Listen to New Releases Audiobooks in Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

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Title: Open the Door

Subtitle: Celtic Stories and Songs

Author: Jennifer Armstrong

Narrator: Jennifer Armstrong

Format: Original Recording

Length: 1 hr and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 09-24-04

Publisher: Yellow Moon Press

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Open the Door is a collection of four stories and three songs of traditional Celtic origin told and sung by Jennifer Armstrong. Her powerful performances include a startling rendition of W. B. Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", the title song "Open the Door", and a melding of African and Scottish tales in "The Marriage Basket". Be you child or adult, listening for yourself or with a partner, Open The Door will lead you on an exploration of love for family, one's self, and the natural world.

© and (P)2000 Yellow Moon Press

Members Reviews:

A delightful surprise!

I loved the way Jennifer Armstrong narrates this book. It was like to listen to the echoes of my childhood.

Perfection!!

I Loved it! Great stories, marvelous narration and really beautiful singing! A complete Must Have!

Good performance, great retellings

Sweet and simple but packed with pathos and meaning. Audiobook includes several irish folk songs.

Recommend for children of all ages.

Beautiful shorts

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, Many of my friends would enjoy these stories and music.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Actually my favorite part was the music coinciding with the story.

Which character as performed by Jennifer Armstrong was your favorite?

All

If you could take any character from Open the Door out to dinner, who would it be and why?

The fairy mother.

Any additional comments?

A beautiful combination of story telling and music. I highly recommend this short.

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Title: Martin Hewitt, Investigator

Author: Arthur Morrison

Narrator: Walter Covell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-31-04

Publisher: Jimcin Recordings

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 33 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

These six adventures of Sherlock Holmes' greatest rival will keep you guessing and listening.

©1981 Jimcin Recordings

Editorial Reviews:

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will feel an immediate kinship with Arthur Morrison's Martin Hewitt, another literary private investigator who charmed audiences after Holmes met his untimely death. In this series of cases, voice actor Walter Covell performs Hewitt with a genteel conviviality, making it all the more appealing as he unravels mysteries using clever theories and common sense. Hewitt's brilliance often feels planned, as his hysterical clients and some well-orchestrated "a-ha" moments leave little room but for him to be a hero - and yet, he remains a classic figure in turn-of-the-century mystery fiction.

Critic Reviews:

"Martin Hewitt is a genial Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant private detective who uses logic, minute observation, and then imagination and common sense to solve an odd assortment of perplexing crimes in 19th century England. His clients tend to be nervous types who overreact to crises, thus allowing Hewitt to be the calming, soothing presence. Even without sound effects this presentation is excellent as Covell narrates in a superb dramatic style, with multiple vocal characterizations. This collection of notably read stories will be enjoyable fare for many." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

For Holmes & Father Brown Fans

If you enjoy the Father Brown or Sherlock Holmes style of detective fiction - the detective notices small, everyday details that others miss and pieces together the answer to the puzzle - you'll enjoy the Martin Hewitt stories. They're interesting puzzles, and I'd like more of them.

What prevented a 5 star rating was the narrator. He had a nice voice and he was able to distinguish between characters very well. However his delivery was sometimes very halting - as if he was reading something he'd never seen before and he was having to think out how to say something before the words came out of his mouth. It was distracting.

Still, they're worth a listen!

Great Listen

As with all collections I've read or listened to, some stories are better than others. This group has two that are outstanding, two that are fair. The rest are very good. I strongly recommend this to anyone who loves classic detective fiction.

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Title: The Best of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 2002

Author: Robert Silverberg, James Patrick Kelly, Ian Watson, Gregory Benford

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki, Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-17-03

Publisher: Dell Magazines

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 70 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Gregory Benford, an undisputed master of "hard" science fiction, provides the opening story, "The Clear Blue Seas of Luna," examining some of the technical and political implications of terraforming the moon.

Ian Watson, most recently notable as the writer of the screenplay for Stephen Spielberg's AI, depicts an ocean world covered in wood, where ships sail in search of leaves, and fortunes are to be made and lost. Watch for a new twist on the AI theme in Watson's "Speaker for the Woodland Sea."

James Patrick Kelly's hip prose and state of the art storytelling are well represented by "Candy Art," a romantic sitcom about what happens when your deceased parents move in with you and your boyfriend.

Finally, "With Caesar in the Underworld" is Robert Silverberg's latest installment in his alternate history of the Roman Empire, the underworld in question being the vast bazaar of questionable products and services literally under the streets of the eternal city.

Members Reviews:

Mislabeled but good

I'd give this collection 5 stars for the stories since I love science fiction short stories, but the collection is mislabeled. The Best of Asimov's should have way more than 4 stories. The leading Hartwell & Dozois annual best of anthologies have 20+ stories, many of which appeared first in Asimov's. For this grand title of best of 2002, I'd say we deserved at least 10 stories, 12 would probably be truly representative since every year Asimov's has many stories nominated for numerous awards and the collection should contain those stories.

But to be balanced this collection is priced the same as the bi-monthly F&SF magazine Audible publishes and this volume has more than an hour more of content, which makes it more of a bargain.

Most importantly, the stories we do get are outstanding.

Jim

Not the best sci-fi I've read

The four stories are highly variable in quality.

I didn't care at all for the first story, "The Clear Blue Seas of Luna." It's written in an extremely abstract manner, almost stream of consciousness. The plot is hard to follow, and fails to excite. I suspect that this story may be part of a larger body of work, but as it is presented in isolation it is simply confusing.

The second story, "Speaker for the Woodland Sea" is interesting, but doesn't really go anywhere with the plot. It's a beautifully designed, interesting world, but it doesn't really have a plot. It's just a random assortment of events.

"Candy Art" is fun and funny. My only complaint is that it falls short of delivering a solid conclusion.

"With Caeser in the Underworld" is also thoroughly enjoyable, but ultimately pointless. It left me with a number of unanswered questions, wondering if there was some foreshadowing that I was supposed to notice.

All of the narrators are excellent. They speak clearly, and at a good pace.

Ultimately, it's a good way to waste a few hours, but it is not suitable if it is to be one's first or only exposure to sci-fi short stories.

Expecting much, got little.

Since the title says "The Best of..." I was expecting the best, but was very disappointed.

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Title: How We Lost the Moon, A True Story by Frank W. Allen

Author: Paul J. McAuley

Narrator: Kerin McCue

Format: Unabridged

Length: 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-30-00

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 69 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

"On the busy, bustling, colonized future Moon, McAuley reminds us that although everyone makes mistakes, some mistakes have far greater consequences than others..." So writes Gardner Dozois, editor of the Seventeenth Annual Collection of The Year's Best Science Fiction, in an introduction to Paul J. McAuley's How We Lost the Moon. McAuley is widely considered among the best of the new breed of British writers of what is known as "radical hard science fiction." He is the winner of numerous science fiction writing awards, including the Philip K. Dick Award for his first novel, Four Hundred Billion Stars, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the John W. Campbell Award in 1996 for his novel Fairyland. This unabridged reading of How We Lost the Moon is available in audio exclusively from audible.com.

Executive Producer: Laura Wilson

Produced by Paul Ruben

©1999 by Stephen Baxter

(P)2000 Random House, Inc.

Members Reviews:

Clever short story with a memorable hook

I didn't know what I was getting into when I downloaded this, but I ended up with an entertaining 40 minutes of sci-fi for a cheap price. The idea behind how the moon is destroyed is spooky and catchy. This is a nicely executed short story that feels a bit like a fun TWILIGHT ZONE.

Interesting concept, but awkward narration

It was an interesting short science fiction story, and appropriately priced for such a snippet of an audiobook. The story was interesting and fairly hard sci-fi, but lacked any sort of real conflict or hook - no drama, no action, just a sort of bored resignation with some side comments mentioning that other people were upset at the loss of the moon.

What really disappointed me about this audiobook was the narration - I had to keep checking the publishing date to make sure I wasn't getting a story from the 50s. It just didn't match up, the hard modern science fiction and near-future technology with the hokey, small-town, old-fashioned narration.

Still, all in all it was an interesting story, and worth at least the three dollars and half an hour of your time.

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Title: The World of Saki

Author: Saki (H.H. Munro)

Narrator: Alexander Spencer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-99

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

This volume collects 16 stories from the master of wit and wisdom, Saki, who displayed an incomparable agility with delicate, humorous, stylistic prose. Included here are: "Esmé," about a hyena that adopts 2 British women, "Tobermory," featuring a talking cat, and "Sredni Vashtar," concerning demon worship, as well as "The Easter Egg," "Mrs. Packeltide's Tiger," "The Byzantine Omelette," and many more.

(P)1983 by Recorded Books, Inc.

Editorial Reviews:

Veddy British narrator Alexander Spencer expertly reproduces the deliberate pace of the wise and wonderful Saki. His enunciation is spot-on, and he is most effective when letting Sakis gorgeously turned words and phrases sink into the listeners consciousness. Spencer draws on his vast experience behind the microphone and transmits his joy in rendering these gems through his finely tuned vocal instrument. Theres no question that he is enjoying himself, and listeners are sure to relish this collection as much as their guide does.

Critic Reviews:

"There is no greater compliment to be paid the right kind of friend than to hand him Saki, without comment....Delicate, airy, lucid, precise, with the inconspicuous agility of perfect style, he can pass into the uncanny, the tragic, into mocking fairy-tales grimmer than Grimm." (Christopher Morley)

Members Reviews:

Worst.Sound. Ever.

I LOVE Saki's dry humor,wry social observations,and brilliant twists...but this is the first Audible purchase I've ever made that was just unlistenable. It sounds like it was recorded with tin cans in the Holland Tunnel at rush hour. Do NOT buy.In fact,I'd like a refund!

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Title: Melville

Subtitle: Six Short Novels

Author: Herman Melville

Narrator: Dan Lazar

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-99

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

These six short novels show Melville's cleverness and wit as well as his understanding of both the comic and tragic in everyday life. The collection begins with "Bartleby the Scrivener", in which Bartleby, a clerk in a law firm, suddenly starts answering all requests with "I would prefer not to", and mayhem naturally results. It is followed by "Billy Budd", about an angelic, innocent sailor who is punished unjustly. Also included are "The Apple Tree Table", "The Piazza", "I and My Chimney", and "The Happy Failure".

Members Reviews:

Great Fiction, Poor Audio

These long stories are all worth listening to. Unfortunately, the audio quality varies. In the case of one story, it's incomprehensible.

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Title: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrator: Alexander Spencer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-99

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 55 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Here are nine of Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous Sherlock Holmes stories, tales that showcase the talents of literature's most famous sleuth. This thrilling anthology includes such favorites as "Silver Blaze", in which a prize racehorse disappears; "Yellow Face", where Holmes confesses to a rare error; and "The Musgrave Ritual", one of his most famous cases. The collection concludes with the poignant, historic "The Final Problem", as Dr. Watson recalls Holmes's tragic death at the hands of Professor Moriarty. These unforgettable stories are landmarks in the detective genre, making clear why Holmes's deductive reasoning, friendship with Watson, and exciting adventures have continued to attract fans for generations.

Editorial Reviews:

In a smooth, calm, British accent, Alexander Spencer gives actual voice to the beloved Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmess faithful assistant and narrator of most of Holmess crime-fighting adventures. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is an 1894 collection of stories about the great detective and features such favorites as "Silver Blaze" and "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual". Particularly notable is "The Final Problem", set at the spectacular Reichenbach Falls in Meiringen, Switzerland, where Holmes is pitted against the brilliant and evil Professor Moriarty, and which Doyle considered to be one of his finest efforts. The listener is invited to dim the lights and test her powers of deduction.

Members Reviews:

Classic tales of the most famous detective

I enjoyed these short stories of Holmes's deductive sleuthing very much. This unabridged collection presents about 12-15 stories in all, read by two narrators with classic British accents.

The memoirs are told through the voice of Watson, Holmes's accomplice and closest friend. We hear stories from each part of their acquaintance -- how they met, their adventures over the years, and the sad story of how their friendship came to an end, all recounted through narrations of the cases they worked together.

At times, I found I needed to rewind the story to pick up a turns of phras that has fallen out of use in this century or is not commonly used here in the US.

I found I really enjoyed this listen for two reasons:

- I found the late 19th century english writing style to be quite an interesting and welcome departure from modern North American english

- I found myself at times trying to out-Sherlock Holmes and failing repeatedly, and just like Watson, finding it amazing how easily the facts fall together when viewed from Watson's perspective. Some of this is accomplished through the narrative device of only telling the story from Watson's perspective, but nevertheless, the majority of the facts of the case are there in plain view. You find yourself amazed again and again at how cunning Holmes's character is.

A few caveats for those that are unfamiliar with Doyle's style and only have the movies or television to refer to when considering Sherlock Holmes:

- A few of the stories are slow paced and dialog makes up a substantial fraction of most stories.

- Not for people with little patience for foreign accents -- the entire read is in proper British english

- This is NOT an action or adventure story and lacks the suspense of modern detective novels.

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Title: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrator: David Timson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-22-13

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

This is a story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes III collection.

In this collection are four more individual cases for Mr. Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr. Watson. They dive into the opium dens of London in "The Man with the Twisted Lip," recall the curious history of "The Musgrave Ritual," come face to face with the grisly evidence contained in "The Cardboard Box," and go on a wild-goose chase in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle." The powers of Sherlock Holmes prevail.

Editorial Reviews:

David Timsons self-assured, compelling performance infuses Sherlock Holmes with an unmistakable confidence and infectious astuteness in Sir Arthur Conan Doyles 1892 mystery that finds Englands most celebrated gumshoe investigating the circumstances surrounding the discovery of a Countess stolen jewel, the titular carbuncle, in the most unusual of places: inside of a Christmas goose.

From the reserved cool of his portrayal of Holmes to the quivering desperation he lends to the apprehended villain as he begs for mercy, Thimsons pitch-perfect delivery makes this a must-listen for fans of detective fiction.

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Title: Ghost Writer

Author: Val McDermid

Narrator: Val McDermid

Format: Unabridged

Length: 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-07-13

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Gavin is an excellent writer; he can conjure up believable characters, evoke a credible setting and wrap the reader up in his language, but he can never seem to come up with a credible plot.

On meeting Natasha at a creative writing group he thinks he has met his soulmate. Not only is she attractive, her plots are amazing. Combining their skills seems like the obvious route, and their stories become internet sensations. But when tragedy strikes, will the stories survive?

Members Reviews:

Val reads her own story!

This is short but totally worth it as it is read by the author. She has a great voice anyway and can even do accents! The story is pithy and a bit ouch.

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Title: Death's Too Short

Author: Lyle Perez-Tinics

Narrator: Nick Podehl

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-19-15

Publisher: Rainstorm Press

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Death's Too Short is a collection of nine terrifying zombie tales written by Lyle Perez-Tinics , author of The Undead That Saved Christmas and Dement.

Step into a world that has been overrun by the living dead with Death's Too Short.

Members Reviews:

LIKED IT FROM BEGINNING TO END!!!!

If you could sum up Death's Too Short in three words, what would they be?

Really Great Stories!!!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Death's Too Short?

All the stories were super good...but the ending one was kinda gross...lol

What about Nick Podehls performance did you like?

He was pitch perfect all the way through..I really enjoyed his performance!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Not really a film kinda book..maybe a tv show!?

Any additional comments?

** I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review **

This was a really interesting, and quite entertaining book of short little zombie tales that were fun to listen to! The writing was really good, and the narration was excellent...I didn't want to stop listening because of both....I completely recommend!!!

Walking dead style fun!

What did you love best about Death's Too Short?

I thought the narrator made these stories.

What does Nick Podehl bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

Very professional sounding narration. He wasn't shy at all when it came to living the characters. Great vocal acting.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I liked listening to the individual stories in one sitting.

Any additional comments?

I received this audiobook free from the author in exchange for an unbiased review. Love to hear more from both author and narrator.

Not your everyday Zombie Anthology

Would you try another book from Lyle Perez-Tinics and/or Nick Podehl?

Definitely

Would you recommend Death's Too Short to your friends? Why or why not?

Oh totally, it was a good run of stories.

What does Nick Podehl bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

Narration is always better than trying to read and drive

Could you see Death's Too Short being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Much of the cast of Walking dead could totally re-enact this