Author: Scott D.

Reviews Editor, SFFaudio

Here’s an interesting article from MSNBC which sta…

SFFaudio News

Here’s an interesting article from MSNBC which states that the audio version of the new Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will go on sale on July 16, the same day as the hardcover release, with a record first run of 635,000 copies! That’s an astounding number. A lot of people are getting their first taste of audiobooks through Rowling’s titles.

Jim Dale narrates the unabridged novel, as he did all of the previous novels. This one will run 19 hours and will be released by Listening Library.

It’s also interesting to note that in the UK, the Harry Potter audiobooks are performed by Stephen Fry. A quick check of Amazon.co.uk shows that this book will be, also. I haven’t heard Fry’s narration yet, but would like to (hint, hint, nudge nudge, say no more).

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Here are the New Releases for this month: The Con…

New Releases

Here are the New Releases for this month:

The Consciousness Plague
By Paul Levinson, Read by Mark Shanahan
ISBN: 1593160380
Abridged
Listen and Live Audio
Scott: This is an 8 hour abridgement… Amazon shows that the book is 340 pages long, so it’s almost all here.

Dead as a Doornail
A Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery
By Charlaine Harris, Read by Johanna Parker
ISBN: 1419337300
Recorded Books

Empire of the East
By Fred Saberhagen, Read by Raymond Todd
Unabridged
ISBN: 078134976
Blackstone Audio
Scott: This one’s on my TBR shelf… Saberhagen is a writer I haven’t read (or heard).

The Historian
By Elizabeth Kostova, Read by Rosalyn Landor and Jim Ward
Unabridged
ISBN: 1594830363
Time Warner Audiobooks

Pendragon Book 3: The Never War
By D.J. MacHale, Read by William Dufris
ISBN: 1597372510
Brilliance Audio

Pendragon Book 4: The Reality Bug
By D.J. MacHale, Read by William Dufris
ISBN 1597372596
Brilliance Audio

Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtues
By Mark Eddy Smith, Read by Simon Vance
Unabridged
ISBN: 0786178299
Blackstone Audio
Scott: This one caught my eye – it’s a kind of “Life Lessons from Lord of the Rings”

Velocity
By Dean Koontz, Read by Michael Hayden
Unabridged
ISBN: 0739315552
Random House Audio

The Vor Game
By Lois McMaster Bujold, Read by Grover Gardner
Unabridged
ISBN: 0786177330
Blackstone Audio
Scott: Blackstone will be releasing several of Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels – this is the first!

Wee Free Men
By Terry Pratchett, Read by Stephen Briggs
ISBN: 0060785985
Harper Audio

In the podcasting world, here’s some of the titles that have been published:

Escape Pod
“In His Footsteps” by Paul E. Martens, Read by Stephen Eley
“Oasis” by Greg van Eekhout, Read by Stephen Eley
“Snow Day” by Jennifer Pelland, Read by Deborah Green
“Strange Girlfriend” by Scott Janssens, Read by Stephen Eley

Podiobooks continues their serials of Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana by Tee Morris & Lisa Lee, The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey, and Earthcore by Scott Sigler.

Other new developments – Timberwolf Press is now offering some of their titles for sale at Paperback Digital, which has also branched out into eBooks.

If you’d like to be included in future New Releases posts on SFFAudio, please click here to e-mail Scott.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The Audie Awards were presented this weekend in …

The Audie Awards were presented this weekend in New York City. Neil Gaiman was emcee – the press release called him “one of the top ten living post-modern writers”. Find the press release at the Audio Publisher’s Assocation website.

In the Science Fiction category, the winner was Blackstone Audio’s Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card, read by Stefan Rudnicki. Bravo!

Other genre winners:
Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, read by Rene Auberjonois (Time Warner Audiobooks) won in the Abridged Fiction category. I haven’t heard this title, but Auberjonois is one heck of a good narrator.

Jim Dale’s performance of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Listening Library) won in the Classics category, and his narration of Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (Brilliance Audio) won in the Children’s Titles for Ages 8+ category. A new Jim Dale-performed Harry Potter title is scheduled for release on July 16th and is eagerly awaited in my house.

C.S. Lewis’ Narnia tales showed up twice on the list; once in the Inspirational/Faith-Based Fiction category, and again in the Package Design category. (Both titles were published by HarperCollins.)

Our friends over at Full Cast Audio won an award in the Audio Drama category for Buddha Boy by Kathe Koja. Well deserved! They blur the line between Audio Drama and Audiobooks with their Full Cast unabridged readings – check them out!

The Audiobook of the Year? Bill Clinton’s My Life, published by Random House.

Again, the full results can be found at the Audio Publisher’s Association website. Congratulations to all!

posted by Scott D. Danielson

We’re hard at work building a new online audio pag…

SFFaudio News

We’re hard at work building a new online audio page that will include up-to-date links to streaming genre-related audio sources, including podcasts. We’ll get that up as soon as possible, and are completely open to suggestions and/or items to include on that page – click here to e-mail me, or here for Jesse.

In my ear is an unabridged version of Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks. This is my first Culture novel, and so far (about 10% in) I’m really liking it. I noticed that Banks’ latest Culture novel, The Algebraist, is available in England in unabridged format only. I’m curious – are there a lot of abridgements produced in England?

On or about June 15, you’ll see the return of our popular monthly “New Releases” post. I’ll gather those posts on an archive page as well.

All our best, and thanks for visiting SFFAudio!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson