Lois McMaster Bujold – Page 8

Recent Arrivals – Bujold, Card, Wells and Haggard

Science Fiction Audiobook Recent Arrivals

The Blackstone titles are new releases. The Tantor titles are backlist titles that we requested.

Memory
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
MP3 Disc or 12 CDs, Approx. 14.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433201158(MP3 disc); 9781433201141(CDs)

From the back cover:
Dying is easy. Coming back to life is hard. At least that’s what Miles Vorkosigan thinks, and he should know, having done both once already.
Thanks to his quick-thinking staff and incredible artistry from a medical specialist, Miles’s first death won’t be his last. But it does take some recovery, a fact he has been reluctant to admit. When he makes the mistake of returning too soon to military duty, he finds himself summoned home to face the Barrayaran security chief, Simon Illyan. But Miles’s worst nightmares about Simon Illyan are nothing compared to Illyan’s own nightmares. Under suspicion himself, Miles must seek out the answers to Ilyan’s nightmares or see the inevitable destruction of Imperial Security and, with it, the Empire.

Seventh Son: Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 1
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Scott Brick and others
MP3 Disc or 8 CDs, Approx. 9 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433200960(MP3 disc); 9781433200953(CDs)

From the back cover:
From the author of the award-winning Ender’s Game comes the unforgettable story of young Alvin Maker, the seventh son of a seventh son.

Born into an alternative frontier America where life is hard and folk magic is real, Alvin is gifted with power, but he must learn to use his gift wisely. Dark forces are arrayed against Alvin, and only a young girl with second sight can protect him.

The World Set Free
By H.G. Wells; Read by Shelly Frasier
MP3 Disc or 6 CDs, Approx. 6.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 2002
ISBN: 1400150108 (MP3 disc); 1400100100(CDs)

From the back cover:
In this thought-provoking masterpiece, H.G. Wells predicts the inventions that will inadvertently lead to mass destruction, forcing the world to “start over”. You will see many similarities between H.G. Wells’ new world and today’s world due to the recent technological revolution. This stimulating novel will leave you wondering if and when the remaining predictions will come to pass!

Eric Brighteyes
By H. Rider Haggard; Read by Shelly Frasier
MP3 Disc or 9 CDs, Approx. 11 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 2001
ISBN: 1400150280 (MP3 disc); 1400100283(CDs)

From the back cover:
This deftly crafted Viking tale depicts the terror, tragedy and vanity of life. The ill fated lovers, Eric and “Gudruda the Fair”, fall victim to the jealous Swanhild’s sorcery. Eric and his ‘thrall’ must overcome treachery, bloodthirsty foes, the open sea and blizzards as he battles to win his beloved Gudruda. Will the star-crossed lovers triumph over the fate of the Norns and the spite of Swanhild?

posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show

Blackstone Audiobooks for Spring & Summer 2007

SFFaudio News

Blackstone Audiobooks has a solid line-up of Science Fiction and Fantasy for the spring and summer 2007. Among the many titles is Variable Star, the “collaboration” between Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson which of course will be read by Spider Robinson. Also, interesting, but not listed below, Blackstone will be selling the The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas. Already underway is the Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series, the first of which came out this month – these are re-issued and re-recorded with multiple narrators, likely by master audiobook producer Stefan Rudnicki (the series was previously recorded in abridged versions for Dove Audio, with readings by Nana Visitor).

Here’s the all-new line up:

Memory
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: March 2007

Red Prophet (#2 In The Alvin Maker Series)
By Orson Scott Card; Read by various readers
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: March 2007

Where’s My Jetpack?
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: April 2007

Variable Star
By Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson; Read by Spider Robinson
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007

The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
By Jack Finney; Read by Kristoffer Tabori
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007

posted by Jesse Willis

Audible Daily Deal is The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

SFFaudio News

Audible.com has posted a daily special ($9.95) on Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Vor Game. This was a Hugo award winner (“Best Novel of 1991”), and we reviewed it last year. It was also a 2005 Audie Award Nominee.

Here’s the outline:

Miles Vorkosigan graduates from the Barrayaran Military Academy with high expectations of ship command, but is disappointed with an assignment as meteorologist to Lazkowski Base, an arctic training camp. His tenure in the windy, snow-covered north is cut short when Miles narrowly averts a massacre between the trigger-happy base commander and mutinous recruits. After a brief stay under ‘house arrest’, Miles is re-assigned to investigate a suspicious military build-up near a wormhole nexus. Reviving his undercover persona as mercenary Admiral Miles Naismith, his routine information-gathering duty expands to a rescue mission when the Emperor of Barrayar disappears during a political conference on a nearby space station. Miles must use his considerable negotiating skills to avoid a showdown between competing powers for control of the wormhole, find the Emperor, and watch his back for the arctic base commander seeking bloody vengeance.

posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases for May and June

New Releases

Dontcha just love new releases? I know we sure do, here’s a tasty batch for May and June. Also, I hope you all know that many of these titles are available in multiple formats (CD, Cassette, MP3, etc.) just follow the links to the publisher websites to see who has what.

Leading the charge this time is Random House Audiobooks with… wait for it… wait for it…

Science Fiction Audiobook - A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Paul Giamatti
8 Compact Discs – 9 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: May 2006
ISBN: 073932392X
Our most requested title (by readers and reviewers alike) . I’m dying to hear how Paul Giamatti will perform it. Expect a review shortly.

Tell Tale Weekly has released a never before adapted audiobook of…

The Valley Of The Spiders
By H. G. Wells; Read by Alexander Wilson
MP3 Download – 29 minutes, 11 seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: TellTaleWeekly.org
Published: May 2006
A SF/Fantasy Pulp Adventure Story from 1903. “Three adventurers face danger, death, and giant spiders, all for the capture love of a woman, in this classic pulp adventure story.” Just $1.00! And be sure to read the nice intro Alex Wilson wrote for it on the TellTaleWeekly site too.

And of course there is no stopping the indefatigable Podiobooks.com, they’ve got a sweet batch of new podcast novels in the offing:

Podiobook - Immortals by Tracy Hickman The Immortals
By Tracy Hickman; Read by Tracy and Laura Hickman
MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Started: May 2006
It’s 2020, and an attempted cure for AIDS has mutated into a deadlier disease, V-CIDS. The U.S., under martial law, has set up “quarantine centers” in the Southwest. Searching for his gay son, Jon, media mogul Michael Barris smuggles himself into one of centers only to discover that it and the other centers are actually extermination camps. With a strange assortment of allies, including the leader of the camp’s gay barracks, an army officer and a local cowboy, Barris precipitates an inmates’ rebellion that promises the unraveling of the death-camp system and the overthrow of the government that established it.

Discovered Country
By Nora Fleischer
MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Started: May 2006
Rosemary Halpern, a mild-mannered librarian from Boston, found herself trapped hundreds of years in the future. A future that faced a new Ice Age. A future where ghouls walked the Earth, ravenous for human flesh.

Sonic Fiction
Edited by Jeffrey Kafer; Read by Jeffrey Kafer
MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Started: May 2006
An eclectic mix of authors from a range of ages and backgrounds. Featuring works of Science fiction, gritty war tales, murder and intrigue, comedy and farce, this is a book for any fan of short fiction. Let us tell you a story…

Prophecy Of Swords
By M.H. Bonham
MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Started: May 2006
Nearly a thousand years ago a great warrior named Lachlan sought to unify his people, using the power of the Three Swords of Destiny. Before his victory, Lachlan was killed by his trusted friend, Allarun. Now, Allarun is still in power but haunted by dreams of Lachlan’s death curse: that Lachlan would return to avenge his death. Allarun’s decision is to destroy the very people Lachlan tried to unite.

Brilliance Audio has a lock on lengthy Fantasy titles this quarter – check these out…

Dragon’s Fire
By Todd McCaffrey and Anne McCaffrey; Read by Dick Hill
10 CDs – 12 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 9781423314561

More lore from the planet called Pern!

Phantom
By Terry Goodkind; Read by Sam Tsoutsouvas
2 MP3-CDs – 23 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 9781593356873
I don’t know much about Goodkind, anybody heard one of his?

Dragons of the Dwarven Depths: The Lost Chronicles, Vol. I
by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman; Read by Sandra Burr
13 Compact Discs – 15 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 9781423316107

A new Dragonlance book with the old beloved characters! I loved the classic first trilogy as a kid. I wonder if this one will be as good.

Also Blackstone Audiobooks has “returns” to re-releases, remakes and all look promising…

Ceteganda
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: May 2006
ISBN: 9780786175116
This was previously recorded by the now defunct The Readers Chair – Grover Gardner makes this a remake.

Superman Returns
By Marv Wolfman; Read by Scott Brick
1 MP3-CD -[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: June 2006
ISBN: 0786175729
Looks like a Movie-Tie In.

Animal Farm & 1984
By George Orwell; Read by Richard Brown and Ralph Cosham
1 MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
PUBLISHER: Blackstone Audiobooks
PUBLISHED: June 2006
ISBN: 0786177144
Released seperately many times and by with many readers before, you can now grab them together. Orwell at his best.

Not much new Spec Fic over at the venerable Recorded Books, but this one caught our eye…

Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean
By Justin Somper; Read by John Curless
CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC
Published: May 2006
ISBN: 1428110836

posted by Jesse

Here are the New Releases for September – a fine l…

Here are the New Releases for September – a fine looking bunch of audiobooks, I must say…

Anansi Boys
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Lenny Henry
Harper Audio, Unabridged
The sequel to American Gods – can’t wait!

Dragonflight
By Anne McCaffrey; Read by Dick Hill
Brilliance Audio, Unabridged
This is a mass market re-release of this title, now available on CD and MP3-CD

The Road to Dune
By Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson
Read by Scott Brick
Audio Renaissance, Unabridged
Click here for the SFFAudio Review!

Speaker for the Dead
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Various
Audio Renaissance, Unabridged
Click here for the SFFAudio Review!

Star Wars: The Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen
By Troy Denning; Read by Jonathan Davis
Random House Audio, Abridged

The Warrior’s Apprentice
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
Blackstone Audio, Unabridged
Available on cassette, CD, and MP3-CD
This is the second Vorkosigan novel released by Blackstone.

Thud!
By Terry Pratchett; Read by Stephen Briggs
Harper Audio, Unabridged
The latest Discworld novel.

To be included in our monthly New Releases post, please contact Scott or Jesse. We’d be happy to include your audio, as long as it is genre related.

Review of The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Vor Game
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
9 CDs – Approx. 10 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 9780786178308
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Opera / Military / Espionage /

I’ve listened to several space operas lately. Sometimes it works out that way when reviewing science fiction audio, no matter how eclectic I try to be in my listening. So, I approached this with a bit of a sigh, expecting more of the same. I should have known better, though, because Lois McMaster Bujold is one heck of a fine storyteller, and Grover Gardner is a fine reader, too. The Vor Game showed me how good space opera can be. It doesn’t take itself seriously, the characters are people you’d like to meet, the situations (and their resolutions) are plausible, and, only because you care enough about the characters, exciting.

The Vor Game is one of a series of books collectively called The Vorkosigan Saga. Technically, this Hugo Award-winning book is the fourth in the series, but each stands alone. It starts with Miles Vorkosigan, the son of the famous Count Vorkosigan and subject of most of the Vorkosigan novels, graduating from the Barrayaran military academy. He’s anticipating an assignment in all sorts of interesting places, but he lands a spot as a weatherman in a frozen northern training base. An infantry training base no less – something for which his short stature (from genetic damage suffered by his mother while pregnant with Miles) is simply not built. And it all goes downhill from there in a story that spans this frozen tundra to the depths of space, and includes ensigns and emperors. The characters are very witty, especially Miles.

Grover Gardner is an excellent reader. He is not a flamboyant dramatic reader, but a precise steady reader with a very pleasant voice. I enjoy his performances, like I did this one.

Blackstone Audio is going to publish more of the Vorkosigan titles – the next in line is The Warrior’s Apprentice. Looking forward to it!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson