Release Week: 13 February 2024

Posted on 2024-02-13 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Whew. Huge week this week. Here we go...

PICKS:

• The Book of Love: A Novel By: Kelly Link, read by January LaVoy for Random House -- "In the long-awaited first novel from short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle."

• The Warm Hands of Ghosts: A Novel By: Katherine Arden, read by Michael Crouch, January LaVoy, and Katherine Arden for Random House -- "During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale."

• The Book of Doors: A Novel By: Gareth Brown, read by Miranda Raison for Harper -- "Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book… It is the Book of Doors. Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them."

• Convergence Problems By: Wole Talabi, read by Ben Arogundade for Recorded Books -- "From the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Nommo award nominated author of Shigidi and The Brass Head Of Obalufon comes a stunning new collection of stories that investigate the rapidly changing role of technology and belief in our lives as we search for meaning, for knowledge, for justice; constantly converging on our future selves."

• The Blueprint: A Novel By: Rae Giana Rashad, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt for Harper -- "In the vein of Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood, a harrowing novel set in an alternate United States—a world of injustice and bondage in which a young Black woman becomes the concubine of a powerful white government official and must face the dangerous consequences."

• The Fox Wife: A Novel By: Yangsze Choo, read by the author for Macmillan -- "Manchuria, 1908. In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now."

• Plastic: A Novel By: Scott Guild, read by Jorjeana Marie, Will Damron for Random House -- "For fans of Interior Chinatown and American War, a surreal, hilarious, and sneakily profound debut novel that casts our current climate of gun violence and environmental destruction in a surprising new mold."

• Medea: A Novel By: Eilish Quin, read by Gail Shalan for Simon and Schuster -- "Discover the full story of the sorceress Medea, one of the most reviled and maligned women of Greek antiquity, in this propulsive and evocative debut in the tradition of Circe, Elektra, and Stone Blind."

• No Season but the Summer By: Matilda Leyser, read by the author for Bolinda -- "Persephone spends six months of the year under the ground with her husband, king of the dead, and six months on earth with her mother, goddess of the harvest. It has been this way for 9000 years, since the deal was struck. But when she resurfaces this spring, something is different. Rains lash the land, crops grow out of season or not at all, there are people trying to build a road through the woods, and her mother does not seem able to stop them. The natural world is changing rapidly and even the gods have lost control."

• The Frame-Up By: Gwenda Bond, read by Shannon McManus for Random House -- "A magically gifted con artist must gather her estranged mother’s old crew for a once-in-a-lifetime heist."

• Gogmagog: The Chronicles of Ludwich, Book 1 By: Jeff Noon and Steve Beard, read by Matthew Lloyd Davies for Dreamscape -- "Gogmagog tells the story of an epic journey through the sixty-mile long ghost of a dragon. We travel by boat, a rickety steam launch captained by Cady Meade, a veteran taxi pilot on the river Nysis."

• No One Will Come Back for Us: And Other Stories By: Premee Mohamed, read by Soneela Nankani for Tantor -- "Here there be gods and monsters—forged from flesh and stone and vengeance—emerging from the icy abyss of deep space, ascending from dark oceans, and prowling strange cities to enter worlds of chaos and wonder, where scientific rigor and human endeavor is tested to the limits. These are cosmic realms and watery domains where old offerings no longer appease the ancient Gods or the new and hungry idols. Deities and beasts. Life and death. Love and hate. Science and magic. And smiling monsters in human skin."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Point Counter Point By: Aldous Huxley (1928), read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone -- "This complex novel darts around points of view to portray the convoluted nature of perception versus reality, and it boasts a large cast of characters that come together, almost as an orchestra, performing separate melodies that come together in one great symphony. Not only do these characters serve such a musical purpose in the plot, they also represent real life writers who were popular at the time, such as D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, John Middleton Murry, and even Huxley himself (in the form of Phillip Quarles, the “novelist” within the novel)."

MORE FICTION:

• A Wild and Heavenly Place By: Robin Oliveira, read by Angus King, Katy Townsend, Tavia Gilbert for Penguin -- "Hailey MacIntyre seems conjured from the depths of Samuel Fiddes’s loneliness. Caring for his young sister in the tenements of Glasgow, Scotland, Samuel has known only hunger, while Hailey has never known want. Yet, when Samuel saves Hailey’s brother from a runaway carriage, their connection is undeniable. Through secret meetings and stolen moments, their improbable love grows. But then the City of Glasgow Bank fails, and Hailey’s bankrupt father impulsively moves their family across the globe to Seattle, a city rumored to have coal in its hills and easy money for anyone willing to work for it."

• The Fortune Seller: A Novel By: Rachel Kapelke-Dale, read by Stephanie Cannon for Macmillan -- "Middle-class Rosie Macalister has worked for years to fit in with her wealthy friends on the Yale equestrian team. But when she comes back from her junior year abroad with newfound confidence, she finds that the group has been infiltrated by a mysterious intruder: Annelise Tattinger. A talented tarot reader and a brilliant rider, the enigmatic Annelise is unlike anyone Rosie has ever met. But when one of their friends notices money disappearing from her bank account, Annelise's place in the circle is thrown into question. As the girls turn against each other, the group’s unspoken tensions and assumptions lead to devastating consequences. It's only after graduation, when Rosie begins a job at a Manhattan hedge fund, that she uncovers Annelise's true identity—and how her place in their elite Yale set was no accident. Is it too late for Rosie to put right what went wrong, or does everyone's luck run out at some point?"

• Wild and Distant Seas: A Novel By: Tara Karr Roberts, read by Natasha Soudek for Recorded Books -- "Evangeline Hussey has made a home for herself on Nantucket, though she knows she is still an outsider to the island's small close-knit community, one that by 1849 has started to feel the decline of a once-thriving whaling industry. Her husband, Hosea, and the life they built together, was once all she needed—but now Hosea is gone, lost at sea. Evangeline is only able to hold on to his inn, and her place on the island, by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those who would cast her out. One night, an idealistic sailor appears on her doorstep asking her to call him Ishmael. He seeks only a warm bed and a bowl of chowder, and yet suddenly, unsettlingly, her careful illusion begins to fracture. He soon sails away with Ahab to hunt an infamous white whale, and Evangeline is left to forge a new life from the pieces that remain."

• This Disaster Loves You By: Richard Roper, read by Christian Coulson for Penguin -- "Brian’s wife, Lily, disappeared from his life without a trace six years, eleven months, one week, and two days ago, but Brian never lost hope. Since her disappearance their once beloved English pub—and Brian’s livelihood—has been crumbling piece by piece. As the anniversary of her absence approaches, Brian desperately needs a sign. One doom-scroll on his business’s reviews later, he finds it: an active TripAdvisor account for PinkMoonLily1972 that he knows in his heart is his Lily. Interspliced with Brian’s journey to find Lily is the story of their love—how it started, and the twists and turns that brought them to this moment. As Brian jumps from one destination to the next to find Lily, and the truth behind their story comes into focus, Brian comes back to life with the help of Tess, a sarcastic, kind, and surprising traveling companion. But in order to move forward he’ll need to decide—stay in the past or take a chance on something unexpected."

• Swanna in Love By: Jennifer Belle, read by Sophie Amoss for Recorded Books -- "It’s the summer of 1982 and fourteen-year-old Swanna Swain is the only one left at camp. The place is a ghost town by the time her mother Val finally shows up six hours late—stoned and radiant—in a Ford pickup driven by Borislav, her new young Russian lover. Assuming she is headed home to her air-conditioned Upper West Side apartment, Swanna and her lovable younger brother Madding are instead dragged to Vermont—to an artist colony where kids are not welcome and they are forced to sleep in the back of the truck, while Val is cozy inside the house with the Russian. Then Swanna meets Dennis, a handsome married father of two, at a bowling alley, and, knowing a thing or two about seduction from Judy Blume, her best friend at camp, and her own parents’ many affairs, she sets out to convince Dennis to help her. But love seldom obeys rules, and even a tough, smart city girl like Swanna might not be able to handle falling in love."

MORE SCI-FI, FANTASY, and HORROR:

• The Kamogawa Food Detectives: A Kamogawa Food Detectives Novel, Book 1 By: Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, read by Hanako Footman for Penguin -- "Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by: The father-daughter duo are 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories—dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility."

• A Flame in the North By: Lilith Saintcrow, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Orbit -- "The Black Land is a myth: Centuries have passed since that Great Enemy was slain. Yet old fears linger, and on the longest night of the year, people in the South still light ritual bonfires to banish the dark. In her village, this duty falls to Solveig, a girl favored by the gods with powerful fire magic. But when her brother kills a Northern lord’s son during the ritual, it is Sol who faces punishment, by being weregild—part hostage, part guest—in the North for a year and a day. As she journeys to her captivity, Sol starts to realize that the Black Land is no myth. The forests teem with foul beasts. Her travel companions are not what they seem, and their plans for her magic are shrouded in secrecy."

• An Education in Malice By: S. T. Gibson, read by Stephanie Cannon for Redhook -- "Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua’s College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold. On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla. But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge."

• A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers edited by Joyce Carol Oates, read by Bianca Amato, Lynette R. Freeman, Eva Kaminsky, Nancy Wu for Recorded Books -- "Joyce Carol Oates assembles an outstanding cast of authors—including Margaret Atwood, Tananarive Due, and Megan Abbott—to explore, subvert, and reinvent one of the most vital subgenres of horror."

SERIES WATCH:

• What Feasts at Night: Sworn Soldier, Book 2 By: T. Kingfisher, read by Avi Roque for Macmillan -- "After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia."

• The Icarus Twin: Icarus, Book 2 By: Timothy Zahn, read by Marc Thompson for Random House -- "For years Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene worked as crocketts, combing through the atmospheres of uninhabited worlds for places that might be colonized or hold valuable resources. Now, they quietly work for the Icarus Group, a top-secret government organization hunting for portals created by a long-vanished alien race, portals that can teleport a person hundreds or thousands of light-years in the blink of an eye. Roarke and Selene are searching one such possibility when they find that someone appears to be stalking them. They evade their pursuers and return to find that a man named Easton Dent has been searching the Spiral’s databases for the names Gregory Roarke and Icarus."

• The Dregs of Empire: Sun Eater, Book 5.5 By: Christopher Ruocchio, read by Samuel Roukin for Recorded Books -- "For thousands of years, the icy planet of Belusha has served the galactic Sollan Empire as its most notorious prison planet. It is here the very worst men in the Empire are locked away: murderers, traitors, deserters—each condemned to toil on the oil rigs and scrapyards of the planet in bitter cold, preyed upon both by the men of the Martian Guard set to watch over them, and by the Outborn reavers whose fathers escaped the work camps to scratch a living from the icy wilderness. It is a hard world. A desperate world. And it is here that Lorian Aristedes finds himself: alone; friendless; betrayed even by his own failing mutant flesh. It is here that Lorian Aristedes has been sentenced to work himself to death for the crime of abetting his master’s escape from imperial justice."

• From the Forest: Saga of Recluce, Book 23 By: L. E. Modesitt Jr., read by Kirby Heyborne for Tantor -- "In a new story arc, From the Forest follows the early life of a man known by many names depending on who you ask—hero, tyrant, emperor."

OMNIBUS WATCH:

• Fractured Fables: Containing A Spindle Splintered and A Mirror Mended By: Alix E. Harrow, read by Amy Landon for Macmillan -- "Follow professional fairy-tale fixer Zinnia Gray as she helps women get the endings they deserve. First, Sleeping Beauty in A Spindle Splintered, fractured and reimagined. And then, Snow White's Evil Queen in A Mirror Mended."

INDIE WATCH:

• Angolin By: C. E. Taylor, read by Kerr Lordygan for CamCat Books -- "The Hidden Realm of Angolin has existed in peaceful isolation for centuries, but that’s about to change. The enemy across the Abyss has discovered them and is intent on conquest. Lieutenant Dharmen Tate has a great love for his homeland and a greater understanding of its position in the world. When he discovers a plot by fellow officers to join the enemy and overthrow Angolin, he and his colleagues spring into action to defend the Hidden Realm from its foes."

• Like Rum-Drunk Angels By: Tyler Enfield for BTC Audiobooks -- "An offbeat, slightly magical, entirely original retelling of Aladdin as an American western. Francis Blackstone is a teenage gunslinger with a heart of gold. He’s fallen for the governor’s daughter and resolves to win her favour. And what better way than to rob a Manhattan Company bank?"

• Two-Gun Witch By: Bishop M. O'Connell, read by Tonia Ransom for Falstaff Books -- "Talen is a Stalker, a bounty hunter hired by the Marshal Service to hunt down humans stained by dark magic. She's also a two-gun witch, one of the few elven women who can wield two magical revolvers, spell irons, at once. For three years she's lived for the next bounty, and a whisper of vengeance for the destruction of her people. That changes when she takes the warrant on Margaret Jameson, a new kind of stained, one immune to the usual tools of collection. Upon finding her quarry, Talen realizes Margaret isn't stained at all, but someone worked very hard to make her appear so."

• Starship for Rent By: M.R. Forbes, read by Paul Heitsch for Quirky Algorithms -- "When Noah sees an advertisement offering him a chance to rent a starship, he’s convinced it has to be a trick. Already having the worst day of his life, he’s willing to do anything for a distraction, including following a random stranger’s directions to the middle of nowhere to see a ship he doubts exists. Except there is no trick. The starship is real. And Noah’s life will never be the same. All he has to do is sign the agreement and hand over the cash. Joined by his wisecracking friend and a woman he met online, he’s about to discover that the universe is more dangerous, bizarre, and amazing than he ever imagined."

• The Enigma of Treason: A Steampunk Raj Novel By: J. Seeger, read by Ella Whitehead for Mission Point Press -- "It’s 1915. The Great War has descended into horrific trench warfare with the great nations fighting over inches of European ground. In the Middle East, the war is between the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire, allied to Germany. Caught in the middle of this Middle East war are two families of spies—the Bankrofts, who support British operations in Mesopotamia, and the O’Connell family, on the side of the German and Ottoman operations. Both families trained in the mystic arts, mesmerism and intelligence tradecraft in British India, but one chose patriotism and the other, treason."

• The House of Whispers: Living Nightmares, Book 1 By: C. Hebert, read by Katrina Medina and William Madison for C. Hebert -- "A notorious murderer haunting the streets of Bedeville stumbles upon a mysterious woman, becoming obsessed as he spends his nights endlessly toying with her and turning her world into a living nightmare. This dark and twisted retelling of Jack the Ripper mixed with Jekyll and Hyde takes place in a fantasy world filled with magic, mischief, and murder."

MOST MISSING:

• Among the Living by Tim Lebbon (Titan Books) -- "A terrifying horror novel set in a melting Arctic landscape. Something deadly has lain dormant for thousands of years, but now the permafrost is giving up its secrets."

• The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter (Titan Books) -- "Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations. The Briar family of witches run the town of Silverton, caring for its inhabitants with their skills and magic. In the usual scheme of things, they would be burnt for their sorcery, but the church has given them dispensation in return for their protection of the borders of the Darklands, where the much-feared Leech Lords hold sway."

• The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles: The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, Book 2 by Malka Older (Tordotcom) -- "Mossa has returned to Valdegeld on a missing person’s case, for which she’ll once again need Pleiti’s insight. Seventeen students and staff members have disappeared from Valdegeld University—yet no one has noticed. The answers to this case may lie on the moon of Io—Mossa’s home—and the history of Jupiter’s original settlements during humanity's exodus from Earth."

• First Watch of Night: The Icarus Code, Book 2 by Rysa Walker (Starry Night Books) -- "Who is Eberin Das? Decoding an ancient message that survived the destruction of Mars could be the key to avoiding the same fate for Earth in this action-packed sequel to The Cold Light of Stars."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 6 February 2024

Posted on 2024-02-06 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The County Line: A Novel By: Steve Weddle, read by Brian Troxell for Brilliance -- "Life has never been easy for Cottonmouth Tomlin. Raised by an uncle in a hardscrabble Arkansas town, Cottonmouth couldn’t leave fast enough. As a young man, he set out to seek his fortune but was soon caught up in a life of low-level misdeeds, taking him from New Orleans all the way to Honduras. Now he’s back in Columbia County, mourning his uncle and worrying on what to do with the broken-down outlaw camp that represents the sum of his family legacy."

• The Women: A Novel by Kristin Hannah, read by Julia Whelan for Macmillan -- "From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided."

• The Tainted Cup: A Novel By: Robert Jackson Bennett, read by Andrew Fallaize for Random House -- "A Holmes and Watson-style detective duo take the stage in this fantasy with a mystery twist, from the Edgar-winning, multiple Hugo-nominated Robert Jackson Bennett."

• Fourteen Days: A Collaborative Novel by The Authors Guild, edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston, read by Shayna Small for Harper -- "Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is an irresistibly propulsive collaborative novel from the Authors Guild, with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice—from Margaret Atwood and John Grisham to Tommy Orange and Celeste Ng."

• Your Shadow Half Remains By: Sunny Moraine, read by the author for Macmillan -- "The Last of Us meets Bird Box in Sunny Moraine's Your Shadow Half Remains, a post-apocalyptic tale where eye contact causes people to spiral into a deadly, violent rage."

• Burma Sahib: A Novel by Paul Theroux, read by Charlie Anson for Harper -- "From the acclaimed author of The Mosquito Coast and The Bad Angel Brothers comes a riveting new novel exploring one of English literature's most beloved and controversial figures—George Orwell—and the early years as an officer in colonial Burma that transformed him from Eric Blair, the British Raj policeman, into Orwell the anticolonial writer."

• The Adversary: A Novel by Michael Crummey, read by Mary Lewis for Books on Tape -- "In an isolated outport on Newfoundland's northern coastline, Abe Strapp is about to marry the daughter of a rival merchant to cement his hold on the shore when the Widow Caines arrives to throw the wedding and Abe's plans into chaos. That ruthless act of sabotage is the opening salvo in a battle between the man and woman who own Mockbeggar's largest mercantile firms, each fighting for the scarce resources of the north Atlantic fishery, each seeking a measure of revenge on the person they despise most in the world. As their unshakeable animosity spirals further each year into vendettas and violence, the community is increasingly divided and even the innocents in Mockbeggar find themselves forced to take sides, with devastating consequences."

• Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories By: GennaRose Nethercott, read by GennaRose Nethercott, January LaVoy, Gabra Zackman, Max Meyers, and Elena Rey for Random House -- "The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, ravenous yearning: the hunger to be held, and seen, and known. And the terror, too: to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be recognized as the monstrous thing you are."

• Owning Up: New Fiction by George Pelecanos, read by Dion Graham for Hachette -- "Four blistering novellas, drawn together by themes of strife, violence, and humanity."

• Past Crimes By: Jason Pinter, read by Ellen Quay for Dreamscape -- "Welcome to Earth+. The year is 2037, and nearly all human interactions have migrated to the virtual world. Now, true-crime fans don't just listen to podcasts or watch documentaries—they participate in hyper-realistic simulations and hunt for clues to solve the most famous and gruesome crimes in history. Criminal entertainment is a multibillion-dollar industry, and at the forefront is Past Crimes: known by its millions of fans as the Disneyland of Death."

• The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel By: Nikos Kazantzakis (1938, translated by Kimon Friar in 1958), read by Joshua Saxon for Crossroad Press -- "A continuation of Homer’s epic poem, Kazantzakis’s own Odyssey finds Odysseus once again leaving Ithaca on finding that the satisfactions of home and hearth are not as he remembered them. Following an encounter with the former Helen of Troy (now returned to her husband, the king of Sparta, after the ignominious defeat of the Trojans), Odysseus gradually wends his way to Egypt and southward, grappling all the while with questions about the nature of God."

MORE FICTION:

• The Year of the Locust: A Thriller by Terry Hayes, read by Jeff Harding for Simon and Schuster -- "If, like Kane, you're a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA, then boundaries have no meaning. Your function is to go in, do whatever is required, and get out again—by whatever means necessary. You know when to run, when to hide—and when to shoot. But some places don't play by the rules. Some places are too dangerous, even for a man of Kane's experience. The badlands where the borders of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan meet are such a place—a place where violence is the only way to survive."

• The Young of Other Animals: A Novel By: Chris Cander, read by Amy Hutchins for Brilliance -- "Mayree and Paula are a mother and daughter drifting apart, separated by grief and more, after the death of Mayree’s husband. Mayree faces a future with no income, career, or social life. Even ties with her best friend have been severed. Paula, feeling abandoned by the father she loved, is left with only a bitter mother. When Paula reveals that she narrowly escaped a violent assault, Mayree’s initial reaction is dismissal and disbelief. But as details unfold, it’s clear that it was real and not just one random night gone horribly wrong—someone is out to destroy their lives."

• This Impossible Brightness: A Novel By: Jessica Bryant Klagmann, read by Caroline Hewitt for Brilliance -- "Taking refuge on a remote island, a grieving woman develops unlikely connections with the community and the wild in this haunting novel of hope and perseverance."

• Almost Surely Dead By: Amina Akhtar, with an introduction by Mindy Kaling, read by Kelsey Jaffer with a full cast for Mindy's Book Studio -- "A psychological thriller with a twist, Almost Surely Dead is a chilling account of how one woman’s life spins out of control after a terrifying—and seemingly random—attempt on her life."

• The Bad Weather Friend By: Dean Koontz, read by Ray Chase for Brilliance -- "Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée, and his favorite chair. He’s not paranoid. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. 'All will be well in time.'"

• We Ate the Dark: A Novel By: Mallory Pearson, read by Alaska Jackson for Brilliance -- "Four women investigating the haunting murder of their friend discover more than they ever imagined in a terrifying novel about good and evil, love and death, and the spaces between."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Bride by Ali Hazelwood Thérèse Plummer for Books on Tape -- "A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis."

• The Last Days of Lilah Goodluck By: Kylie Scott, read by Andi Arndt for Harlequin -- "When Lilah Goodluck saves the life of Good Witch Willow as they’re crossing a busy L.A. street, the last thing she expects is five unwanted predictions as a reward. Who gives someone the winning lotto numbers then tells them they’ve only got a week to live? And who believes in that nonsense anyway? But when the first three predictions come true within twenty-four hours, Lilah’s disbelief turns to mild panic. She’s further horrified when she nearly runs a car off the road that belongs to Alistair Lennox, who just happens to be the illegitimate son of the British king."

• Time Trials By: M.A. Rothman and D.J. Butler, read by Joshua Saxon for Tantor -- "Meet Marty Cohen, a brilliant linguist turned woodworking shop owner who thought he had left behind the politics and rivalries of academia for good. But when his woodworking business takes a hit, an offer he can't refuse pulls him back into the world of Egyptology. Marty is summoned to an off-the-grid archaeological dig, where ancient texts may hold the key to Earth's past and future. With the promise of riches, Marty embarks on a journey that defies belief."

• The Trials of Empire: Empire of the Wolf, Book 3 By: Richard Swan, read by Lucy Patterson for Orbit -- "The third novel in Richard Swan's acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy triumphantly concludes the tale of Sir Konrad Vonvalt, an Emperor’s Justice–a detective, judge and executioner all in one."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• The Slingerman By: Aaron Gudmunson (2018), read by Lou Del Bianco for Crossroad Press -- "With the nation on the verge of a second World War, a young man finds work at the house of the wealthiest family in town. Harold Albright has a simple job: keep quiet and do as he's told. This decree comes from Alice Tandy, the no-nonsense head of the housekeeping staff. The homeowners, Donald and Hannah Brenton, are urban transplants seeking a quieter lifestyle, who keep their business mysteriously concealed. They are also the proud parents of two daughters: Sally, who has recently married, and Lily, who supposedly took ill after the wedding, and has been quarantined to the attic. When word spreads that three bodies have been found mutilated, Donald offers to help authorities seek the killer. He coaxes Harold into assisting and winds up leading the naive young man and the dutiful Alice into a labyrinth of deceit, madness, and murder."

• The Changing Land: Dilvish Stories, Book 2 By: Roger Zelazny, read by Eric Michael Summerer for Tantor -- "The Changing Land picks up shortly after the events chronicled in Dilvish, the Damned. Dilvish must gain entry to Castle Timeless if he is to destroy his nemeses Jelerak. Unbenounced to Dilvish, Jelerak is also seeking to gain entrance to his own castle as his apprentice has blocked him out while attempting to lean the castles secrets so that he may become lord of Castle Timeless."

INDIE WATCH:

• How to Survive a Unicorn By: L.G. Estrella, read by Fred Berman for Podium -- "Are you being attacked by a pissed-off unicorn? Has an angry basilisk slithered into your camp? Is a dragon about to eat you? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you."

MOST MISSING:

• Dragonsgate: Angels by James Maxey -- "Dragongate: Angels, is the thrilling conclusion to the Dragonsgate trilogy. In this saga, dragons and humans are at war in the ruins of post-apocalyptic America. In the ruins of Oak Ridge Tennessee, a malfunctioning machine hidden in a government laboratory has ripped a hole in reality, and now dinosaurs are appearing in the surrounding wilderness. When a band of adventurers led by the famed dragon-slayer, Bitterwood, sets out to destroy the malfunctioning machine, some of them are swept away to a parallel earth where humans have never evolved. On this world, magic is real due the presence of a cosmic dragon named Emeralla. Unfortunately, cosmic dragons are the favorite meal of an even larger cosmic dragon, the planet devouring Waste-Wyrm. Now, Bitterwood must battle devils, spirits, and angels across a series of parallel worlds if he hopes to save his own reality from the interstellar predator."

• Blister: And Other Stories by Brian Biswas (Obie Books) -- "These stories paint a portrait of a magical realist world that is both chaotic and corrupt. In "Blister" a young widow remains faithful to her wedding vows even after her husband's deception is revealed. The husband in "Others" is haunted by a picture from the sixteenth century that has seemingly come to life and threatens to destroy his marriage. The soldier in "A Soldier's Lament" refuses to order the execution of an enemy combatant with whom he has fallen in love. The teenage girl in "Skipping Stones" is troubled by her father's second marriage, resulting in an existential crisis."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 30 January 2024

Posted on 2024-01-30 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

I expected a quiet week, with only 2 titles on my watch list somehow, and that's pretty much what we seem to have found ourselves with. So this week's roundup will have room for a few more "indie" sf/f books than usual...

PICKS:

• A Quantum Love Story By: Mike Chen, read by Patti Murin for Harlequin -- "Grieving her best friend's recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pineda’s ready to give up everything to start anew. Even her career—after one last week consulting at a top secret particle accelerator. Except the strangest thing happens: a man stops her…and claims they've met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she's mourning, why she's there. And he needs Mariana to remember everything he’s saying. Because time is about to loop. In a flash of energy, it’s Monday morning. Again. Together, Mariana and Carter enter an inevitable life, four days at a time, over and over, without permanence except for what they share. But just as they figure out this new life, everything changes. Because Carter's memories of the time loop are slowly disappearing. And their only chance at happiness is breaking out of the loop—forever."

• Your Utopia: Stories By: Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur, and read by Greta Jung for Algonguin -- "From the internationally acclaimed author of Cursed Bunny, in another thrilling translation from Korean by Anton Hur, this collection shares tales of loss and discovery, idealism and dystopia, death and immortality."

• Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too by Ijeoma Oluo, read by the author for Harper -- "Looking at many of our most powerful systems—like education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more—she highlights what people are doing to create change for intersectional racial equity. She also illustrates various ways in which the reader can find entryways into change in these same areas, or can bring some of this important work being done elsewhere to where they live."

• Come and Get It by Kiley Reid, read by Nicole Lewis for Books On Tape -- "From the celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age comes a fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students."

• The City of Stardust By: Georgia Summers, read by Kitty Parker for Redhook -- "A young woman descends into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge to break her family's curse in this spellbinding contemporary fantasy debut."

SERIES WATCH:

• Kinning: Everfair, Book 2 By: Nisi Shawl, read by Allyson Johnson for Tantor -- Whew! This was on my "most missing" list a couple weeks back, good to see/hear that listeners will be able to continue their way in this series. "Kinning continues the stunning alternate history where bark cloth airships soar through the sky, varied peoples build a new society together, and colonies claim their freedom from imperialist tyrants."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Dilvish, the Damned By: Roger Zelazny, read by Eric Michael Summerer for Tantor -- "Dilivish, a half elf-half man hybrid, failed in his attempt to rescue a young maiden being ritually sacrificed by the dark sorcerer Jelerak. In his anger at the attempt Jelerak kills the maiden and turns Dilvish's body to stone and banished his soul to Hell."

• Helix By: Eric Brown (2007), read by Gideon Emery for Recorded Books -- "With a brand new introduction by Stephen Baxter, this reissue of Eric Brown's famous Helix is to commemorate the life and work of a preeminent British SF author. Helix is a fast-paced action adventure novel following the plight of four humans when they crashland on what they think is a desolate ice-bound planet. Daylight brings the discovery that the planet is one of thousands arranged in a vast spiral wound about a central sun. They set off to discover a more habitable Earth-like world and come across strange races of aliens, and life-threatening perils, on their way."

• A Song of Steel: The Light of the North Saga, Book 1 By: J C Duncan (2020), read by Ulf Bjorklund for Podium -- "Alternate history—1116 AD. Three hundred years of cruel Viking raids have finally united Christian Europe against the pagan Northlands. A great crusade has been called to pacify the wild Norse kingdoms. The banner of the cross has been raised against the North, and all the power and fury of the West rides under it. Ordulf, a talented young German swordsmith, is ripped from his comfortable life and cast into the bloody chaos of the crusade. As fate deals him a cruel blow in the lands of his enemies, he will have to forge a new path through the chaos or be consumed by it."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Shanghai Immortal By: A.Y. Chao, read by Mei Mei Macleod and A.Y. Chao for Tantor -- "Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell as a child, Lady Jing is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit, and all sasshole. As the King's ward, she has spent the past ninety years running errands, dodging the taunts of the spiteful hulijing courtiers, and trying to control her explosive temper—with varying levels of success. So when Jing overhears the courtiers plotting to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she seizes her chance to expose them, once and for all."

• Grim: Withering Mysteries Series 1 By: Amy Boyles, read by Michael Kirby for Tantor -- "It only takes an instant for Grim—monster hunter and emotionally scarred hero—to lose everything. Grim is having a bad year. A hunter by trade, his world is ripped apart when he is cursed with a sickness that is slowly changing him into one of the very creatures he hunts."

• Once There Were Heroes: A Time of Dragons, Book 1 By: Philip C. Quaintrell, read by Steven Brand for Podium -- "The Gods are dead. In their absence, there can be only chaos, only war. And they are not all that has faded from the world of Verda..."

MOST MISSING:

• Women of Horror and Speculative Fiction in Their Own Words edited by Sébastien Doubinsky and Christina Kkona (Bloomsbury) -- "This collection of interviews elicits truly honest and thought-provoking responses that focus on the biographical dimension in speculative fiction, questions of intersectionality, genre (re)definitions and the politicization of fiction. It gives voice to women of different races, nations, classes and sexual orientations who write and edit speculative fiction – such as Ellen Datlow, Kathe Koja, Angela Mi Young Hur, Eugen Bacon, and Cat Rambo. The interviews clarify how the junction of genre and gender is a key element to understanding this literary field, while simultaneously contextualizing and theorizing the interview itself, as a literary genre and a research tool."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 23 January 2024

Posted on 2024-01-23 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase, read by Christel Mutombo for Recorded Books -- "Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret. The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave. As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone."

• Exordia by Seth Dickinson, read by Sulin Hasso for Macmillan -- "Anna Sinjari—refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker—has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. Enter Ssrin, a many-headed serpent alien who is on the run from her own past. Ssrin and Anna are inexorably, dangerously drawn to each other, and their contact reveals universe-threatening stakes. While humanity reels from disaster, Anna must join a small team of civilians, soldiers, and scientists to investigate a mysterious broadcast and unknowable horror. If they can manage to face their own demons, they just might save the world."

• All Souls Lost by Dan Moren, read by Mirron Willis for Spotify -- "Say hello to Mike Lucifer, Spiritual Consultant. He’s back in town to take care of business. Unfortunately, when business is good, things must be very, very bad. After two years trying to run away from his past, Mike Lucifer’s back in his office less than ten minutes when a persistent young woman shows up asking for help: her boyfriend’s been possessed by a demon."

• The Bullet Swallower: A Novel By: Elizabeth Gonzalez James, read by Lee Osorio for Simon and Schuster -- "A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making."

• Family Family: A Novel By: Laurie Frankel, read by Patti Murin for Macmillan -- "India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero. Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do—she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie. Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi, from protesters on the right and advocates on the left. Her twin ten-year-olds know they need help–and who better to call than family? But that’s where it gets really messy because India’s not just an adoptive mother… The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn’t blood. And it isn’t love. No matter how they’re formed, the truth about family is this: it's complicated."

• Diva: A Novel by Daisy Goodwin, read by Lorelei King for Macmillan -- "In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas was known simply as la divina: the divine one. With her glorious voice, instinctive flair for the dramatic and striking beauty, she was the toast of the grandest opera houses in the world. But her fame was hard won: raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her golden voice, she learned early in life to protect herself from those who would use her for their own ends. When she met the fabulously rich Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, for the first time in her life, she believed she’d found someone who saw the woman within the legendary soprano. She fell desperately in love. He introduced her to a life of unbelievable luxury, showering her with jewels and sojourns in the most fashionable international watering holes with celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. And then suddenly, it was over. The international press announced that Aristotle Onassis would marry the most famous woman in the world, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leaving Maria to pick up the pieces."

• Harbor Lights: Stories By: James Lee Burke, read by Gary Furlong, Matt Pittenger, Michael David Axtell, Ali Andre Ali, Alan Carlson, Kaleo Griffith, Leon Nixon, Zac Aleman for Simon and Schuster -- " a story collection from one of the most popular and widely acclaimed icons of American fiction, featuring a never-before-published novella. These eight stories move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons, and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival, and revenge."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• And Then We Rise: A Guide to Loving and Taking Care of Self By: Common, read by the author for Harper -- "From the multi-award-winning performer, author, and activist, a comprehensive program for addressing mental and physical health—and encouraging communities to do the same."

• Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine By: Uché Blackstock MD, read by the author for Penguin -- "Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives. What Dr. Uché Blackstock did not understand as a child—or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother’s footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school—were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Uranians: Stories by Theodore McCombs, read by Gabriel McKnight for Tantor -- "Discerning which dreams of Western civilization to hold fast to and which to leave behind, these outsiders set their gazes on new horizons and prepare for the changes to come. Arch but tender, clear-eyed and compassionate, Uranians brilliantly illustrates the vital role that queerness plays in every possible version of our world."

• The First Ambassador to Crustacea by Ashton Macaulay, read by Joel Simler for Spoken Realms -- "The galaxy is a colorful place and Crustacea is no exception. Born on a whim of a madman, the planet of psychic crabs evolved through a combination of radiation, cosmic energy, and what scientists could only describe as ‘the right vibes'. Now, the crustacean leadership must deal with the impending arrival of the first ambassador from the United Commission of Planets, renegade lobsters, and foul creatures lurking in the deep."

• Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson, read by R.C. Bray for Podium -- "From the ashes of a devastated Boston, a harrowing legend emerges. Thirteen years prior, the colossal kaiju, Nemesis, ravaged the city in her relentless pursuit of retribution. Today, mankind's survival teeters on the sacrificial offerings atop a chilling monolith known as The Altar, where the condemned pay the ultimate price to prevent Nemesis's wrath from consuming humanity."

• Faebound: A Novel by Saara El-Arifi, read by Bahni Turpin for Random House -- "As a warrior in the elven army, Yeeran has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future. When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven Lands, both sisters are forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders. There they encounter the impossible: the fae court. The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world, torn among their loyalties to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt (1997), read by Justin Price for Tantor -- "The Roadmakers left only ruins behind—but what magnificent ruins! Their concrete highways still cross the continent. Their cups, combs, and jewelry are found in every Illyrian home. They left behind a legend, too-a hidden sanctuary called Haven, where even now the secrets of their civilization might still be found. Chaka's brother was one of those who sought to find Haven and never returned. But now Chaka has inherited a rare Roadmaker artifact—a book called A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court—which has inspired her to follow in his footsteps."

MOST MISSING:

• Kinning: Everfair, Book 2 by Nisi Shawl (Tor) -- "[C]ontinues the stunning alternate history where barkcloth airships soar through the sky, varied peoples build a new society together, and colonies claim their freedom from imperialist tyrants. The Great War is over. Everfair has found peace within its borders. But our heroes’ stories are far from done." Update: now out in audio!

• Reckoning: A Darkhurst Novel, Book 3 by Gail Z. Martin (SOL Publishing) -- "Undertaker brothers fight the monsters who killed their family and uncover a dark secret that could destroy a kingdom."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 16 January 2024

Posted on 2024-01-16 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Tusks of Extinction By: Ray Nayler, read by Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir for Spotify -- "Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again. The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth. Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold? And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?"

• Beautyland By: Marie-Helene Bertino, read by Andi Arndt for Dreamscape -- "At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she's different: she possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of earthlings. For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. But at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she's not alone?"

• The Longest Autumn: A Novel By: Amy Avery, read by Zura Johnson for Macmillan -- "For fans of Ariadne, a spellbinding debut fantasy about a human who gets trapped with the god of Autumn, who brings with him life-threatening danger and a forbidden romance."

• Antarctica Station: A Thriller By: A.G. Riddle, read by Morgan Hallett for Recorded Books -- "Dr. Laura Reynolds had it all. A job she loved. The respect of her peers. Student debt she was slowly chipping away at. And one day, it all went away. She saw the wrong thing—a colleague's mistake. And to escape, he framed her. Laura's only option is to join a secretive research project in Antarctica, where she hopes to keep practicing medicine and one day get her life back. But soon after arriving, she realizes that things aren't what they seem in this advanced facility. And perhaps something strange is happening in the world outside."

• Unbound By: Christy Healy, read by Gary Furlong and Alison McKenna for Blackstone -- "For fans of Hannah Whitten and Rebecca Ross, Unbound is a gender-bent reimagining of the classic tale of a monstrous beast and the beauty determined to tame it, set against the lush backdrop of Irish mythology and folklore."

• This Wretched Valley By: Jenny Kiefer, read by Megan Tusing for Blackstone -- "This trip is going to be Dylan’s big break. Her geologist friend Clay has discovered an untouched cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness, and she is going to be the first person to climb it. Together with Clay, his research assistant Sylvia, and Dylan’s boyfriend Luke, Dylan is going to document her achievement on Instagram and finally cement her place as the next rising star in rock climbing. Seven months later, three bodies are discovered in the trees just off the highway. All are in various states of decay: one a stark, white skeleton; the second emptied of its organs; and the third a mutilated corpse with the tongue, eyes, ears, and fingers removed. But Dylan is still missing—and no trace of her, dead or alive, has been discovered."

• The Magic All Around By: Jennifer Moorman, read by Kathleen McInerney for Harper Muse -- "The Russell women have always lived in a house that is as special as they are—a century-old Victorian with a radio that tunes itself to the listener’s mood and a pantry that rearranges to provide just the right ingredients for any baking need. Lilith Russell was the exception. She left the family home in Ivy Ridge, Georgia, and has been flitting like a hummingbird from place to place with her daughter, Mattie, in the decades since, only returning each summer to drop Mattie off with Lilith’s sister, Penelope. When Lilith dies suddenly, Mattie is left without her sole companion and the captain who steered her ship. That is, until she visits Ivy Ridge and learns Lilith charted one last course for Mattie: a series of tasks that she must complete to earn her inheritance."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials by Marion Gibson, read by Rose Akroyd for Simon and Schuster -- "A fascinating, vivid global history of witch trials across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, told through thirteen distinct trials that illuminate the pattern of demonization and conspiratorial thinking that has profoundly shaped human history."

INDIE WATCH:

• Space Punks By: Anna Mocikat, read by a full cast -- "David wakes up in a high-security prison on the forsaken Martian moon Deimos with no memory of his past. A chance encounter with Aztec, a deadly purple-haired cyborg, propels him into a daring jailbreak. She brings him on board a mysterious warship manned by the most notorious and badass crew of the galaxy—the Space Punks. One hundred years ago AI waged a devastating war against its human creators. Humanity won, but barely and at a horrible price. Ever since, the solar system has been strictly controlled by the Pentad, a ruthless coalition of megacorporations. As David tries to regain his memory, he finds himself fighting battles between mechs, cyborgs, robots and super-soldiers alongside his new brothers and sisters-in-arms. But is there more to the Space Punks than meets the eye? Everyone on board seems to have their own secret agenda...

MOST MISSING:

• The Parliament by Aimee Pkwatka (Tordotcom) -- "Madigan Purdy is stuck in her home town library. When tens of thousands of owls descend on the building, rending and tearing at anyone foolish enough to step outside, Mad is tasked with keeping her students safe, and distracted, while they seek a solution to their dilemma. Perhaps they’ll find the inspiration they seek in her favorite childhood book, The Silent Queen…. With food and fresh water in low supply, the denizens of the library will have to find a way out, and soon, but the owls don’t seem to be in a hurry to leave…"

Aw thanks man. I really appreciate it!

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 9 January 2024

Posted on 2024-01-09 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Cold: A Novel By: Drew Hayden Taylor, read by Wesley French, Lawrence Bayne, Susan Roman, Jani Lauzon, Cara Gee, and Mirphie Kinanga for McClelland and Stewart -- "Elmore Trent is a professor of Indigenous studies who finds himself entangled in an affair that's ruining his marriage; Paul North plays in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League), struggling to keep up with the game that's passing him by; Detective Ruby Birch is chasing a string of gruesome murders, with clues that conspicuously lead her to both Elmore and Paul. And then there's Fabiola Halan, former journalist-turned-author and famed survivor of a plane crash that sparked a nationwide tour promoting her book. What starts off as a series of subtle connections between isolated characters quickly takes a menacing turn, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone—or something—is hunting them all."

• The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel By: Shubnum Khan, read by Soneela Nankani for Penguin -- "Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Nearly a century later, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse for eclectic misfits, seeking solely to disappear into the mansion’s dark corridors. Except for Sana. Unlike the others, she is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion: To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the door at its end, locked for decades."

• The Fetishist By: Katherine Min, read by Eunice Wong and Kayla Min Andrews for Penguin -- "On a cold, gloomy night, twenty-three-year-old Kyoko stands in the rain with a knife in her hoodie’s pocket. Her target is Daniel, who seduced Kyoko’s mother then callously dropped her, leading to her death. But tonight, there will be repercussions. Following the unsuspecting Daniel home, Kyoko manages to get a rash kidnapping plot off the ground . . . and then nothing goes as planned."

• You Dreamed of Empires: A Novel by Álvaro Enrigue, read by Natasha Wimmer for Books on Tape -- "One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan – today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures. Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma – who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods – the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire."

• Cold Victory: A Novel By: Karl Marlantes, read by Bronson Pinchot for Blackstone -- "Helsinki, 1947. Finland teeters between the Soviet Union and the West. Everyone is being watched. A wrong look or a wrong word could end in catastrophe. Natalya Bobrova, from Russia, and Louise Koski, from the United States, are young wives of their country’s military attachés. When they meet at an embassy party, their husbands, Arnie and Mikhail, both world-class skiers, drunkenly challenge each other to a friendly—but secret—cross-country wilderness race."

• The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski, read by Stacy Gonzalez for Blackstone -- "Riley Diaz was born to fight back. When she’s incarcerated under the authority of a shadowy new defense act, Riley is sent to one of a growing number of American Renewal Centers (ARCs)—institutions modeled after psychiatric facilities—for mandatory reeducation. Forced therapy, involuntary medication, solitary confinement, restricted rations, and more are all in the ARC program’s bag of dirty tricks designed to break down dissidents. Give in, and you go free."

• The Heiress: A Novel By: Rachel Hawkins, read by Dan Bittner, Eliza Foss, John Pirhalla, and Patti Murin for Macmillan -- "When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past. Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable."

SERIES WATCH:

• Mislaid in Parts Half-Known: Wayward Children, Book 9 by Seanan McGuire, read by Jesse Vilinsky for Macmillan -- "Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children."

• The Atlas Complex: Atlas Series, Book 3 by Olivie Blake, read by a full cast for Macmillan -- "An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment."

• A Feast for Starving Stone: Chefs of the Five Gods, Book 2 By: Beth Cato, read by Elizabeth Knowelden for Brilliance -- "Two countries at war. A delicious taste of magic. And a fierce princess comes of age in a rousing adventure by the author of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge."

INDIE WATCH:

• The Witch of Tophet County by J.H. Schiller, read by Soneela Nankani for Podium -- "The witch of Tophet County has three primary preoccupations: Kentucky bourbon, Amish romance novels . . . and protecting her true identity from the chthonic monsters who rule humanity with an iron tentacle."

• They Will Be Coming for Us: The Jovian Universe, Book 1 By: Kim Catanzarite (2021), read by Traci Odom -- "Svetlana Peterman has met her soul mate in Andrew Jovian, a young astronomer who works for Starbright International, the aerospace company his wealthy parents own. Once married, they make a home in Kirksberg, Pennsylvania, a small town famous for a UFO sighting that occurred in the 1960s. Svetlana is, for once, truly happy, except that Andrew’s family is strange, and not in a normal-strange kind of way."

MOST MISSING:

• Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf (Angry Robot) -- "Her purpose is to track down and eliminate her predecessors. Simple, right? In the glitz and glamour of Bubble City even a washed-up film star simply has too much to do, too many places to be. Thank heavens for clones. Lulabelle Rock has twelve, doing the tiresome celebrity rounds. But times have changed: you can have too much of a good thing. And time is up for the twelve Lulabelles. A thirteenth clone, an assassin is created. Killing yourselves should be easy. We’re talking clones, not people; it’s not murder. Not really. But love has a way of complicating things…"

Ooh! Good find, looks interesting! "This "fresh, exciting, and brilliantly unpredictable" thriller (James Patterson) from a "great storyteller" (Michael Connelly) follows four unlikely vigilantes who pit themselves against the villain behind California’s coldest case when they decide to take justice into their own hands."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 2 January 2024

Posted on 2024-01-02 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Took a while off, and this very quiet week to start the year seems like a nice time to tiptoe back in here. The books that most caught my eye this week:

• Gunflower by Laura Jean McKay, read by Casey Withoos for Recorded Books -- Published in the UK by W.F. Howes last October, now available in the US. "The brilliant new short story collection from the Arthur C. Clarke Award–winning author of The Animals in That Country. A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men. With her trademark humor, energy, and flair, McKay offers glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans. The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerizing ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be."

• Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes, read by the author for Harper -- "A female-centered look at Olympus and the Furies, focusing on the goddesses whose prowess, passions, jealousies, and desires rival those of their male kin."

• The Storm We Made: A Novel by Vanessa Chan, read by Samantha Tan for Simon and Schuster -- "A spellbinding, sweeping novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family."

• Scorpio: Frontlines: Evolution, Book1 by Marko Kloos, read by Arielle DeLisle for Brilliance -- Kloos returns to his "Frontlines" sf series some years later, as Alex Archer returns from war to find that fitting in with humanity's survivors is... something. She does, however, have "Ash", a threat-sensing black shepherd, to keep her company amidst a growing alien threat.

• Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia, read by Bilal Baig for Harper Teen -- "Tara just wants to be treated like any other girl at Ainsley Academy. That is, judged on her merits—not on her transness. But there’s no road map for being the first trans girl at an all-girls school. And when she tries to join the Sibyls, an old-fashioned Ainsley sisterhood complete with code names and special privileges, she’s thrust into the center of a larger argument about what girlhood means and whether the club should exist at all."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 5 September 2023

Posted on 2023-09-05 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Making one tiny exception from not doing these anymore to mention a new title because if you only look at Audible, you won't find it: The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorow, read by the author:

https://www.downpour.com/catalog/product/view/id/818082/s/the-internet-con/

https://libro.fm/audiobooks/5184389278340-the-internet-con

Here we go:

When the tech platforms promised a future of “connection,” they were lying. They said their “walled gardens” would keep us safe, but those were prison walls.

The platforms locked us into their systems and made us easy pickings, ripe for extaction. Twitter, Facebook and other Big Tech platforms hard to leave by design. They hold hostage the people we love, the communities that matter to us, the audiences and customers we rely on. The impossibility of staying connected to these people after you delete your account has nothing to do with technological limitations: it’s a business strategy in service to commodifying your personal life and relationships.

We can - we must - dismantle the tech platforms. In The Internet Con, Cory Doctorow explains how to seize the means of computation, by forcing Silicon Valley to do the thing it fears most: interoperate. Interoperability will tear down the walls between technologies, allowing users leave platforms, remix their media, and reconfigure their devices without corporate permission.

Interoperability is the only route to the rapid and enduring annihilation of the platforms. The Internet Con is the disassembly manual we need to take back our internet.

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 4 July 2023

Posted on 2023-07-04 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

The API changes protest blackout (absolutely necessary!) broke a several-years streak of posting new audiobook roundups for me here, and I just haven't got back "up" for it, you know? Still, hey, why not, incredibly low effort weekly roundup since this is such an insanely quiet week...

PICKS:

• Excavations: A Novel By: Kate Myers, read by Joy Nash for Harper -- "On a remote archeological site in Greece, the mythic home of the first Olympics, four women discover an unusual artifact. It’s a piece of history that definitely shouldn’t exist. And for the head archaeologist in charge, a relic himself, it means something’s gone horribly wrong. Elise, Kara, Z and Patty all find themselves digging here together, but they couldn’t be farther apart. Kara’s a polished conservator calling off her wedding. Patty and her bowl cut are desperate for love. Millennial Z just got dumped and fired yet again. And Elise, their star excavator, is a lone wolf about to go rogue. To figure out what they’re really digging for, and to topple the man who wants to hide their history, these dirt-crusted colleagues have to become what they’ve avoided for years—friends. If they put their own messes aside for one summer, they might just make the discovery of a lifetime."

• The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt, read by Jim Meskimen for Harper -- "Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed."

• Trinity: A Novel by Zelda Lockhart, read by Lynnette R. Freeman for Harper -- "The Hurston-Wright Award Finalist makes her long-awaited return with this electrifying saga that explores three generations of a family trying to overcome trials and trauma and free themselves from the darkness of the past."

BACKLIST:

• The Life You Left By: Carmel Harrington (2014), read by Breffni Holahan for Harper -- "It started out like any other day for Sarah Lawler; getting the kids ready for school, making the pack lunches and juggling baby Ella’s feeds. There was no way of knowing that her husband, Paul, would leave for work that morning and simply not come home. Now the questions are piling up quicker than the unpaid bills and, unable to answer her children’s questions about where their Daddy is, Sarah is getting desperate. But it turns out she isn’t quite as alone as she thought she was. When her beloved childhood friend, Edward, comes back into her life, Sarah thinks she’s finally been thrown a life line. There’s just one problem with Edward: Sarah is the only person who can see him."

TIE-IN:

• Mirrorverse: Pure of Heart By: Delilah Dawson, read by Abigail Reno for Disney Press -- "Set in a familiar fantasy land, the story begins as Snow White helps a young deer in the forest. However, this is Snow White as reflected and evolved within the Mirrorverse, with new abilities and items infused with Stellar Magic that she must learn how to wield. Despite her new skills and the strange things happening in her world, Snow White has been carrying on as normal…until now. As she returns to her cottage, Snow is met with seven dark, angry expressions, and glowing white eyes. They surround her, claiming they need to capture "the heart of Snow White." Snow desperately tries to reason with who she thought were her friends, but they refuse to listen to her, and she ultimately must use her newly acquired abilities to defeat them. It is only when Stellar Sorcerer Mickey Mouse arrives and explains that the creatures she defeated were not her friends, but instead a group of evil copies created by Fractured Magic. Snow believes that the evil Queen has taken her friends, and it is up to Snow to retrieve them and the Fractured Stellar Mirror before it can be used to destroy Snow's home world forever. But Snow doesn't need to face the Queen alone. Mickey assigns her a team of fellow Guardians, powerful beings from many different worlds who have committed to thwarting the Fractured and protecting the Mirrorverse from harm. Snow meets Tiana—an potion-maker—Rapunzel—a fighter who knows how to wield a frying pan—Stitch—a chaotic blue alien—Sulley— a monster with a big heart—and Hades—the lord of the Underworld."

• Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas by Megan Shepherd, read by MacLeod Andrews for Disney Press -- "Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the holiday classic Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas with this stunning collectible novelization, adapted by New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd."

SERIES:

• Season of Skulls: Laundry Files, Book 12 By: Charles Stross, read by Gideon Emery for Recorded Books -- "Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain's avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much."

• The Lost Fleet: Outlands: Implacable By: Jack Campbell, read by Christian Rummel for Recorded Books -- "As far from explored space as any human has ever been, Geary and the Alliance fleet are on their own, protecting a diplomatic mission in territory belonging to an alien species with still-unknown motives."

• 1637: The Coast of Chaos: Ring of Fire, Book 34 edited by Eric Flint (2021), Gorg Huff, and Paula Goodlett, read by George Guidall for Recorded Books -- "It is now five years later, and the effects of the Ring of Fire reach from the Old World to the New. But the course of exploration and colonization will look much different than it did in our timeline. The French bought the English possessions in North America way back in 1633, but have never done much with the uncivilized backwater. Until the new king of France, Gaston I, decides that it's time to seize the territory and establish French control over it."

MISSING:

• Wampus Rumpus: A Bubba the Monster Hunter Novella by John G. Hartness (Falstaff Books) -- "He's back, and he's lost in the woods. Again. You'd think that a dude who spends most of his life running around in the woods hunting monsters would be better at not getting lost. You'd be wrong. Bubba and crew head to Tennessee to hunt down their dream cryptid - a wampus cat. At least, Bubba and Skeeter's dream cryptid. Geri and Amy have never heard of it. But that's okay, because Skeeter has a PowerPoint ready to go, just waiting for the day they got the call to hunt a wampus and make a rumpus!"

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 6 June 2023

Posted on 2023-06-06 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel By: S. A. Cosby, read by Adam Lazarre-White for Macmillan -- "Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon."

• Translation State By: Ann Leckie, read by Adjoa Andoh for Orbit -- "Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". I's the type of behavior that results in elimination. But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots—or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him. As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line—the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars."

• The Endless Vessel: A Novel By: Charles Soule, read by Barrie Kreinik for Harper -- "A few years from now, in a world similar to ours, there exists a sort of “depression plague” that people refer to simply as “The Grey.” No one can predict whom it will afflict, or how, but once infected, there’s no coming back. A young Hong Kong based scientist, Lily Barnes, is trying to maintain her inner light in an increasingly dark world. The human race is dwindling, and people fighting to push forward are increasingly rare. One day, Lily comes across something that seems to be addressing her directly, calling to her, asking her to follow a path to whatever lies at its end. Is this the Endless Vessel to happiness? She leaves her life behind and sets out through time and space to find out."

• The Memory of Animals: A Novel By: Claire Fuller, read by Genevieve Gaunt for Audible -- "In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease causing sensory damage, nerve loss, and, in most cases, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted 27-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London—perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers—Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper—cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there. As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. She withdraws into projections of her past—a childhood bisected by divorce, a recent love affair, her obsessive research with octopuses, and the one mistake that ended her career."

• At the Edge of the Woods by Kathryn Bromwich, read by Gemma Dawson for HighBridge -- "Laura lives alone in a cabin deep within the forest, making her living translating medical documents and tutoring the children of affluent locals. She spends her days climbing the mountains outside her door and roaming the woods, and soon begins a relationship with a waiter some years her junior, which brings new rhythms to her life. But late one night there is a knock on the door, and on the other side stands someone from her past who has finally found her. As the mystery surrounding why she is there comes into focus, Laura is plagued by a fever, and starts to experience flashbacks to her youth, along with an eerie second sight that seems to lift the veil on reality while making astonishing new connections with the natural world around her. In beguiling, lyrical prose we begin to see how Laura's past informs her present and is a shackle she is desperately trying to shed. Before long though the villagers grow wary of the woman in the cabin and of her increasingly odd behavior, and a few decide to take matters into their own hands; to free themselves from the malevolent forces of the strega who lives amongst them."

• The Moon Represents My Heart By: Pim Wangtechawat, read by Rebecca Yeo for Blackstone -- "The Wang family is hiding a secret—they all have the ability to time travel. When parents Joshua and Lily depart for the past and never return, their children Tommy and Eva are forced to deal with their grief alone. Eva tries to find her place in the present, while Tommy is pulled further and further into a past that he hopes holds the truth. When he falls in love with a woman from 1930s London Chinatown, his inability to confront his own history has serious ramifications for the people who can truly bring him happiness."

• Nothing but the Rain By: Naomi Salman, read by Soneela Nankani for Tantor -- "The rain in Aloisville is never-ending, and no one can remember when it started. There's not much they can remember. With every drop that hits their skin, a bit of memory is washed away. Stay too long in the wet, and you'll lose everything you used to be. By the time Laverne begins keeping a journal, the small town she calls home has been irreparably changed. Every drop of water is dangerous, from leaky faucets to the near-constant rainfall, and a careless trip outside can mean a life down the drain. With mysterious forces preventing escape, calls for rebellion seem to be on every resident's lips. But Laverne has no interest in fighting. She has no interest in rebellion. She just wants to survive."

• Open Throat By: Henry Hoke, read by Pete Cross for Dreamscape -- "A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Lonely and fascinated by humanity’s foibles, the lion spends their days protecting the welfare of a nearby homeless encampment, observing obnoxious hikers complain about their trauma, and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their gender identity, memories of a vicious father, and the indignities of sentience. “I have so much language in my brain,” our lion says, “and nowhere to put it.” When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers call “ellay.” As the lion confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, they take us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles and the toll of climate grief, while scrambling to avoid earthquakes, floods, and the noise of their own conflicted psyche. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: Do they want to eat a person or become one?"

• Killingly By: Katharine Beutner, read by Rachel Botchan for Recorded Books -- "Bertha Mellish, “the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl” at Mount Holyoke College in 1897, is missing. One cold November morning the junior is spotted walking through the Massachusetts woods; then, she vanishes. As a search team dredges the pond where she might have drowned, Bertha’s panicked father and sister arrive at the campus desperate to find some clue as to her fate or state of mind. Bertha’s best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped, inciting the suspicions of Bertha’s family, her classmates, and the private investigator hired by the Mellish family doctor. As secrets from Agnes and Bertha’s lives come to light, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for Bertha."

• My Murder: A Novel By: Katie Williams, read by Rebecca Lowman for Penguin -- "Lou is a happily married mother of an adorable toddler. She’s also the victim of a local serial killer. Recently brought back to life and returned to her grieving family by a government project, she is grateful for this second chance. But as the new Lou re-adapts to her old routines, and as she bonds with other female victims, she realizes that disturbing questions remain about what exactly preceded her death and how much she can really trust those around her."

• The Light on Farallon Island: A Novel By: Jen Wheeler, read by Sarah Zimmerman for Brilliance -- "Thirty miles off the coast of San Francisco lie the Farallon Islands, known to sailors as the Devil’s Teeth. Despite their fearsome reputation, their remote nature appeals to young Lucy Riley, who in 1859 seeks a new start as a teacher to the lighthouse keepers’ children. But Lucy brings treacherous secrets with her, including a name that isn’t hers and a past she can’t escape. On the island, she meets Will Sisson, a mysterious man who seems to recognize her name—but not her face. Wary of Will at first, Lucy slowly starts to trust him. As Lucy embeds herself in the island’s community, she discovers numerous dangers: deadly cliffs, shark-infested waters, and disorienting fogs. A dark presence of another sort, too, disguises an encroaching threat."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• Pageboy: A Memoir By: Elliot Page, read by the author for Macmillan -- "As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do, until enough was enough. Full of behind the scenes details and intimate interrogations on sex, love, trauma, and Hollywood, Pageboy is the story of a life pushed to the brink. But at its core, this beautifully written, winding journey of what it means to untangle ourselves from the expectations of others is an ode to stepping into who we truly are with defiance, strength, and joy."

• Don't Call It Hair Metal: Art in the Excess of '80s Rock By: Sean Kelly, read by the author for Tantor -- "There may be no more joyous iteration in all of music than 1980s hard rock. It was an era where the musical and cultural ideals of rebellion and freedom of the great rock 'n' roll of the '50s, '60s, and '70s were taken to dizzying heights of neon excess. Attention to songcraft, showmanship, and musical virtuosity (especially in the realm of the electric guitar) were at an all-time high, and radio and MTV were delivering the goods en masse to the corn-fed children of America and beyond."

MORE FICTION:

• Lady Tan's Circle of Women By: Lisa See, read by Jennifer Lim and Justin Chien for Simon and Schuster -- "According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient."

• The Wind Knows My Name: A Novel By: Isabel Allende, translated by Frances Riddle, read by Edoardo Ballerini and Maria Liatis for Random House -- "Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin. Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother."

• The Whispers: A Novel By: Ashley Audrain, read by Jill Winternitz for Penguin -- "The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys' best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives."

• Crow Mary: A Novel By: Kathleen Grissom, read by Carolina Hoyos for Simon and Schuster -- "A sweeping saga inspired by the true story of Crow Mary—an indigenous woman torn between two worlds in 19th-century North America."

• A Killer's Game: Daniela Vega, Book 1 By: Isabella Maldonado, read by Almarie Guerra, Feodor Chin for Brilliance -- "FBI agent and former military codebreaker Daniela “Dani” Vega witnesses a murder on a Manhattan sidewalk. The victim is chief of staff for a powerful New York senator. The assassin turned informant is Gustavo Toro. His code: hit the target and don’t ask questions. When Dani suspects a complex conspiracy, the only way to take down the mastermind is from the inside, forcing her to partner with Toro. Together they must infiltrate the inner circle at a remote facility. Except it’s a trap. For all of them."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella, read by Anthony Nyro for WF Howes -- "Brian, an aimless slacker, works doubles at his shift job, forgets to clean his room and lays about with his friends Nik and Darby. He's been struggling to manage his transition to adulthood almost as much as his monthly transitions to a werewolf. Really, he is not great at the whole werewolf thing, and his recent murderous slip-ups have caught the attention of Tyler, a Millennial were-mentor determined to take the mythological world by storm."

• Shanghai Immortal By: A. Y. Chao, read by Mei Mei Macleod for Hodder and Stoughton -- "Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell as a child, Lady Jing is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and all sasshole. As the King's ward, she has spent the past ninety years running errands, dodging the taunts of the spiteful hulijing courtiers, and trying to control her explosive temper - with varying levels of success. So when Jing overhears the courtiers plotting to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she seizes her chance to expose them, once and for all."

• The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong, read by Emily Woo Zeller for Dreamscape -- "There is a restaurant in Toronto. Its entrance is announced only by a simple unadorned wooden door, varnished to a beautiful shine but without paint, hidden beside dumpsters and a fire escape. There is no sign, no indication of what lies behind the door. If you do manage to find the restaurant, the décor is dated and worn—homey, if one were to be generous. The service is atrocious; the proprietor, a grouch. The regulars are worse: silent, brooding, and unfriendly to newcomers. There is no set menu, alternating with the whim and whimsy of the owner. The selection of wine and beer is sparse or nonexistent at times, and the prices are outrageous. There is a restaurant in Toronto that is magically hidden, whose service is horrible and whose food is divine."

• A Thousand Recipes for Revenge: Chefs of the Five Gods, Book 1 By: Beth Cato, read by Elizabeth Knowelden for Brilliance -- "A world on the brink of war and a mother and daughter on the run, in a thrilling novel of swashbuckling adventure, culinary magic, and just desserts."

• Hammer of Fate: The Rune Song Trilogy, Book 1 by G.N. Gudgion, read by Matt Addis for Hachette UK -- "With 20 enemy swords at their backs and a broken bridge ahead, the last knights of an outlaw order turn to fight. A young woman with forbidden magic joins their final stand. And as blade meets blade, she starts to sing."

• Cassandra in Reverse By: Holly Smale, read by Kristin Atherton for Harlequin -- "Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now. She's just been dumped. She's just been fired. Her local café has run out of banana muffins. Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things."

• Mortal Follies: A Novel By: Alexis Hall, read by Nneka Okoye for Random House -- "t is the year 1814, and life for a young lady of good breeding has many difficulties. There are balls to attend, fashions to follow, marriages to consider, and, of course, the tiny complication of existing in a world swarming with fairy spirits, interfering deities, and actual straight-up sorcerers. Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. It begins innocuously enough with her dress slowly unmaking itself over the course of an evening at a high-profile ball, a scandal she narrowly manages to escape. However, as the curse progresses to more fatal proportions, Miss Mitchelmore must seek out aid, even if that means mixing with undesirable company."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• On Fragile Waves By: E. Lily Yu (2021), read by Jeed Saddy for Recorded Books -- "Firuzeh and her brother Nour are children of fire, born in an Afghanistan fractured by war. When their parents, their Atay and Abay, decide to leave, they spin tales of their destination, the mythical land and opportunities of Australia. As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found. When they arrive in Australia, a seemingly stable shore gives way to treacherous currents. Neighbors, classmates, and the government seek their own ends, indifferent to the family’s fate. For Firuzeh, her fantasy worlds provide some relief, but as her family and home splinter, she must surface from these imaginings and find a new way."

• By Raven's Call: The Blackwing Cycle, Book 1 By: J. A. Devenport (2018), read by Caleb Anderton -- "Faced with increasing pressure from rebels, the tyrant king of Dargenn must force a war with the rival nation of Relan to unite the country behind him. To help create chaos, he turns to the most feared assassin in the world, the Raven, a man cursed by ancient demons and forced to kill at their whim; if he fails, he dies. Using his knowledge of the Raven's masters, the king forces the assassin into a contract to kill the only individual who might threaten his plans, a powerful sorcerer and scholar named Enias."

• Kill the Dragon, Get the Girl By: Cheston Hervey and Darren Doane (2017), read by Belle Iverson for Canon Press -- "Lacy is the sole survivor of a freak accident that took 11 of her friends and the use of her legs. It left her with night terrors, and though no one will say it to her face, everybody thinks she might have gone a little crazy. Lacy's younger brother Tommy has no such problems, although having the largest vocabulary in your class and being constantly preoccupied with medieval weaponry comes with its own set of difficulties. But when Lacy and Tommy and their friend Wayne (big belt buckle, big hat, wishes he could do 200 pull-ups) are forced to confront a suspicious recluse named Verdell Graham, things go from bad to worse. The kids are sucked into an adventure that challenges their perception of reality, and demands that they face what they fear most."

• The Weavers of Saramyr: Braided Path, Book 1, The Skein of Lament: Braided Path, Book 2, and The Ascendancy Veil: Braided Path, Book 3 by Chris Wooding (2010), read by Imogen Church for Gollancz -- "A richly textured, darkly evocative fantasy set in a beautifully realised fantasy world, the Saramyr trilogy tells the story of an empire that rules over a land being overwhelmed by evil."

NEW EDITION WATCH:

• The Dragon Reborn: Wheel of Time, Book 3 By: Robert Jordan, read by Rosamund Pike for Macmillan -- "Winter has stopped the war—almost—yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?"

MOST MISSING:

• The Master of Samar by Melissa Scott (Candlemark and Gleam) -- "Rejected by his aristocratic family, Gil Irichels has been content to make his living as a traveling cursebreaker, working with his lover, the feral mage Envar Cassi, and their bodyguard, swordswoman Arak min’Aroi. After a series of deaths leave him the sole heir to the family’s house and fortune, Irichels’s main concern is to do whatever he must to settle the estate and return to his previous life. But these is something very wrong in seaborne Bejanth, starting with the deaths of his kin and spreading into the complex web of politics and magic that holds the city together. As he struggles to discover the truth behind his family’s losses, he realizes that there is more at stake than the fall of one house. Someone is unraveling the web of curses on which the city depends, and Irichels is the only person who can stop them—if it’s not already too late."

• Wild: A Fantastical Baseball Novel by Will McIntosh (Finch Hill Press) -- "Very strange things are happening to the Manhattan Knights, and Jason Cutty, a pitcher on the team, appears to be responsible. One player, for example, cries every time he sets foot on the field. Another can’t reach base no matter how hard he hits the ball. The infield floods on sunny days. Cutty himself has become hopelessly wild. He can’t throw strikes, at all, and is in danger of being released by the team. How is Cutty responsible for all of this weirdness? That depends on who you ask. Cutty believes there’s a rational explanation, while his grandfather and the record store-owning Asian-American Buddhist he’s in love with believe he has offended the game of baseball itself. What did Cutty do to potentially offend the game of baseball itself? The answer involves the first openly-gay player in major league history, a beanball, the top of the Statue of Liberty, and a long-dead baseball legend."

• The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das (Subterranean Press) -- "Ru is a boy from nowhere. Though he lives somewhere—the city of Calcutta—his classmates in school remind him he doesn’t look like them, and must come from somewhere else. When Ru asks his parents, they tell him they are descended from nomads. But even nomads must come from somewhere. The question, forever on the mind of the boy from nowhere, is where. Ru dreams things that wouldn’t seem out of place in the fantasy novels his father read to him when young. Fragments of a culture that doesn’t exist in this world, but might in another, where sky and sea are one, and humans sail this eternal ocean on the backs of divine beasts. Ru dreams of dragons, of serpents impossible. Perhaps Ru remembers dragons. Alone in a city that’s home but doesn’t feel like it, Ru befriends Alice, his neighbor from the nearby Chinatown. As they grow with their friendship, Ru finds that Calcutta may yet be a home for him. But with his best friend starting to realize that Ru’s house and family hide a myriad of secrets, the question haunts him still—where is his family from? Are they truly from nowhere, migrants to this reality? And if so, what strange wings brought them across the vast reaches of impossibility to here—and what is their purpose?"

Posted in Release Week