9 Sublime New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Audiobooks
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Earlier this year, I changed jobs. Yay, new job! Boo, longer commute. At least, that’s what I thought at first. But then I remembered that more commute time means more audiobook time. Combine that with yard work and long bicycle rides, and I’ve been devouring audiobooks. Particularly, I’ve been digging some new sci-fi and fantasy audiobooks.
Now, it would be easy to just name off some great new science fiction and fantasy books that also have been recorded as audiobooks. But that would ignore how much of a difference a great narrator or narrators can make to an audiobook. No matter how great the text, a bad narrator can ruin the audiobook experience. A great narrator, on the other hand, can elevate the text beyond what the author had even imagined.
As an actor, I totally get this. My author brain is always thinking about all of the characters and the world, how every part of the story works together as a whole. My actor brain looks at each character, understanding that they are the hero of their own story, and how different subtext in line delivery can drastically alter how a line lands. In that way, an audiobook narrator is like a symphony conductor who is also playing all of the instruments.
So, looking back at 2024 so far, here are nine incredible new sci-fi and fantasy audiobooks.
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan, narrated by Soneela Nankani
In South Africa there sits a once-grand estate now in ruins. Squatting there is a group of misfits. Sana is one of them and can’t help but poke around the old place, obsessed with the estate’s complicated history. She finds clutter, broken things, and a door that refuses to open. At first. What she eventually finds on the other side is more than she could have imagined.
Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo, narrated by Joel de la Fuente
You want a twisted murder mystery in space? Commentary on classism? You got it. Space Habitat Altaire is a high-end resort in low Earth orbit, the perfect place for the Rochford Institute reunion. Where else would the world’s elite meet? But while these muckety-mucks jostle for position, something much deadlier is afoot.
Exordia by Seth Dickinson, narrated by Sulin Hasso
Anna works in an office, as disaffected as any worker. She’s also a refugee and survivor of genocide. When a strange, snake-like, multi-headed alien named Ssrin arrives in Anna’s life, everything changes. There are universe-spanning stakes at play, a disaster that affects all of humanity, and personal demons to contend with here.
The Fox Wife written and narrated by Yangsze Choo
It’s always special when the author handles the narration like with this beautiful book. As the Qing empire is dying in 1908, a courtesan is found dead, frozen on a doorstep. So begins a gorgeous novel that follows mortals and spirits, sifting through a mysterious murder, curses, vengeance, and the ties that bind mortals to the greater world.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell, narrated by Carmen Rose
This book is so wildly inventive and perfectly narrated, absolutely one of the best new sci-fi and fantasy audiobooks. Shesheshen is a monster, a shapeshifter. Wounded, she finds herself in the care of Homily, a kind human. Soon, Shesheshen catches feelings and wants to lay her eggs in Homily, but that’s now how humans love. Oh, and Homily is actually hunting a monster that cursed her family. Can Shesheshen keep her secret and survive?
Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson, narrated by Angel Pean
Scales is a skilled mechanic and fighter in service to Emperor, who brutally rules Ashtown. Ashtown itself sits in the shadow of the wealthy, walled Wiley City. When a woman is mangled in front of Scales, the uneasy peace between city and town is threatened. Now it’s up to Scales and a couple of unusual partners to get to the bottom of it and protect everyone.
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir
I adore multiple narrators, and this book does it with a short and awesome story. In a world that has lost its elephants, Moscow resurrects mammoths. Except they don’t know how to be mammoths. When the leading elephant behaviorist is murdered, her consciousness is transferred into the mind of the matriarch mammoth. Can she lead the herd to survival?
In Universes by Emet North, narrated by Natalie Naudus and Xe Sands
I love how mind-bending this book is. Raffi works at an observational cosmology lab. When she’s not working, she’s visiting Britt, a queer sculptor. Raffi wonders what life would be like if Britt was as interested in Raffi as Raffi is in them, when suddenly they’re both 13 and friends. Reality keeps shifting, showing them different ways their lives intersect, twisting and spinning into deeper and deeper truths.
Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase, narrated by Christel Mutombo
We’re finishing with beautiful and heavy. In this cyberpunk dystopia, women like Nelah are microchipped. Living in a body she wasn’t born in, she’s married to a man who peruses her memories each day, looking for infractions. Desperate to have a child and hiding an affair, a drug-fueled evening ends tragically. After Nelah buries the body, the ghost comes back to hunt down her loved ones. Can Nelah save herself, the people she loves, and unravel the mystery behind it all?
What are some of your favorite new sci-fi and fantasy audiobooks? When you’re picking a new audiobook read, are you driven more by the author or the narrator? They’re both so important!
