Page 44 of posts by: Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Links to some recent Laura Miller audiobook reviews on Salon.com's "The Listener"

Posted on 2013-06-25 at 15:17 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

I haven't been keeping up as well with Salon.com's "The Listener", a weekly audiobook review blog, and apparently I have been missing some good ones. Here are a few from Laura Miller that are definitely worth checking out:

“River of Stars”: Picture “Game of Thrones” in China

Guy Gavriel Kay's exquisite Asian-inspired epic fantasy offers a fresh twist on intrigue and adventure

“The Golem and the Jinni”: Magic in the New World

A master narrator reads a tale of two creatures from folklore making new lives in

Posted in Uncategorized

Release Week: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Lexicon, Wisp of a Thing, Before the Fall, The Indigo Pheasant, Dark Eden, and Ken Scholes' Requiem

Posted on 2013-06-19 at 15:45 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

JUNE 12-18, 2013: Well, there's no question on the most-anticipated title this week, Neil Gaiman's first novel for adults since 2005: The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel. But there's also a cerebral thriller from Max Barry, one of last year's most missing audiobooks in Chris Beckett's Dark Eden, a trio of second books in a series, and a full-cast narrated book 4 in Ken Scholes' "Psalms of Isaak" series, Requiem. Enjoy! And, not to worry, if (as it is for me) Gaiman's book is the one to most catch your

Posted in Release Week | Tagged alex bledsoe, chris beckett, daniel rabuzzi, dark eden, francis knight, ken scholes, lexicon, max barry, neil gaiman, the ocean at the end of the lane

Briefly, On Octavia E. Butler's Kindred and Parable of the Sower

Posted on 2013-06-16 at 20:50 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

As I have been finishing Octavia E. Butler's Kindred over the past day and a half or so, of the many thoughts swirling around in my head was this: that no author I've read had such a command of both the history of where America has come from (Kindred) and a prescience for the future of where America seems to be going (Parable of the Sower) than Butler.

And what perhaps boggles the mind further about this is that Kindred was published in 1979, and Parable of the Sower was published in 1993, and yet both

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged octavia butler

Release Week: Will McIntosh's Love Minus Eighty, Jon Steele's Angel City, Elizabeth Moon's Limits of Power, and Jason Sheehan's A Private Little War

Posted on 2013-06-12 at 15:38 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

JUNE 5-11, 2013: After an absolutely over-packed release week last week, there's a bit of a calm before more big releases next week -- Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Max Barry's Lexicon for starters). Still, several audiobooks really catch my eye and ear this week, ranging from the latest standalone novel from Will McIntosh, to a follow-on to war journalist Jon Steele's The Watchers, to the latest novel in Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion series, to a debut sf novel from food editor Jason

Posted in Release Week | Tagged elizabeth-moon, jason sheehan, jon steele, will mcintosh

Received: May 2013

Posted on 2013-06-07 at 18:49 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Another quiet month in the received column, as for the most part I still have a good backlog in the to-listen and to-review piles already. Still, there were a few things we couldn't resist asking for:

1. HACHETTE AUDIO: The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks; and Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan (Dave's current listen as of this posting):

2. HARPER AUDIO: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, read by George Guidall -- this one was wonderful, a magical delight of a book and audiobook:

3

Posted in received

Release Week: The Shining Girls, Liminal States, Shattered Pillars, Siege and Storm, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, The Wall, The Constantine Affliction, Clockwork Fairy Tales, Bullettime, The Choir Boats, and more

Posted on 2013-06-06 at 05:06 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

MAY 29-JUNE 4, 2013: I really, really should have posted a "Release Midweek" this weekend, as I hardly know where to start in recapping this first release week in June. Do  I highlight the baker's dozen of Audible productions of ChiZine titles from last Wednesday, highlighted for me by Nick Mamatas' Bullettime and Daniel Rabuzzi's The Choir Boats? Do I focus instead on the concurrent new releases, and if so do I go with adult novels, young adult, anthologies, or maybe even a non-genre pick? Or do I

Posted in Release Week

The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long: Chapter 5

Posted on 2013-06-04 at 02:46 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Welcome to the latest installment of The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long, covering Chapter 5 of Mur Lafferty’s The Shambling Guide to New York City. As always, before I get into the write-up, a warning, that I’ll repeat each episode, that the discussion here is oh-so-spoilerific, so if that’s a concern, pop over and take the less-than-half-an-hour each to listen to the podcast episodes first. On to…

In

Posted in The Shambling Guide to NYC Listen-a-Long | Tagged mur lafferty

And the Audie goes to...

Posted on 2013-05-31 at 15:32 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

The 2013 Audie Awards have been announced, including Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint (for best Audio Drama), Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles (for best Science Fiction), the new Audible production of Claire Danes' narration of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (for best Fiction), the Neil Gaiman Presents production of Keith Roberts' Anita (for best Fantasy), and many more.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged audies, ellen kushner, neil gaiman presents, swordspoint

Release Week: Mur Lafferty's The Shambling Guide to New York City, Chuck Wendig's The Blue Blazes, Emma Newman's Any Other Name, and Hugh Howey's Shift

Posted on 2013-05-29 at 18:33 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

MAY 22-28, 2013: It's a mammoth release week to (more or less) close May, ahead of a gigantic release day Wednesday (today) which I'll cover both in a post of its own and of course in a bit lesser detail in the next release week roundup. It's also a particularly big release week for self-published (a.k.a. "indie") titles again, and while Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio snags two of my picks of the week, my top pick is probably no surprise to anyone at this point. In the "seen but not heard" listings it's

Posted in Release Week | Tagged chuck wendig, emma newman, hugh howey, mur lafferty

The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long: Chapters 3 and 4 (and release day coverage!)

Posted on 2013-05-29 at 02:25 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Welcome to the third installment of The Shambling Guide to New York City Listen-a-Long, covering both Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of Mur Lafferty’s The Shambling Guide to New York City. As usual, first up a recap of some recent news about the book, starting with last Monday's Orbit Books interview with the author: Mur Lafferty on THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY. But the big news is, of course, as Mur writes on her own blog, that The Shambling Guide to New York City is Out!

The big release-day coverage

Posted in The Shambling Guide to NYC Listen-a-Long | Tagged mur lafferty