Release Week: 15 October 2024

Release Week: 15 October 2024

Posted on 2024-10-15 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

(in progress)

PICKS:

• Polostan: Bomb Light, Book 1 By: Neal Stephenson, read by January LaVoy for Harper -- "The first installment in a monumental new series—an expansive historical epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the Atomic Age."

• The Ancients: A Novel By: John Larison, read by Dani Martineck for Penguin -- "A richly imagined, sweeping novel of hope, love, and adventure set in the unforgiving world of our own descendants."

• The Mountain Crown: Crowns of Ishia, Book 1 By: Karin Lowachee, read by Julienne Irons for Tantor -- Is this really somehow Lowachee's first book (in this case, a long novella, but I will take it, thank you Solaris Books!) since 2010's Warchild? "War between the island states of Kattaka and Mazemoor has left no one unscathed. Meka's nomadic people, the Ba'Suon, were driven from their homeland by the Kattakans. Those who remained were forced to live under the Kattakan yoke, to serve their greed for gold alongside the dragons with whom the Ba'Suon share an empathic connection. A decade later and under a fragile truce, Meka returns home from her exile for an ancient, necessary rite: gathering a king dragon of the Crown Mountains to maintain balance in the wild country."

• Dogs and Monsters: Stories By: Mark Haddon, read by Christina Cole, Rachel Bavidge, Robert Bathurst, and Steve John Shepherd for Random House -- "Eight mesmerizingly imaginative, deeply-humane stories that use Greek myths and contemporary dystopian narratives to examine mortality, moral choices and the many variants of love."

• Januaries: Stories of Love, Magic & Betrayal By: Olivie Blake, read by Alexandra Palting, Daniel Henning, David Monteith, Ferdelle Capistrano, Olivie Blake, Stephanie Németh-Parker, and Steve West for Macmillan -- "A stunning collection of short fiction featuring fourteen magical ruminations on life, death, and the love—or desire for revenge—that outlasts both."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino, read by the author for Books on Tape -- "From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full."

• Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey, read by Michael Beck with a preface read by the authors -- "In Grisham’s first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, “the master of the legal thriller” (Associated Press) teams up with McCloskey, “the godfather of the innocence movement” (Texas Monthly), to share ten harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions."

• What I Ate in One Year: And Related Thoughts by Stanley Tucci, read by the author for Simon and Schuster -- "A deliciously unique memoir chronicling a year's worth of meals."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Hothouse by Brian W. Aldiss (1962), read by Nick Boulton for Tantor -- "Millions of years beyond our time, our Earth has long since stopped spinning—and giant flora have taken over the sunlit half of the motionless world. Here humans are among the very few animal species that still exist, struggling to survive against enormous odds, but they have become small and weak, and their numbers have dwindled to almost nothing. When the aging leader of Gren's tribe decrees it is time for the old ones to go "Up," the younger are left to make their own way below."

• Greybeard By: Brian W. Aldiss (1964), read by Dan Calley for Tantor -- "After the "Accident," all males on Earth become sterile. Society ages and falls apart bit by bit. First, toy companies go under. Then record companies. Then cities cease to function. Now Earth's population lives in spread-out, isolated villages, with its youngest members in their fifties. When the people of Sparcot begin to make claims of gnomes and man-eating rodents lurking around their village, Greybeard and his wife set out for the coast with the hope of finding something better."

• Cryptozoic By: Brian W. Aldiss (1967), read by Elliot Fitzpatrick for Tantor -- "In the year 2093, human consciousness has expanded to the point that man can now travel to the past using a technique called "mind-traveling." Artist Edward Bush returns from a nearly three-year mind-travel to find that his government has crumbled and society is now under the leadership a new regime. Given Bush's experience, he is recruited by the regime to track down and assassinate a scientist whose ideas threaten to topple everything they've built."

• Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny (1971), foreword by Joe Haldeman (2016), read by Eric Jason Martin for Tantor -- "In a world half of light, half of darkness, where science and magic strive for dominance, there dwells a magical being who is friendly with neither side. Jack, of the realm of shadows, is a thief who is unjustly punished. So he embarks on a vendetta. He wanders through strange realms, encountering witches, vampires, and, finally, his worst enemy: the Lord of Bats."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• The Nightward: Book One of the Waters of Lethe By: R.S.A. Garcia, read by Nneka Okoye for Harper -- "Garcia’s scifantasy debut novel—the first in a duology—in which Caribbean mythology meets The Witcher, introduces a world where women warrior-magicians rule, and a child princess and her bodyguard must flee an attempted coup and evade the wave of darkness sent to kill her."

• Sorcery and Small Magics By: Maiga Doocy Narrated by: Ciaran Saward for Orbit -- "The charming tale of an impulsive sorcerer and his curmudgeonly rival as they venture deep into a magical forest in search of a counterspell that can break the curse between them—only to discover that magic might not be the only thing pulling them together. "

TIE-IN WATCH:

• Star Wars: Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss By: Steven Barnes, read by William DeMeritt for Random House -- "Jedi Master Mace Windu travels to a dangerous, remote planet on a mission that challenges even his deadly prowess—all to fulfill Qui-Gon’s last request."

• Batman: Resurrection By: John Jackson Miller Narrated by: Will Damron for Random House -- "After The Joker’s death, Batman and Gotham City face a mysterious new threat in this direct sequel to Tim Burton’s iconic Batman."

• Weathering with You By: Makoto Shinkai (2019), translated by Taylor Engel, read by Brandon Engman, Ashley Boettcher for Yen Audio -- "Longing to escape his island home, a boy named Hodaka runs away during his first summer of high school to find a new life in Tokyo. As rain falls for days on end and Hodaka struggles to adjust, he meets a girl named Hina who holds a mysterious power: With a single prayer, she can part the clouds and bring back the sun. But her power comes at a price, and as the weather spirals further and further out of control, they must choose what future they truly want for themselves."

10/9 Sylvia doe by Robert Beatty

The Company of the Wolf: Tales of the Plains, Book 2 By: David Wragg Narrated by: Sara Powell for Harper

American Rapture By: CJ Leede Narrated by: Moniqua Plante for Macmillan

10/15 family by Ian rogers

House of Frank By: Kay Synclaire Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers for Podium

Meet Your Maker: An Epic Fantasy LitRPG Meet Your Maker, Volume 1 By: Seth McDuffee, Johnathan McClain Narrated by: McClain for Podium

Bull Moon Rising: Royal Artifactual Guild, Book 1 By: Ruby Dixon Narrated by: Felicity Munroe and Hiro Diaz for Penguin

Don’t Be a Stranger, by Susan Minot

Women’s Hotel, by Daniel M. Lavery

Forest of Noise, by Mosab Abu Toha

10/15 Curdle Creek A Novel By: Yvonne Battle-Felton

10/15 The Adventures of Cancer Bitch S. L. Wisenberg (Author)

10/15 Brutal Companion by Ruben Quesada (Barrow Street)

10/15 Wish I Were Here By: Melissa Wiesner Narrated by: Helen Laser

Strange Beasts By: Susan J. Morris Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller for Podium

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