Ursula and company leave the listener wanting more.
Sometimes more is more, and that's certainly the case in this audiobook production. It focuses on Kylara Vatta, the hero of Moon's Vatta's War series. Kylara's shuttle has been sabotaged, and she and other survivors attempt to escape from a forbidding planet with a secret base while rescuers try to find them. In addition to narrator Dawn Ursula, who expertly guides listeners, there's a full cast of actors as well as music and sound effects that add to the listening experience. The standouts are the leads: Nanette Savard as Kylara and Lily Beacon as Grace Vatta. The large cast of characters makes it harder for supporting narrators to stand out, but this fast-paced audiobook is an engrossing experience nonetheless.
Ursula and company leave the listener wanting more.Pub Date: March 30, 2026
Duration: 14 hrs, 21 mins
DD ISBN: 9798890557971
Publisher: GraphicAudio
Review Posted Online: June 30, 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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