Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Post for the Week of February 2nd, 2019.
We share the 13 books from this week that caught our eye featuring Post-Apocalyptic, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thrillers, and more. Enjoy!
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
Authors, narrators, producers, and publishers — any of the books featured here are prime candidates for review.
If you see yourself featured here, I would love to review your audiobook! Click the button to submit your book for review.
Book covers and bolded titles may have affiliate links to Amazon (where you can buy the Audible version).
Clicking these helps support this site, so thank you if you do.
New to Audible or Audiobooks in general? Welcome!
Get 2 FREE Audiobooks (instead of one) by clicking on the banner or here.
Judgment by Joseph Finder
Narrated by January LaVoy
Penguin Audio
New York Times best-selling author Joseph Finder returns with an explosive new thriller about a female judge and the one personal misstep that could lead to her – and her family’s – downfall.
It was nothing more than a one-night stand. Juliana Brody, a judge in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, is rumored to be in consideration for the federal circuit, maybe someday the highest court in the land. At a conference in a Chicago hotel, she meets a gentle, vulnerable man and has an unforgettable night with him – something she’d never done before. They part with an explicit understanding that this must never happen again.
But back home in Boston, Juliana realizes this was no random encounter. The man from Chicago proves to have an integral role in a case she’s presiding over – a sex-discrimination case that’s received national attention. Juliana discovers she’s been entrapped, her night of infidelity captured on video. Strings are being pulled in high places, a terrifying unfolding conspiracy that will turn her life upside down.
But soon, it becomes clear that personal humiliation, even the possible destruction of her career, are the least of her concerns, as her own life and the lives of her family are put in mortal jeopardy.
In the end, turning the tables on her adversaries will require her to be as ruthless as they are.
The Killer Collective by Barry Eisler
Narrated by Barry Eisler
Brilliance Audio
A fast-paced, pause-resisting novel of betrayal, vengeance, and depraved secrets in high places from the New York Times bestselling author of the John Rain and Livia Lone series.
When a joint FBI-Seattle Police investigation of an international child pornography ring gets too close to certain powerful people, sex-crimes detective Livia Lone becomes the target of a hit that barely goes awry – a hit that had been offered to John Rain, a retired specialist in “natural causes.”
Suspecting the FBI itself was behind the attack, Livia reaches out to former Marine sniper Dox. Together, they assemble an ad hoc group to identify and neutralize the threat. There’s Rain. Rain’s estranged lover, Mossad agent and honeytrap specialist Delilah. And black ops soldiers Ben Treven and Daniel Larison, along with their former commander, SpecOps legend Colonel Scot “Hort” Horton.
Moving from Japan to Seattle to DC to Paris, the group fights a series of interlocking conspiracies, each edging closer and closer to the highest levels of the US government.
With uncertain loyalties, conflicting agendas, and smoldering romantic entanglements, these operators will have a hard time forming a team. But in a match as uneven as this one, a collective of killers might be even better.
Wake Me After the Apocalypse by Jordan Rivet
Narrated by Kate Marcin
When a killer comet hurtles toward Earth, 18-year-old Joanna Murphy is selected to wait out the apocalypse in an underground bunker. She enters cryosleep with her close-knit team, preparing to resettle the planet after the atmosphere clears in 200 years.
Joanna is the only one who wakes up.
Faced with a bunker full of bones and a blocked exit, Joanna must claw her way to the surface, figure out what happened to her team, and try not to panic – or die. That’s going to be tricky if she’s the only person left in the world.
From the author of The Seabound Chronicles, Steel and Fire, and Empire of Talents comes a story of resilience and optimism at the end of the world.
The Line Between by Tosca Lee
Narrated by Cassandra Campbell
Simon & Schuster Audio
In this frighteningly believable thriller from New York Times best-selling author Tosca Lee, an extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it’s the end she’d always been told was coming.
When Wynter Roth is turned out of New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation.
As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she’s been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she’s feared all her life – until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples. That night, Wynter learns there’s something far more sinister at play and that these samples are key to understanding the disease.
Now, as the power grid fails and the nation descends into chaos, Wynter must find a way to get the samples to a lab in Colorado. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter herself.
Filled with action, conspiracy, romance, and questions of whom – and what – to believe, The Line Between is a high-octane story of survival and love in a world on the brink of madness.
Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett
Narrated by Mark Boyett
Recorded Books
Robert Jackson Bennett’s Vigilance is a dark science-fiction action parable from an America that has permanently surrendered to gun violence.
The United States. 2030. John McDean executive produces “Vigilance”, a reality game show designed to make sure American citizens stay alert to foreign and domestic threats. Shooters are introduced into a “game environment”, and the survivors get a cash prize. The TV audience is not the only one that’s watching though, and McDean soon finds out what it’s like to be on the other side of the camera.
Extinction Crisis (Book Three) by James D. Prescott
Narrated by Gary Tiedemann
Extinction Crisis is the third and final book in the series!
With the doomsday ship only days away from impacting the Earth, humanity’s demise seems all but assured. In every corner of the world, news of the impending destruction has led to chaos, looting, and the collapse of the rule of law.
As the foundations of civilization crumble around them, Jack and Mia must race to find answers to perhaps the most important questions of all time. Why have the Ateans repeatedly eradicated life on our planet? And could the key to ending the cycle of extinctions be locked somewhere within the Salzburg Chromosome?
Unraveling the mystery will mean journeying deep into the heart of a perilous alien world and facing off against the very beings who created us.
EMP The Perfect Storm by AJ Newman
Narrated by Kevin Pierce
This is the story of survival when the worst possible scenario occurs. Three apocalyptic events occur at the same time. North Korea and Iran take advantage of a devastating cosmic event to mask their EMP and cyber-attack on the USA and its allies.
Our hero, Tom Horn, fled to Arizona years ago to keep drug cartel hitmen from killing him after they killed his family. Tom and the citizens of Stony Creek live through the grid collapse, an EMP destroying electronics, and destruction from the strike of thousands of meteors as they try to overcome the post-apocalyptic nightmare. Tom lives through this perfect storm of apocalyptic catastrophes only to have the cartel find him.
How do Tom and his friends survive the apocalypse? How does Tom deal with the cartel? Can the citizens of Stony Creek pull together or will they erupt in chaos because only a few of them were prepared?
The Worldship Humility (The Code Series) by RR Haywood
Narrated by Colin Morgan
Audible Studios
About the audiobook:
The Worldship Humility is the start of The Code trilogy, written exclusively for audio by sci-fi author R. R. Haywood. Narrator Colin Morgan (best known for playing the title character BBC’s fantasy series Merlin) brings the colourful characters and treacherous escapades of The Worldship Humility to life, a gripping space adventure which will appeal to fans of Ready Player One, Bladerunner and Haywood’s previous best-selling works, Extracted and The Undead.
Summary:
It’s been 120 years since the 50 or so worldships containing the few million survivors set off after planet Earth was destroyed by a meteor.
On the Worldship Humility, Sam, an Airlock Operative, is bored. Living in space should be full of adventure, except it isn’t, and he fills his time hacking 3-D movie posters.
Petty thief Yasmine Dufont is also from the WS Humility, but she is not bored. Growing up in the Elfors, the lawless lower levels of the ship, has seen her surrounded by violence and squalor since birth, and now she wants out. She wants to escape to the luxury of the Ab-Spa on top of WS Abstinence, where they eat real food instead of rats and synth cubes.
Meanwhile, the sleek-hulled, unmanned Gagarin has come back from punching out ahead of the fleet in the ever-continuing search for a new home. Nearly all hope is lost that a new planet will ever be found, until the Gagarin returns with a code of information that suggests a habitable planet has been found. This news should be shared with the whole fleet, but a few rogue captains want to keep the information to themselves and colonise the new planet.
When Yasmine inadvertently steals the code, she and Sam become caught up in a dangerous game of murder, corruption, political wrangling and…porridge, with sex-addicted Detective Zhang Woo hot on their heels, his own life at risk if he fails to get the code back.
The Grey Zone (A Global Federation of Nations Book) by Jason McMillan
Narrated by Cheryl May
For most of the world life had improved after the implementation of the Basic Human Standard and the formation of The Global Federation of Nations. However, after 15 years, there are some who still fight against the principles of the organization.
Natalie Kelley is a journalist for the Chicago Tribune whose reporting focuses on American terrorist groups in opposition to the GFN. When an Oklahoma City restaurant is attacked, Natalie travels to investigate the incident, but soon begins to question whether the assault was an amateur action or part of a larger conspiracy.
The Grey Zone follows Natalie and a cast of characters from both sides of the battle and explores the ramifications of an exceedingly globalized planet as conflicting ideologies clash across the United States.
The Runaway by Peter J. Thompson
Narrated by Gary Tiedemann
A corrupt corporation. Ruthless assassins. Will the family that runs together…die together?
Zach Monaghan just became a target. Under witness protection from his father’s whistle-blowing, his reckless desire to win back a normal life compels him to run away. But escaping his new identity won’t last long if two contract killers catch up to him….
Richard “Birdman” Byrd has worked hand-in-hand with his tormentor Gorski for years. Siphoning away money and sending assassins to hunt down the Monaghans could be his only way out of the crooked partnership. But if Birdman doesn’t watch himself, the verbal abuse he’s received for years could turn deadly.
As the ruthless killer draws closer to Zach, surviving the greedy corporate plot may force the whole family to get their hands bloody….
The Runaway is a fast-paced thriller with dizzying twists and turns. If you like non-stop action, high-stakes tension, and large casts of compelling characters, then you’ll love Peter Thompson’s gripping novel.
Primordia II by Greig Beck
Narrated by Sean Mangan
Bolinda Audio
Primordia II, the stunning sequel to the blockbuster Primordia, explores a prehistoric world, travels over mountains and through swamps and strange jungles, and dives below a primordial ocean.
It was true – it was all true – and we were never meant to be there.
In December 2018, Ben Cartwright, former Special Forces soldier, and a team of naive explorers followed the clues left by his ancestor to a hidden plateau in the middle of the Amazon jungle. It was said that once every 10 years, a secret pathway was revealed to a world long since gone.
They went, and what they found was a place of wonders and of horrors. Only Ben and his childhood love, Emma, survived. But when the doorway to the hidden world closed, Ben was trapped on the wrong side.
Now, Emma has waited 10 long years for the doorway to open again. This time she’d be ready. This time she had everything she needed to go back to that hellish place and survive. All she needed was for Ben to be alive when she got there.
The Colony Mars (Complete Trilogy) by Gerald M. Kilby
Narrated by Nicol Zanzarella
How can a colony on Mars survive when the greatest danger on the planet is humanity itself?
All contact is lost with the first privately funded colony on Mars during a long and destructive sandstorm. Satellite imagery of the aftermath shows extensive damage to the facility. The 54 colonists who called it home are presumed dead.
Sometime later, a new mission sets down on the planet surface to investigate what remains of the derelict site, and crew biologist Dr. Jann Malbec soon discovers that the facility had developed into to a full-blown human DNA editing experiment – with unsuspecting colonists as the guinea pigs.
However, now that the truth of what was going on in the colony is revealed, powerful Earth-based corporations begin to fight for control of this extraordinary genetic research. But Dr. Malbec begins to realize that returning this technology to Earth could doom humanity to a worldwide pandemic of apocalyptic proportions. She must do everything she can to prevent that from happening – even if it means that she might never see her home planet again.
- The Mayor’s Mission (Home to Milford College #2) by Piper Huguley (Narrated by Shamaan Casey) - September 18, 2023
- New and Notable Audiobook Releases for the Week of September 17th on Brian’s Book Blog - September 18, 2023
- Trust in Truth by Emily Banting (Narrated by Lulu Russell) - September 15, 2023
