The Unknown Universe: A New Exploration of Time, Space, and Modern Cosmology, by Stuart Clark (author), Stephen Hoye (narrator)

Audible Audio, September 2016

It's been fun, over the past few years, reading accounts of recent developments in physics, astronomy, and cosmology. The universe doesn't look the way we thought it did at the start of the 20th century. There are many galaxies, not just one. The universe is expanding. There doesn't appear to be enough matter--enough ordinary matter--to keep the galaxies together, and the rate at which the universe is expanding appears to be accelerating.

The explanations offered for these last two developments are dark matter and dark energy. In this case, "dark" merely means that we do not have the faintest idea what they really are. We can't detect them. They don't seem to interact with ordinary matter at all. Except they hold galaxies together and expand the universe...

The Dispatcher, by John Scalzi (author), Zachary Quinto (narrator)

Audible Studios, October 2016

One day, the world changed, in a simple but far-reaching way. It's now nearly impossible to intentionally kill anyone.

If you kill yourself, you're dead. If you die in an accident, or of natural causes, you're dead. Butif someone intentionally kills you, 999 out of a thousand, you come back. You wake up alive, naked, and in what you consider a safe place.

Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher, a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch someone in immediate danger of death so that they have (999 times out of 1,000) a second chance at beating the cause of death. Dispatchers are, for instance, required to be present for all surgical operations by both the patient's and the hospital's insurance.

Halcyon (The Complex #1), by Demelza Carlton

Lost Plot Press, December 2016

Galen Tasker is chasing the terrorist who murdered his parents ten years ago. That killer is Halcyon, a Siren, a female Mer. The chase has brought him to the Complex, a daring new experiment in peaceful living, an end to war between Humans and Metas--an array of what appear to the reader to be genetically modified descendants of Humans. Humans and Metas, though, appear to believe they are unrelated. The many varieties of Metas that exist are an added complication for Meta-averse Humans, like Galen.

Galen's an engineer, the new chief engineer of the newly completed Complex. He really, really wants to end the violence, and support the peace that the Complex is supposed to be the beginning of, but he doesn't see any contradiction between his desire to kill Halcyon, and his desire to end the violence.

Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal (author,narrator)

Audible Studios, August 2016

Ginger Stuyvesant is a young American heiress, who moves to London to be with her aunt, and meets a British army officer. She and Captain Benjamin Harford become engaged, just in time for World War One.

Ginger and her aunt are both mediums, and in this very slightly alternate world, the British army recognizes a potential advantage. Ginger and her aunt become part of the "London branch," a corps of mediums and their supporting circles. British soldiers are conditioned, by a secret method, to report in to the mediums when they are killed in action. They can't pass beyond the veil until they've made their last report. This gives the British an often critical advantage.

The Germans don't have s similar corps because they still burn witches. They've realized something is going on, though, and are now trying to find the "conditioning" method, so they can have their own similar corps of, as they imagine it, ghost spies.

Penric and the Shaman (Penric and Desdemona #2), by Lois McMaster Bujold

Spectrum Literary Agency, June 2016

It's four years after the events of Penric's Demon, and Penric is fully trained and invested as a divine; he's now Learned Penric. And of course, a sorcerer. He's serving at the court of the Princess-Archdivine. He is continuing his mostly scholarly work, as he and Desdemona become better acquainted and better at working together, when a Locator of the Father's Order arrives seeking assistance. He's been assigned to seek and bring back to Easthome a shaman accused of murder.

A killer shaman is dangerous; he can't pursue one without a sorcerer and at least a small armed troop. Unfortunately, Oswyl has had a difference of opinion with the sorcerer and troop originally assigned to assist him. They've gone off in pursuit in a direction he thinks unlikely on the evidence, and he's asking the Princess-Archdivine to supply the sorcerer and troop he needs.

She does, and the sorcerer, of course, is Penric.

Alliance of Equals (Arc of the Covenants #2) (Liaden Universe #19), by Sharon Lee (author), Steve Miller (author), Kevin T. Collins (narrator)

Audible Studios, July 2016

Clan Korval is still in the process of recovering and rebuilding from the their abrupt relocation from Liad to Surebleak. The Department of the Interior is still out to destroy them. Daav and Aelliana are still caught between life and death in the not yet fully stabilized new bodies Uncle has made for them.

Padi yos'Galen, Shan's halfling daughter, is working as apprentice Trader on Dutiful Passage, She's lost time due to the disruptive effects of Plan B on everyone in the Clan, but she wants her full Trader's license as soon after her eighteenth name day as possible. It's just a little tougher because formerly friendly ports no longer are, and some don't reveal themselves until the Passage is in port and has started trying to trade.

The Masked City (Invisible Library #2), by Genevieve Cogman (author), Susan Duerden (narrator)

Audible Studios, December 2015

Irene, agent of the Invisible Library, is now well established in an alternate London as the Resident Librarian. Together with her apprentice, Kai, she attends a dubiously legal auction to acquire a copy of a not actually illegal book for the Library, annoying some people in the process.

When they are waylaid on the way home, they're puzzled by several aspects of this attempt to, apparently, get the book--especially by the fact that, when overcome and questioned, the thief admits to being sent by a member of the Fae, associated with the Lichtenstein embassy. It gets stranger when Lord Silver, an old adversary among the Fae, the next morning gives them an oblique and confusing warning about possible danger.

First Death (Seventeen 0.1), by A.D. Starrling (author), Michael Bower (narrator)

AD Starrling, March 2016

This short story is a prequel in the world of "Seventeen," Starrling's ongoing saga of two races of immortals living alongside normal humans throughout our history. In thee first book, there are references to Lucas parents being killed--repeatedly, because the immortals revive back into life the first sixteen times they're killed--and Lucas himself being killed a time or two before he manages to escape into the woods.

"First Death" tells that story from the viewpoint of seven-year-old Lucas. It's well-told,with a convincing child's view of the world, and contains hints of things that are more fully developed in the novels. Worth reading for any fan of the series, and an easy "taster" introduction if you haven't found them yet.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of the audio of this story from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements, by Adrienne Marie Brown (editor), Walidah Imarisha (editor), Je Nie Fleming (narrator)

Audible Studios, April 2016 (original publication AK Press, 2015)

As the subtitle makes clear, this is an anthology with an agenda, and it's an agenda that will inflame certain parties in recent kerfuffles in the science fiction community.

That said, this is an enjoyable collection. The stories are varied in setting, viewpoint, and kind. There's an incipient uprising against both a hoard of zombies and the politically repressive response to the zombie hoard. There's a gentle story of a woman attempting to reconnect with both her dead grandfather and her very much alive daughter, in an alternate history where the Civil War started in 1859, and the slaves won. A woman has to decide how she's going to react to a government that's finally responding to global warming, in a way that may be both too much, and not enough. One choice will cut her off from her mother and the place she grew up; another will cut her off from her partner and her life now. Is there a third choice, and can she do it? A young man who is the token black superhero opts out of the nonsense--until he finds out how he matters to young people, and a away to make a contribution that matters to him.

Kingfisher, by Patricia A. McKillip (author), Bernadette Dunne (narrator)

Audible Studios, March 2016

In a world where modern technology exists alongside magic, the magical beasts are not yet quite extinct, and King Arden reigns in the capital city of Severluna, Pierce Oliver has grown up the son of a sorceress who has retired from court to raise her son on a rather bleak cape, where she runs a restaurant. When she finally tells her son the truth about his father, a knight at King Arden's court, she sets off a chain of events that will have major repercussions.

Pierce sets out for Severluna, driving his car because that's the kind of fantasy this is. He's not quite there when he finds himself in Chimera Bay, at the Kingfisher Inn--or at least the restaurant that operates in the remains of the Kingfisher Inn. One of the men there is also a wolf; a young woman who cooks there is strange in her own ways--and is about to make a big mistake. And while there, Pierce witnesses a strange ritual involving a large knife, which he then feels compelled to steal.

Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire (author), Cynthia Hopkins (narrator)

Macmillan Audio, ISBN 9781427279095, April 2016

Nancy is the newest arrival at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children--in reality, children like Nancy, who have experienced unreality in the form of fantasy-like alternate worlds. They stumbled through doorways that shouldn't have been there, and found themselves in worlds where they felt more at home than they ever had in their "real" homes.

Nancy spent time in the Halls of the Dead, learning stillness, silence, and patience. Nancy's roommate, Sumi, spent time in a "high nonsense" world and is in love with a Candy Corn farmer who is now, she assumes, lost to her. Kade sojourned in Faerie, and was thrown out when they realized he was only biologically female; Kade is a transgender boy. Jack (Jacqueline) and Jill (Jillian) are identical twins who spent time in a horror movie come to life, where Jill fell in love with a vampire and Jack trained to be a Mad Scientist. They all hope to get home again, and they all know their chances are really, really low. But at least they're among people who understand, people they can trust.

Albatross:About Quantum Physics, Human Beings, and Other Strange Things, by R.A. MacAvoy, and Nancy Palmer

Sanachie Press, ISBN 2940157997915, February 2016

Dr. Rob MacAuley is a brilliant physicist from the Outer Hebrides. He's also on the run, convicted in absentia of terrorism and murder. It's an absurd charge against a gentle and largely apolitical man, but it's a symptom of a Britain grown ever more paranoid, that has split from the EU at a cost its leadership could have calculated but didn't, and where the Scottish Parliament was dissolved eighteen months ago.

Rob is, through no fault of his own, a figurehead, or perhaps mascot would be a better word, of the Scottish Separatist movement.

Oh, and he has this odd thing he does, when startled or alarmed, that he calls "flinching," and that someone else might call moving from one spot to another without crossing the intervening distance.

Thomas Heddiman, American, machine intelligence specialist, anti-human trafficking activist, and karate expert, has a whole different set of problems. He's currently volunteering his services to the Edinburgh police for reasons not apparent to those he's working with.

Their paths are about to cross in a most unexpected way, in a Britain growing increasingly dark.

Thomas is very close-mouthed about what his real purpose is. Rob is sending letters under false names to physicists all over the world, asking questions that he hopes will nudge them toward the same breakthrough he's made. He doesn't want to be the only one who has the ability to publish and share his Unity Theory, so that it at least can't become a weapon for just one power.

This is an engaging and challenging book, with diverse and fascinating characters. The time is just about a quarter century in the future, and it's a recognizable but different world.

Those who fondly remember Tea With the Black Dragon will find some themes in common, but they are very different books. If one insists on placing it in a genre category, it's fantasy.

I should probably admit, in a spirit of full disclosure, that I feel that R.A. MacAvoy hasn't written nearly enough. I'm not previously familiar with Nancy Palmer, but regardless of any other contribution she made, another MacAvoy novel is something to be grateful for.

Go read it; you won't regret it.

I received a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Finding Me (Finding Me #1), by Dawn Brazil

Booktrope, ISBN 9781497343887, March 2016

Chloe Carmichael is seventeen, rich, and mostly pretty pampered. She does have her frustrations with her mother, who is very into appearances, and has insisted that she date "the right boy,"--Zach. She and Zach regard each other as friends, but they both agree to be "boyfriend and girlfriend" to others, due to maternal pressure. She has good friends, though, likes her science classes, and figures that in another couple of years, she'll be at college and not so much under her mother's thumb.

Then strange things start to happen. She has a strange, frightening vision of Zach being murdered--shortly before he is really murdered, exactly as she envisioned. She starts seeing strange things, hearing voices, and having strange dreams. A new group of kids at school tell her they know why; she's one of them, part of a special group with a mission, to protect humanity.

And they tell Chloe that although she doesn't remember it, her name is really Amanda, and they've known each other for several lifetimes.