by John Scalzi ; Read by William Dufris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 22, 2013
William Dufris captures the tone of this military science-fiction novel with strong vocal projection and great character voices. For years, the Colonial Union has protected the people of Earth from the dangerous aliens in the universe. The Union views the population of “the blue planet” as ignorant natives but a valuable recruitment source for military muscle. Now a group of aliens has formed a new alliance, and they’re eager for the humans to be part of it. To save humanity, Harry Wilson and his "B-Team" will need to execute some risky maneuvers. Dufris keeps the narrative momentum at good clip but tempers it when the story elements become nuanced. The foreign (in this case, made up) names that come up within the story roll smoothly off his tongue.
Pub Date: 2013
Duration: 15 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
by Eric Flint ; Read by George Guidall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 22, 2012
Eric Flint's series has been running for 12 years, and this is the book that started it all. A small mining town in West Virginia is teleported through time and space to Germany during the Thirty Years War, and its inhabitants must learn to survive in this brutal age. Narrator George Guidall brings a quiet gravitas to the often gory proceedings. He uses regional accents lightly, preferring to portray the characters through cadence and the solid pronunciation of difficult Germanic words and phrases. His best moments come in the many scenes of dialogue when the characters banter and shout. Guidall never lets the dialogue get ahead of him, reading deliberately to keep even the most emotional scenes on an even keel.
Pub Date: 2012
Duration: 19 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781464018282
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
by Albert Brooks ; Read by Dick Hill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 22, 2011
Dick Hill is a talented narrator, beloved for his renditions of the classics and action novels by Lee Child and Michael Connelly. Hill has gravitas; the man knows how to impregnate a pause. Movies by Albert Brooks, such as LOST IN AMERICA and DEFENDING YOUR LIFE, show actors—himself prominent among them—in circumstances so humiliating that they’re hilarious. Having chosen a futuristic setting for his first-ever novel, Brooks has upped the ante. The future is where many of us—all those unsaved—expect the worst. The combination of Hill’s deep voice and Brooks’s dark comic vision pushes hard at the line between what’s funny and what’s only sad. But hang on, because there’s a happy ending, or happyish.
Pub Date: 2011
Duration: 14 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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