New Reviews: Science Fiction

Roth's retelling of Sophocles's ANTIGONE, stunningly performed by Dion Graham and January LaVoy, is set in a dystopian future in Thebes, the last habitable city on Earth. The tyrant Kreon holds Antigone and her siblings--the children of his vanquished rival--in genteel yet uneasy captivity. Tensions come to a head when Antigone's brothers kill each other in battle and Antigone... Read More

This sci-fi includes a strange extraterrestrial artifact found in Grandpa's back room, as well as bird rats, giant insects, alien terrascapes, and, would you believe, a little romance. Scott Brick and Suzanne Elise Freeman bring grounded ease and a naturalistic feel to this comic-adventure mash-up of two small-town 20-somethings who will do just about anything to find steady... Read More

Neom is an actual planned smart city to be built by the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. This audiobook imagines it in the far future, when it has become a global gathering place. Using an array of regional accents, Rasha Zamamiri capably brings those in Neom, human or otherwise, to life. Characters range from a native flower seller to a desert-dwelling boy who is seeking the stars,... Read More

To call this performance just an audiobook would be an enormous understatement. It's an immersive listening experience with an original score, sound effects, and an entire cast. A disease has taken over the entire world, making social interactions rare and beloved destinations dystopian. Beta-test player John Chambers joins a lifelike virtual reality game in which he can... Read More

An ensemble cast with international accents, including Melanie Nicolls- King, Deepti Gupta, and Neil Hellegers, portrays an international group of scientists and military leaders who are assembled at the bottom of the Grand Canyon to debate the meaning and origin of cryptic radio signals being received from a distant star. Is a string of natural disasters being caused by the... Read More

C.J. McAllister narrates an unusual take on the apocalypse that follows when supernatural/paranormal creatures are unleashed upon the land. Humanity can barely eke out a living as the creatures compete to dominate the new landscape. Rod Calaway seeks to destroy the creatures in the singular hope of returning Earth to humanity. McAllister is captivating with his variety of... Read More

Raphael Corkhill balances drama and sincerity in his narration of this sci-fi space opera. When socialite and mind reader Tennalhin Halkana is conscripted into an intergalactic military, he begrudgingly teams up with dutiful Surit Yeni, who has the power to control others. They fake an order to sync their minds and uncover a political struggle that threatens the stability of... Read More

Andrea Emmes narrates an allegorical techno-thriller in which a virtual reality game offers an unusual solution to the potential end of the world. Society is in the midst of a near global addiction to social media and a virtual reality game when disaster strikes. The world begins to burn--metaphorically and literally--but then everything is brought back online by a new version... Read More

Torian Brackett shines in his performance of this debut novel. He captures the narrative voice of Ethan Block, a millennial college grad with a huge amount of college debt. Determined to better humanity, Ethan works for DateDate, a start-up in San Francisco that has been bought by a huge tech corporation. Brackett imbues his performance with Ethan's inner conflict as he finds... Read More

Jesse Vilinsky narrates this debut novel. Pepper loves her adopted mothers, but she's never revealed that she discovered the identity of her biological mother, Ula. Ula is a portrait artist who has found a way to access the multiverse by painting portraits. Through self-portraits with minor differences, she has created at least nine doppelgangers in alternative realities whom... Read More

Narrator Joel de la Fuente nails the confusion that lurks at the heart of this chilling audiobook. Its setting is a world in which a quarter of the population loses the ability to sleep without any health consequences. Most cash in by working multiple jobs during their 24 hours of wakefulness. One of these fortunate Sleepless is journalist Jamie Vega, who uses some of his time... Read More

The journey begins with a grumpily drawled entry from "Thibault's Log." A moment later, listeners learn that Thibault is a cat with AI modifications. The story is told from the flippant point of view of Cooper Douglas, who makes his living through "pre-salvage," otherwise known as theft. Douglas stumbles on a mast that could take him to a new area of space--if he can get his... Read More

Narrator Suzy Jackson brings a big, bright vocal style to this sprawling comic fantasy-adventure by Seattle-based playwright/comedian Scotto Moore. Everything is bigger-than-big in the "massive" world of the future--from a 49,500-floor elevator to a planet-sized theme park and the ages of the characters. Grandma is over 600 years old. It all begins when the reclusive and... Read More

Alan Medcroft's soothing narration suits this dark retelling of BEOWULF. Yorick left Ymir two decades ago after a traumatic encounter with his brother left him without his lower jaw. When a hostile alien machine threatens Ymir's mines, his employer forces him to return and hunt it down. Medcroft's consistent leisurely pace allows listeners to savor the rich, intriguing... Read More