The Gamers Arms

As an aside to the currently reading thread, do we have any Audible subscribers here? I've been amassing credits for a few months now and am consistently uninspired by the selection on offer, not aided by Amazon's/Audible's really poor interface which never seems to recommend anything I would actually like and only suggests the latest amateur rubbish.

So has anyone listened to anything recently they'd recommend?

The Sherlock Holmes stories narrated by Stephen Fry are rather good, if you are a fan of them.

I tend just to abuse their "come back again and have another trial!" thing they send me every year.

I fairly enjoyed the two Fry books on Greek mythology though I did zone out a few times but thats more my issue any time I try and listen to an audiobook more than the content of that book. Enjoyed Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky which I listened to after reading it and I think it's better as an audiobook. Listened to one of the Bobiverse books by Dennis E Taylor which was good but just on the right side of the knife edge of being annoying but I could see it going either way depending on the listener.

This reminds me the new Bobiverse book just came out!

Was just about to make this thread when I noticed that I'd already made it previously!

Same question again. My Audible credits have built up because I bought 3 months on the mega cheap return deal and I am all out of ideas for what to listen to next.

Some decent sci fi or thought provoking general fiction would be good.

I don't remember whether or not I picked up Dogs of War off the back of your recommendation, Alan, but I did listen to the audio book for that a couple of years ago and thought it was very well done.

Uh lets see what my awful memory can dredge up.....

Well the third book in the Bioforms (Dogs Of War) series just came out. The second book was Bear Head and I remember thinking it was alright but I dont remember much to be honest yet my brain still conjures up "My name is Rex. I am a good dog" from time to time from DoW The latest one is The Bee Speaker which I know nothing of right now.

Also from Tchaikovsky I enjoyed the Final Architecture series and the Children Of Time series. The Final Architecture is about essentially The Traveller from Destiny turning up, ripping planets apart and then buggering off and humanity's attempts to combat them as seen through the eyes of a scrappy band of brigands. It goes places! The Children Of Time series focuses on more diverse evolutions of life, the first book (The Children Of Time) is about spiders that accidentally evolve super fast into a society as a biproduct of humans terraforming a barren planet. Then also the humans on a colony ship on route to that planet expecting it to be an empty paradise waiting for them. Tchaikovsky has a brilliant imagination but he's just too prolific, I think he drops about 4-5 books a year. Sometimes his characters can be a bit soulless at times but he's done some good stuff.


Last Murder At The End Of The World - Stuart Turton. Its kind of scifi Agatha Christie. Set on an island where machines of some sort are keeping a raging storm from reaching land. They live in peace but now there's been a murder and our scrappy villager must investigate and in doing so uncover much more about the nature of the island and their world. I found it really great and it sticks the ending too. Having now read Turton's other books (Groundhog day Agatha Christie and Ye old passenger ship Agatha Christie) he has his niche :p I also really like Adjoa Andoh as a narrator.

Dennis E Taylor can be hit and miss but I still enjoy his Bobiverse series, the Earthside series and The Singularity Trap. They're very smart scifi pretending to be very dumb but your enjoyment would depend on your tolerance for pop culture references and his humour. There's also a good short called Feedback about some scientists playing with a limited time machine. Its about 40mins long and free for audible subs which would give you somewhat of an idea of what he and his long time narrator (Ray Porter) are like.

Non-scifi:
Brian Blessed's autobiography read by him is highly entertaining. As is the semisequel companion book The Panther In My Kitchen

Smoke City - Keith Rosson.
I just finished this one(thanks yearly prime day extended trial! -_-). A chap that thinks he's the reincarnation of Joan Of Arcs executioner goes on a road trip with an alcoholic artist to find someone claiming to be the reincarnation of Joan Of Arc on TV. I loved it and the delivery of the narrator was perfect in my opinion. That said I could see someone finding the narrator too slow and ponderous.

Earthlings - Sayaka Murata is one I'm hesitant to recommend. Its one of my favs but there's a few really tough bits and it goes a bit off the rails. The narrator is also a little bit kids presenter in her delivery but I think it works. To me it seems to be about someone who hasn't matured mentally as she grew into an adult due to abuse in her childhood but with a very Japanese way. I think shes an excellent author, all her books are great, but 1000% not for everyone.


That'll do pig.

Funnily enough I had just picked out the Children of Time books as my next listen. And thanks to Prime Day's 3 month Kindle Unlimited offer I actually started reading Bear Head the other night. Tchaikovsky writes with a great rhythm, I find it very easy to get lost listening to the books or reading them.