We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

 Audible Original Fiction by Dennis Taylor.

https://www.audible.com

Okay, so just hold onto your metaphorical hat for this premise: Bob Johansson strikes it rich, signs up for a cryogenic preservation subscription, and then gets killed. He is reanimated a hundred and fifty or so years later as... wait for it... a space probe.

This was actually a fun little story, if you're willing to embrace the oddity and suspend your disbelief. It's the beginning of a trilogy, and I think I'll look for the next one.

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Starter Villain

The Chaos Walking Trilogy

The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men 

Fiction by Patrick Ness. 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Todd Hewitt lives in a world where dogs talk. (Although, as he points out, the problem with that is that dogs don't really have much to say.) In fact, every animal talks: sheep, frogs, even bugs! Or, more accurately, all the animals broadcast their thoughts out loud. Unfortunately, this means the thoughts of men are also audible, and that makes for constant Noise in Todd's village of Prentisstown that is hard to endure.

I say "the thoughts of men" because, in Prentisstown, there are no women. Todd's mother, along with every other woman, was killed by a plague twelve years ago that also wiped out half of the men. It was this same sickness, a result of a germ released during the Great War, that caused everyone's thoughts to manifest themselves aloud.

Or at least, that's what Todd has been taught. But is all of it true? As Todd approaches his thirteenth birthday, the date when he, the last boy in Prentisstown, will become a man, he begins to learn that things may not be the way he has always thought they were.

This was an exciting book series that held a lot of surprises. 

Super Powereds: Year One

 Fiction by Drew Hayes

https://www.audible.com

In a universe where superheroes are real but rare, people are divided up into three categories: Normals, Supers, and Powereds. Normals are normal people (duh); Supers are people with super abilities they can control; Powereds are people with super abilities they can't control. Super HEROES are supers who have been extensively trained and certified by the government to perform heroic deeds, and they have secret identities.

This system means Supers are special and Powereds are freaks. But science has recently learned a way to give Powereds control over their abilities, thus making them into Super Powereds (hence the title.) The government is starting with a select group of Powereds experimentally to see if they can use this technique to turn useless and possibly dangerous Powereds into superheroes. The story is about these five people, who gain control of their powers and try to train into certified heroes.

Okay, so we have in this universe training grounds for supers to become heroes; it's pretty much college on steroids. Here is year one of their four-year journey.

This is a lot of set up in my explanation, but the author does a good job incorporating all this exposition into the story and making it interesting.

This was a really good book and I will look for the Year Two book.

I also listened to by this author: ...Fred the Vampire Accountant

Travel by Bullet

 Audible Original Fiction by John Scalzi

https://www.audible.com

In the world of this book, if someone kills you, you get to come back. If you die any other way (disease, accident, suicide), you stay dead. This gives rise to a strange new profession, and our protagonist Tony becomes a "dispatcher." That is, he's a guy who will kill you to save you from dying. Weird premise, huh?

This was an interesting short novel, and although it was apparently book THREE is a series, it didn't give me too much of a sense I was missing the backstory.

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Last One to Leave

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

 Fiction by Grady Hendrix

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

As you might guess from the title, this was a strange book.

In the early nineties, Patricia Campbell is a nice Southern lady in a book club with other nice Southern ladies. But when the children of her town are threatened, it might be time to not be so nice....

Even though I'd never read anything by this author before, I got it on audiobook because there was a narrator I love, Bahni Turpin (see Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for Ultra-Human Protection.) But it was a little to descriptive and slow-moving to be a good listen; I think I would have liked it better in print. Also, it gave me a bad case of "Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome"** in the middle. Still, it was an interesting book with some surprises.

** Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome

(See The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine)

That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.

The Rampart Trilogy

 Fiction by M.R. Carey

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/ book2/ book3

This is a three-book series set in the post-apocalyptic future. (It's a different end-of-the-world scenario than the one Mr. Carey detailed in The Girl With All the Gifts. It seems this guy can think of many different ways for society to collapse in upon itself.)

Koli is a young man in a small place called Mythen Rood, living three hundred years after the Unfinished War killed millions and scattered the survivors. Aged almost fifteen, Koli is hoping to be chosen as a Rampart, the select group of people who both rule and defend his village by means of the few pieces of tech they command. But when the time of choosing comes, he is surprised by the outcome.

These books were absorbing to read; I liked them a lot!

I also read by this author: Fellside

A Dirty Job

 Fiction by Christopher Moore

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Is Death a person? You know, like The Grim Reaper, with the scythe and the black robe and whatnot? Well, no, not literally. But what if....

In this story there are people who are Agents of Death, people unseen by anyone but the dying person, who usher the decedents into the afterworld, or whatever. And Charlie Asher, a bumbling San Francisco thrift shop owner, unexpectedly becomes an Agent of Death. Also he's a widower with a newborn. How will he navigate this new (under) world?

This was an original story with fun characters, but it got weird. (YES, weirder than that description I just gave, believe it or not!) I'm still not sure about the ending.

The Light Years

 Fiction by R.W.W. Greene

https://www.amazon.com

I found this at the Dollar Tree and it looked good. You don't expect much from a book at the Dollar Tree, to be honest; I'm pretty sure that's the place where bad books go to die. But this was (fortunately!) not a bad book.

Over a thousand years in the future, Earth is pretty much dead, and everyone who possibly could has evacuated into space colonies. Adem is a part owner in his family's starship business, which gives him a livelihood and freedom to travel, but limits his dating prospects. It's tough to meet chicks when you land on a planet for only a day or two at time, and then when you come back only a few weeks in light-year travel later, you find that years have passed on that planet since you last visited.

So Adem does what most space travelers do: contracts with an on-planet matchmaker to buy a wife from a couple expecting a baby, and then plans to come back and pick her up when she's twenty-four years old. Wait, what?! Yep, you've got to do some willing suspension of disbelief on this story, but if you know anything about science-fiction you should be aware of the light-years-travel-time-distortion concept.

Anyways, this was a pretty good story that kept my attention.

The Girl With All the Gifts

 Fiction by M.R. Carey

https://www.audible.com

The story begins with Melanie, who is being held in a military-run secure facility with twenty-five or so other kids, each in a separate cell. Are they being studied, or educated, or just imprisoned? And why do the captors seem almost afraid of the prisoners?

This book was not at all what I expected, and it was great!!

I also read by this author: Fellside

Death Game Quality Assurance

 Audible Original Fiction by Andrew Rowe

https://www.audible.com

In this story, a team of gamers work on "quality assurance" for a new video game, which is basically playing it in order to test for problems before the game is released.  How could that be dangerous? Wait and see...

Okay, I didn't like this story. I did think the voice acting was really good, but the story was not great. It may be just because I'm not into video games, although I have enjoyed some gamer stories, such as Ready Player One. Usually it's the characters that make the story for me, and they just didn't here.

Still, there was one great joke in here, made at the expense of Ready Player One, and it might have made the whole listen worthwhile. That pulls it above a thumbs-down.

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: The Wrong One

I also read by his author: How to Defeat the Demon King

The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred the Vampire Accountant

 Fiction by Drew Hayes

https://www.audible.com

As you might have guessed, the above title is meant to be ironic. In fact, Fred the vampire accountant has many interesting adventures, although it can be argued that he himself is both uninteresting and unadventurous.

This was a fun little story for those who are willing to suspend disbelief.

I also read recently by this author: Second Hand Curses

Providence

 Fiction by Max Barry

https://www.audible.com

This was a great story about a futuristic starship sent far into space to defeat an alien race threatening planet earth. That sounds hokey, but I assure you it was not. 

There were realistic characters and a great plot, although the ending wasn’t exactly happily ever after. 

 

I also listened to recently by this author: Jennifer Government

Sphere

 Fiction by Michael Crichton

https://www.audible.com

This novel, published in 1987, is a classic Michael Crichton story, like Jurassic Park.

Psychologist Norman Johnson receives a call and heads out by military transport towards what he thinks will be an airplane crash recovery. He ends up in the middle of the ocean on a Navy vessel, and finds out that there's a suspected crashed spaceship at the bottom of the Pacific. From there he and a team will dive down deep to investigate the sunken vessel.

This was an exciting story that kept me guessing. The audio narrator was great as well.

I also read by this author: Congo

Project Hail Mary

 Fiction by Andy Weir

https://www.audible.com

In this book, Dr. Ryland Grace, an eighth grade science teacher, must save the planet earth from the greatest threat it has ever known. 

This book made the nerdiest part of me jump for joy. If you are a sci-fi geek, you MUST read it.

Discordia

Audible Original Fiction by Max Barry

https://www.audible.com

At the beginning of this story, a guy called Diego is digging a hole on the beach in Malibu. A really big hole. Why? Because some rich guy is paying him to do it. At the same time, cell service and internet connections go down everywhere, and the radio and TV report that the country is under attack. By whom? Nobody knows. Then Diego finds a mysterious box in the hole he's been digging, and his employer wants him to open it. What's inside? You'll never guess...

This was a fun little story that I really enjoyed.

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Second Skin

Second Skin

Audible Original Fiction by Christian White

https://www.audible.com

Stan Weir is left alone and devastated after the deaths of his daughter (Lucy) and wife (Joanne) in quick succession. But what Stan doesn't know is that a baby girl called Erin was born the same night that Joanne died, and that one day, eleven years later, Erin will begin to remember things about Joanne that she couldn't possibly have known.

Could Erin be the reincarnated spirit of Joanne Weir? Erin's mother Marcy has to find out!

This was a good story but not great. The characters were very good, but there is some stretching of reality in the final plot twist that can't be accounted for in fantasy terms. A reviewer on audible.com goes so far as to call this a "disservice to the reader." (Don't read the reviews on this one, by the way, unless you want annoying spoilers.) 

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Dade County Death Cruise

Dade County Death Cruise

Audible Original Fiction by Alexander Kane

https://www.audible.com

This book is the sequel to Orlando People, and I absolutely loved it! This story continues the tale of Gretch Wolgast, now 23 years old and a newly-minted agent in a newly-formed branch of the FBI that specializes in crime related to telekinesis. (It's a thing in these stories; read the first book!)

This is a super fun book!

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Andrea Vernon and the Big Axe Acquisition

The Midnight Library

 Fiction by Matt Haig

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Nora Seed is having a vey bad day, after some very bad months and several very bad years. She decides to kill herself, but then something very strange happens.

Nora goes to a magical (imaginary?) place called the Midnight Library, where she gets a chance to look closely at the many things she regrets in life (in The Book of Regrets, of course) and discover what would have happened if she had made different choices.

This was an interesting story that made you think. It was less in-depth with the different-choices-different-life idea than I would have liked until near the end, although that's a relatively minor complaint.

I also read by this author: How to Stop Time

The Quiet Boy

 Fiction by Ben Winters

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I categorized this novel as a sci-fi legal thriller, which sounds like a weird combination. And indeed it was…

There’s the family of a boy who has had a freak accident —or maybe he’s possessed, or something— and an ambulance-chasing lawyer who brings his fourteen-year-old son to work. And there’s the same people around ten years later, as a fresh tragedy brings them together again. 

I really liked the characters and the the story was good in general, but I had some trouble with the ending. It didn’t seem to resolve the main plot points completely. 

I also read by this author: Inside Jobs. 

Nothing to See Here

 Fiction by Kevin Wilson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I hate this cover, but I loved this book! I have literally put off reading this novel because the cover is so ugly, despite the many good reviews I've read.

Don't be shallow like me; go ahead and read it!

The story follows a woman in her late twenties called Lillian, who has been coasting though life and living with her mom since she was kicked out of school at seventeen. Then she's offered a job opportunity from Madison, an old friend who happens to be a Senator's wife, and figures why not? Madison tells her they need a nanny/governess, and emphasizes the need for discretion. When Lillian meets the kids (from the Senator's first marriage), she discovers they are very unusual in a nearly paranormal way.

They catch on fire.

Wait, what? Don't try to explain it; just go with it and enjoy the story. This novel is quirky and funny, and heart-warming and sincere.

I also read by this author: The Family Fang

BTW I suggest this artwork for an alternative cover; it's from the New York Times review of the book:

See? Isn't that pretty? You can be weird and not ugly!

Yeah, yeah; I know. I'm just jealous because I didn't write this little jewel of a story and I'm nitpicking...