JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 4, 2014: You are in for quite a treat this week, audiobook listeners. From the surreal and claustrophobic Annihilation to the rapiers-afly adventure of The Kingmakers, to alternate history and on to an intriguing anthology of horror and dark fantasy. Meanwhile, the entire roster of METAtropolis stories have been released individually, and podcasting pioneer J.C. Hutchins released the first installment of a new serial project, “The 33”. Speaking of podcasting pioneers, Scott Sigler’s latest novel, Pandemic, gets a pro narrator treatment in the form of Phil Gigante, and Natania Barron is live reading and discussing her novel Pilgrim of the Sky a chapter at a time via Google Hangouts. There’s a long list of “also out” titles of interest as well, including B.J. Novak’s fiction collection One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories narrated by several of Novak’s The Office co-stars, C.S. Friedman’s Dreamwalkers, Julianna Baggott’s Burn, Clive Barker read by Simon Vance, Steven Erikson read by Michael Page, Frank Herbert read by Scott Brick, Daniel Price’s Flight of the Silvers, Greg Egan’s Incandescence, Marissa Meyer’s Cress, Colin Meloy’s Wildwood Imperium, Megan Miranda’s Vengeance, Bridgett Ladd’s The Lotus Effect, Sheila Turnage’s The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, and the latest in Audible’s very welcome productions of the works of Octavia Butler, Adulthood Rites. Still, it’s Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation which has been my most-anticipated audiobook of 2014 since, oh, early 2012, and which is finally here, so let’s jump right in:

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

I was (and absolutely remain) a huge fan of Jeff VanderMeer’s 2009 novel Finch, a “fungal noir” set in his rich secondary world fantasy, Ambergris, which had served as a setting for his previous books. For his new series, The Southern Reach, VanderMeer sets his sights into the simultaneously more familiar — for all intents and purposes, our contemporary world — and yet even more strange for its twisted reflections of that familiarity, and delivers an intense and transformative journey into a surreal landscape. Though not explicitly set in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge from which so much of the setting of the novel is drawn, the rich, varied ecosystems of the Florida Panhandle’s Gulf Coast come to eerie life in the “Area X” wilderness of VanderMeer’s Annihilation, out this week from Blackstone Audio concurrent with the print/ebook release from FSG Originals. It is the author’s first novel since 2009, marking also the return of narrator Carolyn McCormick after concluding Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series with Mockingjay in 2010 and narrating James Patterson’s latest Women’s Murder Club novel in 2011.

When I started reading about this book, I spent far too many hours trying to come up with my dream narrator for it. (Far, far too many.) Somehow I never considered McCormick, but from the first line she is fantastic. Her laconic, detached mainline narration perfectly suited to the biologist’s clinical, scientific mind, and it is the biologist’s narrative voice, through the structure of the novel as her definitive account left in a journal, which, detail by detail, flashback by flashback, brings depth both to the mysteries of “Area X” and to her character. McCormick does not employ too much in the way of vocal gymnastics to differentiate the few characters; just enough to characterize them effectively and succinctly as, one presumes, the biologist herself might do. The principal exception to this is her work on the voice of the psychologist, the designated leader of the expedition, which is given a decidedly (almost British-schooled?) formal turn, a flavor which makes McCormick’s outstandingly dynamic work with her later in the novel stand out all the more strikingly. On the story: from the first pages, the narrative — of an all-female 12th expedition to a mysterious “Area X” after 11 previous and mostly catastrophic expeditions — is driven by a compulsion, a both scientific and inescapably personal curiosity to answer the question of: what lies at the tower’s base? This tower, which is not even supposed to be here, which does not appear on any map or in any record of “Area X”? This curiosity grows further into fear-yet-we-must-see territory as the first foray into the tower reveals strange words written, glowing, breathing, alive? on the walls of the tower, heading down. We find the mysteries of Area X and “The Southern Reach” growing deeper and broader both down into and in the surrounding, increasingly surreal landscape beyond the tower, setting up and leading naturally into further explorations in the successive books, but the biologist’s journal stands alone as a completed arc, a completed story of inquiry, discovery, and transformation. It is a fantastic book and audiobook, highly recommended. But don’t just take it from me. Dave’s already reviewed the audiobook as well, saying: “It’s as if The Company from Alien sent The Dharma Initiative into the Mountains of Madness.” Next, take a peek at some of the international covers:

And now get a load of what some pretty amazing people are saying about the book: “Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent.” —Warren Ellis. “This swift surreal suspense novel reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world. The reader will want to stay trapped with the Biologist to find the answers to Area X’s mysteries.” —Kim Stanley Robinson. “The great thing about Annihilation is the strange, elusive, and paranoid world that it creates. . . I can’t wait for the next one.” —Brian Evenson. “A tense and chilling psychological thriller about an unraveling expedition and the strangeness within us. A little Kubrick, a lot Lovecraft, the novel builds with an unbearable tension and a claustrophobic dread that linger long afterward. I loved it.”—Lauren Beukes. “In much of Jeff VanderMeer’s work, a kind of radiance lies beating beneath the surface of the words. Here in Annihilation, it shines through with warm blazing incandescence. This is one of a grand writer’s finest and most dazzling books.” —Peter Straub. More? How about some reviews from Angela Slatter, My Bookish Ways, Pornokitsch, Jason Sheehan for NPR, Robin Sloan (“a foil-wrapped booster pack for weird fiction”), and a 5-star review from SFX which calls the novel “Franz Kafka’s Roadside Picnic“. The trilogy is set for an aggressive release cycle, with book two, Authority, coming in May, and Acceptance concluding the series in September. It’s been optioned by Scott Rudin for Paramount Pictures. And it’s even available on the cheap, whether in print (you stone-age heathens! for $13 in bookstores and $8.50 at Amazon, though I do have to admit the physical edition is really quite well done…) or ebook. On that last, there’s even a $3.99 Whispersync for Voice upgrade from the $8.15 Kindle edition to the Audible edition. So, yeah. I think you can see where I stand on this one. Six hours very well spent.

Another audiobook I’ve been awaiting almost as long also arrived this week, The Kingmakers, concluding Clay and Susan Griffith’s Vampire Empire trilogy. The series is a fantastically and unabashedly fun mix of swashbuckling Steampunk airship adventure, alternate history worldbuilding, deadly, deadly, decidedly non-sparkly vampires, and “geomancy”, a mystical art which may be humanity’s best weapon in the ongoing war to reclaim Europe, with a diverse, memorable cast of well-rendered characters. Originally published between November 2010 and September 2012 by Pyr, the Buzzy Multimedia audiobooks have been coming out a couple years behind and each has been worth the wait.

James Marsters (“Spike” on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the voice of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files) was a perfect casting to narrate the series, performing wide-ranging accents with aplomb, and shining on multiple performances from the Japanese samurai-priest Mamaru to British and French vampires to young “Equatorian” boys and girls to the cowboy-esque officers of the United States, to, of course, our heroes The Greyfriar and Princess (now Empress) Adele. I was very happy to have a release-day review of Book 2 (The Rift Walker) last year and to review book one the year before. In particular, I applauded some character decisions in book 2, as the authors demonstrated a light hand in dealing with well-developed characters — given a choice where on the one hand it is obvious what would be more convenient for the plot and on the other hand what would be more true to the character, the Griffiths choose character every time. Here, that continues, as does the nearly geometric expansion of Adele’s geomantic powers. We enter the story at the front of a grueling trench war, vampires attacking amidst new explosive “flak”, human technology ever attempting to compensate for the sheer strength and speed of the enemy. Here, Marster’s narration is more percussive, emphasizing the cadence of war. Later, he brings such emotion in an anguished cry that you feel it. He shouts, he barks, he pleads, he hurts, he groans. It’s one of the more emotive performances I can recall. Meanwhile, the book brings the promised climax of the series, a Zulu assassin, the Mamaru backstory I’d been longing for, confrontations, dangerous gambles and gambits, betrayals, double-betrayals, triple-betrayals, airships, fencing, fighting, chases, escapes, true love, miracles… Still, a few points left me wanting a bit more. A villain had been built up to be so dangerous, so deadly, and yet is dispatched all too easily by a weakened Greyfriar. Senator Clark’s character turns even more unredeemable and then turns a bit against character in a puzzling (to me) fashion. But what else can you expect after three books with characters you’ve grown to love or hate or grudgingly only half-despise? You form your own ideas of a character, but you haven’t seen everything. Sometimes your Qui-Gon Jinn is killed almost pointlessly and all-too-easily by Darth Maul, only to see Darth Maul cut in half, mouth agape, after scene after scene of badass displays of ruthlessness and action. Part Zorro, part Underworld, it’s been a fantastically series and I’m glad to see it completed and produced so well.

V-S Day: A Novel of Alternate History by Allen Steele sees the author of the Coyote science fiction novels turn to alternate history, but not at all away from space. Narrated by Ray Chase for Audible, the premise starts in familiar territory, a slight tweak to the timeline in WW2 Germany. But then the action shifts spaceward. “Three-time Hugo Award-winning author Allen Steele now imagines an alternate history rooted in an actual historical possibility: what if the race to space had occurred in the early days of WWII? It’s 1941, and Wernher von Braun is ordered by his Fuehrer to abandon the V2 rocket and turn German resources in a daring new direction: construction of a manned orbital spacecraft capable of attacking the U.S. Work on the rocket – called Silbervogel – begins at Peenemunde. Though it is top secret, British intelligence discovers the plan, and brings word to Franklin Roosevelt.”

I have to admit, I remain a sucker for high-production value anthologies. It gives me a chance to taste not only the fiction of a wide pool of authors, but sample the narrations of new narrators along with my favorites. This week brings an intriguing one first published in print just last month, Dark Duets: All-New Tales of Horror and Dark Fantasy edited by Christopher Golden, read by John Lee, Anne Flosnick, Hillary Huber, and Robertson Dean for Tantor Audio. Not only are most of those narrators among my favorites (Lee, Flosnick, and Dean) but Golden has put his authors into co-writing pairs, creating unique blends of authorial voices: “A captivating anthology of horror, thriller, and dark fantasy tales by seventeen pairs of celebrated writers, including New York Times bestselling authors.” The pairings? Charlaine Harris with Rachel Caine, Holly Black with Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan, Carrie Ryan with Sarah MacLean, David Liss with Robert Jackson Bennett (OH DAVE! DAVE?! NEW FICTION FROM ROBERT JACKSON BENNETT, DAVE!), Kevin J. Anderson with Sherrilyn Kenyon, Joe Lansdale with Kasey Lansdale, Tom Piccirilli with T. M. Wright, Jonathan Maberry with Gregory Frost, and more, including Stuart MacBride and David Liss. We’ve had quite a few “event” anthologies in the past several months — George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois’ Dangerous Women, Shawn Speakman’s Unfettered, and Janis Ian’s Stars — and here’s one more.

Speaking of event anthologies, the METAtropolis anthologies have all been absolutely fantastic — if anything, the most recent Green Space is the most cohesive yet. This week, every story from each of the three anthologies is released stand-alone. So you can follow Tobias S. Buckell’s storyline, or Jay Lake’s, or pick and choose. I don’t quite understand why you would — it’s far more convenient to just pick up the three anthologies than to get a pile of handfuls a-la-carte this way — but hey, you can. So if all you want is Wil Wheaton or Jonathan Frakes, or Michael Hogan or Kate Mulgrew, you can get just what you want. But don’t blame me if you find yourself with a more cluttered Audible library after coming back again and again for more of these fantastic, near-future shared world stories. (Just be careful and don’t accidentally use a credit on a $2 title, OK? OK.)

After narrating the first two books in the series, author Scott Sigler turned to the fantastic Phil Gigante for the trilogy’s conclusion, Pandemic: A Novel. “Scott Sigler’s Infected shocked listeners with a visceral, up-close account of physical metamorphosis and one man’s desperate fight for sanity and survival, as “Scary” Perry Dawsey suffered the impact of an alien pathogen’s early attempts at mass extinction. In the sequel Contagious, Sigler pulled back the camera and let the listener experience the frantic national response to this growing cataclysm. And now in Pandemic, the entire human race balances on the razor’s edge of annihilation, beset by an enemy that turns our own bodies against us, that changes normal people into psychopaths or transforms them into nightmares.”

Calling it “TV for your e-reader”, podcasting pioneer J.C. Hutchins is at it again with a new multiformat digital serial project, The 33, which launched with its first episode on January 31. “The 33 is J.C. Hutchins’ latest fiction project, released exclusively as monthly ebooks and digital audiobooks. The 33’s adventures are told in multi-part and one-shot short stories.” In the case of the audio edition, the “TV for your X” phrasing certainly comes to mind as we are dropped directly into the first scene, of 3 couples at a party, getting tipsy and ready to play an “adult” game. A box is retrieved. Then things turn as explosive as Scalzi’s initial hook for his serial project, The Human Division, before *blam* we get the music and intro credits and are pulled into a new POV. And here, the effects are turned up as Hutchins brings a series of “tumult of voices in my head” lines to audio life with a digital chorus effect. There’s a portal, there’s a compulsion. There’s “The 33”. I’ll definitely be interested in following this 12-issue first season, at the very least the 4-part opening arc “Pramantha” (the titles within titles echoe the subtitling of comic book storylines such as The Massive, which started with a 3-part “Landfall” and “Black Pacific” arcs, or Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Alabaster arcs, like “Wolves”, etc.) but I do have some production nits — but keep in mind that Hutchins is a pro here, this is a rich, polished recording with plenty of headroom. But something slightly amiss is going on with the recording, as either Hutchins turns his mouth slightly away from the microphone for a phrase or word here or there, or something quirky happened in post-processing as the volume has a fade bump into a slight muffle here and there. But overall very, very well done. With a runtime of 70 minutes, it’s a meaty first bite for a near-future, “reluctant heroes save the world” storyline.



And, speaking of podcasters and new projects, Natania Barron is live reading and discussing her novel Pilgrim of the Sky a chapter at a time via Google Hangouts. “I’m broadcasting my novel, Pilgrim of the Sky, throughout the month of February — Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9pm. Come on and listen if you love fantasy, steampunk, and or cross-dimensional travel and Romantic poetry.” If you missed the first three chapters, don’t fret. You can watch them starting here: Pilgrim of the Sky by Natania Barron – Chapter One: The Last Box. So what is Pilgrim of the Sky about? “… a lush, dreamy fable – both vintage gothic, and modern mystery … lovingly laced with magic and darkness from start to finish.” — Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker. “Barron’s book is a sexy trek through alternate worlds, with a fascinating and detailed mythology. This one is a steampunk tale that doesn’t play by the rules.” — Mur Lafferty, award-winning author and podcaster of Heaven and Hell. “A brilliant, eloquent adventure through time, space, and the human heart.” — Jonathan Wood, author of No Hero.

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

COMING SOON:

APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2014:

JULY 2014 and LATER:

UNDATED or 2015:

