Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Post for the Week of March 16th, 2019.
We share the 10 books from this week that caught our eye featuring Post-Apocalyptic, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thrillers, and more. Enjoy!
Please comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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The Splendor of Fear by Ambrose Ibsen
Narrated by Melissa Moran
Something stirs in the town of Newsom’s Landing….
Penny hates the outdoors, but when her boyfriend, Jared, plans a romantic weekend getaway in the woods, she decides to tag along. The pair drive to a remote Kentucky campground with a strange and sordid history. Within the confines of the Swan Creek State Park are the ruins of a town abandoned under terrifying circumstances in the 19th century.
The town of Newsom’s Landing had been the site of the last-known witch trial in US history, and the ghost of its defendant, the infamous Ellie Pomeroy, is said to still linger. Arriving on the anniversary of Pomeory’s murder, the pair find they have the entire park to themselves. Or, nearly.
Something else is stalking the woods – watching in the night, wandering through the ruins. It brings a plague of hallucinatory terror wherever it goes, and before long, Penny and Jared can’t parse reality from nightmare. Lost in the woods, the pair are faced with a choice: Find a way to end the century-long curse, or be consumed by it – body and soul.
The Hole by William Meikle
Narrated by David A. Wood
It starts with an odd hum that brings headaches and nosebleeds to the inhabitants of a remote, sleepy country town. Then a sinkhole begins to form…and out from that hole comes the townspeople’s worst nightmares.
Facing their fears and the growing madness, a group of survivors descend into the collapsed area in an attempt to save what is left of their town. Sacrifices will be required, but will they be enough?
The hole is growing…spreading…and the horror within it is growing stronger….
Wardenclyffe by F. Paul Wilson
Narrated by Eric G. Dove
Excerpt from the editorial in The Journal of New Historical Perspectives, Vol. Three, Number Four, 2011:
On the night of July 15, 1903, Nikola Tesla powered up his 190-foot tower in Wardenclyffe on Long Island’s North shore. The bolts of energy radiating from the apical dome were visible as far away as New Haven, Connecticut. This was the first and last time anyone would witness such a display. Three years later, broke and unable to secure further funding, Tesla abandoned the Wardenclyffe tower and his dream of worldwide wireless power. He returned to Manhattan, where he promptly suffered a nervous breakdown.
So say the history books.
But new evidence has surfaced that a shadowy fraternal order stepped in and provided generous funding after J. P. Morgan reneged. Witnesses state that testing of the tower continued, but only on foggy days when the discharges would not be noticed. The final test took place on April 18, 1906. Around dawn, in heavy fog, the tower was charged to maximum capacity; across the Atlantic, in Abereiddy, Wales, two copper prongs attached to a 50-watt light bulb were thrust into the ground. The bulb lit. Tesla had proved that worldwide wireless power was possible.
Why then, at the moment of his greatest vindication, did Nikola Tesla abandon his project? What could possibly have transpired at Wardenclyffe that day to so rattle him that he would deny the world his transformative technology? We may never know.
Radioactive Evolution by Richard Hummel
Narrated by Armen Taylor, Anneliese Rennie
It’s time to unlock your true potential…evolve!
How far would you go to change humanity’s fate?
Jared Cartwright has spent the last two years delving into the twisted, scarred wastelands of an earth ravaged by nuclear war. The rich and powerful have taken to the oceans and skies on floating utopias, escaping destruction and leaving the rest of humanity to fend off the mutated creatures that roam the earth.
To face his new reality, Jared must become an apex predator if he hopes to survive. He must unlock his true potential to confront those who left mankind to die. With deadly adversaries above and below, Jared must evolve beyond mere human limitations to defeat the powerful rulers of the cities and the rabid beasts lurking in the shadows.
Jared’s quest takes a new turn when he discovers dragons are real.
The Hunger Games, Ready Player One, and Game of Thrones collide to bring you a science-fiction and fantasy cross-genre spectacular!
Infinity by Tabitha Lord
Narrated by DW Draffin
In the second installment of the award-winning Horizon series, Dr. Caeli Crys returns to her war-torn world to fight for those she left behind. Almagest, Caeli’s home, stands on the brink of revolution. Long hidden from the rest of the galaxy, the once-peaceful planet suffers under a regime that grows more violent and oppressive by the day. Marcus, Almagest’s dictator, is building an arsenal of alien weaponry by selling empathic children into slavery.
A resistance has risen, but they are outmanned, outgunned, and in hiding. Joined by Commander Derek Markham and his elite squadron of operatives, Caeli embarks on a dangerous mission to find the Resistance, rescue her captive people, and save her civilization from destruction.
If, Then by Kate Hope Day
Narrated by Rebecca Lowman
“A must-read – a gorgeous literary novel that asks us to imagine all the possible versions of ourselves that might exist.” (J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times best-selling author of Saints for All Occasions)
The residents of a sleepy mountain town are rocked by troubling visions of an alternate reality in this dazzling debut that combines the family-driven suspense of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere with the inventive storytelling of The Immortalists.
In the quiet haven of Clearing, Oregon, four neighbors find their lives upended when they begin to see themselves in parallel realities. Ginny, a devoted surgeon whose work often takes precedence over her family, has a baffling vision of a beautiful coworker in Ginny’s own bed and begins to doubt the solidity of her marriage. Ginny’s husband, Mark, a wildlife scientist, sees a vision that suggests impending devastation and grows increasingly paranoid, threatening the safety of his wife and son. Samara, a young woman desperately mourning the recent death of her mother and questioning why her father seems to be coping with such ease, witnesses an apparition of her mother healthy and vibrant and wonders about the secrets her parents may have kept from her. Cass, a brilliant scholar struggling with the demands of new motherhood, catches a glimpse of herself pregnant again, just as she’s on the brink of returning to the project that could define her career.
At first, the visions are relatively benign, but they grow increasingly disturbing – and, in some cases, frightening. When a natural disaster threatens Clearing, it becomes obvious the visions were not what they first seemed and that the town will never be the same.
Startling, deeply imagined, and compulsively listenable, Kate Hope Day’s debut novel is about the choices we make that shape our lives and determine our destinies – the moments that alter us so profoundly that it feels as if we’ve entered another reality.
Advance praise for If, Then:
“Effortlessly meshing the dreamlike and the realistic, [Kate Hope] Day’s well-crafted mix of literary and speculative fiction is an enthralling meditation on the interconnectedness of all things.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Day’s complex debut explores the mind-bending idea that for every decision made, alternate choices lead to different lives…. Multiverse-theory fans will love the speculation offered in this novel.” (Booklist)
“A suburban drama built to leap from page to screen.” (Kirkus Reviews)
Junction by Daniel M. Bensen
Narrated by Joe Hempel
When Japanese nature show host Daisuke Matsumori finds himself on an alien world, he hopes to rekindle his passion for his work. Traveling through a newly discovered wormhole in the Papuan highlands, he joins biologist Anne Houlihan on Junction, a patchwork planet of competing alien ecosystems.
When their exploratory party crashes in the alien wilderness, Daisuke and Anne try to lead bickering soldiers and civilians back to civilization alive. As they trek across one unearthly biome after another and members of the party continue to die, however, Daisuke wonders whether human politics might be more deadly than alien biology. One of his companions might be a murderer.
Contains mature themes.
Lost Frequency by Barry Swanson
Narrated by B.J. Harrison
The secret to complete human understanding and world peace may be as close as the ocean….
It’s a technology with infinite possibilities. DJ Parker, billionaire developer of a proprietary artificial intelligence program, is on the cusp of cracking the miracle code that can usher in a new age of human progress. Amazingly, the technology is ancient, held by a group of beings that have been around for 50 million years: cetacea – species of aquatic mammals including killer whales. But Parker quickly learns he has dangerous enemies including a Russian conglomerate tied to the Kremlin which is seeking the research for its own nefarious purposes – and which will stop at nothing to get it. With DJ’s life in danger and the forces of evil seemingly everywhere, the fate of humankind is up for grabs.
A philosophical thriller, Lost Frequency confronts animal rights, human nature, artificial intelligence, and the perils of technology turned loose.
Mercy River by Glen Erik Hamilton
Narrated by R.C. Bray
Helping a fellow veteran accused of murder, Van Shaw is drawn into a dangerous labyrinth involving smuggled opioids, ruthless mercenaries, and deadly family secrets that will challenge his notions of brotherhood and justice in this riveting thriller from Anthony, Macavity, and Strand Critics Award-winning author Glen Erik Hamilton.
When his friend Leo Pak is arrested on suspicion of murder and armed robbery, Van Shaw journeys to a remote Oregon county to help his fellow Ranger. Van had been Leo’s sergeant when they served with the 75th Regiment in Afghanistan, and back in the States, Leo had helped Van when he needed it most.
Arriving in the isolated town of Mercy River, Van learns his troubled friend had planned to join a raucous three-day party that dominates the place for one weekend each year. Attended by hundreds of former and active Rangers, the event is more than just a reunion; it’s the central celebration of a growing support network called the Rally, founded and led by a highly decorated special operations general named Macomber.
But there’s more going on in Mercy River than just a bunch of Army hard cases blowing off steam. The murder victim – the owner of a local gun shop where Leo worked part time – was dealing in stolen heroin-grade opiates. Worse, the town has a dark history with a community of white supremacists, growing in strength and threatening to turn Mercy River into their private enclave.
The cops have damning evidence linking Leo to the murder, and Van knows that backwaters like Mercy River are notorious for protecting their own. His quest to clear Leo’s name will stir up old grudges and dark secrets beneath the surface of this secretive small town, pit his criminal instincts against his loyalties to his brothers in arms, and force him to question his own belief in putting justice above the letter of the law.
Glen Erik Hamilton creates crime fiction that pulsates with emotional intensity and is “as much fun to read as Lee Child’s Jack Reacher” (J. A. Jance). In Mercy River, Hamilton highlights the unique and powerful moral struggle inherent in Van Shaw’s iconoclastic character – an honorable man torn between upholding the law and breaking it to save innocent lives. Action-packed, riveting, and powerful, Mercy River is a novel that goes to the heart and soul of what it means to be a hero in a corrupt and punishing world.
The Persian Gamble by Joel C. Rosenberg
Narrated by Adam Grupper
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Kremlin Conspiracy comes this latest international thriller about a terrifying nuclear alliance among three world powers – Russia, Iran, and North Korea – and the man who must halt their deadly strategy.
Shot out of the air in enemy territory in the middle of the greatest international crisis since the end of the Cold War, former U.S. Secret Service agent Marcus Ryker finds himself facing an impossible task. Not only does he have to somehow elude detection and capture by Russian special forces, but he must convince his own government to grant safe harbor to the one man responsible for the global mayhem – Russian double agent and assassin Oleg Kraskin. While frantically negotiating with his contacts in the White House, Marcus learns that the unstable North Korean regime plans to use the international chaos as a smokescreen to sell nuclear weapons to Iran. With the fate of the entire free world on the line, Marcus makes a deal with the U.S. government – he will go back to work as an international operative and track down the WMDs before they end up in the hands of those with the determination and the means to use them. Marcus and Oleg worked together once before to avert a world war. Can they now find a way to stop world destruction?
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- New and Notable Audiobook Releases for the Week of September 23rd on Brian’s Book Blog - September 23, 2023
