An audiobook story of bad-ass mercenaries protecting Indigenous peoples from a corporation threatening to colonize their planet and swallow them up provides a lot of opportunity for conflict. The core characters are all female, including the villains, leaving the males in peripheral roles. Narrator Maria Liatis adopts a light, perky tone for this quasi-Western in a semi-lawless universe. She relies on subtle differences in pitch and pacing to differentiate characters. The mercenary community is fluid, and people change sides often, fostering strong emotions. Liatis dramatizes the camaraderie and loyalty among the characters and captures the outrage at the occasional betrayal.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2021
Duration: 12 hrs
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Together, Butikofer and Gage keep listeners absorbed in a love story set among the stars.
After a four-year wait, fans can celebrate Chambers’ newest novel, sensitively performed by Norma Butikofer and Megan Gage. Life is tough for the inhabitants of the barren planet of Fortune. Signy, voiced by Gage, is a botanist who copes by bio-printing illegal medicine for those in need. Cora, voiced by Norma Butikofer, is a pilot who’s risking a mind bleed with her sentient spaceship. Butikofer’s Cora is clear and strong, and her rendition of the ship’s coursebook is the perfect personification of a smart computer. Gage’s Signy is gentler, as befits a botanist. Their personality differences guide their approaches to increasing danger.
Together, Butikofer and Gage keep listeners absorbed in a love story set among the stars.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2026
Duration: 14 hrs, 28 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063519336
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2026
The Bobs blaze entertainingly through the universe with Porter at the helm.
Luckily for listeners, narrator Ray Porter continues to perform Taylor’s Bobiverse series. The Bobs are sentient space probes that embody Bob Johansson, a software engineer whose mind was uploaded to a probe long, long ago. In this installment, the Bobs face challenges across space, including wormhole networks, abandoned spaceships, and refugees. Over time, replicative drift changes the Bobs, giving Porter ample opportunity to create distinct personalities, be they sincere, snarky, edgy, or comic. These Bobs audibly sigh, grouch, preen, and wrestle with intellectual conundrums. The multifaceted story does wander, so it’s helpful that the often droll writing is enhanced by Porter’s realistic pacing and imaginative portrayals of characters both human and alien.
The Bobs blaze entertainingly through the universe with Porter at the helm.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 22 mins
Publisher: Audible, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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