Dan Bittner and Peter Ganim shepherd listeners through the apocalyptic world Formerly Known As the USA. Bittner narrates as Truckee Wallace, a 16-year-old orphan who finds himself in the middle of an international incident. Ganim chimes in as the future editor of Trukee's memoir. Bittner gets to shout and go wild as Truckee, in addition to voicing a talking goat, an android, and multiple characters from all walks of life. As the voice of reason, Ganim reads footnotes and makes corrections to Truckee's story. While Bittner clearly gets to do the heavy lifting, it is Ganim's deadpan delivery that brings the most laughs to this inventive retelling of THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2019
Duration: 15 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250224484
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Intricate, textured weirdness rewards listeners throughout this sprawling, gloriously strange epic.
Colin Mace and Emma Spurgin Hussey narrate a generations-spanning tale of grief, conspiracy, and horror that takes its haunting premise deadly seriously. Hussey voices Maur, desolate after her son's mysterious death and desperate for answers, with a restrained intimacy, tracking her slide from mourning into obsession through shifts in pace and breath. Mace brings weathered gravel to Allerdyce, a veteran undeterred by the grim, often gross underbelly of those answers, letting long silences land before revelations. The author's interjections add an eerie texture. Both narrators keep the dense, allusive prose clear across a century of violence, building dread without tipping into melodrama.
Intricate, textured weirdness rewards listeners throughout this sprawling, gloriously strange epic.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
Duration: 40 hrs, 43 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217020959
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2026
This immersive audiobook exemplifies how a full cast can animate a work of fiction.
This speculative novel is exceptionally well performed. All the narrators capture the unique voices and distinct diction of these near-future souls. Kimberly Farr as Ari and James Aaron Oh as Sebastian are outstanding. The novel is set in the 2030s, just after the United States splinters into city-states and regional governments. The party at the center of the plot occurs in LA and presents many of the central characters—and their doppelgängers. Violence and fear hang over this dystopian world like a toxic mist. In the future, Paris consists of domes to separate the haves from the have-nots. Violent militias roam the U.S. People work for The Service, a secret police agency that watches all.
This immersive audiobook exemplifies how a full cast can animate a work of fiction.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
Duration: 12 hrs, 29 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217406500
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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