Audio Books that I like.
Expeditionary Force
21 books in series
Summary
Joe Bishop is a young army grunt from Maine. His age and inexperience are about to be tested as the earth is invaded by hamster-like aliens known as the Ruhar. After forming an alliance with the lizard-like Kristang to defeat them, the humans join a galactic war to track them down and destroy the Ruhar in space. The first Expeditionary Force is created.
Joe finds himself leading 70 men in an epic mission around the galaxy. He’s accompanied by Skippy, a belligerent, snarky but ultra-intelligent sentient, who also looks like a beer can. Skippy might be able to help Joe on his mission and so humans everywhere in their hour of need.
Craig Alanson’s best-selling book series finds perfect audio expression thanks to award-winning narrator R.C. Bray. The audiobook version of Columbus Day – the first book in Alanson’s Expeditionary Force series – was nominated for Audiobook of the Year 2018.
Bray is the ideal narrator for Joe and Skippy’s journey. It takes a strong, visceral performance to be able to pull off the intense action scenes. Bray uses a range of voices to give life to a diverse lineup of characters, including humans and aliens. Joe Bishop has a distinctive Maine accent which Bray pulls off perfectly.
Back in 2016, Craig Alanson was working in IT when his wife encouraged him to start self-publishing his stories on Amazon. He is now one of Amazon’s top 10 best-selling American science fiction writers and one of their top-selling 100 writers overall.
https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Columbus-Day-Audiobook/B01N7D5XHG
Convergence
6 books in series
Convergence Publisher's Summary
From New York Times bestselling author Craig Alanson comes a thrilling new series that melds action-packed urban fantasy with his signature humor, read by none other than award-winning narrator R.C. Bray.
My name is Kazimir Wolfe. People call me "Kaz", except they don’t. I never use my real name; it’s too dangerous, for me and for anyone I meet.
I’m on the run from the law, who think I killed my aunt, and from whoever did kill her, because they want to finish the job. So, I move around a lot, working construction or whatever job I can find. It’s a lonely life. I don’t let anyone get close...people who get close to me end up dead. Why?
I’m a wizard. The world’s only wizard, as far as I know. I don’t have a wand or a sword, and I don’t ride a dragon. I carry a Glock, and drive around in a beat-up RV with a talking dog.
Yeah. The talking dog was a surprise to me, too. Duke is inhabited by the spirit of a 3,000-year-old wizard from Babylon, and he’s a good dog, but he is still a dog, and that’s a problem. Like, he still thinks squirrels are his mortal enemy. And that I don’t feed him enough. How did the spirit of a wizard reach across millennia, to our time? I don’t know.
The truth is, I’m not much of a wizard, because there’s not much magic in the world for me to work with. But there used to be magic. And magic is coming back as our world converges with the Nether.
Unless I can stop it.
©2022 Craig Alanson (P)2022 Podium Audio
Jacques McKeown
3 books in series
Will Save the Galaxy for Food Publisher's Summary
A not-quite epic science fiction adventure about a down-on-his luck galactic pilot caught in a cross-galaxy struggle for survival!
Space travel just isn't what it used to be. With the invention of quantum teleportation, space heroes aren't needed anymore. When one particularly unlucky ex-adventurer masquerades as famous pilot and hate figure Jacques McKeown, he's sucked into an ever-deepening corporate and political intrigue. Between space pirates, adorable deadly creatures, and a missing fortune in royalties, saving the universe was never this difficult!
From the creator of Mogworld and Jam! Benjamin Richard "Yahtzee" Croshaw is a British Australian comedic writer, video game journalist, author, and video game developer. He is perhaps best known for his acerbic video game review series, Zero Punctuation, for The Escapist.
©2017 Yahtzee Croshaw (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Bobiverse
6 books in series
Summary
The geeky, addictive “Bobiverse” series is the perfect blend of humor, science, and space adventure, brought to life in a five-star vocal performance.
One minute, Bob Johansson is on top of the world. He’s sold his software company, and he’s looking forward to a life of leisure. The next minute, he’s dead. But that’s just the beginning of Bob’s epic story. He wakes up 117 years later and discovers his consciousness has been uploaded into a sentient space probe—and launched into the great unknown.
As he explores the farthest reaches of the galaxy, Original Bob becomes a legion of Bobs. Together they’ll encounter strange alien races, battle existential threats, ponder the mysteries of artificial intelligence and deep space, and learn what it means to be post-human.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: For years, Dennis E. Taylor was a computer programmer by day, a writer by night, and an avid reader of science fiction. With the phenomenal success of the “Bobiverse” series, along with The Singularity Trap, Flybot, and his other Audible Originals, Dennis is now a full-time author—with time to spare for snowboarding, mountain biking and running.
ABOUT THE NARRATOR: A multiple Audie Award winner, Ray Porter delivers an epic performance in the “Bobiverse” series, giving voice to generations of Bobs, sentient machines, heroic humans, and alien species. A listener favorite, Ray has narrated more than 500 audiobooks and was inducted into Audible’s Narrator Hall of Fame in 2026.
Sentinels of the Galaxy
3 books in series
Navigating The Stars Publisher's Summary
New York Times bestselling author Maria Snyder returns with a compelling new sci-fi series. Perfect for fans of Star Wars and Poison Study.
2019 PRISM Award Winner: Young Adult Category
Year 2471. A new discovery. Those three words thrill my parents – the galaxy's leading archaeologists – but for me, it means another time jump to a different planet. One so big, my friends will be older than my dad when we arrive. And I'll still be seventeen. Thanks, Einstein.
I really can't blame Einstein, though. No one expected to find life–sized terracotta warriors buried on other planets. So off we go to investigate, traveling through space and time. With my social life in ruins, I fill my days illegally worming into the quantum net – the invention that allows us to travel in space. Of course the only person close to my age is a hot–but–pain–in–the–neck security officer who threatens to throw me into the brig.
But when one of the warrior planets goes silent, we have bigger problems on our hands. The planet's entire population might be dead. And now my worming skills, along with a translation of an ancient alien artefact, might be the key to finding out why. But my attempts to uncover the truth lead to the discovery of a deadly new alien phenomenon, and also alert those who wish to keep it quiet. The galaxy is in real danger and time is not on our side…
A page–turning story of courage and determination in the face of the unknown.
PRAISE for Maria V. Snyder:
'YA with a pretty strong romantic thread and HUGE adult crossover appeal. The plot is fantastic, the pacing spectacular, the intricacies, the snark, the banter...oh my! Go, go, go. You'll love this!' Amanda Bouchet, USA Today bestselling author of The Kingmaker Chronicles.
'Smart, witty and full of heart, Navigating the Stars had me hooked from the very first page!' – Lynette Noni, bestselling author of Weapon & The Medoran Chronicles
Quantum Earth
2 books in series
Outland Publisher's Summary
When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, it's up to six college students and their experimental physics project to prevent the end of civilization.
When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly wrong, physics student Bill Rustad and his friends find that they have accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal. They connect to Outland - an alternate Earth with identical geology, but where humans never evolved. The group races to establish control of the portal before the government, the military, or evildoers can take it away.
Then everything changes when the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts in an explosion large enough to destroy civilization and kill half the planet. The team has just hours to get as many people as possible across to Outland before a lethal cloud of ash overwhelms them.
Nothing has prepared the refugees for what they find - a world of few resources and unprecedented dangers. Somehow, they must learn to survive, because Outland may not just be a safe haven - it could be their new home.
Roadkill
Three 20-somethings are all that stands between an otherworldly threat and the survival of Earth in the latest thrill ride by Dennis E. Taylor, author of the Audible and New York Times best-selling Bobiverse series.
Jack Kernigan is having a bad day...a bad year...a bad life. After being booted out of MIT, he’s back in his Ohio hometown, working for the family business, facing a life of mediocrity. Then one day, out on a delivery, his truck hits...something. Something big...something furry...something invisible. And, it turns out, something not of this Earth.
Fate can play funny tricks. Which is why Jack suddenly finds himself the planet’s best hope to unravel a conspiracy of galactic proportions that could spell the end of the human race. All Jack and his best friends, Natalie and Patrick, have to defeat an alien threat is their wits, a lot of coffee, and a rather snippy AI named Sheldon. Plus, their own spaceship.
After all, if you’re going to rescue the world, the least you can get out of it is your own spaceship.
Jam
We were prepared for an earthquake. We had a flood plan in place. We could even have dealt with zombies. Probably.
But no one expected the end to be quite so... sticky... or strawberry scented.
Yahtzee Croshaw (Mogworld, Zero Punctuation Reviews) returns to print with a follow-up to his smash-hit debut: Jam, a dark comedy about the one apocalypse no one predicted.
©2012 Yahtzee Croshaw (P)2012 Yahtzee Croshaw
Mogworld
In a world full to bursting with would-be heroes, Jim couldn't be less interested in saving the day. His fireballs fizzle. He's awfully grumpy. Plus, he's been dead for about sixty years. When a renegade necromancer wrenches him from eternal slumber and into a world gone terribly, bizarrely wrong, all Jim wants is to find a way to die properly, once and for all.
On his side, he's got a few shambling corpses, an inept thief, and a powerful death wish. But he's up against tough odds: angry mobs of adventurers, a body falling apart at the seams—and a team of programmers racing a deadline to hammer out the last few bugs in their AI.
*Mogworld is the debut novel from video-game icon Yahtzee Croshaw (Zero Punctuation)!
©2012 Yahtzee Croshaw (P)2012 Yahtzee Croshaw
Magic 2.0
6 book series
Off to Be the Wizard Publisher's Summary
An io9 Can't Miss Science Fiction and Fantasy title in March 2014.
Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.
What could possibly go wrong?
An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.
©2013 Scott Meyer (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Old Man’s War
7 books in series
Summary
With only a few planets in the universe capable of sustaining life, each new discovery means a knock-down, drag-out war for resources—and even the oldest fighters are valued assets.
At age 75, retired advertising writer John Perry enlists in the Colonial Defense Forces. Along with other geriatric recruits (aka the “Old Farts”), he claws his way through battles with alien life-forms for a claim to the universe’s scarce habitable planets. After a series of sometimes bizarre tests, Perry is given a new, genetically-enhanced body. While moving up the ranks, he begins to struggle with the psychological changes that come with his new physique and its enhanced strength, speed, and senses. He takes part in battles against threats from the nanotech Covandu to the formidable Rraey, a man-eating species set on stripping precious coral reefs. After his ship is shot down, leaving him stranded as the only survivor, Perry is rescued by the CDF’s mysterious Ghost Brigades. Between political manipulation and his own accomplishments, he’s promoted to captain—but his battles are far from over. This gripping military sci-fi series follows Perry and other Special Forces and lab-grown soldiers as they fight against all kinds of adversaries to save what’s left of humanity.
William Dufris brings John Perry to life as the narrator of most of the main series. He perfectly captures the perseverance of an old soldier who grows tired of the constant fighting and terrifying encounters. His honeyed, somewhat gravelly voice encapsulates Perry both young and old with ease. Tavia Gilbert, Stephanie Wolfe, and author John Scalzi narrate spin-off audiobooks, exploring the lives of the other players in this unending intergalactic war.
These military science fiction novels deal with many themes common to the genre, including the ethics of life extension and body modification for battle, the significance of mortality, and what it means to be human, along with exploring issues of friendship and marriage. John Scalzi points to Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein as a major influence for his series.
Old Man’s War was ranked #1 on the Tor.com readers’ poll for Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel of the Decade, 2000–2010, on #1 on a Locus readers’ poll for Best Science Fiction Novel of the 21st Century. It is listed on the NPR.com readers’ poll of the Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books/Series.
The Interdependency
3 books in series
The Collapsing Empire Publisher's Summary
2018 Locus Award, Best Science Fiction Novel
Our universe is ruled by physics, and faster-than-light travel is not possible - until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transports us to other worlds, around other stars.
Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war - and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.
The Flow is eternal - but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it's discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster-than-light travel forever, three individuals - a scientist, a starship captain, and the empress of the Interdependency - are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.
©2017 John Scalzi (P)2017 Audible, Inc.