A queer fever dream made real by committed narration.
Charli Anne Delores manifests a nameless narrator with a self-destructive streak in this SF reimagining of Moby-Dick. This narrator isn’t particularly great at anything: She’s impulsive, self-damaging, and resistant to love, and her path has inexplicably landed her aboard the Pequod. As she and her shipmates hunt down an enormous leviathan swimming around the planet Jupiter, the narrator grows closer to a harpooner named Q and the ship’s captain, who’s obsessed with hunting the white whale. The story is as much about the horrors of space-monster hunting as it is a rumination on religion, sex, and connection. Delores brings an entire interstellar melting pot to life, sharply voicing characters who represent a range of genders, cultures, and species. While the story stifles at times, Delores keeps listeners on the edge.
A queer fever dream made real by committed narration.Pub Date: March 10, 2026
Duration: 14 hrs, 18 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250411624
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
An all-too-real take on AI’s quenching of queer creativity, told by a bold and captivating narrator.
Nancy Wu leads listeners through an interplanetary heist in a SF tale of queer pirates and childhood loss. On the planet Callisto, stories are owned by a generative AI conglomerate. Stories are watered down. Characters are one-dimensional. And storytellers like Kelli Reynolds are boxed into a singular style. When Kelli’s smuggler ex-boyfriend, Rowan, comes back into town requesting a favor, Kelli’s troubling past comes back to haunt her, and her narrow vision of storytelling gets blown wide open. Wu’s depiction of Kelli’s autism is compassionate and powerful, and she provides gender-expansive voices for various queer pirates.
An all-too-real take on AI’s quenching of queer creativity, told by a bold and captivating narrator.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
Duration: 12 hrs, 25 mins
DD ISBN: 9798899732737
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Emotion check: Long live Murderbot.
Kevin R. Free drops listeners into the middle of a rescue mission aboard an enormous space station. In a defining performance, Free masterfully conveys Murderbot’s sardonic running commentary, deadpan and endearingly world-weary. Murderbot has installed a mental health module since its last adventure, so there are frequent “emotion checks.” The mission, of course, runs into several complications, and Murderbot finds itself with a growing party of humans to keep safe. As the sometimes perilous, sometimes zany rescue operation progresses, Free employs subtle accents to distinguish the human characters; Nanna Naja especially is a hoot. But it’s his Murderbot, who has grown and changed over eight installments, that will have listeners rapt.
Emotion check: Long live Murderbot.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781705041031
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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