Next SFF Author: Anselm Audley

Previous SFF Author: Frank Aubrey

Series: Audio

Speculative fiction in audiobook format.

The Goose Girl: Sweet and irresistible

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

As the oldest child of the King and Queen, Crown Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee (Ani) is being groomed for the throne of Kildenree. Much to her mother’s disappointment, though, Ani doesn’t seem to be leadership material. She doesn’t have the ability to persuade and motivate people like her mother does and, oddly, she seems to communicate better with animals than people.

Nonetheless, Ani is shocked when her mother declares her little brother to be heir and sends Ani off as a bride to the prince of Bayern,

A Stainless Steel Rat is Born: Entertaining prequel

Stainless Steel Rat is Born by Harry Harrison

A Stainless Steel Rat is Born is a prequel to the Stainless Steel Rat series. Jimmy Bolivar diGriz is a smart and ambitious 17-year-old who feels trapped and inhibited on the backward planet of Bit O’ Heaven where his parents are porcuswine farmers. Jim learned early in life that he was clever and unscrupulous enough to take what he wanted from others and, more than anything, he enjoyed planning and carrying out these little escapades.

Faefever: The grimmest book so far

Faefever by Karen Marie Moning

I’d die for him.

Throughout the Fever series, Karen Marie Moning has always had a penchant for telling us something dramatic and then backing up to explain how Mac got to that point. In Faefever, she takes that technique to a new level: the whole book is the explanation of how she reached that bombshell of a first sentence. Who is this man, and why is Mac willing to die for him?

The early chapters of Faefever are not quite as compelling as those of the first two books.

Bloodfever: Hard to put down

Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

At the end of Darkfever, Mac learned the identity of her sister’s mysterious lover (and possible murderer), but didn’t get the chance to strike against him. She’s still out for revenge, and Barrons still wants her help finding the Sinsar Dubh, an ancient book of evil magic. Meanwhile, Mac has to deal with too-curious Garda officers, the ever-present threat of Shades, and the machinations of the alluring Fae prince V’lane.

Then, in addition to the Shades and Rhino-boys she’s now accustomed to,

To Your Scattered Bodies Go: The Riverworld is fascinating

To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer

After he died, the famous 19th century explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton wasn’t surprised to find that what the Christian priests had taught about the Resurrection wasn’t true. But he was totally bewildered by what actually happened. He woke up young, hairless, naked, and turning in midair (as if on a spit) in the middle of 37 billion other young, hairless, naked and rotating humans. Soon after waking, the bodies — all the people over the age of five who had ever lived — plunged to the ground and began their new lives together in a giant river valley…

Darkfever: MUST. HAVE. BOOK. TWO. NOW.

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series can usually be found on the romance shelves, but having just finished reading the first installment, Darkfever, I’m more inclined to classify it as urban fantasy. While there are a couple of men foreshadowed as possible love interests for the heroine, and while there is some sexual content (most stemming from the mind-control powers possessed by some of the fae), the primary focus is on a murder mystery and on the magical goings-on in Moning’s Dublin.

The Bards of Bone Plain: Celebrates the power of music, language, and love

The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip

In This Land, the Bards Have Forgotten Their Magic…

Patricia McKillip does it again! Unique among fantasy writers for her dreamy prose, her ability to meld complex characterization with original fairytale plots, and her ability to slip in a clever twist or two before the story’s end, McKillip returns to form after the slightly lackluster The Bell at Sealey Head (great build-up, terrible climax) with The Bards of Bone Plain.

The Physiognomy: Sometimes brilliant, always bizarre

The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford

Physiognomist Cley has been sent by Master Drachton Below, the evil genius who constructed the Well-Built City, to the faraway mining district of Anamasobia to investigate the theft of a fruit that’s rumored to have grown in the Earthly Paradise and to have supernatural powers. Upon arriving, the skeptical and arrogant physiognomist finds a whole town of morons whose physical features clearly indicate that they are all backward and generally pathetic. Except for Arla, whose beautiful features suggest that she is intelligent and competent, and who seems to understand the science of physiognomy (even though that’s impossible because she’s a woman).

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson

In The Diamond Age, anything, no matter how trivial, could be made from diamonds drawn from molecular feeds. This will be the era in which humanity masters nanotechnology. On the one hand, this is a time of plenty and technological progress, but it is also a time of great illiteracy as well. With the rise of universal access to the molecular feed, the governments and nations that we know today will lose their purpose and become supplanted by culture-based societies that have territory around the world.

The Heroes: A whole new level of badass

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

The Heroes is another story set in the same world as Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy. Veteran readers will be happy to be reacquainted with several characters from earlier books: the wizard Bayaz; the dishonored warrior Bremer dan Gorst; Finree dan Brock, Union Commander Marshal Kroy’s ambitious daughter; Black Dow, the ruthless leader of the Northmen. But if you haven’t read any of Abercrombie’s books yet, don’t worry — you don’t need to have read them in order to fully enjoy The Heroes.

Next SFF Author: Anselm Audley

Previous SFF Author: Frank Aubrey

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