Release Week: 17 September 2024
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Release Week: 17 September 2024
Posted on 2024-09-17 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
FICTION PICKS:
An Academy for Liars By: Alexis Henderson, read by Tracie Frank for Penguin -- "A student will find that the hardest lessons sometimes come from outside the classroom in this stunning dark academia novel from the acclaimed author of The Year of the Witching and House of Hunger."
Alien Clay By: Adrian Tchaikovsky, read by Ben Allen for Orbit -- "The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates, the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival, he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there. In the midst of a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln, but distant Earth as well."
Evil in Me By: Brom, read by Shahjehan Khan, Stephanie Németh-Parker for Macmillan -- "Brom's newest novel of possession, damnation, and rock 'n' roll, where one woman must get the world singing in order to save her soul."
Entitlement: A Novel By: Rumaan Alam, read by Nicole Lewis for Penguin -- "Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?"
The Escapades of Tribulation Johnson By: Karen Brooks, read by Felicity Jurd for Harper -- "A brilliant recreation of the vibrant, optimistic but politically treacherous world of London's Restoration theatre, where we are introduced to the remarkable playwright Aphra Behn, now a feminist icon but then an anomaly, who gravitated to the stage—a place where artifice and disguise are second nature and accommodates those who do not fit in."
We Solve Murders: A Novel By: Richard Osman, read by Nicola Walker for Penguin -- "Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts. As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer?"
The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts By: Louis Bayard, read by Elisabeth Rodgers, Damian Lynch, P.J. Ochlan, Louis Bayard for Algonquin -- "A brilliantly profound and empathetic story about Oscar Wilde's wife Constance and their two sons in the aftermath of the famous playwright's imprisonment for homosexuality, told against the backdrop of Victorian England and World War I."
Observer: A Novel By: Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress, read by Stacey Glemboski for Macmillan -- "After neurosurgeon Caro Soames-Watkins’ career has gone down in flames, she receives a strange job offer from Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sam Watkins, a great uncle she barely knows, and desperation overcomes any suspicions. Watkins’ mysterious medical facility conducts research into the nature of consciousness, reality, and life after death. Two obstacles stand in his way: an intel leak and his failing body may not last long enough for the tech to be ready."
The Most Famous Girl in the World By: Iman Hariri-Kia, read by Samara Naeymi for Recorded Books -- "Rose Aslani is mid-bikini wax when her phone lights up with a notification: Famed scam artist Poppy Hastings will be released from prison today. It’s been two years since Rose—a first-generation Middle Eastern American, functional trainwreck, and reporter for online journal The Shred—wrote the investigative article that exposed Poppy as a socialite grifter. Normally, one of her articles going viral would be cause for celebration, but the highly publicized trial that followed turned Poppy into the internet’s favorite celebrity. And Rose has been reeling from the aftermath ever since."
Ultra 85 By: Logic, read by Steve Blum for Simon and Schuster -- "In the year 2115, when the Earth is no longer inhabitable, the remainder of humanity lives in Babel, a giant space station. Two pilots, Quentin and Kai, must find the planet Paradise, where only the most promising citizens are allowed to live. On their journey, Quentin and Kai encounter Quentin’s estranged father, who left Babel for Paradise when Quentin was a child, and they discover just how different Paradise is from what they imagined—and how they must change it for the better."
The Lantern of Lost Memories By: Sanaka Hiiragi, read by Hanako Footman for Grand Central -- "A heartwarming, life-affirming novel about a magical photo studio, where people go after they die to view key moments from their life—and relive one precious memory before they pass into the afterlife."
Rejection: Fiction By: Tony Tulathimutte, read by a full cast for Harper -- "From the Whiting and O. Henry-winning author of Private Citizens, an electrifying novel-in-stories that follows a cast of intricately linked characters as rejection throws their lives and relationships into chaos."
Buried Deep and Other Stories By: Naomi Novik, read by a full cast for Random House -- "A thrilling collection of thirteen short stories that span the worlds of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance trilogy, including a sneak peek at the land where her next novel will be set."
A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories By: Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell, read by Lee Osorio, Annette Amelia Oliveira, Sol Madariaga, Maria Liatis for Random House -- "A diabolical collection of stories featuring achingly human characters whose lives intertwine with ghosts, goblins, and the macabre."
NON-FICTION WATCH:
A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and Other Wild Places By: Christopher Brown, read by the author for Hachette -- "A genre-bending blend of naturalism, memoir, and social manifesto for rewilding the city, the self, and society."
The Wonder of Stevie by Wesley Morris, read by a full cast for Audible Originals -- "The year 1972 saw the beginning of a five-year span in which Stevie Wonder released five groundbreaking, critically acclaimed albums, garnering him more than half a dozen Grammys and more than 10 million albums sold, securing his place as one of the most important American musicians and songwriters in history."
Health and Safety: A Breakdown By: Emily Witt, read by the author for Random House -- "From the New Yorker staff writer and acclaimed author of Future Sex, a memoir about drugs, techno, and New York City."
YA WATCH:
- The Lies We Conjure By: Sarah Henning, read by Barrett Leddy and Kristen DiMercurio for Listening Library -- "Knives Out meets The Inheritance Games with magic in this standalone supernatural thriller by Sarah Henning: thirteen witches, a locked-room murder, and two non-magical sisters trapped in a deadly whodunit."
MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:
The Runes of Engagement By: Tobias S. Buckell and David Klecha, read by Jay Aaseng for Podium -- "No one could have been prepared for the day when orcs, trolls, and dragons fell from portals in the sky. Now, a very tough but not-quite-prepared platoon of Marines is trapped on the wrong side. The enchanting world looks like Middle Earth, but to the dismay of even the geekiest soldiers, is nothing like it."
A Dark and Drowning Tide By: Allison Saft, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Random House -- "A sharp-tongued folklorist must pair up with her academic rival to solve their mentor’s murder in this lush and enthralling sapphic fantasy romance."
The Escher Man By: T. R. Napper, read by Nick Atkinson for Dreamscape Lore -- "A cartel enforcer across Southeast Asia must escape a world of paranoia and violence to save his family in this cerebral and multi-layered cyberpunk science fiction novel."
The Games Gods Play By: Abigail Owen, read by Piper Goodeve for Recorded Books -- "I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus. Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus’ patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god. The worst god. Hades."
Asunder By: Kerstin Hall, read by Alyssa Appleton for Recorded Books -- "Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch being—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with some very dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended."
Fear the Flames: A Novel By: Olivia Rose Darling, read by Hannah Van Der Westhuysen for Random House -- "An exiled princess teams up with the last man she thought she could trust in the start of a dazzling and unforgettable epic fantasy romance series."
BACKLIST WATCH:
Where the Evil Dwells By: Clifford D. Simak, read by Dan Calley for Tantor -- "The renowned Science Fiction Grand Master makes a foray into fantasy, with this tale of perilous adventure in a land of trolls, wizards, and terrifying malevolence."
Dracula Unbound By: Brian W. Aldiss (1991), read by Paul Woodson for Tantor -- "Joe Bodenland has figured out how to manipulate time—a discovery that leads him to Utah and an impossible sixty-five-million-year-old human gravesite. It is here that he learns of the existence of a monstrous race of intelligent predators as old as the dinosaur, and of the remarkable "train" the undead creatures use to travel back and forth from a Paleolithic past to a monstrous far future in which Homo sapiens are enslaved cattle."
Castle of Wizardry: The Belgariad, Book 4 By: David and Leigh Eddings (1984), read by Brian Wiggins for Tantor -- "It all began with the theft of the Orb that protected the West from the evil God Torak. Before that, Garion had been a simple farm boy. Afterward, he discovered he is a sorcerer. Now, at last, the Orb has been regained, and the quest nears it end."
The Shadow Rising: Book Four of 'The Wheel of Time' By: Robert Jordan, read by Rosamund Pike for Macmillan -- The latest in the series of new audiobook editions narrated by the actress from the TV series.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell By: Susanna Clarke, read by Richard Armitage with Neil Gaiman, and an introduction by V.E. Schwab -- A new audio edition coinciding with the 20th anniversary edition of the beloved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell; Richard Armitage sounds wonderful, though it's a real pity that Gaiman's no-longer-good name is attached here, but at least the original Simon Prebble narration remains available.
SERIES WATCH:
Wicked Problems: The Craft Wars, Book 2 By: Max Gladstone, read by Janina Edwards for Tantor -- "Gods and lawyers battle for the soul of the world in the action-packed second volume of Max Gladstone's Craft Wars, an epic fantasy like no other."
Bringer of Dust: The Talents, Book 2 By: J. M. Miro, read by Ben Onwukwe for Macmillan -- "Agrigento, Sicily, 1883. With the orsine destroyed, Cairndale lies in ruins, and Marlowe has vanished. His only hope of rescue lies in a fabled second orsine—long-hidden, thought lost—which might not even exist. But when a body is discovered in the shadow of Cairndale, a body wreathed in the corrupted dust of the drughr, Charlie and the Talents realize there is even more at stake than they'd feared."
Pilgrim Machines: Salvage Crew, Book 2 By: Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, read by Peter Berkrot for Aethon -- "The PCS Blue Cherry Blossom, a long range interstellar freighter, is tasked with the ultimate voyage. What lies at the heart of the galaxy? Who and what is out there? Is it even possible to survive? Against a backdrop of relentless political and corporate maneuvering, a new crew sets out, prepared to risk their lives and their deaths to set forth into the void and look for answers. To go where no human has ever gone before."
The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal By: Jodi Taylor, read by Zara Ramm for Headline -- "From the globally bestselling author of the Chronicles of St Mary's and Time Police series - the origin story of bounty hunters extraordinaire: Smallhope and Pennyroyal."
The Road of Storms: The Seven Swords, Book 6 By: Anthony Ryan, read by Steven Brand for Audible
TIE-IN WATCH:
- Exodus: The Archimedes Engine By: Peter F. Hamilton, read by John Lee for Random House -- "Explore EXODUS, a new sci-fi action-adventure RPG coming soon from Archetype Entertainment. Forty thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. Traveling in massive arkships, these brave pioneers spread out across the galaxy to find a new home. After traveling thousands of light-years, one fleet of arkships arrived at Centauri, a dense cluster of stars with a vast array of potentially habitable planets. The survivors of Earth signaled to the remaining arkships that humanity had finally found its new home among the stars."
MOST MISSING:
- My Lesbian Novel by Renee Gladman (Dorothy) -- "The latest in writer and visual artist Renee Gladman's ever-expanding body of imaginative investigation is a sui generis novel of queerness and art-making, philosophy and sex."