Release Week: 26 November 2024
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Release Week: 26 November 2024
Posted on 2024-11-26 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
(bit late, enjoying family time!)
PICKS:
Darkly: A Novel by Marisha Pessl, read by Imani Jade Powers for Books On Tape -- "Arcadia “Dia” Gannon has been obsessed with Louisiana Veda, the game designer whose obsessive creations and company, Darkly, have gained a cultlike following. Dia is shocked when she’s chosen for a highly-coveted internship, along with six other teenagers from around the world. Why her? Dia has never won anything in her life. Darkly, once a game-making empire renowned for its ingenious and utterly terrifying toys and games, now lies dormant after Veda’s mysterious death. The remaining games are priced like rare works of art, with some fetching millions of dollars at auction. As Dia and her fellow interns delve into the heart of Darkly, they discover hidden symbols, buried clues, and a web of intrigue. Who are these other teens, and what secrets do they keep? Why were any of them really chosen?"
Bright Segments: The Complete Short Fiction By: James Sallis, read by: Dan John Miller, Morgan Hallett, and Gideon Emery for Recorded Books -- "James Sallis moves with ease among genres and modes: novels, stories, poetry, criticism, musicology, biography, translation. Best known perhaps as a crime writer—author of Drive and the six Lew Griffin novels along with others—his first acclaim came in the 1960s from groundbreaking short stories in science fiction publications like Michael Moorcock’s New Worlds, for which he served for a time as editor, and Damon Knight’s Orbit anthologies."
Daughters of Bronze: A Novel of Troy By: A. D. Rhine, read by: Saskia Maarleveld, Eva Kaminsky, Hillary Huber, and Vaneh Assadourian for Penguin -- "Lost between the timeless lines of Homer’s epic, the women of Troy finally stand to be counted. Their story is one you’ve never encountered, and it will change the fate of Troy forever."
Blood of Hercules: Villains of Lore, Book 1 By: Jasmine Mas, read by: Meg Sylvan, Teddy Hamilton, Aiden Snow, Tristan Morris for Harlequin -- "I’m just a girl. And it turns out, I’m Hercules. I’m struggling to survive in a Titan infested world where Spartans, immortals from twelve royal families who have god-like powers and obscene wealth, rule over all. A shy-stammering foster child with nothing, I keep my head down, cover my scars, and focus on excelling in school. At least, I try to. Then it happens. My blood test reveals I’m part of the powerful elite. I’m one of them. A Spartan. Forced to attend the Spartan War Academy, I undergo the most harrowing test of all time to see if I have what it takes to be an immortal. There’s just a few problems. Achilles and Patro are my scary mentors. Kharon, the ferryman of death, and Augustus, the son of war, are my terrifying professors. Also, I’m pretty sure either someone’s stalking me everywhere I go, or my sanity’s slipping––I have a bad feeling both are true."
BACKLIST WATCH:
The Cleaving By: Juliet E. Mckenna (2023), read by: Joanna Carpenter for Angry Robot -- "Four women, four destinies – the future of King Arthur's court…A fresh, feminist retelling of the Arthurian legends."
Ballistic By: Travis S. Taylor (2022), read by: Rich Miller for Tantor -- "A Russian ICBM site is attacked just north of the Ukraine boarder. The nuclear warheads are missing! A Special Operations and Intelligence Community Task Force is rapidly put together to respond, but where it should deploy is unclear. A fire ravages a cosmonaut training facility in which five spacesuits disappear. And the Task Force finds a cache of detailed schematics of highly complex rocketry systems. The Task Force reaches out to Dr. Amy Sue Harrington of the Missiles and Space Intelligence Center in Huntsville, Alabama. To Dr. Harrington, it all adds up to the unthinkable: someone—someone extremely well funded—is taking aim at the International Space Station."
SERIES WATCH:
Hell Divers: The Lost Years: X and Miles By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith, read by R.C. Bray for Blackstone -- "A brand-new novella set in the world of the Hell Divers series."
Beauty: Tales from the Kingdoms, Book 2 By: Sarah Pinborough, read by Genevieve Gaunt for Gollancz -- "Imagine a castle lost to history, a brave prince, a beautiful princess and a curse waiting to be broken . . . And then imagine them all again . . . This is the tale of Sleeping Beauty, retold as it always should have been."
Dark Possession: The Dark, Book 18 By: Christine Feehan, read by Jim Frangione for Recorded Books -- "Dangerously close to becoming a vampire, Manolito De La Cruz has been called back to his Carpathian homeland—and has unexpectedly caught the scent of his destined lifemate, MaryAnn Delaney."
INDIE WATCH:
- Terra Infinita: The Transcendent Green By: Mati Ocha, read by Alex Wyndham for Tantor -- "With comrades at his side, Will ventures deeper into the unknown. Tunnels that shouldn't exist stretch out beneath Kirkstall Abbey, descending into the earth until the sun is a distant memory."