Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of October 22nd.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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Wild Lands by Nicholas Sansbury Smith, Anthony Melchiorri
Narrated by Bronson Pinchot
Recorded Books
Review coming soon!
Check out my review of Wild Fire, book one in the New Frontier Series
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase – Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Nicholas Sansbury Smith & Anthony Melchiorri
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Bronson Pinchot
War is coming to the Wild Lands…
One month after the defeat of a rogue group of terrorists, the United States struggles to maintain control over the New Frontier. The untamed sector of America simmers as opportunists, criminals, and marauders wait to fill the void left behind. An extremist faction of the Navajo Nation called the Rattlesnakes have waited years for this moment. Their leader launches their first, brutal attack on a water treatment and power facility in Colorado.
The message is clear to Colorado Sheriff Lindsey Plymouth and her foreign allies working to keep peace: a new enemy has risen up. Lindsey enlists Raven Spears to track the Rattlesnakes and bring their leader to justice before they can strike again. As the trail gets hot, Raven realizes this is just one of many assaults the Rattlesnakes have planned to conquer the New Frontier.
With violence spilling over the borders, America’s foreign allies begin to question the cost to their own forces and start to withdraw. Lindsey and the Colorado Rangers scramble to find new allies, but it will take more than a few friends to hold back the growing Rattlesnake army. If they fail to defeat this new evil, it will devour the New Frontier.
The Quantum Chain by Nick Jones
Narrated by Ray Porter
Blackstone Publishing
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Ray Porter
Secrets of the past hold the key to the future.
Joseph Bridgeman is now an official member of the Continuum, a group of time travelers that heal the past to protect the future. When a rare focus object is stolen and put up for sale, Joe jumps at the chance to retrieve it, but a simple auction turns into a dangerous new mission that takes him farther back in time than he’s ever been before.
Alone and unprepared in ancient China, Joe must not only complete the mission, but also unravel the mystery of a secretive organization known as Extempero. Who are they? And why do they seem intent on destroying everything the Continuum has achieved so far?
When all hope appears lost, an unexpected ally helps Joe unlock a unique form of time-travel loop that sees him flung into the past yet again. Caught up in a shocking natural disaster, Joe must face a terrible choice, a decision that will have far-reaching consequences for the Continuum and a delicate future that hangs in the balance.
Poster Girl by Veronica Roth
Narrated by Anna Caputo
Audible Studios
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Veronica Roth
For fans of Anthony Marra and Lauren Beukes, number one New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth tells the story of a woman’s desperate search for a missing girl after the collapse of the oppressive dystopian regime—and the dark secrets about her family and community she uncovers along the way.
What’s right is right.
Sonya Kantor knows this slogan—she lived by it for most of her life. For decades, everyone in the Seattle-Portland megalopolis lived under it, as well as constant surveillance in the form of the Insight, an ocular implant that tracked every word and every action, rewarding or punishing by a rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation.
Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its most valuable members were locked in the Aperture, a prison on the outskirts of the city. And everyone else, now free from the Insight’s monitoring, went on with their lives.
Sonya, former poster girl for the Delegation, has been imprisoned for 10 years when an old enemy comes to her with a deal: find a missing girl who was stolen from her parents by the old regime, and earn her freedom. The path Sonya takes to find the child will lead her through an unfamiliar, crooked post-Delegation world where she finds herself digging deeper into the past—and her family’s dark secrets—than she ever wanted to.
With razor sharp prose, Poster Girl is a haunting dystopian mystery that explores the expanding role of surveillance on society—an inescapable reality that we welcome all too easily.
Head Cleaner by David James Keaton
Narrated by Joe Hempel
Blackstone Publishing
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Joe Hempel
Head Cleaner is a hugely original blend of thriller, science fiction, and horror that takes our love of nostalgia to task for its morbid obsessions with dead media and dead-end jobs: Clerks meets Black Mirror (with a little Groundhog Day and Russian Doll thrown in for good measure)
The last Blockbuster video store in the United States is hanging on by a thread. And after a crazy night attempting to track down a lost VCR rental to collect the record-setting and internet-famous late fee, three employees, idealistic Eva, cinephile Jerry, and their tyrannical manager Randy, discover that this machine may actually have the power to change the endings of popular films, which, depending on the historical basis of the film, might also be changing the real world around them.
Or could this just be an elaborate, increasingly deadly prank?
When they begin receiving videotapes and voicemails seemingly depicting their deaths, Eva, Jerry, and Randy scramble to keep the VCR from falling into the wrong hands. And as one action-packed evening begins to seemingly repeat itself (or does it?), scores are settled and unwanted confessions begin to fly, until a final girl finally unravels a grand psychological experiment orchestrated at the highest levels of a crumbling social media empire.
Drone Ensign by Kyle Johnson
Narrated by Stephane Nemeth Parker
Self Published
Review coming soon!
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Stephane Nemeth Parker
Humanity has moved far beyond the cradle of Earth, into the stars themselves. In the Collective, energy is limitless, travel and communication are nearly instantaneous, and every person’s basic needs are fully met. Citizens are free to choose the lives they wish to lead, and the omnipresent Overnet tracks their strength, power, and accomplishments. Even death has been vanquished, and Citizens are effectively immortal, reborn anew after each death.
Benning Kidd is a Drone, the lowest class of humanity. She exists without memory, purpose, or more than the most basic awareness of herself and the world around her. An accident changes all that, and Benning becomes a Citizen of the Collective, the first Drone to do so in history. She is uniquely talented and unscrupulously driven, choosing a path of battle and glory that will take her from arena to arena and out among the stars themselves. Benning’s existence, though, is a threat to those in power, and forces move against her from the moment she steps out of the respawn chamber. As a starship officer, she’s sworn to serve her new captain, but he might not be serving her in turn. She faces threats from without and within, and the only person she can trust is her personal AI, who guides her through the Collective.
Her only chance of survival is to be stronger, smarter, and more cunning than those who stand in her way. Her path is unique, and only she can forge it. She is the Drone Ensign, warrior and starship officer, and none will stop her from fulfilling her desires!
Standom by Maryn Scott
Narrated by Ann Sprinkle
Tantor Audio
Check out my review of Standom here!
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Singer-turned-actress Sara Silver is thrilled when producer Mika Williams offers her the role of a lesbian detective in a hot new series. And with in-demand actresses Christina Landis and Abby Farina onboard, the show is a sure to be a hit. But when Christina’s personal life gets in the way of her performance, and she exits the show in a wave of bury-your-gays backlash, Abby moves into the role as Sara’s love interest.
Totally fine. Except for that secret post-fundraiser kiss they haven’t talked about, and the fact Abby is supposedly straight.
Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier
Narrated by Tristan Morris
Blackstone Publishing
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
For fans of Station Eleven and Light from Other Stars, Ethan Chatagnier’s propulsive, genre-bending debut novel asks: What happens when we discover intelligent life just next door? And what does it really mean to know we’re not alone in the universe?
The odds of the planet next door hosting intelligent life are―that’s not luck. That’s a miracle. It means something.
In December 1960, Crystal Singer, her boyfriend Rick, and three other MIT grad students take a cross-country road trip from Boston to Arizona to paint a message in the desert. Mars has been silent for thirty years, since the last time Earth solved one of the mathematical proofs the Martian civilization carved onto its surface. The latest proof, which seems to assert contradictory truths about distance, has resisted human understanding for decades. Crystal thinks she’s solved it, and Rick is intent on putting her answer to the test―if he can keep her from cracking under the pressure on the way. But Crystal’s disappearance after the experiment will set him on a different path than he expected, forever changing the distance between them.
Filled with mystery and wonder, Ethan Chatagnier’s Singer Distance is a novel about ambition, loneliness, exploration, and love―about how far we’re willing to go to communicate with a distant civilization, and the great lengths we’ll travel to connect with each other here on Earth.
The Devil’s Calling by Michael Kelley
Narrated by Craig Matthew
Greenleaf Book Group
Dive into the second entry in Mike Kelley’s spellbinding trilogy, with freethinking literature professor Sean Byron McQueen returning for another high-stakes adventure.
It’s been nine years since Sean Byron McQueen and quantum physics professor Emily Edens—aka M—discovered his murdered best friend’s Theory of Everything. Now, Sean and M live a near-idyllic life on the campus of a college they’ve established for young women. M’s teaching of the new paradigm-shifting theory of constant creation has made her a rock-star scientist.
When Sean’s missing spiritual guide, Juno—believed to have been abducted by aliens that are targeting enlightened beings—sends him a telepathic message that his beloved and illuminated M is also in danger, Sean becomes hypervigilant in order to protect her.
Meanwhile, troubling AI-produced literature begins arriving in Sean’s inbox, and the culprit may be an ex-CIA operative with the code name Guru who is intent on revenge. Sean presumes the Guru is also the mastermind behind Genesis, a super-intelligent Russian computer that will connect humans via a network of direct brain-to-brain links. Genesis is seen as the next evolutionary step by the wired-in nation (WiN), a group determined to create a New Society. Are the Guru and WiN after M, who is determined to ensure the ethical rollout of the dangerous “hive-mind” technology, or are the threats figments of Sean’s vivid imagination—his superpower and curse?
Robert Ludlum’s The Blackbriar Genesis by Simon Gervais
Narrated by William DeMeritt
Penguin Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Simon Gervais
The assassination of a Treadstone agent leads two Blackbriar operatives down a rabbit hole of deceit and betrayal in this explosive new series from the world of Robert Ludlum.
A car explodes along a quiet Prague side street—among the dead is an undercover Treadstone agent. It’s not unusual for such men to meet their fates on an operation, but in this case there’s one catch. None of his superiors know what he was doing there.
Two Blackbriar operatives, Helen Jouvert and Donovan Wade, are sent to investigate. Their search for answers will take them deeper into the world of conspiracy and fake news than they ever expected.
Treadstone and Blackbriar may be two sides of the same coin, intelligence and counterintelligence, but they have one thing in common, answers can be the deadliest commodity of all.
Partners in Crime by Alisha Rai
Narrated by Soneela Nankani, Shahjehan Khan
HarperCollins Publishers
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Soneela Nankani & Shahjehan Khan
Mira Patel’s got a solid accounting career, good friends, and a whole lot of distance between her and her dysfunctional family. All that’s missing is a stable romantic relationship. Armed with a spreadsheet and professional help, she sets out to find her partner in only legal activities, but much to her matchmaker’s dismay, no one is quite right.
Including Naveen Desai, the very first match she unceremoniously rejected.
Lately Naveen’s been too focused on keeping his sick grandfather’s law firm afloat to think about love, and he’s stunned when Mira walks back into his life to settle her aunt’s affairs. He’s determined to keep things professional…though it’s impossible not to be intrigued by all of the secrets piling up around Mira.
If getting back together with an ex is a bad idea, getting kidnapped with one is even worse.
Suddenly, Naveen and Mira find themselves in a mad dash through Las Vegas to escape jewel thieves, evade crime bosses, and follow the clues to untangle the mess her family left behind. As her past comes back to haunt her, Mira despairs of ever finding someone who might understand her…but maybe, over the course of one wild night, she’ll find that he’s right by her side.
Murder on the Spanish Seas by Wendy Church
Narrated by Eva Kaminsky
Podium Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Jesse O’Hara is profane, introverted, and not frequently sober—and has just lost another job: “a million-dollar brain and a ten-cent personality,” her last employer said.
With nothing better to do, Jesse reluctantly accepts the gift of a luxury cruise around the Iberian Peninsula. She’s not sure she can drink enough to keep her boredom at bay, but that’s the least of her problems. From the very first moment of the cruise, it’s clear to Jesse that something is very wrong.
Aided by her near-photographic memory, Jesse investigates a series of strange incidents on the ship and uncovers what looks like a terrorist plot in the works. But with each new layer uncovered, her perception shifts and broadens—and someone doesn’t want her poking around. For Jesse, bruised and concussed is preferable to tan and relaxed, so she ignores the mounting danger even as she closes in on the villains, who have perfectly timed their grand finale…
Murder on the Spanish Seas is a riveting, whip-smart, and smart-aleck debut thriller that will keep you on your toes just as frequently as it keeps you in stitches. A perfect story for fans of Ruth Ware and Janet Evanovich.
The Black Market DNA Series Box Set by Anthony J. Melchiorri
Narrated by Bradford Hastings, Gina Melchiorri
Anthony J. Melchiorri
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Anthony J. Melchiorri
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Bradford Hastings & Gina Melchiorri
The complete Black Market DNA series in one box set, filled with fast-paced action, scientific intrigue, and criminal conspiracies.
In near-future Baltimore, scientific breakthroughs in genetic engineering promise to cure the incurable. But these new technologies are not without a dark side. Powerful criminal organizations thrive on peddling illicit genetic wares, waging an underground war unlike any the city has ever seen.
Seeking to make amends for his checkered past, Christopher Morgan starts a new job as a genetic engineer. But after his boss is brutally murdered, he finds himself in the middle of a terrifying conspiracy. A mysterious criminal organization has him in their crosshairs, and he doesn’t know why. In a perilous race against time, he realizes far more is at stake than just his own life.
A genetically engineered and unstoppable cancer spreads through Baltimore’s citizens. Doctor Robin Haynes is used to dealing firsthand with unforgiving diseases, but this one is unlike any she has faced. When every medical tool at her disposal fails, she becomes desperate for a cure. But what Robin discovers about the cancer is even more startling than she could have imagined.
The lives of thousands, maybe millions, are in jeopardy. With the body count rising, only Chris and Robin can find who is responsible and put a stop to these twisted, destructive biomedical mysteries.
The Black Market DNA Series Box Set includes a special bonus, Fatal Injection, a prequel story to the series.
- No Rules of Engagement by Tracey Richardson (Narrated by Joana Garcia) - September 28, 2023
- Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan (Narrated Narrated by Lori Prince) - September 26, 2023
- New and Notable Audiobook Releases for the Week of September 23rd on Brian’s Book Blog - September 23, 2023
