O’ audiobook, you of your flowing tears, you make me covetous…
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Scott Brick
7 Cassettes, 7 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: January 2008
ISBN: 1433211232 (cassettes), 1433211249 (cds), 1433211256 (mp3-cd)
Pop star Jason Taverner is the product of a top-secret government experiment that produced a selection of genetically enhanced people forty years ago. Unusually bright and beautiful, he’s a television idol beloved by millions—until one day, all records of his identity inexplicably disappear. Overnight, he has gone from being a celebrity to a being a man whom no one seems to recognize. And in a police state, having no proof of his existence is enough to put his life in danger.
This Asaro novel isn’t in the Skolian Empire series, but its tech will be familiar to those who’ve read them…
Sunrise Alley
By Catherine Asaro; Read by Hillary Huber
11 Cassettes, 12 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published:December 2007
ISBN: 1433212994 (cassettes), 1433213007 (cds), 1433213014 (mp3-cd)
When a shipwrecked stranger washed up on the beach near research scientist Samantha Bryton’s home, she was unaware that he was something more than human. He said his name was Turner Pascal—but Pascal was dead, killed in a car wreck. This man only held the remainder of Pascal’s consciousness in a technologically-enhanced humanoid body. He was, in fact, an experiment by the notorious criminal Charon, a practitioner of illegal robotics and android research. Charon has been secretly copying human minds into android brains, with plans to make his own army of slaves. On the run from this most ruthless criminal, Samatha and Turner seek help from Sunrise Alley, an underground organization of AIs and androids that have gone rogue. But these cybernetic outlaws are rumored to have their own hidden agenda.
Below is the third audiobook version of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, the first being a very abridged reading by Robert Vaughn, the second, released through Recorded Books in 1999, was read by George Wilson.
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Tom Weiner
9 Cassettes, 10 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: December 2007
ISBN: 1433212901 (cassettes), 1433212918 (cds), 1433212925 (mp3-cd)
When a stranger attempting to deliver a cryptic message is shot dead at his dinner table, Ames is thrown headfirst into danger, intrigue, and other dimensions where Lazarus Long still thrives, where Jubal Harshaw lives surrounded by beautiful women, and where a daring plot to rescue the sentient computer called Mike can change the direction of all human history.
“Swashbuckling adventure, science fiction, betrayal and a bit of romance… no leprechauns and no fairies, and absolutely no apprentice wizards.” – Check out the trailer for this novel on Eoin Colfer’s website
Airman
By Eoin Colfer; Read by John Keating
CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: December 26, 2007
ISBN: 0739359746
In the 1890s Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. Conor spends his days studying the science of flight with his tutor and exploring the castle with the king’s daughter, Princess Isabella. But the boy’s idyllic life changes forever the day he discovers a deadly conspiracy against the king. When Conor tries to intervene, he is branded a traitor and thrown into jail on the prison island of Little Saltee. There, he has to fight for his life, as he and the other prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in inhumane conditions. There is only one way to escape Little Saltee, and that is to fly. So Conor passes the solitary months by scratching drawings of flying machines on the prison walls. The months turn into years; but eventually the day comes when Conor must find the courage to trust his revolutionary designs and take to the skies.
This 1983 Koontz novel has elements from John Carpenter’s version of The Thing, and the “shoggoths” envisioned in the works of H.P. Lovecraft…
Phantoms
By Dean Koontz; Read by Buck Schirner
12 CDs – 15 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: January 2008
ISBN: 9781423339267
They found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California. At first they thought it was the work of a maniac. Or terrorists. Or toxic contamination. Or a bizarre new disease. But then they found the truth. And they saw it in the flesh. And it was worse than anything any of them had ever imagined…
The King of modern horror, Stephen King, writes again…
Duma Key
By Stephen King; Read by John Slattery
18 CDs – 23 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publisher: January 2008
A terrible accident takes Edgar Freemantle’s right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. When his marriage suddenly ends, Edgar begins to wish he hadn’t survived his injuries. He wants out. His psychologist suggests a new life distant from the Twin Cities, along with something else…
Somehow we missed this classic in the fall releases…
Cat’s Cradle
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by Tony Roberts
6 CDs – 7 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: HarperAudio
Published: November 2007
ISBN: 9780061135200
Cat’s Cradle is Vonnegut’s satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet’s ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist; a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer; and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny.
Here’s a podiobook that sound promising…
Beautiful Red
By M. Darusha Wehm; Read by M. Darusha Wehm
23 MP3 Files (Podcast) – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: 2007 – 2008
The future is boring. Technology has solved the world’s most pressing problems, leaving people with tedious work and mundane play. Jack is a Security Officer Class 5, which sounds important, but isn’t. However, her banal life as a cubicle worker by day and tinkerer by night is interrupted when she discovers that her employer’s computer system has been invaded.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Dick. You know you want it. Indeed, a life without Philip K. Dick is hardly worth imagining! Thankfully the folks at BBC7 and The 7th Dimension agree and so they are re-running what I consider to be one of the best short stories ever written. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale posits a future world of memory implants and false vacations. Doug Quail, the shmendrik-hero of the tale, wants to visit the planet Mars. Unfortunately his shrewish wife vetos the idea whenever he mentions it. That all changes though when, after a mishap at a virtual travel agency, he discovers that he’s already been there! What’s real? What’s not? Dick explores these Cartesian questions better than any other writer (including Descartes himself) have a listen, you won’t be sorry…
We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
