Release Week: 1 March 2022

Posted on 2022-03-01 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• All My Rage: A Novel By: Sabaa Tahir, read by Deepti Gupta, Kamran R. Khan, and Kausar Mohammed for Listening Library -- "Lahore, Pakistan. Then. Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start. Juniper, California. Now. Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding."

• Underneath the Oversea By: Marc Laidlaw, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat -- "On a bluff above the sea lived a gargoyle, a tree, two bards, and their various children. Gorlen and Plenth, the wandering bards in question, have quit a life of rambling to raise their daughter, Aiku, in peace at the edge of a curious sea. Aiku's other father is the gargoyle Spar, who is also husband to a songwood tree and father to a young grove. It's no more unusual than most families, and their life no less ordinary…until one extraordinary day, when the messenger birds Aiku loves begin to deliver ominous notes and soon flap away in a frenzy, like a storm fleeing before an even greater storm."

• Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021 By: Margaret Atwood, read by the author and a full cast for Random House -- "In this brilliant selection of essays, the award-winning, best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments offers her funny, erudite, endlessly curious, and uncannily prescient take on everything from debt and tech to the climate crisis and freedom and the importance of how to define granola."

• Tell Me an Ending: A Novel By: Jo Harkin, read by Tania Rodrigues for Simon and Schuster -- "Never Let Me Go meets Black Mirror in this thrilling dystopian debut about a tech company that deletes unwanted memories, the consequences for those forced to contend with what they tried to forget, and the dissenting doctor who seeks to protect her patients from further harm."

• The Tobacco Wives: A Novel By: Adele Myers, read by Shannon McManus and Janet Metzger for Harper -- "Maddie Sykes is a burgeoning seamstress who’s just arrived in Bright Leaf, North Carolina - the tobacco capital of the South - where her aunt has a thriving sewing business. After years of war rations and shortages, Bright Leaf is a prosperous wonderland in full technicolor bloom, and Maddie is dazzled by the bustle of the crisply uniformed female factory workers, the palatial homes, and, most of all, her aunt’s glossiest clientele: the wives of the powerful tobacco executives. But she soon learns that Bright Leaf isn’t quite the carefree paradise that it seems."

• The Broken Room By: Peter Clines, read by Timothy Andrés Pabon for Audible -- "You can still owe the dead. Hector was the best of the best. A government operative who could bring armies to a halt and nations to their knees. But when his own country betrayed him, he dropped off the grid and picked up the first of many bottles. Natalie can’t remember much of her life before her family brought her to the US, but she remembers the cages. And getting taken away to the Project with dozens of other young children to become part of their nightmarish experiments. That’s how she ended up with the ghost of a dead secret agent stuck in her head. And Hector owes Natalie’s ghost a big favor."

• The Atlas Six By: Olivie Blake, read by James Cronin, Siho Ellsmore, Munirih Grace, Andy Ingalls, Caitlin Kelly, Damian Lynch, David Monteith, and Steve West for Macmillan -- "The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation."

• Scattered All Over the Earth By: Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani, read by Cindy Kay for Tantor -- "Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as "the land of sushi." Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska. As she searches for anyone who can still speak her mother tongue, Hiruko soon makes new friends. Her troupe travels to France, encountering an umami cooking competition; a dead whale; an ultra-nationalist named Breivik; unrequited love; Kakuzo robots; red herrings; uranium; an Andalusian matador. Episodic and mesmerizing scenes flash vividly along, and soon they're all next off to Stockholm."

• Sundial By: Catriona Ward, read by Katherine Fenton for Macmillan -- "All Rob ever wanted was a normal life. Nothing like her childhood, growing up in the lonely wild Mojave Desert on her family's ranch, Sundial. Surrounded by dogs, coyotes, and research assistants. For a while, it seemed like Rob got her wish: a husband, two daughters, the white picket fence, and margaritas with the neighbors. But when a frightening accident in her home reveals a disturbing secret in her oldest daughter’s bedroom, Rob knows her luck has run out."

• A Coin for the Ferryman: A Novel By: Megan Edwards, read by Mark Ashby for Imbrifex -- "In 1999, an elite interdisciplinary team headed by Nobel laureate Andrew Danicek gathered in California to carry out a ground-breaking time-travel experiment. While the rest of the world remained unaware, Julius Caesar was successfully transported from the last day of his life to a specially constructed covert facility. Four days of conversation with historians and Latin scholars were planned, followed by Caesar’s return to the moment from which he was extracted. But despite the team’s meticulous efforts to maintain secrecy and plan for all possible exigencies, a kidnap attempt plunges Caesar into peril."

• Gallant By: Victoria Schwab, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt for Harper -- "Everything casts a shadow. Even the world we live in. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch. A seam, where the shadow meets its source."

• The Quarter Storm: Mambo Reina, Book 1 By: Veronica G. Henry, read by Robin Miles for Brilliance -- "A practitioner of Vodou must test the boundaries of her powers to solve a ritual murder in New Orleans and protect everything she holds sacred."

• Like Me: A Novel By: Hayley Phelan, read by Lauren Ezzo for Brilliance -- "Though beautiful, cunning, and privileged, nineteen-year-old Mickey finds herself with a stalled modeling career, an escalating drinking problem, few friends, and next to nothing in the bank. To numb her growing despair, she spends her days frantically refreshing her Instagram feed, obsessively tracking the movements of Insta-famous model Gemma Anton. Mickey sees Gemma as a perfected version of herself. Gemma is living a seemingly perfect life: a skyrocketing career, a famous boyfriend, and adoring followers. It’s the life Mickey wants more than anything. Mickey studies every detail Gemma offers through the window of her phone, trying to absorb, mimic, become the object of her growing fascination."

• The Night Shift: A Novel By: Alex Finlay, read by Brittany Pressley, Cady McClain, Devon Hales, and Gary Tiedemann for Macmillan -- "It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in New Jersey, four teenagers working late at the store are attacked. Only one inexplicably survives. Police quickly identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again. Fifteen years later, more teenage employees are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive."

• A Train to Moscow: A Novel By: Elena Gorokhova, read by Elizabeth Knowelden for Brilliance -- "In post-World War II Russia, a girl must reconcile a tragic past with her hope for the future in this powerful and poignant novel about family secrets, passion and loss, perseverance and ambition."

• The Unsinkable Greta James: A Novel By: Jennifer E. Smith, read by Mae Whitman for Random House -- "An indie musician reeling from tragedy and a public breakdown reconnects with her father on a weeklong cruise in “a pitch-perfect story about the ways we recover love in the strangest places”."

• Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir By: Bob Odenkirk, read by the author, Steve Rudnick, and Leo Benvenuti for Random House -- "The star of Mr. Show, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his cult status as a comedy writer, and what it’s like to reinvent himself as an action film ass-kicker at 50."

The same!

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Outer Diverse: The Splintered Universe Trilogy, Book 1 By: Nina Munteanu (2011), read by Dawn Harvey for Spoken Realms -- "When Galactic Guardian Rhea Hawke investigates the genocide of an entire spiritual sect, she collides not only with dark intrigue but with her own tarnished past. Her quest for justice catapults Rhea into the heart of a universal struggle across alien landscapes of cruel beauty and toward an unbearable truth she’s hidden from herself since she murdered an innocent man."

MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:

• The Night Before Morning By: Alistair Moffat, read by Grant Cartwright for Tantor -- "June 1945. Hitler has triumphed, Britain is under German occupation, and America cowers under the threat of nuclear attack. In the dead of night, a figure flits through the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, searching for a hidden document he knows could change the course of history. The journal he discovers, by a young soldier, David Erskine, records an extraordinary story."

• The Ghost Mine: Tech Ghost, Book 1 By: Ben Wolf, read by Joe Hempel for Aethon -- "People are dying, and no one knows why. But the company is covering it up anyway. Justin is excited to start his new job at an energy mine on a distant planet - until things begin to go wrong. Small things. Annoying glitches in the mining complex's tech. Enough to aggravate him. Enough to notice a connection. When the first miner dies from a tech-related accident, Justin can no longer turn a blind eye. But the mine's brass don't want him digging for answers - even though something from the mine's past is lurking beneath the surface.... And it wants blood."

• Paragon of Blood: Paragon, Book 1 By: Luke Chmilenko and Alex Knight, read by Travis Baldree for Audible -- "All Auric Cain ever wanted was a chance. A chance to prove himself. A chance to take control of his life. A chance to be more than a lowly D-Tier, the lowest of the low, in a world broken by the arrival of an alien, enigmatic being known as The System. And the seemingly endless hordes of Gateborn that accompanied it."

SERIES WATCH:

• Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld: InCryptid, Book 11 By: Seanan McGuire, read by Emily Bauer

• Defekt: Finna Series, Book 2 By: Nino Cipri, read by Ramon De Ocampo

• The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy By: S. A. Chakraborty, read by Soneela Nankani

• Escape From Yokai Land: A Laundry Files Novella By: Charles Stross, read by Gideon Emery

• Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey edited by Jonathan Maberry and Bryan Thomas Schmidt, read by Bradford Hastings, Nicol Zanzarella, Stephanie Weeks, Feodor Chin, Timothy Andrés Pabon, Soneela Nankani, Chelsea Stephens, Hillary Huber, Erica Sullivan, Sura Siu, and Shiromi Arserio

MOST MISSING:

• All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie (Tordotcom) -- "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."

• Valhellions by Tim Akers (Baen) -- "When John Rast signed up for Knight Watch, he expected it to be all fighting dragons and rescuing maidens. You know, hero stuff. But instead he’s stuck patrolling game conventions and cosplayer competitions, looking for dangerous anachronisms and the villains who may be trying to exploit them. Fortunately, all that changes when an honest-to-goodness necromancer shows up wielding a weapon created by Nazi occultists and accompanied by some badass evil valkyries, hell-bent on kicking off the end of the world. John and the team will go to great lengths—even Minnesota—to prove find out who’s responsible for all this and foil their plans. Also, there’s a giant dog who thinks the moon is a ball. It’s epic."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 22 February 2022

Posted on 2022-02-22 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The Paradox Hotel: A Novel by Rob Hart, read by Emily Woo Zeller for Random House -- "An impossible crime. A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake."

• Last Exit By: Max Gladstone, read by Natalie Naudus for Recorded Books -- "Ten years ago, Zelda led a band of merry adventurers whose knacks let them travel to alternate realities and battle the black rot that threatened to unmake each world. Zelda was the warrior; Ish could locate people anywhere; Ramon always knew what path to take; Sarah could turn catastrophe aside. Keeping them all connected: Sal, Zelda’s lover and the group's heart. Until their final, failed mission, when Sal was lost. When they all fell apart."

• Spontaneous Human Combustion By: Richard Thomas with an introduction by Brian Evenson, read by David Bendena, Noah Michael Levine, Pete Cross, Cary Hite, Rupert Degas, Pat Grimes, and Laural Merlington for Dreamscape -- "In this new collection, Richard Thomas has crafted 14 stories that push the boundaries of dark fiction in an intoxicating, piercing blend of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Equally provocative and profound, each story is masterfully woven with transgressive themes that burrow beneath the skin."

• The Paris Apartment: A Novel By: Lucy Foley, read by Clare Corbett, Daphne Kouma, Julia Winwood, Sope Dirisu, Sofia Zervudachi, and Charlie Anson for Harper -- "From the New York Times best-selling author of The Guest List comes a new locked-room mystery, set in a Paris apartment building in which every resident has something to hide."

• Carolina Built By: Kianna Alexander, read by Shayna Small and Leon Nixon for Simon and Schuster -- "Josephine N. Leary is determined to build a life of her own and a future for her family. When she moves to Edenton, North Carolina from the plantation where she was born, she is free, newly married, and ready to follow her dreams. As the demands of life pull Josephine’s attention away, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to pursue her real estate aspirations. She finds herself immersed in deepening her marriage, mothering her daughters, and being a dutiful daughter and granddaughter. Still, she manages to teach herself to be a businesswoman, to manage her finances, and to make smart investments in the local real estate market. But with each passing year, it grows more and more difficult to focus on building her legacy from the ground up."

• The Justice of Kings: Empire of the Wolf, Book 1 By: Richard Swan, read by Lucy Paterson for Orbit -- "From a major new debut author in epic fantasy comes the first book in a trilogy where action, intrigue, and magic collide. The Justice of Kings introduces an unforgettable protagonist destined to become a fantasy icon: Sir Konrad Vonvalt, an Emperor’s Justice, who is a detective, judge, and executioner all in one. But these are dangerous times to be a Justice.... "

• Impact Winter By: Travis Beacham, read by a full cast for Audible Originals -- "From executive producers of The Walking Dead and Travis Beacham, the writer of Pacific Rim, comes a heart-stopping Audible Original featuring a brilliant British cast. It’s the near future and seven years since a comet hit the earth and blotted out the sun. The world is a dark, frozen landscape. And then, beastly creatures emerge and take over. Can they really be vampires?"

• Manhunt By: Gretchen Felker-Martin, read by Katherine Pucciariello for Macmillan -- "Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they'll never face the same fate. Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: Other people aren't safe. After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics - all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons."

• Scorpica: The Five Queendoms By: G.R. Macallister, read by Shiromi Arserio for Simon and Schuster -- "A centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born."

• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea By: Axie Oh, read by Rosa Escoda for Dreamscape -- "Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering."

• Wakers: The Side-Step Trilogy, Book 1 By: Orson Scott Card, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone -- "Laz is a side-stepper: a teen with the incredible power to jump his consciousness to alternate versions of himself in parallel worlds. All his life, there was no mistake that a little side-stepping couldn’t fix. Until Laz wakes up one day in a cloning facility on a seemingly abandoned Earth."

• Unseen Magic By: Emily Lloyd-Jones, read by Chloe Dolandis for Harper Children's -- "The magic-infused town of Aldermere is the first place 11-year-old Fin has ever felt safe - and she’ll do whatever it takes to save her home when she accidentally unleashes a shadow self who wreaks havoc everywhere she goes. Emily Lloyd-Jones’s middle grade debut is an enchanting exploration of self-discovery and finding the place you truly belong."

• Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything By: Kelly Weill, read by Xe Sands for Workman -- "At once a definitive history of the movement and an enjoyable look at its expansive, absurd, and dangerous present, Off the Edge introduces us to a cast of larger-than-life characters, from 19th-century grifters to 20th-century small-town tyrants to the provocateurs of Alex Jones’ early-aughts internet, whose rancor sowed the early seeds of our modern division."

• Empire of the Black Sea: The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World By: Duane W. Roller, read by Bob Souer for Tantor -- "What is commonly called the kingdom of Pontos flourished for over 200 years in the coastal regions of the Black Sea. At its peak in the early first century BC, it included much of the southern, eastern, and northern littoral, becoming one of the most important Hellenistic dynasties not founded by a successor of Alexander the Great. It also posed one of the greatest challenges to Roman imperial expansion in the East. Not until 63 BC, after many violent clashes, was Rome able to subjugate the kingdom and its last charismatic ruler Mithridates VI."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest By: Felix Salten, translated by Jack Zipes, read by Peter Marinker and John Chancer for Princeton University Press -- "Peter Marinker narrates a new translation of Felix Salten’s celebrated novel Bambi, capturing the emotional impact and rich meanings of the original story."

• Barbarians of the Beyond By: Matthew Hughes (2020), read by Gabrielle de Cuir for Skyboat -- "Twenty years ago, five master criminals known as the Demon Princes raided Mount Pleasant to enslave thousands of inhabitants in the lawless Beyond. Now Morwen Sabine, a daughter of captives, has escaped her cruel master and returns to Mount Pleasant to recover the hidden treasure she hopes will buy her parents’ freedom."

• The Star King: The Demon Princes Series, Book 1 By: Jack Vance (1963), read by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat -- "Five intergalactic criminal masterminds raid the tranquil world of Mount Pleasant, leaving behind only ruin and slaughter - and the orphaned child Kirth Gersen, who comes to manhood swearing to take bloody revenge. Now Gersen roams the galaxy, bringing vengeance to the Demon Princes one by one, in Jack Vance's classic series of hardboiled space opera."

• The Dreaming Jewels By: Theodore Sturgeon (1950), read by Peter Berkrot for Tantor -- "Though only eight years old, little Horton "Horty" Bluett has known a lifetime of sadness. Tormented and abused by his adoptive family, he's had enough - and with a beloved broken toy he calls "Junky" as his sole companion, the desperate little boy runs away to join a carnival. There, among the fortune tellers, fire-eaters, sideshow freaks, and assorted "strange people", Horty hopes to find acceptance and, at long last, a real home. But disgraced Doctor Pierre "Maneater" Monetre's traveling show is no ordinary entertainment, and its performers are not what they appear to be. The Maneater has sinister plans for the world that go far beyond fleecing unsuspecting rubes and other easy marks - a dark and terrible scheme that requires unleashing the extraterrestrial power of the dreaming jewels, and the unwitting assistance of a young boy who may be far more remarkable than he's ever imagined."

SERIES WATCH:

• Star Trek: Picard: No Man's Land: An Original Audio Drama By: Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson, read by Michelle Hurd, Jeri Ryan, Jack Cutmore-Scott, John Kassir, Fred Tatasciore, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Lisa Flanagan, Gibson Frazier, Lameece Issaq, Natalie Naudus, Xe Sands, and Emily Woo Zeller for Simon and Schuster -- "Discover what happens to Raffi and Seven of Nine following the stunning conclusion to season one of Star Trek: Picard with this audio exclusive, fully dramatized Star Trek adventure featuring the beloved stars of the hit TV series Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan."

• Sword and Shadow: The Wolves of Elantra, Book 2 By: Michelle Sagara, read by Khristine Hvam

INDIE WATCH:

• Unity By: Elly Bangs, read by Adenrele Ojo, Kevin Kenerly, James Fouhey, and Karen Chilton for Podium -- "Danae is not only herself. She is concealing a connection to a grieving collective inside of her body. But while she labors as a tech servant in the dangerous underwater enclave of Bloom City, her fractured self cannot mend."

• Goth Drow Unleashed by Martha Carr and Michael Anderle, read by Devon Sorvari for Tantor -- 7 books in this series dropped today, with 11 more due out next week: "I'm not Goth to hide my Drow heritage; I'm Goth because I'm not a quitter."

• In the Shadow of Ziammotienth: Myth of the Dragon, Book 1 By: Michael Anderle, read by Emily Beresford for Tantor -- "Why don't thieves and mages get along? Because thieves remind mages too much of themselves."

• Pale Blue Dot(s) By: Erin Mallon, read by Thérèse Plummer, Megan Tusing, Andrew Eiden, Gabra Zackman, Inés del Castillo, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Adenrele Ojo, Julia Whelan, Natalie Naudus, and a full cast -- "everal years in the future, an all-female astronaut team circumnavigates the globe once every 90 minutes aboard the International Space Station, prepared to be a powerful presence in space. When a surprise set of "everyday citizens" tags along for the ride, all protocol flies right out the proverbial...airlock. After a lifetime of being kept down on the ground, what happens when these women finally rise up and see their lives - and their planet - from high above it all?"

MOST MISSING:

• You Pray for Dry Weather at the Sight of the Sun: A Strand Essay by J David Osborne (Broken River Books) -- " A meditation on birth, death, and fatherhood inspired by the game Death Stranding."

• Music of the Night edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Press) -- "The Annual Crime Writers' Association anthology is always a thrilling read, and eagerly anticipated by readers and authors of crime and mystery fiction worldwide."

• Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes by Travis Baldree (Cryptid Press) -- Surely we won't have to wait too long for an audiobook version of this, considering the author is a pro narrator! "Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen. However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve."

• Inheritors of Power: The Broken Trust, Book 3 by Juliette Wade (DAW) -- "The third book of The Broken Trust continues a deadly battle for power in this sociological sci-fi novel where brother is pitted against brother."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 15 February 2022

Posted on 2022-02-15 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Elric of Melniboné: Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf By: Michael Moorcock, with an introduction by Neil Gaiman, read by Samuel Roukin for Recorded Books -- "When Michael Moorcock began chronicling the adventures of the albino sorcerer Elric, last king of decadent Melniboné, and his sentient vampiric sword, Stormbringer, he set out to create a new kind of fantasy adventure, one that broke with tradition and reflected a more up-to-date sophistication of theme and style. The result was a bold and unique hero - weak in body, subtle in mind, dependent on drugs for the vitality to sustain himself - with great crimes behind him and a greater destiny ahead: a rock-and-roll antihero who would channel all the violent excesses of the '60s into one enduring archetype. Now, presented in the author's preferred story order, the classic Elric saga."

• Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience By: Brené Brown, read by the author for Random House -- “If we want to find the way back to ourselves and one another, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories and to be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for meaningful connection.”

• Pure Colour: A Novel By: Sheila Heti, read by the author for Macmillan -- "In this first draft of the world, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal - to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But photosynthesis gets boring, and being alive is a problem that cannot be solved, even by a leaf. Eventually, Mira must remember the human world she’s left behind, including Annie, and choose whether or not to return."

• Stars and Bones By: Gareth L. Powell, read by Rebecca Norfolk for WF Howes -- "Seventy-five years from today, the human race has been cast from a dying Earth to wander the stars in a vast fleet of arks - each shaped by its inhabitants into a diverse and fascinating new environment, with its own rules and eccentricities. When her sister disappears while responding to a mysterious alien distress call, Eryn insists on being part of the crew sent to look for her. What she discovers on Candidate-623 is both terrifying and deadly. When the threat follows her back to the fleet and people start dying, she is tasked with seeking out a legendary recluse who may just hold the key to humanity’s survival."

• Age of Ash By: Daniel Abraham, read by Soneela Nankani for Orbit -- "From New York Times best-selling and critically acclaimed author Daniel Abraham, co-author of The Expanse, comes a monumental epic fantasy trilogy that unfolds within the walls of a single great city, over the course of one tumultuous year, where every story matters, and the fate of the city is woven from them all."

• Mickey7: A Novel By: Edward Ashton, read by John Pirhalla and Katharine Chin for Macmillan -- "The Martian meets Dark Matter in Edward Ashton's high concept science-fiction thriller, in which Mickey7, an "expendable", refuses to let his replacement clone, Mickey8, take his place. Soon to be adapted into a major motion picture from Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) starring Robert Pattinson."

• Talos: Book 1 By: Brian D. Anderson, read by Bradford Hastings for Blackstone -- "Without warning, power, transportation, and communications went dark. When the military arrived, they offered no explanation on how the world came to a screeching halt. The only thing they would say is that every citizen was to leave their homes behind and come to Atlanta. Most complied. Others refused. None were aware of the true danger they faced until clone assassins began eliminating the population one by one. Throughout the crisis the citizens of Fairview, Alabama stood resolute against all comers. In time, their determination seemed to pay off. The clones disappeared, and they were able to cobble together a new life."

• A River Enchanted: Elements of Cadence, Book 1 By: Rebecca Ross, read by Ruth Urquhart for Harper -- "House of Earth and Blood meets The Witch's Heart in Rebecca Ross’ brilliant first adult fantasy, set on the magical isle of Cadence where two childhood enemies must team up to discover why girls are going missing from their clan."

• Reclaim the Stars: 17 Tales Across Realms & Space edited by Zoraida Córdova, read by Almarie Guerra for Macmillan -- "From stories that take you to the stars, to stories that span into other times and realms, to stories set in the magical now, Reclaim the Stars takes the Latin American diaspora to places fantastical and out of this world."

• Vampire Hunter D: Vampire Hunter D, Book 1 By: Hideyuki Kikuchi, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, translated by Kevin Leahy, read by Paul Boehmer for Tantor -- "The year 12,090 AD. It is a dark time for the world. Humanity is just crawling out from under 300 years of domination by the race of vampires known as the Nobility. The war against the vampires has taken its toll; cities lie in ruin, the countryside is fragmented into small villages and fiefdoms that still struggle against nightly raids by the fallen vampires - and the remnants of their genetically manufactured demons and werewolves."

SERIES WATCH:

• Moon Witch, Spider King: The Dark Star Trilogy, Book 2 By: Marlon James, read by Bahni Turpin for Penguin -- "From Marlon James, author of the best-selling National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the second book in the Dark Star trilogy."

• The Thousand Eyes: The Serpent Gates, Book 2 By: A. K. Larkwood, read by Aysha Kala for Macmillan -- "The sequel to A. K. Larkwood's stunning debut fantasy, The Unspoken Name."

• House of Sky and Breath: Crescent City, Book 2 By: Sarah J. Maas, read by Elizabeth Evans for Audible -- "Maas's sexy, groundbreaking Crescent City series continues with the second installment."

• Gwendy's Final Task: Gwendy's Button Box Trilogy, Book 3 By: Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, read by Marin Ireland for Simon and Schuster -- "When Gwendy Peterson was 12, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its seven colored buttons promised death and destruction. Years later, the button box entered Gwendy’s life again..."

• The Last Wild Horses: Climat Quartet, Book 3 By: Maja Lunde, translated by Diane Oatley, read by Karen Gundersen, BJ Harrison, Christa Lewis, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, and Rob Shapiro for Harper -- "Translated into 36 languages, winner of the Norwegian Bookseller’s Prize, and the most successful Norwegian author of her generation, Maja Lunde returns with a heart-wrenching tale, set in the distant past and the dystopian future, about extinction and survival, family and hope."

• Lord Quillifer: Quillifer, Book 3 By: Walter Jon Williams, read by Ralph Lister for Audible -- "Quillifer - now a member of the nobility - finds himself further immersed in court politics as the outcast Princess Floria is suddenly in a position of power with a rebellion stoked by a certain brilliant tactician."

• The Great Witch of Brittany: A Novel By: Louisa Morgan, read by Polly Lee for Redhook -- "Return to the world of A Secret History of Witches with the bewitching tale of Ursule Orchière and her discovery of magical abilities that will not only change the course of her life, but every generation that comes after her."

MOST MISSING:

• Dark Breakers by C.S.E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium) -- "Gathers three new and two previously uncollected tales from World Fantasy Award-winning writer C. S. E. Cooney that expand on the thrice-enfolded worlds first introduced in her Locus and World Fantasy award-nominated novella Desdemona and the Deep."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 8 February 2022

Posted on 2022-02-08 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The This By: Adam Roberts, read by Elliot Fitzpatrick for Gollancz -- "The This is the new social media platform everyone is talking about. Allow it to be injected into the roof of your mouth and it will grow into your brain, allowing you to connect with others without even picking up your phone. Its followers are growing. Its detractors say it is a cult. But for one journalist, hired to do a puff-piece interview with their CEO, it will change the world forever."

• Echo By: Thomas Olde Heuvelt, read by David Wayman, Greg Lockett, and Lauryn Allman for Macmillan -- "Travel journalist and mountaineer Nick Grevers awakes from a coma to find that his climbing buddy, Augustin, is missing and presumed dead. Nick’s own injuries are as extensive as they are horrifying. His face wrapped in bandages and unable to speak, Nick claims amnesia - but he remembers everything. He remembers how he and Augustin were mysteriously drawn to the Maudit, a remote and scarcely documented peak in the Swiss Alps. He remembers how the slopes of Maudit were eerily quiet, and how, when they entered its valley, they got the ominous sense that they were not alone. He remembers: Something was waiting for them...."

• The Nineties: A Book By: Chuck Klosterman, read by the author and Dion Graham for Penguin -- "From the New York Times best-selling author of But What if We’re Wrong, a wise and funny reckoning with the decade that gave us slacker/grunge irony about the sin of trying too hard, during the greatest shift in human consciousness of any decade in American history."

• Dead Silence By: S.A. Barnes, read by Lauren Ezzo for Macmillan -- "Titanic meets The Shining in S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence, a SF horror novel in which a woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn't yet ended."

• Clean Air By: Sarah Blake, read by Sol Madariaga for Workman -- "The climate apocalypse has come and gone, and in the end it wasn’t the waters rising, as the scientists predicted, nor the temperature climbing, nor the forest fires spreading. It was pollen - spring allergies becoming worse and worse until the air became unbreathable, the world overgrown with trees. In the past 10 years, humanity has rebuilt, and Izabel has gotten used to the airtight domes that now contain her life. She raises her young daughter and attempts to make peace with her mother’s death. She tries hard to be satisfied with this new world, safe and prosperous as it is. Instead she feels stuck."

• The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 6 edited by Neil Clarke, read by Neil Shah, Sneha Mathan, Ronald Peet, Jasmin Walker, Avi Roque, and Nikki Massoud for Recorded Books -- "For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it’s a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us."

• Bluebird By: Ciel Pierlot, read by Stephanie Cannon for Angry Robot -- "Three factions vie for control of the galaxy. Rig, a gunslinging, thieving rebel-with-a-cause, doesn’t give a damn about them, and she hasn’t looked back since abandoning them three years ago. That is, until her former faction sends her a message: Return what she stole from them, or her twin sister will die."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• Creatures of Light and Darkness By: Roger Zelazny (1969), read by Matt Godfrey for Recorded Books -- "Two gods, two houses, one quest, and the eternal war between life and death."

SERIES WATCH:

• The Night Parade of 100 Demons: Legend of the Five Rings By: Marie Brennan, read by Kaipo Schwab for Tantor -- "A thrilling epic fantasy adventure in the astonishing realm of Legend of the Five Rings, as two rival clans join forces to investigate a lethal supernatural mystery."

• The Broken Realm: Kingdom of the White Sea, Book 2 By: Sarah M. Cradit, read by Kimberly M. Wetherell for OrangeSky -- "The crown demanded everything. The kingdom will answer."

• Critical Failures IX: Caverns and Creatures, Book 9 By: Robert Bevan, read by Jonathan Sleep -- "After being scattered across the globe, our heroes seek to reunite with each other. But the consequences of recent events continue to plague them."

INDIE WATCH:

• Blood Work By: Jeff Johnston, read by Edison McDaniels for Crossroad Press -- "Reverend Blake Hardesty has lived the life of Job. His parents were killed in a fire when he was seven. The aunt who raised him died just before he graduated from the seminary. His wife was killed during a bank robbery only a year ago. And a diagnosis of brain cancer is only the latest in a long line of hardships he’s had to endure. Yet he continues to preach faith in God to a dwindling congregation, sharing his life with his teenage daughter, Bethany, who seems to blame him for her mother’s death. If it weren’t for the angel who protects him from the beast who fills his dreams, he would be completely alone. But when trying to help a disturbed congregant makes him the victim of a vicious attack, he realizes that the angel may not be able to protect him any longer from the beast - the wolf - that is now growing inside him."

• The High Mountain Court: The Five Crowns of Okrith, Book 1 By: AK Mulford, read by Mela Lee for Podium -- "Thirteen years fleeing witch hunters and the looming threat of death. Nineteen-year-old Remy knows she is possibly the last red witch alive, and she is determined to stay that way. The Northern Court King has slaughtered her home court and placed a bounty on red witch heads."

MOST MISSING:

• The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran (Dreamland Books) -- "A mysterious book that promises unlimited power and unrivaled sexual pleasure. A down-on-her-luck book dealer hoping for the sale of a lifetime. And a twist so shocking, no one will come out unscathed."

• A History of the Defeated by Zachary Jernigan (Lethe Press) -- "In this gripping science-fiction novella: Amur grew up among the Nosi, a matriarchal society where decisions are enforced through violence, until he was chosen by Dorone and taken to live among the elderim, beings of immense power. Stripped of family, increasingly at odds with his own drug-altered body and mind, Amur now lives by the sea, where he hones his fighting skills and contemplates revenge against his former lover. He enlists the aid of a magical hound, hoping to pit her against his enemy. But loyalties will be tested before Amur can face Dorone once more."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 1 February 2022

Posted on 2022-02-01 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Recitatif: A Story By: Toni Morrison, read by Bahni Turpin, with and introduction written and read by Zadie Smith -- "In this 1983 short story - the only short story Morrison ever wrote - we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other's throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them."

• The Violence: A Novel By: Delilah S. Dawson, read by Hillary Huber for Random House -- "Three generations of abused women must navigate their chilling new reality as a mysterious epidemic of violence sweeps the nation in this compelling novel of self-discovery, legacy, and hope."

• The Books of Jacob: A Novel By: Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft, read by Allen Lewis Rickman and Gilli Messer for Penguin -- "The Nobel Prize-winner’s richest, most sweeping and ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across 18th-century Europe."

• Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century By: Kim Fu, read by Piper Goodeve, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Samara Naeymi, Gary Tiedemann, and Jeena Yi for Random House -- "In 12 unforgettable tales, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible Kafkaesque nightmare."

• Redwood and Wildfire By: Andrea Hairston, read by January LaVoy for Random House -- "Blues singers, filmmakers, haints, healers, romance, and magic from Georgia to Chicago at the turn of the 20th century."

• Don't Cry for Me: A Novel By: Daniel Black, read by the author for Harlequin -- "A Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Jones Jr., and Alice Walker."

• The Icarus Hunt: A Novel By: Timothy Zahn, read by Marc Thompson for Random House -- "From Timothy Zahn, Hugo Award winner and New York Times best-selling author of two landmark Star Wars series, comes an original new tale featuring a renegade space pilot, his unusual alien partner, and an unknown cargo that can change the course of galactic history."

• Hunt the Stars: Starlight’s Shadow, Book 1 By: Jessie Mihalik, read by: Frankie Corzo for Harper — “The critically acclaimed author of Polaris Rising takes listeners on an exciting journey with the start of her brand-new series about a female bounty hunter and the man who is her sworn enemy.”

• The Counterclockwise Heart By: Brian Farrey, read by Kirby Heyborne for Workman Audio -- "Time is running out in the empire of Rheinvelt. The sudden appearance of a strange and frightening statue foretells darkness. The Hierophants - magic users of the highest order - have fled the land. And the shadowy beasts of the nearby Hinterlands are gathering near the borders, preparing for an attack. Young Prince Alphonsus is sent by his mother, the Empress Sabine, to reassure the people while she works to quell the threat of war. But Alphonsus has other problems on his mind, including a great secret: He has a clock in his chest where his heart should be - and it’s begun to run backwards, counting down to his unknown fate."

• In the Serpent's Wake By: Rachel Hartman, read by: Katharine Lee McEwan for Listening Library — “From the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of Seraphina comes a piercing new fantasy adventure that champions our resilience and humility.”

SERIES WATCH:

• Temple of No God: Hall of Smoke, Book 2 By: H.M. Long, read by Samara Naeymi for Recorded Books

• Happy: Awaken Online, Book 6 By: Travis Bagwell, read by David Stifel

• Midnight Horizon: Star Wars: The High Republic By: Daniel José Older, read by Todd Haberkorn for Disney Lucasfilm -- "After a series of staggering losses, the Republic seems to finally have the villainous Nihil marauders on the run, and it looks like there's light at the end of the tunnel. Until word comes of a suspected Nihil attack on the industrial cosmopolitan world of Corellia, right in the Galactic Core. Sent to investigate are Jedi Masters Cohmac Vitus and Kantam Sy, along with Padawans Reath Silas and Ram Jomaram, all fighting their own private battles after months of unrelenting danger."

MOST MISSING:

• Library of the Sapphire Wind: Over Where, Book 1 by Jane Lindskold (Baen) -- "Instead of mentors, they got monsters . . . That’s what Xerak, Vereez, and Grunwold think when three strange creatures shimmer into being within the circle of Hettua Shrine. Their conclusion is reasonable enough. After all, they’ve never seen humans before."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 25 January 2022

Posted on 2022-01-25 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Devil House: A Novel By: John Darnielle, read by the author for Macmillan -- "From John Darnielle, the New York Times best-selling author and the singer-songwriter of the Mountain Goats, comes an epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, and the dangers of storytelling. Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That’s what his mother always told him. Years later, he is a true crime writer, with one grisly success - and a movie adaptation - to his name, along with a series of subsequent less notable efforts. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: to move into the house where a pair of briefly notorious murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected teens during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s."

• Goliath: A Novel By: Tochi Onyebuchi, read by Adam Lazarre-White, JD Jackson, Juliana Vélez, Kevin R. Free, Nidra Sous La Terre, and Shayna Small for Macmillan -- "In his adult novel debut, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award finalist and ALA Alex and New England Book Award winner Tochi Onyebuchi delivers a sweeping science-fiction epic in the vein of Samuel R. Delany and Station Eleven. In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighborhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked."

• The Good Wife of Bath: A Novel By: Karen Brooks, read by Fran Burgoyne for Harper -- "A provocative, immersive medieval novel starring one of literature’s most unforgettable characters in her own words - Chaucer’s bold and libidinous Wife of Bath."

• Light Years from Home By: Mike Chen, read by Emily Woo Zeller for Harlequin -- "Every family has issues. Most can’t blame them on extraterrestrials. Evie Shao and her sister, Kass, aren’t on speaking terms. Fifteen years ago, on a family camping trip, their father and brother vanished. Their dad turned up days later, dehydrated and confused - and convinced he'd been abducted by aliens. Their brother, Jakob, remained missing. The women dealt with it very differently. Kass, suspecting her college-dropout twin simply ran off, became the rock of the family. Evie traded academics to pursue alien conspiracy theories, always looking for Jakob. When Evie's UFO network uncovers a new event, she goes to investigate. And discovers Jakob is back."

• The Unraveling By: Benjamin Rosenbaum (2021), read by Fred Berman for Podium (Erewhon Books) -- "In the distant future, somewhere in the galaxy, a world has evolved where each person has multiple bodies, cybernetics has abolished privacy, and individual and family success are reliant upon instantaneous evaluations of how well each member conforms to the rigid social system."

• Road of Bones: A Novel By: Christopher Golden, read by Robert Fass for Blackstone -- "A stunning supernatural thriller set in Siberia, where a film crew is covering an elusive ghost story about the Kolyma Highway, a road built on top of the bones of prisoners of Stalin's gulag."

• The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections By: Eva Jurczyk, read by Hannah Cabell for Recorded Books -- "A stunning debut following a librarian whose quiet life is turned upside down when a priceless manuscript goes missing. Soon she has to ask: What holds more secrets in the library - the ancient books shelved in the stacks, or the people who preserve them?"

• Violeta: A Novel By: Isabel Allende, translated by Frances Riddle, read by Yareli Arizmendi for Random House -- "Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family with five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth."

• The Saints of Swallow Hill By: Donna Everhart, read by Amy Melissa Bentley for Tantor -- "During the Great Depression, labor camps crop up in remote areas throughout the American South. Destitute workers live under terrible conditions. Trapped in these isolated locations, workers are entirely dependent on the often greedy, abusive camp owners who provide food and housing at grossly inflated prices. But for the most desperate among America's vast unemployed, these camps are often the last and only option. This much is true for three individuals whose lives intersect in the deep woods of Georgia at the Swallow Hill turpentine camp in 1932. For Rae Lynn Cobb, a young woman disguised as a man, Swallow Hill offers distance and anonymity from those who would wrongly imprison her for killing her husband."

• Perpetual West By: Mesha Maren, read by Tony Chiroldes for Workman Audio -- "When Alex and Elana move from rural Virginia to El Paso, they are just a young married couple, each the other’s best friend, intent on a new beginning. Born in Mexico but adopted to white American Pentecostal parents, Alex is hungry to learn about his heritage and spends every free moment across the border in Juárez - perfecting his Spanish, hanging with a collective of young activists, and studying Mexican wresting, lucha libre, for his graduate work in sociology. Though Elana has enrolled at the local university as well, she feels disillusioned by academia and struggles to find her place in their new home. She also has no idea how close Alex has become with Mateo, a lucha libre fighter. When Alex goes missing and Elana can’t determine whether he left of his own accord or was kidnapped, it’s clear that neither of them has faced who they really are."

• Quicksilver By: Dean Koontz, read by Todd Haberkorn for Brilliance -- "Quinn Quicksilver was born a mystery - abandoned at three days old on a desert highway in Arizona. Raised in an orphanage, never knowing his parents, Quinn had a happy if unexceptional life. Until the day of “strange magnetism.” It compelled him to drive out to the middle of nowhere. It helped him find a coin worth a lot of money. And it practically saved his life when two government agents showed up in the diner in pursuit of him. Now Quinn is on the run from those agents and who knows what else, fleeing for his life."

• The Supervillain's Guide to Being a Fat Kid By: Matt Wallace, read by Mark Sanderlin for Harper -- "A personal, humorous, and body-positive middle grade standalone about a fat kid who wants to stop his bullies...and enlists the help of the world’s most infamous supervillain."

• Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become an American By: Wajahat Ali, read by the author for Recorded Books

• A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the Human Species by Rob Dunn, read by Donald Chang for Basic Books (Hachette)

SERIES WATCH:

• The Broken Tower: The Barrier Lands, Book 2 By: Kelly Braffet, read by Tia Rider for Harlequin -- "Deeply immersive, this penetrating tale of magic, faith, and self-determination is the brilliant sequel to The Unwilling."

• Agents of Light and Darkness: Nightside Series, Book 2 By: Simon R. Green, read by Dan Calley for Tantor -- "John Taylor works in the Nightside - the gaudy, neon noir, secret heart of London, where it's always three in the morning, where gods and monsters make deals and seek pleasures they won't find anywhere else. He has a gift for finding things. And sometimes what he's hired to locate can be very, very dangerous indeed."

• Mermaid Confidential: Serge Storms, Book 25 By: Tim Dorsey, read by Oliver Wyman for Harper -- "Serge A. Storms gives condo living a try in this latest acid-splashed Florida crime caper."

INDIE WATCH:

• Titan: Mammon Series, Book 1 By: Robert Kroese, read by Jonathan Beville for Tantor -- "An entrepreneur named Kade Kapur has an idea for rescuing the debt-ridden United States: The government will issue stock in a company with exclusive mining rights to an asteroid whose orbit will soon bring it near Earth. The asteroid, which contains $10 trillion in valuable minerals, is officially called 2015 RK 16 Maimonides, but it soon comes to be known by another name: Mammon."

• Court of Assassins: The Ranger Archives, Book 1 By: Philip C. Quaintrell, read by Steven Brand for Podium -- "Legend. Myth. Nightfall has long been rumored to be nothing more than whispers on the breeze. If only it were so. In those halls of darkness, where children are taken from the world and given to shadow and dust, Asher is destined for that same fate. He will become the myth. He will become the legend. He will become the whisper of Death itself."

• Unbonded: First of the Blade, Book 1 By: D.K. Holmberg, read by Savannah Gilmore for ASH -- "Taught to fear magic. Trained from a young age to destroy those who wield it. The First of the Blade series begins."

• Death and Glory: Immortal's Ascent, Book 1 By: Luke Chmilenko and Chris Harris, read by Luke Daniels for Podium -- "In the Domains, those born with magic have only one place where they can prove themselves worthy of it: the brutal pits of the arena, where they will either grow in power and build a following with every victory, or risk dishonor and death in defeat."

• Otherworlder: Epic Blade, Book 1 By: David J. VanBergen Jr., read by Pavi Proczko for Fairfield -- "It's the most advanced virtual-reality gaming system ever created. So real, you might wind up in another world."

MOST MISSING:

• Obsidian by Sarah J. Daley (Angry Robot) -- "Shade Nox is a fiend, a rogue, and a wanted murderer, though her only true crime is that she chooses to dress like a man. Proud and defiant, she wears her tattoos openly as any bloodwizard would, and carries obsidian blades at her hips. Those who laughingly call her a witch to her face soon learn an unfortunate lesson: Shade Nox might be an abomination, but she wields her blades with devastating precision, gleefully shedding blood for elemental magic that matches any man’s."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 18 January 2022

Posted on 2022-01-18 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel By: Sequoia Nagamatsu, read by a full cast for Harper -- "For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, a spellbinding and profoundly prescient debut that follows a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague - a daring and deeply heartfelt work of mind-bending imagination from a singular new voice."

• Ghost of a Marriage By: Richard Dansky, read by: Sam Rosenthal for Crossroad Press — “There’s something in Gary’s house that doesn’t want him there. Ever since his marriage fell apart, he’s been seeing things, things that everyone keeps on telling him aren’t there. But Gary’s not just seeing things, and soon it’s more than his peace of mind that’s at stake - it’s his life.”

• LaserWriter II: A Novel By: Tamara Shopsin (2021), read by the author for HighBridge -- "A debut novel about a NYC printer repair technician who comes of age alongside the Apple computer."

• You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays By: Zora Neale Hurston, with introductions by Henry Louis Gates and Genevieve West, read by Robin Miles for Harper -- "Spanning more than 35 years of work, the first comprehensive collection of essays, criticism, and articles by the legendary author of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, showcasing the evolution of her distinctive style as an archivist and author."

• The Greek Histories: The Sweeping History of Ancient Greece as Told by Its First Chroniclers: Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch, edited by Mary Lefkowitz and James Romm, read by Vivienne Leheny for Random House -- "From the leading scholars behind The Greek Plays, a collection of the best translations of the foremost Greek historians, presenting a sweeping history of ancient Greece as recorded by its first chroniclers."

• Hunger: A Novella and Stories By: Lan Samantha Chang (1998), read by Eunice Wong for HighBridge --"In luminous prose, these stories of love and loss explore the profound and painful ties between husband and wife, parent and child, sister and sister. The stunning title novella is told by a woman whose love for an exiled musician compels her into a tragic marriage in which her husband's unfulfilled desires nearly destroy their children. In other stories, a ghost seduces a young girl into a flooded river; a mother commands a daughter to avenge her father's death."

• The Chosen Twelve By: James Breakwell, read by Nezar Alderazi for Penguin -- "The last interstellar colony ship is down to its final batch of humans after the robots in charge unhelpfully deleted the rest. But rebooting a species and training them for the arduous task of colonisation isn't easy - especially when the planet below is filled with monsters, the humans are more interested in asking questions than learning and the robots are all programmed to kill each other."

• Reminders of Him: A Novel By: Colleen Hoover, read by Brittany Pressley and Ryan West for Brilliance -- "After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself. The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them."

SERIES WATCH:

• Quantum of Nightmares: Laundry Files, Book 11 By: Charles Stross, read by Gideon Emery for Recorded Books -- "It's a brave new Britain under the New Management. The avuncular prime minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much."

• The Necropolis Empire: Twilight Imperium Series By: Tim Pratt, read by Erin deWard for Tantor -- "The key to controlling the galaxy is hidden on a distant planet, and interplanetary powers will do anything to unlock its secrets, in this epic space opera from the best-selling game, Twilight Imperium."

• Something from the Nightside By: Simon R. Green (2001), read by Dan Calley for Tantor -- "Taylor is the name, John Taylor. My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert on finding lost things. It's part of the gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside."

INDIE WATCH:

• The Water Blade: Ridnight Mysteries Series, Book 1 By: Stuart Jaffe, read by James Anderson Foster for Tantor -- "A brave warleader on a quest for a mythical weapon, Axon Coponiv is forced to look outside her trusted party for help when one of her own is mysteriously slain. She turns to Zev Asterling, a failed businessman, displaced aristocrat, and psuedo-detective, to help her find out who killed her man and why. The mystery deepens as Zev realizes that the killer must be someone close to Axon, perhaps even one of the others in her band."

• Starfall By: Drew Harrison (2020), read by John Pirhalla -- "The world was brought back from the brink of annihilation, but its still-new institutions are rattled once again as heroes and criminals clash in a neon-drenched cyberpunk metropolis."

• To Chart the Clouds By: Evan Dicken, read by Jennifer Aquino for Tantor -- "When diligent yet unappreciated clerk, Miya Isami, develops a new form map-making technique, her traditionalist superiors at the Imperial Cartographic Bureau heap scorn upon her. But when her novel approach exposes a swathe of missing land on the Scorpion-Lion border, Isami stumbles onto something far more significant than a mere mapping error. In recognition of her talents, an Emerald Magistrate dispatches Isami to help resolve a dispute over the contested border. There, she must attempt to negotiate between the proud, warlike Lion and the secretive Scorpion, and uncover the truth before the fragile peace is shattered by war."

• The Seclusion: The Seclusion Series, Book 1 By: Jacqui Castle (2018), read by Lisa Beacom -- "In the year 2090, America has walled itself off from the rest of the world. While on a routine assignment scouting the country's dwindling natural resources, Patricia, “Patch”, and her best friend, Rexx, discover a cache of dangerous contraband - printed books from before the Seclusion. These texts spark an unquenchable thirst for the truth that leads to the arrest of Patch's father by the totalitarian Board, which runs the entire country. Evading their own arrest, Patch and Rexx set out across a ruined future United States. Along the way they learn how their country came to be this way, but their newfound knowledge may lead to their own demise."

• Draculand By: Steve McElhenny, read by Sam Legg for Moon Books -- "When entrepreneur Edward Henning builds a horror-based theme park deep in the heart of Transylvania, little does he realize that his new business partner is, in fact, a centuries-old vampire."

• The Good Sister and Her Flying Monkeys by Alexa Blye, read by Cheryl Cross for Crossroad Press — “Inspired by a true story: Elena Lacosta, a paranoid, take-no-prisoners drug trafficker turned FBI fugitive, marries a cop and fights her inner demons. Her new life depends on it. When Elena's oldest brother Gabriel is killed, she listens to what seems like endless accolades about him at his memorial service, held in a packed church with standing room only, and before the dirt on his grave can settle, she is scheming to reinvent herself in her dead brother's image to launch her new life.”

MOST MISSING:

• Akata Woman: The Nsibidi Scripts, Book 3 (Viking Books for Young Readers) — “The electrifying third book in the series that started with Akata Witch, named one of Time magazine's "100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time" and "100 Best YA Books of All Time”.”

• The Beholden by Cassandra Rose Clarke (Erewhon) -- "Orphaned as young women, Celestia and Izara De Malena find themselves land rich but destitute, with only a failing rainforest acreage, Celestia’s perfect manners, and Izara’s nascent magic to their aristocratic names. With the last of their money running out, they enact a dangerous plan—using a spell she doesn’t fully understand, Izara summons the Lady of the Seraphine and demands a favor: a husband for Celestia, one rich enough to enable the De Malena sisters to keep their land. But a favor from the river goddess always comes at a cost . . ."

• Servant Mage by Kate Elliott (Tordotcom) -- "Fellian is a Lamplighter, able to provide illumination through magic. A group of rebel Monarchists free her from indentured servitude and take her on a journey to rescue trapped compatriots from an underground complex of mines. Along the way they get caught up in a conspiracy to kill the latest royal child and wipe out the Monarchist movement for good. But Fellian has more than just her Lamplighting skills up her sleeve…"

• Outcasts of the Wildwood by Rachel Atwood (DAW) -- "This second novel of a historical fantasy series that reexamines the Robin Hood legend in medieval England."

Lovely to see an independent publisher putting out good-looking titles! (Looking forward to Marie Brennan's Legend of the Five Rings book in February!)

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 11 January 2022

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

PICKS:

• To Paradise: A Novel By: Hanya Yanagihara, read by Edoardo Ballerini, Catherine Ho, BD Wong, Feodor Chin, and Kurt Kanazawa for Random House -- "From the author of the classic A Little Life, a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries (1893, 1993, and 2093) and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss, and the elusive promise of utopia."

• Daughter of the Moon Goddess: A Novel By: Sue Lynn Tan, read by Natalie Naudus for Harper -- "A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm and sets her on a dangerous path - where choices come with deadly consequences, and she risks losing more than her heart."

• Battle of the Linguist Mages By: Scotto Moore, read by Justis Bolding for Recorded Books -- "In modern-day Los Angeles, a shadowy faction led by the governor of California develops the arcane art of combat linguistics, planting the seeds of a future totalitarian empire. Isobel is the queen of the medieval rave-themed VR game Sparkle Dungeon. Her prowess in the game makes her an ideal candidate to learn the secrets of "power morphemes" - unnaturally dense units of meaning that warp perception when skillfully pronounced. But Isobel’s reputation makes her the target of a strange resistance movement led by spellcasting anarchists, who may be the only thing stopping the cabal from toppling California over the edge of a terrible transformation, with 40 million lives at stake."

• Deep Dive By: Ron Walters, read by Stefan Menaul for Angry Robot -- "Still reeling from the failure of his last project, video game developer Peter Banuk is working hard to ensure his next game doesn’t meet the same fate. He desperately needs a win, not only to save his struggling company, but to justify the time he’s spent away from his wife and daughters. So when Peter’s tech-genius partner offers him the chance to beta-test a new state-of-the-art virtual reality headset, he jumps at it. But something goes wrong during the trial, and Peter wakes to find himself trapped in an eerily familiar world where his children no longer exist."

• How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them By: Barbara F. Walter, read by Beth Hicks for Random House -- "A leading political scientist examines the dramatic rise in violent extremism around the globe and sounds the alarm on the increasing likelihood of a second civil war in the United States."

INDIE WATCH:

• The Seven: The Labyrinth, Book 1 By: Brian Keene, read by Joshua Saxon for Crossroad Press -- "The Labyrinth - an interconnected mythos that binds all of Brian Keene’s works together."

YOUNG READERS:

• Northwind By: Gary Paulsen, read by JD Jackson for Macmillan -- "This stunning audiobook from the survival story master, set along a rugged coastline centuries ago, does for the ocean what Hatchet does for the woods, as it relates the story of a young person’s battle to stay alive against the odds, where the high seas meet a coastal wilderness."

MOST MISSING:

• The Amber Crown by Jacey Bedford (DAW) -- "In this new epic fantasy, three societal outcasts must work together to fulfill the orders of a dead king’s ghost or risk their nation falling to a tyrant."

• Sorrow of the Cranes by J.M. McDermott -- "Every night begins with a story in the ferryman’s mountain home. His two daughters, Joy and Sorrow, live wild with their pet pig, Roy, since their mother’s death, and their grandmother wants them to come down the mountain and attend a refined girls’ school. But nothing is as it seems. The younger daughter, Sorrow, is coming of age as a crane wife. Her song awakens old gods and old magic. The secretive queen of clocks in the city below the mountain would take her song, and the city, and the whole world. Sorrow’s elder sister, Joy, is the only one who can see between worlds, save her sister, and the dreams of everyone and everything, from the clocks."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 4 January 2022

Posted on 2022-01-04 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• The School for Good Mothers: A Novel By: Jessamine Chan, read by Catherine Ho for Simon and Schuster -- "In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance."

• The High House: A Novel By: Jessie Greengrass, read by Camilla Rockley, Sam Newton, and Mariam Abu-Hejleh for Simon and Schuster -- "In this powerful, highly anticipated novel from an award-winning author, four people attempt to make a home in the midst of environmental disaster."

• Anthem By: Noah Hawley, read by Shiromi Arserio for Grand Central -- "Something is happening to teenagers across America, spreading through memes only they can parse."

• The Maid: A Novel By: Nita Prose, read by Lauren Ambrose for Random House -- “A twist-and-turn whodunit, set in a five-star hotel, from the perspective of the maid who finds the body. Think Clue. Think page-turner.” (Glamour)

• The Starless Crown: Moon Fall, Book 1 By: James Rollins, read by Nicola Barber for Macmillan -- "An alliance embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the secrets of the distant past and save their world in this captivating, deeply visionary adventure."

• Bad Gods By: Gaie Sebold, read by Lucy Paterson for Penguin -- "All tastes! All species! All currencies! You can find anything in Scalentine, the city of portals, but you won't find a better brothel than the Red Lantern. And its proprietor, Babylon Steel (ex-mercenary, ex-priestess, ex...lots of things), means to keep it that way. But a prurient cult are protesting in the streets, sex workers are disappearing and Babylon has bills to pay. When the powerful Diplomatic Section hires her - off the books - to find a missing heiress, she has to take the job. And then her past starts to catch up with her...."

SERIES WATCH:

• The God Is Not Willing: Witness, Book 1 By: Steven Erikson, read by Emma Gregory for Brilliance -- "Erikson continues the beloved Malazan Book of the Fallen with this first book in the thrilling Witness sequel trilogy. Many years have passed since three warriors brought carnage and chaos to Silver Lake. Now the tribes of the north no longer venture into the southlands. The town has recovered and yet the legacy remains."

• The Unfamiliar Garden: The Comet Cycle Series, Book 2 By: Benjamin Percy, read by Mela Lee and Will Collyer for Harper -- "The night the sky fell, Jack and Nora Abernathy’s daughter vanished in the woods. And Mia’s disappearance broke her parents’ already fragile marriage. Unable to solve her own daughter’s case, Nora lost herself in her work as a homicide detective. Jack became a shell of a man; his promising career as a biologist crumbling alongside the meteor strikes that altered weather patterns and caused a massive drought."

• Stolen Skies: Vickery and Castine, Book 3 By: Tim Powers, read by Bronson Pinchot for Recorded Books -- "Sebastian Vickery has learned something about UFOs that he shouldn’t have — and Naval Intelligence, desperate to silence him, orders his old partner, Agent Ingrid Castine, to trap him."

• Where the Drowned Girls Go: Wayward Children, Book 7 By: Seanan McGuire, read by Whitney Johnson for Macmillan -- "There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again. It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. And it isn't as safe."

• Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star By: Claudia Gray, read by Marc Thompson for Random House -- "In this gripping sequel to Star Wars: The Rising Storm, the light of the Jedi faces its darkest hour."

BACKLIST WATCH:

• The Tower of Ravens: The Rhiannon's Ride Series, Book 1 By: Kate Forsyth (2005), read by Elle Newlands for Blackstone -- "One-Horn’s daughter is not like the others of her kind. Born of a human father, she lacks the horns so prized by her people and is scorned even by her own mother. Her only chance for escape is to capture one of the legendary flying horses and ride it to freedom."

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 28 December 2021

Posted on 2021-12-28 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Link to last week

Posted in Release Week