Random House Audio – Page 14

Recent Arrivals from Random House Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

This pair of Random House Audio titles just in, including Infected by podcaster extraordinaire Scott Sigler!

Infected
By Scott Sigler; Read by Scott Sigler
9 CDs – 12 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9780739328859

Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.

Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common – they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.

Meanwhile Perry Dawsey – a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey – awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected.

The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder.

The Crystal Skull
By Manda Scott; Read by Susan Duerden
5 CDs – 6.5 hours – [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9780739328859

In a spellbinding blend of history, myth, and science, bestselling novelist Manda Scott unleashes a thriller that sweeps from the secrets of the Mayans to the court of a sixteenth-century queen to a shattering end-times prophecy.

“It’s a lump of rock, Stella; nothing more. No stone is worth dying for.”

Except it’s not just a lump of rock. It’s a blue crystal skull made by the Maya to save the world from ruin; a sapphire so perfect, so powerful that for centuries men have killed to own or destroy it.

Ancient prophecies say that if the thirteen skulls already in existence are not reunited, the world will end on December 21, 2012. Cedric Owen, the skull’s last Keeper, died so that it might keep its secret for the next four centuries. Now Stella Cody has found it, and someone has already tried to kill her. Like Owen, she’s being hunted—but by whom?

Desperate to unravel the mystery of the crystal skull, Stella must decode Cedric Owen’s coded writings, sketches and ciphers no scholar has been able to unravel. What she discovers is astounding: a shocking secret prophecy…and the staggering puzzle of four terrifying creatures, thirteen precious stones, and what will happen if Cedric Owen’s crystal skull falls into the wrong hands. But time is against Stella. She has only days—hours—left to uncover the only secret that may yet save the world.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Random House Audio – NO DRM & Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother

SFFaudio News

BoingBoing.net is reporting that Random House Audio is abandoning digital rights management schemes for their audiobooks. The article gives more details, including the fact that Cory Doctorow’s much-anticipated forthcoming novel Little Brother is to become a commercial audiobook. Doctorow sez:

“My agent had negotiated a one-off no-DRM deal with them [Random House Audio] for that edition, but now it seems like everyone’s going to have the same option: authors who don’t want DRM won’t be forced by Random House to include it.”

Cool news!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Dreamsongs: Volume 1 by George R.R. Martin

SFFaudio Review

Selections from Dreamsongs Volume 1: Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi from Martin’s Early Years
By George R.R. Martin; Read by Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, and Adrian Paul
12 CDs; 15 hours; [UNABRIDGED SELECTIONS]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780739357125
Themes: / Science Fiction / Horror / Fantasy / Short Stories / Biography /

Audiobooks have evolved over the past few years in a number of ways. CD’s are now the norm, cassettes used to be. Many more titles are being made into audiobooks. But still, even though audiobooks are a distinct medium, they still haven’t taken the inevitable step away from print. This audiobook, which is quite excellent, is a good example of what I mean. Though this is a collection of short stories, nowhere, on the inside or outside of the packaging, does it list the Table of Contents. This kind of thing has audiobook listeners looking for the print version of the book for this information. It’s as if audiobooks are being made as an augmentation of their print counterparts. Surely, they should be created stand-alone. Information, like the Table of Contents of a short story collection, should not only be included, but it should be visible before purchase.

Still, like I said, this audiobook is excellent. It’s the first of three collections that contain selections from the three Dreamsongs books that collect George R.R. Martin’s short fiction. This Volume covers the early years of Martin’s career, from his fan fiction publications through his first sales to his first awards.

As interesting as the included stories are the biographical introductions to each section that are read by George R.R. Martin himself. These introductions are lengthy, though I would have enjoyed even more of them. He talks about his first writings, his first sale, his first nominations, and his first Hugo, for “A Song of Lya”. It’s a candid overview of a writer’s life, and I enjoyed it every bit as much as I enjoyed similar details in Stephen King’s On Writing.

A Four Color Fanboy, read by George R.R. Martin
“Only Kids are Afraid of the Dark”, read by Adrian Paul
“The Fortress”, read by Mark Bramhall
“And Death His Legacy”, read by Scott Brick
This section contains stories that Martin wrote for fanzines. If you want to read a villain’s monologue as written by George R.R. Martin, look no further than “Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark”, which is a “hero meets demon prince” story. Adrian Paul gives the story an uplifting dramatic reading.

The Filthy Pro, read by George R.R. Martin
“The Hero”, read by Roy Dotrice
“The Exit to San Breta”, read by Scott Brick
“The Second Kind of Loneliness”, read by Mark Bramhall
“With Morning Comes Mistfall”, read by Claudia Black
Roy Dotrice should read all of George R.R. Martin’s fiction. He’s just got this gravel quality that seems to match so many of Martin’s heroes. In “The Hero”, Martin’s first story sale, which Dotrice reads, a future soldier who has finished his tour of duty decides not to re-enlist, and to request passage to Earth, as was promised when he signed on. Dotrice manages to make the soldier even more believable.

The Light of Distant Stars, read by George R.R. Martin
“A Song for Lya”, read by Mark Bramhall
“The Tower of Ashes”, read by Kirby Heyborne
“And Seven Times Never Kill Man”, read by Roy Dotrice
“The Stone City”, read by Adrian Paul
“Bitterblooms”, read by Kim Mai Guest
“The Way of Cross and Dragon”, read by Roy Dotrice
And here we see Martin at near full-strength. “A Song for Lya”, read by Mark Bramhall, is the centerpiece of this volume as far as I’m concerned. It won Martin his first Hugo, and is a moving story about a couple who arrives at a planet to investigate the influence of the indigenous alien religion on humans. “The Way of Cross and Dragon” again deals with religion, but this time in a form that closely resembles the Catholic Church.

Audible.com has all three volumes of Dreamsongs available now. Not only can you buy each volume, but they’ve also allowed you to purchase the individual sections of the books, each introduced by the author. Wonderful stuff!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik

SFFaudio Review

His Majesty’s Dragon
By Naomi Novik; Read by David Thorn
5 CDs – 6.5 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780739354131
Themes: / Fantasy / Hard Fantasy / Alternate History / Dragons / 19th Century / War / Britain / France /

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.

Abridged! And here I thought we were beyond abridged audiobooks. I wasn’t even sure I’d ever see another abridged audiobook on a bookstore bookshelf again, let alone find myself listening to one. After all is said and done though, His Majesty’s Dragon wasn’t badly abridged, there were no jarring transitions, even if it felt as if large parts of the story were missing. Narrator David Thorn and his English accent gave Temeraire and the other dragons a kind of menacing innocence, full of a promise of danger and odd loyalty.

The world of His Majesty’s Dragon posits an alternate history where dragons, once the sole province of kings and emperors across Europe and Asia, are now a weapon delivery platform of choice for the military during the Napoleonic Wars. Will Laurence, a promising young sea Captain of the Royal Navy, captures a French ship carrying a precious bounty, an unhatched dragon egg. Unfortunately, what little the ship’s surgeon knows about dragon eggs is that this one will hatch soon. Too soon, in fact, for if the dragon within is to be of any use it must be harnessed immediately upon hatching to a sailor with whom it will have a lifelong bond.

Much of the action of the novel takes place in the training grounds of Britain’s “Aerial Corps.” The writing is professional and amicable, the characters are interesting and I get the sense this story will definitely appeal to the Harry Potter crowd, especially those who like a little romance in their fantasy. One of the standouts, character-wise, is a female dragon captain, who though battle hardened and physically scarred, packs an emotional wallop in the few scenes she graces. As this is the first book in a series it leaves a lot open at its conclusion, and perhaps my disappointment with the lack of integration within the larger pattern off history will be addressed by the subsequent books.

About that disappointment: History fans, like me, will probably be disappointed with the lack of historical detail. There’s good stuff, but not enough of it. Worse though, Novik’s world isn’t fully thought through. The changes she’s made to her historical setting don’t include any wide-ranging hard consequences. For instance, just having another sentient species on Earth would have had tremendous religious, societal and political ramifications to our history. But if individual members of that sentient species are as powerful as a Lancaster bomber you’d expect even more. These necessary changes are absent, or if not entirely omitted they are at least checkmated by dragons on opposing armies. Sure there attitudinal changes, mostly disdain, coming from the aspects of society that don’t interact with dragons on a daily basis, but this feels like the “muggle” solution, a cheat, like was done in the Harry Potter books. And that doesn’t fit the alternate history with one minor change vibe Novik was going for. Dragons, like the armor plated, jool-loving, fire-breathing creatures Novik uses, would have to impact culture from bow to stern. Just think how many cultures have mythical dragons in their history, now make them real! Simply put, there was work to be done and that work wasn’t done in His Majesty’s Dragon. Admittedly, the threads of the significant changes Novik has woven into her image are good. Attitudes toward women have changed within the Aerial Corps, and this is the most fascinating aspect of the book for me. But the dragon aspect of history feels as if they was just plopped atop an already existing rich tapestry of history, the threads attaching it to real history don’t go deep enough, and ultimately, this may be a case where the history and the fantasy are incompatible. But perhaps this is only an issue in the abridged version? If so I’d definitely be up for more in the Temeraire series – in which case I’d really need to get my mitts on the unabridged editions for subsequent books.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

SFFaudio Audiobook Review

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
By Max Brooks; Read by a full cast
5 CDs – 6 hours – [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 0739340131 ;ISBN-13: 9780739340134
Themes: / Horror / Zombies / War / Politics / Apocalypse

For my birthday last year, my wife got me a subscription to The Believer, a magazine for bibliophiles put out by the good people at McSweeney’s Publishing (Dave Eggers, Michael Chabon, Nick Hornby, and Rick Moody have all been involved with McSweeney’s in one way or another; sci-fi fans would do well to check out both McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales and their Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories I was pleasantly surprised to open up to the 2006 Believer Book Awards in the last issue and find at least two science fiction novels listed in the top 40 (two that I recognized as such, anyway). Cormac McCarthy’s The Road was number one; not too shocking given McCarthy’s extensive, “respectable” (read: non-sci-fi) bibliography. The other was more of a surprise; Max Brooks’ World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. I’d listened to the audio version of the novel months ago, and enjoyed the hell out of it, but it was kind of shocker to see a book about zombies written by Mel Brooks’ kid rubbing elbows with the new ones from Pynchon, Munro, Roth, and Virgil. Chalk some of the success up to Brooks’ connections, chalk some of it up to the inexplicably universal appeal of zombies, but give credit where it’s due and realize that World War Z is a well-written novel, and remarkable, given the crudity of the titular characters, in its subtlety and nuance.

Brooks presents the novel as an actual historical document of the spread of the virus that results in “zombiism,” and the reaction of the various nations to the problem. The book is structured as a series of interviews with representatives from around the world with Brooks himself as interviewer, and the device works well. Brooks has obviously done his homework; it’s not much of a reach to imagine Chinese bureaucrats engaging in an elaborate coverup of the spread of the virus (poisoned dogfood anyone?), South Africa deciding on a cold-hearted but necessary policy of abandoning the portion of the populace exposed to the virus, or the U.S. entertainment industry attempting to make a reality show of the zombie attack. The only part of the political description that felt a little unrealistic was Brook’s characterization of Israel’s generosity in its offer of asylum to Palestinian refugees before completely closing its borders for the duration of the war.

The decision to paint something as visceral as a zombie attack in the broad strokes of policy and strategy is an interesting one. Zombies have heretofore been portrayed mostly in the more action-friendly medium of cinema, and mostly from an up-close, short-term perspective. Brooks avoids the trap of becoming too impersonal and detached from the war by grounding the novel in the first-person reminiscences of the folks who lived through it. It’s impossible not to develop some attachment to the Canadian girl who describes the effects of the northern winter on the ill-prepared refugees looking to escape the warm-weather-dependent zombies, and the blind Japanese gardener’s account of his daily battles with the walking dead is strangely tranquil and moving.

The first thing you’ll notice about the audio version of World War Z are the cast members listed on the cover. Alan Alda, John Tuturro, Henry Rollins and, wait for it, Mark Hamill all contribute their voices to the project. Not quite A-listers, maybe, but definitely in the B or B+ range. Give it a little more time and Hamill might start being known first as a solid voice actor and secondly as that guy from the Star Wars that didn’t suck. He’s particularly effective in this production, as an American soldier reminiscing about the ups and downs of the military’s encounter with the zombies. Turns out the U.S. military was operating on an obsolete wartime paradigm and was ill-equipped to deal with an enemy that doesn’t fit the old model of nation-on-nation warfare. Hm.

The rest of the cast fares as well as Hamill; it’s admirable that the producers of the audiobook went to the trouble of securing actors that actually hail from the area they represent in the book. The genuineness of the accents is apparent and is definitely preferable to having some Rich Little-type give his impersonation of a Cuban.

So, whether you’re a zombie-loving, George Romero-worshiping, Shaun Of The Dead-reciting, walking dead aficionado; a history-channel-watching, political science-junkie; or just an audiobook listener with a taste for the unique, you’ll be welcome among the growing ranks of the scholars of dubya-dubya Z.

posted by Cory Myer