Any recommendations that are on audiobooks.com?
I'm big on audiobooks and trying to move away from the Audible monopoly starting with the book "Chokepoint Capitalism" (which is about monopolies like that).
Unfortunately, the smaller library is hampered even more by the dodgy search (I just finished two books in a trilogy, why are you showing me the spanish translations of the author's other books?) and I'm struggling to fill my wishlist which has never been a problem on Audible.
So far I'm really liking Chokepoint Capitalism but looking for any suggestions once that's done. I've read a decent amount of mainstream fantasy (Stormlight archive, Wheel of Time, Robin Hobb, Tolkien), some popular scifi (Aasimov, w40k stuff, recently enjoyed "Armor" by Steakly), a lot of light nonfiction about finance, history and pop psychology ("The Big Short" or anything by Michael Lewis, "Debt: The first 5000 years", "Girt", "The man who mistook his wife for a hat") and have recently been on a big Ken Follett kick (historical fantasy?)
Any good listens that I should give a go?
PS. sorry for sounding like a shill post for audiobooks.com. I swear I'm not trying to drive clicks that's just the name of the company and recent Brandon Sanderson drama has made me aware of how much power Amazon has over the only way I consume literature nowadays
Confessions of an Economic Hitman -- Exploring the American global empire (how it came to be, how it's maintained, and the repercussions of it), as told by a former economic hitman. (From the synopsis - "EHMs are highly paid professionals who use development loans to saddle countries with huge debts and force them to serve US interests.")
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties -- A well-researched counter to the official narrative surrounding Charles Manson, written by a journalist who kept digging for twenty years rather than turn in an unfinished story. Explores corruption (both governmental and personal), culture, the propagation and acceptance of a plainly false narrative, and CIA mind control experiments. The aim of this book isn't to find out exactly what happened, but to present mountains of evidence that is counter to the official narrative, and it does a damned fine job of it.
Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control -- This one's pretty self-explanatory, but is incredibly thorough.
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire -- A look at the consequences of the American empire's foreign policy. This book originally came out shortly before 9/11, but has been updated since. It looks at the consequences of American foreign policy from around the globe, but focuses a good bit on Asia. Lots of interesting info I hadn't heard before.
If On a Winter's Night A Traveler -- Closing out with something a bit different. This is one of the best novels I've read, and I think it's best to go in without expectations so I'll shut up about it.
I've never used audiobooks.com, but was expecting to have some misses based on the smaller library. Every book I wanted to recommend was on there! (Except for, for some reason, the first book in the Dresden Files series. Fuckin awesome urban fantasy series, and it looks like most of them are on there, but not the first.)
I haven't heard the audiobook for it, but I can confirm that 'If On a Winter's Night A Traveler' is an absolutely amazing book. It has this really unique metafictional structure, but uses fantasy and noir elements to keep the writing grounded and engaging. I like a lot of Italo Calvino's other work too, but this book is my favorite of his.
I love the Dresden Files, but it's been so long since I last read one... and I can't remember which book I finished last. :( Although it's been so long that I probably forgot most of the story anyways, so maybe I should just start over. :P
p.s. The Storm Front (the first Dresden Files book) audiobook looks to be an audible exclusive. But the publisher also advertised it as being available on Overdrive/Libby too... so for anyone in the US & Canada with a library card, they can probably get it there. I just checked, and it was available to be borrowed on Libby from my local library.
Same situation here, except I know where I left off. I just don't remember so many of the details that it'd definitely be best to start over when I get around to it.
Fuckin lame.
Fuckin cool! Libby is the bomb.
Pretty much anything narrated by Stephen Fry. His voice is like warm honey. He was also close personal friends with Douglas Adams, and is a huge history, technology, and literary nerd, so the books he has narrated are usually right up my alley.
It looks like audiobooks.com has Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and Last Argument of Kings) on there! I'm not sure that it's everyone's cup of tea, but I would highly recommend all three audiobooks if you fancy a gritty fantasy series that doesn't shy away from violence and shades-of-gray morality. Inquisitor Glokta is my favorite character, some of his dialogue throughout the series had me cackling out loud.
I somehow missed this in the list I posted above!
I enthusiastically recommend The First Law, though you’re right that it’s not for the faint of heart. But Joe Abercrombie’s writing has such a wonderfully sardonic wit to it and Steven Pacey performs it brilliantly.
One of the few 10/10 audio experiences.
I was initially very disappointed by this thread because those books and many others aren't available in my region (Australia) but looks like a free VPN to the US is all it takes to add them to my library.
Just as well I can access the US library because they charge their subscription in US dollars and it is therefore about twice as much as I pay per Audible credit.
The Blade Itself is now downloading and I'll give it a read :)
Not a book recommendation, but if you’re finding that audiobooks.com doesn’t have the library you want, there’s also libro.fm. I’ve been using them as an Audible replacement for years now (in addition to library books from Libby) and I’m very happy with them.
I used to be a big fantasy reader. Here's a list of fantasy/scifi audiobooks I listened to and really enjoyed. I didn't check to see if all of them were available on audiobooks.com but most were:
The Girl with All the Gifts and The Boy on the Bridge (MR Carey, read by Finty Williams)
The Vorkosigan Saga (Lois McMaster Bujold, read by Grover Gardner)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke, read by Simon Prebble)
Neil Gaiman's books (especially Anansi Boys and Neverwhere)
The Dresden Files (Jim Butcher, narrated by James Marsters)
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik, read by Simon Vance) (I only read the first one, I hear the sequels aren't as good)
The Witcher (Andrej Sapkowski, read by Peter Kenny) (tbh, didn't love these, but many people do)
His Dark Materials (Phillip Pullman, read by Full Cast)
The Magicians (Lev Grossman, read by Mark Bramhall)
The Raven Cycle (Maggie Stiefvater, read by Will Patton)
I'm a big fan of Guy Gavriel Kay, who is best known for his "historical fantasy". My three favourites by Kay are:
The Lions of Al-Rassan
Under Heaven
Tigana (more fantasy than historical fantasy)
Hope you find something you like! And kudos to you for taking Sanderson's advice and looking to different audiobook providers :) I did the same a little while ago, switching to kobo audiobooks.
Also, for anyone curious about Brandon Sanderson's comments about Audible (an Amazon company) and how they mistreat authors:
Why Isn't Brandon Sanderson Releasing His New Books on Audible?
His original words can be found here:
Linking this bit of the text from your first link to show just how bad the numbers are. He's actually turned down great deals himself in order to bring attention to how bad the deal is for all the smaller authors:
The book "Chokepoint Capitalism" is "audible-exclusive - as in, audible is excluded from where you can buy it" because the author only agreed to publish it Amazon would take the DRM off and they simply won't allow even a single book without their DRM. Hearing its chapter on Amazon's book deals really showed how it's all even worse than I thought. At one point book publishers (already an anti-competitive ologopily) got together and accepted a deal with apple that gave them even LESS money per sale just to break Amazon's monopoly bargaining power, only for Amazon to turn around and successfully sue them for colluding to raise prices for consumers by doing so.
Thanks, most of these are new to me and the few that aren't I enjoyed so I'll work my way through them :)
Someone gave me the advice to just read the short stories as the fun little B movie fantasy horror flicks they are and then stop when it gets to the ongoing storylines and that was perfect for me.
You know what’s funny is that I did the exact same thing. Read The Last Wish, read Sword of Destiny, and I was like, “Yep, that’s enough for me.”
They were fun little pieces but I couldn’t get into Szapkowski’s writing style, possibly because of the translation. They were a great intro to the first season of the tv show, though (although the show is a whole other can of worms).
Big +1 to the Vorkosigan Saga, those books fucking rule.
The Curse of Chalion is another Bujold banger. There are other books in the same world, and they're good, but Curse is a complete story on its own and one of my absolute favorite fantasy novels.
I finished the books last year—I miss Miles and company :(
Have you read the Penric novellas? I haven’t but I’ve been thinking about giving them a try. I don’t have as much energy to read as I used to so I thought they might be a good way to read some more bite-sized stories from Bujold.
I have. They're in the same world as Curse of Chalion. They're worth reading. The protagonists are likeable. They're mostly set up as little supernatural mysteries.
They don't have the panache of Miles & co, but really who does? As it is, they make for lovely light reading.
They have the whole "Dream Park" series by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, which is basically a sci-fi series based on Dungeons and Dragons styled role playing, but in a futuristic theme park that uses holograms to make the LARPing real. Fantastic listens. Grover Gardener is the reader, and he's great, too.
Beyond audiobooks.com there’s also chirpbooks.com. They have sales and offer a good selection of audiobooks.
Anthony Ryan’s Raven’s Shadow series (narrated by Steven Brand). Fantasy.
My brothers highly recommend anything by Brent Weeks. I haven’t read them, but the way my brothers devour them they must be good because my brothers are very picky readers.
The Last Bookshop in London and The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin. WW2 historical fiction.