Simply The Best Audiobooks in Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary Popular Titles

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Falling Astronauts

Author: Barry N. Malzberg

Narrator: Mark Ashby

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The space program has finally lost its novelty, and a jaded public hardly notices another moon launch. Skilful PR men preserve the illusion that the missions have become routine. But astronaut Richard Martin can tell a different story. Of panic in deep space, of crewmen pushed beyond breaking point, of official indifference towards his own shattered life. Martin is effectively put under wraps - until the pilot of a moon capsule, loaded with nuclear weaponry goes berserk and a nightmare develops, threatening to engulf the world - a nightmare that only Martin could end.

Members Reviews:

The first in Malzberg's Astronaut themed Trilogy.....

The Falling Astronauts (1971) (from now on FA) is the first in Barry N. Malzbergâs thematic trilogy on the American space program. Although not as engaging or experimental as the other two masterpieces in the sequence â Beyond Apollo (1972) and Revelations (1972), FA is highly readable and a notable work in Malzbergâs extensive corpus. FA attempts to debunk the so-called cult (in part propagated by the media) of the astronaut (and his ideal family) and in so doing questions the ultimate purpose of the space program.

Brief Plot Summary/Analysis

The preface of the World Book Encyclopedia Science Service publication The United States Astronauts and their Families: A Pictorial Presentation (1965) neatly encapsulates the publicâs idealistic conception of the astronautâs work and personal life: âManâs reach for the world of space is born of his insatiable curiosity about the unknownâ his indomitable drive for accomplishmentâ his instinctive response to a challenge. Astronauts-Husbands-Fathers: these men are the men featured here but itâs essentially as family men that we portray themâ (i). In the pictorial the message is clear: the astronaut not only has the perfect American family replete with intelligent children, happy wives who facilitate their greatness, speed boats and fast cars, but his job embodies an âinsatiable curiosity about the unknown.â

However, in Malzbergâs searing vision the space program makes machines out of naive young men seduced by the idealistic message of scientific exploration, creates unstable individuals who can (and do) have mental breakdowns, and utterly wrecks their personal lives.

The first scenes in FA concisely introduce Malzbergâs central themes. First, the mechanization of man resulting from an increasingly technological ageâ In the first scene Richard Martin, our disgraced astronaut, experiences sexual relations with his wife (who may or may not be asleep) as, literally, a mechanical act: âDOCKING MANEUVER: He feeds himself into her slowly [...]â (7).

In the second scene, Malzberg tackles the media propagated/agency advocated conception of the astronaut as the idealized archetype of the family man, the explorer, the American heroâ

âHe is not The Astronaut. This depersonalization must cease; he must heed the advice of the psychiatrists and keep his âname.â his âidentityâ in front of him at all times. âThe Astronautâ came later; it was only a function. His name is Richard Martin. âRichard Martin.â In the bed he says it once, quietlyâ (9).

The narrative concerns Richard Martinâs recovery from a crisis while he was in command of the orbiting module on one of the Apollo missions to the moon.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Rise of the Robolawyers

Subtitle: Adventures of Powerhouse, Book 2

Author: Adam Graham, Andrea Graham

Narrator: Scot Wilcox

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-27-13

Publisher: Adam E. Graham

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

As Powerhouse, Dave Johnson has defeated intergalactic zookeepers and terrorists bent on igniting a nuclear war, but his gravest threat yet is legal annihlation. The cynical Dorado Industries CEO Mitch Farrow hires an attorney to file frivolous lawsuits against him.

Powerhouse's wife, Naomi, protects him by incorporating and issuing policies that keep him out of court but reduce him to being a one-man neighborhood watch. Meanwhile she searches desperately for an insurance company willing to give him a liability policy.

The Johnsons' chef, the superpowered alien Zolgron, vows to rid Earth of its greatest plague: lawyers. He re-creates his planet's robotic lawyers but sells the designs to Dorado Incorporated, unwittingly giving them the technology they need to destroy Powerhouse.

Rise of the Robolawyers features thrills, mystery, and comedy aplenty. Also meet the World War II superhero Major Speed as villains teleport him into 2012 in this exciting second installment of the Adventures of Powerhouse novellas.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Tongues

Author: Brian Rappatta

Narrator: Steven Barnett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-25-13

Publisher: Brian Rappatta

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Dr. Seamus Martinez is one of the galaxy's foremost experts in xenolinguistics - the study of extraterrestrial languages. He knows very well that in contact situations with aliens, the words you choose are of vital importance, and can have disastrous consequences. In fact, he's been sentenced to jail because of it.

He gets a shot at redemption when he is called upon to code-crack an alien religious language. He soon discovers, however, that deciphering languages is easy... it's navigating an alien species' entire belief system that's hard.

Members Reviews:

awesome!

This story was very interesting! I couldn't stop reading and didn't want it to end. Sci-fi is not really my genre, but after reading this, I will definitely check out other works by Brian Rappatta! Thanks!

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Aquila and the Sphinx

Subtitle: The Aquiliad, Book 3

Author: S. P. Somtow

Narrator: Andy Caploe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-20-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Equus Insanus, son of Aquila, has been missing for three years on his quest to bring the vile Time Criminal to justice. His Roman half brother, Lucius, nephew to Caesar, fears him dead - until he begins receiving strange messages from the lost Lacoti warrior.

Then Lucius learns that Equus has been captured by the Time Criminal, who plans to use him as the instrument which will destroy their world. Discovering that the secret to Equuss salvation may lie in the pyramids of Giza and in the riddle of the Sphynx, Aquila and Lucius set out for Egypt. They have no idea that the answers they find will lead them across the entire Roman Empire, through space, and ultimately through time itself - for the final confrontation with the Time Criminal and the battle for a mans soul!

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Sentinel Stars

Author: Louis Charbonneau

Narrator: Mike Vendetti

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-18-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Rigid! Locked! Enslaved!: That was our Earth in 2200. East and West had merged at last, so there were no more wars, no more political differences.

Citizens everywhere could concentrate on working off their TAX DEBTS! If you were capable and industrious, you might be able to make freeman status for the last few years of your life.

No one questioned. No one spoke out. No one rebelled until one bright morning Citizen TRH-247 decided not to go to work - and worse than that, became desirous of a girl below his own classification!

Thus he made himself an outcast with the whole world against him and mere survival dependent on his wits, his daring, his strength.

The Sentinel Stars - a novel of our world run as the Bureau of Internal Revenue would run it!

Members Reviews:

Out of print, it is still good!

This is a story of a utopian society that has gone bad in a very unique way. It is a stretch: however, there is a slight influece of George Orwell's "Animal Farm". The book I received was old. It replaces one that was lost years ago. I am glad I found it! Thumbs up Amazon!

Rigid! Locked!! Enslaved!!!

I read this book in 1979 when I was a teen and enjoyed it tremendously. After 32 years I have ordered it to re-read. It has just arrived and I will read it again and update this post.

No stars acting as sentinels were witnessed in this novel

First off, the title doesn't really have anything to do with the story; the stars do not act as sentinels, so I'm not sure why it was chosen. The title seems to imply that the story involves space in some way, and it doesn't. Ok, the title is deceptive, what is it really about? The background to the story is that everyone is given a tax debt on the day of their birth, and they have to work it off. Once they have worked off their debt, they are sent to Freeman preserves, where they have total freedom, and can do anything they desire.

It turns out that the hero, HTR-137 (yes, that old standard of giving numbers instead of names in a dystopia-type of story is used here) one day decides not to go to work, for reasons that he can't articulate. When he is playing hooky, he comes across a woman whom he falls in love with instantly. HTR-137 cheats on his attended (fiance), but is caught that very day. The psychologist who interrogates him decides that HTR just needs to see what he is working towards in order to get better, and so sends him on a one day jaunt to one of the preserves.

This is where the story took a turn that I didn't expect; once it became apparent that this story wasn't a space opera, but an exploration of a dystopia, I thought it would be somewhat like '1984', where the hero rebels against, and maybe takes down, the evil government. Instead, the rest of the novel takes place in the preserve, when HTR-137 is trapped there, and cannot escape. It turns out that HTR-137 isn't just unsuited for the outside world, he also isn't suited to total freedom either, and the novel shows the dissipation and ennui that results to people who can have anything they want whenever they want it.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Corpus Earthling

Author: Louis Charbonneau

Narrator: Paul Heitsch

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-18-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Madness on his mind...

Paul Cameron heard voices. There were two of them. They were whispering to each other in the bones of his skull, wearily, interminably, making monstrous plans to conquer the Earth....

Cameron was an educated man, an English professor at a leading university. Was he going insane? Or was he really tuned in somehow on the telepathic conversations of a recon patrol for a terrible Martian invasion?

He tried warning the others, but nobody believed him.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Ymir Forgotten

Author: Nathan Meyer

Narrator: Eric Vincent

Format: Unabridged

Length: 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-13-13

Publisher: Nathan E Meyer

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

On a far distant planet, a futuristic mercenary warrior faces a supernatural threat from Earth's distant past. Luthor, a corporation champion, combat specialist, and mental savant, possesses the ability to transfer his conscious across endless space. On an outlaying world, a fortune worth killing for waits for the company strong enough to take it. The battlefield is only the beginning of horrors on the remote planet and by the end, Luthor fights a combat beyond his ability to comprehend.

Members Reviews:

good read

What did you love best about Ymir Forgotten?

pacing was fast

Who was your favorite character and why?

Luther was an unexpected but exciting action hero--and the supernatural element was a surprise

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

voice was good for story

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

dark space calls for dark heroes

Any additional comments?

short but good

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Utter Destruction & Hope

Subtitle: Annihilation, Books 1 & 2

Author: Amanda Peterson

Narrator: Linda Velwest

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-11-13

Publisher: IMT, LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Utter Destruction: Annihilation, Book 1 and Hope: Annihilation, Book 2 have been put together in one audiobook for your convenience and is offered at a discount price. The two book series will get you started on this amazing journey and flight from the northeast zombie outbreak!

From Clarksville, New Hampshire, to Boston, Massachusetts, a group of people form a community to survive the zombie apocalypse. Join them on their adventures through different obstacles they face as they make their way to a military refugee camp.

The team comes across more survivors on their journey as well as more fleshing-eating zombies.

As they leave the farm and head to the refugee camp, a dream turns into reality as the group is trapped by the zombies.

Find out if they overcome and survive the utter destruction. Will they reach their destination and build their hope for a future in this new world!

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Shrouded Planet

Author: Robert Randall

Narrator: Bernard Setaro Clark

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-11-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Shrouded - perpetually shrouded - by a blanket of clouds, the planet of Nidor made its slow way through space. A year on Nidor was equal to 3,000 Earth-years. To the Nidorians change was unthinkable. Until the Earthmen arrived. And then a change cataclysmic, and the first for many a millennium, hit Nidor. A change that was to split the planet against itself.

Members Reviews:

RE: The Shrouded Planet

Two great SF authors collaborate on a novel covering first contact and cultural differences.

The planet Nidor is a placid society until a landing from Earth. The best intentions of the Earth voyagers nonetheless cause turmoil for the Nidorians.

It's a thought provoking SF novel, and the afterword regarding the story's creation is very interesting.

Recommended.

Vintage recontact sci-fi

Recontact sci-fi. Emissaries recontact a cult-based civilization on a long lost planet. The usual conniving and disillusion follow. Easy to read, entertaining.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: A Planet Torn

Subtitle: The Amanda Love Trilogy, Book Three

Author: Devlin Church, Michael Angel

Narrator: Bill Royal

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-05-13

Publisher: Banty Hen Publishing

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Amanda finds herself in a terrible dilemma as the evil Malco Trent returns, space station IBS5 falls under siege, and Marshal Michael Fallon's life hangs in the balance.

She and her rag-tag crew must assault the station, no matter the cost. And the kicker? If Amanda succeeds, then Angus promises to tell her the ultimate secret left by Jonathan Love: a plan to make Amanda one of the richest people in the galaxy, and a veritable goddess to an entire people.