These recent science fiction audiobooks promise experiences full of speculative technology, happenings that science struggles to explain, and smart commentaries on contemporary issues.
Wil Wheaton has talent for narrating the comically absurd, which makes WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE a darkly delightful listen. Scientists around the world are baffled when their lunar samples are replaced with cheese, and looking into the sky only makes the situation more strange. Undeniably, the moon has become cheese, and Wheaton embodies a variety of Americans as they grapple with the consequences in a series of interconnected chapters. Using a voice full of appropriately baffled disappointment, he narrates astronauts with missions suddenly canceled and government officials grappling with how to simplify complex science for a president who can barely understand multisyllabic words. Wheaton voices the egotistic billionaire space company owner hell-bent on being the first to land on a moon made of cheese as he jeers at his billionaire opponents with bombastic enthusiasm. But he also dials it back, voicing moments of immense emotional weight with warmth and sincerity. The result is full of laughter, but also surprisingly touching.
Amara Jaspar’s precisely paced narration in COLD ETERNITY enhances the atmospheric horror in this audiobook about a defunct cryogenic program. In the midst of a political scandal, Halley accepts a job aboard an isolated space station filled with the frozen bodies of privileged and famous people from over a century ago, awaiting the cure for their illnesses. Halley’s tasks prevent her from restful sleep, and she can’t tell if the slithering shadows and noises are real or the product of her imagination. In a chilling performance, Jaspar narrates the AI holograms with a welcoming, cheerful tone that begins to stutter as they start to glitch. Halley’s slowly increasing dread is perfectly captured as the truth unfolds around her.
WHERE THE AXE IS BURIED, a timely audiobook narrated by Eunice Wong, imagines a near-future world ruled by artificial intelligence and a president whose consciousness is transferred from body to body. Zoya is an activist trapped in exile, her book banned for the revolution it inspired. Lilia goes on the run after making a scientific breakthrough that could end the immortal president. Suddenly thrust into chaos, people overly reliant on the governance of AI Prime Ministers for peace and stability watch them collapse economies as they malfunction. Wong distinctly voices a large cast of characters whose lives gradually become intertwined. With impressive emotional versatility and connection, Wong illuminates complicated lives as they unfold amid a dystopian, Orwellian Europe that questions individual and collective responsibility to end an unjust regime.
In an imagined future where Earth chefs and their techniques are looked down upon, Golden Voice Soneela Nankani’s emotional depth underscores the significance food plays in our lives. Saras is a talented Earth chef, and she’s determined to prove herself on the galaxy’s most popular cooking competition show, INTERSTELLAR MEGACHEF. The other contestants and civilians of the colony world Primus react with disdain and shock, horrified by Saras’s "barbaric" cooking techniques, which include using fire. Nothing goes to plan, and Saras is sent home in shame. Serenity Ko is a talented inventor for a company that develops immersive augmented reality, and her next big idea is about simulated food. Her lack of friends is highlighted by Nankani’s performance, which involves an air of elitism and high energy. Serenity Ko doesn’t know anything about cooking, but along with Saras, the two might completely change the future of food. This audiobook is filled with plenty of humor, a touch of romance, and food descriptions galore.
