Recent Arrival: Heist Society by Ally Carter

Aural Noir: Recent Arrivals

Every update to Paul Bishop’s Bish’s Beat blog seems like another chance for me to win a book! This is the second prize I’ve won from Bish. Should he choose to retire from law enforcement he could have a second career as a cool hunter. Check it out…

DISNEY / HYPERION - Heist Society by Ally Carter

From just inside the dust jacket:

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own–scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help. For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in history–or at least her family’s (very crooked) history.

Here’s what Bish said about the book:

“I’m right in the middle of enjoying this sparkling Y/A novel about Kat Bishop, a teen from a family of cat burglars and master jewel thieves, caught up in the heist of her life.

The great cover presents Kat as an Audrey Hepburn/Grace Kelly look-a-like, which is actually perfect for the almost retro, To Catch A Thief, vibe exuding from between the novel’s covers.

As a result I wasn’t surprised by the news Warner Bros. (Describing the tale as The Thomas Crown Affair with teens,) has just won a multi-studio bidding war to option the film.

Admist the current glut of teen angst vampire / werewolf novels and paranormal/urban romances cluttering the bookshelves, Heist Society is a zesty, refreshing, suspenseful tale that is actually fun – making for a great change!”

And, just like the previous paperbook that I won from Bish, this one is available as an audiobook too!!!

BRILLIANCE AUDIO - Heist Society by Ally CarterHeist Society
By Ally Carter; Read by Angela Dawe
5 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – Approx. 6 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: February 9, 2010
ISBN: 1441826734 (cd), 9781441826756 (mp3-cd)
Here’s a sample |MP3|

Sounds fun hey?

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: Blake’s 7, Sum, Greater Good

New Releases

The back-story of an artificial intelligence begins…

B7 PRODUCTIONS - Blake's 7: The Early Years: Zen: Escape VelocityBlake’s 7: The Early Years: Zen: Escape Velocity (Volume 2.1)
By James Swallow; Directed by Andrew Mark Sewell; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – Approx. 1 Hour [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: B7 Productions
Published: April 26, 2010
ISBN: 978190657709
Based on Terry Nation’s seminal 70s science fiction TV series, The Early Years is a prequel series of audio stories that explores the origins of key Blake’s 7 characters prior to them meeting rebel leader Roj Blake. This latest entry to the ever-expanding series takes a new twist, concentrating on a character that doesn’t breathe or have any parents, the synthetic intelligence known only as Zen. When Roj Blake first stepped on board the mysterious, derelict alien spaceship Liberator, his every movement was monitored by the ship’s controlling intelligence, Zen Luckily, Blake and his rebel crew managed to gain the ‘confidence’ of this creation from an alien world and so he was able to use the Liberator in their quest for justice against the Federation. But the origins of Zen have remained a mystery, until now. What terrible catastrophe left the Liberator drifting and shattered? What drove the ship’s intelligence to murder its original crew? What dark secrets lie at the heart of this alien machine? And are Blake and his crew really safe on board the Liberator? Featuring Zoë Tapper, Jason Merrells, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Alistair Lock as Zen.

An audiobook by a neuroscientist…

Canongate Books - Sum: Tales From The Afterlives by David EaglemanBRILLIANCE AUDIO - Sum: Tales From The Afterlives by David EaglemanSum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives
By David Eagleman; Read by Gillian Anderson, Emily Blunt, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Noel Fielding and Stephen Fry
Audible Download or CDs – Approx. 2 Hours 42 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Canongate Books / Brilliance Audio
Published: March 31, 2010 / June 2010
In this astounding book, David Eagleman entertains 40 fictional possibilities of life beyond death. With wit and humanity he asks the key questions about existence, hope, technology and love. These stories are full of big ideas and bold imagination.This audiobook assembles a stellar cast of readers who bring the scenarios of SUM brilliantly alive: Gillian Anderson, Emily Blunt, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Jack Davenport, Lisa Dwan, David Eagleman, Noel Fielding, Kerry Fox, Stephen Fry, Clarke Peters, Lemn Sissay and Harriet Walter.

After spotting a glowing review, I had to add this to the list…

PODIOBOOKS - Greater Good by Nathan P. ButlerGreater Good
By Nathan P. Butler; Read by Nathan P. Butler
34 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: November 2009
In the world of tomorrow, the American Regime dominates our hemisphere, ruled by a new nobility: telepaths. While this powerful new minority rules over the normal human majority, society enjoys stability and security. However, with this new world comes new prejudices and oppression. Now, a powerful telepathic killer from the future has come to our present to eliminate this new world – a serial killer today, a genocide for tomorrow. It is up to a law enforcement officer from the future and an unwitting FBI agent to stop him before he can act in the name of the… Greater Good.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Little Atoms podcast interviews David Eagleman

SFFaudio Online Audio

Little Atoms - A Podcast About IdeasLittle Atoms is a podcast radio show from Resonance FM. It’s a “live discussion show, produced and presented by Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy. Little Atoms is a show about ideas. Each show features a guest from the worlds of science, journalism, politics, academia, human rights or the arts in conversation.” one of their older podcasts features an interview with author David Eagleman and a reading of one of the stories in his book. Here’s the description:

David Eagleman [talks] about time perception, synesthesia and many possible afterlives. The interview includes David reading one of the short stories from his new book [Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives].”

Have a listen |MP3|!

[Thanks Luke!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrival: Angelology

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Fantasy Audiobook - Angelology by Danielle TrussoniAngelology
By Danielle Trussoni; Read by Susan Denaker
21 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Published: 2010

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.
Genesis 6:5

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.

Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

SFFaudio Readalong: a reminder

SFFaudio News

SFFaudio MetaAs I mentioned last Thursday an upcoming SFFaudio podcast, scheduled for an April 26 release, will be on the topic of Robert Sheckley’s novel The Status Civilization.

If you’re like me, you like doing the homework you’ve assigned yourself, so you’re probably furiously riffling through the pages of any and all SF reference books that you can get your grubby mitts on.

The Dictionary Of Science Fiction Places by Brian StablefordHere’s a relevant passage from one of my reference books, a sketched briefing on the planet Omega, and the city of Tetrahyde. These are the setting of The Status Civilization:

OMEGA – An EARTH -clone prison planet patrolled by guardships armed with, beam-weapons, which were programmed to annihilate anything rising above an altitude of five hundred feet. Its only city was Tetrahyde, located on a narrow peninsula whose landward side was bounded by a high stone wall.

Tetrahyde’s largest building was the Arena, site of the annual gladiatorial games. The Mutant Quarter – which was nasty and dangerous even by Omegan standards – was virtually a city within the city.

Prisoners deported to Omega were stripped of their specific memories but left with the knowledge that they had somehow proved themselves incapable of following the rules of civilized society. In consequence, they established a society of their own whose customs and mores were formed in frank opposition to those whose violation had resulted in their condemnation.

This rigidly stratified society relegated new arrivals to the bottom rank, below established Residents, who were themselves inferior to Free Citizens and Privileged Classes. Order was strictly and sternly maintained by armed Free Citizens known as Quaestors but rapid social advancement was available to those who demonstrated their prowess as killers.

Omega’s established religion was Satanism and its legal establishment was the Kangaroo Court, which administered Trials by Ordeal as well as handing down arbitrary judgments. Pleasure-seekers, ever-careful to avoid prosecution for non-addiction to drugs patronised the Dream Shop, the Euphoriatorium and the vacation resort at the Lake of Clouds, whose Satyr’s Grotto hosted an orgy every Saturday night. Average life-expectancy in Tetrahyde was about three years- a figure whose low value was maintained by such institutions as Hunt Day as well as the Lottery and the Games- but remained in spite of all its best efforts merely a distorted mirror image of the society that had spawned it.

(The Status Civilization, Robert Sheckley. 1960; Omega was also one of the alternative names of COLMAR; other locations harboring calculatedly oppositional cultures include TRANAI, Satirev (see VERITAS) and WALPURGIS III.)

-From The Dictionary Of Science Fiction Places by Brian Stableford (page 222)

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVoxIf you follow SFFaudio at all closely you’ll know we’re going to be recording a podcast talking about Robert Sheckley’s The Status Civilization. And while we’re all making plans to read a book and record a podcast about it Gregg Margarite, one of LibriVox’s finest narrators, has actually recorded the book and made it available as a podcast! Now if you’re a fan of Gregg Margarite’s narration (and the audiobooks he records) you’ll probably appreciate what he has to say about his recording. Namely, he’d prefer you listen to the commercial release or, at the very least, consider purchasing another audiobook from the same company. Sez Gregg:

“My version of The Status Civilization is now available at LibriVox.org.

I do not wish it to compete with the commercial version, which I believe to be superior to my proletarian alternative. I am a fan of both Mark Douglas Nelson [the commercial release’s narrator] and Wonder Audio, and I want to see both prosper. So if you are going to listen to my version I request you to pledge the purchase of another title from Wonder. We need the professionals…”

LIBRIVOX - The Status Civilization by Robert SheckleyThe Status Civilization
By Robert Sheckley; Read by Gregg Margarite
6 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours 55 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2010
Will Barrent awakes without memories just before being deposited on Omega, a planet for criminals where the average life expectancy is 3 years. He’s listed as a murderer and released into the illicit society as a “peon” the lowest class imaginable. A mysterious girl gives him a weapon that starts him on his path to status, a path that requires constant brutality. But it must be borne if our hero is to discover the reason for his imprisonment; A reason that pits him against himself, and involves the sardonically similar but devoutly different creeds of Omega and Earth. – The Status Civilization was first published as “Omega!” in the August and September 1960 issues of Amazing Science Fiction Stories Magazine.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/4220

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[Thanks also to Betty M. and Annise]

Posted by Jesse Willis