Audiobooks 05/14/21

Finally! The sequel to Incendiary and conclusion to the Hollow Crown duology is here! I’m about to give a spoiler for Incendiary, so stop reading now if you intend on reading it. Go! Be Gone!

For those of you who are still reading, Renata and Prince Castian are on their way back to Puerto Leones to bring justice to the kingdom. Ren is reeling from betrayal by the Whispers and unsure if she can trust Castian and his bombshell revelations (oof! that ending!), but she and ol’ princey prince embark on a dangerous mission to find the fabled Knife of Memory, kill b*tch a** King Fernando, and bring peace to the nation. (YA fantasy)

Read by Frankie Corzo (Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Incendiary)

This is the third book and first full-length novel in The Dead Djinn universe, all set in an alternative, steampunk version of Cairo in 1912 (see my latest listen for more!). Special Investigator Fatma el Sha-arawi has been tasked with investigating the murder of a brotherhood dedicated to a Sudanese mystic. The murderer claims to be that very mystic, al-Jahiz, a man who disappeared decades ago after tearing a hole in the veil between the magical and mundane worlds. Together with her partner and a friend from Dead Djinn in Cairo (ehhem love interest ehhem), Fatma sets out to solve the case and uncover the truth about this self-professed prophet.

Read by Suehyla El-Attar (A Dead Djinn in Cairo)

Jessamyn Teoh has just moved back to Malaysia with her parents after not having been back since she was a toddler. She’s closeted, broke, has no job, no prospects, so this homecoming isn’t exactly triumphant. When she begins to hear a voice in her head, she at first chalks it up to stress. Turns out that voice is actually her dead grandmother, who in her life was an avatar to a deity called the Black Water Sister. Ah Ma wants revenge on a business magnate who insulted the Black Water Sister, and she’s going to use Jessamyn to get that vengeance—even if it’s against her will.

Read by Catherine Ho (Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim, How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang)

A brain implant called a Pilot is the hot new thing taking the country by storm, going from a curiosity to a necessity to facilitate multitasking and keep up with school or work. Soon the implications are clear: you either get a Pilot or get left behind. And why wouldn’t you get one? They’re subsidized and they’re everywhere! “Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot’s powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.”

Read by Bernadette Dunne (We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson)

In the ancient city of Bassa, Danso is a scholar on the brink of achieving a greatness that he did not ask for and doesn’t want. What he does want is to explore what lies beyond the city walls, a place the Bassai elite claim contains nothing of interest. “But when Danso stumbles across a warrior wielding magic that shouldn’t exist, he’s put on a collision course with Bassa’s darkest secrets. Drawn into the city’s hidden history, he sets out on a journey beyond its borders.”

Read by Korey Jackson (Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles, Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson)

When she isn’t out there fighting for democracy, Stacey Abrams is an author! She’s published several romance novels under the name name of Selena Montgomery as well as a book on leadership and activism (Lead from the Outside). Her first legal/political thriller, set within the halls of the US Supreme Court, is about young law clerk Avery Keene. Her life is completely upended when she learns that one of the Supreme Court justices has slipped into a coma and left instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian and power of attorney. As she’s plunged into a role she never saw coming, she discovers that justice may have secretly been researching a controversial case—and “suspected a dangerously related conspiracy that infiltrates the highest power corridors of Washington.”

Read by Adenrele Ojo (Call Your Daughter Home by by Deb Spera, Conjure Women by Afia Atakora)

Like I mentioned above, The Dead Djinn universe is set in an alternative, steampunk version of Cairo in 1912. Decades earlier, it’s said that Sudanese mystic and inventor al-Jahiz shook the world when he literally drilled a hole in the veil between the magical world and the non-magical world using a mix of magic and machinery, then disappeared. Some say he still roams both the magical and non-magical realms, wreaking havoc and chaos in his wake.

Because the world is now magical, beings like Angels and Djinn exist alongside humans. Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha-arawi, the youngest woman working for the Ministry or Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, is investigating what appears at first to be the suicide of a Djinn. The case sends her on a ride through the city’s underbelly that brings her into contact with nefarious ghouls, assassins, clockwork angels, and a sinister plot that could alter the course of time.

This is a shorty at just over an hour, but I was sucked into the story from the very beginning thanks to Suehyla El-Attar’s stellar performance. She really embodies the quirk and swagger of our investigator and gives a distinct voice to the myriad characters—both human and fantastical—packed into this fast-paced novella. El-Attar also leans into the book’s examination of gender, class, and colonialism with her delivery. Readers (listeners) won’t be able to look away from what this tiny wonder of a book has to say.

Come for the steampunk details and world building, stay for the colonialism side eye and feminist themes. This was so, so much fun.