Release Week: 10 January 2023

Posted on 2023-01-10 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Lost in the Moment and Found: Wayward Children, Book 8 By: Seanan McGuire, read by Jesse Vilinsky for Macmillan -- "Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here. If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back. And the headphones that you swore this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it.... Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she discovers that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds. And stepping through those doors exacts a price."

• Bad Cree: A Novel By: Jessica Johns, read by Tanis Parenteau for Random House -- "In this gripping, horror-laced debut, a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home."

• Everybody Knows: A Novel By: Jordan Harper, read by Megan Tusing and William DeMeritt for Mulholland -- "Welcome to Mae Pruett’s Los Angeles, where “Nobody talks. But everybody whispers.” As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks, and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” They protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary. After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast’s lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. It takes her on a roving neon joyride through a Los Angeles full of influencers pumped full of pills and fillers; sprawling mansions footsteps away from sprawling homeless encampments; crooked cops and mysterious wrecking crews in the middle of the night."

• The Deluge By: Stephen Markley, read by Corey Brill, Danny Campbell, Gibson Frazier, Stephen Graybill, Soneela Nankani, Joy Osmanski, Melissa Redmond, Aida Reluzco, André Santana, Neil Shah, Aven Shore, Shakira Shute, Pete Simonelli, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett for Simon and Schuster -- "From the bestselling author of Ohio, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity."

• Moonrise over New Jessup By: Jamila Minnicks, read by Karen Chilton for Algonquin -- "It’s 1957, and after leaving the only home she has ever known, Alice Young steps off the bus into the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, where residents have largely rejected integration as the means for Black social advancement. Instead, they seek to maintain, and fortify, the community they cherish on their “side of the woods.” In this place, Alice falls in love with Raymond Campbell, whose clandestine organizing activities challenge New Jessup’s longstanding status quo and could lead to the young couple’s expulsion—or worse—from the home they both hold dear."

• The Dreamtime By: Mstyslav Chernov, translated by Peter Leonard and Felix Helbing, read by Daniel Gamburg for Tantor -- "A unique point of view on the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine 2014, through four intertwining narratives: a guilt-ridden doctor trying to exorcise his demons by exposing himself to war; a young woman tending to her ailing father as the bombs fall around them in Russian-occupied Slovyansk; a mysterious sociopath playing a cat-and-mouse game; and a forensic expert solving a murder case while trying to save her marriage with a discharged soldier. As these threads unfurl, through harrowing scenes of personal and collective trauma, an enigmatic pattern emerges."

• The Survivalists: A Novel By: Kashana Cauley, read by Bahni Turpin for Brilliance -- "A single Black lawyer puts her career and personal moral code at risk when she moves in with her coffee entrepreneur boyfriend and his doomsday-prepping roommates in a novel that's packed with tension, curiosity, humor, and wit."

• Phaedra By: Laura Shepperson, read by Jade Wheeler, Mary Helen Gallucci, Julia Atwood, Mark Owen, Erin DeWard, Leon Nixon, Nicky Endres for Dreamscape -- "Phaedra has been cast to the side all her life: daughter of an adulteress, sister of a monster, and now unwilling bride to the much-older, power-hungry Theseus. Young, naïve, and idealistic, she has accepted her lot in life, resigned to existing under the sinister weight of Theseus’s control and the constant watchful eye of her handsome stepson Hippolytus."

• The Daughters of Izdihar: The Alamaxa Duology, Book 1 By: Hadeer Elsbai, read by Priya Ayyar and Nikki Massoud for Harper -- "The first book in an incredibly powerful new duology, set wholly in a new world, but inspired by modern Egyptian history, about two young women—Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat used to getting what she wants and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker used to having nothing—who find they have far more in common, particularly in their struggle for the rights of women and their ability to fight for it with forbidden elemental magic."

• Dark One: Forgotten By: Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells, read by Rachel Jacobs, Sophie Oda, Keith Szarabajka, Kaleo Griffith, Avery Waddell, Kelli Tager, John H Mayer, Mia Barron, Luis Bermudez, William Elsman, Nan McNamara, Jim Meskimen, and Roxanne Hernandez for Recorded Books -- "Every year in the United States there are fifteen thousand murders, give or take a few hundred. Of those, nearly forty percent go unsolved. In this six-part audio series, Christina Walsh is determined to change that. After struggling with the loss of her father, she sets out on a journey to bring the justice that has eluded her to the families of other victims. And she starts with a particularly strange case. The murder of world-renowned violinist Leona McPherson who mysteriously disappeared years ago after a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles."

• Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries: Book One of the Emily Wilde Series By: Heather Fawcett, read by Ell Potter and Michael Dodds for Random House -- "A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series."

• Observer By: Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress, read by Stacey Glemboski for Story Plant -- "Caro Soames-Watkins, a talented neurosurgeon whose career has been upended by controversy, is jobless, broke, and the sole supporter of her sister, a single mother with a severely disabled child. When she receives a strange job offer from Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sam Watkins, a great uncle she barely knows, desperation forces her to take it in spite of serious suspicions."

• Liar, Dreamer, Thief By: Maria Dong, read by Hannah Choi for Grand Central -- "A young woman’s carefully constructed fantasy world implodes in this brilliantly conceived novel that blurs distinctions between right and wrong, comedy and tragedy, imagination and reality."

• The Night Travelers: A Novel By: Armando Lucas Correa, read by Edoardo Ballerini for Simon and Schuster -- "Four generations of women experience love, loss, war, and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall."

• The House of Wolves By: James Patterson and Mike Lupica, read by Ellen Archer for Little, Brown and Company -- "Jenny Wolf’s murdered father leaves her in charge of a billion-dollar empire—and a family more ruthless than Succession's Roys and Yellowstone’s Duttons."

• Weird Tales Magazine No. 366: Sword & Sorcery Issue (2022), read by Scott Aiello, John Pirhalla, Simon Vance, Paul Woodson, Hillary Huber, Roger Clark, Tim Campbell, Chelsea Stephens, Dion Graham, Joe Hempel, Steve West, James Langton, Neil Hellegers, Natalie Naudus, and Peter Berkrot for Blackstone

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• Spare By: Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex, read by the author for Random House -- "It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on."

• Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing By: Benjamin Todd Jealous, read by the author for Harper -- "The son of parents who had to leave Maryland because their cross-racial marriage was illegal, Ben Jealous’ lively, courageous, and empathetic storytelling calls on every American to look past deeply-cut divisions and recognize we are all in the same boat now."

YA WATCH:

• Cool. Awkward. Black. edited by Karen Strong, stories by Tashi Thomas, Langston Darby, Karen Strong, Roseanne A. Brown, Elise Bryant, Julian Winters, Ibi Zoboi, Desiree S. Evans, Isaac Fitzsimons, Lamar Giles, Jordan Ifueko, Leah Johnson, Amanda Joy, Kwame Mbalia, and Tracy Deonn, read by Tashi Thomas, Langston Darby, and Karen Strong for Listening Library -- "Real or imaginary, geekdom is where it's at in this multi-genre YA anthology that celebrates "the geek," with stories by some of today's top bestselling, critically acclaimed Black authors."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• The Hopkins Manuscript: A Novel By: R.C. Sherriff (1939), read by Nicholas Boulton and Lameece Issaq for Simon and Schuster -- "A stunning speculative novel about a small English village preparing of the end of the world."

• The Great Santini By: Pat Conroy (1976), read by Michael Crouch for Harper -- I suppose this supplants the Dick Hill narration: "This is the story of Bull Meecham, the epitome of the Marine officer. Demanding, authoritarian, as tough a disciplinarian at home as at the base, Bull is a difficult man to please, and even harder to love. This is also the story of Ben Meecham, Bull’s oldest son. A gifted athlete whose best never satisfies his father, Ben must balance his own ambition with his father’s expectations–and decide what course he will chart for himself and what kind of man he will become. Piercing, bittersweet, and unforgettable, The Great Santini is Pat Conroy’s semi-autobiographical lens into fathers and sons, and the powerful legacy one man can leave behind." Also out this week are new editions of Water Is Wide (1972, read by Jeremy Arthur) and The Lords of Discipline (1980, read by Roger Wayne).

• Beacon 23 By: Hugh Howey, read by Peter Ganim for Blackstone -- "For centuries, men and women have manned lighthouses to ensure the safe passage of ships. It is a lonely job and a thankless one for the most part. Until something goes wrong. Until a ship is in distress. In the twenty-third century, this job has moved into outer space. A network of beacons allows ships to travel across the Milky Way at many times the speed of light. These beacons are built to be robust. They never break down. They never fail. At least, they aren’t supposed to."

SERIES WATCH:

• Hell Bent: Alex Stern, Book 2 By: Leigh Bardugo, read by Lauren Fortgang and Michael David Axtell for Macmillan -- "Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. The Ivy League is going straight to hell in the sequel to Ninth House."

• Son of the Poison Rose: Kagen the Damned, Book 2 By: Jonathan Maberry, read by Ray Porter for Macmillan -- "The Silver Empire is in ruins. War is in the wind. Kagen and his allies are on the run from the Witch-king. Wild magic is running rampant everywhere. Spies and secret cabals plot from the shadows of golden thrones. Kagen Vale is the most wanted man in the world, with a death sentence on his head and a reward for him—dead or alive—that would tempt a saint. The Witch-king has new allies who bring a terrible weapon—a cursed disease that drives people into a murderous rage. If the disease is allowed to spread, the whole of the West will tear itself apart."

• The Sapphire Altar: Vagrant Gods, Book 2 By: David Dalglish, read by Devante Johnson, Imani Parks for Orbit -- "A usurped prince must master the magic of shadows in order to reclaim his kingdom and his people."

MOST MISSING:

• The Witches of Vardo by Anya Bergman (Bonnier Books UK) -- While the UK Audible store has this one (Narrated by: Sofia Engstrand) no sign yet of a US Release: "Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. After recently widowed Zigri's affair with the local merchant is discovered, she is sent to the fortress at Vardø to be tried as a witch. Zigri's daughter Ingeborg sets off into the wilderness to try to bring her mother back home. Accompanying her on this quest is Maren - herself the daughter of a witch - whose wild nature and unconquerable spirit gives Ingeborg the courage to venture into the unknown, and to risk all she has to save her family. Also captive in the fortress is Anna Rhodius, once the King of Denmark's mistress, who has been sent in disgrace to the island of Vardø. What will she do - and who will she betray - to return to her privileged life at court? These Witches of Vardø are stronger than even the King. In an age weighted against them, they refuse to be victims. They will have their justice. All they need do is show their power."

• The Kudzu Queen by Mimi Herman (Regal House) -- "Fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson dreams of men, not boys. So when James T. Cullowee, the Kudzu King, arrives in Cooper County, North Carolina in 1941 to spread the gospel of kudzu—claiming that it will improve the soil, feed cattle at almost no cost, even cure headaches—Mattie is ready. Mr. Cullowee is determined to sell the entire county on the future of kudzu, and organizes a kudzu festival, complete with a beauty pageant. Mattie is determined to be crowned Kudzu Queen and capture the attentions of the Kudzu King. As she learns more about Cullowee, however, she discovers that he, like the kudzu he promotes, has a dark and predatory side. When she finds she is not the only one threatened, she devises a plan to bring him down."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 3 January 2023

Posted on 2023-01-03 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Getting things started off pretty much as 2022 ended, with a fairly quiet release week.

PICKS:

• Local: A Memoir By: Jessica Machado, read by Mapuana Makia for Brilliance -- "A powerful, lush memoir about a Hawaiian woman who ran away from paradise to discover who she is and where she belongs."

• Age of Vice: A Novel By: Deepti Kapoor, read by Vidish Athavale for Penguin -- "New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb and in the blink of an eye, five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold."

• In the Time of Our History By: Susanne Pari, read by Mozhan Marnò for HighBridge -- "Inspired by her own family's experiences following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Susanne Pari explores the entangled lives within an Iranian American family grappling with generational culture clashes, the roles imposed on women, and a tragic accident that forces them to reconcile their guilt or forfeit their already tenuous bonds. Set between San Francisco and New Jersey in the late-1990s, In the Time of Our History is a story about the universal longing to create a home in this world—and what happens when we let go of how we've always been told it should look."

• The Villa: A Novel By: Rachel Hawkins, read by Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell, and Shiromi Arserio for Macmillan -- "As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend. Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder."

• The New Life: A Novel By: Tom Crewe, read by Freddie Fox for Simon and Schuster -- "A brilliant and captivating debut, in the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín, about two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom in late 19th-century London."

• The House in the Pines: A Novel by Ana Reyes, read b Marisol Ramirez for Books on Tape -- "Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend’s sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed."

• Without a Trace By: Danielle Steel, read by Nick Mills for Recorded Books -- "Charles Vincent seems to have it all—a beautiful wife, two successful children, and a well-paying career. Yet happiness remains out of reach. He is trapped in a loveless marriage and his job is simply a paycheck. But his life changes forever as he drives along the Normandy coast, heading to their lavish château for the weekend. In one terrifying moment, Charles falls asleep at the wheel and veers off the road, plunging thirty feet down the face of a rocky cliff."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Stolen Heir: A Novel of Elfhame By: Holly Black, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Little, Brown Young Readers -- "A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both."

• Star Wars: The High Republic: The Battle of Jedha By: George Mann, read by Raphael Corkhill, Kristen Sieh, Jonathan Davis, Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes, Philip Hernandez, Catherine Ho, Sullivan Jones, January LaVoy, Saskia Maarleveld, Brandon McInnis, Salli Saffioti, Marc Thompson, Shannon Tyo, and a full cast for Random House -- "After the events of The High Republic: Convergence, the Jedi travel to Jedha in this all-new Star Wars audiobook original."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Medea: Delphic Women, Book 1 By: Kerry Greenwood (1997), read by Lucy Scott and Simon Mattacks for Isis Publishing -- "Sorceress, Princess of Colchis, Securer of the Golden Fleece. Her very name is a byword for infamy. Legend has it that she murdered her own children for revenge. But love in Ancient Greece was often a dangerous game; and legends are not always what they seem."

MOST MISSING:

• Scale: A Novel by Greg Egan -- "When electronics importer Cara Leon goes missing, private investigator Sam Mujrif is hired by her sister to investigate. Cara is eight times taller than Sam, but evidence soon points to players much smaller than either of them. As Sam and his cross-scale colleagues pursue the case, it becomes apparent that Cara’s disappearance is linked to the development of technology with the potential to reshape their whole society, and radically alter the balance of power between the scales."

• The Devil's in the Flaws: And Other Dark Truths by David Niall Wilson (Crossroad Press) -- " This new collection of stories from USA Today bestselling, multiple Bram Stoker winning author David Niall Wilson presents twenty-stories and a brand new, unpublished novella. Wilson’s work has been collected several times in digital only formats. This is the first major collection released since his award-nominated Defining Moments, and the subsequent collection Ennui & Other States of Madness. Included are several previously published works chosen by the author, along with seven previously unpublished stories, and the title piece, “The Devil’s in the Flaws,” a previously unpublished novella."

• Poor Man's Sky: Rich Man's Sky, Book 2 by Wil McIntosh (Baen) -- "Homicide detective Raimy Vaught is a losing contestant on the biggest reality show ever: the colonization of Mars. Brother Michael is a Benedictine monk who just wants to help the future happen. Andrei Bykhovski is an asteroid miner desperately escaping indentured servitude. Bridget Tobin is a hydroponic farmer studying the greenhouses of Luna. But when a fellow Mars contestant drops dead at a Lunar monastery, these four souls will find themselves on a collision course with forces far beyond the control of trillionaires or nation states. As labor disputes erupt across cislunar space, the actions of individual people will determine whose future will prevail . . . and whose will perish."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 27 December 2022

Posted on 2022-12-27 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Pretty quiet release week to close out 2022.

PICKS:

• Grime: A Novel By: Sibylle Berg, translated by Tim Mohr, read by Kwame Augustine for Random House -- "Rochdale is a town in post-industrial Britain, but it could be anywhere on the digitalized, environmentally-decimated planet: a place devoid of hope, where poverty, violence, and squalor are the near-future consequences of decisions being made at this very moment. Grime is the dazzling multi-voice story of four teenagers haphazardly brought together by individual tragedy and a collective love of grime, the music genre that replaced punk as the sound of the angry and the dispossessed: martial-arts-obsessed Don(atella); Peter, a traumatized Polish boy; Karen, a tech-savvy girl with albinism; and Hannah, an orphan from Liverpool. Despite the increasingly sophisticated workings of an authoritarian surveillance state, the four set out to exact revenge on the people they hold responsible for their misery. But what starts out as a teen hit squad evolves into a makeshift family as the four kids attempt to create a home on the fringes – both physically and mentally – of society. In this stylistically innovative epic, acclaimed novelist Sibylle Berg addresses the question currently being debated around the world: where will climate change, artificial intelligence, the rise of right-wing populism, and the inexorable expansion of surveillance lead? This masterful dystopian satire is a merciless and surgically-precise evisceration of neoliberalism, and beneath its rage and brutality beats a deeply human heart."

• Saturnalia: A Novel By: Stephanie Feldman, read by Courtney Patterson for HighBridge -- "The Saturnalia carnival marks three years since Nina walked away from Philadelphia's elite Saturn Club--with its genteel debauchery, arcane pecking order, and winking interest in alchemy and the occult. In doing so, she abandoned her closest friends and her chance to climb the social ladder. Since then, she's eked out a living by telling fortunes with her Saturn Club tarot deck, a solemn initiation gift that Nina always considered a gag but has turned out to be more useful than she could have ever imagined."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• House of Sundering Flames: Dominion of the Fallen Series, Book 3 By: Aliette de Bodard (2019), read by Peter Kenny for Tantor -- "The Great Houses of Paris-headed by Fallen angels and magicians-have coexisted in fragile peace. When a powerful explosion razes House Harrier, old alliances are torn apart, and a race begins to fill the power void."

SERIES WATCH:

• Santa Grint: The Time Police By: Jodi Taylor, read by Zara Ramm for Headline -- "Expect Christmas chaos in this year's festive short story from Jodi Taylor, set in the world of the Time Police for the first time."

• Nine Liars: Truly Devious, Book 4 By: Maureen Johnson, read by Kate Rudd for Harper -- "Stevie Bell solved the case of Truly Devious, and now she’s taking her detecting skills abroad when she becomes embroiled in a mystery from 1990s England."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 20 December 2022

Posted on 2022-12-20 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida By: Shehan Karunatilaka, read by Shivantha Wijesinha for HighBridge -- "Winner of the 2022 Booker Prize, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a searing satire set amid the mayhem of the Sri Lankan civil war."

• X: A Novel By: Davey Davis, read by Kai Rubio for HighBridge -- "The world is ending, and down-and-out sadist Lee spends their days working for a big corporation and their nights wandering the streets of Brooklyn listening to true crime podcasts. But everything changes when Lee is dragged to a warehouse party by their best friend, where they find themself in the clutches of the seductive and bloodthirsty X. When Lee seeks her out again, she's nowhere to be found."

• To Each This World By: Julie E. Czerneda, read by Megan Tusing, Justin Price, and Sharnell Palmer for OrangeSky -- "a desperate mission to reconnect with long lost sleeper ships, sent centuries earlier from Earth to settle distant worlds. A trio of Humans must work with their mysterious alien allies to rescue any descendants they can find on those worlds. Something is out there, determined to claim the cosmos for itself, and only on Earth will Humans be safe. Or will they? The challenge isn’t just to communicate with your own kind after generations have passed. It’s to understand what isn’t your kind at all."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Lud-in-the-Mist By: Hope Mirrlees, read by Stacey Lind for Spoken Realms -- "In the land of Dorimare, on the shores of the Dapple and the Dawl, the law-abiding residents of Lud-in-the-Mist are plagued by an illegal influx of fairy fruit enticing people to acts of poetry, dancing, and other dangerous flights of fancy. When respectable Mayor Nathaniel Chanticleer finds his family entangled in the scandal, he must call upon both his sharp legal mind and his unacknowledged creative spirit to craft a reconciliation with the Faerie."

• Bridge of Ashes By: Roger Zelazny, read by TJ Clark for Tantor -- "Mankind has been manipulated over the millennia by an alien race that seeks to use it to transform our planet into a world that they can live on. They've patiently encouraged us to adapt technologies that would bring on climate change making our world hotter and more hospitable to them all the while making it less hospitable for mankind. Dennis Guise the most powerful telepath every born is a thirteen-year-old boy, and humanities only hope of escaping oblivion. He is a bridge to our future and a bridge to our past. But can that be enough to save us and our planet?"

• Square³ By: Mira Grant (2021), read by Rachel F. Hirsch for Tantor -- "We think we understand the laws of physics. We think a lot of things. It was perhaps inevitable that some of them would turn out to be wrong. When the great incursion occurred, no one was prepared. Of all the things physicists had predicted, "the fabric of reality might rip open and giant monsters could come pouring through" had not made the list. But somehow, that was precisely what happened. For sisters Susan and Katharine Black, the day of the incursion was the day they lost everything."

• Noble Outlaw: Gunfighter Chronicles, Book 2 By: Matt Braun (1996), read by Tim Fannon for Recorded Books

• The Sacred Land: The Hellenic Traders Series, Book 3 By: Harry Turtledove (2003), read by Tim Campbell for Blackstone

• Worldwired: Jenny Casey, Book 3 By: Elizabeth Bear (2005), read by Carolina Hoyos for Tantor

SERIES WATCH:

• Into the Fire: Earthburst, Book 2 By: Craig A. Falconer, read by Scott Aiello for Recorded Books

• The 13th God: The Cycle of Galand, Book 8 By: Edward W. Robertson, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds for Podium

• Fair Trade: Liaden Universe, Book 24 By: Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, read by Eileen Stevens for Audible

MOST MISSING:

• Gods of Londinium by Natania Barron (Falstaff Books) -- "Born of violence and deception Joss Raddick knows little of the ways of the world. A new godling with untested strength and power. He makes his way to Londinium, the great city in the heart of Britanniae, an early 19th century England where Rome never left and gods walk among humans. There he meets Andrew LaRoche and his powerful band of godlings. Charming and witty. Andrew takes Joss under his wing to teach him their ways. And it all culminates in the Great Boast, a competition between the godlings to see who can inspire the greatest poet of their age. In it, Joss becomes entwined with the Keats family, and eventually, their eldest son John."

• Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction edited by Ida Yoshinaga, Sean Guynes, and Gerry Canavan (The MIT Press) -- "Essays on speculative/science fiction explore the futures that feed our most cherished fantasies and terrifying nightmares, while helping diverse communities devise new survival strategies for a tough millennium."

• The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen edited by Ellen Datlow (Night Shade) -- "For more than four decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror readers crave. Now, with the fourteenth volume of the series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 13 December 2022

Posted on 2022-12-13 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Desert Creatures By: Kay Chronister, read by Gail Shalan, Thom Rivera, and Samara Naeymi for Dreamscape -- "Nine-year-old Magdala and her father have been exiled from their home; they flee through the harsh landscape of the American West, searching for refuge. As violence pursues them, they join a handful of survivors on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Las Vegas, where it is said that vigilante saints reside, bright with neon power. Magdala, born with a clubfoot, is going to be healed. But when faced with the strange horrors of the Sonoran Desert, one by one the pilgrims fall victim to a hideous sickness—leaving Magdala to fend for herself."

• Conan: Blood of the Serpent: The All-New Chronicles of the World's Greatest Barbarian Hero By: S. M. Stirling, read by Bradford Hastings for Blackstone -- "Conan the Barbarian, the world’s most famous fantasy hero, returns in an all-new novel tied directly to the famous works by his legendary creator, Robert E. Howard. In this story, set early in his life, Conan has left his northern homeland to cut a bloody swath across the legendary Hyborian Age. A mercenary, a soldier, a thief, and a pirate, he faces conquering armies, malicious sorcerers, and monstrous creatures—against which he wields only the sword held in his powerful grasp."

• Kingdom of Villains By: Ella Fields, read by Elizabeth Russell and Kerr Lordygan for OrangeSky -- "A dark fae prince with a beastly secret. A faerie princess with a curiosity for things better left alone. A bond that will turn enemies to lovers. A love that might cost them their lives."

SERIES WATCH:

• Jason: Blades of Bronze 2 By: Mark Knowles, read by Andrew Kingston for SAGA Egmont -- "Jason dreams of glory – of taking his uncle's throne, rightfully his – and, like his warrior shipmates, of home. But it is not only Pelias who wishes Jason ill. Before the Argonauts can make it back to Iolkos, they must contend with a legion of foes who would see them dead – and a web of allies who are not quite what they seem."

• Ashes of Man: Sun Eater, Book 5 By: Christopher Ruocchio, read by Samuel Roukin for Recorded Books -- "The galaxy is burning. With the Cielcin united under one banner, the Sollan Empire stands alone after the betrayal of the Commonwealth. The Prophet-King of the Cielcin has sent its armies to burn the worlds of men, and worse, there are rumors … whispers that Hadrian Marlowe is dead, killed in the fighting. But it is not so. Hadrian survived with the help of the witch, Valka, and together they escaped the net of the enemy having learned a terrible truth: the gods that the Cielcin worship are real and will not rest until the universe is dark and cold."

• Harm's Way: Star Trek: The Original Series By: David Mack, read by Robert Petkoff for Simon and Schuster -- "Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise go in search of a missing Federation scientist—only to become trapped between a Klingon warship and Starfleet’s mysterious Operation: Vanguard."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• A Rope of Thorns: The Hexslinger Series, Book 2 By: Gemma Files (2011), read by Donald Corren for Blackstone -- "Thanks to hexslinger “Reverend” Asher Rook, sorcerers now have a sanctuary where they can live and work in peace. But a storm is coming—a tempest known as Chess Pargeter."

MOST MISSING:

• Mercy by Kelby Losack (Broken River Books) -- "A man trades his heart for a gun rumored to kill gods. A boy with an arm made of iron hopes to bond with his distant father on a hunting trip. And deep in the lunar radiation hills beyond a city dripping neon and blood, a deity demanding sacrifice from both old and young is about to wake."

• Opulent Syntax: Irish Speculative Fiction edited by Don Duncan and Dave Ring (Neon Hemlock) -- "A bog body meets crazed science in rural Kerry. Fraught impulses and witchy machinations in a rainy Midlands back garden. Dublin is at once a near future capitalist hell and the eye of a dystopian snowstorm. In Antrim, the past and future armwrestle for prominence, and in Belfast, a blade of grass means nothing and everything."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 6 December 2022

Posted on 2022-12-06 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

“Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”

PICKS, BACKLIST EDITION:

• My Darkest Prayer: A Novel By: S. A. Cosby (2019), read by Adam Lazarre-White with an introduction read by the author, for Macmillan -- "Whether it's working at his cousin's funeral home or tossing around the local riffraff at his favorite bar, Nathan Waymaker is a man who knows how to handle the bodies. A former marine and sheriff's deputy, Nathan has built a reputation in his small Southern town as a man who can help when all other avenues have been exhausted. When a beloved local minister is found dead, his parishioners ask Nathan to make sure the death isn’t swept under the rug."

PICKS, SERIES EDITION:

• The Citadel of Forgotten Myths: Elric Saga, Book 1.5 By: Michael Moorcock, read by Samuel Roukin for Simon and Schuster -- "Elric along with his companion Moonglum return, in this prequel set within the early days of Elric’s wanderings, in order to investigate the history of Melniboné and its dragons, known as the Phroon, in this exciting new addition to the Elric Saga from World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Moorcock."

• Stella Maris: The Passenger, Book 2 By: Cormac McCarthy, read by Julia Whelan, Edoardo Ballerini for Random House -- "An intimate portrait of grief and longing, as a young woman in a psychiatric facility seeks to understand her own existence."

PICKS, POETRY AND FICTION:

• Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World edited by Pádraig Ó Tuama, read by the editor for Tantor -- "In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama's appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and warm personal anecdotes, Ó Tuama considers each poem's artistry and explores how its meaning can reach into our own lives."

• Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone By: Sequoia Nagamatsu, read by Brian Nishii and June Angela for Dreamscape -- "A collection of twelve fabulist and genre-bending stories inspired by Japanese folklore, historical events, and pop culture."

• Cursed Bunny: Stories By: Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur, read by Greta Jung for Algonquin -- "A stunning, wildly original debut from a rising star of Korean literature—surreal, chilling fables that take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and the reign of big tech with absurdist humor and a (sometimes literal) bite."

• A Fractured Infinity By: Nathan Tavares, read by Tom Picasso for Recorded Books -- "Film-maker Hayes Figueiredo is struggling to finish the documentary of his heart when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan shows up, claiming Hayes is the key to understanding the Envisioner—a mysterious device that can predict the future. Hayes is taken to a top-secret research facility where he discovers his alternate self from an alternate universe created the Envisioner and sent it to his reality. Hayes studies footage of the other him, he discovers a self he doesn’t recognize, angry and obsessive, and footage of Yusuf…as his husband."

• The Light Pirate By: Lily Brooks-Dalton, read by Rosemary Benson for Grand Central -- "Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before."

• The Union By: Leah Vernon, read by Alaska Jackson, Sisi Aisha Johnson, and Kirby Heyborne for Brilliance -- "A thousand years in the future, a Black elite class reigns. The lower classes toil in the fields or scrape by in blighted cities, serving their rulers in a cruel, divided world. Among the Elites is eighteen-year-old Avi Jore, born to a powerful father and destined to rule. But as she comes of age, Avi cannot help but notice the injustices in her world—the treatment of enslaved workers, the oppression of the lower classes. Her disillusionment grows when she meets Saige Wilde, a mixed-race enslaved girl whose only goal is escaping beyond the borders of their brutal nation."

• American Afterlife By: Pedro Hoffmeister, read by Frankie Corzo for Dreamscape -- "The Pacific Northwest lies in ruins in the aftermath of the 9.2 Cascadia earthquake. There is a tsunami at the coast, annihilated infrastructure in all the towns and cities, and failed dams in the Oregon river valley where fifteen-year-old Cielo lives with her mother, a fearful evangelical who’s become caught up in a fearsome cult called The Collection of Redeemed Souls. Cielo and her mother, Mexican citizens without U.S. papers, have always had their status teeter on the edge—and now it’s about to plunge into the abyss. When the earthquake hits, Cielo’s mother hasn’t been home in days, but Cielo suspects that she’s holed up with the cult and might even be dead."

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• The Earl and the Pharaoh: From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun By: The Countess of Carnarvon, read by the author for Harper -- "The thrilling behind-the-scenes story of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun on its centennial, and explores the unparalleled life of family ancestor George Herbert—the famed Egyptologist, world-traveler, and 5th Earl of Carnarvon behind it—whose country house, Highclere Castle, is the setting of the beloved series Downton Abbey."

• Screaming on the Inside: The Unsustainability of American Motherhood By: Jessica Grose, read by Suehyla El-Attar for Harper -- "In this timely and necessary book, New York Times opinion writer Jessica Grose dismantles 200 years of unrealistic parenting expectations and empowers today’s mothers to make choices that actually serve themselves, their children, and their communities."

• Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul By: Evette Dionne, read by the author for Harper -- "A poignant and ruthlessly honest journey through cultural expectations of size, race, and gender—and toward a brighter future—from National Book Award nominee Evette Dionne."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Summer's End By: John Van Stry, read by André Santana for Audible -- "Sometimes a dark past can haunt you. Other times it just may be the only thing keeping you alive. Fresh out of college with his Ship Engineer 3rd-Class certificate, Dave Walker’s only thought is to try to find a berth on a corporate ship plying the trade routes between the many habs, orbitals, and moons in the Solar System. The problem for Dave, however, isn't his straight C average; it's that his stepfather, a powerful Earth senator he’s never met, now wants him dead. Forced to take the first berth he can find, Dave ends up on the Iowa Hill, an old tramp freighter running with a minimal crew and nearing the end of its useful life, plying the routes that the corporations ignore and visiting the kinds of places that the folks on Earth pretend don’t exist. Between the assassins, the criminals, and the pirates he needs to deal with, Dave is discovering that there are a lot of things out there that he still needs to learn. But there’s one hard lesson he learned long ago that he’s being forced to remember: how to be ruthless."

• Calor: The Nightingale Trilogy, Book 1 By: J.J. Fischer, read by Stacey Glemboski for Oasis -- "What if you could edit memories with a single touch? The world-that-was is gone, lost to everything except living memory . . . but remembering comes at a terrible price. Sixty-two years after the apocalypse, a new society has emerged from the ashes of the old world where highly valued memories are traded and nostalgia is worth dying—and even killing—for. Enslaved by a cruel master, Sephone Winter is forced to use her rare ability to manipulate memories to numb the darkest secrets of the ruling aristocracy."

• Blade and Bone By: D.K. Holmberg, read by John Pirhalla for ASH Publishing -- "Kanar Reas, an ex-soldier known as the Blackheart, hides a dangerous secret. Exiled from the Realmsguard, he wants nothing to do with the kind of magic that destroyed his life. That is until his team of mercenaries is offered a job they can’t refuse. He’ll need the help of others working in the city: An assassin who uses the bones of her enemies in her art. An archer with strange skills. And a stranded sailor whose loyalties are unknown. Impossible wealth awaits if they succeed, but far more is at stake if they fail, for a deadly magic will be unleashed upon the world."

TIE-IN WATCH:

• Marvel: Original Sin By: Gavin G. Smith, read by Qarie Marshall for Marvel -- "Who shot the Watcher? Uatu, a mysterious being who observes mankind from the moon, is dead. Nick Fury forges unlikely alliances to lead a cosmos-spanning investigation into the murder."

SERIES WATCH:

• A Fire Endless: Elements of Cadence, Book 2 By: Rebecca Ross, read by Ruth Urquhart for Harper -- "The stunning conclusion to the duology finds the delicate balance between the human and faerie realm threatened by Bane, the spirit of the North Wind, whose defeat can only come through fire, song, and heart-rending sacrifice."

• Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Hyde: The Classified Dossier Series, Book 2 By: Christian Klaver, read by Tom Woosnam for Blackstone -- "1903. A darkness has descended on London. A series of grisly murders are uncovered, trophies taken, bodies arranged, and soon there are whispers of Jack the Ripper’s return."

• The Cuckoo: Under the Northern Sky, Book 3 By: Leo Carew, read by Matt Addis for Orbit -- "Two fierce armies collide in the finale of the trilogy, a thrilling and savagely visceral epic fantasy."

• Three Axes to Fall: The Grave of Empires, Book 3 By: Sam Sykes, read by Daisy-May Parsons for Orbit -- "A deal struck in a dark place set an outlaw mage on the path to revenge. And now that it’s led to places even darker, she and everyone she knows may pay the price for her bargain."

• Queens of an Alien Sun: Arkship Trilogy, Book 3 By: Peter F. Hamilton, read by Elizabeth Klett for Tantor

• The Ivory Tomb: The Rooks and Ruin Series, Book 3 By: Melissa Caruso, read by Senn Annis for Blackstone

• Well Traveled: Well Met, Book 4 By: Jen DeLuca, read by Brittany Pressley for Penguin -- "The Renaissance Faire is on the move, and Lulu and Dex are along for the ride, in the next utterly charming rom-com."

• The Anarchist-Mage of Ziammotienth: Myth of the Dragon, Book 4 By: Michael Anderle, read by Emily Beresford for Tantor

• To Blackfyre Keep: The Seven Swords, Book 4 By: Anthony Ryan, read by Steven Brand for Audible

• A Call to Insurrection: Book IV of Manticore Ascendant By: David Weber and Timothy Zahn with Thomas Pope, read by Eric Michael Summerer for Audible

• Failure Mode: Expeditionary Force, Book 15 By: Craig Alanson, read by R.C. Bray for Podium

• Marshal Arcane: Spellmonger, Book 15 By: Terry Mancour, read by John Lee for Podium

• Red Winter: A Jack Ryan Novel, Book 22 By: Marc Cameron, read by Scott Brick for Random House -- "In this previously untold adventure, a young Jack Ryan goes behind the Iron Curtain to seek the truth about a potential Soviet defector."

MOST MISSING:

• Dying World: Gods Fare No Better, Book 1 by J David Osborne (Broken River Books) -- "Kentaro was the best assassin in Cyclone City, a sweaty cyberpunk metropolis in the heart of a future bombed-out America. That is, until he got a full memory wipe. Emerging from the isolation of a monastery, he resumes his life as a killer, attempting to unravel the mystery of who he is, and why he'd have chosen to erase his past. Sasuke is a bodyguard for a prominent preacher. His boss has run afoul of the all-powerful corporations, who have sent a small army of punks and off-duty cops out for his head. In Cyclone City, if your client dies, your head explodes, so Sasuke must reluctantly protect his scumbag boss, even though all he wants is a nap. Zuno is a Hybrid, a man so obsessed with becoming a deer that he's gone too deep, too quickly into the world of body modification. When he is tasked with killing a rodeo clown, Zuno will tip over the edge into psychosis. The first blisteringly fast-paced cyberpunk novel in a ten-part series where magic and technology meet sex and violence."

• Howl: The Howling Earth, Book 1 by e rathke (Broken River Books) -- "After being banished by the only people they have ever known, a man and woman wander the forest of towering mushrooms, where they meet Lady Agova, a giantess who has a job for them: help her hunt a vampire. Set in a desolate postapocalyptic world where science and magic blend and reality itself twists and bends, where some attempt to grow a new world while others delve through the detritus of a shattered civilization."

• Wings Unfurled: Wings Rising, Book 2 by Rebecca Gomez Farrell (Meercat Press) -- "The vicious claren that used to plague the reunited countries of Medua and Lansera are long gone. So what are the new dark patches appearing in Lady Serra's second sight? She rushes to King Albrecht to report the danger, only to discover that he's ailing and Vesperi, Prince Janto's wife, has fled far to the north to grieve her disappeared daughter."

• Worlds Long Lost edited by Christopher Ruocchio and Sean CW Korsgaard (Baen) -- "The universe is older and more alien than we can ever understand. We were not alone. The farther we push into the universe, the more obvious it becomes. The signs are everywhere: canals and pyramids on Mars, old roads on the moons of Jupiter, ruined cities on worlds about the nearer stars. The galaxy once teemed with life, or so it seems. Which begs the question: What happened to it all? These stories explore the ruins of lost civilizations, solve ancient mysteries . . .and awaken horrors from beyond the dawn of time."

• Festival by Tim Lebbon and Christopher Golden (Dark Horse Books) -- "The Valhalla music festival commemorates a long-ago Viking slaughter, but when strange things start to happen it seems the massacre may be far from over. When festival-goers begin to disappear, and musicians find themselves playing mysterious and ancient songs as if possessed, the fans have to figure out what’s going on before the festival site’s haunting past comes back for blood."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 29 November 2022

Posted on 2022-11-29 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Sorcerer of Pyongyang: A Novel By: Marcel Theroux, read by the author for Simon and Schuster -- "A mesmerizing novel about a North Korean boy whose life is irrevocably changed when he stumbles across a mysterious Western book—a guide to Dungeons & Dragons."

• Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story By: Olivie Blake, read by Robb Moreira and Sura Siu, with cameos by Olivie Blake, Tim Campbell, Eliza Foss, John Pirhalla, Steve Wagner, Emma Paige West, and Dion Alexander, for Macmillan -- "Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings. For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision. To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse. For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?"

• The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine By: Sophie Strand, read by the author for Inner Life -- "Long before the sword-wielding heroes of legend readily cut down forests, slaughtered the old deities, and vanquished their enemies, there were playful gods, animal-headed kings, mischievous lovers, trickster harpists, and vegetal magicians with flowering wands. As eco-feminist scholar Sophie Strand discovered, these wilder, more magical modes of the masculine have always been hidden in plain sight."

• Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous By: Ellen Datlow, read by Tim Campbell, Billie Fulford-Brown, Rachel L. Jacobs, Shannon McManus, Adenrele Ojo, Kaipo Schwab, Neil Shah, and Eunice Wong for Tantor -- "From werewolves and vampires, to demons and aliens, the monster is one of the most recognizable figures in horror. But what makes something, or someone, monstrous?"

SERIES WATCH:

• The Stone Serpent By: Nicholas Kaufmann, read by Linda Jones for Crossroad Press -- "Medical Examiner Dr. Laura Powell didn't think anything could be more frightening than what she uncovered in an autopsy a year ago. Yet, in this chilling sequel to Nicholas Kaufmann’s best-selling The Hungry Earth, the cause of death is literally petrifying."

• I Say Your Name in the Dark Nights: A Story of Kagen the Damned By: Jonathan Maberry, read by Ray Porter for Macmillan -- "Kagen Vale—disgraced former palace guard, damned by his own gods, on the run from bounty hunters and assassins—discovers that no matter where you try to hide, evil can find you. In this standalone short story, Kagen the Damned squares off against a clan of ferocious supernatural predators in service to the Witch-king."

• Rise of the Demon: Kara Gillian, Book 9 By: Diana Rowland. read by Liv Anderson

• Cast in Eternity: The Chronicles of Elantra, Book 17 By: Michelle Sagara, read by Khristine Hvam for Harlequin

• 1637: The Peacock Throne: Ring of Fire, Book 31 By: Eric Flint and Griffin Barber, read by George Guidall

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders: A Dragons and Blades Story, Book 1 By: Aliette de Bodard (2020), read by Philip Battley for Tantor -- "A tale of dragons, and Fallen angels—and also kissing, sarcasm, and stabbing. Lunar New Year should be a time for familial reunions, ancestor worship, and consumption of an unhealthy amount of candied fruit. But when dragon prince Thuan brings home his brooding and ruthless husband Asmodeus for the New Year, they find not interminable family gatherings, but a corpse outside their quarters. Asmodeus is thrilled by the murder investigation; Thuan, who gets dragged into the political plotting he'd sworn off when he left, is less enthusiastic. It'll take all of Asmodeus's skill with knives, and all of Thuan's diplomacy, to navigate this one—as well as the troubled waters of their own relationship . . ."

• The Gathering Storm: Crown of Stars, Book 5 By: Kate Elliott (2003), read by Shiromi Arserio for Tantor

• Behemoth: Seppuku: Rifters Trilogy, Book 3, Part 2 By: Peter Watts (2005), read by Alison Ewing for Tantor

INDIE WATCH:

• Galactic Shield By: J.N. Chaney and Scott Moon, read by Mark Boyett for Variant -- "Benjamin Wrath is among the first officers to get sent to the Andromeda Galaxy. As part of the Sentient Crime Division, millions of light years from Earth, Wrath's precinct is in charge of maintaining order in a chaotic new frontier, tasked with protecting the rights of all sentient beings. But that's only the beginning. While investigating a triple homicide, he'll also have to prevent more killings, stand against internal corruption, and stop a war that threatens to unravel an empire."

WTF WATCH:

• The Half-Orc's Maiden Bride By: Ruby Dixon, read by Dan Calley and Carmen Rose for Tantor -- "Lady Iolanthe of Rockmourn Keep expects to be a spinster all her days. She is very tall. She is very poor. And she is thirty. What lord could possibly want her? But then her father returns with news that he has found a bridegroom for her—one that is impressively tall. One that is strong, and bold, and wealthy. And best of all? He wants Iolanthe. It seems too good to be true. And when Iolanthe gets her first look at her husband-to-be, she realizes why. No one mentioned the 'orc' part of things . . ." (If this sounds like what you're into, Tantor this week also released "Worse Guy" by Ruby Dixon, read by Ja'Air Bush and Alexander Cendese, with some similar ingredients.)

MOST MISSING:

• The Red Scholar’s Wake: A Xuya Universe Romance by Aliette de Bodard (JABberwocky Literary Agency) -- "When tech scavenger Xích Si is captured and imprisoned by the infamous pirates of the Red Banner, she expects to be tortured or killed. Instead, their leader, Rice Fish, makes Xích Si an utterly incredible proposition: an offer of marriage. Both have their reasons for this arrangement: Xích Si needs protection; Rice Fish, a sentient spaceship, needs a technical expert to investigate the death of her first wife, the Red Scholar. That’s all there is to it. But as the interstellar war against piracy rages on and their own investigation reaches a dire conclusion, the two of them discover that their arrangement has evolved into something much less business-focused and more personal...and tender. And maybe the best thing that’s ever happened to either of them—but only if they can find a way to survive together."

• In the City of Time by Gwendolyn Clare (Feiwel and Friends) -- "Three science prodigies are sent on a time-traveling adventure to save the Earth―if they don’t accidentally destroy it first."

• The Flowering: Stories by Alison Littlewood (Black Shuck Books) -- "A pocket-size sample from the best in modern horror. Featuring: The Zoetrope, The Marvellous Talking Machine, Meet Me at the Frost Fair, The Ballad Box, The Winter Tree, and The Flowering."

• Geometries of Belonging: Stories and Poems from the Birdverse by R.B. Lemberg (Fairwood Press) -- "Nebula and Locus award finalist Lemberg returns us to the Birdverse with this powerful collection. The intricate Birdverse has at its core a magic based loosely in geometry, from which comes healing, love, and art. It is a complex, culturally diverse world, a realm with LGBTQIA characters and a wide range of family configurations. Lemberg probes the obstacles behind traditional social boundaries of cultures; overseeing this world is the deity Bird and all its incarnations. Each story and poem, exqusitely crafted, will richly reward long-time fans and newcomers alike."

• The Best Horror of the Year Volume 14 edited by Ellen Datlow (Night Shade) -- "For more than four decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror readers crave. Now, with the thirteenth volume of the series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. Encompassed in the pages of The Best Horror of the Year have been such illustrious writers as: Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, Joyce Carol Oates, Laird Barron, Mira Grant, and many others."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 22 November 2022

Posted on 2022-11-22 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

A quiet week heading into Thanksgiving in the US...

PICKS:

• All Your Children, Scattered By: Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, translated by Alison Anderson, read by Nene Nwoko for Tantor -- "Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse's debut novel follows three generations torn apart by the genocide against the Tutsis, as they try to reconnect with one another, rebuild broken relationships, and find their place in today's world. Blanche returns to Rwanda after building a life in Bordeaux with her husband and young son, Stokely. Reuniting with her mother Immaculata, old wounds are reopened for both mother and daughter while Stokely, caught between two countries, tries to understand where he comes from and where he belongs."

• All the Blood We Share By: Camilla Bruce, read by Teri Clark Linden, Cindy Piller, and Michael Crouch for Penguin -- "A sinister novel based on the real Bloody Benders, a family of serial killers in the old West bound by butchery and obscured by the shadows of American history."

• Extinction By: Bradley Somer, read by John Chancer for Blackstone -- "In a lonely valley, deep in the mountains, a ranger watches over the last surviving grizzly bear. With the natural world exhausted and in tatters, Ben has dedicated himself to protecting this single fragment of the wild. One night, he hears voices in the valley—poachers, come to hunt his bear. A heart-pounding chase begins, crossing forests and mountainsides, passing centuries of human ruins. Sometimes hunter, sometimes prey—Ben must choose the bear’s fate and his own. Is he willing to lay down his life for a dying breed? Is he willing to kill for it?"

• The Man Who Haunted Himself By: Ishmael Reed, read by Adam Lazzare White for Audible Originals -- "Dr. Douglass Garnett is about to break all the rules to save himself—and push mankind into the future. He’s one of America’s most brilliant neuroscientists. He’s also Black, and dying of cancer. But he has a plan—a brain transfer. He’ll put his gifted mind into the body of Sammy Sturgeon, a White high school football star who was on the rise until a touchdown collision left him brain-dead."

• None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive: A Novel By: Carolyn Prusa, read by Rebekkah Ross for Simon and Schuster -- "Perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Jennifer Weiner, this smart and witty debut novel follows Ramona through the 48 hours after her life has been upended by the discovery of her husband’s affair and an approaching Category Four hurricane."

• The Rebel and the Thief By: Jan-Philipp Sendker, read by Vikas Adam for Blackstone -- "Eighteen-year-old Niri and his family live a modest but secure life working in the villa of the wealthy Benzes. But when the pandemic comes, they are all let go, and left staring into the abyss of abject poverty. As their situation grows increasingly desperate, the once rule-abiding monastery student decides he won’t wait at the mercy of a corrupt, indifferent government, and rebels against his father’s resigned acceptance. Sneaking through the locked-down city at night, past the military patrols, Niri returns to the villa to take what his family needs to survive. Waiting for him is his childhood friend—and the Benzes’ daughter—Mary, who has a bigger plan that will change their lives forever."

• The Whittiers By: Danielle Steel, read by Alexander Cendese for Recorded Books -- "In this heartwarming novel, adult siblings find their way back home—and back to each other—after loss."

• The Vermilion Emporium By: Jamie Pacton, read by Jeremy Carlisle Parker for Listening Library -- "On the morning Twain, a lonely boy with a knack for danger, discovers a strand of starlight on the cliffs outside of Severon, a mysterious curiosity shop appears in town. Meanwhile, Quinta, the ordinary daughter of an extraordinary circus performer, chases rumors of the shop, The Vermilion Emporium, desperate for a way to live up to her mother’s magical legacy."

• The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs By: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, read by the author for Tantor -- "What if, in the near future, the majority of people will be disabled—and what if that's not a bad thing? And what if disability justice and disabled wisdom are crucial to creating a future in which it's possible to survive fascism, climate change, and pandemics and to bring about liberation?"

SERIES WATCH:

• The Choice: The Dragon Heart Legacy, Book 3 By: Nora Roberts, read by Barrie Kreinik for Macmillan -- "The conclusion of the epic trilogy from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Awakening and The Becoming."

• Star Wars: Convergence: The High Republic: Prequel Era, Book 1 By: Zoraida Córdova, read by Marc Thompson for Random House -- "The next adventure in the High Republic begins expanding the new era of Star Wars, with a story set generations before Light of the Jedi."

• Dune: The Heir of Caladan: The Caladan Trilogy, Book 3 By: Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, read by Scott Brick for Macmillan -- "We step into the shoes of Paul Atreides. A boy not yet a man in years, he is about to enter a world he could never have imagined."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life By: Herman Melville, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone -- "Herman Melville’s first novel, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, is a fictionalized account of his time in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands, and it was his most popular work during his lifetime."

• The Children’s Story By: James Clavell, read by Keith David for Blackstone -- "In this classic and chilling tale about an elementary school classroom in post-war occupied America, James Clavell brings to light the vulnerability of children and the power educators have to shape and change young minds. Originally written in the Cold War era, Clavell’s extraordinary and enduringly relevant allegory on the impressionability of the human mind is still read in schools around the globe today, and is a call to every person to keep questioning and keep learning."

MOST MISSING:

• Bliss by Jeff VanderMeer (Subterranean Press) -- "The Glass Drifters are musicians on tour in a nation that only recently completed a fifteen-year civil war. They are a trio, hopelessly intertwined with one another in terms of both history and romance. And they are headed down river to a big gig that might make or break them, but nobody, not even their mysterious local promoter, Bob-Henri—or possibly Henri-Bob—seems to have any details. This all happened a long time ago, “and in some other version of this story, the Glass Drifters never leave the fucking river.” In this version, they do."

• Hellhounds by David Sandner and Jacob Weisman (Fairwood Press) -- "In this sequel to the novelette Mingus Fingers, authors David Sandner and Jacob Weisman follow Kenny, a talented musician who learned from jazz great Charles Mingus how to "play in the soul." Kenny has always had an affinity for rabbits and butterflies, believing that butterflies are broken souls waiting to return. When Kenny goes missing, his brother searches for him at a crossroad and an old speakeasy, where the cold, dark shadows of spirit and music lead him to a musician who may know if Kenny is alive . . . or dead. Kenny's brother must put his trust in his belief that the music of the living may be the only way to transform and bring back a spirit of the dead."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 15 November 2022

Posted on 2022-11-15 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction edited by Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight Narrated by: Amin El Gamal, Kim Staunton, Dele Ogundiran, Tony Tambi, Tamika Katon-Donegal, and Jamie Lincoln Smith for Recorded Books -- "From an award-winning team of editors comes an anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora."

• Into Shadow: Where the Truth Lies By: Tomi Champion-Adeyemi, Lev Grossman, Alix E. Harrow, Nghi Vo, Tamsyn Muir, Veronica G. Henry, and Garth Nix, read by Keylor Leigh, Kimberly Woods, Saskia Maarleveld, Natalie Naudus, Susan Dalian, Kristyl Dawn Tift, and Timothy Campbell for Amazon Original Stories -- Also available individually: "Some truths are carefully concealed; others merely forgotten. In this spellbinding collection, seven acclaimed fantasy authors create characters who venture into the depths where others fear to tread. But when forbidden knowledge is the ultimate power, how far can they go before the darkness consumes them?"

• Strega: A Novel By: Johanne Lykke Holm, translated by Saskia Vogel, read by Kristen Sieh for Penguin -- "Powerfully inventive and atmospheric, a modern gothic story of nine young women sent to work at a remote Alpine hotel and what happens when one of them goes missing."

• Tread of Angels By: Rebecca Roanhorse, read by Dion Graham for Simon and Schuster -- "Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of advocatus diaboli, to defend her sister, Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue, a member of the ruling class of this mining town, in a new world of dark fantasy."

• I Am the Light of This World By: Michael Parker, read by Michael Crouch for Algonquin -- "In the early 1970s, in Stovall, Texas, seventeen-year-old Earl—a loner, dreamer, lover of music and words—meets Tina, the new girl in town. Tina convinces Earl to drive her to see her mother in Austin, where Earl and Tina are quickly separated. Two days later, Earl is being questioned by the police about Tina’s disappearance and the blood in the trunk of his car. But Earl can’t remember what happened in Austin, and with little financial support from his working-class family, he is sentenced for a crime he did not commit. Forty years later, Earl is release into a world he can barely navigate. Settling in a small town on the Oregon coast, he attempts to establish a sense of freedom from both bars and razor wire and the emotional toll of incarceration. But just as Earl finds the rhythm he’s always sought, his past returns to endanger the new life he’s built."

• The Weather Woman By: Sally Gardner, read by Sophie Roberts for W.F. Howes -- "Neva Friezland is born into a world of trickery and illusion, where fortunes can be won and lost on the turn of a card. She is also born with an extraordinary gift. She can predict the weather. In Regency England, where the proper goal for a gentlewoman is marriage and only God knows the weather this is dangerous. It is also potentially very lucrative. In order to debate with the men of science and move about freely, Neva adopts a sophisticated male disguise. She foretells the weather from inside an automaton created by her brilliant clockmaker father. But what will happen when the disguised Neva falls in love with a charismatic young man?"

• Never the Wind By: Francesco Dimitri, read by Ben Allen for W.F. Howes -- "A bittersweet gothic fantasy of family, friendship, memory, and the uncanny told from the perspective of a blind teenager in Puglia, Southern Italy, set in the same world as The Book of Hidden Things, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman, Donna Tartt and Haruki Murakami."

• The Wilderwomen: A Novel By: Ruth Emmie Lang, read by Anna Caputo for Macmillan -- "Five years ago, Nora Wilder disappeared. The older of her two daughters, Zadie, should have seen it coming, because she can literally see things coming. But not even her psychic abilities were able to prevent their mother from vanishing one morning."

• How to Survive Everything: A Novel By: Ewan Morrison, read by Caitlin Kelly for Harper -- "Children of divorce, Haley and Ben live with their mother. But their dad believes there’s a new, much deadlier pandemic coming and is determined to keep them alive. He wants to take them to his prepper hideaway where they will be safe from other people. NOW. But there’s no way their mother will go along with his plan. Saving them requires extreme measures. Kidnapped by their father and confined to his compound far off the grid, Haley and Ben have no contact with the outside world. How can they save their mother? Will they make it out alive? Is the threat real—or is this all just a dark fantasy brought on by their conspiracy obsessed father’s warped imagination?"

• The Ghost of Danny McGee By: Quinlan Grim, read by Patricia Santomasso for Tantor -- "Camp Phoenix is a controversial and expensive summer camp program that transfers adults' consciousness into a clone of their childhood selves. On the surface, it's an ordinary summer camp. Twelve-year-old Logan has come to have a relaxing, carefree summer. She wants to ride horses, make new friends, and she loves listening to ghost stories. Sam is a twenty-year-old counselor, taking on the responsibility of the kids' care by day, and riding the rollercoaster of a summer romance after hours. As Logan faces the ups and downs of puberty, Sam watches over her and struggles with the bizarre truth: the campers in her care are not kids at all, but wealthy adults immersed in the ultimate escape from reality."

• The Perfect Assassin: Doc Savage Thriller, Book 1 By: James Patterson and Brian Sitts, read by Joshua Kane and Suzanne Elise Freeman for Grand Central -- "Prof. Brandt Savage—grandson of the legendary action hero—is forced into a top-secret training program where he discovers his true calling."

• Time Enough by Jay Martel, read by Soneela Nankani and Vikas Adam for Audible Originals -- "Bobby N. Kowen is living his life to the fullest. He’s making friends, he’s learning new things all the time, he’s falling in love, he’s having adventures. He’s doing more in a single week than most of us experience in a lifetime. But that’s the thing. That one week is all that Bobby has. Birth to death… in just seven days. Bobby’s life is truly a race against time. No one who meets him will ever be the same. And they will each wonder: Do we live too long to really appreciate how precious life is?"

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us By: Hanif Abdurraqib (2017), read by the author for OrangeSky -- "In the wake of the nightclub attacks in Paris, he recalls how he sought refuge as a teenager in music, at shows, and wonders whether the next generation of young Muslims will not be afforded that opportunity now. While discussing the everyday threat to the lives of black Americans, Abdurraqib recounts the first time he was ordered to the ground by police officers: for attempting to enter his own car."

• Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius By: Nick Hornby, read by Alex Jennings for Penguin -- "From the bestselling author of Just Like You, High Fidelity, and Fever Pitch, a short, warm, and entertaining book about art, creativity, and the unlikely similarities between Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and modern American rock star Prince."

• Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening By: Douglas Brinkley, read by Stephen Graybill for Harper -- "New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon."

• The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times By: Michelle Obama, read by the author for Random House -- "In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, #1 bestselling memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world."

MOST MISSING:

• Pulling the Wings Off Angels by K.J. Parker (Tor.com) -- "Long ago, a wealthy man stole an angel and hid her in a chapel, where she remains imprisoned to this day. That’s the legend, anyway. A clerical student who’s racked up gambling debts to a local gangster is given an ultimatum—deliver the angel his grandfather kidnapped, or forfeit various body parts in payment."

• Rainbear!!!!!!!!! by Never Angeline North (Apocalypse Party) -- "The story of a woman who lives in a coffee shop where she makes a job out of loving people while inventing worlds in her dreams. The coffee shop is staffed by a barista-cum-border-guard who people show up to stab every week. Later, the narrative channels 18th century Jewish folktales as she is told a bedtime story about two queer lovers, who are themselves then told a dreamlike, quasi-erotic tale of a pagan prophet without a home. In this way, narratives eat each other and turn inside out as stories are found within stories and new adventures are told by unexpected rainbow bears that are also mountains and pages of journals are found papered inside the nests of vomitbirds."

• The Woods: Stories by Janice Obuchowski (University of Iowa Press) -- "Explores the lives of people in a small Vermont college town and its surrounding areas—a place at the edge of the bucolic, where the land begins to shift into something untamed."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Fall of Númenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-Earth By: J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Brian Sibley, read by Samuel West for Harper -- "J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings on the Second Age of Middle-earth, collected for the first time in one volume."

• Neom: A Central Station Novel By: Lavie Tidhar, read by Rasha Zamamiri for Dreamscape -- "The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. Neom is a tech wonderland for the rich and beautiful, an urban sprawl along the Red Sea, and a port of call between Earth and the stars. In the desert, young orphan Elias has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world from Central Station. But the desert is full of mechanical artefacts, some unexplained and some unexploded. Recently, a wry unnamed robot has unearthed one of the region’s biggest mysteries: the vestiges of a golden man. In Neom, childhood affection is rekindling between loyal shurta-officer Nasir and hardworking flower-seller Mariam. But Nasu, a deadly terror-artist, has come to the city with missing memories and unfinished business. Just one robot can change a city’s destiny with a single rose—especially if that robot is in search of lost love."

• Wayward: Wanderers, Book 2 By: Chuck Wendig, read by Xe Sands and Dominic Hoffman for Random House -- "Five years ago, ordinary Americans fell under the grip of a strange new malady that caused them to sleepwalk across the country to a destination only they knew. They were followed on their quest by the shepherds: friends and family who gave up everything to protect them. Their secret destination: Ouray, a small town in Colorado that would become one of the last outposts of civilization. Because the sleepwalking epidemic was only the first in a chain of events that led to the end of the world—and the birth of a new one."

• Flight Risk: Booking Agents Series, Book 2 By: Cherie Priest, read by Ulka Simone Mohanty, and Timothy Andrés Pabon for Simon and Schuster -- "Inconsistent psychic Leda Foley and Seattle detective Grady Merritt return to solve the case of a missing couple."

• Heart of the Sun Warrior: Celestial Kingdom, Book 2 By: Sue Lynn Tan, read by Natalie Naudus for Harper -- "The stunning sequel to Daughter of the Moon Goddess delves deeper into beloved Chinese mythology, concluding the epic story of Xingyin—the daughter of Chang’e and the mortal archer, Houyi—as she battles a grave new threat to the realm, in this powerful tale of love, sacrifice, and hope."

• 1824: The Arkansas War: Trail of Glory Series, Book 2 By: Eric Flint, read by Franklin Pierson for Recorded Books -- "An astounding and provocative saga of heroism, battlefield action, racial conflict, and rebellion as a nation recovering from war is plunged into a dangerous era of secession."

• Before Your Memory Fades: Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, Book 3 By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi, read by Kevin Shen for Harlequin -- "In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time."

• A Ghost of Caribou: Alex Carter, Book 3 By: Alice Henderson, read by Eva Kaminsky for Harper

• The Killing God: The Great God's War, Book 3 By: Stephen R. Donaldson, read by Scott Brick for Penguin

• The Serpent in Heaven: Gunnie Rose, Book 4 By: Charlaine Harris, read by Eva Kaminsky

• The Twist of a Knife: A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery, Book 4 By: Anthony Horowitz, read by Rory Kinnear

• The Lost Metal: The Mistborn Saga, Book 7, Wax and Wayne, Book 4 By: Brandon Sanderson, read by Michael Kramer

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Over the Wine-Dark Sea: Hellenic Traders, Book 1 By: Harry Turtledove (2001, as H.N. Turtletaub), read by Tim Campbell for Blackstone -- "Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper, the scholarly Sostratos, are sea-traders from the Greek island of Rhodes. Fearless sailors, they will travel any distance to make a profit or to search for rich treasures. While they trade in fineries such as wine and silk (and even, to the chagrin of many, peacocks), they live in dangerous times with pirates, thieves, and barbarians. As if avoiding death by the hands of these miscreants isn’t enough (particularly the barbarians from an obscure town called Rome), they are also caught between the political intrigues of Alexander’s former generals."

• The Immortals of Meluha: Shiva Trilogy, Book 1 By: Amish Tripathi (2008), read by Manish Dongardive for Audible -- "The year 1900 BC. In what modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation. The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha–a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived."

• Broken Souls: Eric Carter, Book 2 By: Stephen Blackmoore (2014), read by Rudy Sanda for Tantor -- "Sister murdered, best friend dead, married to the patron saint of death, Santa Muerte. Necromancer Eric Carter's return to Los Angeles hasn't gone well, and it's about to get even worse."

• Heaven's Queen: Paradox, Book 3 By: Rachel Bach (2014), read by Emily Durante for Tantor -- "From the moment she took a job on Captain Caldswell's doomed ship, Devi Morris's life has been one disaster after another: government conspiracies, two alien races out for her blood, an incurable virus that's eating her alive. Now, with the captain missing and everyone—even her own government—determined to hunt her down, things are going from bad to impossible."

• Behemoth: B-Max: Rifters Trilogy, Book 3, Part 1 By: Peter Watts (2004), read by Alison Ewing for Tantor -- "Redemption doesn't come easy with the blood of a world on your hands."

NEW EDITION WATCH:

• The Wonder By: Emma Donoghue (2016), read by Tara Egan Langley for Little, Brown and Co -- A new narration replacing the original by Kate Lock: "An English nurse is brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle—a girl said to have survived without food for months—and soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life."

• A Book of Tongues: The Hexslinger Series, Book 1 By: Gemma Files (2010), read by Donald Corren for Blackstone -- I loved this book in its former production from Iambik Audio, now it's back under new management: "Former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic. He uses his power to terrorize the Wild West, leading a gang of outlaws, thieves, and killers, with his cruel lieutenant and lover, Chess Pargeter, by his side. Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow is going undercover to infiltrate the gang, armed with a shotgun and a device that measures sorcerous energy. His job is to gain knowledge of Rook’s power and unlock its secrets. But there is someone else who has Rook in her sights: the Lady of Traps and Snares, a bloodthirsty Mayan goddess who will stop at nothing to satisfy her own desires."

• Forever, Interrupted: A Novel By: Taylor Jenkins Reid (2013), read by Julia Whelan for Simon and Schuster -- New narration replacing the former Tara Sands performance for Dreamscape: "Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year’s Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn’t expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped. Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met—and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists."

INDIE WATCH:

• The Coming Darkness By: Greg Mosse, read by Gareth Armstrong for Moonflower -- "Paris, 2037. Alexandre Lamarque of the French external security service is hunting for eco-terrorists. Experience has taught him there is no one he can trust. Experience has taught him there is no one he can trust—not his secretive lover Mariam, not even his old mentor, Professor Fayard, the man at the center of the web."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 8 November 2022

Posted on 2022-11-08 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Novelist as a Vocation By: Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen, read by Kotaro Watanabe for Random House -- "A charmingly idiosyncratic look at writing, creativity, and the author’s own novels, from the beloved and best-selling author of 1Q84 and Norwegian Wood."

• High John the Conqueror: A Novel By: Tariq Goddard, read by the author for Watkins -- "When children start going missing in a rural town, the investigation takes twists and turns into the strange world of privilege and the realm of the occult."

• Even Though I Knew the End By: C.L. Polk, read by January LaVoy for Recorded Books -- "A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago's divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life. This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic, or all of the above. An exiled augur who sold her soul to save her brother's life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can't resist—the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves. To succeed, she is given three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago's most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak await."

• Scattered Showers: Stories By: Rainbow Rowell, read by Euan Morton, Rebecca Lowman for Macmillan -- "Rowell has won fans all over the world by writing about love and life in a way that feels true. In her first collection, she gives us nine beautifully crafted love stories. Girl meets boy camping outside a movie theater. Best friends debate the merits of high school dances. A prince romances a troll. A girl romances an imaginary boy. And Simon Snow himself returns for a holiday adventure."

• The Bruising of Qilwa By: Naseem Jamnia, read by Fajer Al-Kaisi for Tantor -- "Firuz-e Jafari is fortunate enough to have immigrated to the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa, fleeing the slaughter of other traditional Sassanian blood magic practitioners in their homeland. Despite the status of refugees in their new home, Firuz has a good job at a free healing clinic in Qilwa, working with Kofi, a kindly new employer, and mentoring Afsoneh, a troubled orphan refugee with powerful magic. But Firuz and Kofi have discovered a terrible new disease which leaves mysterious bruises on its victims. The illness is spreading quickly through Qilwa, and there are dangerous accusations of ineptly performed blood magic. In order to survive, Firuz must break a deadly cycle of prejudice, untangle sociopolitical constraints, and find a fresh start for both their blood and found family."

• The Children of Gods and Fighting Men: Gael Song, Book 1 By: Shauna Lawless, read by Aoife McMahon for W.F. Howes -- "981 AD. The Viking King of Dublin is dead. His young widow, Gormflaith, has ambitions for her son–and herself–but Ireland is a dangerous place and kings tend not to stay kings for long. Gormflaith also has a secret. She is one of the Fomorians, an immortal race who can do fire-magic. She has kept her powers hidden at all costs, for there are other immortals in this world–like the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of warriors who are sworn to kill Fomorians."

• The Stars Undying By: Emery Robin, read by Esther Wane and Tim Campbell for Orbit -- "In this spectacular space opera inspired by the lives and loves of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, a princess stripped of her power finds control through an affair that could help regain her reign."

• No Job for a Man: A Memoir By: John Ross Bowie, read by the author for Blackstone -- "A darkly witty, deeply affecting, and finely crafted memoir by the Big Bang Theory and Speechless star and comedian, John Ross Bowie."

• Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family By: Rabia Chaudry, read by the author for Algonquin -- "From the bestselling author and host of the wildly popular Undisclosed podcast, a warm, intimate memoir about food, body image, and growing up in a loving but sometimes oppressively concerned Pakistani immigrant family."

• The Pirate's Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd By: Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos, read by Courtney Patterson for Harlequin -- "The dramatic and deliciously swashbuckling story of Sarah Kidd, the wife of the famous pirate Captain Kidd, charting her transformation from New York socialite to international outlaw during the Golden Age of Piracy."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Empire of Exiles By: Erin M Evans, read by Imogen Church for Orbit -- "Twenty-seven years ago, a Duke with a grudge led a ruthless coup against the empire of Semilla, killing thousands. He failed. The Duke was executed, a terrifyingly powerful sorcerer was imprisoned, and an unwilling princess disappeared. The empire moved on. Now, when Quill, an apprentice scribe, arrives in the capital city, he believes he's on a simple errand for another pompous noble: fetch ancient artifacts from the magical Imperial Archives. He's always found his apprenticeship to a lawman to be dull work. But these aren't just any artifacts—these are the instruments of revolution, the banners under which the Duke lead his coup."

• The Following By: Jacqueline Druga, read by Tina Wolstencroft for Tantor -- "When she was a child, a near-death experience left Harper Monroe with the ability to transcend to another realm and speak to those who had passed on. For the longest time, this was a gift she tried to bury, but now it is back with a vengeance. Not only can Harper talk to those who died, she now has the ability to pull them back through for one final moment. Believing she can help people, Harper dives into her gift with full force."

TIE-IN WATCH:

• Aliens: Vasquez By: V. Castro, read by Lauren Rodriguez for Blackstone -- "A groundbreaking Latinx Aliens novel by a rising star Latina author, featuring the fan-favorite character PFC Jenette Vasquez from the hit movie Aliens and the family she is forced to leave behind."

• Apocalypse War Dossier: A Judge Dredd Novel By: John Ware, read by Alex Magliaro for Penguin -- "Mega City One it's a powder keg waiting to blow on its best day. There isn't a moment when tensions aren't running high and the City isn't ready to crack. But there's something new going on something, something bad it's a block war. It's Block Mania and no one is immune, not even the Judges. But this is all prelude to invasion. The East-Meg One Sov's have infected Mega City One with Block-Mania to throw the city into massive, bloody turf wars. There are troops on the ground, bombs are dropping and the Mega City One is on fire. And the Judges are drawing the line and Mega City One is about to burn."

• Origins of The Wheel of Time: The Legends and Mythologies That Inspired Robert Jordan by Michael Livingston with Harriet McDougal, read by Kate Reading, Michael Kramer, and the authors for Macmillan -- "Take a deep dive into the real-world history and mythology that inspired the world of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time®. Origins of The Wheel of Time is written by Michael Livingston, Secretary-General of the United States Commission on Military History and professor of medieval literature at The Citadel, with a Foreword by Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's editor, widow, and executor of his estate."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Final Girls By: Mira Grant (2017), read by Jennifer Pickens for Tantor -- "Dr. Jennifer Webb has invented proprietary virtual reality technology that purports to heal psychological wounds by running clients through scenarios straight out of horror movies and nightmares. In a carefully controlled environment, with a medical cocktail running through their veins, sisters might develop a bond they've been missing their whole lives—while running from the bogeyman through a simulated forest. But . . . can real change come so easily?"

• Kissing Carrion: Stories By: Gemma Files (2003, 2015), read by Neil Hellegers, Xe Sands, Natasha Soudek, Chelsea Stephens, Paul Woodson, Andrew Eiden, and Meghan Kelly for Blackstone -- "From a live necrophilia show starring reanimated corpses to a confrontation between a security guard and inhuman squatters, from who can be found at an all-night laundromat to what lies in wait at the bottom of the sea, from undead addictions to all-consuming obsessions."

• Brain Wave By: Poul Anderson (1954), read by Daniel Thomas May for Tantor -- "As Earth passes out of a magnetic field that has suppressed intelligence for eons, the mental capacity for all mammals increases exponentially, radically changing the structures of society."

MOST MISSING:

• Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw (Undertow) -- " Khaw's dynamic and vibrant debut collection, Breakable Things, explores the fragile and nebulous bonds that weave love and grief into our existence. This exquisite and cutting collection of stories showcases a bloody fusion of horrors from cosmic to psychological to body traumas."

• The Nightland Express by J.M. Lee (Erewhon) -- "In antebellum America, two teens bury their secrets and join the historic Pony Express, soon discovering that the mortal world is not the only one on the brink of war."

• A Different Darkness and Other Abominations by Luigi Musolino, introduction by Brian Evenson (Valancourt Books) -- "The highly original and truly terrifying folk horror of Italy’s Luigi Musolino was introduced to an international audience in the acclaimed The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, and now at last an entire volume of the author’s best work – eight stories and three novellas – is available in English for the first time."

• Fables and Spells: Collected and New Short Fiction and Poetry by Adrienne Maree Brown (AK Press) -- "A vibrant selection of visionary works, both previously published and brand new. Included here is Brown’s most beloved story, “The River,” as well as the two sequel tales of her Water Trio. The remaining sixty-seven pieces explore moments of beauty, conflict, and transformation that also weave deep, radical lessons. With narrative “fables” of speculative fiction and “spells” that play with the lines between poetry, instruction, song, and chant, Fables and Spells demonstrates how good writing can engage the present while providing expansive visions of the possible worlds humans can build."

• Obelisks, Book One: Dust by Ari Marmell (Crossroad Press) -- "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’s 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."

• In the Devil's Cradle by S.L. Edwards (Word Horde) -- "Senator William Esquival is in a rush to save his family's life. Fleeing political persecution, William takes his family from the capital and flees to the family stronghold of Rio Rojo, a town known as the birthplace of William's ancestor, a powerful former dictator whose legacy haunts the nation of Antioch. But even as the Esquival family seeks refuge, the country continues to fray around them. As Antioch bleeds, ancient hatreds, secrets, and ghosts pour from its wounds."

SERIES WATCH:

• Bloodmarked: The Legendborn Cycle, Book 2 By: Tracy Deonn, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt for Simon and Schuster -- "The shadows have risen, and the line is law. All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new: A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion. But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped."

• Nightwatch over Windscar: The Weep, Book 2 By: K. Eason, read by Nicole Poole for Tantor -- "Iari is good at killing monsters. As a templar in the Aedis, a multi-species religious organization committed to protecting the Confederation, eliminating extra-dimensional horrors is her job. But after she helped stop separatists from sabotaging the entire Confederation, she discovered a new sort of monster: the rogue-arithmancer, political kind."

• Cursed: Gilded Duology, Book 2 By: Marissa Meyer, read by Rebecca Soler for Macmillan -- "Adalheid Castle is in chaos. Following a shocking turn of events, Serilda finds herself ensnared in a deadly game of make-believe with the Erlking, who is determined to propel her deeper into the castle’s lies. Meanwhile, Serilda is determined to work with Gild to help him solve the mystery of his forgotten name and past."

• Dawnlands: The Fairmile Series, Book 3 By: Philippa Gregory, read by Louise Brealey for Simon and Schuster -- "It is 1685 and England is on the brink of a renewed civil war. King Charles II has died without an heir and his brother James is to take the throne. But the people are bitterly divided, and many do not welcome the new king or his young queen."

• The Last Hero: The First Sister Trilogy, Book 3 By: Linden A. Lewis, read by Ali Andre Ali, Jennifer Aquino, Neo Cihi, Andrew Kishino, Farah Naz Rishi, Gary Tiedemann, and Emily Woo Zeller for Simon and Schuster -- "Astrid is finally free of the Sisterhood, yet her name carries on. She’s called the Unchained by those she’s inspired and the Heretic by those who want her voiceless once more. Now Astrid uses knowledge of the Sisterhood’s inner workings against them, aiding the moonborn in raids against abbeys and Cathedrals, all the while exploring the mysteries of her forgotten past."

• Gleanings: Arc of a Scythe, Book 3.5 By: Neal Shusterman, read by the author with Megan Tusing, Greg Tremblay, Nicky Endres, Jarrod Shusterman, Fiona Hardingham, and Rachel Nalebuff for Simon and Schuster -- "Thrilling stories that span the timeline. Storylines continue. Origin stories are revealed. And new Scythes emerge!"

• To End in Fire: The Honor Harrington Series: Crown of Slaves Saga, Book 4 By: David Weber and Eric Flint, read by Peter Larkin for Audible -- "The Solarian League lies in defeat, crushed by the Grand Alliance of Manticore, Haven, and Grayson. Obedient to the Alliance's surrender demands, the League is writing a new Constitution, to prevent the reemergence of out-of-control bureaucrats, like the "Mandarins" who led it to disaster. Frontier Security has been disbanded, the outer worlds have regained control of their own economic destinies, and multiple star systems will soon secede from the League entirely."

• Murder at Black Oaks: A Robin Lockwood Novel, Book 6 By: Phillip Margolin, read by Thérèse Plummer for Macmillan -- "Attorney Robin Lockwood finds herself at an isolated retreat in the Oregon mountains, one with a tragic past and a legendary curse, and surrounded by many suspects and confronted with an impossible crime."

INDIE WATCH:

• Blood of a Novice: The Eternal Ephemera, Book 1 By: Davis Ashura, read by Travis Baldree for Podium -- "The son of the town drunk, Cam never figured on letting his family name hold him down. He always strove to dream bigger, to fight for something better, to achieve more than what everyone else expected of him. But, as they say, “once a Folde, always a Folde,” and when a decision to rescue a friend leads to disaster, fortune’s favor is lost. Cam spirals away from his dreams and ambitions; his fall finally ending at the bottom of a bottle. But all hope is not lost. Cam rises, supported by family and friends. And when a powerful Master of Ephemera offers him a chance to walk the Way into Divinity and achieve redemption, Cam seizes the opportunity. All he has to do is survive the Ephemeral Academy, the very school where the next generation of Masters are trained."

• The Left Hand of Dog: Starship Teapot, Book 1 By: Si Clarke, read by Kay Eluvian for White Hart Fiction -- "Escaping intergalactic kidnappers has never been quite so ridiculous. When Lem and her faithful dog, Spock, retreat from the city for a few days of hiking in Algonquin Park, the last thing they expect is to be kidnapped by aliens. No, scratch that. The last thing they expect is to be kidnapped by a bunch of strangely adorable intergalactic bounty hunters aboard a ship called the Teapot. After Lem falls in with an unlikely group of allies, the gang must devise a cunning plan to escape their captors and make it back home safely."

• Scion of Lightning: The Stormcrafter Chronicles, Book 1 By: J.T. Moy, read by Ian Pringle for Centaurus Press -- "A desperate apprentice...a dangerous quest. When Jaks almost kills another soldier with his volatile magic, he is forced to tread the fearful path of the electromancer. Succeed, he will be the first in a generation. Fail, he will lose everything."

• Under the Earth, Over the Sky By: Emily McCosh, read by Ryan Haugen -- "In the woods where human lands meet fae, an ancient king born before the history of men finds a dying baby. Iohmar will take in the child and care for him until a suitable home in the human realm is found. But best laid plans often go awry in the lands of Látwill, where winds carry fae across the star-strewn sky, the woods ensnare the weak-minded with their sinister song, and even Iohmar, King Beneath the Earth, is susceptible to the will of the immortal mountains."

• Journey to the Heart Stone By: Catherine Raphael, read by Marisha Tapera for SparkPress -- "In the beginning, the Goddess danced the world into existence. Peace reigned for generations through matriarchal rule within the Minca, Dute, and Carroo tribes. But one man's lust for power destroyed this balance. Vestor assassinated his sister, Mother of the Minca tribe, and his army ravaged the Dute and Carroo tribes, thrusting a once idyllic world into war, famine, and despair. Yet, today there is hope. Vestor's niece, Cora, has a vision: if she can convince an emissary from each tribe to rendezvous at the Heart Stone, she can overthrow her evil uncle, take her rightful place as Mother Minca, and restore harmony."

WTF WATCH:

• Little Women: Mermaid Edition By: Megan Lois Whitehill, read by Brenna Colleen Castor for Rockwater Press -- "A retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s classic, Little Women: Mermaid Edition takes the story of Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy and spins it into a fantastical story of merfolk under the sea. Follow the young mergirls as they grow up in a world of talking walruses, seahorse rides, and the mysterious merboy next door."

Posted in Release Week