Page 48 of posts by: Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Release Week: The Secret of Ji, The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination, The Siren Depths, and Domino Falls

Posted on 2013-02-20 at 14:33 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

The middle of February brings a bestselling French fantasy to both English and audio, as well as welcoming back Austin Grossman to the ranks of Mad Scientist storyteller, the conclusion of Martha Wells' Books of the Raksura, and a new novel from frequent collaborators Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes. (And, of course, John Scalzi's The Human Division continues with Back Channel: The Human Division, Episode 6.  Doesn't that go without saying by now?)

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

Six Heirs (The Secret of Ji, Book One

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: Karen Lord's The Best of All Possible Worlds, Karen Russell's Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Ben Bova's Farside, and Hiroshi Sakurazaka's All You Need is Kill

Posted on 2013-02-14 at 03:50 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

The second release week in February comes with quite a haul, with deep future sf from Mythopoetic Award-winner Karen Lord, a lush collection from Karen Russell, a pair of highly anticipated continued epic fantasy series from Recorded Books, new sf from Ben Bova read by Stefan Rudnicki, and one of the more unique audiobooks to come this year, All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. (And one of the more unique books of last year, Patrick Wensink's Broken Piano for President, gets a professional unabridged

Posted in Release Week | Tagged ben bova, karen lord, karen russell, stefan rudnicki

Sam reviews: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, Read by Michael Fenton-Stevens for Harper Audio

Posted on 2013-02-11 at 17:19 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

The Long Earth: A Novel by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (2012) Read by Michael Fenton-Stevens (2012) for Harper Audio (review copy)

Review by Sam: I'm completely of two minds on this audiobook. First, and this is not one of those minds but rather a comment, there isn't quite the humor and wit as in Pratchett's Discworld books, but then again this isn't at all that kind of story. It's a story that's more earnest than that, not a send-up or pastiche of the kind of novel it pretends to be on the

Posted in reviews | Tagged harper-audio, michael fenton-stevens, stephen baxter, terry pratchett, the long earth

Sam reviews: Building Harlequin's Moon by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper, read by Tom Weiner for Blackstone Audio

Posted on 2013-02-10 at 12:32 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Building Harlequin’s Moon by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper (2005) Read by Tom Weiner (2012) for Blackstone Audio (review copy)

Review by Sam: This is a book I was very interested in when it was originally published back in 2005, but it was another year before I finally picked it up. It quickly became one of my favorite science fiction novels, and remains one of my favorites of the 2000s. Combine Larry Niven's geo-engineering and orbital mechanics with Cooper's humanism and futurism, add a few thousand

Posted in reviews | Tagged blackstone audio, brenda cooper, building harlequin's moon, larry niven, tom weiner

Release Week: Sean Ferrell's Man in the Empty Suit, Spider Robinson's The Free Lunch, Manil Suri's The City of Devi, and Neal Asher's The Departure

Posted on 2013-02-06 at 14:39 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Led by an intriguing concurrent new release, the first release week of February also brings an author-narrated science fiction novel a bit over 10 years in the waiting since its print publication, several other good-looking concurrent release titles, another big haul of Audible Frontiers titles, and, of course, the next installment in John Scalzi's The Human Division, A Voice in the Wilderness: The Human Division, Episode 4. Of course, no release week would be complete without my "seen but not heard

Posted in Release Week | Tagged release week, sean ferrell, spider robinson

Received, January 2013

Posted on 2013-02-01 at 02:51 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

It started with a couple of boxes from Brilliance Audio, with Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, both of Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland books, Steven Erikson's Forge of Darkness, and This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong:

And continued with a pair of digital download review copies, Lost Things: The Order of the Air by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham (from Crossroad Press) and The Dirty Streets of Heaven: Bobby Dollar, Book 1 by

Posted in received

Release Week: Jay Lake's Kalimpura, James P. Blaylock's The Aysleford Skull, Norse Code, and (of course) another episode of The Human Division

Posted on 2013-01-30 at 19:43 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Now that's what I'm talking about -- an absolutely monstrous release week, with a long list of concurrent new releases, exciting previously released books coming to audio for the first time, and even another haul of Dungeons and Dragons audiobooks. And that's just the past few days -- already this week had brought us Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout and The Disaster Diaries by Sam Sheridan, and of course it also brings the next installment of John Scalzi's The Human Division, with We Only Need the Heads: The

Posted in Release Week | Tagged james p. blaylock, jay lake, release week

Release Day: Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout, read by Dave Thompson

Posted on 2013-01-24 at 19:12 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Back in the summer of 2009 I was getting back into reading and, ok, writing a bit, and started discovering some very interesting authors on Twitter -- in particular the trio of William Shunn, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Greg van Eekhout. I had actually even picked up van Eekhout's Spectra-published debut novel from a bit earlier that year, Norse Code, plucked from the bottom shelf of the B&N fantasy section, based on the clever title and strong opening line and chapter. ("On the last true day of spring the nine

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged dave thompson, greg van eekhout, norse code

Release Week: Miles Cameron's The Red Knight, two from Iambik, and Scalzi's The Human Division continues with "Walk the Plank"

Posted on 2013-01-23 at 17:31 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Another fairly quiet week in terms of highly-anticipated concurrent releases, though a new 30-hour epic fantasy audiobook from Hachette Audio certainly raises some interest, and two Iambik Audio productions of recent small press releases are certainly quite intriguing. And, of course, Scalzi's The Human Division continues. (And! At the bottom, again some "Whispersync for Voice" price quirks I stumbled across this week.)

The Red Knight By Miles Cameron, Narrated By Matthew Wolf for Hachette Audio — Length

Posted in Release Week, Uncategorized | Tagged david nickle, iambik audio, jennifer pelland

Another battle of audiobook sales

Posted on 2013-01-17 at 18:10 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Downpour.com is having a 30% off every title sale, through January 21:

Meanwhile, Audible.com's latest sale is a 48-Hour "Wishes Granted" sale which lists 100+ books at $6.95. It's not sorted by any category, so here's my scan-through, which includes several excellent choices labeled PICK, including 1Q84, The Name of the Wind, Redshirts, Snow Crash, Theft of Swords, Nine Princes in Amber, and Among Others, er, among others:

• by Margaret Atwood
• Narrated by Claire Danes

Posted in Uncategorized