Release Week: 21 March 2023

Posted on 2023-03-21 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Strange By: Nathan Ballingrud, read by Sophie Amoss for Simon and Schuster -- Debut novel for a fantastic short fiction author (basis for the film "Wounds", and the "Monsterland" series on Hulu) which I can't wait to dive into: "1931, New Gavleston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance."

• Maror By: Lavie Tidhar, read by Levi Goldmeir for W.F. Howes -- "A multi-generational saga with cultural and political depth, drawing on the rich, often troubling recent history of Israel, for fans of A History of Seven Killings or The White Tiger."

• Biography of X: A Novel By: Catherine Lacey, read by Cassandra Campbell for Recorded Books -- "When X—an iconoclastic artist and shape-shifter—falls dead in her office, her widow CM, wild with grief, hurls herself into writing X's biography. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. In CM's quest to unravel it, she opens a Pandora’s box of secrets and destruction. All the while, she immerses herself in the history of the Southern Territory, a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the country after World War II, as it is finally, in the present day, forced into an uneasy reunification."

• The Nursery: A Novel By: Szilvia Molnar, read by Malin Barr for Random House -- "A remarkable debut novel about the early postpartum days of motherhood: a visceral and revelatory portrait of a woman struggling with maternal fear and its looming madness, showing how difficult and fragile those days can be, and how vital love is to pull anyone out from the dark."

• Old God's Time By: Sebastian Barry, read by Stephen Hogan for Faber and Faber -- "Retired policeman Tom Kettle is enjoying the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a white Victorian Castle in Dalkey overlooking the sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, but his peace is interrupted when two former colleagues turn up at his door to ask questions about a decades-old case. A traumatic case which Tom never quite came to terms with. His peace is further disturbed by a young mother and family who move in next door, a woman on the run from her own troubles. And what of Tom’s family, his wife June, and their two children?"

POETRY WATCH:

• The Big Smoke By: Adrian Matejka, read by the author for HighBridge -- "Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the National Book Award in Poetry—a collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening By: Ari Shapiro, read by the author for Harper -- "From the beloved host of NPR's All Things Considered, a stirring memoir-in-essays that is also a lover letter to journalism."

MORE FICTION:

• The White Lady: A Novel By: Jacqueline Winspear, read by Orlagh Cassidy for Harper -- "This heart-stopping novel, set in Post WWII Britain in 1947, follows the coming of age and maturity of former wartime operative Elinor White—veteran of two wars, trained killer, protective of her anonymity—when she is drawn back into the world of menace she has been desperate to leave behind."

• Countdown By: James Patterson and Brendan DuBois, read by Ellen Archer for Little, Brown and Company -- "5 days to save the world, 4 days to save her family, 3 hours to find the world's most dangerous double-agent. James Patterson's biggest ticking time bomb of a thriller is the ultimate test for a young CIA agent who’s been handed an impossible mission."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs, read by Victoria Fox for Head of Zeus -- "Fryda has grown up hearing tales of her uncle, King Beowulf, and his spectacular defeat of the monstrous Grendel. Her one desire is to become a shield maiden in her own right, but a terrible accident during her childhood has thwarted this dream. Yet still, somehow, she feels an uncontrollable power begin to rise within herself. The last thing Fryda wants is to be forced into a political marriage, especially as her heart belongs to her lifelong friend, Theow. However, as foreign kings and chieftains descend upon her home to celebrate Beowulf's fifty years as the king of Geatland, the partnership begins to seem inevitable. That is, until, amidst the lavish gifts and drunken revelry, a discovery is made that threatens the safety of Fryda's entire clan–and her own life. Incensed by this betrayal, Fryda resolves to fight for her people no matter the cost. As a queen should. As a shield maiden would."

• Beautiful Shining People by Michael Grothaus, read by Greg Miller Burns for Isis Audio -- "It’s our world, but decades into the future...an ordinary world, where cars drive themselves, drones glide across the sky, and robots work in burger shops. All conflicts are safely oceans away. People get up, work, and have dinner. Everything is as it should be... Except for 17-year-old John, a tech prodigy from a damaged family, who hides a deeply personal secret. But everything starts to change when he enters a tiny café on a cold Tokyo night. A café run by a disgraced sumo wrestler, where a peculiar dog with a spherical head lives, alongside its owner, enigmatic waitress Neotnia... But Neotnia hides a secret of her own - a secret that will turn John's unhappy life upside down. A secret that reveals that this world is anything but ordinary - and it's about to change forever..."

• This is Our Undoing by Lorraine Wilson, read by Imogen Church for SAGA Egmont -- "In a near-future Europe fracturing under climate change and far-right politics, biologist Lina Stephenson works in the remote Rila Mountains. But when an old enemy dies, Lina's dangerous past resurfaces and puts her family's lives at risk. Trapped with her vulnerable sister and the dead man's family, Lina is facing pressure from all sides: her enemy's eldest son is determined to destroy her in his search for vengeance, whilst his youngest carries a sinister secret... But the forest is hiding its own threats and as a catastrophic storm closes in, Lina realises that if she is to save her family, she must become a monster."

• The Immortal Detective: The Immortal Detective, Book 1 By: D. B. Woodling, read by Lisa Larsen for CamCat -- "Celeste Crenshaw has survived her parents’ grisly murders, grueling and gender-biased police training, a battle with rogue vampires, and even her own death. While immortality might seem a dream come true, can she accept the strings attached?"

SERIES WATCH:

• The Sinister Booksellers of Bath: Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Book 2 By: Garth Nix, read by Marisa Calin for Listening Library -- "Once again, a team of booksellers must fight to keep dangerous magic under cover before the stuff of legends destroys our world."

• A Spartan's Sorrow: Grecian Women Series, Book 2 By: Hannah Lynn, read by Helen Keeley for Tantor -- "While the rest of Greece mourns for the war that has taken their husbands away, Clytemnestra fears the day it will bring hers back."

• Hidden Monster Ruins: Earth's Nexus Series, Book 2 By: Eve Langlais, read by Tanya Eby for Tantor -- "Hide all you want. I will find you. I might not wear a cape or a mask, but as an agent for the SMU—Special Monsters Unit—I am plenty heroic. Most of the time."

• First World Problems: The Stone World Saga, Book 4 By: Cassiopeia Fletcher, read by Bronson Pinchot for Blackstone -- "With nowhere else to go, the Tartans evacuate both their citizens and the Hawaiian refugees to Galveston, the capital city of New Texas. Surrounded by pre-wave technology, Felicity has never been more uncomfortable while Winter thrives in her position as Assistant Director of the New Anaphedarin project."

• No Surrender: Badlands, Book 5 By: Morgan Brice, read by Kale Williams for Tantor -- "Cold cases, hot leads, a psychic psychopath, a copycat killer, cursed objects, the trial of the century—and wedding plans."

• Singularity: Infinite Timeline, Book 13 By: Jeremy Robinson, read by R.C. Bray for Podium -- "The final book in Robinson’s epic, bringing together favorite characters from a vast world of standalone novels in a massive crossover that wraps up a 1.3-million-word saga."

• Smolder: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 29 By: Laurell K. Hamilton, read by Kimberly Alexis for Penguin -- "Vampire hunter Anita Blake is no stranger to killing monsters. It’s part of her job as a Preternatural U.S. Marshal, after all. But even her experience isn’t enough to stop something that is bent on destroying everything—and everyone—she loves."

• The Shadow Regent: A Novel of the World of Tralodren By: Chad Corrie, read by Michael Braun for Recorded Books -- "The battle has ended, but the pantheon has survived at a terrible cost. Bereft of both Gurthghol and Vkar’s throne, they’re now weaker and more defenseless than ever. Yet even as the pantheon seek their footing, three new gods will be added to the family, further disrupting the former order. And then there are the others—both inside the pantheon and out—eager for more power, who will make their moves for greater glory and dominion in this time of divine recovery and realignment."

MOST MISSING:

• The Lies of the Ajungo: The Forever Desert, Book 1 by Moses Ose Utomi (Tordotcom) -- "In the City of Lies, they cut out your tongue when you turn thirteen, to appease the terrifying Ajungo Empire and make sure it continues sending water. Tutu will be thirteen in three days, but his parched mother won’t last that long. So Tutu goes to his oba and makes a deal: she provides water for his mother, and in exchange he will travel out into the desert and bring back water for the city. Thus begins Tutu’s quest for the salvation of his mother, his city, and himself."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 14 March 2023

Posted on 2023-03-14 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• 48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister By: Joyce Carol Oates, read by Sarah Welborn for HighBridge -- "When a woman mysteriously vanishes, her sister must tally up the clues to discover her fate."

• Feed Them Silence By: Lee Mandelo, read by Natalie Naudus for Dreamscape -- "What does it mean to be-in-kind with a nonhuman animal? Or, in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject’s perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness: to see the world through animal eyes; smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages; even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill; and, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack."

• Piñata: A Novel By: Leopoldo Gout, read by Krysta Gonzales for OrangeSky -- "A Head Full of Ghosts meets Mexican Gothic in Piñata, a terrifying possession tale by author and artist Leopoldo Gout."

• Children of Tomorrow By: J.R. Burgmann, read by Ric Herbert for WF Howes -- "A sweeping history of family and friendship, spanning multiple generations and geographies across the twenty-first century."

• Walking Practice: A Novel By: Dolki Min, read by Nicky Endres for Harper -- "Squid Game meets The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin in this radical literary sensation from South Korea about an alien's hunt for food that transforms into an existential crisis about what it means to be human."

• The Bones Beneath My Skin By: TJ Klune Narrated by: Kirt Graves for Macmillan -- "A spine-tingling thriller about a 10-year-old girl with an impossible power, her father, and an unlikely stranger, who come together to confront the dangerous forces that want her at all costs."

• Dust Child By: Que Mai Phan Nguyen, read by Quyen Ngo for Algonquin -- "A suspenseful and moving saga about family secrets, hidden trauma, and the overriding power of forgiveness, set during the war and in present-day Việt Nam."

• Island City By: Laura Adamczyk, read by Hillary Huber for Dreamscape -- "A wry and wistful woman, estranged from her family, sells her belongings and moves back to her hometown in the Midwest. To her, it’s the “perfect place to give up.” She wants to get rid of everything—her stuff, her ambitions. Before making a “messy exit,” she holes up in a dark bar and tells her stories to an audience of indifferent strangers. There’s the time the river dried up and you could walk across its bed, the day her sister got clobbered at the nursing home, the time her dad got cancer, then Alzheimer’s, then cancer again. Now she’s forgetting things the way he did, words slipping away, and that third drink isn’t helping."

• I Will Find You By: Harlan Coben, read by Steven Weber for Brilliance -- "Five years ago, an innocent man began a life sentence for murdering his own son. Today he found out his son is still alive."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History’s Most Astonishing Murder Ring by Patti McCracken, read by Gabra Zackman for Harper -- "A true-crime story like no other—a 1920s midwife who may have been the century’s most prolific killer leading a murder ring of women responsible for the deaths of at least 160 men."

• Wilder Journeys: True Stories of Nature, Adventure and Connection edited by Laurie King and Miriam Lancewood, read by Marnie Chesterton, Tachia Newall, and Nneka Okoye for Watkins -- "Follow the call of the wild with these incredible true stories from an international group of nature lovers, nomads, and adventurers."

• The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science By: Alan Lightman, read by Christopher Grove for Random House -- "Can the scientifically inclined still hold space for spirituality?"

MORE FICTION:

• Brutes: A Novel By: Dizz Tate, read by Eleanor McCormick for HighBridge -- "In Falls Landing, Florida—a place built of theme parks, swampy lakes, and scorched bougainvillea flowers—something sinister lurks in the deep. A gang of thirteen-year-old girls obsessively orbit around the local preacher's daughter, Sammy. She is mesmerizing, older, and in love with Eddie. But suddenly, Sammy goes missing. Where is she? Watching from a distance, they edge ever closer to discovering a dark secret about their fame-hungry town and the cruel cost of a ticket out. What they see will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives."

• The Last Russian Doll By: Kristen Loesch, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Penguin -- "A haunting, epic novel about betrayal, revenge, and redemption that follows three generations of Russian women, from the 1917 revolution to the last days of the Soviet Union, and the enduring love story at the center."

• Hello Beautiful: A Novel By: Ann Napolitano, read by Maura Tierney for Random House -- "William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos. But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another."

• The Dig: A Novel By: Anne Burt, read by Siiri Scott for HighBridge -- "When Sarajevo-born siblings Antonia and Paul were adopted by a wealthy Midwestern family in the 1990s, a series of events with deadly consequences was set in motion. Now, with her career on the line and her idealistic brother missing, Antonia must race against the clock to uncover a sinister secret and prevent history from repeating itself."

• Solomon's Crown: A Novel By: Natasha Siegel, read by Ben Allen and Steve West for Random House -- "Twelfth-century Europe. Newly crowned King Philip of France is determined to restore his nation to its former empire and bring glory to his name. But when his greatest enemy, King Henry of England, threatens to end his reign before it can even begin, Philip is forced to make a precarious alliance with Henry’s volatile son—risking both his throne, and his heart. Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, never thought he would be king. But when an unexpected tragedy makes him heir to England’s royal seat, he finally has an opportunity to overthrow the father he despises. At first, Philip is a useful tool in his quest for vengeance . . . until passion and politics collide, and Richard begins to question whether the crown is worth the cost."

• 76 Hours: A Novel of Tarawa By: Larry Alexander, read by John Pirhalla and Brian Nishii for Blackstone -- "The island of Tarawa, a tiny spit of sand out in the middle of the Pacific, teemed with five hundred pillboxes filled with artillery pieces and highly motivated Japanese soldiers. Their commanding officer encouraged his troops, saying, “It would take one million men one hundred years” to conquer Tarawa. They were convinced that the Americans would be slaughtered before they ever got ashore."

• Stateless by Elizabeth Wein, read by Moira Quirk for Hachette -- "When Stella North is chosen to represent Britain in Europe's first air race for young people, she knows all too well how high the stakes are. As the only participating female pilot, it'll be a constant challenge to prove she's a worthy competitor. But promoting peace in Europe feels empty to Stella when civil war is raging in Spain and the Nazis are gaining power—and when, right from the start, someone resorts to cutthroat sabotage to get ahead of the competition."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Uncanny Times: The Huntsmen, Book 1 By: Laura Anne Gilman, read by Patricia Santomasso, Brent J Harrison for OrangeSky -- "The year is 1913. America—and the world—trembles on the edge of a modern age. Political and social unrest shift the foundations; technology is beginning to make its mark. But in the shadows, things from the past still move. Things inhuman, uncanny. And the Uncanny are no friend to humanity."

• Bitter Medicine By: Mia Tsai, read by Natalie Naudus for Recorded Books -- "As a descendant of the Chinese god of medicine, Elle was destined to be a doctor. Instead, she’s underemployed as a magical calligrapher at the fairy temp agency. She and her older brother are in hiding from their younger brother, who seeks their deaths to gain their god’s favor. Safety means an order of invisibility with a side of no attachments at the No Fun Allowed store. Elle only relaxes around her client Luc, to whom she’s gotten attached. Oops."

• Enhanced: The Hybrid Series, Book 1 By: Candace Kade, read by Rachanee Lumayno for Oasis -- "In a society where everyone's DNA determines their destiny, being a Natural means automatic relegation to the gritty and dangerous Outskirts. With the harnessed power of gene-editing, the ability to create a super-human race has transformed the world and offered the opportunity of a genetically enhanced life. But only to those who can afford it. Born a Natural, Lee Urban was adopted into the Enhanced high society of the Asian Federation and forced to conceal her genetic roots. When her dream of attending Peking University becomes a reality, she is determined to go despite a warning from a mysterious source."

SERIES WATCH:

• Red London: Red Widow, Book 2 By: Alma Katsu, read by Mozhan Marno and Fiona Hardingham for Penguin -- "After her role in taking down a well-placed mole inside the CIA, Agent Lyndsey Duncan arrives in London fully focused on her newest Russian asset, deadly war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko. That is until her MI6 counterpart, Davis Ranford, personally calls for her help."

• Antimatter Blues: A Mickey7 Novel, Book 2 By: Edward Ashton, read by John Pirhalla and Katharine Chin for Macmillan -- "The thrilling follow up to Mickey7, in which an expendable heads out to explore new terrain for human habitation."

• Assassin of Reality: Vita Nostra, Book 2 By: Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko, read by Jessica Ball for Harper -- "The eagerly anticipated sequel to the highly acclaimed Vita Nostra takes listeners to the next stage in Sasha Samokhina’s journey in a richly imagined world of dark academia in which grammar is magic—and not all magic is good."

• Stormborn: The Seaborn Cycle, Book 3 by Michael Livingston, read by Elizabeth Evans for Audible Originals -- "In this stunning conclusion, the Fair Isles sail to battle, legends become real, and new magicks threaten to shatter the world."

• Burning the Vale: The Vale, Book 3 By: Brian D. Anderson, read by Derek Perkins for Audible -- "The stage is set for the final stroke to be unleashed upon Vale. The survivors of the slaughter must now decide whether to fight on or abandon their home. Drake has not returned with Bomar weapons and soldiers leaving the chance for victory seemingly out of reach. A decision must be made."

• Alien: Enemy of My Enemy By: Mary SanGiovanni, read by Shiromi Arserio for Blackstone -- "Hygeia, an outer rim colony, is doomed as the moon on which it was built hurtles toward an inevitable collision with the dead planet Hephaestus. When a distress signal arrives from a Weyland-Yutani biowarfare outpost near the colony, a desperate plan is launched to evacuate the trapped scientists and colonists. Their destination: LV-846, a key United Americas colony where high-level talks are scheduled to address the galaxy-wide hostilities between the colonies. Once there, the evacuees, including a contingent of Colonial Marines, discover a plot that could plunge the colonies into all-out war. Their only hope may be an alliance with the deadliest ally imaginable."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• The Men Upstairs By: Tim Waggoner (2011), read by Gary Noon for Crossroad Press -- "He finds her crying in the lobby of a movie theater and takes her home to his apartment, a strange, beautiful woman with no last name, a mysterious past, and a powerful sexual allure. He wants her, and she wants him. There's only one problem: the men upstairs. She used to belong to them—and they'll do anything to get her back."

• A Kiss of Thorns By: Tim Waggoner (2017), read by Gary Noon for Crossroad Press -- "Lonny lost his beloved sister Delia 30 years ago. Since then, he's sacrificed many lives in order to return her to the world of the living, but without success. His next target is Julia, a young women with a unfulfilled marriage and a passion for '80s horror films. She will soon discover that not only is real life more complicated than the movies, it's far more terrifying."

• A Lonely Dungeon: Erryn's World, Book 1 By: Cathfach (2020), read by Peter Kenny for Podium -- "When a new dungeon is born, it wants nothing more than to have the most vicious monsters, the most cunning traps and the most shiny of loot. There is only one problem...but it's a rather big one. It finished its first floor years ago, but it still hasn't been visited by any adventurers! In order to find someone—or something—to explore its floors, or perhaps just to find someone to talk to, this dungeon will have to go way off script. But it soon discovers that going off script brings problems of its own, and that adventurers are not the only thing this world is missing."

INDIE WATCH:

• Phantom and Rook: Adventures in Levena, Book 1 By: Aelina Isaacs, read by Kirt Graves -- "Arlo Rook has decided it’s time to move out of Garren Castle, home for orphans of all races, magical or not, at 100 years old. It’s not the first time he’s left home, but after a setback that landed the Hedge Witch in the hospital a year ago, he ended up right back at square one. But now he’s ready to strike out on his own, despite his friend’s worries that he’s not ready for the real world."

• Court of Blood and Bindings: Fae Isles, Book 1 By: Lisette Marshall, read by Summer Roberts for Podium -- "When the empire’s deadliest fae murderer catches her wielding forbidden magic, twenty-year-old Emelin believes her hour has come. Instead, her inhumanly beautiful captor spares her life, but carries her off on his velvet wings into the one place from which no human ever returns: The heart of the Fae Isles. The treacherous Crimson Court, where the Mother of faekind has ruled unchallenged over fae and humans for decades. The Silent Death is supposed to be the Mother’s loyal servant, her invincible warrior, her ruthless, soulless killer. But in the shadows he is playing a game of his own, and he needs Emelin’s magic to win it."

• Special Monsters Unit: Earth's Nexus, Book 1 By: Eve Langlais, read by Tanya Eby for Tantor -- "Trouble is brewing in Nexus, and for some reason, they think I can stop it. Some people are born to greatness. My mother wanted to strangle me at birth. I've not had an easy life, not in a world that thrives on magic. Spells to reinforce buildings. Hexes to give you the face of a supermodel. Or so I've been told. No one can hide their true face from me, and people get ugly when they find out my presence is the reason magic shrivels and dies. It's not as cool as it sounds, so when I'm offered a job with the Special Monsters Unit, I take a chance and join a misfit crew to find out why the town of Nexus is a magnet for cryptids. At least I'm part of a team. I'm making friends. I'm—finding out secrets about my past that are hard to handle. But my emotional scars will have to wait until after we deal with the monsters. Especially those with human faces."

MOST MISSING:

• New Suns 2: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl (Solaris) -- "The stunning follow-up to the multiple-award-winning anthology of SFF by people of colour. New Suns 2 brings you fresh visions of the strange, the unexpected, the shocking—breakthrough stories, stories shining with emerging truths, stories that pierce stale preconceptions with their beauty and bravery. Like the first New Suns anthology (winner of the World Fantasy, Locus, IGNYTE, and British Fantasy awards), this book liberates writers of many races to tell us tales no one has ever told. Many things come in twos: dualities, binaries, halves, and alternates. Twos are found throughout New Suns 2, in eighteen science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories revealing daring futures, hidden pasts, and present-day worlds filled with unmapped wonders. Including stories by Daniel H. Wilson, K. Tempest Bradford, Darcie Little Badger, Geetanjali Vandemark, John Chu, Nghi Vo, Tananarive Due, Alex Jennings, Karin Lowachee, Saad Hossain, Hiromi Goto, Minsoo Kang, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Malka Older, Kathleen Alcalá, Christopher Caldwell and Jaymee Goh with a foreword by Walter Mosley and an afterword by Dr. Grace Dillon."

• Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire (W. W. Norton) -- "Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd (est. 1761) to apply for a job. Allured by the smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap, Darkshire was soon unteetering stacks of first editions and placating the store’s resident ghost (the late Mr. Sotheran, hit by a tram). A novice in this ancient, potentially haunted establishment, Darkshire describes Sotheran’s brushes with history (Dickens, the Titanic), its joyous disorganization, and the unspoken rules of its gleefully old-fashioned staff, whose mere glance may cause the computer to burst into flames. As Darkshire gains confidence and experience, he shares trivia about ancient editions and explores the strange space that books occupy in our lives―where old books often have strong sentimental value, but rarely a commercial one. By turns unhinged and earnest, Once Upon a Tome is the colorful story of life in one of the world’s oldest bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment."

• Indigo Field by Marjorie Hudson (Regal House) -- "In the rural South, a retired colonel in an upscale retirement community grieves the sudden death of his wife on the tennis court. On the other side of the highway, an elderly Black woman grieves the murder of her niece by a white man. Between them lies an abandoned field where three centuries of crimes are hidden, and only she knows the explosive secrets buried there. When the colonel runs into her car, causing a surprising amount of damage, it sparks a feud that sets loose the spirits in the Field, both benevolent and vengeful. In prose that’s been called “dazzling” and “mesmerizing,” in the animated voices of trees and birds and people, in Southern-voiced storytelling as deeply layered as that of Pat Conroy, Marjorie Hudson lays out the boundaries of a field that contains the soul of the South, and leads us to a day of reckoning."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 7 March 2023

Posted on 2023-03-07 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Mimicking of Known Successes By: Malka Older, read by Lindsey Dorcus for Blackstone -- "On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university―and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems. Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake―and, perhaps, their futures, together."

• Mr. and Mrs. Witch By: Gwenda Bond, read by Luke Daniels and Amy Landon for OrangeSky -- "Savannah Wilde is a witch, a powerful one, and a member of C.R.O.N.E, an organization for hire that deals with supernatural threats using their magic. Following a whirlwind romance that surprised her friends and family, Savvy is all set to marry the love of her life when she notices her bridal party and her mom are freaking out minutes before the wedding. Griffin Carter is an agent for H.U.N.T.E.R., a clandestine organization that, well, used to primarily hunt witches, but now mainly tries to shut down supernatural threats their own way. He can’t wait to lay his eyes on the woman he’s about to spend the rest of his life with. As he’s getting ready, Griffin overhears his father and friends discussing something in distressed whispers. What he finds out concerns him, but not enough to deal with before the ceremony. As Savvy walks down the aisle to Griffin, the wedding quickly goes from blessed day to shit show when their true identities are revealed."

• Old Babes in the Wood: Stories By: Margaret Atwood, read by Margaret Atwood, Linda Lavin, Dan Stevens, Kimberly Farr, Rebecca Lowman, Bahni Turpin, Dawn Harvey, Allan Corduner for Random House -- "A dazzling collection of short stories from the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, stories that look deeply into the heart of family relationships, marriage, loss and memory, and what it means to spend a life together."

• Weyward By Emilia Hart, read by Aysha Kala, Helen Keeley, and Nell Barlow for Macmillan -- "2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century. 1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom. 1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives–and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom."

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: A Novel By: Shannon Chakraborty, read by Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal for Harper -- "Magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend."

• The Curator By: Owen King, read by Marin Ireland for Simon and Schuster -- "A Dickensian fantasy of illusion and charm where cats are revered as religious figures, thieves are noble, scholars are revolutionaries, and conjurers are the most wonderful criminals you can imagine."

• The Foxglove King: The Nightshade Crown, Book 1 By: Hannah Whitten, read by Emily Ellet for Orbit -- "In this lush, romantic epic fantasy series from a New York Times bestselling author, a young woman’s secret power to raise the dead plunges her into the dangerous and glamorous world of the Sainted King’s royal court."

• The God of Endings: A Novel By: Jacqueline Holland, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Macmillan -- "Collette LeSange is a lonely artist who heads an elite fine arts school for children in upstate New York. Her youthful beauty masks the dark truth of her life: she has endured centuries of turmoil and heartache in the wake of her grandfather’s long-ago decision to make her immortal like himself. Now in 1984, Collette finds her life upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger."

• The Golden Spoon: A Novel By: Jessa Maxwell, read by Andrea Emmes, Andy Garcia-Ruse, Graham Halstead, Kitty Hendrix, Kamran Khan, Jackie Sanders, André Santana, and Emily Tremaine for Simon and Schuster -- "Only Murders in the Building meets The Maid in this darkly beguiling locked-room mystery where someone turns up dead on the set of TV’s hottest baking competition."

• Quantum Radio By: A.G. Riddle, read by Ray Porter for Recorded Books -- "At CERN, a scientist has just made an incredible discovery—a breakthrough that may answer the deepest questions about human existence. But what he's found is far more dangerous than he ever imagined."

• Hospital: Hospital, Book 1 By: Han Song (2016), translated by Michael Berry, read by Feodor Chin for Brilliance -- "A twisted, experimental narrative of one man’s mysterious illness and his journey through a dystopian hospital system."

• The London Séance Society By: Sarah Penner, read by Lauren Irwin and Alex Wyndham for Harlequin -- "1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike. Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult."

• Now You See Us: A Novel By: Balli Kaur Jaswal, read by Angela Lin for Harper -- "A wildly entertaining and sharply observed story of three women who work in the homes of Singapore’s elite, and band together to solve a murder mystery involving one of their own."

• In Memoriam: A Novel By: Alice Winn, read by Christian Coulson for Random House -- "It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting. Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle—an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood—without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt's family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt's horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next."

• Pineapple Street: A Novel By: Jenny Jackson, read by Marin Ireland for Penguin -- "A deliciously funny, sharply observed debut of family, love, and class, this zeitgeisty novel follows three women in one wealthy Brooklyn clan."

• Worthy Opponents By: Danielle Steel, read by Michael Braun for Recorded Books -- "A powerful novel about a woman running her family’s luxury department store and the wealthy investor who threatens to take it over."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult: A Memoir By: Michelle Dowd, read by the author for Algonquin -- "A moving, heartbreaking, and lyrical true story of the author’s escape from an apocalyptic cult—and the survival skills that led to her freedom."

• The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance By Dan Egan, read by Jason Culp for Random House -- "Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people. In this major work of explanatory science and environmental journalism, Pulitzer Prize finalist Dan Egan investigates the past, present, and future of what has been called the oil of our time."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Faithless: Magic of the Lost, Book 2 By: C. L. Clark, read by Rasha Zamamiri for Orbit -- "Soldier Touraine and princess Luca must return to Balladaire to reclaim Luca's throne and to face the consequences of dismantling an empire."

• Into the West: Founding of Valdemar Series, Book 2 By: Mercedes Lackey, read by Paul Woodson for Tantor -- "The long-awaited founding of Valdemar comes to life in this second book in the new series from a New York Times bestselling author and beloved fantasist."

• The Kind Worth Saving: Henry Kimball, Book 2 By: Peter Swanson, read by Keith Szarabaijka, Kathleen Early, Helen Laser, and Micky Shiloah for Harper -- "A private eye starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband, but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him."

• Jimmy and the Crawler: The Riftwar Legacy, Book 4 By: Raymond E. Feist, read by Matt Bates for Harper -- "Legendary author Raymond E. Feist returns to the city of Krondor and one of his most loved characters from the Riftwar Cycle, Jimmy the Hand."

• The Quarantine Princess Diaries: Princess Diaries, Book 12 By: Meg Cabot Narrated by: Arielle DeLisle for Harper -- "During the Covid-19 pandemic, a section of the diary of Princess Mia Thermopolis of Genovia fell into the hands of Meg Cabot, the Princess’s royal biographer."

• Backpacking Through Bedlam: InCryptid, Book 12 By: Seanan McGuire, read by Emily Bauer for Audible -- "Alice Price-Healy gave up her life for 50 years to focus completely on the search for her missing husband. The danger of focus like that is that it leaves little room for thinking about what happens after...and now that she’s finally managed to find Thomas, she has no idea what she’s supposed to do next."

• The Queen's Price: Black Jewels, Book 12 By: Anne Bishop, read by Gary Littman for Penguin -- "Zoey, a young Queen-in-training at SaDiablo Hall, is wounded...and vulnerable to taunts and criticism. When an opportunity arises to befriend a stranger seeking sanctuary at the Hall, she puts herself and others in danger by ignoring Daemonar Yaslana’s warning to back off."

TIE-IN WATCH:

• Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars By: Sam Maggs, read by Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes for Random House -- "Cal Kestis leads the Stinger Mantis crew on an adventure set between Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the highly anticipated Star Wars Jedi: Survivor."

• The Game of 100 Candles: Legend of Five Rings Series By: Marie Brennan, read by Kaipo Schwab for Tantor -- "Two samurai risk their hearts, souls, and their very existence to stop an occult phantom from destroying the world, in this stunning supernatural fantasy from Legend of the Five Rings."

RE-ISSUE WATCH:

• Wool: The Silo Saga, Book 1 By: Hugh Howey (2012), read by Edoardo Ballerini for Blackstone -- Ahead of the new TV series a new edition replacing the 2013 Brilliance Audio productions read by Amanda Sayle: "The world outside has grown toxic, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. The remnants of humanity live underground in a single silo. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they want: they are allowed to go outside. After the previous sheriff leaves the silo in a terrifying ritual, Juliette, a mechanic from the down deep, is suddenly and inexplicably promoted to the head of law enforcement. With newfound power and with little regard for the customs she is supposed to abide, Juliette uncovers hints of a sinister conspiracy. Tugging this thread may uncover the truth—or it could kill every last human alive."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Fire Sea: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 3 (1991) and Serpent Mage: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 4 (1992) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, read by Fajer Al-Kaisi for Random House -- Best known for their Dragonlance series, Weis and Hickman's "Death Gate Cycle" has been finally coming to audio and I am so here for it. Books 3 and 4 visit Abarrach, the realm of stone, and Chelstra, the realm of sea.

INDIE WATCH:

• When Swords Fall Silent: An Epic Fantasy Anthology By: Bryce O'Connor, David Dalglish, JA Andrews, Terry Mancour, Luke Chmilenko, M.L. Wang, Marie Brennan, Michael J Sullivan, Philip C. Quaintrell, RJ Barker, and Andrew Rowe, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds, Travis Baldree, John Lee, Kate Reading, Steven Brand, Emily Lawrence, Mikael Naramore, Nikki Massoud, and a full cast for Podium -- "The When Swords Fall Silent anthology showcases the imaginations and talents of more than a dozen of the best modern science-fiction and fantasy authors, with each tale centered around one or more characters burdened with a bloody task they will see to completion no matter the cost. Every story takes you for a vicious ride through a world of shadow and death, each as unique in perspective and execution as the contracts carried out within."

• Godkillers By: Liam Sharp (2009), read by Ian Shaw -- "A man who cannot count his years of life moves between worlds living the lives of other men. A soul-less ebony giantess seeks freedom in warfare but cannot escape the tragedy buried in her forgotten past. An aging mercenary and non-believer may be the unwitting saviour of his - and all - times. A blinded war-hero barters for a mythical stone in the hope that it may restore his former glory. All the while an undead God seeks an end to his torment by bringing about an end to all things."

• Fate & Flux: The Watchers of Astaria, Book 0.5 By: Patrick Dugan (2019), read by William Walker -- "Broken by magic. Forged by fate. Astaria is ruled by wizards, everyone knows that. Quinn is a journeyman blacksmith for the Wizard Usorin until Quinn loses his arm and his livelihood after a tragic accident. When he is befriended by Roland, he learns the secret behind the wizard’s power and is set on a path against a foe who seeks to destroy not only Astaria, but magic itself."

• Sing, Behemoth, Sing by KE Wolfe, read by Kelby Losack for Wolf Publishing -- "Attack on Titan meets Deadwood. In a desolate future where the monstrous giants known as Angels stalk the earth, Mudd and Arnold walk in the shadow of Marmaroth. Far from civilization, they’ve fought their entire life to survive in the hazardous wilds. But unlike the Loveless—mindless thralls who feed on the excretions of the Angels—at least they’ve retained their humanity, even as they sing Marmaroth’s song from afar. That is, until a murderous Angel comes with his spears of light, intent on murdering his own kind: and the earth trembles as giants clash. A friend Mudd thought he knew consumes the heart of an Angel—and ceases to be human. As the giants begin to fall, what will happen to those who worshipped them?"

MOST MISSING:

• Dead Country: The Craft Wars, Book 1 by Max Gladstone (Tordotcom) -- "Since her village chased her out with pitchforks, Tara Abernathy has resurrected gods, pulled down monsters, averted wars, and saved a city, twice. She thought she'd left her dusty little hometown forever. But that was before her father died. As she makes her way home to bury him, she finds a girl, as powerful and vulnerable and lost as she once was. Saving her from raiders twisted by the God Wars, Tara changes the course of the world."

• Seeds for the Swarm by Sim Kern (Stelliform Press) -- "Rylla McCracken dreams of escaping her family's trailer in the Dust States to go to college, but on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, her mother demands she drop out of school to work for Lockburn chemical refinery instead. When Rylla learns Lockburn is planning to dam the Guadalupe River-the last flowing water in Texas-she defies her mother to protest in the state capital. The protest ends in disaster, but her ensuing viral infamy gains Rylla an acceptance to the mysterious Wingates University."

• The Gold Leaf Executions by Helen Marshall (Unsung Stories) -- "In these stories the dead turn up in unexpected places: buried in the walls of newbuilds, washed up on deserted riverbanks, housed in the carcass of a giant sea creature, flung from bridges only to return to their homes, asking for cream and sugar with their coffee. All the while, the living search for ways to hold onto their happiness, knowing how thin the boundary is between their place and the next."

• A Blackened Mirror (Memoirs of the Borgia Sibyl Book 1) by Jo Graham (Candlemark and Gleam) -- " 1489—When Giulia Farnese came to Rome to make an arranged marriage with young noble Orsino Orsini, she dreamed of learning and power in the glittering city of the Renaissance popes. However, her mother-in-law seems frightened, and her husband refuses to consummate the marriage at the direction of the head of his family, Lord Bracciano. But Giulia herself has a secret: she sees visions in mirrors and hears the whispers of spirits, the gifts of an ancient sibyl in an age when magic is heresy punishable by death. Is this ability the reason Bracciano has trapped her in this sham of a marriage?"

• The Shadow Galaxy by J. Dianne Dotson (Trepidatio Publishing) -- "A mesmerizing first collection (which) features short stories and poetry spanning magical realism, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and Appalachian tales."

• Instinct: An Animal Rescuers Anthology edited by L.J. Hachmeister (Source 7 Productions) -- "Throughout history, creatures both big and small have stood alongside heroes and helped them through trying times, whether on the battlefield or in their laps. In these brand-new stories, seventeen bestselling authors regale us with adventures of animal companions and how they often are the ones rescuing the rescuer." New stories by/in the world of (among others) Jim Butcher – from The Dresden Files, Faith Hunter – from Jane Yellowrock, Patricia Briggs – from Mercy Thompson, Seanan McGuire – standalone, L. E. Modesitt – from Archform: Beauty and Flash, Kelley Armstrong – from Cainsville, D. J. Butler – from Abbott in Darkness, A. J. Hartley – from The Bowescroft Series, John Hartness – from Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter, and R.R. Virdi – from Tales of Tremaine.

• Time Trials by M.A. Rothman and D.J. Butler (Baen Books) -- "Marty Cohen was a gifted linguist and student of ancient military strategy who stepped away from academic Egyptology and opened a woodworking shop. Away from the bitter politics and petty rivalries, he's happy to take care of his people, play the occasional war game, and try to make a good life. Yet when business takes a turn for the worse, an opportunity appears. He gets summoned back to Egypt: an off-the-grid dig funded by an eccentric financier has discovered texts that may be the earliest Egypt has produced, and they'll pay Marty silly amounts of cash just to fly out and take one little look. Marty turned his back on the academia game, but he's a small business owner who has to make payroll, and he can't say no to the money. But the texts open doors to an astonishing journey: the ragtag team of archaeologists finds itself in protohistoric North Africa, a drying land dominated by horrors, where humanity is badly in need of champions. And behind the war against the fearsome overlords lies a greater struggle: Marty and his team have been chosen to be champions of all Earth and to run a gauntlet on humanity's behalf."

• Into the Vortex: Vortex of Worlds, Book 2 by Charles E. Gannon (Baen Books) -- "Druadaen, Outrider for the once-mighty Dunarran Consentium, has proven that there are irreconcilable contradictions between magic and physics on Arrdanc, the world of his birth. And what is his reward for this important discovery, made against all odds and at considerable personal risk? Exile—organized and compelled by nervous temple hierarchs."

• The Dog with Two Tails: The Coldstone Case Files, Book 2 by Jason Gilbert -- "A Corvette has one passenger seat, but the dog can always ride on the roof. James Coldstone is back at his childhood home, working for a shady branch of the FBI under the threat of exposure as he hunts down things that go bump in the night, and has even met a new romantic interest who has no idea what he really is. And he is bored out of his mind. When a case comes through involving the brutal murder of a young research intern in Savannah, Georgia, the Supernatural Crimes Unit dispatches James and Phillip to find the killer and eliminate them."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 28 February 2023

Posted on 2023-02-28 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Homestead: A Novel By: Melinda Moustakis, read by Ariel Blake for Macmillan -- "Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the promise of homesteading than anything. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her, and a risky bet is better than none at all."

• The Angel Maker: A Novel By: Alex North, read by Rosalie Craig for Macmillan -- "Growing up in a beautiful house in the English countryside, Katie Shaw lived a charmed life. At the cusp of graduation, she had big dreams, a devoted boyfriend, and a little brother she protected fiercely. Until the day a violent stranger changed the fate of her family forever. Years later, still unable to live down the guilt surrounding what happened to her brother, Chris, and now with a child of her own to protect, Katie struggles to separate the real threats from the imagined. Then she gets the phone call: Chris has gone missing and needs his big sister once more."

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: A Novel By: Shannon Chakraborty, read by Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal for Harper -- "Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural. But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum."

• The Magician's Daughter By: H. G. Parry, read by Rose McPhilemy for Redhook -- "Off the coast of Ireland sits a legendary island hidden by magic. A place of ruins and ancient trees, sea-salt air and fairy lore, Hy-Brasil is the only home Biddy has ever known. Washed up on its shore as a baby, Biddy lives a quiet life with her guardian, the mercurial magician Rowan. A life she finds increasingly stifling. One night, Rowan fails to return from his mysterious travels. To find him, Biddy must venture into the outside world for the first time. But Rowan has powerful enemies—forces who have hoarded the world’s magic and have set their sights on the magician’s many secrets. Biddy may be the key to stopping them. Yet the closer she gets to answers, the more she questions everything she’s ever believed about Rowan, her past, and the nature of magic itself."

• The Unfortunates: A Novel By: J K Chukwu, read by Deanna Anthony for Harper -- "An edgy, bitingly funny debut about a queer, half-Nigerian college sophomore who, enraged and exhausted by the racism at her elite college, is determined to reveal the truth about The Unfortunates—the unlucky subset of Black undergrads who Just. Keep. Disappearing."

• The Woman Who Climbed Trees: A Novel By: Smriti Ravindra, read by Deepa Samuel for Harper -- "When she marries a man from Nepal, Meena must leave behind her family and home in India and forge a new identity in a strange place. The Woman Who Climbed Trees follows her, the women who surround her, and the daughter she eventually raises, as they carefully navigate the uncertain tides of their diasporic lives."

• The Way the Light Bends By: Lorraine Wilson, read by Helen McAlpine for SAGA Egmont -- "When their brother dies, sisters Freya and Tamsin lose the one thing that connected them. But when Tamsin goes missing a year later, Freya is determined to find her. Guided by a trail of diary entries, revelations are unveiled about the grief that drove Tamsin to the edge of a cliff - and into the arms of a mysterious stranger... A man who promised hope but demanded sacrifice."

• Dust: The Obelisks Series, Book 1 By: Ari Marmell, read by Cindy Kay for Blackstone -- "For Flight Engineer Cynthia Han and her fellow astronauts aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 81 has proved as mundane as space travel ever gets. Yes, this would be Cynthia’s final NASA mission, for reasons she has so far kept from the rest of the crew; and yes, the latest billionaire “space tourist” has managed to irritate everyone on board. Still, none of them could have asked for a smoother experience. Until the morning they wake up to silence. All communication with Earth, gone. From half a dozen different agencies with multiple installations and redundancies across the globe, there is simply… nothing. And through the viewports of the ISS, only the thick veil of churning, lightning-veined dust to suggest the Earth remains at all."

• The Levee By: William Kent Krueger, read by JD Jackson for Simon and Schuster -- "It’s 1927, and the most devastating flood in American history has swelled the Mississippi River to a width of eighty miles. In an attempt to save a family trapped by the rising water, four men in a tiny rowboat battle the treacherous flow: three are convicts, on loan from the local prison and pressed into service; the fourth, the leader of the team, is driven by his own hidden motives. But to their surprise upon arrival at Ballymore, an ancestral home protected by a high, circular levee, not everyone in the family feels the need to be saved."

• The Secrets of Hartwood Hall: A Novel By: Katie Lumsden, read by Olivia Vinall for Penguin -- "It’s 1852 and Margaret Lennox, a young widow, attempts to escape the shadows of her past by taking a position as governess to an only child, Louis, at an isolated country house in the west of England. But Margaret soon starts to feel that something isn’t quite right. There are strange figures in the dark, tensions between servants, and an abandoned east wing. Even stranger is the local gossip surrounding Mrs. Eversham, Louis’s widowed mother, who is deeply distrusted in the village."

• You've Lost a Lot of Blood By: Eric LaRocca, read by Eric Michael Summerer for Tantor -- "Each precious thing I show you in this book is a holy relic from the night we both perished—the night when I combed you from my hair and watered the moon with your blood."

NON-FICTION PICK:

• Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May, read by Rebecca Lee for Books on Tape -- "Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Might there be a way for all of us to move through life with curiosity and tenderness, sensitized to the subtle magic all around?"

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Mistress of Mellyn By: Victoria Holt (1960, 1988), read by Henrietta Meire for Tantor -- "Mount Mellyn stood as proud and magnificent as she had envisioned . . . But what about its master—Connan TreMellyn? Was Martha Leigh's new employer as romantic as his name sounded? As she approached the sprawling mansion towering above the cliffs of Cornwall, an odd chill of apprehension overcame her."

• Smoke City By: Keith Rosson (2018), read by Joshua Saxon for Meerkat -- "Marvin Deitz has some serious problems. His mob-connected landlord is strong-arming him out of his storefront. His therapist has concerns about his stability. He's compelled to volunteer at the local Children's Hospital even though it breaks his heart every week. Oh, and he's also the guilt-ridden reincarnation of Geoffroy Thérage, the French executioner who lit Joan of Arc's pyre in 1431. He's just seen a woman on a Los Angeles talk show claiming to be Joan, and absolution seems closer than it's ever been . . . but how will he find her?"

• Athena's Child: The Grecian Women Series, Book 1 By: Hannah Lynn (2020), read by Helen Keeley for Tantor -- "Daughter. Sister. Priestess. Protector. Son. Brother. Demi-God. Hero. Monsters. Gifted and burdened with beauty far beyond that of mere mortals, Medusa seeks sanctuary with the Goddess Athena. But when the lustful gaze of mighty Poseidon falls upon her, even the Temple of Athena cannot protect her."

• The Earth Remains: A Novel By: Shelley Burchfield (2021), read by Teri Clark Linden for Scribd -- "In tumultuous 1860, South Carolina farmer Polly struggles to hold onto both her land and the slaves who plant and tend her valuable cotton, while still reeling from the murder of her young brothers years before. This horrific crime has gone unsolved and unpunished—until now. When details of the brutal murder come to light, she must make decisions that will change not only her own life, but the lives of every person on her farm."

• The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume Two edited by Paula Guran (2021), read by James Fouhey and Julienne Irons for Tantor -- "The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Foreign Exchange: Mambo Reina, Book 2 By: Veronica G. Henry, read by Robin Miles for Brilliance -- "A Vodou priestess turned amateur sleuth investigating a ritual murder is embroiled in an insidious case of corruption that reaches beyond the shadows of New Orleans."

• A Day of Fallen Night: Roots of Chaos, Book 0.5 By: Samantha Shannon, read by Ellie Kendrick, Sheila Atim, Thoren Ferguson, Hanako Footman, Samantha Shannon, and Saara El-Arifi for Bloomsbury -- "In A Day of Fallen Night, Samantha Shannon sweeps listeners back to the universe of The Priory of the Orange Tree and into the lives of four women, showing us a course of events that shaped their world for generations to come."

• The Eidolon: The Magnus Academy, Book 1 By: K.D. Edwards, read by Josh Hurley for Audible -- "In the epic conclusion to K.D. Edwards' first blockbuster trilogy in the Tarot Sequence series, audiences followed Rune on a race against time as an age-old threat rose to threaten the city of New Atlantis. Now, for the first time, The Eidolon tells what really happened to Max, Quinn, and Anna as prisoners in the Hourglass Throne's base of operation."

• Hell Divers X: Fallout By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith, read by R. C. Bray for Blackstone

• The Maltese Iguana: Serge Storms, Book 26 By: Tim Dorsey, read by Oliver Wyman for Harper

TIE-IN WATCH:

• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter By: Jaleigh Johnson, read by Fred Berman for Random House -- "Discover the thrilling origin stories of the bard Edgin, the barbarian Holga, and their whole adventuring party in this official prequel to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves."

YA WATCH:

• The Headmaster's List By: Melissa de la Cruz, read by Lori Felipe-Barkin, Inés del Castillo, André Santana, and Eunice Wong for Macmillan -- "One of Us Is Lying meets Riverdale in The Headmaster's List, an edge-of-your-seat YA thriller about a fatal car crash and the dangerous lengths one teen will go to uncover the truth about what really happened."

INDIE WATCH:

• Dark Theory By: Wick Welker, read by Elizabeth Phillips -- "On the fringe of a broken civilization, a robot awakens with no memories and only one directive: find his creator. But in the village of Korthe, Beetro finds only radioactive pestilence, famine, and Miree—a tormented thief with dreams of retiring after her final score."

MOST MISSING:

• The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill (Tordotcom) -- "A fifteen-year-old teenager is the backbone of her small Midwestern family, budgeting the household finances and raising her younger brother while her mom, a talented artist, weaves beautiful tapestries. For six years, it’s been just the three of them―her mom has brought home guests at times, but none have ever stayed. Yet when her mom brings home a six-foot tall crane with a menacing air, the girl is powerless to prevent her mom letting the intruder into her heart, and her children’s lives. Utterly enchanted and numb to his sharp edges, her mom abandons the world around her to weave the masterpiece the crane demands."

• The Astronomer by Brian Biswas (Whisk(e)y Tit) -- "Franz Herbert suffers from epileptic seizures; are they a curse that takes him away from his wife, family, and friends, or a gift that allows him to explore the depths of the cosmos?"

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 21 February 2023

Posted on 2023-02-21 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• I Have Some Questions for You: A Novel By: Rebecca Makkai, read by Julia Whelan and JD Jackson for Penguin -- "A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie. But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws."

• Arch-Conspirator By: Veronica Roth, read by Dion Graham, January LaVoy for Macmillan -- "Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end. Antigone’s parents–Oedipus and Jocasta–are dead. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but with her militant uncle Kreon rising to claim her father's vacant throne, all Antigone feels is rage. When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest. But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he."

• Sister, Maiden, Monster By: Lucy A. Snyder, read by Arielle DeLisle, Katherine Littrell, and Lindsey Dorcus for Macmillan -- "A virus tears across the globe, transforming its victims in nightmarish ways. As the world collapses, dark forces pull a small group of women together."

• The Shadow of Perseus: A Novel By: Claire Heywood, read by Olivia Darnley for Penguin -- "An imaginative and female-centered reinterpretation of the myth of the great hero Perseus, told through the voices of three women who are sidelined in the traditional version—his mother, Danae; his trophy, Medusa; and his wife, Andromeda—but whose viewpoints reveal a man who is not, in fact, a hero at all."

• Hopeland By: Ian McDonald, read by Esther Wane for Blackstone -- "A time-traveling, futuristic saga of a family trying to outlast and remake a universe with a power unlike any we’ve seen before."

• Nocturne: A Novel By: Alyssa Wees, read by Zura Johnson for Random House -- "In this haunting, lyrical fantasy set in 1930s Chicago, a talented ballerina finds herself torn between her dreams and her desires when she’s pursued by a secretive patron who may be more than he seems."

• Users By: Colin Winnette, read by Justin Price for HighBridge -- "Miles, a lead creative at a midsize virtual reality company known for its "original experiences," has engineered a new product called The Ghost Lover. Wildly popular from the outset, the "game" is simple: a user's simulated life is almost identical to their reality, except they're haunted by the ghost of an ex-lover. However, when a shift in the company's strategic vision puts The Ghost Lover at the center of a platform-wide controversy, Miles becomes the target of user outrage, and starts receiving a series of anonymous death threats. Typed notes sealed in envelopes with no postage or return address, these persistent threats push Miles into a paranoid panic, blurring his own sense of reality, catalyzing the collapse of his career, his marriage, and his relationship with his children."

• Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide By: Rupert Holmes, read by Neil Patrick Harris and Simon Vance for Simon and Schuster -- "From the diabolical imagination of Edgar Award-winning novelist, playwright, and story-songwriter Rupert Holmes comes a devilish thriller with a killer concept: The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to “delete” their most deserving victim."

• The Thorns Remain By: JJA Harwood, read by Eilidh Beaton for Magpie -- "1919. In a highland village forgotten by the world, harvest season is over and the young who remain after war and flu have ravaged the village will soon head south to make something of themselves. Moira Jean and her friends head to the forest for a last night of laughter before parting ways. Moira Jean is being left behind. She had plans to leave once – but her lover died in France and with him, her future. The friends light a fire, sing and dance. But with every twirl about the flames, strange new dancers thread between them, music streaming from the trees. The fae are here."

• The Forcing By: Paul E. Hardisty, read by John Chancer for Isis -- "Civilisation is collapsing. Frustrated and angry after years of denial and inaction, a government of youth has taken power in North America, and a policy of institutionalised ageism introduced. All those older than the prescribed age are deemed responsible for the current state of the world, and are to be 'relocated', their property and assets confiscated."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Destroyer of Worlds: A Return to Lovecraft Country By: Matt Ruff, read by Kevin Kenerly for Harper -- "In this thrilling adventure, a blend of enthralling historical fiction and fantastical horror, Matt Ruff returns to the world of Lovecraft Country and explores the meaning of death, the hold of the past on the present, and the power of hope in the face of uncertainty."

• Every Man a King: King Oliver, Book 2 By: Walter Mosley, read by Dion Graham for Little, Brown and Company -- "In this highly anticipated sequel to the Edgar award winner Down the River Unto the Sea, Joe King Oliver is entangled in a dangerous case when he's asked to investigate whether a white nationalist is being unjustly set up."

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The High Country By: John Jackson Miller, read by Robert Petkoff for Simon and Schuster -- "When an experimental shuttlecraft fails, Captain Christopher Pike suspects a mechanical malfunction—only to discover the very principles on which Starfleet bases its technology have simply stopped functioning. He and his crewmates are forced to abandon ship in a dangerous maneuver that scatters their party across the strangest new world they’ve ever encountered."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe By: Thomas Ligotti (1986, 1991), foreword by Jeff VanderMeer, read by Jon Padgett and Linda Jones for for Penguin -- "Thomas Ligotti’s debut collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and his second, Grimscribe, permanently inscribed a new name in the pantheon of horror fiction. Influenced by the strange terrors of Lovecraft and Poe and by the brutal absurdity of Kafka, Ligotti eschews cheap, gory thrills for his own brand of horror, which shocks at the deepest, existential, levels."

• This Immortal By: Roger Zelazny, read by Peter Berkrot for Tantor -- "Conrad Nomikos has a long, rich personal history that he'd rather not talk about. And, as Arts Commissioner, he's been given a job he'd rather not do. Escorting an alien grandee on a guided tour of the shattered remains of Earth is not something he relishes—especially when it is apparent that this places him at the center of high-level intrigue that has some bearing on the future of Earth itself."

• Wasteland Marshals: Wasteland Marshals, Book 1 By: Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin (2019), read by Roger Wayne for Tantor -- "The world ended. Then things got tough. Shane Collins and Lucas Maddox are the last two US Marshals after a global cataclysm that destroyed most of modern civilization. They're still on the job, fighting the good fight, although they're no longer fully human and maybe not entirely sane. Witches and werewolves were not covered in their training as US Marshals. Then again, neither was the Apocalypse."

NEW EDITION WATCH:

• Shadow's Edge: Night Angel, Book 2 By: Brent Weeks (2008), read by Simon Vance for Orbit -- "Kylar Stern has given up the way of shadows for a life of peace, but when an old ally returns, Kylar must make a deadly choice in the second novel of the Night Angel Trilogy by NYT bestselling author Brent Weeks."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America By: Will Sommer (2021), read by Joe Knezevich (2021) for Harper -- "The definitive book on QAnon from the reporter knows them best; Will Sommer explains what it is, how it has gained a mainstream following among Republican lawmakers and ordinary citizens, the threat it poses to democracy, and how we can reach those who have embraced the conspiracy and are disseminating its lies."

• The Education of Kendrick Perkins: A Memoir By: Kendrick Perkins with Seth Rogoff, read by JD Jackson for Macmillan -- " Kendrick “Perk” Perkins is known for his blunt, opinionated, “carry the hell on” commentary on ESPN’s most popular shows. As a fourteen-year NBA player and starting center for the 2008 NBA champion Boston Celtics, Perk earned a reputation as an enforcer, a fierce defender, and a great teammate. Now, In The Education of Kendrick Perkins, he opens a different side of himself: a powerful and intimate memoir that goes beyond basketball to discuss the reality of being Black in America."

• Sink: A Memoir By: Joseph Earl Thomas, read by the author for Grand Central -- "A wrenching and redemptive coming-of-age memoir about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture."

• It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism By: Senator Bernie Sanders with John Nichols, read by Senator Bernie Sanders for Random House -- "A progressive takedown of the uber-capitalist status quo that has enriched millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the working class, and a blueprint for what transformational change would actually look like."

INDIE WATCH:

• The Shapes of Wrath: Hope’s Seven Deadly Sins, Book 1 By: Melissa Yi (Melissa Yuan-Innes), read by Carmilla Jo -- "Dr. Hope Sze launches into her general surgery rotation with Dr. Vrac, the scourge of operating room three, also known as the death OR. Dr. Vrac screams at the resident doctors suffering under him, the nurses who don't move fast enough, the anesthesiologist, his auto mechanic, and even a garbage can. Patients begin to die under Dr. Vrac’s scalpel. This morning, Hope discovers a dead man in the back of the OR. Next, a ghost lingers outside of Montreal's St. Joseph's Hospital. Can Hope outwit the enraged killer before someone slices her throat?"

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 14 February 2023

Posted on 2023-02-14 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The King Is Dead: Stories By: Walter Tevis, read by Christopher Grove, Lee Osorio, Max Meyers, Philip Hernandez, and Mark Bramhall for Random House -- "For the first time ever, a complete collection of short fiction the New York Times bestselling author of The Queen's Gambit."

• The Last Tale of the Flower Bride: A Novel By: Roshani Chokshi, read by Steve West and Sura Siu for Harper -- "Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past. But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives."

• The Private Lives of Trees: A Novel By: Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell, read by Gisela Chipe for Penguin -- "Veronica is late, and Julián is increasingly convinced she won't ever come home. To pass the time, he improvises a story about trees to coax his stepdaughter, Daniela, to sleep. He has made a life as a literature professor, developing a novel about a man tending to a bonsai tree on the weekends. He is a narrator, an architect, a chronicler of other people's stories. But as the night stretches on before him, and the hours pass with no sign of Veronica, Julián finds himself caught up in the slipstream of the story of his life—of their lives together."

• Essex Dogs: A Novel by Dan Jones, read by Ben Miles for Penguin -- "The New York Times bestselling historian makes his historical fiction debut with an explosive novel set during the Hundred Years' War."

• The Shamshine Blind: A Novel By: Paz Pardo, read by Aida Reluzco for Simon and Schuster -- "A beguiling blend of noir detective story and science fiction perfect for fans of Michael Chabon and Emily St. John Mandel, this binge-worthy debut imagines a world where emotions have been weaponized, and a small-town law enforcement agent uncovers a conspiracy to take down what’s left of American democracy."

• Black Wolf: A Novel By: Kathleen Kent, read by Eva Kaminsky for Mulholland -- "A dazzling spy thriller about a female CIA agent whose extraordinary facial recognition powers lead her into the dangerous heart of the Soviet Union—and the path of a killer who shouldn’t exist."

• The Guest Lecture: A Novel By: Martin Riker, read by Vanessa Johansson for Tantor -- "In a hotel room in the middle of the night, Abby, a young feminist economist, lies awake next to her sleeping husband and daughter. Anxious that she is grossly underprepared for a talk she is presenting tomorrow on optimism and John Maynard Keynes, she has resolved to practice by using an ancient rhetorical method of assigning parts of her speech to different rooms in her house and has brought along a comforting albeit imaginary companion to keep her on track—Keynes himself."

• My Last Innocent Year: A Novel By: Daisy Alpert Florin, read by Sarah Bierstock for Macmillan -- "An incisive, deeply resonant debut novel about a nonconsensual sexual encounter that propels one woman’s final semester at an elite New England college into controversy and chaos—and into an ill-advised affair with a married professor."

• Jazzed By: Jill Dearman, read by Orlagh Cassidy for Blackstone -- "Academic geniuses, Wilhelmina “Will” Reinhardt and Dorothy “Dolly” Raab, become roommates at Barnard in the early 1920s, a time when college for women was a rarity."

• And Then I Woke Up By: Malcolm Devlin, read by Graham Mack for Tantor -- "In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it's hard to be certain of anything."

• Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel: Stories By: Julian K. Jarboe, read by Adi Cabral for Tantor -- "In this debut collection of body-horror fairy tales and mid-apocalyptic Catholic cyberpunk, memory and myth, loss and age, these are the tools of storyteller Jarboe, a talent in the field of queer fabulism. Bodily autonomy and transformation, the importance of negative emotions, unhealthy relationships, and bad situations amidst the staggering and urgent question of how build and nurture meaning, love, and safety in a larger world/society that might not be "fixable.""

• 3 Days to Live By: James Patterson, read by Anna Caputo, Corey Carthew, and Ellen Archer for Grand Central -- "The people closest to you can be your most dangerous enemies in this heart-pounding collection of 3 brand-new thrillers from the master of suspense."

YOUNG READER WATCH:

• The Windeby Puzzle: History and Story By: Lois Lowry, read by Lauren Ezzo and Andrew Gibson, with an introduction read by the author, for Harper -- "Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author Lois Lowry transports listeners to an Iron Age world through the suspenseful dual narrative of a boy and girl both battling to survive. In an utterly one-of-a-kind blend of fiction and history, a master storyteller explores the mystery and life of the 2,000-year-old Windeby bog body."

• The Grace of Wild Things By: Heather Fawcett, read by Aven Shore for Harper -- "An inventive and fantastical reimagining of Anne of Green Gables—with magic and witches!—that explores found family, loss, and the power of a girl's imagination."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions By: Greta Thunberg, read by Amelia Stubberfield, Greta Thunberg, Nicholas Khan, and Olivia Forrest for Penguin -- "You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope—but only if we listen to the science before it's too late."

• The Darkness Manifesto: Our Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms That Sustain Life By: Johan Eklöf (2020), translated by Elizabeth DeNoma (2022), read by Owen Findlay (2022, Penguin Audio) for Simon and Schuster -- "In the bestselling tradition of Why We Sleep and The Sixth Extinction, an urgent and insightful look at the hidden impact of light pollution, and a passionate appeal to cherish natural darkness for the sake of the environment, our own wellbeing, and all life on earth."

• Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World By: Malcolm Harris, read by Patrick Harrison for Little, Brown and Company -- "The first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, from railroad capitalists to microchip assemblers, showing how Northern California created the world as we know it."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Solenoid By: Mircea Cărtărescu (2015), translated by Sean Cotter (2022), read by Paul Boehmer for Tantor -- "Based on Cartarescu's own role as a high school teacher, Solenoid begins with the mundane details of a diarist's life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork?"

• Seven of Infinities: A Xuya Universe Novella By: Aliette de Bodard (2020), read by Emily Woo Zeller for Tantor -- "Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student. Sunless Woods is a mindship-and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She's come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân's resolute integrity. When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân's student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship-and to the devastating secrets they've kept from each other."

NEW EDITION WATCH:

• Pines, Wayward, and The Last Town: The Wayward Pines Trilogy by Blake Crouch, read by Max Meyers for Random House -- Replacing the Paul Michael Garcia narrations from 2012: "Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a mission: locate two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation turns up more questions than answers: Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out?"

SERIES WATCH:

• The Endless Song: Tales of the Forever Sea, Book 2 By: Joshua Phillip Johnson, read by Belinda Fenty and Leo Wringer for WF Howes -- "The second book in this environmental epic fantasy series delves into the mysteries of a world where ships kept afloat by magical hearthfires sail an endless grass sea."

• The Cage of Dark Hours: The Five Penalties, Book 2 By: Marina Lostetter, read by Christopher Bonwell, Shala Nyx, and Mylo Sermon for Macmillan -- "The second novel in the epic fantasy trilogy from acclaimed author Marina Lostetter, where the defeat of a serial killer back from the dead has pulled the mask off the myths and magics of a fantastical city."

• The Tyranny of Faith: Empire of the Wolf, Book 2 By: Richard Swan, read by Lucy Paterson for Orbit -- "Action, intrigue, and magic collide in the second book in an epic fantasy trilogy, where Sir Konrad Vonvalt’s role as an Emperor’s Justice requires him to be a detective, judge, and executioner all in one—but these are dangerous times to be a Justice."

• Chance: Constance, Book 2 By: Matthew FitzSimmons, read by Michael Crouch for Brilliance -- "A clone plays a dangerous game of life, death, memory, and murder."

• Symphony for a Deadly Throne: The Mousai, Book 3 By: E.J. Mellow, read by Madeline Lake and Tony Roberts for Brilliance -- "The third and final installment in the Mousai series, following a young woman torn between the man she loves and the kingdom she calls home."

• The Last Orphan: An Orphan X Novel, Book 8 By: Gregg Hurwitz, read by Scott Brick for Macmillan -- "Everything changes and everything is at risk."

• Death of a Traitor: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery, Book 35 By: M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green, read by Graeme Malcolm for Grand Central -- "Sergeant Hamish Macbeth—Scotland's most quick witted but unambitious policeman—is back to investigate the disappearance of a local woman who is more than she seems."

• Infinity Engine: Transformation, Book 3 By: Neal Asher (2017), read by Fleet Cooper for Library Ideas -- Oof. This new-to-me publisher has "Neil" in the metadata for the release, but "The rogue AI Penny Royal makes a final stand in the explosive conclusion to Neal Asher's hard-hitting and high-tech Polity space opera trilogy."

• Avengers of Gor: Gorean Saga, Book 36 and Warriors of Gor: Gorean Saga, Book 37 by John Norman (2021, 2022), read by Ralph Lister for Audible -- "Puzzling, disturbing rumors have reached Port Kar." And: "The Saga of Gor continues as Tarl Cabot attempts to save a beautiful prisoner from a terrible fate."

INDIE WATCH:

• When a Moth Loved a Bee: Destini Chronicles, Book 1 By: Pepper Winters, read by Tor Thom and Fiona Clare -- "The first volume in the Epic Fantasy Romance Destini Chronicles. A heavily romantic, spice-filled fantasy set in a world where life and death, shadows and stars watch over two forbidden lovers whose powers are best left forgotten. Recommended for listeners over 18 due to explicit scenes, content, and darker elements."

MOST MISSING:

• The Collected Enchantments by Theodora Goss (Mythic Delirium) -- "A wicked stepsister frets over all the ways in which she failed to receive her mother's love. A lost woman travels through an enchanted forest looking for someone who can remind her of her name. A girl must wear down seven pairs of shoes to gain help from a witch. A fox makes a life with a human, but neither can deny their true natures. A young woman returns to her childhood home and the fantastic stories she left there. A man lets himself be taken prisoner by the Snow Queen to prove that the woman who loves him would walk barefoot through the ice to save him. Medusa cuts her hair for love."

• Sing, Nightingale by Marie Hélène Poitras, translated by Rhonda Mullins (Coach House) -- "When the curtain rises on Malmaison, it reveals a once-enchanting estate, quietly falling into darkness and ruin, and at the heart of it, a father, one of a long line of fathers who have flourished at the expense of those around them. The silence seems peaceful, but lurking under it is a deep malevolence, scores of ugly and violent secrets kept by cast-off mistresses and abandoned daughters. Ever-greedy, the father brings in Aliénor, a woman who promises to make the lands give even more of themselves; the plants will flourish, the animals will multiply, each feast will be more sumptuous than the last. The father thinks the stage is set to satisfy his every desire, but Aliénor will bring a new script, one in which the hunters are hunted and a new reign will begin."

• The Scarlet Circus by Jane Yolen, with an introduction by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon) -- "A rakish fairy meets the real Juliet behind Shakespeare's famous tragedy. A jewelry artist travels to the past to meet a successful silver-smith. The addled crew of a ship at sea discovers a mysterious merman. More than one ignored princess finds her match in the most unlikely men. From ecstasy to tragedy, with love blossoming shyly, love at first sight, and even love borne of practical necessity—beloved fantasist Jane Yolen’s newest collection celebrates romance in all its glory."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 7 February 2023

Posted on 2023-02-07 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

FEATURED PICK:

• Victory City: A Novel By: Salman Rushdie, read by Sid Sagar for Random House -- "In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—“victory city”—the wonder of the world."

FEATURED BACKLIST:

• The Alteration By: Kingsley Amis (1976), read by Michael Fox for Penguin (2020) -- Available overseas for a couple of years, finally in the US store: "In Kingsley Amis’s virtuoso foray into virtual history it is 1976, but the modern world is a medieval relic, frozen in intellectual and spiritual time ever since Martin Luther was promoted to pope back in the sixteenth century. Stephen the Third, the king of England, has just died, and Mass (Mozart’s second requiem) is about to be sung to lay him to rest. In the choir is our hero, Hubert Anvil, an extremely ordinary ten-year-old boy with a faultless voice. In the audience is a select group of experts whose job is to determine whether that faultless voice should be preserved by performing a certain operation. Art, after all, is worth any sacrifice."

FEATURED SERIES:

• The Mountain Shadow: Shantaram, Book 2 By: Gregory David Roberts (2015), read by Humphrey Bower for Audible Australia -- "It has been two years since the events in Shantaram, and since Lin lost two people he had come to love."

• Don't Fear the Reaper By: Stephen Graham Jones, read by Isabella Star LaBlanc, Jane Levy, Alexis Floyd, Pete Simonelli, Ali Andre Ali, Timothy Andrés Pabon, Marni Penning, Dan Bittner, Corey Brill, Matt Pittenger, Jesse Vilinsky, Migizi Pensoneau, Lee Osorio, and a full cast for Simon and Schuster -- "December 12, 2019, Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw."

MORE NEW FICTION:

• The Fires: A Novel By: Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir, translated by Larissa Kyzer, read by Nina Yndis for Brilliance -- "From Icelandic author Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir comes a heart-wrenching thriller about a woman’s desperate quest to save the people she loves from a natural disaster."

• Our Share of Night: A Novel By: Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell, read by Frankie Corzo for Random House -- "A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family in the first novel to be translated into English by the International Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed."

• A Spell of Good Things: A Novel By: Ayobami Adebayo, read by Babajide Oyekunle and Ore Apampa for Random House -- "A dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two families caught in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession, and political corruption from the celebrated author of Stay with Me."

• Hungry Ghosts: A Novel By: Kevin Jared Hosein, read by Don Warrington for Harper -- "From an unforgettable new voice in Caribbean literature, a sweeping story of two families colliding in 1940s Trinidad—and a chilling mystery that shows how interconnected their lives truly are."

• What Napoleon Could Not Do: A Novel By: DK Nnuro, read by Kofi Boakye, Ana Hoffman, Adam Lazarre-White for Penguin -- "When siblings Jacob and Belinda Nti were growing up in Ghana, their goal was simple: to move to America. For them, the United States was both an opportunity and a struggle, a goal and an obstacle. For these three, their desires and ambitions highlight the promise and the disappointment that life in a new country offers."

• Meru: The Alloy Era, Book 1 By: S.B. Divya, read by Deepa Samuel for Brilliance -- "One woman and her pilot are about to change the future of the species in an epic space opera about aspiration, compassion, and redemption by Hugo and Nebula Award finalist S. B. Divya."

• VenCo: A Novel By: Cherie Dimaline, read by Michelle St. John for HarperCollins -- "Métis millennial Lucky St. James is barely hanging on when she learns she’ll be evicted from the tiny Toronto apartment she shares with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella. But then one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. She burrows through a wall to find a tarnished silver spoon, humming with otherworldly energy, etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM. Lucky is familiar with the magic of her indigenous ancestors, but she has no idea that the spoon connects her to a teeming network of witches across North America who have anxiously awaited her discovery. Enter VenCo, a front company fueled by vast resources of dark money (its name is an anagram of “coven.”) VenCo’s witches hide in plain sight wherever women gather: Tupperware parties, Mommy & Me classes, suburban book clubs. Since colonial times, they have awaited the moment the seven spoons will come together and ignite a new era, returning women to their rightful power. But as reckoning approaches, a very powerful adversary is stalking their every move. He’s Jay Christos, a roguish and deadly witch-hunter as old as witchcraft itself."

• Stone Blind: A Novel By: Natalie Haynes, read by the author for Harper -- "The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman."

• The Spite House: A Novel By: Johnny Compton, read by Adam Lazarre-White for Macmillan -- "Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he's desperate for money—it's not easy to find steady, safe work when you can't provide references, you can't stay in one place for long, and you're paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you. When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them."

• Cold People By: Tom Rob Smith, read by Rebecca Lowman for Simon and Schuster -- "From the brilliant, bestselling author of Child 44 comes a suspenseful and fast-paced novel about an Antarctic colony of global apocalypse survivors seeking to reinvent civilization under the most extreme conditions imaginable."

• Wild Massive By: Scotto Moore, read by Suzy Jackson for Recorded Books -- "When the Architects of the Multiverse were in their infancy and the cosmos was but a seed in the minds of gods, they called together their Artists and their Muses to construct The Building. A grand experiment in trial and error, The Building would serve as a safe space for the experimental crafting of worlds, honing their skills with each successive attempt—wars, and civilizations recorded in spreadsheets for later analysis. Carissa loves her elevator. Up and Down she goes, content with the sometimes chewy food her reality fabricator spits out, as long as it means she doesn’t have to speak to another living person. But when a mysterious shapeshifter from an ambiguous world lands on top of her elevator, intent on stopping a plot to annihilate hundreds of floors, Carissa finds herself stepping out of her elevator—and her comfort zone—risking her life and the secrets of her past in order to preserve the future."

• The Hollows By: Daniel Church, read by Gloria Sanders for Isis Audio -- "In a lonely village in the Peak District, during the onset of a once-in-a-lifetime snow storm, Constable Ellie Cheetham finds a body. The man, a local ne'er-do-well, appears to have died in a tragic accident: he drank too much and froze to death. But the facts don't add up: the dead man is clutching a knife in one hand, and there's evidence he was hiding from someone. Stranger still, an odd mark has been drawn onto a stone beside his body."

• Gods and Mortals: Ancient Greek Myths for Modern Readers By: Sarah Iles Johnston, read by Vivienne Leheny for Recorded Books -- "An enticing and entrancing new telling of ancient Greek myths."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel by Meredith Bagby, read by the author for Harper -- "The never-before-told story of NASA's 1978 astronaut class, which included the first American women, the first African Americans, the first Asian American, and the first gay person to fly to space. With the exclusive participation of the astronauts who were there, this is the thrilling, behind-the-scenes saga of a new generation that transformed space exploration."

• People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account by Mark Pomerantz, read by the author for Simon and Schuster -- " People vs. Donald Trump is a fascinating inside account of the attempt to prosecute former president Donald Trump, written by one of the lawyers who worked on the case and resigned in protest when Manhattan's district attorney refused to act."

YOUNG ADULT WATCH:

• Wildblood: A Novel By: Lauren Blackwood, read by Kerri McLean for Macmillan -- "Eighteen-year-old Victoria is a Wildblood. Since she was kidnapped at the age of six and manipulated by the Exotic Lands Touring Company, she’s worked as a tour guide ever since with a team of fellow Wildbloods who take turns using their magic to protect travelers in a Jamaican jungle teeming with ghostly monsters. When the boss denies Victoria an earned promotion to team leader in favor of Dean, her backstabbing ex, she’s determined to prove herself. Her magic may be the most powerful on the team, but she’s not the image the boss wants to send their new client, Thorn, a renowned goldminer determined to reach an untouched gold supply deep in the jungle."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Dragon Wing: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 1 and Elven Star: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 2 By: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (1990), read by Fajer Al-Kaisi for Random House -- FINALLY! While best known for their DragonLance books, Weis and Hickman's Death Gate Cycle was an absolute favorite for me in high school. Looking forward to the revisit! "Ages ago, sorcerers of unmatched power sundered a world into four realms—sky, stone, fire, and water—then vanished. Over time, magicians learned to work spells only in their own realms and forgot the others. Now only the few who have survived the Labyrinth and crossed the Death Gate know of the presence of all four realms—and even they have yet to unravel the mysteries of their severed world."

• Kunti: Sati, Book 1 and Ahalya: Sati, Book 2 By: Koral Dasgupta (2021 and 2020), read by Mahjabeen Ali for Audible -- "In the Sati series, Koral Dasgupta explores the lives of the Pancha Kanyas from Indian mythology, all of whom had partners other than their husbands and yet are revered as the most enlightened women, whose purity of mind precedes over the purity of body. The five books of the Sati series reinvent these women and their men, in the modern context with a feminist consciousness."

• The Cursed and the Broken: Cursed Blood Series, Book 1 By: Chloe Hodge (2022), read by Romy Nordlinger for Tantor -- "Years ago, the dark queen was executed by witches, her cultists hunted down like rats and forced into hiding. Their black magic buried and put to rest, all was well in the world . . . or so we thought."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Cradle of Ice: Moon Fall, Book 2 By: James Rollins, read by Nicola Barber for Macmillan -- "A heart-pumping tale of action, adventure, betrayal, ambition, and the struggle for survival in a harsh world that hangs by a thread."

• Maureen: A Harold Fry Novel By: Rachel Joyce, read by Penelope Wilton for Random House -- "From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes a moving novel told from the point of view of Harold’s wife, Maureen. Now undertaking her own pilgrimage, Maureen will discover a way to reconnect with the world she’s closed a door on."

INDIE WATCH:

• Brigand's Choice: A Privateer's Legacy: The Afterwar Saga, Book 1 By: Jamie McFarlane Narrated by: Mikael Naramore for Fickle Dragon Publishing -- "Chasing his twin sister through an unstable wormhole connects Quinn Hoffen with long-lost family struggling to overcome unscrupulous brigands."

MOST MISSING:

• The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium) -- "World Fantasy Award winner Cooney takes readers on a journey of wonder, terror, and joy in this mind-bending, heartfelt novel. Contained inside impassable walls of ice, the city of Gelethel endures under the rule of fourteen angels, who provide for all their subject's needs and mete out grisly punishments for blasphemous infractions, with escape attempts one of the worst possible sins."

• Virgin Land by Chloe Smith (Luna Press) -- "Shayla Gainrad is a young woman raised in a splinter community of reactionary would-be settlers who abandon interplanetary society for newly discovered planets. Shayla has achieved the settler dream—a home on the frontier world Erde, surrounded by rich and fertile lands—but she is increasingly lonely, homesick, and alienated from her husband. Although Shayla has told herself to endure, events on Erde begin to push her new life into disarray. The arrival of spacers from outside the settler community, a freak accident, and the persistence of Erde’s wild flora and fauna all add to Shayla’s growing realisation."

• The Lies We Tell Ourselves by L.K. Kitney (Luna Press) -- "In a world still bearing the scars from an ancient magical conflict, those who wield magic – or are changed by it – are condemned as abominations, their lives forfeit. Raised at sea under the tyrannical rule of his father, there is nothing the young Captain Fiaer Dradorn won’t do for the knowledge of a lost treasure that drove his father’s obsession. Even start a war."

• Miasma by Jess Hyslop (Luna Press) -- "Living alone with his mother on the edge of an ever-encroaching swamp teeming with toxic magic, young Nereus Vestryn has grown up hearing stories about the feral people the ‘miasma’ has infected. So when one morning he finds his mother crawling sickened from the swamp, he has no choice but to summon a mage to help her."

• The Night Begins by Abigail F. Taylor (Luna Press) -- "Freshman, Darcy Mills, wants nothing more than to repair a strained relationship with her mother. When Darcy receives a letter from Althea asking for help with a downsizing move to Dallas, she is excited at the prospect of reconnecting. Facing the frightening memories trapped in the walls of her childhood home, is daunting, but Darcy is determined to have Althea back. Unfortunately, the past isn’t the only thing to haunt Darcy. An evil lurks in the nearby woods, and It has noted her arrival."

• Ashes of the Ancestors by Andrew Knighton (Luna Press) -- "In a haunted monastery at the heart of a crumbling empire, a lone priest tends the fires for the dead. A servant bound by the bones of her family, Magdalisa is her people’s last link to the wisdom of the past. But as the land around them dies, new arrivals throw the monastery into turmoil. A dead warlord demanding recognition. Her rival, seizing the scraps of power. Two priests, both claiming to serve the spirits, both with their own agendas."

• Broken Paradise by Eugen Bacon (Luna Press) -- "After falling out with her brothers, Samaki the goddess of water flees to Earth where she must mask her trace by splitting into a quadruplet of magi. A quadruplet is perfect, but all things are never equal."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 31 January 2023

Posted on 2023-01-31 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Terraformers By: Annalee Newitz, read by Emily Lawrence for Macmillan -- "From science fiction visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, a sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future. Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come."

• Tomb of Sand: A Novel By: Geetanjali Shree, read by Deepti Gupta for Harper -- Winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize: "A playful, feminist, and utterly original epic set in contemporary northern India, about a family and the inimitable octogenarian matriarch at its heart."

• The Drift: A Novel By: C. J. Tudor, read by Nathalie Buscombe, Rachel Handshaw, Richard Armitage for Random House -- "Three ordinary people risk everything for a chance at redemption in this audacious, utterly gripping novel of catastrophe and survival at the end of the world, from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man."

• Vampire Weekend By: Mike Chen, read by Emily Woo Zeller for Harlequin -- "Everything you’ve heard about vampires is a lie. They can’t fly. No murders allowed (the community hates that). And turning into a bat? Completely ridiculous. In fact, vampire life is really just a lot of blood bags and night jobs. For Louise Chao, it’s also lonely, since she swore off family ages ago. At least she’s gone to decades of punk rock shows. And if she can join a band of her own (while keeping her…situation under wraps), maybe she’ll finally feel like she belongs, too."

• Maame: A Novel By: Jessica George, read by Heather Agyepong for Macmillan -- "It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting."

• Mrs Van Gogh By: Caroline Cauchi, read by Catrin Walker Booth for One More Chapter (HarperCollins) -- "Girl with a Pearl Earring meets I, Mona Lisa in this stunning novel that tells the true story of the woman (his sister-in-law Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger) behind one of the world’s greatest artists."

• Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives By: Siddharth Kara, read by Peter Ganim for Macmillan -- "The searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt."

• Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance By: Alvin Hall, read by the author for Harper -- "For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers encountered locked doors, hostile police, and potentially violent encounters almost everywhere, in both the South and the North. From 1936 to 1967, millions relied on The Negro Motorist Green Book, the definitive guide to businesses where they could safely rest, eat, or sleep."

• How to Be a (Young) Antiracist By: Ibram X. Kendi and Nic Stone, read by the authors for Listening Library -- "Based on the adult bestseller by Ibram X. Kendi, and co-authored by bestselling author Nic Stone, How to be a (Young) Antiracist will serve as a guide for teens seeking a way forward in acknowledging, identifying, and dismantling racism and injustice."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Black Empire By: George S. Schuyler, edited by Brooks E. Hefner, read by Landon Woodson for Penguin -- "'An amazing serial story of Black genius against the world' is how Black Empire was promoted upon its original publication as a serial in The Pittsburgh Courier from 1936 to 1938. It tells the electrifying tale of Dr. Henry Belsidus, a Black scientific genius desperate to free his people from the crushing tyranny of racism. To do so, he concocts a plot to enlist a crew of Black intellectuals to help him take over the world, cultivating a global network to reclaim Africa from imperial powers and punish Europe and America for white supremacy and their crimes against the planet’s Black population."

• Pimp My Airship: A Naptown by Airship Novel By: Maurice Broaddus (2019), read by Rhett Samuel Price, and Andre Santana for OrangeSky -- "All the poet called Sleepy wants to do is spit his verses, smoke chiba, and stay off the COP’s radar—all of which becomes impossible once he encounters a professional protestor known as (120 Degrees of) Knowledge Allah. They soon find themselves on the wrong side of local authorities and have to elude the powers that be."

*Jawbone By: Mónica Ojeda (2017), translated by Sarah Booker (2022), read by Victoria Villarreal for Tantor -- "Fernanda and Annelise are so close they are practically sisters: a double image, inseparable. So how does Fernanda end up bound on the floor of a deserted cabin, held hostage by one of her teachers and estranged from Annelise?"

• Telluria By: Vladimir Sorokin (2013), translated by Max Lawton (2022), read by David Aranovich for Tantor -- "Telluria is set in the future, when a devastating holy war between Europe and Islam has succeeded in returning the world to the torpor and disorganization of the Middle Ages. Europe, China, and Russia have all broken up. The people of the world now live in an array of little nations that are like puzzle pieces, each cultivating its own ideology or identity, a neo-feudal world of fads and feuds, in which no one power dominates. What does, however, travel everywhere is the appetite for the special substance tellurium. A spike of tellurium, driven into the brain by an expert hand, offers a transforming experience of bliss; incorrectly administered, it means death."

• Dogs of War: Dogs of War, Book 1 and Bear Head: Dogs of War, Book 2 By: Adrian Tchaikovsky (2017 and 2021), read by Laurence Bouvard, Nathan Osgood, and William Hope (2018 and 2021, WF Howes) for Recorded Books -- "My name is Rex. I am a good dog. Rex is also seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear. With Dragon, Honey and Bees, he's part of a Multiform Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, Mexico. A genetically engineered Bioform, he's a deadly weapon in a dirty war. All he wants to be is a Good Dog. And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and Master says he's got to kill a lot of enemies."

• Cage of Souls By: Adrian Tchaikovsky (2019), read by David Thorpe (2019, Head of Zeus) for Recorded Books -- "Humanity clings to life on a dying Earth in an epic, far-future science fiction novel from an award-winning author."

• City of Last Chances By: Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022), read by Stewart Crank (2022, Head of Zeus) for Recorded Books -- "Arthur C. Clarke winner Adrian Tchaikovsky's triumphant return to fantasy with a darkly inventive portrait of a city under occupation and on the verge of revolution."

NEW EDITION WATCH:

• The Prince of Tides By: Pat Conroy (1986), read by Alan Carlson for Harper -- "A modern American classic and a family saga that spans decades, this is the story of the volatile Tom Wingo, his brilliant but troubled twin sister, Savannah, and the complex and damaging family legacy they share. Moving between the sparkling glamour of New York City and the vanishing beauty of the South Carolina low country, The Prince of Tides is Pat Conroy’s masterwork."

• Secrets of the Morning: Cutler, Book 2 By: V. C. Andrews (1991), read by Jeremy Carlisle Parker for Simon and Schuster -- " Dawn can hardly believe she's a student at one of New York City's best music schools. Now her most precious wish, to become a singer, can come true. But Dawn still dreams about Jimmy, her strong, intense boyfriend, and the love and anguished secrets they share."

SERIES WATCH:

• Critical Mass: A Delta-v Novel, Book 2 By: Daniel Suarez, read by Jeff Gurner for Penguin -- "A group of pioneering astropreneurs must overcome never-before-attempted engineering challenges to rescue colleagues stranded at a distant asteroid—kicking off a new space race in which Earth's climate crisis could well hang in the balance."

• Earthside: Quantum Earth, Book 2 By: Dennis E. Taylor, read by Ray Porter for Audible Originals -- "The fate of mankind is in the hands of a group of 20-something science nerds in the sequel to Outland, by the Audible number-one bestselling author of the Bobiverse series."

• Children of Memory: The Children of Time Novels, Book 3 By: Adrian Tchaikovsky, read by Mel Hudson for Orbit -- "The modern classic of space opera that began with Children of Time continues in this extraordinary novel of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet."

• Barrow of Winter: Hall of Smoke, Book 3 By: H.M. Long, read by Samara Naeymi for Recorded Books -- "Thrilling epic fantasy adventures set in the world of HALL OF SMOKE and TEMPLE OF NO GOD, featuring murderous conspiracies, howling icy wastelands and the Children of Winter."

• Exiles: Aaron Falk, Book 3 By: Jane Harper, read by Stephen Shanahan for Macmillan -- "Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend's baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation."

• Village in the Sky: Alex Benedict, Book 9 By: Jack McDevitt, read by Jennifer Van Dyck for Recorded Books

INDIE WATCH:

• Commanding Flame and Shield: Grayshell Rising, Book 1 By: S.J. Barnett, read by Connor Brannigan and Nikki Grey for Flame and Fiction LLC -- "August Porter's nights are spent fighting for his life—trying to escape talons that drag him into darkness, fleeing monsters promising an end to his future. But they're just nightmares. At least, that's what he convinces himself...until he comes face-to-face with a fierce stranger promising salvation...if he leaves everything he's ever known behind."

MOST MISSING:

• The Last Gift of the Master Artists: A Novel by Ben Okri (Other Press) -- "The Booker Prize–winning author, a child of the Nigerian Civil War, reinvents through the story of the Atlantic slave trade the beautiful soul and resilient culture of his country."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 24 January 2023

Posted on 2023-01-24 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The White Mosque: A Memoir By: Sofia Samatar, read by the author for HighBridge -- "Samatar discovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancient Silk Road, from a fifteenth-century astronomer-king, to an intrepid Swiss woman traveler of the 1930s, to the first Uzbek photographer, and explores such topics as Central Asian cinema, Mennonite martyrs, and Samatar's own complex upbringing as the daughter of a Swiss-Mennonite and a Somali-Muslim, raised as a Mennonite of color in America."

• Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia By: David Graeber, read by Roger Davis for Macmillan -- The final posthumous work by the coauthor of the major New York Times bestseller The Dawn of Everything: "Pirates have long lived in the realm of romance and fantasy, symbolizing risk, lawlessness, and radical visions of freedom. But at the root of this mythology is a rich history of pirate societies—vibrant, imaginative experiments in self-governance and alternative social formations at the edges of the European empire."

• Yellow Rain: Poems By: Mai Der Vang, read by the author for HighBridge -- "In this staggering work of documentary and poetry, Mai Der Vang reopens a wrongdoing that deserves a new reckoning. As the US abandoned them at the end of the Vietnam War, many Hmong refugees recounted stories of a mysterious substance that fell from planes during their escape from Laos in the mid-1970s."

• This Other Eden By: Paul Harding, read by Edoardo Ballerini for Recorded Books -- "From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers, a novel inspired by the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated towns in the Northeast."

• All Hallows: A Novel By: Christopher Golden, read by Ronnie Butler, January LaVoy for OrangeSky -- "It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all."

• The Faraway World: Stories By: Patricia Engel, read by Gisela Chipé, Frankie Corzo, Inés del Castillo, Cynthia Farrell, Dominique Franceschi, George Newbern, Anthony Rey Perez, Aida Reluzco, Alejandra Reynoso, Gary Tiedemann, and the author for Simon and Schuster -- "An exquisite collection of ten haunting, award-winning short stories set across the Americas and linked by themes of migration, sacrifice, and moral compromise."

• The World and All That It Holds: A Novel By: Aleksandar Hemon, read by Aleksandar Mikic for Macmillan -- "As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sarajevo one June day in 1914, Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs and grinding tablets behind the counter at the pharmacy he inherited from his estimable father. It’s not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but it’s nothing a dash of laudanum from the high shelf, a summer stroll, and idle fantasies about passersby can’t put in perspective. And then the world explodes. In the trenches in Galicia, fantasies fall flat. Heroism gets a man killed quickly. War devours all that they have known, and the only thing Pinto has to live for are the attentions of Osman, a fellow soldier, a man of action to complement Pinto’s introspective, poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller; Pinto’s protector and lover."

• The Red-Headed Pilgrim By: Kevin Maloney, read by Tim Paige for HighBridge -- "On a sunny day in a business park near Portland, Oregon, forty-two-year-old web developer Kevin Maloney is in the throes of an existential crisis that finds him shoeless in a field of Queen Anne's lace, reflecting on the tumultuous events that brought him to this moment. Growing up in the suburbs, young Kevin suffered "a psychological break that ripped me from my humdrum existence" mainlining high fructose corn syrup and episodes of The Golden Girls. Thus begins a journey of hard-earned insights and sexual awakening that takes Kevin from angst-ridden Beaverton to the beaches of San Diego, a frontier-themed roadside attraction in Helena, Montana, and a hermetic shack on an organic lettuce farm. Everything changes when Kevin falls in love with Wendy. After a chance tarot reading lands them on the frigid coast of Maine, their lives are unsettled by the birth of their daughter, Zoë, whose sudden presence is oftentimes terrifying, frequently disturbing, and yet—miraculously—always wondrous."

• The Chinese Groove: A Novel By: Kathryn Ma, read by James Chen for Random House -- "Anne Tyler meets Jade Chang in this buoyant, good-hearted, and sharply written novel about a blithely optimistic immigrant with big dreams, dire prospects, and a fractured extended family in need of his help—even if they don't know it yet."

• The House at the End of the World By: Dean Koontz, read by Natalie Naudus for Brilliance -- "In retreat from a devastating loss and crushing injustice, Katie lives alone in a fortresslike stone house on Jacob’s Ladder island. Once a rising star in the art world, she finds refuge in her painting. The neighboring island of Ringrock houses a secret: a government research facility. And now two agents have arrived on Jacob’s Ladder in search of someone—or something—they refuse to identify. Although an air of menace hangs over these men, an infinitely greater threat has arrived, one so strange even the island animals are in a state of high alarm. Katie soon finds herself in an epic and terrifying battle with a mysterious enemy. But Katie’s not alone after all: a brave young girl appears out of the violent squall. As Katie and her companion struggle across a dark and eerie landscape, against them is an omnipresent terror that could bring about the end of the world."

• Episode Thirteen By: Craig DiLouie, read by Gregory D. Barnett, Sam Slade, Kimberly Bonny, Louis B. Jack, James Lewis, and Jay Aaseng for Redhook -- "From the macabre mind of a Bram Stoker Award-nominated author, this heart-pounding novel of horror and psychological suspense takes a ghost hunting reality TV crew into a world they could never have imagined."

• Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage By: Jeff Guinn, read by Jacques Roy for Simon and Schuster -- "The definitive account of the disastrous siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, from former investigative reporter Jeff Guinn, bestselling author of Manson and The Road to Jonestown."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• The Nightrunners By: Joe R. Lansdale (1987), read by Brad Sanders for Tantor -- "In the field of country noir—the dark side of rural and small-town America—Lansdale staked his claim to East Texas with The Nightrunners. A '66 Chevy bears down on the countryside, with a carful of vicious teenagers and evil of Biblical proportions, in this terrifying morality tale of sex and violence."

• The Devil Makes Three By: Lucy Blue (2021), read by Inger Tudor for Tantor -- "In 1837, Briarwood Plantation was abandoned when Ezra Woodbine slaughtered his fiancee's entire family. After nearly two centuries, life returns to Briarwood. But for how long?"

SERIES WATCH:

• Ravensong: Green Creek, Book 2 By: TJ Klune, read by Kirt Graves for Macmillan -- "The Bennett family has a secret: They're not just a family, they're a pack. Ravensong is Gordo Livingstone's story."

• The Infinite: The Outside, Book III By: Ada Hoffmann, read by Nancy Wu for Recorded Books -- "Time is running out for the planet Jai. The artificially intelligent Gods who rule the galaxy have withdrawn their protection from the chaos-ravaged world, just as their most ancient enemy closes in. For Yasira Shien, who has devoted herself to the fragile planet's nascent rebellion, it's time to do or die—and the odds are overwhelming."

• The Praxis Triad: Investments, The Stickpin, and Impersonations By: Walter Jon Williams, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat Media -- "After bringing listeners The Dread Empires Fall Trilogy (The Praxis, The Sundering, and Conventions of War), Skyboat Media and Blackstone Publishing come together again to present The Praxis Triad, an original audiobook compilation of three novellas from Walter Jon Williams’s Praxis universe."

• Body, Inc.: The Tipping Point Trilogy, Book 2 By: Alan Dean Foster (2012), read by David Colacci for Tantor -- "Foster has always been on the cutting-edge of science fiction. In Body, Inc., he creates a tomorrow where genetic manipulation has become ubiquitous, and the very meaning of what it is to be human is undergoing drastic transformation."

• The Devil's Ransom: Pike Logan, Book 17 By: Brad Taylor, read by Rich Orlow

MOST MISSING:

• Glitches and Stitches: Death Violations, Book 1 by Nicole Givens Kurtz (Mocha Memoirs Press) -- "Suffering PTSD from her past cases, Inspector Regulator Fawn Granger is exhausted with her job and she can’t wait to move to the Southwest Territories, when another death violation drops into her lap."

• Dark Yonder: Issue 1 edited by Katy Munger and Eryk Pruitt (Thalia Press) -- "This is not your grandfather’s noir. Forget middle-aged alcoholics in bad jackets roaming the mean streets of L.A. in search of redemption and a bonus roll in the hay with a duplicitous dame. The debut issue takes a look at the dark side of modern life, including sibling rivalry, the shelf life of marriage, our culture of greed, violence as entertainment, child soldiers, obsessive love gone wrong, and so much more."

That'll be in the series watch for next week! It was only released (in the US at least) today (Thursday).

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 17 January 2023

Posted on 2023-01-17 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• How to Sell a Haunted House By: Grady Hendrix, read by Jay Aaseng and Mikhaila Aaseng for Penguin -- "When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world. Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market. But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them."

• Brotherless Night: A Novel By: V. V. Ganeshananthan, read by Nirmala Rajasingam for Random House -- "Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence. Desperate to act, Sashi accepts K’s invitation to work as a medic at a field hospital for the militant Tamil Tigers, who, following years of state discrimination and violence, are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. But after the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers arrive only to commit further atrocities, Sashi begins to question where she stands. When one of her medical school professors, a Tamil feminist and dissident, invites her to join a secret project documenting human rights violations, she embarks on a dangerous path that will change her forever."

• I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself: A Novel By: Marisa Crane, read by Bailey Carr for Blackstone -- "In a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third, fourth, and fifth) shadow as a reminder of their crime—and a warning to those they encounter. Within the Department, corruption and prejudice run rampant, giving rise to an underclass of so-called Shadesters who are disenfranchised, publicly shamed, and deprived of civil rights protections."

• Please Report Your Bug Here: A Novel By: Josh Riedel, read by Torian Brackett for Macmillan -- "A college grad with the six-figure debt to prove it, Ethan Block views San Francisco as the place to be. Yet his job at hot new dating app DateDate is a far cry from what he envisioned. Instead of making the world a better place, he reviews flagged photo queues, overworked and stressed out. But that's about to change. Reeling from a breakup, Ethan decides to view his algorithmically matched soulmate on DateDate. He overrides the system and clicks on the profile. Then, he disappears. One minute, he’s in a windowless office, and the next, he’s in a field of endless grass, gasping for air. When Ethan snaps back to DateDate HQ, he’s convinced a coding issue caused the blip. Except for anyone to believe him, he’ll need evidence. As Ethan embarks on a wild goose chase, moving from dingy startup think tanks to Silicon Valley’s dominant tech conglomerate, it becomes clear that there’s more to DateDate than meets the eye. With the stakes rising, and a new world at risk, Ethan must choose who—and what—he believes in."

• Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel By: Benjamin Stevenson, read by Barton Welch for Harper -- "Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it? Let’s get started."

• The Shards: A Novel By: Bret Easton Ellis, read by the author for Random House -- "A novel of sensational literary and psychological suspense from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged high school friends in a vibrantly fictionalized 1980s Los Angeles as a serial killer strikes across the city."

• Decent People By: De'Shawn Charles Winslow, read by Bahni Turpin for Bloomsbury -- "From Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winning author De’Shawn Charles Winslow, a sweeping and unforgettable novel of a Black community reeling from a triple homicide, and the secrets the killings reveal."

• Locust Lane: A Novel By: Stephen Amidon, read by Cassandra Campbell for Macmillan -- "For fans of Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, a taut and utterly propulsive story about the search for justice and the fault lines of power and influence in a seemingly idyllic town."

• Pandora: A Novel By: Susan Stokes-Chapman, read by Olivia Vinall for Harper -- "Steeped in mystery and rich in imagination, an exhilarating historical novel set in Georgian London where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations, and romance."

• Really Good, Actually: A Novel By: Monica Heisey, read by Julia Whelan for Harper -- "A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman’s messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey."

• Interface By: Scott Britz-Cunningham, read by Paul Heitsch for Dreamscape -- "Ahead, not too many years from now, everyone has been linked to a network of government-mandated brain implants. The Interface has become a way of life, connecting all people to limitless information, nonstop personal messaging, and instantaneous news flashes. Gone are the days of cell phones and laptops—even loneliness itself is obsolete. But when the genius behind the Interface turns against his own creation and threatens to unleash a deadly electronic brain virus on the public, the fate of the world falls on NYPD Captain Yara Avril, who must stop this sinister, ever-escalating plot before it’s too late. A thrilling nod to a future waiting just around the corner, Interface is a remarkably prescient exploration of the potential links between boundless connection and cataclysmic disaster in digital society."

• The Appetite Factory By: Jon Gingerich, read by Adam Barr for Dreamscape -- "As head of the crisis management team at a Madison Avenue PR firm, Leonard Lundell spends his days counseling executives whose reputations have been ruined by scandal. But Leonard has been managing a strange and debilitating crisis of his own that’s held him captive his entire adult life: Leonard likes to eat soap, pencils, paint chips—anything with no nutritional value. For years, he’s kept his compulsion hidden behind a professional veneer. But when he signs an important client, an antisocial file clerk unwittingly discovers Leonard’s secret and blackmails him into accommodating her own bizarre culinary indulgences."

• What Lies in the Woods: A Novel By: Kate Alice Marshall, read by Karissa Vacker for Macmillan -- "They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars."

• Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga edited by Lindy Ryan, read by Betsy Foldes-Meiman, Rachel Jacobs, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Mikhaila Aaseng, Zura Johnson, Angela Lin, and Chanté McCormick for Blackstone -- "A collection of new and exclusive short stories inspired by the Baba Yaga. Featuring Gwendolyn Kiste, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Mercedes M. Yardley, Monique Snyman, Donna Lynch, Lisa Quigley, and R. J. Joseph, with a foreword by Christina Henry."

TRANSLATION WATCH:

• Forbidden Notebook: A Novel By: Alba de Céspedes (1952), translated by Ann Goldstein, read by Cassandra Campbell for Blackstone -- "Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life—until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son. As the conflicts between parents and children, husband and wife, and friends and lovers intensify, what goes on behind the Cossatis’ façade of middle-class respectability gradually comes to light, tearing the family’s fragile fabric apart."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom By: Ilyon Woo, read by Janina Edwards and Leon Nixon for Simon and Schuster -- "The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as “his” slave."

• The Creative Act: A Way of Being By: Rick Rubin, read by the author for Penguin -- "From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us."

• Rikers: An Oral History By: Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau, read by Nathan Agin, Jonathan Beville, Nancy Bober, Gisela Chipe, Nicky Endres, James Fouhey, Philip Hernandez, Cary Hite, Eric Jason Martin, Kamali Minter, Karen Murray, Jose T. Nateras, and Kiiri Sandy for Random House -- "A shocking, groundbreaking oral history of the infamous Rikers jail complex and an unflinching portrait of injustice and resilience told by the people whose lives have been forever altered by it."

• A Guest at the Feast: Essays By: Colm Toibin, read by the author for Simon and Schuster -- "From one of the most engaging and brilliant writers of our time comes a collection of essays about growing up in Ireland during radical change; about cancer, priests, popes, homosexuality, and literature."

• Tutankhamun and the Tomb That Changed the World By: Bob Brier PhD, read by Christopher Douyard for Tantor -- "It is often thought that the story of Tutankhamun ended when the thousands of items discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon were transported to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and put on display. But there is far more to the story. Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World explores the 100 years of research on Tutankhamun that have taken place since the tomb's discovery, from the several objects in the tomb made of meteoritic iron that came from outer space to new evidence that shows that Tutankhamun may actually have been a warrior who went into battle."

NEW EDITION WATCH:

• The Way of Shadows By: Brent Weeks (2008), read by Simon Vance for Orbit -- Paul Boehmer's "American" narration for Tantor is supplanted by a new British-flavoured performance by Vance: "The first novel in this breakout fantasy trilogy in which a young boy trains under the city's most legendary and feared assassin, Durzo Blint."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• A Tree of Bones: The Hexslinger Series, Book 3 By: Gemma Files (2012), read by Donald Corren for Blackstone -- "A new Civil War is brewing. With the city of Bewelcome as its headquarters, Allan Pinkerton’s Detective Agency leads a siege on Hex City, the town founded by “Reverend” Asher Rook and his consort, the Mayan goddess Ixchel. Monsters prowl the battleground, rocket trails of spells crisscross the sky, and an unnatural rain falls. Sides must be taken, but Pinkerton-agent-turned-outlaw Ed Morrow, spiritualist Yancey Kloves, and even Rook must choose what ruin or redemption means to each of them. Meanwhile, Chess Pargeter gears up for the greatest fight of his life—and death. A battle out of hell itself."

SERIES WATCH:

• Posthumous Education: Fred, the Vampire Accountant, Book 8 By: Drew Hayes, read by Kirby Heyborne for Tantor

• The Cabinet of Dr. Leng: Agent Pendergast Series, Book 21 By: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, read by Jefferson Mays for Grand Central

INDIE WATCH:

• Karma of the Sun By: Brandon Ying Kit Boey, read by Keong Sim for CamCat Books -- "Six suns, six blasts in the sky; a seventh one, and the earth will die. In the isolation of the Himalayas, the snows still fall, but they are tinged with the ash of a nuclear winter; the winds still blow, but they wail with the cries of ghosts. The seventh and final blast is near. As the world heaves its final breaths, the people of the Tibetan plateau—civilization’s final survivors—are haunted by spirits and terrorized by warlords. Though the last of the seven prophesied cataclysms is at hand, young Karma searches for a father who disappeared ten years earlier, presumed dead. Driven by a yearning to see his father again before the end, and called by an eerie horn unheard by anyone else, Karma forges into the Himalayas and discovers that his father’s disappearance may be linked to a mystical mountain said to connect the physical world with the spirit lands—and a possible way to save their doomed future."

MOST MISSING:

• Now She Is Witch by Kirsty Logan -- "Lux has lost everything when Else finds her, alone in the woods. Her family, her lover, her home - all burned. The world is suspicious of women like her. But Lux is cunning; she knows how to exploit people's expectations, how to blend into the background. And she knows a lot about poisons. Else has not found Lux by accident. She needs her help to seek revenge against the man who wronged her, and together they pursue him north. But on their hunt they will uncover dark secrets that entangle them with dangerous adversaries."

Posted in Release Week