New Reviews: Science Fiction

Sura Siu's and Emily Tremaine's alternating narrations plunge listeners into the events surrounding a government-sanctioned human-extinction event. Siu's performance shifts in tone and cadence as the AI called "Storyworker" tells the story of Sen, a teenage "Witness" to the end of humankind. The initially straightforward account merges with journals and surveillance footage of... Read More

Kerr Lordygan narrates a fascinating science fiction tale in which a world hidden for centuries is forced to confront a conquering force. The Hidden Realm of Angolin follows a strict rule of self-imposed isolation until an enemy stirs across the Abyss. Dharmen Tate is a patriot who is struggling with loyalty after discovering a plot to betray Angolin. Lordygan plays with... Read More

Torian Brackett ably portrays the members of a colorful spaceship crew in this debut adventure tale, the first of a planned series. Jal, a wary, emotionally wounded ranger, ends up aboard the Ambit, a rattletrap spaceship, with Saint, a quick-tempered XO; Nash, a sarcastic engineer/medic; and Eoan, a holographic ship-AI who loves humans. Responding to a distress call from a... Read More

Ben Arogundade does a fine job performing this collection of science-fiction short stories set in Africa. His steady voice helps listeners through the unfamiliar terrain of places and things, though there is no "coming together" of these stories as the title suggests. Each is set in its own reality. Most intriguing is "Saturday's Song," an African folktale of seven godlike... Read More

With an easy conversational style, Hollywood stalwart Brendan Fraser leads an A-list crew of fellow Canadian actors in this audiobook. At a time in the future a group of astronauts and a group of hardened criminals are placed in a cryogenic state before their minds are uploaded to a massive quantum supercomputer. Suddenly, it's 500 years later, and the collection of misfits... Read More

Anastacia-Reneé is "out of this world" in this collection of poetry, flash fiction, and Afrofuturistic sci-fi. Her works focus on time-warping, place and family, and alternative ways of thinking. Her bold voice is rhythmic and slow, punching in a soft, poignant way. The narration starts at the beginning with Lucille, mother of humanity. From there, Anastacia-Reneé takes... Read More

Catherine Ho is an excellent storyteller for this first installment in the Folding Universe series. Set in 2080, this space thriller is steeped in Chinese philosophy. Archaeologist Yun Fan, military researcher Qi Fei, and astronomer Jiang Liu realize an alien race is returning to Earth. The trio join forces to meet the aliens in space before the organized governments of Earth... Read More

A full cast delivers an original drama from the Hellboy universe. Cynthia, an earnest reporter, investigates the disappearances of several New York elites in 1933. She calls upon the mysterious Lobster to help, but he's on his own case involving break-ins at research labs. Marni Penning shines as the narrator and the character Cynthia, imbuing the noir story with a fun sense of... Read More

Listeners will find it hard to pause this sci-fi political thriller--and unlikely love story. January is a climate refugee who has relocated to a colony on Mars. In London, he was a professional ballet dancer; on Mars, because he's dangerously "Earthstrong" in the lower gravity, he must wear a metal exoskeleton that inhibits his strength. With his British accent and confiding... Read More

The final installment in the Patternist series is actually the author's first novel, originally published in 1976. Robin Miles narrates the series. In the distant future, the world has evolved such that the Patternists are now the dominant culture. They use their telepathic powers to rule and enslave "lesser" beings. Two brothers, Coransee and Teray, vie to become the... Read More

Angel Pean sounds young, sweet, and tough as nails in her impressive narration of this second novel by the author of the Earphones Award-winning sci-fi debut THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS. Set on an alternate, perhaps future, Earth, where Wiley City residents guard their walled community from gritty Ashtown, this is both a thriller and social commentary. Scales is a mechanic and... Read More

This new production of the Chinese sci-fi epic may be Rosalind Chao's first turn as an audiobook narrator, but you'd never know it. The veteran actor navigates long stretches of speculative physics and descriptions of shocking violence as ably as she voices colloquies among the characters. Listeners who come to the work from the Netflix adaptation will find Chao's warm,... Read More

Gabrielle de Cuir and Stefan Rudnicki expressively give voice to a range of characters in this speculative novella about the environment and the nature of consciousness. In the near future, when elephants have been poached to extinction, Russian scientists have resurrected a herd of mammoths. To teach them how to be wild, their matriarch has been imbued with the consciousness... Read More