Release Week: 17 December 2024
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Release Week: 17 December 2024
Posted on 2024-12-17 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
So, yeah, it's awfully close to crickets this time of year as far as the big publishers. Still, here's what I see this week:
PICKS:
North Is the Night: The Tuonela Duet, Book 1 By: Emily Rath, read by Khaya Fraites, Emily Lawrence for Recorded Books -- "In the depths of the Finnish wilderness, more than wolves roam the dark woods. When a death goddess attacks their village, best friends Siiri and Aina prove helpless to stop her from dragging Aina into Tuonela, the mythical underworld. Determined to save her beloved Aina, Siiri braves a dangerous journey north, seeking help from the greatest shaman of legend—the only person ever to venture into Tuonela and return alive. There’s only one problem … the stories say he’s dead."
13 Park Lane By: Naomi Clifford, read by Lorna Bennett for Dreamscape -- "1872. Marguerite has fled to London, leaving behind a traumatic past in Paris. When she is offered work as a cook for mysterious French widow Madame Riel, she seizes the chance to start afresh. But as soon as Marguerite arrives, she is stifled by the tension in the house and before long she comes to resent her stingy and volatile employer, as well as her unfriendly housemaid. Just as Marguerite is about to resign, Madame Riel’s beautiful actress daughter Julie returns to the house and charms her into staying. But Julie’s presence creates new toxic waves of emotion—until someone finally snaps and murders Madame Riel. Why is 13 Park Lane so full of hatred? What secrets does the household guard? And can any of its inhabitants escape the shackles of their past?"
Crooked Plow: A Novel by Itamar Vieira Junior (2018), translated by Johnny Lorenz, read by Soneela Nankani for Tantor -- "Deep in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed and momentarily mystified by its power, decide to taste its metal. The shuddering violence that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever. Heralded as a new masterpiece, this fascinating and gripping story about the lives of subsistence farmers in Brazil's poorest region, three generations after the abolition of slavery, is at once fantastic and realist, covering themes of family, spirituality, slavery and its aftermath, and political struggle."
SERIES WATCH:
A Breathless Sky: The Scorched Earth, Book 2 By: Veronica G. Henry, read by Robin Miles for Brilliance -- "As climate disasters wreak havoc, a sister and brother take opposing sides on the fate of the human race."
The Memory Curse: The Lost God, Book 2 By: Sheila Masterson, read by Caitlin Kelly, Will Damron, and Tim Campbell for Dreamscape -- "Cecilia is mired in grief. Haunted by the lives she took when fighting the god of war and the price she paid to take them, Cecilia knows winning one battle has only postponed the greater war."
Reckoning: Darkhurst, Book 3 By: Gail Z. Martin, read by Will Damron for Tantor -- "When Corran, Rigan, and their friends became outlaw monster hunters and fled beyond the walls of Ravenwood City, they thought they had defeated the source of the abominations that killed so many of their friends and loved ones. But the more successful they become at destroying the creatures, the more they realize that greater evil is at work."
Legends of the Werewolf Hunter Volume 1: An Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter Anthology edited by Miles Boothe (2021), stories by Matthew Baugh, Thom Brannan, James Cook, Derek Grebner, Rob Pegler, and more, read by Basil Sands for Spoken Realms -- "Welcome to a collection imagined from the pages of Brian P. Easton’s Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter series, a nightmare-fueled anthology dedicated to the legends of the werewolf hunter."
BACKLIST WATCH:
- Tarzan the Magnificent: Tarzan, Book 21 By: Edgar Rice Burroughs (1936), read by Ben Dooley for Oasis -- "The half-dead American raved of an unknown city…of women warriors ruled by a malignant wizard…of a great diamond, the Gonfal, with strange hypnotic power…of a long-lost English nobleman…of the savage queen who had betrayed her duty and helped him to escape. Tarzan puts little faith into Stanley Wood’s story—until he sees the power of the Gonfal draw the American in spite of himself back into the clutches of the Amazons of Kaji. Then it is that the ape-man becomes once more the implacable hunter—for though he cares nothing for diamonds or lost civilizations, no one may be allowed to harm a man the Lord of the Jungle has taken under his protection."
NEW EDITION WATCH:
- Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said By: Philip K. Dick (1974), read by Jefferson Mays for Recorded Books -- "Jason Taverner—world-famous talk show host and man-about-town—wakes up one day to find that no one knows who he is—including the vast databases of the totalitarian government. And in a society where lack of identification is a crime, Taverner has no choice but to go on the run with a host of shady characters, including crooked cops and dealers of alien drugs. But do they know more than they are letting on? And just how can a person's identity be erased overnight?"
INDIE WATCH:
Atoms Never Touch By: Micha Cárdenas, foreword by Adrienne Maree Brown, read by Micha Cárdenas for Tantor -- "Jumping to alternate realities sounds great, if you're in control. But what if you're not? What if you're propelled away from the people and places you love the most in the blink of an eye? And what if these involuntary journeys happen because your neurochemistry is different, and your brain works differently? Beautiful, compassionate, and resourceful as she is, this is Rea's problem. A latina trans woman and an academic, she is beloved by a tight circle of friends, who fully accept her without knowing the cause of her disappearances. But she is haunted by the lovers and family that she cannot trace back to, and fears she might be separated from them forever."
Shadows of the Past: The Great War of the Worlds, Book 1 By: Eric Goebelbecker, read by Stuart Gauffi for Spoken Realms -- "It’s 1915, twenty years after the Martian invasion chronicled in the War of the Worlds failed. The aliens left behind advanced technology and weapons, and now humanity is on the brink of a catastrophic war. Caught in the middle of the chaos are two unlikely heroes: Emil Zimmerman, a young German soldier, and James Brogan, an introverted radio engineer. Emil dreamed of escaping his small village and making his way to the big city but finds himself in the trenches fighting for an army that indiscriminately wields deadly Martian weapons. Meanwhile, James just wants to be left alone but is pulled into a web of conspiracy when he’s called upon to repair crucial radios on Long Island."
MOST MISSING:
- Mechanize My Hands To War by Erin K. Wagner (DAW Books) — “September, 2060: Adrian Hall, acting director of the ATF, is holding a press conference. Yes, Eli Whitaker, anti-android demagogue, remains at large, and yes, he is recruiting children into his militia — Adrian is careful not to use the word army. She is careful all the way through the conference, right up until someone asks her about her personal connection to Whitaker; about Trey Caudill, his foster son. July, 2058: Farmers Shay and Ernst, struggling after they discover their GMO crop seeds have failed, hire android employees: Sarah as hospice, and AG-15 to work the now-toxic fields. Under one roof, four lives intertwine in ways no one expects. July, 2060: Special Agent Trey Caudill is leading a raid on Eli Whitaker’s farm when an android, call sign Ora, shoots and kills a child. March, 2061: Ora sits in a room. He has been there for seven months, resisting diagnostic tests. He is drawing on the walls, scratching his artificial skin, tracing something over and over and over again with a tired metallic finger. There is nothing wrong with his circuitry, so why does Ora feel so broken?”