New Reviews: Fantasy

Mary Robinette Kowal narrates a powerful rumination on the aftermath of war in this third installment of the Amberlough Dossier series. How do you determine guilt or innocence when no one is truly blameless but a reckoning is still owed? Five years have passed since Amberlough City fell to the One State Party and was subsequently liberated by a group of... Read More

Elmira Rahim narrates a story about the exceptional power of friendship, love, and faith, set during the turbulent period of the Spanish Inquisition. As the inevitable fall of Granada looms, Fatima and Hassan, a royal concubine and the palace mapmaker, flee in an attempt to save themselves from the clutches of the Inquisition. While there are some slight pacing issues, Rahim... Read More

Narrator Colin Mace is perfectly cast to portray Ryhalt Galharrow and his frightening dystopian world of magic and mayhem. He's a bitter mercenary fighting for the good guys in a world on the brink of destruction. Compressing the transitions sometimes gets in the way of Mace's otherwise excellent pacing. But he employs enough voice differentiation to make it clear who is... Read More

Narrator January LaVoy has a feisty protagonist in this alternate history, which postulates that the Berlin Wall was created overnight--by magic. Now it has been breached and is in danger of falling down. Karen, a young magician, is sent to Germany to assist the CIA in finding out what is going on. LaVoy re-creates the atmosphere of contempt that many women faced in the 1960s... Read More

Narrator Derek Perkins is a master at delivering the world-building in this first installment of a new fantasy trilogy. An engaging storyteller, he assists the listener in differentiating the threads of the plot before they come together. The gods have abandoned this world, leaving it to warring factions. But when magic reappears in the form of a young girl, they become... Read More

Narrator Mandy Williams has many different characters to master in this new fantasy series, Lord of the Islands. Principal among them is Katarina, who is denied her legacy as heir to the throne at 16 because of her gender and forced to marry. But soon after, she murders her husband--and begins her campaign to win the throne. Williams also delivers three subplots in which male... Read More

Narrator Susannah Jones flawlessly delivers the variety of accents and meticulous vocal nuances that are part of this paranormal noir. Skeptic Lionel Page has spent his career as a reporter debunking supposedly supernatural scams that are meant to prey on the desperate and unfortunate. His background makes him the perfect man for the job of verifying a lost Edgar Allan Poe... Read More

In this follow-up to Clark's DEAD DJINN IN CAIRO, narrator Julian Thomas's smooth, resonant baritone immerses listeners in a steampunk version of Cairo, circa 1912. When Agent Hamed Nasr of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities is dispatched to investigate a supposedly haunted tram car, he and his young partner, Agent Onsi, soon find themselves... Read More

Narrator Alex Wyndham leads the listener through a plot that provides many points of view but not a clear idea of who the good guys are. Dunne's debut in the genre of fantasy is the start of a trilogy about gods who are the parents of twins who were exiled many years earlier. Wyndham delivers a narration that maintains a sense of ambiguity about the story's heroes and which of... Read More

Yetide Badaki delivers a heartfelt, mystical narration of adventurous short stories by the award-winning Nigerian-American author, Nnedi Okorafor. The listeners are transported into each story. They are on bustling Chicago streets magically taxiing their way to another continent or playing music for a large zombie spider. The listeners are constantly on a ride, playing between... Read More

In this audiobook, entertainment impresario P.T. Barnum discovers a mermaid and won't rest until he manages to exploit her. But he meets his match in Amelia. Narrator Cassandra Campbell weaves an air of mystery and vulnerability around Amelia that is tempered by an understanding of people and how they operate. Campbell portrays Barnum as ruthless in his pursuit of attractions... Read More

Amber Benson's compelling narration brings to life a world in which numbers and words are more than they seem, alchemy is real, and time is not a constant. Seanan McGuire's fantasy is a complex and intricately told story of siblings who come together through pain and longing to save each other and the world--if they don't destroy it first. Benson's portrayals of Roger and... Read More

Narrator Amin El Gamal gives each character a different accent and timbre in this fantasy. The story is set in Ghadid, a desert country where water is so precious that it serves as currency. At the story's heart is Amastan, who has just finished his training as an assassin in the Basbowen clan. But the soft-spoken youth is more content in his other job as a scribe. When a drum... Read More

Narrator Simon Prebble treats listeners to a fun pulpy ride through this fifth entry in George Mann's steampunk detective series. In 1902, Veronica Hobbes, sidekick to Gentleman Investigator for the Crown Sir Maurice Newbury, aids London police in the investigation of a diseased-ridden corpse. In 1903, Veronica is deathly ill, and Newbury boards a train bound for St. Petersburg... Read More

A trio of talented narrators tackles the first book in a new fantasy series centered on a man who is destined to destroy an empire. The novel is framed as a story within a story in which Kihrin, portrayed by Vikas Adam, tells his tale to his female captor, a shape-shifting and deadly assassin, portrayed by Soneela Nankani, as she recounts the events leading up to his capture. A... Read More

Narrator Bahni Turpin weaves a tapestry of accents and experiences in this layered fantasy. The birth and burial of a slave's stillborn child on the island now known as Haiti unleashes the power of the goddess Ezili into the lives of women stretching across centuries. Turpin's gifts as a narrator make this rich concept sing as she shifts seamlessly among accents and tones... Read More

Samantha Hunt narrates her own novel featuring a nameless narrator who descends into madness. The story is told from the perspective of a 19-year-old woman who lives in a fishing town rife with alcoholism and biting cold, known only as "up north." Hunt pours herself into the narration. The protagonist pours her heart out as she tells listeners all her wants and desires. She... Read More

Jacqueline Carey's writing flows so beautifully that her stories beg to be experienced on audio. Carey has many fans from her popular Kushiel series. This exotic coming-of-age story is filled with unique settings, diverse characters, and plenty of lore. Narrator Caitlin Davies's youthful voice adds to the authenticity of the main character, Khai, and helps ground the listener... Read More

Beginning with a rousing introduction, C.S.E. Cooney offers an enthusiastic narration of Walton's first collection of short fiction and poetry. All told, there are 20 stories, a one-act play, and 15 poems, many of which are populated by memorable characters and marked by sly humor. The challenge for the narrator of a collection like this is allowing for each piece to have a... Read More

In the second novel in the Sorcerer Royal series, listeners follow sisters Muna and Sakti on a turbulent journey after they wake on the sands of a distant beach, their memories lost. Jenny Sterlin narrates their mysterious tale as they make their way to a land of royals and magic to rediscover their past--and what lies ahead in their uncertain future. Smoothly recounting the... Read More

Narrator Gabra Zackman engages with this weird, grim novel, a combination of fantasy and mystery. In 1928, the displaced survivors of a seaside community are sent by the U.S. government to live in the desert. Later, the story involves the siblings' visits to relatives who live under the sea, flashbacks to life in the desert camp, accidental magic, and even early Cold War... Read More

Narrators Edoardo Ballerini and Amanda Leigh Cobb alternate first- person chapters in this apocalyptic sci-fi audiobook in which Earth is freezing and the threat is coming from the stars. A team of scientists is launched into space to try to stop the threat and rescue a stranded astronaut. Ballerini and Cobb deftly portray a large cast of characters with diverse... Read More