Audio book pubisher Audible.com‘s science fiction and fantasy imprint, Frontiers, features a Guest Editor each month, along with “Orson Scott Card Selects” and new audio titles. Non-subscribers can also get a free download from Audible at www.audible.com/scifi.
This month (until 24 July), they’re also giving away free downloads of The Disappeared, the first book in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Retrieval Artist” series, available at this link. The 9 hour, 50 minute audio book is described thus: “Retrieval artists help the lost find their way back home, whether they like it or not. Specialized private detectives, they investigate the most unusual crimes in the galaxy. But Miles Flint isn’t a Retrieval artist. He’s just a cop, trying to do his job.
“In a stolen space yacht, three people have been found eviscerated—the grisly signature of an alien vengeance killing. Moments later, the border patrol halts another ship launched out of the Moon’s orbit. Its passengers are two human children, kidnapped by the most ruthless aliens in the universe.
“Both ships are linked to a woman on the run: a Disappeared relocated to the inhospitable landscape of Mars. A reluctant outlaw with a bounty on her head and a detective on her case, she’s about to teach all of them a lesson: it’s dangerous to gamble with your life in a universe that rigs the game.”
In addition to the free book, this month’s guest editor is Robert J. Sawyer. On this page are links to his guest editorial, “Science Fiction Road Trip,” and his audio book selections, which include The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov, Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein, The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, and The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. In the editorial, he discusses why he chose each of those books as ideal for listening during a car trip.
Card’s big selection of the month is Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein, which, as usual, has an audio commentary by Card.
Their other new titles this month include: The Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J. Anderson, Territory by Emma Bull, Valiant: The Lost Fleet, Book 4 by Jack Campbell, The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton, God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert, The Acorna’s Children by Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, City by Clifford D. Simak, and Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.