A golden age of audiobooks is upon us! Just look at these beauteous new releases for June and July! It’s as if the gods of Science Fiction are smiling down upon us all!
First up, thanks to Tantor, is a long awaited Asimov mystery, with robots…
The Naked Sun
By Isaac Asimov; Read by William Dufris
7 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – 8 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 140010422X (CDs), 1400154227 (MP3-CD)
A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. On the beautiful Outer World planet of Solaria, a handful of human colonists lead a hermit-like existence, their every need attended to by their faithful robot servants. To this strange and provocative planet comes Detective Elijah Baley, sent from the streets of New York with his positronic partner, the robot R. Daneel Olivaw, to solve an incredible murder that has rocked Solaria to its foundations. The victim had been so reclusive that he appeared to his associates only through holographic projection. Yet someone had gotten close enough to bludgeon him to death while robots looked on. Now Baley and Olivaw are faced with two clear impossibilities: Either the Solarian was killed by one of his robots—unthinkable under the laws of Robotics—or he was killed by the woman who loved him so much that she never came into his presence!
Then, we head back in time, courtesy of the good folks at Blackstone Audio, to
The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
By Jack Finney; Read by Kristoffer Tabori
1 MP3-CD or 6 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 9780786169559 (MP3 CD), 9780786157815 (CDs)
On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved—the world as he knew it.
Next, my fellow droogs, is a classic from Harper/Caedmon, never before released unabridged…
A Clockwork Orange
By Anthony Burgess; Read by Tom Hollander
7 CDs – 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio / Caedmon
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 0061170623
A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends’ social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. And when the state undertakes to reform Alex to “redeem” him, the novel asks, “At what cost?” *This edition includes both the controversial last chapter and Burgess’s introduction “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”
Further, we travel with BBC Audiobooks America to the golden age of SF for one of the pillars of A.E. van Vogt’s mighty career…
Slan
By A.E. van Vogt; Read by Oliver Wyman
6 CDs – 7 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780792748946
Jommy Cross is a slan, a genetically bred superhuman whose race was created to aid humanity but is now despised by normal humans. Slans are usually shot on sight, but that doesn’t stop Jommy’s mother from bringing him to see the world capital of Centropolis, the seat of power for Earth’s dictator, Kier Gray. But on their latest trip to Centropolis, the two slans are discovered, and Jommy’s mother is killed. Jommy, only 9 years old, unwittingly becomes caught up in a plot to undermine Gray, who may be more sympathetic to slans than the public suspects. The nonstop action and root-for-the-underdog plot has made Slan a science fiction favorite.
Now with a quick jump forward with Books On Tape, to the modern sequel…
Slan Hunter
By Kevin J. Anderson and A.E. Van Vogt; Read by Scott Brick
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books On Tape
Publication date: July 10, 2007
ISBN: 1415940320
“This startling SF adventure novel is a collaboration between the classic SF grand master A. E. van Vogt and contemporary master Kevin J. Anderson. At the time of his death in 2000, van Vogt left a partial draft and an outline for the sequel to his most famous novel, Slan. Now the story is completed by Anderson and is sure to be one of the most popular SF novels of the year. Slans are a race of superior mutants, smarter and stronger than homo sapiens and able to read minds. Thousands of years in the future on Earth, the Slan Wars are over, and the slans were largely wiped out, but people still fear and distrust them. They are now a persecuted minority who live in hiding from the greater population. Slan Hunter tells of this towering conflict in the far future, a war among the races of mankind, as humanity–all types of humanity–struggles to survive. Mutant Jommy Cross, the hero of Slan, and the other great characters from that book return, including Kier Gray, Gray’s beautiful daughter Kathleen, and the villainous John Petty. The final Slan War now begins.”
And what Golden Age would be complete without a revist to an audiobook that’s probably had more incarnations than your average time lord? Yep, it’s Dune, this time done up in an unabridged multi-voiced version…
Dune
By Frank Herbert; Read by a full cast
? CDs – 27 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 1427201439
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud’dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family—and would bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. Frank Herbert’s death in 1986 was a tragic loss, yet the astounding legacy of his visionary fiction will live forever.
And finally we conclude with respected first novel in a new fantasy series that Books On Tape is offering…
His Majesty’s Dragon
By Naomi Novik; Read by Simon Vance
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books On Tape
Release Date: June 26, 2007
ISBN: 1415940142
Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain’s defense by taking to the skies … not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons. When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future–and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarefied world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.
My ears are tingling just thinking about all these!