News, Reviews, and Commentary on all forms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror audio. Audiobooks, audio drama, podcasts; we discuss all of it here. Mystery, crime, and noir audio are also fair game.
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
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.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith By Matthew Stover; Read by Jonathan Davis 11 CD’s – 14 Hours [UNABRIDGED] Publisher: Random House Audio Published: 2005 Themes: / Science Fiction / Star Wars / Republic / War /
Well, here it is. Thirty years after the original Star Wars film, we have the conclusion. George Lucas said in an interview that he seems to have two sets of fans, one loyal to the first trilogy, and one younger set that prefers the recent trilogy. I admit up front that I’m of the first set, and that I found Episode I very disappointing, and Episode II a bit less disappointing. But like so many others, I went right out to see Episode III immediately upon its release. This audiobook is written by Matthew Stover, based on George Lucas’ screenplay for the film.
Now, I know that this is an audiobook review, but it’s very difficult not to bring the film into it. The audiobook is filled with sound effects and music from the movie, and because I’d seen that movie, Lucas’ brilliant and beautiful images were front and center in my mind while listening. Jonathan Davis’ superior narration also took from the film as he often imitated the actors while speaking. Palpatine sounds like Ian McDiarmid’s Palpatine, Obi-Wan sounds like Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan, and all to great effect. Jonathan Davis is fabulously talented. At times, his voice was altered by sound engineers (when speaking as General Grievous, for example), also to great effect. This audiobook sounded wonderful.
The movie was longish, clocking in at 140 minutes, every minute of which moved at breakneck speed. This audiobook runs 14 hours, and tells the same story as the movie, but Matthew Stover was given a lot more room to tell it. I don’t know how closely he consulted with Lucas on this, but the story runs at a much slower pace with lots of backstory and deep penetration into the characters’ thoughts. The first time a character is met in a story, Stover writes until he hits a natural break point in the action, then delves deep into that character’s past or his current state of mind, then returns to the action. The result is a satisfying companion to the film. Knowing what I know now about the characters would make watching the film a better experience, because Lucas spends no time at all on depth of character.
I would heartily recommend this audiobook to Star Wars fans who’d like to know more about these characters. Skywalker’s turn to the dark side makes a bit more sense here than it did in the movie, since his inner thoughts are revealed for us to see. Though I am still partial to the original three films, I found that this story adds depth to those stories too. Bravo to Random House Audio for producing this fine piece of work.
Dance of Death By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child; Read by Scott Brick Books on Tape Unabridged
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince By J.K. Rowling; Read by Jim Dale Listening Library Unabridged Harry Potter? Who’s he?
Magic Street By Orson Scott Card; Read by Mirron E. Willis Blackstone Audio Unabridged A contemporary fantasy by the author of Ender’s Game.
Scattered Suns By Kevin J. Anderson; Read by David Colacci Brilliance Audio Unabridged Volume 4 of Anderson’s Seven Suns series. The previous three were published by Recorded Books.
Star Wars: Dark Nest I: The Joiner King By Troy Denning; Read by Jonathan Davis Random House Audio Abridged More Star Wars – I like the ones I’ve heard.
The Traveler: The First Novel of “The Fourth Realm” Trilogy By John Twelve Hawks; Read by Scott Brick Books on Tape Unabridged
We Few By David Weber and John Ringo; Read by Stefan Rudnicki Blackstone Audio Unabridged Military SF at it’s best, I hear.
Wrinkle in Time By Madeline L’Engle; Read by ? Listening Library Unabridged
NOTE: SFFAudio posts a list of New Releases every month on or about the 16th. If you’re a publisher and would like to be included on this list, just let us know.
The Consciousness Plague By Paul Levinson, Read by Mark Shanahan ISBN: 1593160380 Abridged Listen and Live Audio Scott: This is an 8 hour abridgement… Amazon shows that the book is 340 pages long, so it’s almost all here.
Dead as a Doornail A Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery By Charlaine Harris, Read by Johanna Parker ISBN: 1419337300 Recorded Books
Empire of the East By Fred Saberhagen, Read by Raymond Todd Unabridged ISBN: 078134976 Blackstone Audio Scott: This one’s on my TBR shelf… Saberhagen is a writer I haven’t read (or heard).
The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova, Read by Rosalyn Landor and Jim Ward Unabridged ISBN: 1594830363 Time Warner Audiobooks
Pendragon Book 3: The Never War By D.J. MacHale, Read by William Dufris ISBN: 1597372510 Brilliance Audio
Pendragon Book 4: The Reality Bug By D.J. MacHale, Read by William Dufris ISBN 1597372596 Brilliance Audio
Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtues By Mark Eddy Smith, Read by Simon Vance Unabridged ISBN: 0786178299 Blackstone Audio Scott: This one caught my eye – it’s a kind of “Life Lessons from Lord of the Rings”
Velocity By Dean Koontz, Read by Michael Hayden Unabridged ISBN: 0739315552 Random House Audio
The Vor Game By Lois McMaster Bujold, Read by Grover Gardner Unabridged ISBN: 0786177330 Blackstone Audio Scott: Blackstone will be releasing several of Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels – this is the first!
Wee Free Men By Terry Pratchett, Read by Stephen Briggs ISBN: 0060785985 Harper Audio
In the podcasting world, here’s some of the titles that have been published:
Escape Pod “In His Footsteps” by Paul E. Martens, Read by Stephen Eley “Oasis” by Greg van Eekhout, Read by Stephen Eley “Snow Day” by Jennifer Pelland, Read by Deborah Green “Strange Girlfriend” by Scott Janssens, Read by Stephen Eley
Podiobooks continues their serials of Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana by Tee Morris & Lisa Lee, The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey, and Earthcore by Scott Sigler.
Other new developments – Timberwolf Press is now offering some of their titles for sale at Paperback Digital, which has also branched out into eBooks.
If you’d like to be included in future New Releases posts on SFFAudio, please click here to e-mail Scott.
On the Random House Audio – Star Wars website, you can watch a 5-minute video on the making of Star Wars audiobooks. Jonathan Davis, a narrator I’ve enjoyed many times, appears.
Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil By James Luceno; Read by Jonathan Davis 4 CD’s – 5 hours [ABRIDGED] Publisher: Random House Audio Publication Date: 2005 ISBN: 0739317350 Themes: / Science Fiction / Star Wars /
Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil is a prequel to the upcoming Star Wars film Revenge of the Sith. It takes place after Attack of the Clones, the action starting in the thick of a battle in the Clone War. Obi-Wan, Anakin Skywalker, and the rest of the Jedi Council have thrown their resources into finding out who and where Darth Sidious is after finding a very promising lead – a holotransceiver that had been used to contact him. The tale is a very satisfying whodunit featuring Obi-Wan and Anakin following a series of clues that bring them closer and closer to Sidious, while all the time Anakin gets closer and closer to the Dark Side.
I recall watching Episode II after listening to the prequel to that film, Alan Dean Foster’s Star Wars: The Approaching Storm. Early in the movie, Obi-wan and Anakin speak briefly about events that occurred in the prequel novel. It makes the books much more a part of the whole Star Wars saga to know that the movie-makers are paying attention to the novel-writers, and vice versa.
Jonathan Davis is remarkable. He nailed very passable accents for all the characters, including Yoda, Count Dooku, and Obi Wan Kenobi as played by the film actors. The pace is quick, and Davis drives the story perfectly. Sound effects are abundant, effective, and enjoyable.
In all, this audiobook is an action packed adventure full of light saber duels, dark villians, and… in short, it’s Star Wars! And very good Star Wars – it should be a hit with every fan.
