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Audiobooks

5 Science-Fiction and Fantasy Audiobooks I’ve Loved

Hello audiophiles, it’s Amanda here (Book Riot’s Managing Editor), filling in for Katie while she’s on vacation. I’m usually a nonfiction-only audiobook listener because my brain can wander for a few minutes without missing an essential plot point, but this year I’ve discovered audiobooks are also my favorite way to ingest sci-fi and fantasy. Having the story read to me means I absorb the worldbuilding more thoroughly (I have a bad skimming habit), and don’t waste time trying to figure out how to pronounce the names of distant planets and alien races. This week, I’m recommending some SFF audiobooks I’ve really enjoyed.


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Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Jane Austen plus magic! Jane (the main character) is a plain girl from a respectable family (the mother’s weak nerves and tendencies to ~hysterics~ will be familiar to Austen readers), who is also extremely talented at working glamour–this world’s version of magic. Her sister, the beautiful and charming Melody, has more sensibility than sense, and also lacks Jane’s magical talents. The two fall in and out of love, attend many dances, and smell many English roses. This is great light fantasy for people who don’t want the full-on Lord of the Rings/dragons/political intrigue of high fantasy.

A Planet for Rent by Yoss, translated by David Frye

For the more old-school sci-fi fans! Yoss is Cuba’s most well-known science fiction writer, and he really deftly pays homage to classic sci-fi writers while using the tropes to criticize and analyze his home country. In the near future, Earth is so poor and environmentally savaged that the population allows it to be overtaken by alien colonizers, who turn it into a tourist destination for dangerous and untrustworthy species. The humans stuck under the rule of this galactic capitalist machine must make livings however they can–often in terrible ways.

Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee

Carr Luka is a rising star in zeroboxing (weightless mixed martial arts, where matches are held in a gravity-free cube). He’s escaped a dead-end life on Earth and is on his way to being rich and famous, until a huge secret and a blackmail plot derail his plans. The narrator (Stefan Rudnicki) has this excellent gravely voice, making the book sound like it’s being narrated by someone who probably coached Rocky at one point.

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Kel Cheris is a disgraced military Captain, accused (and guilty) of using unconventional methods to win a battle (in this universe, being unconventional is functionally heresy and has terrible consequences). To redeem herself, she’s given the opportunity to retake the Fortress of Scattered Needles. The catch is: she has to let the undead consciousness of a genocidal General who never lost a battle take up residence in her mind to assist her. This is heavy sci-fi, and very mathematical, so not for the faint of heart!

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

Brujas! In! Brooklyn! Alex is a bruja, and one of the most powerful of her generation…but she hates it. Magic probably got her father killed and does nothing but complicate her life, so on her Deathday celebration she casts a dangerous spell to rid herself of her powers. It backfires, sending her whole family into through a magical portal. With the help of her best-friend-probably-crush, and a neighborhood brujo boy she doesn’t know or trust, Alex must travel through the portal to save everyone she loves.

That’s it for this week! Don’t forget we’re giving away a $500 gift card to the bookstore of your choice over on the site. Katie will be back next week for your regularly scheduled programming!