Release Week: 24 December 2024
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Release Week: 24 December 2024
Posted on 2024-12-24 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
The Third Temple By: Yishai Sarid, translated by Yardenne Greenspan, read by Josh Bloomberg for Tantor -- "In a near-future Jerusalem, harrowing omens plague the city: a desecrated altar, an unbearable stench, a rampant famine. Shaken but devout, Jonathan, the royal family's third son, continues to hold services and offer animal sacrifices at the prophesied Third Temple, built to consecrate the founding of the new Kingdom of Judah. His father, Israel's self-appointed king, has abolished the Supreme Court. The Torah is the law of the land, and only people of the Jewish faith are allowed in. When war breaks out and an angel of God begins to torment Jonathan, warning him of his father's sacrilege, the foundations of the young priest's faith—and then his world—begin to give way."
Two-Step Devil By: Jamie Quatro, read by Christina Delaine for Highbridge -- " In 2014, in Lookout Mountain, Alabama, the Prophet—a seventy-year-old man who paints his visions—lives off the grid in a cabin near the Georgia border. While scrounging for materials at the local scrapyard, the Prophet sees a car pull up to an abandoned gas station. In the back seat is a teenage girl with zip ties on her wrists, a girl he realizes he must rescue from her current life. Her name is Michael, and the Prophet feels certain that she is a messenger sent by God to take his end-time warnings to the White House. Michael finds herself in the Prophet's remote, art-filled cabin, and as their uncertain dynamic evolves into tender friendship, she is offered a surprising opportunity to escape her past—and perhaps change her future."
54 Miles: A Novel By: Leonard Pitts Jr., read by the author for Tantor -- "Young Adam, who has been raised in Harlem by his white father, George, and Black mother, Thelma, goes back to his parents' home state of Alabama to participate in the voting rights campaign, only to be brutalized in the Bloody Sunday melee. He is still recovering from this when he is struck a heavy emotional blow, learning for the first time—and in the cruelest way imaginable—of a family secret that sends him spiraling and plunging further into danger. To save him, and any hope for their relationship, Thelma is drawn back, for the first time in twenty years, to the South she both hates and fears, and to a reckoning that may result in an incalculable loss."
BACKLIST WATCH:
- To Sift Through Bitter Ashes: Grails Covenant Trilogy, Book 1 By: David Niall Wilson (1997), read by Joshua Saxon for Crossroad Press -- "Obsessed with the acquiring the Holy Grail for the Lasombra clan, the vampire Montrovant sets out on a quest that leads him through the establishment of the Knights Templar, the lair of an ancient Egyptian evil, and the deserts of the Holy Land. Dark forces are pitted against him, and each ally must be watched in turn, as treachery leads to deceit and back agan in a race against time, the Church, and the mysterious Kli Kodesh, who is more ancient, even than Montrovant's sire."
SERIES WATCH:
A Sky of Emerald Stars: The Golden Court, Book 2 By: A.K. Mulford, read by Bridget Bordeaux, Vico Ortiz for Harper -- "Continues wolf-shifter Calla’s journey and explores a new story—Sadie’s—as kingdoms clash with war on the horizon and pack politics threatens to disrupt what Calla and Grae have built, both for themselves, and Aotreas."
Tremontaine: Book 4 By: Ellen Kushner, Tessa Gratton, Karen Lord, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Joel Derfner, Racheline Maltese, Liz Duffy Adams, and Delia Sherman, read by Sarah Mollo-Christensen and Nick Sullivan for Realm -- "Sex, Scandal, Swordplay… and Chocolate! The prequel to Ellen Kushner's cult classic Swordspoint is back for a fourth season!"
INDIE WATCH:
This Is Not a Vampire Story by Simon Doyle, read by Nicolas McGrady -- "Seventeen-year-old Victor Callahan holds a secret as ancient as the shadows. Employed as a night porter in a quiet Irish nursing home, the teenager watches over a group of men he once knew a long time ago. Victor has orchestrated their reunion for a final farewell, a goodbye to those whose lives have shaped him through the years. But can he keep his secret from Lakeshore Manor’s oldest resident, James O’Carroll?"
Clash of Wills: Cercians, Book 1 By: S. H. Jucha, read by Nicole Poole -- "SADEs Hector and Trixie discover the world where the colonists of the Terminus, the fifth colony ship, settled. Unfortunately, their Trident squadrons arrive at the worst possible time and catastrophe strikes. The powerful fleets of three races are fighting for possession of a beatific world, Cercia."
MOST MISSING:
- You Can't Save What Isn't There by Paul Michael Anderson (Cemetery Dance) -- "When Cal Matheson's daughter was killed by a drunk driver, he felt he'd lost everything that mattered. However, as he slowly begins to rebuild his life with a new home and a new job, he's given an inexplicable and supernatural opportunity--but is it to exact revenge on those he holds responsible for his loss in the most ghastly ways imaginable...or to fulfill his potential as an artist and human? And what is the cost of making the wrong choice?"