retrieve an ancient manuscript he believes can help prevent the apocalypse."