New Releases: Dan Simmons, James Patterson and Craig Robertson

New Releases

Two upcoming audiobooks from Hachette Audio that we talked about on the most recent SFFaudio Podcast…

HACHETTE AUDIO - Black Hills by Dan SimmonsBlack Hills
By Dan Simmons; Read by Erik Davies and Michael McConnohie
18 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Published: February 24, 2010
ISBN: 1600247865
When Paha Sapa, a young Sioux warrior, “counts coup” on General George Armstrong Custer as Custer lies dying on the battlefield at the Little Bighorn, the legendary general’s ghost enters him – and his voice will speak to him for the rest of his event-filled life. Seamlessly weaving together the stories of Paha Sapa, Custer, and the American West, Dan Simmons depicts a tumultuous time in the history of both Native and white Americans. Haunted by Custer’s ghost, and also by his ability to see into the memories and futures of legendary men like Sioux war-chief Crazy Horse, Paha Sapa’s long life is driven by a dramatic vision he experienced as a boy in his people’s sacred Black Hills. In August of 1936, a dynamite worker on the massive Mount Rushmore project, Paha Sapa plans to silence his ghost forever and reclaim his people’s legacy-on the very day FDR comes to Mount Rushmore to dedicate the Jefferson face.

HACHETTE AUDIO - Fang by James PattersonFang (A Maximum Ride Novel)
By James Patterson; Read by Jill Apple
5 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Published: March 25, 2010
ISBN: 9781600247897
Max and the Flock are flying high over Africa, but this time they’re not alone. A sky full of cargo planes accompanies the team as they bring much-needed aid to the continent’s poverty stricken regions. Among the volunteers is the mission’s benefactor–the mysterious billionaire, Dr. Hans Gunther-Hagen. Max is intrigued by his generosity, but there’s also something about him–and his intense scrutiny of the Flock–that makes her nervous. But Dr. Hans isn’t the only puzzling thing about their trip. The Flock also receives a cryptic message from a young girl, who tells them, “The sky will fall.” Max and the Flock are ready to return home, still unable to make sense of her statement. But the surprises don’t end with their departure, and something unbelievably momentous shakes up the Flock–pushing Max and Fang closer than ever. Will the team be able to stick together through the chaos?

And here’s one I got told about by the author hisself…

Podiobooks.com - Anon Time by Craig RobertsonAnon Time
By Craig Robertson; Read by Craig Robertson
Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours 42 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: 2009
What if you weren’t who you thought you were, what others saw you to be? What if the structure of time depended on you to keep it steady. What if unseen forces, both good and evil, surrounded you, effecting your life in way’s you could not begin to imagine? Well, if that were the case, you’d be Mark De Martel, unobtrusive advertising agent in Los Angeles. Or would you? Possibly you were a Mark, but possibly you would be a powerful warrior, using skills such as the manipulation of gravity itself to save existence.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Diabolic Plots: The Best Of Pseudopod

SFFaudio Online Audio

Diabolical PlotsThe Diabolical Plots blog has a post called “The Best of Pseudopod” here’s a snippet:

“Since July I’ve been plumbing the depths of Pseudopod’s backlog and now I’m sad to say I’ve listened to everything they’ve offered to date. Now I only get one new Pseudopod a week like the rest of the world (released every Friday). But now that I’ve listened to all of Pseudopod’s offerings, I feel qualified to make a list of the Best of Pseudopod, my top ten favorite stories that have been posted to the site (and a few that ALMOST made the list).”

And here are the top 10 picks:

1.
PseudopodDeep Red
By Floris M. Kleijne; Read by Ben Phillips
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: November 21st, 2008


2.
PseudopodSuicide Notes By An Alien Mind
By Ferrett Steinmetz; Read by Phil Rossi
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: October 2nd, 2009


3.
PseudopodStockholm Syndrome
By David Tallerman; Read by Cheyenne Wright
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: June 29th, 2007


4.
PseudopodCome To My Arms, My Beamish Boy
By Douglas F. Warrick; Read by Phil Rossi
1 |MP3| – Approx. 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: April 17th, 2009


5.
PseudopodThe Button Bin
By Mike Allen; Read by Wilson Fowlie
1 |MP3| – Approx. 42 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: June 12th, 2009


6.
PseudopodLast Respects
By Dave Thompson; Read by Scott Sigler
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: March 30th, 2007


7.
PseudopodHometown Horrible
By Matthew Bey; Read by Elie Hirschman
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: July 24th, 2009


8.
PseudopodStepfathers
By Grady Hendrix; Read by Nerraux
1 |MP3| – Approx. 8 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: June 20th, 2009


9.
PseudopodThe Music of Erich Zann
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by B.J. Harrison
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: July 25th, 2008


10.
PseudopodGarbage Day
By Russell L. Burt; Read by Elie Hirschman
1 |MP3| – Approx. 3 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: January 1st, 2008

[via SFSignal]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Broken Sea: Kolchak: The Night Stalker – a fan AUDIO DRAMA podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

Broken Sea Audio Productions - Kolchak All Saints Archives PodcastBroken Sea Audio Productions has a new podcast, based on the old Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series!

My name is Carl Kolchak, former reporter for INS, Chicago’s very own independent news service. In all my years of investigative journalism I’ve seen some pretty strange things. Today you’d simply look at them as amusing fodder for the national tabloids, but hear me out when I tell you…that they’re real. The vampires, androids, ghosts, swamp creatures, monkeymen, and even Jack the Ripper; yes–every last one!”

The first episode, just in time for the most ghoulish of months, is already in the feed. It’s the beginning of a serial called “A Playground for Evil.” This is an original Kolchak story written by Bill Hollweg!

Podcast feed:

http://brokensea.com/kolchak/?feed=podcast

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Shards by Bruce Baugh

SFFaudio Review

Horror Audiobook - Shards by Bruce BaughShards
By Bruce Baugh; Read by Wayne June
1 MP3-CD – 9.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Realms
ISBN: 9781565048652
Themes: / Horror / Vampires / Lasombra /

I don’t mind a good vampire story if it’s really an action movie that just happens to be about vampires (and as long as the protagonist isn’t a self-absorbed adolescent girl that can’t get over how “perfect” Edward is, but I digress). Otherwise, neh, I’m not so interested. Audio Realms tricked me into listening to Shards by Bruce Baugh (from Clan Lasombra Trilogy: Shards, Shadows, Sacrifices) by making the woman on the cover look like Kate Beckinsale.

Duped! It was the real deal. Vicious, evil vampires and no good guys. I loved it! I don’t usually like books where there is no one to cheer for. Don’t get me wrong, I like a hero with flaws, I just don’t like it when everyone including the protagonist is evil. But Bruce Baugh does a remarkable job with his characters. With each individual, motivations and predispositions were entirely understandable.

The protagonist, Lucita, is disillusioned about all things vampire. After 10 centuries a vampiress begins to ask herself, “Why? Why should I let the (undead) man hold me down? What’s the point of anything, really?” It’s kind of like Office Space for vampires. So of course she kills her “tyranical sire” and is ready to end herself too. The story starts at that point.

The Clan Lasombra is unhappy about Lucita’s behavior and (apparently ignoring the fact that she’s as hot as Kate Beckinsale) they send out a posse of ne’re-do-wells to hunt her down. The book is a fantastically creative vampire-hunts-vampire pursuit. Bruce Baugh created a plausible world where vampires could exist among us. I don’t know what I can say about the end without spoiling it, but it wasn’t predictable.

What stands out in this production is the narration. Since the antagonist was a female Audio Realms might have used a woman narrator, but Wayne June was just perfect for the story. I have a short list of narrators I just love to listen to, and none exceed Mr. June’s talent. His range of credible voices is astonishing. It has a deep, vibrant timbre that feels like smooth burgundy velvet. It made me think of an old muscle car when you start the engine and it idles deeper and stronger than most other cars. It was absolutely perfect for the characters in the story. Every time a new character was introduced and June would use a new voice I would think, “My goodness, how many unique voices can this guy do?!” They were all uniquely distinct and believable. It would be one thing if he had twenty generically evil vampires to do variations on. But he had to pull off the characters that Baugh had created, including an English vampire that I’m sure was the Fifth Beatle, ones with Spanish and Russian accents, nerdy college kid vampires, and and so forth. June sold me on every single character.

I’m not saying I believe in vampires, but I am saying that if Wayne June actually was a vampire it would explain a lot! A word of caution: the vampire’s language suggests that they’ve drank the blood of one too many drunk sailors, if you know what I mean.

Shard’s was a delightful, dark surprise. I’ve listened to it twice already and recommend it, even if (like me) you’re not normally a fan of dark vampire stories.

Posted by Michael Hinds

Review of Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

SFFaudio Review

Club Dead by Charlaine HarrisClub Dead
By Charlaine Harris; Read by Johanna Parker
Audible Download – 8 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 2008
Themes: / urban fantasy / paranormal romance / vampires / werewolves / True Blood

The second season of HBO’s True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels. The show’s first season very loosely followed the first novel in the series, Dead Until Dark, while the second season made significant departures from the second novel, Living Dead in Dallas. Hoping to garner some clues about the show’s third season, I decided this would be a good time to read the third installment in the series. While the flavorful writing and vivid characterization are still top-notch, Club Dead lacks the charm and magic that made the series opener so memorable.

As the novel opens, telepath human Sookie Stackhouse is finding her vampire boyfriend Bill Compton a bit distant. He’s exhibiting the characteristics of an internet addict, spending hours on his computer and hiding his activities from her. Without warning Bill announces he’s going away on business, and leaves a set of computer disks in Sookie’s protection. As if this isn’t disconcerting enough, Bill’s vampire boss Eric Northman from Shreveport soon calls on Sookie to tell her that Bill has vanished somewhere in the town of Jackson, Mississippi, and charges the werewolf Alcide Herveaux with helping Sookie find her squeeze. The city of Jackson, and its supernatural-friendly night dive Club Dead, serve as the setting for most of the novel’s action.

Sookie Stackhouse is a fantastic character, and it’s always a treat to spend more time with the strong-willed yet insecure waitress from Bon Temps, Louisiana. The vampire Eric Northman, a shadowy figure of great power in the first two novels, also finds more development here. He becomes more three-dimensional, but at the cost of losing some of his mystique. Newcomer Alcide Herveaux, who introduces Sookie to Jackson’s werewolf community, fits comfortably among the series regulars. Sookie’s love interest, Bill Compton, is absent for much of the novel, but he does resurface near the book’s conclusion. Relationships among these principal personalities shift significantly during the course of the book. I’m not sure I approve of the shifts in affiliation and allegiance, but they certainly made for some moments of powerfully emotional storytelling.

Charlaine Harris’s writing is superb, especially her ear for dialogue and her liberal use of local color. Having spent many years in East Texas, which in many ways lies in the same cultural sphere as the book’s setting, I can attest to the verisimilitude Harris achieves in her prose, accentuated by the first-person storytelling from Sookie’s perspective.

The problem with Club Dead, as with its predecessor, is that it removes too much of the human element from the story. Urban fantasy is at its best when it juxtaposes the supernatural and magical against the backdrop of the commonplace and mundane. The first novel, Dead Until Dark, achieved this brilliantly, introducing vampires into the sleepy village of Bon Temps. This powerful quality of urban fantasy is lost in Club Dead among all the machinations within and between the werewolf and vampire communities, fascinating though they may be. Indeed, the eponymous Club Dead itself exemplifies this. Whereas Fangtasia, or even Merlott’s, in the preceding novels were melting pots of the races, Club Dead is an almost-exclusively supernatural hangout, sprinkled only here and there with the presence of humans.

The audiobook version is narrated brilliantly by Johanna Parker, who perfectly captures Sookie Stackhouse’s spunky fire and angsty gloom. The southern colloquialisms roll off Parker’s tongue like sweet lemonade on a hot Texas summer day. Her portrayal of the dark, menacing power of the vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, and other supernatural beings is no less impressive. Often the force of her narration made me jump or sent tingles down my spine, which is just what you want from a good audiobook.

Even with its lackluster plot, Club Dead is a worthy addition to the Southern Vampire Mysteries, and anyone who has enjoyed the first two novels will certainly want to continue the adventure. Fans of the TV show True Blood should also pick up these novels and experience firsthand the witty, brilliant, sometimes-twisted mind of Charlaine Harris.

Posted by Seth Wilson

LibriVox: Dracula by Bram Stoker

SFFaudio Online Audio

Listening For The League's Gentlemen At LibriVoxHere’s another older LibriVox audiobook featuring a character found in Alan Moore’s League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Wilhelmina “Mina” Harker (née Murray) is lucky enough to survive this novel and then go on to be the core characters around which the events of Moore’s first comix collection swirl. She’s the proper Englishwoman wearing a large scarf over her neck. She plays a literally pivotal role in Vol. 1 of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This version is not read by a single narrator, but, that’s okay in this case because Dracula is told from multiple (and ever shifting) viewpoints.

LibriVox - Dracula by Bram StokerDracula
By Bram Stoker; Read by various
27 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 16 Hours 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 10, 2006

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/dracula-by-bram-stoker.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis