Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of April 23rd.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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The Order by Jeremy Robinson
Narrated by R.C. Bray
Podium Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Jeremy Robinson
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by R.C. Bray
When two galactic forces collide—one spreading chaos, the other demanding order—New York Times and number one Audible best-selling author Jeremy Robinson defends Earth with characters from three of his fan-favorite novels: The Others, Flux, and Exo-Hunter.
Mysterious gateways are appearing throughout the universe, bridging violent civilizations, leading to war, and sowing chaos. While some species succumb to the pandemonium, the Chut’un forge an unholy symbiotic relationship—The Order—with red Europhids, a vast hive intelligence populating the universe’s far reaches. Desiring structure and fearing the unknown, they cull everything opposed to their plan, including the Europhids’ blue counterparts, carrying out a galactic genocide until only one blue Europhid remains…inside Moses Montgomery, a.k.a. “Dark Horse”.
As a Rapid Reaction Force Marine from 1989, Dark Horse and his team were sent 1,000 years into the future where they defeated the Union, an evil fascist empire. Back in the present, after preventing the Union from ever forming, Dark Horse and his team of…unique operators from the past and the future are ready to kick back, listen to some tunes, and enjoy the timeline they saved.
But as the last threat to The Order’s machinations, Dark Horse finds himself with an alien target on his back. Joined by Dan Delgado and Wini Finch (The Others) and Owen McCoy (Flux), the team attempts to understand the gates that first appeared in New Hampshire and now in Antarctica. Despite their vast experience with the strange and otherworldly, none of them are prepared for what comes next. Three members of the team are abducted, whisked away to another planet. Alive or dead, no one knows.
Dark Horse and his now ragtag team struggle to track down their missing teammates while being hunted themselves. With the fate of his friends—and all of Earth—hanging in the balance, Dark Horse is forced to take insane risks, create chaos, and do anything to get his people back.
To save humanity…he must sacrifice his own.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Cold Eyes by Peter Cawdron
Narrated by Neil Shah
Podium Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Peter Cawdron
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Neil Shah
Cold Eyes is an original First Contact novel, written as a tribute to the 1974 science fiction classic, The Mote in God’s Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
The UN warship Magellan is twelve light-years from Earth, exploring a cold eye, a tidally locked super-Earth called Bee. At least two advanced intelligent species evolved on the planet, but the crew’s attempts at radio communication result in garbled replies. No one is waiting for them in orbit. The crew has to figure out why. Any misunderstandings could lead to war.
BadAsstronauts by Grady Hendrix
Narrated by Ezra Buzzington
Recorded Books
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Grady Hendrix
First published in 2012 as Occupy Space, Grady’s debut science-fiction novella inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, about a group of amateur astronauts who lead a rescue mission to space.
Walter Reddie is a washed-up former astronaut who takes it upon himself to build a rocket ship to rescue his cousin, who is stuck on the International Space Station after a mission gone wrong. If America won’t rescue its astronauts, Walter will do it himself.
Violating numerous laws, common sense, logic, and reason, Walter Reddie becomes a lightning rod for people who aren’t ready to lay down and die just yet. His “redneck NASA” becomes the promised land for losers, drifters, rocket junkies, pyromaniacs, misfits, dreamers, science nerds, and astro-hippies who still believe that the future of America is in space. But chances are they’ll blow themselves up, get arrested, or kill each other before they ever get into low Earth orbit.
Kingdom of Bones by James Rollins
Narrated by Christian Baskous
HarperCollins Publishers
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
From #1 New York Times bestselling author James Rollins, the latest riveting, deeply imaginative thriller in the Sigma Force series, told with his trademark blend of cutting-edge science, historical mystery, and pulse-pounding action.
It begins in Africa . . .
A United Nations relief team in a small village in the Congo makes an alarming discovery. An unknown force is leveling the evolutionary playing field. Men, women, and children have been reduced to a dull catatonic state. The environment surrounding them—plants and animals—has grown more cunning and predatory, evolving at an exponential pace. The insidious phenomenon is spreading from a cursed site in the jungle—known to locals as the Kingdom of Bones—and sweeping across Africa, threatening the rest of the world.
What has made the biosphere run amok? Is it a natural event? Or more terrifyingly, did someone engineer it?
Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force are prepared for the extraordinary and have kept the world safe, vigilance for which they have paid a tragic personal price. Yet, even these brilliant and seasoned scientific warriors do not understand what is behind this frightening development—or know how to stop it. As they race to find answers, the members of Sigma quickly realize they have become the prey.
To head off global catastrophe, Sigma Force must risk their lives to uncover the shattering secret at the heart of the African continent—a truth that will illuminate who we are as a species and where we may be headed . . . sooner than we know.
Mother Nature—red in tooth and claw—is turning against humankind, propelling the entire world into the Kingdom of Bones.
Raging Waters by Eric Chance Stone
Narrated by Nick Sullivan
Eric Chance Stone
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Nick Sullivan
Rick Waters travels to the Amazon to save his true love Jules. Rick must overcome snakes, spiders, jaguars, and flying spears and arrows to find the jewel. If he cannot find the Sacred Jewel of Orinoco, not only is Jules’ life in danger, but so is the fate of the entire Kayapó tribe.
Rick runs into an old friend, or is he now a foe? He has come into money and seems different.
Will Rick and the crew save Jules in time, or will she die deep inside the dark jungle?
Time is running out. No pressure, right?
The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe
Narrated by Janelle Monáe, Bahni Turpin
HarperCollins Publishers
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, activist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe once again brings her voice to the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums, helping narrate these new stories which explore how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms.
Whoever controls our memories controls the future.
Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate.
That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free.
Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian existence…and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the traditions of speculative writers such as Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with the artistic genius and powerful themes that have made Monáe a worldwide icon in the first place—The Memory Librarian serves listeners tales grounded in the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, but also reaching through to the worlds of memory and time within, and the stakes and power that exists there.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Always Hers by Bel Blackwood
Narrated by Amy Deuchler
Tantor Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Dani Smith has a problem. Scratch that: this fun-loving lesbian has three of them.
First, she wakes up hungover and married in Vegas. Oops. She was only supposed to be in Sin City for a friend’s wedding, but now she’s the one with a shiny gold ring on her finger.
Second, she’s not exactly sure who she married. She may have a ring, but her bride is nowhere in sight.
The third problem is aloof, cold-hearted Mia: Dani’s ex. The last thing that Dani needs is that know-it-all ice queen—even if her first love still makes Dani’s heart race. But if she’s going to track down her mystery bride before she leaves town, she’s going to need some help.
Mia Reyes has enough on her plate. Between arranging her best friend’s wedding and pulling long hours as a family doctor, she has no time for anything else. But when her ex, Dani, shows up in Vegas, Mia can’t resist her irresistible smile.
Now, Dani has a wedding ring on her finger, and Mia can’t remember exactly what it is that she did last night. But Mia knows she’s not the kind of person to get blackout drunk and marry her ex. Right?
Once upon a time, Mia broke Dani’s heart. Now, she has a second chance. Can she and Dani rekindle their love?
Drop Dead Gorgeous by Rachel Gibson
Narrated by Stephanie Einstein, Rachanee Lumayno
Simon & Schuster.
$12.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
This hilarious fish-out-of-water tale—from the New York Times best-selling author of the “endearing, funny, and heart-tugging” (Karen Hawkins, New York Times best-selling author) novel How Lulu Lost Her Mind—explores what happens when a small-town Texas girl swaps bodies with a filthy rich socialite.
On her way from singing in church to hooking up with a Tinder date, Brittany Lynn Snider crashes her momma’s minivan, and her life is changed forever. One moment she’s texting HotGuyNate, and in the next she’s at a hospital in El Paso watching doctors operate on her near-lifeless body. If that wasn’t bad enough, she finds herself trapped in the Limbo Lounge where patients await their fate, playing cards and watching reruns of 7th Heaven and Heaven Help Us.
When a shimmering portal appears, it pulls Brittany upward toward heaven—until the lounge’s resident bully, a wealthy socialite named Edie, leaps through first and steals Brittany’s place. Brittany now has a second chance at life on Earth, but with a catch: She must inhabit Edie’s body.
Waking up as Edie in a mental facility where doctors try to cure her alleged retrograde amnesia, Brittany resumes a life of privilege in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Yet even as she basks in luxury and reconnects with Edie’s old flame, Brittany plans to return to her old life in Texas. But when things don’t go according to her plan, she must ask herself: Who is Brittany Lynn Snider, and what does she want now?
And where’s Edie? Did she manage to make it past the pearly gates?
Disconnected by Annette Mori
Narrated by Heidi Bindhammer
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Vanna has always felt like something was off with her parents, leaving her feeling oddly disconnected. She decides to move across the country and establish a new and independent life after college. On the way to her new position in Flagstaff, Arizona, Vanna meets out-and-proud Trey, who loves to flirt.
Trey has never forgotten the beautiful young woman she met briefly and is determined to ensure their paths cross again. Thousands of miles from home, Vanna finds out more about herself, but not her feeling of being disconnected from her parents.
Will Vanna ever form the connection she desperately seeks? Does Trey’s determination work out?
Not in the Script by K.E. Morrison
Narrated by Sara Vonn
Self Published
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Charlie Evans leads an ordinary life. Boring in fact, by many people’s standards. So, when she unexpectedly finds herself tutoring a student on set at Pinewood Studios, the last thing she imagines is that the lead actress is none other than global superstar, Robyn White.
The same Robyn White her three closest friends have lusted after since they first met back at university a decade-and-a-half ago. Robyn White might be renowned for her enormous smile on the red carpet and her happy-go-lucky attitude; however, it’s all a well-constructed front. Behind the façade is a woman who struggles to fit in, not least because she has a secret, one which on-set tutor Charlie Evans threatens to expose. With tensions rising all around them, will Charlie and Robyn’s attraction reach blockbuster heights or be discarded on the cutting room floor?
Insurgency Saga: The Complete Series by T.E. Bakutis
Narrated by Mark Delgado
Aethon Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Get the Insurgency Saga Box Set, featuring all three books in the best-selling series. The Expanse meets Die Hard set in the far future.
For Hayden Cross, a military investigator in the far future, whether his wife faked her death is the question that is probably going to get him killed. Having lost the only job that kept him sane, he has few resources and fewer leads. Oh, and a sadistic crime lord really wants to kill him.
As he fights through an underworld of fanatical rebels, callous bounty hunters, and corrupt cops, each step takes him closer to the truth about his wife’s fate and the oppressive government he once loyally served. On the way, he may even liberate a planet and stop a war…but only if he betrays everyone he loves.
Hayden Cross tries to stop an interplanetary war while relentlessly mocking everyone involved in this debut military sci-fi thriller series.
This bundle contains three full-length novels:
Book 1: Supremacy’s Shadow
Book 2: Supremacy’s Bounty
Book 3: Supremacy’s Outlaw
