Release Week: 1 November 2022

Posted on 2022-11-01 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Saha: A Novel By: Cho Nam-Joo, translated by Jamie Chang, read by Kahyun Kim for Blackstone -- "This haunting account of a neglected housing complex in the shadows of Town: a former fishing village bought out by a massive conglomerate. Town is prosperous and safe―but only if you’re a citizen with “valuable skills and assets,” which the residents of Saha Estates are not. Disenfranchised and tightlipped, the Saha are forced into harsh labor, squatting in moldy units without electricity."

• The Cloisters: A Novel by Katy Hays, read by Emily Tremaine for Simon and Schuster -- "When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination. But what begins as academic curiosity quickly turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future."

• We Are the Light: A Novel by Matthew Quick, read by Luke Kirby for Simon and Schuster -- "Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero—everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins camping out in Lucas's backyard that an unlikely alliance takes shape and the two embark on a journey to heal their neighbors and, most importantly, themselves."

• When Franny Stands Up: A Novel By: Eden Robinson, read by Lily Ganser for Blackstone -- "Franny Steinberg knows there’s powerful magic in laughter. She’s witnessed it. With the men of Chicago off fighting WWII on distant shores, Franny has watched the women of the city taking charge of the war effort. But amidst the war bond sales and factory shifts, something surprising has emerged, something Franny could never have expected. A new marvel that has women flocking to comedy clubs across the nation: the Showstopper."

• The Stroke of Winter: A Novel By: Wendy Webb, read by Xe Sands for Brilliance -- "She’s restoring the old family home on the hill. And unearthing something evil."

• Small Game: A Novel By: Blair Braverman, read by Kristen Sieh for Harper -- "A gripping debut novel about a survival reality show gone wrong that leaves a group of strangers stranded in the northern wilds."

• The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022 edited by Rebecca Roanhorse and series editor John Joseph Adams, read by Keylor Leigh, Hayden Bishop, Carolyn Kang, Shahjehan Khan, Kaipo Schwab, and Anthony Rey Perez for Harper

NON-FICTION WATCH:

• Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Video Games By: Cliff Bleszinski, read by Kurt Kanazawa for Simon and Schuster -- "The designer of Unreal and Gears of War offers an eye-opening personal account of the video-game industry as it grew from niche hobby to hundred-billion-dollar enterprise."

• The Philosophy of Modern Song By: Bob Dylan, read by Bob Dylan, with Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright, and Renée Zellweger for Simon and Schuster -- "Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence."

• Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story By: Bono, read by the author for Random House -- "The remarkable life he’s lived, the challenges he’s faced, and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him."

MOST MISSING:

• Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle by Cindy Barukh Milstein (Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness) -- "What are some of the many beautiful dimensions of anarchism?"

• Dreams for a Broken World edited by Ellen Meeropol and series editor Julie C. Day (Essential Dreams Press) -- "Our society is rife with injustice and inequality, war and environmental disaster, racism and hatred. Stories help us imagine other futures. Stories inspire us. When we read, or write, about individuals and communities fighting for justice, we grow to believe in these possibilities. Maybe we even join the characters, breaking through barriers and building new connections."

• Lucid by Mark Allan Gunnells (Valhalla Books) -- "Jimmy discovered at a young age that he was a lucid dreamer, able to control his dreams and create an ideal world for himself. No matter how rough things got in his waking life, he always had the dream world into which he could escape. Until the accident. After getting hit by a car, Jimmy finds himself in a coma, which traps him in his dream world. At first this seems wonderful, but then he realizes that the people in his dream have more autonomy than he thought. And some of them want him dead."

• Slip by Michael Pogach (Macabre Ink) -- "Just a few maddening seconds. Never able to change anything. It’s a curse she’s been running from for years. Just like she ran away from home where her mother died the day she was born. Where her father blamed her. But when her father dies suddenly, Byron is finally able to come home. A quick visit, she thinks—collect her inheritance, say hello to her childhood best friend, Chase, and be gone before morning. Except Chase is missing…and no one seems to be looking for her."

• Twelve Paths To Glory: A Shapeshifter Clan novel by Joyce Chng -- "A litrpg xianxia/wuxia novel based on the twelve Chinese zodiac animals. In a land filled with magic and beauty, a young cultivator strives for excellence and glory. Armed with a sword that sings, can a rabbit become a great warrior and earn honour for their clan?"

• And Fire Poured Forth: 6 Tales of Military Horror by Alan Baxter -- "From cosmic terrors in underground caverns to warrior nuns protecting humanity to invisible aliens decimating a faraway world, within these pages you’ll find six stories of military horror. Taken from the pages of (or inspired by) the SNAFU anthology series, where the remit is for stories crammed with extreme action, monsters, and military mayhem, everything here will leave you breathless."

MORE SCI-FI, FANTASY, and HORROR:

• The Luminaries By: Susan Dennard, read by Caitlin Davies for Macmillan -- "a haunting and high-octane contemporary fantasy, about the magic it takes to face your fears in a nightmare-filled forest, and the mettle required to face the secrets hiding in the dark corners of your own family."

• White Horse: A Novel By: Erika T. Wurth, read by Tonantzin Carmelo for Macmillan -- "An Indigenous woman must face her past when she discovers a bracelet haunted by her mother’s spirit."

• The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey By: Serena Burdick, read by Karen Cass for Harlequin -- "The story of literary secrets, a family curse and the lengths women will go to take charge of their future."

• Slaughtered Gods By: Thilde Kold Holdt, read by Candida Gubbins for Penguin -- "Norse chiefs meet Christian kings on Midgard's battlefields, as Loki's army of the dead clashes with Odin's golden shields on Asgard. An ancient premonition of death hangs over all. Only two are free to choose their paths, to prevent the annihilation of the Nine Worlds: Ragnar, a storyteller who holds all fates in his hands, and Hilda, a warrior with no fate at all. Death, pain, and fear."

• Ledge: The Glacian Trilogy, Book 1 By: Stacey McEwan, read by Sarah Slimani for Watkins -- "After being randomly selected as a human sacrifice, instead of death, Dawsyn finds herself on a quest to save her people from their icy prison."

• Keeper of Enchanted Rooms: Whimbrel House, Book 1 By: Charlie N. Holmberg, read by Amanda Leigh Cobb, Graham Halstead, and Nicholas Boulton for Brilliance -- "A house of haunted history and ill temper. Make yourself at home in this beguiling novel of love, magic, and danger."

• Farther Reefs: Ten Stories of Ocean Adventure, New Relationships, and Nautical Mystery edited by J.S. Fields and Heather Tracy, read by Lynn Norris for Space Wizard Science Fantasy -- "High seas adventure, fantasy, and magic weave together in this sapphic anthology focusing on the joy of the unbounded oceans. Stories by Sarah Day, Tim Pratt, Kim Pritekel, Kyoko M., Sara Codair, William C. Tracy, N.L. Bates, Robin C.M. Duncan, Margaret Adelle, and Vanessa Ricci-Thode."

• Against All Odds: An Epic Fantasy Collection By: Stuart Thaman, Kell Inkston, Chad Retterath, Dr. Scott Simerlein, Christopher Bond, Sarah McCarthy, and Pemry Janes, read by Ink Arnadine for Hydra Publications -- "Seven new tales of harrowing challenges, epic battles, rousing victories, and crushing defeats."

• The Stars Beyond: A Twilight Imperium Anthology edited by Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells, read by Erin deWard for Tantor -- "Intergalactic civilization emerges from its war-torn ruins for the first time in generations to explore the galaxy, in this stunning new anthology from the bestselling world of Twilight Imperium."

SERIES WATCH:

• The World We Make: The Great Cities, Book 2 By: N. K. Jemisin, read by Robin Miles for Orbit -- "All is not well in the city that never sleeps. Even though the avatars of New York City have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading—and destroying the entire universe in the process—the mysterious capital "E" Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and "law and order" may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside."

• Flight Risk: Booking Agents, Book 2 By: Cherie Priest, read by Ulka Simone Mohanty, Timothy Andrés Pabon for Simon and Schuster -- "When psychic travel agent Leda Foley is approached by a man searching for his sister, she quickly agrees to help. The missing woman disappeared with a vintage orange car, a fat sack of her employer’s cash, and a grudge against her philandering husband—a man who never even reported her missing."

• A Restless Truth: The Last Binding, Book 2 By: Freya Marske, read by Aysha Kala for Macmillan -- "The second entry in Marske’s beloved, award-winning trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light."

• Ocean's Echo By: Everina Maxwell, read by Raphael Corkhill for Macmillan -- "A stand-alone space adventure about a bond that will change the fate of worlds, set in the same universe as Winter's Orbit."

• The Sword's Elegy: The Sorcerer's Song Series, Book 3 By: Brian D. Anderson, read by Gildart Jackson for Blackstone -- "The doom of humankind has at last been realized. Belkar’s prison is broken and his army is on the move. The nations of Lamoria, unaware of the greater danger, look to repel the aggression of Ralmarstad."

• Moira's Pen: Queen’s Thief, Book 7 By: Megan Whalen Turner, read by Steve West for Harper -- "Discover and rediscover friends old and new, and explore the inspiration behind Megan Whalen Turner’s rich and original world. A stunning and collectible volume to return to again and again."

• Critical Role: The Mighty Nein—The Nine Eyes of Lucien By: Madeleine Roux, read by Robbie Daymond, Matthew Mercer, Taliesin Jaffe, Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham for Random House -- "Delve into the mind of Critical Role’s most charming villain in this original novel that chronicles Lucien’s early life and his fateful meeting with the Mighty Nein."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Mort: Discworld, Book 4, Reaper Man: Discworld, Book 11 and Soul Music: Discworld, Book 16 By: Terry Pratchett, read by Sian Clifford, Peter Serafinowicz, and Bill Nighy -- Discworld's "Death" sub-series comes to audio!

• The Written: Emaneska, Book 1, Pale Kings: Emaneska, Book 2, and Dead Stars: Part One: Emaneska, Book 3 By: Ben Galley, read by Steven Cree for Audible -- "Game of Thrones meets Die Hard in this explosive epic fantasy, packed with tattooed mages wielding unbridled spells, meddling gods, dragon-riders, and twisted Norse mythology."

• The Bacta War: Star Wars: Legends: Rogue Squadron, Book 4 By: Michael A. Stackpole, read by Marc Thompson for Random House

• Scardown: Jenny Casey, Book 2 By: Elizabeth Bear (2005), read by Carolina Hoyos for Tantor -- "The year is 2062, and after years on the run, Jenny Casey is back in the Canadian armed forces. Those who were once her enemies are now her allies, and at fifty, she's been handpicked for the most important mission of her life—a mission for which her artificially reconstructed body is perfectly suited."

• Animal Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland By: Sharon Jacksties (2020), read by Sharon Jacksties for QUEST -- "Stories and animals have long travelled the same routes. Through our heritage of charming, quirky and profound tales, you will find yourself re-acquainted with Britain's wondrous fauna."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 25 October 2022

Posted on 2022-10-25 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Passenger By: Cormac McCarthy, read by MacLeod Andrews and Julia Whelan for Random House -- "The story of a salvage diver, haunted by loss, afraid of the watery deep, pursued for a conspiracy beyond his understanding, and longing for a death he cannot reconcile with God."

• The Winter Garden By: Nicola Cornick, read by Emma Craig for Harlequin -- "Sweeping across generations from the 1600s to the present day and inspired by the true story of the leader of the infamous Gunpowder Plot."

• Sign Here By: Claudia Lux, read by MacLeod Andrews and Brittany Pressley for Penguin -- "A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul."

• Bound to a Single Sun By: Stephen W. Leigh, read by Robert Fass for HighBridge -- "In the near future, humankind has founded colonies on Mars and the inner planets as well as under the oceans, populating them via by direct genetic manipulation, changing us to suit the environment. The haves are those who are "ecomods" (genetically modified) or "surgenmods" (surgically modified); the have-nots are the "typics"—those who haven't undergone modification. The typics are forced to live in walled-off, filthy, and run-down areas, held away from the wealthier surgenmods, while the ecomods have formed communities based around their own archetypes—insular societies all, each with their own particular customs. There's a greater wall, as well. Someone or something has put a sphere of exclusion around the inner solar system, an unseen barrier that allows no living being to pass beyond AU 3.0."

• Last Man Standing: Earthburst, Book 1 By: Craig Falconer, read by Scott Aiello for Recorded Books -- "I wasn’t supposed to survive. The station has been hit. Everyone around me is dead. I have 11 hours of life support left and no way of contacting Earth. I’m alone. I’m stranded. I’m desperate. But I’m alive. The more of the station I explore, the surer I get that this was no accident. Someone did this, and I don't think they're finished yet."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• The Prague Cemetery By: Umberto Eco (2011), read by Jean Brassard for Harper -- A new production which apparently replaces both the George Guidall and Paul Barrett narrations from 2011: "Nineteenth-century Europe—from Turin to Prague to Paris—abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate Black Masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres. Conspiracies rule history. From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Europe is in tumult and everyone needs a scapegoat. But what if, behind all of these conspiracies, both real and imagined, lay one lone man? What if that evil genius created the world’s most infamous document?"

• Maelstrom: Rifters Trilogy, Book 2 By: Peter Watts (2001), read by Alison Ewing for Tantor -- "This is the way the world ends: A nuclear strike on a deep sea vent. The target was an ancient microbe—voracious enough to drive the whole biosphere to extinction—and a handful of amphibious humans called rifters who'd inadvertently released it from three billion years of solitary confinement. The resulting tsunami killed millions. It's not as through there was a choice: saving the world excuses almost any degree of collateral damage. Unless, of course, you miss the target."

• Ghosts of the Silent Hills: Stories Based on True Hauntings By: Anita Krishan (2019), read by Riya Mukherjee for Audible -- "A collection that will make your nights a little scarier, encompassing the very best spine-chilling stories based on true hauntings."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Singularities: A Novel By: John Banville, read by Nicholas Guy-Smith for Random House -- "From the revered Booker Prize-winning author comes a playful, multilayered novel of nostalgia, life and death, and quantum theory, which opens with the return of one of his most celebrated characters as he is released from prison."

• The Atlas Paradox By: Olivie Blake, read by Alexandra Palting, Andy Ingalls, Caitlin Kelly, Damian Lynch, Daniel Henning, David Monteith, James Cronin, Munirih Grace, Siho Ellsmore, and Steve West for Macmillan -- "The long-awaited sequel to Blake's bestselling dark academic sensation The Atlas Six. Six magicians were presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Five are now members of the Society. Two paths lay before them. All must pick a side."

• Into the Windwracked Wilds: The Up-and-Under, Book 3 By: A. Deborah Baker, read by Heath Miller for Macmillan -- "When the improbable road leaves Avery and Zib in the land of Air and at the mercy of the Queen of Swords, escape without becoming monsters may be impossible. But with the aid of the Queen's son, the unpredictable Jack Daw, they may emerge with enough of their humanity to someday make it home. Their journey is not yet over; the dangers are no less great."

• Into the Riverlands: The Singing Hills Cycle, Book 3 By: Nghi Vo, read by Cindy Kay for Tantor -- "Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themselves far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be."

• Light Perpetual: The Hussite Trilogy, Book 3 By: Andrzej Sapkowski, translated by David French, read by Peter Kenny for Orbit -- "From the globally bestselling author of The Witcher comes the final book in the rich historical epic, the Hussite trilogy. Join Reynevan—scoundrel, magician, possibly a fool—as he embarks on a last great adventure across the war-riddled landscape of 15th century Bohemia."

• Pimiko and the Uncharted Island: Amaranthine Saga, Book 6 By: Forthright, read by Travis Baldree for Tantor -- "After the finale of her dazzlingly successful television drama, Pim Moonprowl packs her bags and books passage to a secretive resort that makes alluring claims. She’ll pay anything, promise anything, do anything to find out if they’re true. On an island that’s not on maps, Pim encounters a silver-tongued doctor, a kindred soul, a caged star, and a clever monkey. This is her big chance to put into practice the skills she gained from eight seasons on an elite taskforce."

• The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One By: George R. R. Martin, Elio M. García, and Linda Antonsson, read by Harry Lloyd for Random House -- "A stunning introduction to House Targaryen, the iconic family at the heart of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon."

• No Plan B: Jack Reacher, Book 27 By: Lee Child and Andrew Child, read by Scott Brick for Random House -- "In Gerrardsville, Colorado, a woman dies under the wheels of a moving bus. The death is ruled a suicide. But Jack Reacher saw what really happened: A man in a gray hoodie and jeans, moving stealthily, pushed the victim to her demise—before swiftly grabbing the dead woman’s purse and strolling away."

INDIE WATCH:

• Argo: Blades of Bronze 1 By: Mark Knowles, read by Andrew Kingston for SAGA Egmont -- "An action-filled reimagining of the famous Greek myth, Jason and the Golden Fleece, brilliantly told by classicist Mark Knowles."

• Another World: Galena Chronicles, Book 1 By: Samuel Best, read by Jonathan Davis for Podium -- "Leaving Earth is the easy part. Surviving the trip to a new home 10,000 light years away is a journey like no other."

• Portals By: Douglas E. Richards, read by Johnathan McClain for Podium -- "Hidden portals link Earth to numerous other planets. But why do they all contain human civilizations? And why does our nearest neighbor have its sights set on Earth?"

• Voodoo Warfare: Strange Company, Book 2 By: Nick Cole, read by Christopher Ryan Grant for Podium -- "A massive invasion of a major Monarch world gets underway and the weird warrant officers of Voodoo Platoon move into their roles as combat multipliers at the front lines of an incredible no-holds-barred brawl for battlefield domination."

• Threads of Destiny: Volume 1: Destiny Cycle, Book 4 By: Yrsillar, read by Natalie Naudus for Podium -- "The tournament is past, the Inner Sect achieved, and Ling Qi has chosen the path of her life going forward."

MOST MISSING:

• The White Mosque: A Memoir by Sofia Samatar (Catapult) -- "In the late nineteenth century, a group of German-speaking Mennonites traveled from Russia into Central Asia, where their charismatic leader predicted Christ would return. Over a century later, Sofia Samatar joins a tour following their path, fascinated not by the hardships of their journey, but by its aftermath: the establishment of a small Christian village in the Muslim Khanate of Khiva. Named Ak Metchet, “The White Mosque,” after the Mennonites’ whitewashed church, the village lasted for fifty years. In pursuit of this curious history, Samatar discovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancient Silk Road."

• Black is the Night: Stories inspired by Cornell Woolrich edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Titan Books) -- "A gritty and thrilling anthology of 30 new short stories in tribute to pulp noir master, Cornell Woolrich, author of 'Rear Window' that inspired Alfred Hitchock's classic film. Featuring Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman, James Sallis, A.K. Benedict, Samantha Lee Howe, Joe R. Lansdale and many more."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 18 October 2022

Posted on 2022-10-18 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

SERIES WATCH:

• Blitz: The Rook Files, Book 3 By: Daniel O'Malley, read by Moira Quirk for Little, Brown and Company -- "In the riveting new thriller in the Rook Files series, a new recruit to the most powerful supernatural intelligence agency on Earth is accused of going rogue and must go on the run to clear her name."

• About Time: The Time Police, Book 4 By: Jodi Taylor, read by Zara Ramm for Headline -- "Patience is not a virtue known to the Time Police. And Commander Hay is facing the longest day of her life."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Shoggoths in Traffic and Other Stories By: Tobias S. Buckell (2021), read by Jonathan Todd Ross, Jasmin Walker, William DeMeritt, and Jamie Lincoln Smith for Recorded Books -- "In these twenty-four stories you’ll find inhabitants of a small town who won’t vaccinate against a zombie plague, a lone sentry keeping motorists from stumbling into something ancient and evil, a man who puts stranded ghosts to rest, an ex-soldier traveling the seas who trades his new life of hardship for a return to swords and blood, and many more tales of speculative fiction."

• Dead Things: Eric Carter, Book 1 By: Stephen Blackmoore (2013), read by Rudy Sanda for Tantor -- "Necromancer is such an ugly word, but it's a title Eric Carter is stuck with. He sees ghosts, talks to the dead. He's turned it into a lucrative career putting troublesome spirits to rest, sometimes taking on even more dangerous things. For a fee, of course."

• The Dream Master By: Roger Zelazny (1966), read by George Newbern for Tantor -- "His name is Charles Render, and he is a psychoanalyst, and a mechanic of dreams. A Shaper. In a warm womb of metal, his patients dream their neuroses, while Render, intricately connected to their brains, dreams with them, makes delicate adjustments, and ultimately explains and heals. Her name is Eileen Shallot, a resident in psychiatry. She wants desperately to become a Shaper, though she has been blind from birth. Together, they will explore the depths of the human mind-and the terrors that lurk therein."

INDIE WATCH:

• The Gargoyle's Handbook: The Adventures of Gorlen Vizenfirthe Series, Book 1 By: Marc Laidlaw, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat -- "From the writer of the blockbuster videogame Half-Life, ten stories of the bard with a gargoyle’s hand."

MOST MISSING:

• TITAN: A novel by Mado Nozaki (Airship/Seven Seas) -- "In the distant future, society has all but eliminated the need for a sentient workforce. Thanks to an all-powerful AI network known collectively as Titan, humanity is now free to indulge in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity. But one day, hobbyist psychologist Seika Naisho gets a job offer from a mysterious man by the name of Narain Srivastava--one of only a handful of people in the entire world who is still traditionally employed. Narain wishes to enlist her expertise in the wake of a sudden and inexplicable malfunction in the AI network: as a therapist for Titan itself."

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

• The Consequences: Stories by Manuel Muñoz (Graywolf Press) -- "Shimmering stories set in California's Central Valley, the first book in a decade from a virtuoso story writer."

• You Fed Us To the Roses: Short Stories by Carlie St. George (Chipped Cup Collective) -- "Final girls who take care of each other. Dead boys still breathing. Ghosts who whisper secrets you can never share. Angels beyond the grave, yet not of heaven. Wolves who wear human skins."

PICKS:

• README.txt: A Memoir By: Chelsea Manning, read by the author for Macmillan -- " An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time."

• All the Horses of Iceland By: Sarah Tolmie, read by Ulf Bjorklund for Tantor -- "Everyone knows of the horses of Iceland, wild, and small, and free, but few have heard their story. Sarah Tolmie's All the Horses of Iceland weaves their mystical origin into a saga for the modern age. Filled with the magic and darkened whispers of a people on the cusp of major cultural change, All the Horses of Iceland tells the tale of a Norse trader, his travels through Central Asia, and the ghostly magic that followed him home to the land of fire, stone, and ice. His search for riches will take him from Helmgard, through Khazaria, to the steppes of Mongolia, where he will barter for horses and return with much, much more."

• Seven Empty Houses By: Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell, read by Yareli Arizmendi, Gisela Chipe, Ines del Castillo, Daisy Guevara, Lee Osorio, Elena Rey, and Victoria Villarreal for Penguin -- "The seven houses in these seven stories are empty. Some are devoid of love or life or furniture, of people or the truth or of memories. But in Samanta Schweblin’s tense, visionary tales, something always creeps back in: a ghost, a fight, trespassers, a list of things to do before you die, a child’s first encounter with a dark choice or the fallibility of parents."

• Liberation Day: Stories By: George Saunders, read by the author with Tina Fey, Michael McKean, Edi Patterson, Jenny Slate, Jack McBrayer, Melora Hardin, and Stephen Root for Random House -- "A collection of short stories that make sense of our increasingly troubled world, his first since the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Tenth of December."

• Poster Girl By: Veronica Roth, read by Anna Caputo for Audible -- "The story of a woman's desperate search for a missing girl after the collapse of the oppressive dystopian regime—and the dark secrets about her family and community she uncovers along the way."

• Self-Portrait with Nothing By: Aimee Pokwatka, read by Jesse Vilinsky for Macmillan -- "Abandoned as an infant on the local veterinarian’s front porch, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two loving mothers, and now, at thirty-six is married to the stable, supportive Ike. She’s never told anyone that at fifteen she discovered the identity of her biological mother. That’s because her birth mother is Ula Frost, a reclusive painter famous for the outrageous claims that her portraits summon their subjects’ doppelgängers from parallel universes."

• The Tiger and the Cage: A Memoir of a Body in Crisis By: Emma Bolden, read by the author for Blackstone -- "Bolden uses her own experience as the starting point for a journey through the institutional misogyny of Western medicine—from a history of labeling women “hysterical” and parading them as curiosities to a lack of information on causes or cures for endometriosis, despite more than a century of documented cases."

• Demon Copperhead: A Novel By: Barbara Kingsolver, read by Charlie Thurston for Harper -- "The story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses."

• The Last Chairlift By: John Irving, read by Jacques Roy, Raquel Beattie, Cassandra Campbell, Chris Henry Coffey, Piper Goodeve, Em Grosland, Aden Hakimi, Graham Halstead, Chanté McCormick, Natalie Naudus, Aida Reluzco, Pete Simonelli, Natasha Soudek, Travis Tonn, and Erin Ruth Walker for Simon and Schuster -- "His first novel in seven years—a ghost story, a love story, and a lifetime of sexual politics."

• Singer Distance By: Ethan Chatagnier, read by Tristan Morris for Blackstone -- "In December 1960, Crystal Singer, her boyfriend Rick, and three other MIT grad students take a cross-country road trip from Boston to Arizona to paint a message in the desert. Mars has been silent for thirty years, since the last time Earth solved one of the mathematical proofs the Martian civilization carved onto its surface. The latest proof, which seems to assert contradictory truths about distance, has resisted human understanding for decades. Crystal thinks she’s solved it, and Rick is intent on putting her answer to the test―if he can keep her from cracking under the pressure on the way. But Crystal’s disappearance after the experiment will set him on a different path than he expected, forever changing the distance between them."

• Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman By: Alan Rickman, read by Steven Crossley, with a foreward by Emma Thompson read by Bonnie Wright, afterword written and read by Rina Horton, and an introduction by Alan Taylor and read by Alfred Enoch -- "A rare invitation into the mind of Alan Rickman—one of the most magnetic, beloved performers of our time."

• Head Cleaner By: David James Keaton, read by Joe Hempel for Blackstone -- "The last Blockbuster video store in the United States is hanging on by a thread. And after a crazy night attempting to track down a lost VCR rental to collect the record-setting and internet-famous late fee, three employees, idealistic Eva, cinephile Jerry, and their tyrannical manager Randy, discover that this machine may actually have the power to change the endings of popular films, which, depending on the historical basis of the film, might also be changing the real world around them."

• Hex Appeal By: Kate Johnson, read by Catrin Walker Booth for One More Chapter/HarperCollins -- "Essie Winterscale lives in a huge and ever-changing house in the village of Good Winter, in deepest, darkest Essex. She lives with various witches of various ages, one of whom is still a bit salty about being hanged in the 1700s, one who keeps accidentally casting fertility spells, and one who knits things that create the future. All Essie ever wanted was to have a normal life but in the end she found herself drawn back to Beldam House."

• The Tangled Stars By: Edward Willett, read by Wayne Mitchell for HighBridge -- "More than a century ago, the network of MASTTs, the space-time tunnels that made interstellar travel possible, violently collapsed, the backlash destroying a lot of the solar system's space-based infrastructure. Cooper "Coop" Douglas, a thief and conman is in serious debt to outer-system crime-lord Eric Galioto. While trying to salvage a valuable chunk of a space station destroyed by the backlash, Coop makes a startling discovery: MASTT Primus, the tunnel that used to lead to New Earth, is open again."

• The Nox By: Joe White and Catriona Ward, read by Lashana Lynch, Michiel Huisman, Ralph Ineson, and a full cast for Audible Originals -- "2045, the Arctic Circle. A crew of six aboard the research vessel, The Nox, embark upon a voyage through the melting ice and Arctic dark in search of the last of the polar bears. The mission represents a ray of hope in a world ravaged by climate change, but it quickly becomes clear that some on board are in search of more than bears."

• When We Were Sisters: A Novel By: Fatimah Asghar, read by Farah Kidwai, Kamran Khan, and Deepti Gupta for Random House -- " An orphan grapples with gender, siblinghood, family, and coming-of-age as a Muslim in America in this lyrical debut novel."

• Signal Fires: A Novel By: Dani Shapiro, read by the author for Random House -- "On a summer night in 1985, three teenagers have been drinking. One of them gets behind the wheel of a car, and, in an instant, everything changes."

• Listening in the Dark: Women Reclaiming the Power of Intuition edited by Amber Tamblyn, read by Amber Tamblyn, Dr. Mindy Nettifee, Dr. Nicole Apelian, Meredith Talusan, Dr. Dara Kass, Ada Limón, Bonnie Tamblyn, Lidia Yuknavitch, Jia Tolentino, Sarah Vowell, Uzo Aduba, Samantha Irby, Huma Abedin, Emily Wells, and America Ferrera for Harlequin -- "Includes essays from Jessica Valenti, Lidia Yuknavitch, Jia Tolentino, Samantha Irby, Meredith Talusan, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Amy Poehler, America Ferrera, Ada Limón, Huma Abedin and many others, who all share how intuition has helped to shape and alter their life choices."

• The Boys from Biloxi: A Legal Thriller By: John Grisham, read by Michael Beck for Random House -- "The riveting story of two sons of immigrant families who grow up as friends, but ultimately find themselves on opposite sides of the law."

• The Method by James Patterson and Michael B. Silver, read by Zachary Quinto, Stephanie Beatriz, Lil Rel Howery, Justine Lupe, Jack Davenport, and a full cast for Audible Originals -- "We meet Brent Quill, a frustrated actor trying to take his game to the next level. When he learns about the intensive Method acting process, he dives in deep—and immediately lands the lead role in a TV series about a brutal serial killer."

• The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy By: Anand Giridharadas, read by the author for Random House -- "An insider account of activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 11 October 2022

Posted on 2022-10-11 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Dinosaurs By: Lydia Millet, read by Paul Heitsch for Dreamscape -- "The story of an Arizona man’s relationship with the family next door, whose house has one wall made entirely out of glass. The story delivers attraction and love, friendship and grief. But Millet also evokes the uncanny. Through close observation of human and animal life in the desert, she captures the daunting scale of human society without losing sight of the real difference one person can make in the world."

• Will Do Magic for Small Change By: Andrea Hairston, read by Tamika Katon-Donegal, Andre Santana for Recorded Books -- "Cinnamon Jones dreams of stepping on stage and acting her heart out like her famous grandparents, Redwood and Wildfire. But she’s always been theatrically challenged. That won’t necessarily stop her! But her family life is a tangle of mysteries and secrets, and nobody is telling her the whole truth. Before her brother died, he gave Cinnamon The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer—a tale of a Dahomean warrior woman and an alien from another dimension who perform at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. They are a story of magic or alien science, but the connection to Cinnamon's past is unmistakable. When an act of violence wounds her family, Cinnamon and her theatre squad determine to solve the mysteries and bring her worlds crashing together."

• Illuminations: Stories By: Alan Moore, read by Laura Haddock, Rory Kinnear, Emilia Fox, Nina Sosanya, Samuel Barnett, Sian Clifford, Toby Jones, Matt Reeves, Clarke Peters, and the author for Bloomsbury -- "In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different and equally unforgettable characters who discover—and in some cases even make and unmake—the various uncharted parts of existence."

• The Spare Man By: Mary Robinette Kowal, read by the author for Audible -- "Tesla Crane, one of the richest women in the world, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between Earth and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and her husband is named as the prime suspect. To save him from the frame-up, Tesla will risk exposure and face demons from her past. Even though doing so might make her the next victim."

• Random By: Penn Jillette, read by the author for Blackstone -- "Two weeks before his twenty-first birthday, Las Vegas native Bobby Ingersoll finds out he’s inherited a crushing gambling debt from his scumbag father. The debt is owed to an even scummier bag named Fraser Ruphart who oversees his bottom-rung criminal empire from the classy-adjacent Trump International Hotel. Bobby’s prospects of paying off the note, which comes due the day he turns twenty-one, are about as dim as the sign on the tower’s façade."

• Beasts of the Earth: A Novel By: James Wade, read by Roger Clark for Blackstone -- "A chilling parable about the impossible demands of hate and love, trauma and goodness, vividly set in the landscapes of Texas and Louisiana."

• Obsidian By: Sarah J. Daley, read by Tegan Ashton Cohan for Tantor -- "Shade Nox is the only witch in a land of wizards—a fiend, a rogue, a wanted criminal. Defying those who think her an abomination, Shade wears her tattoos openly and carries obsidian blades at her hips. For years, she has protected the outcast clans who wander the blighted Wastes, but the land is growing more unstable and her blades are no longer enough."

• The Blue Book of Nebo By: Manon Steffan Ros, read by the author for Blackstone -- "Prize-winner in three categories of the 2019 Wales Book of the Year Award, The Blue Book of Nebo paints a spellbinding and eerie picture of society’s collapse, and the relationships that persist after everything as we know it disappears. After nuclear disaster, Rowenna and her young son are among the rare survivors in rural north-west Wales. Left alone in their isolated hillside cottage, after others have died or abandoned the towns and villages, they must learn new skills in order to remain alive. With no electricity or modern technology they must return to the old ways of living off the land, developing new personal resources."

• Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn edited by Claire L. Evans and Brian Merchant, read by a full cast for Blackstone -- "Section by section—Watch/Worlds/Burn—the book takes on surveillance, artificial intelligence, and climate collapse. With a potent roster of established names and rising talents—from Bruce Sterling, Ellen Ullman, Cory Doctorow, Jeff VanderMeer, and Omar El Akkad, to E. Lily Yu, Elvia Wilk, Fernando Flores, Tochi Onyebuchi, and Gus Moreno—it confronts the issues that orbit our everyday existence, and takes them to unsettling dimensions."

• Daughters of the New Year: A Novel By: E.M. Tran, read by Lulu Lam for Harlequin -- "Combining the powerful scope of Homegoing with the mystical touch of The Immortalists, Daughters of the New Year is a captivating debut novel about five generations of Vietnamese mothers and daughters, drawing on Vietnamese zodiac astrology to chart the fateful events of their lives."

• Short: Marigold and Rose: A Fiction By: Louise Glück, read by the author for Macmillan -- "A magical and incandescent fiction from the Nobel laureate. [An] astonishing chronicle of the first year in the life of twin girls. Imagine a fairy tale that is also a multigenerational saga; a piece for two hands that is also a symphony; a poem that is also, in the spirit of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, an incandescent act of autobiography. Here are the elements you’d expect to find in a story of infant twins—Father and Mother; Grandmother and Other Grandmother; bath time and naptime—but more than that, Marigold and Rose is an investigation of the great mystery of language and of time itself, of what is and what has been and what will be."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Little Eve By: Catriona Ward (2018), read by Carolyn Bonnyman for Macmillan -- "Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth. The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction. A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong. And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered."

• The Uninhabited House By: Mrs. J. H. Charlotte Riddell (19th c.), read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone -- "River Hall, the uninhabited house in question, is a place of ghosts and secrets, and it simply cannot keep a tenant. Inherited by the too-young Miss Helena Elmsdale after her father’s death, it falls to her aunt, Miss Susannah Blake, to attend to the house. In order to see that it remains rented out, Miss Blake brings the property to Messrs. Craven and Son for management. The lawyers do their best, but there is something sinister at River Hall, and the tenants cannot seem to leave fast enough, threatening to leave Miss Blake and her orphaned niece in dire financial straits. Miss Blake demands that something be done to rectify the situation, and one of the younger lawyers at the firm decides to stay in the house himself to uncover the mystery of the uninhabited house."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Oracle of Maracoor: Another Day, Book 2 By: Gregory Maguire, read by Debra Wise for Harper -- "The enchanting second novel in the series Another Day, returning to the world he first created in Wicked ... continues the story of Elphaba’s green-skinned granddaughter, Rain."

• Dark City: Tales of the Shadow City, Book 2 By: Anna Mocikat, read by David Reimer, Jessica Weyman for Crossroad Press -- "The battle is won, but the war has just begun."

• The Raven Song: A Conspiracy of Magic, Book 2 By: Luanne G. Smith, read by Susannah Jones for Brilliance -- "Fleeing Victorian London, a witch finds her newfound independence comes with all-new perils—both mortal and immortal."

• 1636: The Atlantic Encounter: Ring of Fire, Book 25 By: Eric Flint, Walter H. Hunt, read by George Guidall

MORE SCI-FI, FANTASY and HORROR:

• Dead Man's Hand: The Unorthodox Chronicles, Book 1 By: James J. Butcher, read by James Patrick Cronin for Penguin -- "In the tradition of his renowned father, James J. Butcher’s debut novel is a brilliant urban fantasy about a young man who must throw out the magical rule book to solve the murder of his former mentor. On the streets of Boston, the world is divided into the ordinary Usuals, and the paranormal Unorthodox. And in the Department of Unorthodox Affairs, the Auditors are the magical elite, government-sanctioned witches with spells at their command and all the power and prestige that comes with it. Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby is…not one of those witches."

• The Dark Between the Trees By: Fiona Barnett, read by Vicky Hall and Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong for Penguin -- "1647: A small group of Parliamentarian soldiers are ambushed in an isolated part of Northern England. Their only hope for survival is to flee into the nearby Moresby Wood...unwise though that may seem. For Moresby Wood is known to be an unnatural place, the realm of witchcraft and shadows, where the devil is said to go walking by moonlight... Seventeen men enter the wood. Only two are ever seen again, and the stories they tell of what happened make no sense. Stories of shifting landscapes, of trees that appear and disappear at will...and of something else. Something dark. Something hungry. Today, five women are headed into Moresby Wood to discover, once and for all, what happened to that unfortunate group of soldiers."

• The Hollow Kind: A Novel By: Andy Davidson, read by Susie James for Macmillan -- "Nellie Gardner is looking for a way out of an abusive marriage when she learns that her long-lost grandfather, August Redfern, has willed her his turpentine estate. She throws everything she can think of in a bag and flees to Georgia with her eleven-year-old son, Max, in tow. It turns out that the "estate" is a decrepit farmhouse on a thousand acres of old pine forest, but Nellie is thrilled about the chance for a fresh start for her and Max, and a chance for the happy home she never had. So it takes her a while to notice the strange scratching in the walls, the faint whispering at night, how the forest is eerily quiet. But Max sees what his mother can't: They're no safer here than they had been in South Carolina. In fact, things might even be worse. There's something wrong with Redfern Hill. Something lurks beneath the soil, ancient and hungry, with the power to corrupt hearts and destroy souls."

• Wrath By: Sharon Moalem and Daniel Kraus, read by T. Ryder Smith for Sterling Ethos -- "In a future much nearer than you think, where scientific experimentation is exploited for commercial profit, unwisely under-supervised cutting-edge technology creates a menace that threatens the very fabric of human existence."

• When the Night Bells Ring By: Jo Kaplan, read by Rachel Fulginiti and Nicol Zanzarella for CamCat -- "In a future ravaged by fire and drought, two climate refugees ride their motorcycles across the wasteland of the western US, and stumble upon an old silver mine. Descending into the cool darkness of the caved-in tunnels in desperate search of water, the two women find Lavinia Cain’s diary, a settler in search of prosperity who brought her family to Nevada in the late 1860s. But Lavinia and the settlers of the Western town discovered something monstrous that dwells in the depths of the mine, something that does not want greedy prospectors disturbing the earth."

• The Immortality Thief By: Taran Hunt, read by Rory Alexander for Penguin -- "When linguist and smuggler Sean Wren is blackmailed into a job to get some data off an ancient ship, he's not expecting it to be the Philosopher's Stone: a literal recipe for immortality. Unfortunately, he's not the only one looking. The undying Ministers, mysterious aliens that have ruled over humanity for thousands of years, want the data too. So does the Republic, the last free human government. To add to the fun, the map to the treasure is in a long-lost language, the ship's filled with dangerous traps and genetically engineered monsters, and the nearby star's going supernova in a few days. Easy job, right?"

• Morgan Is My Name By: Sophie Keetch, read by Vanessa Kirby for Audible Originals -- "The first volume in a stunning trilogy set in the world of Arthurian legend and told from the perspective of its traditional antagonist, Morgan Le Fay."

• No Gods, Only Monsters By: Steve McHugh, read by Moira Quirk for Podium -- "Diana, the Roman Goddess of the hunt, lives alone on the far edge of the Roman Empire. When an old friend arrives looking for help, Diana finds herself thrust back into her old life, and her old problems. With innocent lives caught in the crossfire, Diana realizes that the only way to ensure the safety of her friends and loved ones is to do what she does best: hunt her enemies down."

MOST MISSING:

• FOUND: An anthology of found footage horror stories edited by Andrew Cull and Gabino Iglesias (Vermillion 2 One) -- "Eighteen stories of found footage horror. Featuring stories by: Bev Vincent, Ali Seay, Holly Rae Garcia, Clay McLeod Chapman, Nick Kolakowski, Ally Wilkes, Alan Baxter, Tim McGregor, Jeremy Hepler, Angela Sylvaine, Josh Rountree, Donna Lynch, Kurt Fawver, Robert Levy, Joe Butler, Fred Fischer, Georgia Cook, and Aristo Couvaras. Reader caution is advised."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 4 October 2022

Posted on 2022-10-04 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Station Eternity: The Midsolar Murders, Book 1 By: Mur Lafferty, read by Sarah Mollo-Christensen for Penguin -- "Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes."

• Dandelion By: Alex Bledsoe, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone -- "Reverend Deacon Elder does the Lord’s work in his own unique way. A former marine with the ability to detect and cast out demons, Deke goes where the need—and the evil—is greatest. After receiving a terrifying warning of a botched exorcism, Deke shows up in Somerton, Tennessee, ready for battle. The demon possessing sixteen-year-old Carlyss Bolerjack had only partially been driven out, and Deke must convince a traumatized Carlyss to submit to a second exorcism."

• The Mountain in the Sea: A Novel By: Ray Nayler, read by Eunice Wong for Macmillan -- "Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future."

• The Revivalists: A Novel By: Christopher M. Hood, read by Gary Bennett for Harper -- "A stunning debut novel about a couple’s harrowing journey across a ravaged America to save their daughter."

• Malice House By: Megan Shepherd, read by Katie Schorr for Hyperion Avenue -- "From New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd comes a complex tale of dark magic, family secrets, and monsters that don't stay on the page."

• Lute By: Jennifer Thorne, read by Victoria Blunt for Macmillan -- "Wicker Man meets Final Destination in Jennifer Thorne's atmospheric, unsettling folk horror novel about love, duty, and community."

• Our Missing Hearts: A Novel By: Celeste Ng, read by Lucy Liu for Penguin -- "Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old."

• The Getaway By: Lamar Giles, read by Marc Anthony Samuel, Imani Parks, and P.J. Ochlan for Scholastic -- "Jay is living his best life at Karloff Country, one of the world’s most famous resorts. He’s got his family, his crew, and an incredible after-school job at the property’s main theme park. Life isn’t so great for the rest of the world, but when people come here to vacation, it’s to get away from all that. As things outside get worse, trouble starts seeping into Karloff. First, Jay’s friend Connie and her family disappear in the middle of the night and no one will talk about it. Then the richest and most powerful families start arriving, only... they aren’t leaving."

• Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder By: William Shatner with Joshua Brandon, read by Shatner for Simon and Schuster -- "The beloved star of Star Trek, recent space traveler, and living legend reflects on the interconnectivity of all things, our fragile bond with nature, and the joy that comes from exploration in this inspiring, revelatory, and exhilarating collection of essays."

• Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America By: Maggie Haberman , read by the author for Penguin -- "From the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times reporter who has defined Donald J. Trump's presidency like no other journalist: a magnificent and disturbing reckoning that chronicles his life and its meaning from his rise in New York City to his tortured post-presidency."

SERIES WATCH:

• Across the Sand By: Hugh Howey, read by Jeremy Arthur for Harper -- "The first original novel from author Hugh Howey in six years, Across the Sand takes us back to the world of Sand, to a far future many generations after a disaster has destroyed civilization as we know it, where four siblings struggle to build their futures amid the harsh wastes of endless desert."

• Daughter of Darkness: Viridian Deep, Book 2 By: Terry Brooks, read by Jeremy Carlisle Parker for Random House -- "The thrilling second novel of an all-new fantasy series from the legendary author behind the Shannara saga, about a human girl adapting to her place in a magical world she’s only recently discovered."

• What Song the Sirens Sang: Gideon Sable, Book 3 By: Simon R. Green, read by Gideon Emery for Recorded Books -- "The tables are turned on legendary master thief Gideon Sable when a priceless magical artifact is stolen from him, in this fast-paced supernatural heist thriller."

• Edgedancer: Stormlight Archive, Book 2.5 By: Brandon Sanderson, read by Kate Reading for Recorded Books -- "A special gift edition of Edgedancer, a short novel of the Stormlight Archive (previously published in Arcanum Unbounded)." Note: this appears to be the same recording by Reading that is available in the Macmillan Audio production of Sanderson's Arcanum Unbound collection.

• The First to Die at the End: They Both Die at the End, Book 0 By: Adam Silvera, read by Jason Genao, Anthony Keyvan, and Kyla Garcia for Harper -- "In this prequel to #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon They Both Die at the End, two new strangers spend a life-changing day together after Death-Cast first makes their fateful calls."

• Batman: The Blind Cut By: K Arsenalt Rivera, Martin Cahill, and Catherynne M. Valente Narrated by: Dave Fennoy, Natalie Naudus for Serial Box -- "Follows the Caped Crusader and Zatanna as they join forces against a terrifying adversary who enacts a bold plan to bring Gotham City to its knees."

• Wonder Woman: Heartless By: Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Heidi Heilig, read by Tiana Camacho for Serial Box -- "When a magical threat targets both Washington’s elite and its most marginalized, Wonder Woman and the Crimson Avenger unite to mete out justice."

• Final Heir: Jane Yellowrock, Book 15 By: Faith Hunter, read by Khristine Hvam for Audible

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Legend of Suheldev: The King Who Saved India By: Amish Tripathi (2020), read by Shernaz Patel for Audible -- "India, 1025 AD. Repeated attacks by Mahmud of Ghazni and his barbaric Turkic hordes have weakened India’s northern regions. The invaders lay waste to vast swathes of the subcontinent—plundering, killing, raping, pillaging. Many of the old Indian kingdoms, tired and divided, fall to them. Those who do fight, battle with old codes of chivalry, and are unable to stop the savage Turkic army, which repeatedly breaks all rules to win. Then the Turks raid and destroy one of the holiest temples in the land: the magnificent Lord Shiva temple at Somnath. At this most desperate of times, a warrior rises to defend the nation."

MORE FICTION:

• The Whalebone Theatre: A Novel By: Joanna Quinn, read by Olivia Vinall for Random House -- "A transporting, irresistible debut novel that takes its heroine, Cristabel Seagrave, from a theatre in the gargantuan cavity of a beached whale into undercover operations during World War II—a story of love, family, bravery, lost innocence, and self-transformation."

• Hester: A Novel By: Laurie Lico Albanese, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Macmillan -- "A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials."

• The Hero of This Book: A Novel By: Elizabeth McCracken, read by the author for Harper -- "Ten months after her mother’s death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother’s, and as the narrator wanders the streets, she finds herself reflecting on her mother’s life and their relationship. Thoughts of the past meld with questions of the future: Back in New England, the family home is now up for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed. The woman, a writer, recalls all that made her complicated mother extraordinary—her brilliant wit, her generosity, her unbelievable obstinacy, her sheer will in seizing life despite physical difficulties—and finds herself wondering how her mother had endured. Even though she wants to respect her mother’s nearly pathological sense of privacy, the woman must come to terms with whether making a chronicle of this remarkable life constitutes an act of love or betrayal."

• Mad Honey: A Novel By: Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, read by Carrie Coon, Key Taw, and Jennifer Finn for Random House -- "A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past and what we choose to leave behind, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here and the bestselling author of She's Not There."

• Endless Summer: Stories By: Elin Hilderbrand, read by Erin Bennett for Little, Brown and Company -- "In this dazzling collection, Elin Hilderbrand offers nine delicious stories—prequels, sequels, and "missing chapters" from her cherished books—some of which have never been published, until now."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• The Thousand Earths By: Stephen Baxter, read by Caitlin Shannon, David Monteith for Gollancz -- "In 2145AD John Hackett's adventure is just beginning. In Year 30, Mela's story is coming to a close. Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller—beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back—but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, to get a close-up look at the constellation which will eventually crash into the Milky Way, and give humanity a heads-up about the challenges which are coming. A mission which will take him five million years to complete. Not only is Hackett exploring unknown space, but he will return to a vastly different time. Mela's world is coming to an end. Erosion is eating away at the edges of every landmass—first at a rate of ten metres a year, but fast accelerating, displacing people and animals as the rising Tide destroys everything in its path. Putting more and more pressure on the people—and resources—which remain. She and her people have always known that this long-predicted end to their home, one of the Thousand Earths, is coming—but that makes their fight to survive, to protect each other, no less desperate . . . and no less doomed."

• New Arcadia: Revolution By: Eric Jason Martin, read by Eric Jason Martin, Matthew Mercer, Erika Ishii, Sam Riegel, Dave Fennoy, Marin Ireland, January LaVoy, James Urbaniak, Emily Lynne, and a full cast for Sound Off -- "In the not-so-distant future, a deadly plague has forced billions into their homes, and locked them up tight. Hope may soon arrive in the form of an effective new cure from the mega-global Chum Corporation, but not before they decide their customers are ready for it. That’s why they’ve created New Arcadia—a real-as-life virtual-reality game designed to bring the isolated people of the world together again."

• The Story of the Hundred Promises By: Neil Cochrane, read by Em Grosland for Blackstone -- "Trans sailor Darragh Thorn has made a comfortable life for himself among people who love and accept him. Ten years after his exile from home, though, his sister asks him to reconcile with their ailing father. Determined to resolve his feelings rather than just survive them, Darragh sets off on a quest to find the one person who can heal a half-dead man: the mysterious enchanter who once gave him the magic he needed to become his true self. But so far as anyone knows, no one but Darragh has seen the enchanter for a century, and the fairy tales that survive about em give more cause for fear than hope. In lush and evocative prose, and populated with magical trees and a wise fox."

• A Long Shadow: An Antonia Conti Thriller, Book 1 By: David Beckler, read by Anniwaa Buachie for Brilliance -- "The constant threat of terrorism has left London under round-the-clock surveillance and in the tightening grip of privatised security firms. Journalist Antonia Conti suspects one such organisation—GRM—not only of being behind several women’s disappearances, but of financing the widespread violence it claims to fight. When a gang of hitmen use rampant state surveillance to track Antonia down, she narrowly escapes with her life. But then one of them turns up dead—covered in her DNA—and Antonia finds herself the prime suspect in his murder."

• While the Player Sleeps: A Short Science Fiction Story By: Scott Tierney, read by Rachael Warren-Allen -- "The story of a city where each and every inhabitant, as though the individual teeth of a single cog which drives a vast clockwork machine, functions selflessly for their one ultimate master: The player."

YOUNG ADULT WATCH:

• After Dark with Roxie Clark By: Brooke Lauren Davis, read by Jordan Killam for Dreamscape -- "Roxie Clark has seen more dead bodies than your average seventeen-year-old. As a member of the supposedly-cursed Clark family, most of her ancestors have met tragic ends, including her own mother. Instead of fearing the curse, however, Roxie has combined her flair for performance and her gruesome family history into a successful ghost tour. But her tour never covers the most recent body she's seen—her sister Skylar's boyfriend, Colin Riley, found murdered in a cornfield. A year after the murder, Roxie's desperate to help Skylar find closure and start to heal. Instead, Skylar becomes fixated on finding the killer. As the sisters dig into what really happened, they discover that more than one person has been lying about that night. And the closer they get to the truth, the more Roxie starts to wonder if some scary stories might be better left untold."

MOST MISSING:

• Death in the Mouth: Original Horror by People of Color edited by Sloane Leong and Cassie Hart -- "A collection of horror stories and art showcasing BIPOC and ethnically marginalized storytellers from around the world. You’ll read stories featuring grotesque manifestations of dread, the enveloping sludge of grief, and the insectoid itch of deep-seated fear. Embodiments of mania and displacements of faith. Harrowing ecstasy and debilitating hope. Transgressions of the body, the spirit, and the community. Unique and terrifying alien mythology from the future. Quiet, creeping absurdities. Weird urban legends from secondary worlds."

• Saturnalia by Stephanie Feldman (The Unnamed Press) -- "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."

• Dark Carnivals: Modern Horror and the Origins of American Empire by W. Scott Poole (Counterpoint) -- "The panoramic story of how the horror genre transformed into one of the most incisive critiques of unchecked American imperial power."

• Fight, Magic, Items: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese RPGs in the West by Aidan Moher (Running Press) -- " Take a journey through the history of Japanese role-playing games—from the creators who built it, the games that defined it, and the stories that transformed pop culture and continue to capture the imaginations of millions of fans to this day."

• Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith and Jess Hendel, read by Willow Smith for Random House -- This debut historical epic fantasy was originally scheduled for release today, but suddenly shows not being out until October 2026? Not sure what's going on here!

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 27 September 2022

Posted on 2022-09-27 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow, read by Stefan Rudnicki -- "A call to action for the creative class and labor movement to rally against the power of Big Tech and Big Media." (Note: due to Doctorow's anti-DRM stance, this is not available via Audible.)

• Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel By: Kate Atkinson, read by Jason Watkins for Random House -- "1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost."

• Spells for Forgetting: A Novel By: Adrienne Young, read by Emily Rankin, Dan Bittner, Mark Deakins, Kimberly Farr, Ari Fliakos, Dawn Harvey, Carrington MacDuffie, Kirsten Potter, and Oliver Wyman for Random House -- "A deeply atmospheric story about ancestral magic, an unsolved murder, and a second chance at true love."

• Leech By: Hiron Ennes, read by Abigail Thorn for Macmillan -- "In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies."

• Lark Ascending By: Silas House, read by Charlie Thurston for Algonquin -- "A riveting story of survival and hope, set in the not-too-distant future, about a young man forced to flee the United States and seek refuge across the Atlantic."

• The Door of No Return By: Kwame Alexander, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith for Little, Brown Young Readers -- "Eleven-year-old Kofi Offin dreams of water. Its mysterious, immersive quality. The rich, earthy scent of the current. The clearness, its urgent whisper that beckons with promises and secrets…. Kofi has heard the call on the banks of Upper Kwanta, in the village where he lives. He loves these things above all else: his family, the fireside tales of his father’s father, a girl named Ama, and, of course, swimming. Some say he moves like a minnow, not just an ordinary boy so he’s hoping to finally prove himself in front of Ama and his friends in a swimming contest against his older, stronger cousin. But before this can take place, a festival comes to the villages of Upper and Lower Kwanta and Kofi’s brother is chosen to represent Upper Kwanta in the wrestling contest. Encircled by cheering spectators and sounding drums, the two wrestlers from different villages kneel, ready to fight."

• Glorious Fiends By: Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, read by Amy Scanlon for Recorded Books -- "When infamous hot mess vampire Roxanne resurrects her deceased best friends, she's confronted by a dream-dwelling Guardian of the Underworld, who demands that she replace them in his afterlife with three equally nefarious creatures—or he'll drag her there instead. Reunited with Medusa and Mx. Hyde, Roxanne and her macabre girl gang must become monster hunters themselves and fight for the future of their friendship.Gory, sexy, silly, touching—Glorious Fiends asks who the real monsters are, and if the bonds that we think are solely human are really ours alone. This Homer-inspired odyssey is a nostalgic trip through '80s horror tropes—with modern sensibilities."

• We Spread By: Iain Reid, read by Robin Miles for Simon and Schuster -- "Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents”. Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?"

• One Dark Window By: Rachel Gillig, read by Lisa Cordileone for Orbit -- "For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a dark, lushly gothic fantasy about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom. But the monster in her head isn't the only threat lurking."

• Beyond the Burn Line By: Paul McAuley, read by Neville Watchurst for Gollancz -- "In the deep future beyond the burn line of the Anthropocene and the extinction of humanity, the city states of an intelligent species of bear have fallen to a mind-wrecking plague. The bears' former slaves, a peaceable, industrious and endlessly curious people, believe that they have inherited the bounty and beauty of their beloved Mother Earth. But are they alone?"

• The Genesis of Misery By: Neon Yang, read by Livvie Linn for Macmillan -- "An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy, Neon Yang's debut novel The Genesis of Misery is full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs."

• The Demons Beneath: D.I. Graves, Book 1 By: WD Jackson-Smart, read by Ralph Lister for Dreamscape -- "When a bloody corpse is discovered in a North London park, Detective Inspector Daniel Graves is the man tasked with finding the killer. However, with no clues and no suspects, the case seems like a dead end. Then another body turns up—and this time, it looks like it could be Graves’s fault. Has his investigation caused the murderer to strike again? Is he dealing with a serial killer? As the case gets ever more complicated, a report comes in of another suspicious death—but this is nothing like any other Graves has dealt with. All involved are convinced that something supernatural is to blame: a demon. Graves is no believer, but could he be wrong? With two cases on his shoulders and the truth behind each beyond his grasp, Graves must race against time before both killers—human or otherwise—strike again."

• The Wehrwolf: A Short Story By: Alma Katsu, read by Jim Boeven for Amazon Original Stories -- "Germany, 1945. In the waning days of World War II, the Nazis have been all but defeated. Uwe Fuchs, never a fighter, feels fortunate to have avoided the front lines as he cared for his widowed mother. But Uwe’s fortune changes when Hans Sauer, the village bully, recruits him to join a guerilla resistance unit preparing for the arrival of Allied soldiers. At first, Uwe is wary. The war is lost, and rumor has it that Hans is a deserter. But Hans entices him with talk of power, brutality, and their village’s ancestral lore: werewolves."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Growing Up Weightless By: John M. Ford (1993), read by John Skelley for Recorded Books -- "Out of print for over two decades, an award-winning classic of a “lost generation” of young people born on the human-colonized Moon. With a new introduction by Spufford, author of Red Plenty and Golden Hill.

• Blue Shift: Second Species, Book 1 By: Jane O'Reilly (2017), read by Catrin Walker-Booth for Audible -- "2187. Earth is cold, dead and divided. The rich hide away while the rest will do anything to survive. Humanity have only one hope: crossing hostile alien territory to reach a habitable planet."

• Insurrection: Nevermore, Book 1 By: Sherrilyn Kenyon (1985), read by Fred Berman for Tantor -- "Brought to us by the Drabs, it was the last thing we expected. But the Drabs knew. They even fought a war over whether or not they should save us. In the end, it was decided that we were diseased insects who were unfit to breathe their air. So they left the human race to die a miserable death of agonizing pain in a matter of months. Left us with no doctors or medicine. Their plan was to rid the earth of us and to take our home as their own. What they never expected was the change that would come after the plague. We didn't all die off as they'd planned. Those under the age of twenty somehow managed to survive the disease."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Golden Enclaves: The Scholomance, Book 3 By: Naomi Novik, read by Anisha Dadia for Random House -- "Saving the world is a test no school of magic can prepare you for in the triumphant conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate."

• Cold Water By: Dave Hutchinson, read by Lexie McDougall for Penguin -- In the same universe as Hutchinson's magnificent Fractured Europe (Europe in Autumn, Europe at Midnight, Europe at Dawn). "In a Europe fractured by a flu pandemic and crippled by economic collapse, the continent has fractured into a hundred tiny principalities of ever-shifting loyalties, borders and covert operations. For Carey Tews, a former operative with Les Coureurs des Bois—a clandestine organisation of high-risk smugglers—Europe and the coureurs are in her past. Her legend in Hungary is blown six way from Sunday, and even if she could go back to working in Europe, she wouldn't. That is until an old friend and lover is declared dead in mysterious circumstances. What she doesn't know is that the investigation will take her to places she couldn't even imagine."

• House of Hunger By: Alexis Henderson, read by Jeanette Illidge for Penguin -- "A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power in this dark and enthralling Gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching."

• The Winners: Beartown, Book 3 By: Fredrik Backman, read by Marin Ireland for Simon and Schuster -- "Returns to the close-knit, resilient community of Beartown for a story about first loves, second chances, and last goodbyes. Over the course of two weeks, everything in Beartown will change."

• Suspect: Kindle County, Book 12 By: Scott Turow, read by Helen Laser for Grand Central -- "For as long as Lucia Gomez has been the police chief in the city of Highland Isle, near Kindle County, she has known that any woman in law enforcement must walk a precarious line between authority and camaraderie to gain respect. She has maintained a spotless reputation—until now."

• Hell's March: Artillerymen, Book 2 By: Taylor Anderson Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan for Penguin -- "Major Lewis Cayce will need to use every weapon in his arsenal to keep his stranded men alive on a deadly alternate Earth in this gripping new adventure set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Destroyermen series."

• The Vorbis Conspiracy: Warhammer Crime, Book 3 By: Jude Reid, Noah Van Nguyen, Guy Haley, Graham McNeill, Darius Hinks, Alec Worley, and Chris Wraight Narrated by: Helen Keeley, Phillip Sacramento, Richard Reed, Tom Alexander, Greg Jones, Harry Myers, and Charles Armstrong for Black Library -- "Return to the mean streets of Varangantua for another taste of just how grim life can be for the average Imperial citizen in the 41st Millennium."

MORE FICTION:

• The Furrows: A Novel By: Namwali Serpell, read by Kristen Ariza, Ryan Vincent Anderson, and Dion Graham for Random House -- "Cassandra Williams is twelve; her little brother, Wayne, is seven. One day, when they’re alone together, there is an accident and Wayne is lost forever. His body is never recovered. The missing boy cleaves the family with doubt. Their father leaves, starts another family elsewhere. But their mother can’t give up hope and launches an organization dedicated to missing children. As C grows older, she sees her brother everywhere: in bistros, airplane aisles, subway cars. Here is her brother’s face, the light in his eyes, the way he seems to recognize her, too. But it can’t be, of course. Or can it? Then one day, in another accident, C meets a man both mysterious and familiar, a man who is also searching for someone and for his own place in the world. His name is Wayne."

• Best of Friends: A Novel By: Kamila Shamsie, read by Tania Rodrigues for Penguin -- "Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since childhood in Karachi, even though—or maybe because—they are unlike in nearly every way. Yet they never speak of the differences in their backgrounds or their values, not even after the fateful night when a moment of adolescent impulse upends their plans for the future. Three decades later, Zahra and Maryam have grown into powerful women who have each cut a distinctive path through London. But when two troubling figures from their past resurface, they must finally confront their bedrock differences—and find out whether their friendship can survive."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• The Dark King: Deviant Kings, Book 1 By: Gina L. Maxwell, read by Aiden Snow and Avery Reid for Recorded Books -- "NY Times bestselling author Gina L. Maxwell is back with the first in the Deviant Kings series set in a modern world but with a dark, erotic fantasy twist perfect for fans of Neon Gods."

• Tantalus Depths By: Evan Graham, read by Andi Arndt for Audible -- "An AI cannot lie. An AI must obey human commands. An AI cannot kill. These are the laws SCARAB has broken, and only Mary knows. The Tantalus 13 survey expedition went off the rails as soon as Mary Ketch and the crew of the Diamelen learned that the thing beneath their feet wasn’t a planet. An impossibly vast and ancient artificial structure lies below, hidden from the universe under a façade of cratered stone."

• Foul Lady Fortune By: Chloe Gong, read by Emily Woo Zeller for Simon and Schuster -- "From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends comes the first book in a captivating new duology following an ill-matched pair of spies posing as a married couple to investigate a series of brutal murders in 1930s Shanghai."

MOST MISSING:

• The Swill by Michael Keenan Gutierrez (Leapfrog Press) -- "Port Kydd, 1929. Joshua Rivers, his pregnant wife Lily, his criminal sister Olive, a geriatric dog Orla, and a cast of ne'er-do-wells eke out life in The Swill, a speakeasy passed down through the Rivers family. Outside, political and race wars rage in The Bonny, the rough Irish neighborhood where they have always lived. But when Olive's in trouble and asks her brother to help her pull a job--one with roots that reach way back into the Rivers family history--who will take the fall? Can The Swill shelter the family, as it always has, or is their luck gone for good?"

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 20 September 2022

Posted on 2022-09-20 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Expect Me Tomorrow By: Christopher Priest, read by Charles Armstrong for Gollancz -- "A petty thief known as John Smith was arrested for fraudulent behaviour in 1877. He tricked women into thinking he was rich, then stole their belongings and vanished. His guilt was obvious. In 1852, Adler and Adolf Beck's father died on an expedition to a glacier, and their lives separated. One became a respected climate scientist, one a successful opera singer touring the world. Or so he claimed. But both remained in touch, if only to share the mysterious voices only they could hear. Charles Ramsey also has a twin. It is 2050, and Greg is a journalist reporting on the climate-change inspired conflicts around the world. When Charles is made redundant from his job as a profiler for the police and sent home with a new experimental chip in his head, he is urged by his brother to explore a little-known aspect of their family history. All of these people are connected. All of their lives will intersect. And the climate of their world will keep on changing."

• Valley of Shadows: A Novel By: Rudy Ruiz, read by Gary Tiedemann for Blackstone -- "A visionary neo-Western blend of magical realism, mystery, and horror, Valley of Shadows sheds light on the dark past of injustice, isolation, and suffering along the US-Mexico border."

• The Witch and the Tsar By: Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, read by Katia Kapustin for Penguin -- "In this stunning debut novel, the maligned and immortal witch of legend known as Baba Yaga will risk all to save her country and her people from Tsar Ivan the Terrible—and the dangerous gods who seek to drive the twisted hearts of men."

• Ghost Eaters: A Novel By: Clay McLeod Chapman, read by Elisabeth Rodgers for Blackstone -- "When Erin learns that Silas discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead, she doesn’t believe it’s real but agrees to a pill-popping “séance” to ease her guilt and pain. When she steps back into the real world, she starts to see ghosts everywhere from her Southern hometown’s bloody and brutal past. Are the effects pharmacological or something more sinister? And will Erin be able to shut the Pandora’s box of horrors she has opened?"

• Daphne: A Novel By: Josh Malerman, read by Patricia Santomasso for Random House -- "Horror has a new name. A brutal, enigmatic woman stalks a high school basketball team in a reimagining of the slasher genre by the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box."

• Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization by Neil deGrasse Tyson, read by the author for Macmillan -- "Shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time—war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race—in a way that stimulates a deeper sense of unity for us all."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Dao of Drizzt By: R. A. Salvatore, read by Victor Bevine for Harper -- "For over 30 years, Drizzt Do'Urden has been one of the most important characters in fantasy literature. Throughout his novels, Drizzt has written down his thoughts about life and love, the nature of good and evil, the joys (and frustrations) of family, and so much more. Bound together for the first time, the collected wisdom and philosophy of Drizzt will be complete with an introduction by best-selling fantasy author Evan Winter, for his biggest fans and listeners wanting to learn about this iconic figure."

• Weird Tales: Issue 365, read by a full cast for Dreamscape -- "Featuring all-new tales of dark fantasy, cosmic horror, supernatural revenge, and the sorcery of terror from masters of the craft. Alma Katsu, Heather Graham, Maurice Broaddus, Fran Wilde, Priya Sharma, Yvonne Navarro, Jake Bible, Gabrielle Faust."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• O Caledonia: A Novel By: Elspeth Barker (1991), read by Eilidh Beaton for Simon and Schuster -- "In the tradition of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a darkly humorous modern classic of Scottish literature about a doomed adolescent growing up in the mid-19th century—featuring a new introduction by Maggie O’Farrell, award-winning author of Hamnet."

• Vanara: The Legend of Baali, Sugreeva and Tara By: Anand Neelakantan (2018), read by Siddhanta Pinto for Penguin -- "Baali and Sugreeva of the Vana Nara tribe were orphan brothers who were born in abject poverty and grew up as slaves like most of their fellow tribesmen. They were often mocked as the vanaras, the monkey men. Sandwiched between the never-ending war between the Deva tribes in the north and the Asura tribes in the south, the Vana Naras seemed to have lost all hope. But Baali was determined not to die a slave. Aided by his beloved brother, Sugreeva, Baali built a country for his people."

MORE FICTION:

• The Complicities By: Stacey D'Erasmo, read by Xe Sands for Algonquin -- "A haunting and emotionally affecting story about a woman trying to rebuild her life after her husband’s arrest, and what she knew—or pretended not to know—about where their family’s money came from."

• Three Muses By: Martha Anne Toll, read by Marie Hoffman for OrangeSky -- "In post-WWII New York, John Curtin suffers lasting damage from having been forced to sing for the concentration camp kommandant who murdered his family. John trains to be a psychiatrist, struggling to wrest his life from his terror of music and his past. Katya Symanova climbs the arduous path to Prima Ballerina of the New York State Ballet, becoming enmeshed in an abusive relationship with her choreographer, who makes Katya a star but controls her life. When John receives a ticket to attend a ballet featuring Katya Symanova, a spell is cast."

• The Book of Goose: A Novel By: Yiyun Li, read by Caroline Hewitt for Macmillan -- "A magnificent, beguiling tale winding from the postwar rural provinces to Paris, from an English boarding school, to the quiet Pennsylvania home where a woman can live without her past, The Book of Goose is a story of disturbing intimacy and obsession, of exploitation and strength of will, by the celebrated author Yiyun Li."

• Dreamland: A Novel by Nicholas Sparks, read by Austin Nichols for Books on Tape -- "Colby Mills once felt destined for a musical career, until tragedy grounded his aspirations. Now the head of a small family farm in North Carolina, he spontaneously takes a gig playing at a bar in St. Pete Beach, Florida, seeking a rare break from his duties at home. But when he meets Morgan Lee, his world is turned upside-down, making him wonder if the responsibilities he has shouldered need dictate his life forever. The daughter of affluent Chicago doctors, Morgan has graduated from a prestigious college music program with the ambition to move to Nashville and become a star. Romantically and musically, she and Colby complete each other in a way that neither has ever known."

• The Old Place By: Bobby Finger, read by Barrie Kreinik for Penguin -- "A bighearted and moving debut about a wry retired schoolteacher whose decade-old secret threatens to come to light and send shockwaves through her small Texas town."

• Lucy by the Sea: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout, read by Kimberly Farr for Books on Tape -- "From Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout comes a poignant, pitch-perfect novel about a divorced couple stuck together during lockdown—and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• Imaginings By: Julie E. Czerneda, read by Alex Picard for Tantor -- "If you know me only from my novels, welcome to the darker, deeper corners of my imagination."

• Only Bad Options: Galactic Bonds, Book 1 By: Jennifer Estep, read by Lauren Fortgang and James Fouhey for Audible -- "Few people know the name Vesper Quill. To most folks, I’m just a lowly lab rat who designs brewmakers and other household appliances in the research-and-development lab at the powerful Kent Corp. But when I point out a design flaw and a safety hazard in the new line of Kent Corp spaceships, everyone knows who I am—and wants to eliminate me."

• Full Immersion By: Gemma Amor, read by the author for Angry Robot -- "A traumatized woman with amnesia finds her own dead body and sets out to uncover the truth of her demise in a race against time, sanity, crumbling realities and the ever-present threat of the Silhouette."

• The Girl in the Castle by James Patterson and Emily Raymond, read by Barrie Kreinik for Hachette -- "NOW: Hannah Doe is brought to Belman Psych, kicking and screaming, told she is suffering from hallucinations and delusions. 1347: Hannah Dory and her village are starving to death in a brutal winter. Hannah seeks out food and salvation in the baron's castle. If she is caught stealing, she will surely hang. NOW: Hannah knows the truth: she is Hannah Doe and Hannah Dory, and she must return to the past before it's too late to save her sister. Can Jordan, the Abnormal-Psych student who seems to truly care, be the one to finally help her?"

YOUNG ADULT WATCH:

• Rust in the Root By: Justina Ireland, read by Jordan Cobb for Harper -- "The author of the visionary New York Times bestseller Dread Nation returns with another spellbinding historical fantasy set at the crossroads of race and power in America."

• Bone Weaver By: Aden Polydoros, read by Emily Woo Zeller for Harlequin -- "From the author of The City Beautiful comes a haunting fantasy following Toma, adopted daughter of the benevolent undead, making her way across a civil-war-torn continent to save her younger sister as she discovers she might possess magical powers herself."

• The Vanquishers By: Kalynn Bayron, read by Ecstasia Sanders for Bloomsbury -- "Malika “Boog” Wilson and her best friends have grown up idolizing The Vanquishers, a group of heroic vampire hunters who wiped out the last horde of the undead decades ago. Nowadays, most people don't take even the most basic vampire precautions—the days of garlic wreaths and early curfews long gone—but Boog’s parents still follow the old rules, much to her embarrassment. When a friend goes missing, Boog isn't sure what to think. Could it be the school counselor, Mr. Rupert, who definitely seems to be hiding something? Or could it be something more dangerous? Boog is determined to save her friend, but is she ready to admit vampires might not be vanquished after all?"

MOST MISSING:

• The Unbalancing: A Birdverse Novel by R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon) -- " In this first full-length novel from the acclaimed Birdverse, new love blossoms between an impatient starkeeper and a reclusive poet as they try together to save their island home. Nebula, Locus, and Ignyte finalist R. B. Lemberg (The Four Profound Weaves) has crafted a gorgeous tale of the inevitable transformations of communities and their worlds. The Unbalancing is rooted in the mystical cosmology, neurodiversity, and queerness that infuses Lemberg’s lyrical prose, which has invited glowing comparisons to N. K. Jemisin, Patricia A. McKillip, and Ursula K. Le Guin."

• We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow: And Other Stories by Margaret Killjoy (AK Press) -- "Spaceships, man-eating mermaids, swords, demons, ghouls, thieves, hitchhikers, and life in the margins. Margaret Killjoy’s stories have appeared for years in science fiction and fantasy magazines both major and indie. Here, we have collected the best previously published work along with brand new material. Ranging in theme and tone, these imaginative tales bring the reader on a wild and moving ride. They’ll encounter a hacker who programs drones to troll CEOs into quitting; a group of LARPers who decide to live as orcs in the burned forests of Oregon; queer, teen love in a death cult; the terraforming of a climate-changed Earth; polyamorous love on an anarchist tea farm during the apocalypse; and much more. Killjoy writes fearless, mind-expanding fiction."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 13 September 2022

Posted on 2022-09-13 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions By: Randall Munroe, read by Wil Wheaton for Penguin -- "The #1 New York Times bestselling author of What If? and How To answers more of the weirdest questions you never thought to ask."

• Lessons By: Ian McEwan, read by Simon McBurney for Recorded Books -- "When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life."

• Act of Oblivion: A Novel By: Robert Harris, read by Tim McInnerny for Harper -- "From the best-selling author of Fatherland, The Ghostwriter, Munich, and Conclave comes this spellbinding historical novel that brilliant imagines one of the greatest manhunts in history: the search for two Englishmen involved in the killing of King Charles I and the implacable foe on their trail—an epic journey into the wilds of 17th-century New England, and a chase like no other."

• All That's Left Unsaid: A Novel By: Tracey Lien, read by Aileen Huynh, Yen Nguyen, and Amelia Nguyen for Harper -- "For fans of Everything I Never Told You and The Mothers, a deeply moving and unflinching debut following a young Vietnamese Australian woman who returns home to her family in the wake of her brother’s shocking murder, determined to discover what happened—a dramatic exploration of the intricate bonds and obligations of friendship, family, and community."

• Thistlefoot: A Novel By: GennaRose Nethercott, read by January LaVoy for Random House -- "The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive a mysterious inheritance, the siblings are reunited—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs. "

• The Butcher By: Laura Kat Young, read by Amanda Dolan for Blackstone -- "When Lady Mae turns eighteen, she’ll inherit her mother’s ghastly job as the Butcher: dismembering Settlement Five’s guilty criminals as payment for their petty crimes. But then their leaders, known as the Deputies, come to Lady Mae’s house, and there in the living room they murder her mother for refusing to butcher a child. Within twenty-four hours, now alone in the world, Lady Mae begins her gruesome job. But a chance meeting years later puts her face to face with the Deputy that murdered her mother. Now Lady Mae must choose: Will she flee and start another life in the desolate mountains, forever running? Or will she seek vengeance for her mother’s death even if it kills her?"

• Silver Under Nightfall By: Rin Chupeco, read by Matthew Spencer for Simon and Schuster -- "Remy Pendergast is many things: the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne (though his father might wish otherwise), an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she eloped with a vampire, giving rise to the rumors that Remy is half-vampire himself. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost."

• Bindle Punk Bruja: A Novel By: Desideria Mesa, read by Frankie Corzo for Harper -- "Boardwalk Empire meets The Vanishing Half with a touch of earth magic in this sexy and action-packed historical fantasy set in the luminous Golden Twenties from debut author Desideria Mesa, where a part-time reporter and club owner takes on crooked city councilmen, mysterious and deadly mobsters, and society’s deeply rooted sexism and racism, all while keeping her true identity and magical abilities hidden—inspired by an ancient Mexican folktale."

• Notorious Sorcerer By: Davinia Evans, read by Kirsten Foster for Orbit -- "In a city filled with dangerous yet heavily regulated alchemical magic, a man from the slums discovers he may be its only hope to survive certain destruction in this wickedly entertaining fantasy."

• The Book Haters' Book Club By: Gretchen Anthony, read by Tanya Eby for Harlequin -- "As the beloved co-owner of Over the Rainbow Bookshop, Elliot was passionate about and gifted in recommending books to customers. Now, after his sudden death, his grief-ridden business partner, Irma, has agreed to sell Over the Rainbow to a developer who will turn the cozy bookshop into high-rise condos. But others won’t give up the bookshop without a fight. When Irma breaks the news to her daughters, Bree and Laney, and Elliott’s romantic partner, Thom, they are aghast. Over the Rainbow has been Bree and Laney’s sanctuary since childhood, and Thom would do anything to preserve Elliott’s legacy. Together, Thom, Bree and Laney conspire to save the bookshop, even if it takes some snooping, gossip and minor sabotage."

• I Walk Between the Raindrops: Stories By: T.C. Boyle, read by T.C. Boyle, Cheryl Smith, Jason Culp, Derek Perkins, Jeremy Arthur, Stephen Mendel, Johnathan McClain, Ewan Chung, Pete Simonelli, David de Vries, Nan McNamara, and Rex Anderson for Harper -- "An electric collection of new short stories from the inimitable, bestselling writer of Talk to Me and Outside Looking In."

SERIES WATCH:

• Nona the Ninth: Locked Tomb, Book 3 By: Tamsyn Muir, read by Moira Quirk for Recorded Books -- "In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona's not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back. The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but she also knows that nothing lasts forever. And each night, Nona dreams of a woman with a skull-painted face..."

• In the Coils of the Labyrinth: Arkham Horror Series, Book 10 By: David Annandale, read by Jennifer Jill Araya for Tantor -- "Professor Miranda Ventham is having bad dreams—nothing new in 1920s Arkham—but hers are horrifying glimpses of a dark future. Now seriously ill, she books herself into the new sanatorium, Stroud Home."

• Be the Serpent: October Daye, Book 16 By: Seanan McGuire, read by Mary Robinette Kowal for Audible -- "October Daye is finally something she never expected to be: married."

• Star Trek: Picard: Second Self By: Una McCormack, read by January LaVoy for Simon and Schuster -- "Following the explosive events seen in season one of Star Trek: Picard, Raffi Musiker finds herself torn between returning to her old life as a Starfleet Intelligence officer or something a little more tame—teaching at the Academy, perhaps. The decision is made for her though when a message from an old contact—a Romulan spy—is received, asking for immediate aid. With the help of Elnor and assistance from Jean-Luc Picard, Raffi decides to take on this critical mission—and quickly learns that past sins never stay buried. Finding the truth will be complicated, and deadly."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• The Spider's House: A Novel By: Paul Bowles (1955), read by Cheryl Smith and Raphael Corkhill for Harper -- "Set in Fez, Morocco, during that country's 1954 nationalist uprising, The Spider's House is perhaps Paul Bowles' most beautifully subtle novel, richly descriptive of its setting and uncompromising in its characterizations. Exploring once again the dilemma of the outsider in an alien society, and the gap in understanding between cultures—recurrent themes of Paul Bowles' writings—The Spider's House is dramatic, brutally honest, and shockingly relevant to today's political situation in the Middle East and elsewhere."

• 1812: The Rivers of War (Trail of Glory, Book 1) By: Eric Flint (2005), read by Franklin Pierson for Recorded Books -- "In this alternate history of the American frontier and the Jacksonian era, a small change takes place in the Battle of the Horseshoe Bend during the War of 1812. What results is a cascade of new developments that becomes an avalanche. In our world, Ensign Sam Houston, just turned 21, led the charge on the creek barricade in that battle and almost died from a terrible wound that took him a year to recover from. In this world, his wound is minor, so he is able to continue fighting the British—and develop his close relationship with Andrew Jackson much sooner."

• In One Fell Swoop By: Willow Rose (2017), read by Kendra Lee Oberhauser for Dreamscape -- "Every now and then, Mother Nature likes to show us who is boss. On a hot day in June, two groups of campers disappear in the Green Swamps of Florida. The wood is still burning in the bonfire, all their belongings are abandoned, and there is blood at the campground. But not a single body is found. Patty McGee, the grandmother to one of the missing campers, sets out to find out what happened to her grandson, thinking his father might have kidnapped him. However, soon she realizes she is up against a force way more powerful than that."

• Lost Things: The Order of the Air, Book 1 By: Melissa Scott and Jo Graham (2012), read by Joshua Saxon for Crossroad Press -- Replaces the 2012 John Lee narration, I'm assuming/hoping that this is because Saxon has been tapped to narrate more books in the series? "In 1929, archeologists began draining Lake Nemi in search of the mysterious ships that have been glimpsed beneath its waters since the reign of Claudius. What they awakened had been drowned for 2,000 years. For a very good reason."

INDIE WATCH:

• River of Shadows: Underworld Gods Series, Book 1 By: Karina Halle, read by Jo Raylan for Tantor -- Narrator Xe Sands under her 'Raylan' name so things are going to get spicy: "When twenty-four-year old Hanna Heikkinen's estranged father dies, she reluctantly makes the trip to Northern Finland for his funeral. Being in the enchanting land of ice and snow feels miles away from Hanna's busy life back in Los Angeles, especially under the complicated circumstances. But when Hanna discovers that her father's body is missing, that's when things really get weird. A mysterious man, Rasmus, tells Hanna the truth: her father was a powerful shaman who went into Tuonela, the Realm of the Dead, in order to barter for more life, and has been held captive by Tuoni, the God of Death. The only way her father can be freed is if she travels with Rasmus into the mythical underworld to rescue him."

• Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons By: Quenby Olson, read by Zara Ramm for Podium -- "Miss Mildred Percy is a spinster. She does not dance, she has long stopped dreaming, and she certainly does not have adventures. That is, until her great uncle has the audacity to leave her an inheritance, one that includes a dragon’s egg. The egg—as eggs are wont to do—decides to hatch, and Miss Mildred Percy is suddenly thrust out of the role of “spinster and general wallflower” and into the unprecedented position of “spinster and keeper of dragons.” But England has not seen a dragon since…well, ever. And now Mildred must contend with raising a dragon (that should not exist), kindling a romance (with a humble vicar), and embarking on an adventure she never thought could be hers for the taking."

MOST MISSING:

• Malarkoi: Cities Of The Weft, Book 2 by Alex Pheby (Galley Beggar Press) -- "Nathan Treeves is dead, murdered by the Master of Mordew, his remains used to create the powerful occult weapon known as the Tinderbox. His companions are scattered, making for Malarkoi, the city of the Mistress, the Master’s enemy. They are hoping to find welcome there, or at least safety. They find neither – and instead become embroiled in a life and death struggle against assassins, demi-gods, and the cunning plans of the Mistress. Only Sirius, Nathan’s faithful magical dog, has not forgotten the boy."

• The Hamptonville Hauntings: Ghosts of the Trivette Clinic by Alex Matsuo with a foreword by Mortellus -- "In the rural area of Iredell County in the town of Hamptonville, North Carolina, sits one of the most haunted buildings in the South. The Trivette Clinic has acquired its own collection of ghosts since it opened in 1932, beginning as a hospital, becoming a supper club, a detox center, a nursing home and in the end, a residence. From reported paranormal activity tied to nurses, former patients, and mysterious children, it has both terrified and intrigued those who dare to walk through its doors."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 6 September 2022

Posted on 2022-09-06 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Fairy Tale By: Stephen King, read by Seth Numrich for Simon and Schuster -- "The legendary storyteller goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for that world or ours."

• Ithaca: The Songs of Penelope, Book 1 By: Claire North, read by Catrin Walker-Booth for Redhook -- "A daring reimagining that breathes life into ancient myth and gives voice to the women who stand defiant in a world ruled by ruthless men. It’s time for the women of Ithaca to tell their tale."

• Solito: A Memoir By: Javier Zamora, read by the author for Random House -- "A young poet tells the unforgettable story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this moving memoir hailed as “the mythic journey of our era”."

• Luda: A Novel By: Grant Morrison, read by Vikas Adam for Random House -- "A drag queen initiates her protégée into the magical arts in this phantasmagoric epic, the first novel from the legendary comics writer and New York Times bestselling author."

• Book of Extraordinary Tragedies By: Joe Meno, read by Jonathan Todd Ross for Recorded Books -- "Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life. Doomed by fate, a family history of failure, an odd mother, an absent father, and a younger brother with a peculiar fondness for catastrophes, the two siblings have all but given up. But when an illness forces Isobel and her three-year-old daughter to move back into the family home, Aleks becomes deeply involved in the endless challenges that surround his relatives. Once Isobel begins playing cello again, Aleks comes to see a world of possibility and wonder in the lives of his extraordinarily complicated family."

• If I Survive You By: Jonathan Escoffery, read by Torian Brackett for Macmillan -- "A major debut, blazing with style and heart, that follows a Jamaican family striving for more in Miami, and introduces a generational storyteller."

• Boys, Beasts & Men By: Sam J. Miller, read by Graham Halstead, Krystal Hammond, Alex Boyles, Julia Farhat, Thom Rivera, Andrew Gibson, Traber Burns, Mark Sanderlin, Lisa Flanagan, Vikas Adam, Kelsey Navarro, and Kevin Kenerly for Blackstone -- "In Nebula Award-winning author Sam J. Miller’s devastating debut short-fiction collection—featuring an introduction by Amal El-Mohtar—queer infatuation, inevitable heartbreak, and brutal revenge seamlessly intertwine. Whether innocent, guilty, or not even human, the boys, beasts, and men roaming through Miller’s gorgeously crafted worlds can destroy listeners, yet leave them wanting more."

• The Bad Angel Brothers: A Novel By: Paul Theroux, read by Joe Knezevich for Harper -- "From the legendary American master comes a brilliant new novel of chilling psychological depth, the tale of a younger brother whose lifelong rivalry with his older brother—a powerful lawyer with a pattern of gleefully vicious betrayals—culminates in the ultimate plan: murder."

• The Weight of Blood By: Tiffany D. Jackson, read by JD Jackson, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Joy Nash, Christopher Salazar, and Karen Malina White for Harper -- "When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it. An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life. But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives."

• Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires By: Douglas Rushkoff, read by the author for Recorded Books -- "Traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. In a dozen urgent, electrifying chapters, he confronts tech utopianism, the datafication of all human interaction, and the exploitation of that data by corporations. Through fascinating characters—master programmers who want to remake the world from scratch as if redesigning a video game and bankers who return from Burning Man convinced that incentivized capitalism is the solution to environmental disasters—Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change our current trajectory have no interest in doing so. And he shows how recent forms of anti-mainstream rebellion—QAnon, for example, or meme stocks—reinforce the same destructive order."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Martyr: The Covenant of Steel, Book 2 By: Anthony Ryan, read by Steven Brand for Orbit -- "Deadly feuds and ancient secrets spell war."

• Travel by Bullet: The Dispatcher, Book 3 By: John Scalzi, read by Zachary Quinto for Audible Originals -- "When Tony is called to a Chicago emergency room by an old friend and fellow dispatcher, he is suddenly and unwillingly thrown into a whirlpool of schemes and plots involving billions of dollars, with vast caches of wealth ranging from real estate to cryptocurrency up for grabs."

• Days of Blood and Fire: The Westlands, Book 3 By: Katharine Kerr (1993), read by Ruth Urquhart for Tantor -- "In the peaceful land of the Rhiddaer, Jahdo, the rat-catcher's son stumbles upon a secret meeting between a city council man and a dangerous, mysterious woman. Suddenly the boy is tangled in a web of intrigue and black magic that drags him far from home."

• Hell and Back: Longmire Mysteries, Book 18 By: Craig Johnson, read by George Guidall for Recorded Books -- "Picking up where Daughter of the Morning Star left off, the next Longmire novel finds the sheriff digging further into the mysteries of the wandering without—a mythical all-knowing spiritual being that devours souls."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay (1920), read by Peter Noble for Dreamscape -- "Best known for its influence on literary greats such as C. S. Lewis and later J. R. R. Tolkein, A Voyage to Arcturus explores the nature of good and evil by combining fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction."

• The Eyes Have It and Other Stories By: Philip K. Dick, read by JS Arquin for AmazonClassics on Brilliance -- "First published in sci-fi magazines of the 1950s, these early stories from Philip K. Dick showcase the budding author’s uncanny ability to forge strange new paths into alternate realities. Already in command of the themes and techniques he would later employ in his novels, Dick here envisions alien infiltrations, far-off worlds at war, nightmarish totalitarian societies, and uncanny depths lying just beneath seemingly commonplace realities. Fantastical, sinister, paranoid, and darkly amusing, these are seminal works in Dick’s justly celebrated career."

• Old Indian Legends By: Zitkála-Šá (1901), read by Katie Anvil Rich for AmazonClassics on Brilliance -- "In this exquisite collection of children’s folktales, Zitkála-Šá shares the Sioux legends that were handed down to her through generations of Yankton storytellers. These tales display the wide range of insights and observations that accrue to such stories through repeated iteration, but they also benefit from the sharp ear and finely tuned sensibility of Zitkála-Šá as a writer. Her characters seem to speak to us—often crying out to us—in the same tones that Zitkála-Šá must once have heard. Whether or not readers have any previous familiarity with the trickster Iktomi or the many animals who seek to outwit him, Zitkála-Šá’s work has the power to charm, enchant, and enlighten."

• Sand By: Hugh Howey (2014), read by Jeremy Arthur for Harper -- A new omnibus edition ahead of the October-set release of a new novel in the setting: "The old world is buried. A new one has been forged atop the shifting dunes. Here in this land of howling wind and infernal sand, four siblings find themselves scattered and lost. Their father was a sand diver, one of the elite few who could travel deep beneath the desert floor and bring up the relics and scraps that keep their people alive. But their father is gone. And the world he left behind might be next."

MORE FICTION:

• The Attic Child: A Novel by Lola Jaye, read by the author with Lucian Msamati and Nneka Okoye for Harper -- "Early 1900s London: Taken from his homeland, twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of the time locked away in the attic of a large house by the sea. The only time Celestine isn’t bound by confines of the small space is when he is acting as an unpaid servant to English explorer Sir Richard Babbington. As the years pass, he desperately clings on to memories of his family in Africa, even as he struggles to remember his mother’s face, and sometimes his real name. 1974: Lowra, a young orphan girl born into wealth and privilege whose fortunes have now changed, finds herself trapped in the same attic. Searching for a ray of light in the darkness of the attic, Lowra finds under the floorboards an old-fashioned pen, a porcelain doll, a beaded necklace, and a message carved on the wall, written in an unidentifiable language. Providing comfort for her when all hope is lost, these clues will lead her to uncover the secrets of the attic."

• Killers of a Certain Age By: Deanna Raybourn, read by Jane Oppenheimer and Christina Delaine for Penguin -- "They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're 60 years old, four women friends can’t just retire—it’s kill or be killed."

• The Marriage Portrait: A Novel By: Maggie O'Farrell, read by Genevieve Gaunt and the author for Random House -- "From the author of the breakout New York Times best seller Hamnet—winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award—an electrifying new novel set in Renaissance Italy, and centering on the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de Medici."

• The Enigma Affair: A Novel By: Charlie Lovett, read by Nicol Zanzarella for Blackstone -- "In this propulsive historical thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Escaping Dreamland, a librarian and a professional assassin team up to solve a seventy-five-year-old Nazi mystery and stop a nefarious opponent from wreaking havoc on the world."

MORE SCI-FI, FANTASY, and HORROR:

• Lost in Time By: A.G. Riddle, read by John Skelley for Recorded Books -- "From the worldwide bestselling author of The Extinction Trials, Departure, and The Atlantis Gene comes a new kind of sci-fi thriller: a time-travel murder mystery with a twist you'll never see coming. Control the Past. Save the Future."

• Kraken Calling: A Novel By: Aric McBay, read by Eleanor Caudill for Tantor -- "In 2028, environmental activists hesitate to take the fight to the extreme of violent revolution. Twenty years later, with the natural environment now seriously degraded, the revolution is brought to the activists, rather than the other way around, by an authoritarian government willing to resort to violence and willing to let the majority suffer from hunger and poverty in order to control its citizens when the government can no longer provide them with a decent quality of life."

• Exiles: Exiles, Book 1 By: Ashley Saunders and Leslie Saunders, read by Aida Reluzco for Brilliance -- "An experiment in survival awaits estranged twin sisters in a thrilling science fiction adventure by the authors of The Rule of One series."

• Norylska Groans By: Michael R. Fletcher and Clayton W. Snyder, read by Curt Bonnem for Tantor -- "In a city where winter reigns amid the fires of industry and war, soot and snow conspire to conceal centuries of death and deception. Katyusha Leonova, desperate to restore her family name, takes a job with Norylska's brutal police force. To support his family, Genndy Antonov finds bloody work with a local crime syndicate. As bodies fall, the two discover a foul truth hidden beneath layers of deception and violence: Come the thaw, what was buried will be revealed."

• Lemuria By: Greig Beck, read by Sean Mangan for Bolinda -- "On a desolate beach in far northern Scotland, the winter storms have been washing up all manner of things since time began. But buried in the centre of one smaller iceberg is a shard of ancient Viking pottery telling a partial tale of a hidden mysterious island beyond the ice and mist, that was home to a great treasure and even greater horrors. Thawing in the same block of ice was a rotting flap of skin that refused to be identified but had similar skin patterns to a creature not seen for 100 million years. Now, Troy Strom and the enigmatic Elle Burgan race to find the mysterious island of legend, while staying ahead of a group of brutal killers who claim to be the rightful owners of the greatest prize of all—Odin’s heart."

• Vamps: Fresh Blood By: Nicole Arend, read by Gerard Logan for Simon and Schuster -- "Welcome to VAMPS, an elite academy in the Swiss Alps for the children of the wealthiest and most powerful vampire families."

• Our Shadows Have Claws: 15 Latin American Monster Stories eidted by Yamile Saied Méndez and Amparo Ortiz, read by Frankie Corzo and Marisa Blake for Algonquin -- "From zombies to cannibals to death incarnate, this cross-genre anthology offers something for every monster lover. In Our Shadows Have Claws, bloodthirsty vampires are hunted by a quick-witted slayer; children are stolen from their beds by “el viejo de la bolsa” while a military dictatorship steals their parents; and anyone you love, absolutely anyone, might be a shapeshifter waiting to hunt."

INDIE WATCH:

• A River Divided By: George Paxinos, read by Emma Grant Williams for Heads and Tales -- "Evelyn, a geneticist and amateur archeologist, makes a formidable discovery in Israel, the consequence of which is the birth of Christopher and José, identical twins raised apart, one in affluent Sydney, the other in the slums of Buenos Aires. The twins, unaware of each other’s existence or their origin, will meet for a moment only, in the Amazon, adversaries in the battle for the forest. Standing by both twins is Lorena, a medical student who under the claws of a dictatorship organizes the student environmental resistance."

• Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc. By: Ash Bishop, read by Scott Brick, Suzanne Freeman for CamCat -- "When Russ Wesley finds an unusual artifact in his grandfather’s collection of rare antiquities, the last thing he expects is for it to draw the attention of a ferocious alien from a distant planet. Equally surprising is the adventurous team of intergalactic exterminators dispatched to deal with the alien threat. They’re a little wild, and a little reckless. Worse yet, they’re so impressed with Russ’s marksmanship that they insist he join their squad . . . whether he wants to or not."

• Queen of Eventide By: Matthew Ward, read by Kristin Atherton for The Tower of Stars -- "For Maddie Lincoln, returning to her childhood home was an opportunity to retake control. Instead, she becomes trapped in an ancient struggle between mythic forces. A struggle in which her life—or death—might be the deciding factor. Pursued through Nottingham's mist-shrouded streets, Maddie is drawn into Eventide: a realm where legends walk and perception shapes reality. As the hidden dangers of Eventide bleed into the material realm, Nottingham falls under the sway of a vengeful, malevolent queen. It falls to Maddie to stop the chaos from spreading—no easy task when nothing and no one are precisely what they seem."

• 1414º by Paul Bradley Carr, read by Emily Lawrence for Snafublishing LLC -- "Journalist Lou McCarthy has spent her career exposing powerful predators in Silicon Valley. Her crusade has cost her everything: her apartment, friends, relationships, and any hope of promotion. And for what? Readers don't care, her boss and workmates pity her, and the billionaire bro-ciopaths she writes about continue to fail upwards. But when two of her highest-profile subjects are killed on the same night, their deaths staged as gruesome public suicides, Lou's work is suddenly and violently thrust into the spotlight."

• The Other Place: The Glass, Book 1 by Nathan Hystad, read by R.C. Bray for Podium -- "When a mysterious invisible barrier appears on a Montana ranch, no one knows what to think of it."

• Blood Wisp By: Sarina Langer, read by Adriene Arce -- "A young woman struggling with her Shadow. A bloodthirsty demon fighting for control. Neither prepared to lose against the other."

• The Dragon Thief Box Set: Books 1-3 by D.K. Holmberg, read by John Pirhalla for ASH -- "Zarinth is a dangerous city at the edge of the kingdom, illuminated by the constant fire of the nearby volcano Ishantil. For thief Ty, it’s more than a city filled with valuable ancient dragon relics. It’s the home he could never leave. Ty wants one last score before finally leaving the city—and his past behind. All while the notorious Dragon Thief chases the same prize. The Dragon Thief has a reputation for a reason, but Ty begins to think there’s more to the job than he ever expected. If he succeeds, he might stop a war—and learn a truth long hidden from him about his connection to dragons."

MOST MISSING:

• No Game for Knights: The Dark Side of SF and Fantasy Heroes edited by Larry Correia and Kacey Ezell (Baen) -- "In a world of criminals, thugs, con artists, cheats, and swindlers, there must be a man to stand against the powers of darkness and corruption. A man not afraid to walk the mean streets—whether they be those of 1930s Los Angeles, an ancient fantasy realm, or some far-flung planet of a future star empire. He is a man who knows that a “good man” is not always a “nice guy.” But when the chips are down, he understands that a hero does the right thing, even if it means losing everything."

• The Advantaged by Mark Allan Gunnells (Crossroad Press) -- "Is there any such thing as a harmless white lie? Silas thinks so when he lets the kids he meets on the Furman University campus think he is a fellow student. He figures he'll never see them again, and it feels good to be thought of as an "equal" to such intelligent and passionate young people. What could be the harm? Only Silas learns that even the smallest fib has a way of snowballing until it is an avalanche roaring down the mountain at you. He becomes entangled with the group, and things become even more complicated as he starts to fall in love with Kris, a relationship at once true but built on the kernel of a lie."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 30 August 2022

Posted on 2022-08-30 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Spear Cuts Through Water: A Novel By: Simon Jimenez, read by Joel de la Fuente for Random House -- "Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds."

• A Taste of Gold and Iron By: Alexandra Rowland, read by Casey Jones for Recorded Books -- "Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court - the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation that results in his humiliation. To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin."

• Other Birds: A Novel By: Sarah Addison Allen, read by Siiri Scott for Brilliance -- "From the acclaimed author of Garden Spells comes a tale of lost souls, secrets that shape us, and how the right flock can guide you home."

• Suburban Hell By: Maureen Kilmer, read by Jaime Lamchick for Penguin -- "Bad Moms meets My Best Friend’s Exorcism in this lite-horror-comedy about a group of women in the Chicago 'burbs whose cul-de-sac gets a new neighbor: a demon."

• The Lost Girls of Willowbrook By: Ellen Marie Wiseman, read by Morgan Hallett for Recorded Books -- "Evokes the real-life Willowbrook State School, the infamous Staten Island, New York, mental institution that shocked a nation when exposed in the 1970s as a dumping ground for unwanted children."

SERIES WATCH:

• Moon Dark Smile: The Night Shine Series, Book 2 By: Tessa Gratton, read by Sarah Naughton for Blackstone -- "The fate of an Empire lies with a headstrong heir and a restless demon."

• The House of Fortune: Miniaturist, Book 2 By: Jessie Burton, read by Carla Harrison Hodge for Bloomsbury -- "Alive with the magic of 18th-century Amsterdam, an enchanting, fantastical stand-alone companion novel to the sensational New York Times bestseller The Miniaturist."

• The Gauntlet and the Burning Blade: The Rotstorm, Book 2 By: Ian Green, read by Fiona McNeill for WF Howes -- "Break the chains. Hold your strength. Burn your foes."

• Wildbound: Forestborn, Book 2 By: Elayne Audrey Becker, read by Christopher Bonwell and Sofia Zervudachi for Macmillan -- "Full of forest magic and a kingdom on the brink of war."

• The Ink Black Heart: Cormoran Strike Book 6 By: Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister

• The Broken Cage: Crow Investigations, Book 7 By: Sarah Painter, read by Kate Rawson

• Centers of Gravity: Frontlines, Book 8 By: Marko Kloos, read by Eric G. Dove

• Tales from the Nightside: Nightside, Book 13 By: Simon R. Green (2015), read by Dan Calley for Tantor

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Touched by an Alien: The Alien Series, Book 1 By: Gini Koch (2010), read by Justine Eyre for Skyboat -- "Marketing manager Katherine “Kitty” Katt had just finished a day on jury duty. When she stepped out of the Pueblo Caliente courthouse, all she was thinking about was the work she had to get caught up on. Then her attention was caught by a fight between a couple that looked like it was about to turn ugly. But ugly didn’t even begin to cover it when the “man” suddenly transformed into a huge, winged monster right out of a grade Z science fiction movie and went on a deadly killing spree."

• The Black Lily: Vampire Blood, Book 1 By: Juliette Cross (2017), read by Julie-Ann Elliott for Tantor -- "With the threat of the vampire monarchy becoming stronger every day, the Black Lily must take drastic measures. As the leader of the underground resistance, Arabelle concocts the perfect idea to gain the attention of the Glass Tower. Her plan? Attend the vampire prince's blood ball and kill him. Fortunately for Prince Marius, her assassination goes awry, and Arabelle flees, leaving behind only her dagger."

• The Blood Covenant: Medici Warrior, Book 1 By: Emily Bex, read by Paul Brion for Tantor -- "Shade Medici, a warrior king and sole male heir to the dynasty, is expected to mate and produce an heir to secure the continuation of the Medici coven. He's waited over five hundred years for the right mate, and when he meets Kate Reese, his attraction is more than primal—it's merciless. She's also mortal."

• The Timepiece and the Girl Who Went Astray By: O.R. Simmonds (2021), read by Joel Froomkin for Tantor -- "William Wells, a gifted but risk-averse US college dropout living an unadventurous life in London, stumbles upon a mysterious timepiece with the ability to alter time. When the Timepiece's previous owner is brutally murdered by unknown assailants, Will flees, only to see his girlfriend, Abigayle, vanish before his eyes when she comes into contact with this remarkable watch."

Posted in Release Week