Adrian Tchaikovsky's SHADOWS OF THE APT fantasy series available in audiobook for the first time

Adrian Tchaikovsky's debut series, The Shadows of the Apt, is now available in ebook for the very first time.

All ten books have been recorded in full by actor Ben Allen and the first four are now available from Audible, Kobo and other services. The other six will follow later in the year. I reviewed the first four books (Empire in Black and Gold, Dragonfly Falling, Blood of the Mantis and Salute the Dark) about ten years ago and enjoyed them, must didn't press on with the series, a lack I must rectify.

Adrian (somehow) published these ten large, accomplished fantasy novels in just six years. Since then, he's gone to greater renown and success for his novel Children of Time (2016) and several subsequent works. He's won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, British Fantasy Award and BSFA Award for Best Novel.

The series is set in a world dominated by human societies and cultures which have taken on the traits of insects. The series begins with an invasion of the divided, feuding Lowlands by the Wasp Empire, and the desperate attempts to stop them by turning advanced technology against them. As the series progresses, new races are discovered, other powers rise to the fore and technology advances on, moving through the steampunk era to something more reminiscent of WWI. As with most of Adrian's work, the series is noted for its accessibility, impressive characterisation and solid pacing (the series is not one continuous ten-book saga as such but is divided into several sub-arcs).

The series:

1. Empire in Black and Gold (2008)
2. Dragonfly Falling (2009)
3. Blood of the Mantis (2009)
4. Salute the Dark (2010)
5. The Scarab Path (2010)
6. The Sea Watch (2011)
7. Heirs of the Blade (2011)
8. The Air War (2012)
9. War Master's Gate (2013)
10. Seal of the Worm (2014)

Original DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN trilogy to get first UK audiobook release

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series is to be released in audiobook format for the first time in the UK.

Gollancz will be releasing the original three books in the series - Dragonflight (1968), Dragonquest (1970) and The White Dragon (1978) - next month. Dragonflight and Dragonquest will be narrated by Sophie Aldred (Doctor Who) whilst The White Dragon will be read by Joe Jameson (Grantchester).

McCaffrey, who passed away in 2011, wrote, co-wrote or authorised some 29 books in the Pern series in total.

Alan Moore's audiobook reader goes on 6,000 mile mission to meet him

Simon Vance is an experienced audiobook reader, known for his dulcet tones which are just right for reading lengthy novels (he's the guy who read a lot of Guy Gavriel Kay's stuff.. His latest gig is an epic one: he is recording the audiobook for Alan Moore's monster novel Jerusalem, which reportedly clocks in at over 600,000 words and 1,200 pages in hardcover (of presumably fairly small print), with an estimated audiobook run time well north of sixty-five hours.

Judging that this was a bit of a special occasion, Vance decided to meet the author and get some insight into the reportedly "difficult" novel, which shifts prose styles every chapter and includes several lengthy sections of verse (one of which extends over twelve pages, which even Tolkien might have balked at) and an entire play. The problem? Vance lives in San Francisco, California, and Moore lives in Northampton, right in the middle of England. And he only had a few days clear in his schedule. Cue a round-trip of 6,000 miles to visit the UK for just two days, only a few hours of which he got to spend with Moore (and he only got that because they have a mutual friend in Neil Gaiman).

Early reviews for Jerusalem indicate that it is a good book but also a massively challenging one, as Publisher's Weekly says:

"In this staggeringly imaginative second novel, Moore (Watchmen) bundles all his ruminations about space, time, life, and death into an immense interconnected narrative that spans all human existence within the streets of his native Northampton, U.K. Reading this sprawling collection of words and ideas isn't an activity; it's an experience... It's all a challenge to get through, and deliberately so, but bold readers who answer the call will be rewarded with unmatched writing that soars, chills, wallows, and ultimately describes a new cosmology. Challenges and all, Jerusalem ensures Moore's place as one of the great masters of the English language."

Jerusalem will be published on 13 September. The audiobook should be out around that time or later.

Ebook sales fall, print rises in the UK

This week saw confirmation that, for the first time, ebook revenues in the UK have fallen and physical book revenues have risen in their stead. This has led to some media coverage questioning if we have reached "peak digital" in terms of ebook sales and if we will now see a steeper drop, or if a new status quo will emerge between the two formats.

Revenue sales last year of ebooks fell from £563 million to £554 million, whilst physical book sales rose from £2.74 billion to £2.76 billion. This came at the same time that Waterstones (the UK's biggest book chain) stopped selling Kindles and turned the shelf space back over to books, which it credited with a healthy 5% rise in sales. This also came at the same time that Amazon opened its first physical bookshop in the United States (to the bewilderment of some market analysts) and Sony dropped out of the e-reader market.

The reasons for the apparent switch may be topical: the explosion of adult colouring books in the past year may have accounted for a small part of the move. There is also the possibility that there has been an e-market shift away from traditionally-published novels to self-published titles, which cost far less. The UK market is particularly affected by an issue where e-books are charged 20% extra in VAT (sales tax) but paper books are not. Given that physical production costs of paper books are at around 13% of the cover price, this puts ebooks in the UK in the ludicrous position of being more expensive than paper books. The publishers have absorbed some of these costs to try to get ebooks out at prices approaching parity with the paper versions, but in many cases the difference is negligible.

Another cited reason has been that consumers seem increasingly reluctant to carry multiple digital devices around with them, and reading on a mobile phone does not offer as good an experience as a dedicated e-reader, as phones have smaller screens, shorter battery lives and no e-ink capability. This may also be linked to rising audiobook sales, which have doubled in the UK in the last five years (and rose 29% last year alone).

Whatever the reason, it appears that the occasionally-rumoured death of the physical book has been exaggerated, and the two formats look set to coexist peacefully for some time to come.

Roy Dotrice records new edition of FEAST FOR CROWS audiobook

Roy Dotrice has recorded a new audiobook version of A Feast for Crows, the fourth novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Dotrice recorded the first three books in the series many years ago, and the fifth more recently, but was unavailable when the fourth novel was released in 2005. Another actor, John Lee, recorded the audio version of Crows, but fans have long expressed a wish for a Dotrice version of the book to make a matching set.


Random House Audio have listened to their concerns. The new edition of the audiobook will be available as a digital download from Audible (US, USA) this week, on Thursday, whilst a CD edition will follow in March 2012.

NEW YORK, NY (December 12, 2011)—Random House Audio announces today that it will release a new recording of George R.R. Martin’s A FEAST FOR CROWS, the fourth book in Martin’s bestselling series, A Song of Ice and Fire, narrated by fan favorite, Roy Dotrice.

Dotrice earned a passionate following from listeners and a Guinness World Record for his work on the series, creating 224 voices for the first book in the series, A GAME OF THRONES.

The new recording will be available December 15th, published by Random House Audio, and HarperAudio UK, and clocks in at 33 hours, 48 minutes long.

A U.S. & Canada CD edition will be published by Random House Audio in March 2012 to coincide with the second season premiere of the HBO series, “Game of Thrones,” which will feature Dotrice onscreen as Hallyne the pyromancer, chief of the Guild of Alchemists.

“Fans from all over the world requested a Roy Dotrice recording of A FEAST FOR CROWS,” says Amanda D’Acierno, Vice President and Publisher, Random House Audio. “We are so pleased to be working with HarperAudio in the UK to publish this edition for our listeners.”

The A Song of Ice and Fire series has more than 12 million of the five books in print, including more than 313,000 audio CDs and digital downloads. The series has developed a huge cult following, peaking this year with the release of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS and the premiere of the HBO TV adaptation.