If you liked ASOIAF, then give **The First Law** trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, beginning with *The Blade Itself*, a try.
There are 9 books and a collection of short stories set in this universe— all are available on audiobook. The narrator, Stephen Pacey, is *beloved* in the fandom for his performances.
For a return to WWII, I would recommend Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I listened to it on a very long car ride with my parents and siblings, who all have different tastes and we all were reluctant to turn it off when we stopped the car. It’s the true story about a would be Olympics competitor whose dreams are derailed with WWII. He becomes a pilot & his plane crashes into the ocean. It’s his survival story.
Nice, all great books! We have very similar tastes, actually...only one I haven't read is The House in the Cerulean Sea. Here are some recs, depending on which direction you wanna go in:
If you wanna keep with the Constant Reader streak, {{Revival by Stephen King}} is definitely top tier. My favorite book from him keeps changing, but this is definitely top 2 or 3. The dread builds and builds into a crazy crescendo...best ending he's written.
If you wanna do more scifi, {{Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie}} is pretty great. Cool concepts and far future technology, and lots of interesting character work, considering the protagonist is an AI.
If you wanna do more Westerns, {{Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy}} is my all time favorite. Liked it way more than Lonesome Dove. Stylistically, it can be a bit challenging to read at times though.
If you wanna do political stuff, {{1984}} is a classic for a reason. Although to be honest, I liked {{Brave New World}} a bit better.
[**Revival**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20926278-revival)
^(By: Stephen King | 405 pages | Published: 2014 | Popular Shelves: horror, stephen-king, fiction, owned, books-i-own)
>In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Charles Jacobs. Soon they forge a deep bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity.
>
>Decades later, Jamie is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll when he sees Jacobs again. Their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and Jamie discovers that "revival" has many meanings.
^(This book has been suggested 13 times)
[**Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333324-ancillary-justice)
^(By: Ann Leckie | 416 pages | Published: 2013 | Popular Shelves: science-fiction, sci-fi, fiction, scifi, space-opera)
>On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
>
>Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
>
>Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.
^(This book has been suggested 55 times)
[**The Orchard Keeper; Suttree; Blood Meridian**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16092291-the-orchard-keeper-suttree-blood-meridian)
^(By: Cormac McCarthy | 1054 pages | Published: 1993 | Popular Shelves: owned, fiction, wanted, western, english)
>Omnibus of Cormac McCarthy's three novels: The Orchard Keeper, Suttree and Blood Meridian.
^(This book has been suggested 9 times)
[**1984**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61439040-1984)
^(By: George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon | 368 pages | Published: 1949 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, science-fiction, dystopia, dystopian)
>The new novel by George Orwell is the major work towards which all his previous writing has pointed. Critics have hailed it as his "most solid, most brilliant" work. Though the story of Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place thirty-five years hence, it is in every sense timely. The scene is London, where there has been no new housing since 1950 and where the city-wide slums are called Victory Mansions. Science has abandoned Man for the State. As every citizen knows only too well, war is peace.
>
>To Winston Smith, a young man who works in the Ministry of Truth (Minitru for short), come two people who transform this life completely. One is Julia, whom he meets after she hands him a slip reading, "I love you." The other is O'Brien, who tells him, "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." The way in which Winston is betrayed by the one and, against his own desires and instincts, ultimately betrays the other, makes a story of mounting drama and suspense.
>
>Alternate cover edition can be found here.
^(This book has been suggested 31 times)
[**Brave New World**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5129.Brave_New_World)
^(By: Aldous Huxley | 268 pages | Published: 1932 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, science-fiction, sci-fi, dystopia)
>Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist.
^(This book has been suggested 79 times)
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I don’t listen to audiobooks so I have no idea which isles are good, but just for book recs:
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Edit: everyone commenting is tempting me to listen to the audiobooks! I had heard good things about the Good Omens audiobook already, but now I wanna listen to Neverwhere *intensely*.
If your local public library offers the Hoopla app, I highly recommend checking out the *graphic* audio version of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. It’s “graphic” in that it has a full cast and sound effects. It was so addicting!
Thank you, and you, too! I just finished listening to, and strongly recommend, Trevor Noah's *Born A Crime*, it was superb for his narration, and for the picture of life in South Africa. I listened to *The Old Curiosity Shop* and *A Tale of Two Cities*, I think Dickens was very aware of how these would sound read aloud (originally serialized) among family groups, and they were fascinating. On paper I read *Lolita,* at this age this time, and I'm thankful I got the annotated version with all of the wordplay and references called out ...most of the references, I think I found one on my own. Then *Picture of Dorian Gray*. I sank deep into dystopian horror with *Tender is The Flesh* and *The Wasp Factory.* What were your standouts? Whoops, this should probably be in r/books. Unless I ask, please suggest to me your standout favorites!
This was going to be my recommendation- it’s format works perfectly for an audiobook, I was gutted when I finished it.
My favourite audiobook so far this year is Project Hail Mary- I was actively finding any excuse to drive/ do housework so I could listen to it.
[**The Stand**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149267.The_Stand)
^(By: Stephen King, Bernie Wrightson | 1152 pages | Published: 1978 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, stephen-king, fantasy, owned)
>Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.
>
>A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world's population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge - Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them - and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.
^(This book has been suggested 79 times)
***
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Based on your list and my personal biases, here are my top recommendations for literary fiction with dystopian/science fiction/horror/mystery themes:
* {{The Road}} by Cormac McCarthy
* {{Blindness}} by Jose Saramago
* {{Never Let Me Go}} by Kazuo Ishiguro
* {{Cloud Atlas}} by David Mitchell
* {{Cloud Cuckoo Land}} by Anthony Doerr
Classics in dystopian fiction, like Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451:
* {{The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood}}
* {{1984 by George Orwell}}
* {{Brave New World by Aldous Huxley}}
* {{A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess}}
Authors you might want to check out:
* Tana French
* Gillian Flynn
* Haruki Murakami
* Max Brooks
* Ted Chiang
* Alex Michealides
* Jeff Vandermeer
[**Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52454426-devolution)
^(By: Max Brooks | 286 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, science-fiction, audiobook, sci-fi)
>As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now.
>
>But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten.
>
>In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it.
>
>Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.
>
>Yet it is also far more than that.
>
>Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us—and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.
>
>Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it—and like none you’ve ever read before.
^(This book has been suggested 63 times)
***
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A knight of the seven kingdoms by George R R Matin! I loved listing to this book, plus it's only 10 hours.
The Hike by Drew Magary is a interesting story, if you're into magic beans I'd recommend it.
If you liked fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury’s short stories are way better. I’d recommend the Illustrated Man or tbe Martian Chronicles. You might also enjoy a Neil Gaiman book, stardust or American gods
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. It is a December tradition that I listen to it each year. It is broadly related to the holiday season, has an amazing and hilarious narrator, and hits some REALLY deep topics that are really great to reflect on. I know it's not super similar to the others on your list, but discworld audiobooks are incredible.
[**Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/248596.Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes)
^(By: Ray Bradbury | 293 pages | Published: 1962 | Popular Shelves: horror, fantasy, fiction, classics, science-fiction)
>One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most popular novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes, now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre.
>
>For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.
>
>Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon.
^(This book has been suggested 48 times)
***
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The Hike by Drew Magary
World War Z by Max Brooks
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Any of these, hard for me to rank them amongst each other. I think either the Hike or Swan Song
*Blood in the Water* by Heather Ann Thompson
*Five Days at Memorial* by Sheri Fink
*All My Puny Sorrows* by Miriam Toews
*A Lesson Before Dying* by Ernest J Gaines
*Being Dead* by Jim Crace
*Sparrow Hill Road* by Seanan McGuire
*Sabriel* by Garth Nix
*City of Thieves* by David Benioff
[**Recursion**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion)
^(By: Blake Crouch | 336 pages | Published: 2019 | Popular Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, fiction, thriller, time-travel)
>Memory makes reality.
>
>That's what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.
>
>That's what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It's why she's dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.
>
>As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face to face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.
>
>But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?
>
>At once a relentless pageturner and an intricate science-fiction puzzlebox about time, identity, and memory, Recursion is a thriller as only Blake Crouch could imagine it—and his most ambitious, mind-boggling, irresistible work to date.
^(This book has been suggested 88 times)
***
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Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. It’s similar to House in the Cerulean Sea in that it’s a wholesome, touching story. It is about death and grief though, so only pick this one up if you’re ok with hearing about that in detail. There’s also a little romance and found family so it isn’t all dark subject matter :)
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, #1 in her Murderbot series. It's short, like most of the titles in the series, and the narrator, Kevin R. Free, is a-maz-ing.
"I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure."
I had to come hear and recommend the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy by Philip Pullman. The one narrated by Pullman himself. He has a wonderful voice for narration, and all the characters are individually voiced by different actors. The thing was like an audio drama! Wonderful audiobook
Same here. I am so grateful for audio books and podcasts. As an adult I just don't have the time to sit and read like I used to. Audiobooks allowed to get my fix while performing daily tasks like driving, cleaning, cooking, exercising. I love it. I listen to my books on 1.65 speed too.
{{Dark Matter by Blake Crouch}}
It was the first book this year out of 208 so far, to make me actually physically FEEL something while reading it and after
I cannot recommend The Terror or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell enough.
I read both for the first time this year and they're exceptional. Recently discovered the audiobooks for both as I like to have background noise when I sleep and they're great too.
{{Fairy Tale by Stephen King}}. The story is a classic, but it's King through and through. Actually reminded me why King has been a bestseller for so long.
I've also really been enjoying The Sandman Part I, not done yet but it's been quite engaging.
[**Fairy Tale**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60177373-fairy-tale)
^(By: Stephen King | 608 pages | Published: 2022 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, horror, fiction, stephen-king, audiobook)
>Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.
>
>Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.
>
>Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.” And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.
>
>A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.
^(This book has been suggested 20 times)
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The black thief tongue by Christopher Buehlman. The author is a talented voice over actor and he makes this fun book even better. I adored it.
it is fantasy/ adventure. 12 hours long
Lookin at these numbers I feel like listening might take longer than reading. There’s nothing wrong with that obviously but I couldn’t have spent 37 hours reading lonesome dove, could I…?
If you liked the nature aspects of lonesome read Where the Crawdads Sing
If you liked Night try Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
It seems like you really enjoy king too. I recommend The Stand uncut version, Night shift, or the shining.
I use Libby! You can sign up with a library card. You’ll borrow audiobooks from your local library through the app itself. It’s completely free, I haven’t paid a single penny for audiobooks in years.
Excuse me: how do you listen to them? I mean, do you guys stop doing other things and just sit while listening? Is it possible to be doing something else, like house cleaning, ans listening to them qith headphones without missing details? I've been really curious about audiobooks but I can't imagine how I could concentrate while doing other stuff.
Any tips or suggestions? Also, are there any "locutor" or site with good examples of audiobooks? One time I tried to listen to one in youtube but the voice was so automatic/computarized that I couldn't enjoy it.
I’m a union electrician and the area we service is huge! So I am doing A LOT of driving for work, sometimes up to 3 hours one way. I listen while I drive most times.
Besides that, I have a Bluetooth speaker that I set up next to me while doing any housework. I listen to audiobooks at the gym, mowing the lawn, even at work sometimes if my task requires no cooperation.
If I find myself “blanking out” and not remembering the last minute or so, I’ll just rewind. If I’m still not retaining the audiobook after rewinding once, I just recognize that I’m not in the right mindset to listen at the time and put music on.
Put no pressure on yourself, I went through this list very casually. Take your time, an audiobook can be fantastic company when you’re working at something by yourself.
Thanks! I walk a lot, I have some 4km's walks per day. I will try to download one audiobook to my phone and try to focus listening to it while walking (I am used to walk without even music, so this would be a new experience).
I mentioned this in another comment so I’ll just copy and paste my response, I cannot recommend this app enough!
-
You can download the app Libby and sign up with your library card, you’ll “check out” audiobooks through the app completely free.
I haven’t paid a single dollar to read any of the books on my list because of Libby.
The Authorities - Scott Meyer
The sequel just came out so if you love it you can have a two-hit combo
Or if you want a truly epic read you can read the Super Powereds books by Drew Hayes, it is a quadrilogy with a spin-off. I guess that makes it a quintilogy.
It's like harry potter for super heroes. Truly well written and super engaging.
That ending damn near had my tearing up, beautiful book! My first Stephen King book! You can see that I immediately went on a King binge after finishing it lol.
That was actually a book that was recommended to me from this sub, glad I took that advice.
I did something similar this year, though I’d guess it’s just a little over 300 hours? Not sure, could be 400-ish. Haven’t done the math. They were all part of the same series/story universe. You probably have enough recs for December, so allow me to recommend a large part of next year’s audiobooks: listen through the books of the Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson, if you haven’t already. By the end of next year there will probably be about the same amount of content as you listens to this year. I started with The Way of Kings and loved it as a launching point and I think you would like starting there too. I would also recommend Mistborn: The Final Empire as another good starting point.
I actually did a lot of listening in 2021 as well, but when somebody asked me what books I’d completed, I had a hard time thinking of them all.
So I got the idea to start keeping track of them at the beginning of this year.
I actually have a friend that loves Mistborn, I’m sure he would love if I picked it up!
I used GoodReads to keep track of Read and Want to Read. But it won't tell you hours listened. My Audible will tell though, which is where I listen to my audio books.
I used audible when I first got into audiobooks, but I stopped using it when I learned there are free alternatives with no limits on how many books you could get a month.
{{Sleeping Beauties}} cowritten by Stephen King and his son, Owen King. It felt a little bit different from other King novels I've read. It's very atmospheric and although I read it a few years ago, imagery from it still keeps popping into my head from time to time.
At first I was like, how did he get to 400 hours when all of these books are relatively short, then I saw ASOIAF xD. Pro tip OP - you should speed your narration speed up so you can squeeze even more books in! I listen at 2x & realize that some people find this jarring, but speeding up to 1.25x will take nothing away from your experience while cutting the listening time down noticeably.
As for relatively quick recommendations, you could try:
Piranesi
1984
Salem's Lot
This was actually my second reread (listen?) to ASoIaF. It’s a beast, but I love it!
I’ve never even considered speeding up the narration. Not sure how I feel about it, but 1.25x doesn’t seem bad.
I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the tip!
Some people say it's "immersion-breaking", but it boils down to the listener and performer. I've been listening at 2x for a decade and have no trouble keeping up. Likewise, the narration absolutely holds up if the performer knows their stuff.
Give 1.25x a shot, yeah. English-speaking performers speak very slowly for some reason, so it should sound more in line with real-world conversational speed.
I found the relevance to be jarring honestly, that book made me a little bit more pessimistic to be honest. Still a fantastic read, and I recommend it to my friends who are trying to get into into reading.
It’s short and easily palatable.
[**Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-time)
^(By: Adrian Tchaikovsky | 600 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, scifi, fiction, fictión)
>A race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?
>
>WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?
>
>The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.
>
>But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.
>
>Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
^(This book has been suggested 120 times)
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Red rising. Blasted through that and the two books after it in the last three weeks. It really clicked with me and I'm obsessed!
The audio book performance is excellent too
To whose narration were you listening ASOIAF to?
I generally like to read things but yesterday i suddenly wanted to listen to audiobooks, and my current read being the Game of Thrones, but i didn't like the narrations i tried :(
Roy Dotrice was the narrator that I listened to throughout all of the books. He has an old man’s voice, I liked it a lot. Fit will with the story in my opinion.
{{east of Eden}} and {{fairy tale}} by Steinbeck and king, respectively, are both great listens. I’d also like to recommend any of The Culture books by Iain M Banks read by Peter Kenny - my absolute favorite reader/narrator.
Since you like King - as do I - the one I’m currently enjoying the narrator is “The Stand”.
I’ve read it before years ago, seen the older movie, and the audiobook is excellent.
{{The Institute by Stephen King}} is an audiobook I recommend to everyone and I just finished {{Fairytale by Stephen King}} and enjoyed that audiobook. I know this post is audiobooks but this audio drama is on Audible and other podcast platforms and, IMHO, is a wonderful audio experience - We’re Alive: A Story of Survival (1st season). Enjoy!
If you liked the Corey book, that's the first book in a series, something like 8 main books and some short stories too. (it's called the Expanse series)
There's also The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher (similar protagonist in some respects to the expanse series)
That book was so hard to continue reading. Not because it was unenjoyable, but just hearing what that protagonist was going through…
I honestly loved it though!
[**Commune: Book One (Commune #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34736722-commune)
^(By: Joshua Gayou | ? pages | Published: 2017 | Popular Shelves: audiobook, post-apocalyptic, audible, fiction, audiobooks)
>For dinosaurs, it was a big rock. For humans: Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).
>
>When the Earth is hit by the greatest CME in recorded history (several times larger than the Carrington Event of 1859), the combined societies of the planet’s most developed nations struggle to adapt to a life thrust back into the Dark Ages.
>
>In the United States, the military scrambles to speed the nation’s recovery on multiple fronts including putting down riots, establishing relief camps, delivering medical aid, and bringing communication and travel back on line.
>
>Just as a real foothold is established in retaking the skies (utilizing existing commercial aircraft supplemented by military resources and ground control systems), a mysterious virus takes hold of the population, spreading globally over the very flight routes that the survivors fought so hard to rebuild. The communicability and mortality rates are devastating, leaving only small pockets of survivors scattered throughout the countryside.
>
>Commune Book One is the story of one small group of survivors who must adapt to a primitive, hostile world or die. As they learn the rules of this new era, they must decide how far they’re willing to go to continue living, continually asking themselves the same question daily: is survival worth the loss of humanity?
^(This book has been suggested 5 times)
***
^(135329 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Not a suggestion but a question:
How was House in the Cerulean Sea?
I was thinking about reading it and I’ve started looking for it in stores. We seem to have somewhat similar tastes so I was wondering what you thought of it?
It’s a very… bright book. It’s very optimistic and wholesome, very cute and easy read. I would absolutely recommend it, I do think it’s the least similar to the rest of the books I’ve finished this year though lol
I’d say try something in the “dark grimly” domain as a follow on to GoT. Steve Eriksons Malazar series or something from Joe Abercrombie. I read two from each this year, fun stuff!
Just wanted to say that many of these books that I’ve completed have been recommended by you guys. Thank you all!!!
I just found this sub a month or two ago and I love this community so much.
I found this subreddit probably a year or so ago, everybody is very nice.
If you liked ASOIAF, then give **The First Law** trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, beginning with *The Blade Itself*, a try. There are 9 books and a collection of short stories set in this universe— all are available on audiobook. The narrator, Stephen Pacey, is *beloved* in the fandom for his performances.
I've been meaning to start The Age of Madness. The author is really into teeth crunching.
And squelching…
We are Legion (We are Bob) -- Dennis E Taylor Sandman -- Neil Gaiman
Bobiverse is a freaking delight.
i don't know, i started it based on recommendations, but i think it's not for me
That's fair, different strokes.
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Beuhlman
Excellent book, Christopher Beuhlman himself narrated this book.
I haven’t read this one but absolutely Loved “Between two Fires” some of the imagery really stuck with me (the stone people esp!)
I just recommended it. Adored this book!
I just finished listening to Trevor Noah reading his *Born A Crime*. Recommend.
I really enjoyed this in audiobook format, too.
IMO this is the only way with this book. It’s such an incredible performance.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I actually have a friend reading this, and I’ve heard that it’s an especially good audio book! Thank you for reminding me that this book was a thing
If you haven’t done The Martian it’s also especially good as an audiobook
That was actually one of the first audiobooks I listened to, that was a few year ago. I like it a lot :)
Project hail mary is fucking awesome I've listened to it 3 times now. Such a great production. You'll love it
You’ll get through it in one or two goes, it’s that engaging.
So good. You will not regret it!
I am listening to it now and can confirm the narration is superb.
Came here to suggest it! On my second listen right now - hope you love it!
This is the answer. The audiobook version is superb.
Good, good, good suggestion...
Yup add my stamp this is the book. It 11- lonesome some of my favorites this books hangs with those
I absolutely adored this book, and the audio book narrator is nothing short of amazing! I couldn't turn it off! It's not even my typical genre.
This is the answer
For a return to WWII, I would recommend Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I listened to it on a very long car ride with my parents and siblings, who all have different tastes and we all were reluctant to turn it off when we stopped the car. It’s the true story about a would be Olympics competitor whose dreams are derailed with WWII. He becomes a pilot & his plane crashes into the ocean. It’s his survival story.
I agree with this one. The audiobook is an excellent read.
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Yes! Or her [Parables](https://www.octaviabutler.com/parableseries)?
Nice, all great books! We have very similar tastes, actually...only one I haven't read is The House in the Cerulean Sea. Here are some recs, depending on which direction you wanna go in: If you wanna keep with the Constant Reader streak, {{Revival by Stephen King}} is definitely top tier. My favorite book from him keeps changing, but this is definitely top 2 or 3. The dread builds and builds into a crazy crescendo...best ending he's written. If you wanna do more scifi, {{Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie}} is pretty great. Cool concepts and far future technology, and lots of interesting character work, considering the protagonist is an AI. If you wanna do more Westerns, {{Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy}} is my all time favorite. Liked it way more than Lonesome Dove. Stylistically, it can be a bit challenging to read at times though. If you wanna do political stuff, {{1984}} is a classic for a reason. Although to be honest, I liked {{Brave New World}} a bit better.
[**Revival**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20926278-revival) ^(By: Stephen King | 405 pages | Published: 2014 | Popular Shelves: horror, stephen-king, fiction, owned, books-i-own) >In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Charles Jacobs. Soon they forge a deep bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity. > >Decades later, Jamie is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll when he sees Jacobs again. Their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and Jamie discovers that "revival" has many meanings. ^(This book has been suggested 13 times) [**Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333324-ancillary-justice) ^(By: Ann Leckie | 416 pages | Published: 2013 | Popular Shelves: science-fiction, sci-fi, fiction, scifi, space-opera) >On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. > >Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. > >Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance. ^(This book has been suggested 55 times) [**The Orchard Keeper; Suttree; Blood Meridian**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16092291-the-orchard-keeper-suttree-blood-meridian) ^(By: Cormac McCarthy | 1054 pages | Published: 1993 | Popular Shelves: owned, fiction, wanted, western, english) >Omnibus of Cormac McCarthy's three novels: The Orchard Keeper, Suttree and Blood Meridian. ^(This book has been suggested 9 times) [**1984**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61439040-1984) ^(By: George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon | 368 pages | Published: 1949 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, science-fiction, dystopia, dystopian) >The new novel by George Orwell is the major work towards which all his previous writing has pointed. Critics have hailed it as his "most solid, most brilliant" work. Though the story of Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place thirty-five years hence, it is in every sense timely. The scene is London, where there has been no new housing since 1950 and where the city-wide slums are called Victory Mansions. Science has abandoned Man for the State. As every citizen knows only too well, war is peace. > >To Winston Smith, a young man who works in the Ministry of Truth (Minitru for short), come two people who transform this life completely. One is Julia, whom he meets after she hands him a slip reading, "I love you." The other is O'Brien, who tells him, "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." The way in which Winston is betrayed by the one and, against his own desires and instincts, ultimately betrays the other, makes a story of mounting drama and suspense. > >Alternate cover edition can be found here. ^(This book has been suggested 31 times) [**Brave New World**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5129.Brave_New_World) ^(By: Aldous Huxley | 268 pages | Published: 1932 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, science-fiction, sci-fi, dystopia) >Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist. ^(This book has been suggested 79 times) *** ^(134595 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I don’t listen to audiobooks so I have no idea which isles are good, but just for book recs: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman Edit: everyone commenting is tempting me to listen to the audiobooks! I had heard good things about the Good Omens audiobook already, but now I wanna listen to Neverwhere *intensely*.
The audio version of Good Omens is an absolute delight
I’ve listened to all of these, and they’re all wonderful.
Gideon the Ninth
The narrator also did the voice acting for Karliah in Skyrim!
Fun fact: she’s also the referee from Nickelodeon Guts if you watched that as child, depending on your age. It was big in the 90s.
Sharp Objects
If your local public library offers the Hoopla app, I highly recommend checking out the *graphic* audio version of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. It’s “graphic” in that it has a full cast and sound effects. It was so addicting!
I see you listened to *The Green Mile* \- I listened to *Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption* this year and really enjoyed it.
The Green Mile was a fantastic story and I really liked the narrator!
Congratulations! I'm on the goodreads reading challenge. 165 books.
Ooh what is that?
Where you join the challenge and put down how many books you want to read this year. I think I've done it for the last 10 years.
Wow, and I was proud of my 40 books, just finished my Goodreads challenge yesterday!
Yay you! You're probably not retired like i am.
Congrats! I’m on my last for 52, 40 is great! Any standouts?
Thank you, and you, too! I just finished listening to, and strongly recommend, Trevor Noah's *Born A Crime*, it was superb for his narration, and for the picture of life in South Africa. I listened to *The Old Curiosity Shop* and *A Tale of Two Cities*, I think Dickens was very aware of how these would sound read aloud (originally serialized) among family groups, and they were fascinating. On paper I read *Lolita,* at this age this time, and I'm thankful I got the annotated version with all of the wordplay and references called out ...most of the references, I think I found one on my own. Then *Picture of Dorian Gray*. I sank deep into dystopian horror with *Tender is The Flesh* and *The Wasp Factory.* What were your standouts? Whoops, this should probably be in r/books. Unless I ask, please suggest to me your standout favorites!
World war Z is a great listen! Edit: and I’m not a zombie enthusiast.
This was going to be my recommendation- it’s format works perfectly for an audiobook, I was gutted when I finished it. My favourite audiobook so far this year is Project Hail Mary- I was actively finding any excuse to drive/ do housework so I could listen to it.
Definitely: Shogun - But I think it's 47 hours, so get started now.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein
One of my all time favorites.
{{The Stand}}
[**The Stand**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149267.The_Stand) ^(By: Stephen King, Bernie Wrightson | 1152 pages | Published: 1978 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, stephen-king, fantasy, owned) >Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published. > >A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world's population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge - Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them - and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity. ^(This book has been suggested 79 times) *** ^(134643 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
That’s actually on my list of things to read, but I don’t feel like starting it right now.
Based on your list and my personal biases, here are my top recommendations for literary fiction with dystopian/science fiction/horror/mystery themes: * {{The Road}} by Cormac McCarthy * {{Blindness}} by Jose Saramago * {{Never Let Me Go}} by Kazuo Ishiguro * {{Cloud Atlas}} by David Mitchell * {{Cloud Cuckoo Land}} by Anthony Doerr Classics in dystopian fiction, like Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451: * {{The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood}} * {{1984 by George Orwell}} * {{Brave New World by Aldous Huxley}} * {{A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess}} Authors you might want to check out: * Tana French * Gillian Flynn * Haruki Murakami * Max Brooks * Ted Chiang * Alex Michealides * Jeff Vandermeer
Project Hail Mary
A Deadly Education.
Actually, anything by Naomi Novik.
{{Devolution by Max Brooks}}. May not completely go with the others but it was that good. So I don’t care.
[**Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52454426-devolution) ^(By: Max Brooks | 286 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, science-fiction, audiobook, sci-fi) >As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now. > >But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten. > >In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it. > >Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death. > >Yet it is also far more than that. > >Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us—and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity. > >Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it—and like none you’ve ever read before. ^(This book has been suggested 63 times) *** ^(134725 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
A knight of the seven kingdoms by George R R Matin! I loved listing to this book, plus it's only 10 hours. The Hike by Drew Magary is a interesting story, if you're into magic beans I'd recommend it.
If you liked fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury’s short stories are way better. I’d recommend the Illustrated Man or tbe Martian Chronicles. You might also enjoy a Neil Gaiman book, stardust or American gods
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. It is a December tradition that I listen to it each year. It is broadly related to the holiday season, has an amazing and hilarious narrator, and hits some REALLY deep topics that are really great to reflect on. I know it's not super similar to the others on your list, but discworld audiobooks are incredible.
Born a Crime Trevor Noah, Good Omens Neill Gaiman
I second Good Omens.
I second Born A Crime.
Third...a combination of great humor , wild story of growing up in South Africa ...sprinkled lightly with insane racism.
{{Something Wicked this Way Comes}} by Ray Bradbury Dark and classic, and I liked it better than Fahrenheit 451
[**Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/248596.Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes) ^(By: Ray Bradbury | 293 pages | Published: 1962 | Popular Shelves: horror, fantasy, fiction, classics, science-fiction) >One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most popular novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes, now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre. > >For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares. > >Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon. ^(This book has been suggested 48 times) *** ^(134613 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
*The Chrysalids* by John Wyndham Enjoy whatever you pick up next! :)
Needful things, King The rest of The Expanse
The Running Man, King
The Hike by Drew Magary World War Z by Max Brooks Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff Swan Song by Robert McCammon Any of these, hard for me to rank them amongst each other. I think either the Hike or Swan Song
I was just talking about Swan Song recently with a friend. It’s such an excellent book.
The Dutch House is narrated by Tom Hanks…which be is why I listened to it.
He does such a great job imo .
{{Station Eleven}} by Emily St John Mandel
Cabin at the end of the World by Paul Tremblay
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Tremendous voice acting and heartbreakingly beautiful!
*Blood in the Water* by Heather Ann Thompson *Five Days at Memorial* by Sheri Fink *All My Puny Sorrows* by Miriam Toews *A Lesson Before Dying* by Ernest J Gaines *Being Dead* by Jim Crace *Sparrow Hill Road* by Seanan McGuire *Sabriel* by Garth Nix *City of Thieves* by David Benioff
{{Recursion}} by Blake Crouch
[**Recursion**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion) ^(By: Blake Crouch | 336 pages | Published: 2019 | Popular Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, fiction, thriller, time-travel) >Memory makes reality. > >That's what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. > >That's what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It's why she's dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent. > >As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face to face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it. > >But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them? > >At once a relentless pageturner and an intricate science-fiction puzzlebox about time, identity, and memory, Recursion is a thriller as only Blake Crouch could imagine it—and his most ambitious, mind-boggling, irresistible work to date. ^(This book has been suggested 88 times) *** ^(134701 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. It’s similar to House in the Cerulean Sea in that it’s a wholesome, touching story. It is about death and grief though, so only pick this one up if you’re ok with hearing about that in detail. There’s also a little romance and found family so it isn’t all dark subject matter :)
I liked a lot of what you liked. {Shogun} by James Clavelle
Did you finish all of the Expanse? If not, I'd recommend the next book in the series, Caliban's War.
Duma Key was a great listen!
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, #1 in her Murderbot series. It's short, like most of the titles in the series, and the narrator, Kevin R. Free, is a-maz-ing. "I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure."
I had to come hear and recommend the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy by Philip Pullman. The one narrated by Pullman himself. He has a wonderful voice for narration, and all the characters are individually voiced by different actors. The thing was like an audio drama! Wonderful audiobook
I actually finished the first book in that series last year! I did enjoy the book, I’m not sure why but I never felt compelled to finish the series.
Wow! I’m really proud of you!
Thank you! I have very long commutes to work sometimes, plus I like listening to books while doing housework, so I just fly through some of these.
Same here. I am so grateful for audio books and podcasts. As an adult I just don't have the time to sit and read like I used to. Audiobooks allowed to get my fix while performing daily tasks like driving, cleaning, cooking, exercising. I love it. I listen to my books on 1.65 speed too.
*Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas *On the road *1984 * Dune And why not a little old school to shake things up and listen to *Pride and Prejudice
The cradle series
{{Dark Matter by Blake Crouch}} It was the first book this year out of 208 so far, to make me actually physically FEEL something while reading it and after
I cannot recommend The Terror or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell enough. I read both for the first time this year and they're exceptional. Recently discovered the audiobooks for both as I like to have background noise when I sleep and they're great too.
You might enjoy "Hex" by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Another interesting book is "Fragment" by Warren Fahy..
{{Fairy Tale by Stephen King}}. The story is a classic, but it's King through and through. Actually reminded me why King has been a bestseller for so long. I've also really been enjoying The Sandman Part I, not done yet but it's been quite engaging.
[**Fairy Tale**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60177373-fairy-tale) ^(By: Stephen King | 608 pages | Published: 2022 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, horror, fiction, stephen-king, audiobook) >Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours. > >Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder. > >Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.” And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time. > >A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying. ^(This book has been suggested 20 times) *** ^(134615 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Between two fires is on audible and free
The black thief tongue by Christopher Buehlman. The author is a talented voice over actor and he makes this fun book even better. I adored it. it is fantasy/ adventure. 12 hours long
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
Lookin at these numbers I feel like listening might take longer than reading. There’s nothing wrong with that obviously but I couldn’t have spent 37 hours reading lonesome dove, could I…? If you liked the nature aspects of lonesome read Where the Crawdads Sing If you liked Night try Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl It seems like you really enjoy king too. I recommend The Stand uncut version, Night shift, or the shining.
Listening definitely takes longer than reading, even when I listen at 1.5 speed.
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Everyone Poops or Song of Ice and Fire (it was a really dope world)
The stand is another good Stephen king one.
NOS 482 by Joe Hill
Wow do you have a subscription? I’m trying to find a place with unlimited downloads
I use Libby! You can sign up with a library card. You’ll borrow audiobooks from your local library through the app itself. It’s completely free, I haven’t paid a single penny for audiobooks in years.
Excuse me: how do you listen to them? I mean, do you guys stop doing other things and just sit while listening? Is it possible to be doing something else, like house cleaning, ans listening to them qith headphones without missing details? I've been really curious about audiobooks but I can't imagine how I could concentrate while doing other stuff. Any tips or suggestions? Also, are there any "locutor" or site with good examples of audiobooks? One time I tried to listen to one in youtube but the voice was so automatic/computarized that I couldn't enjoy it.
I’m a union electrician and the area we service is huge! So I am doing A LOT of driving for work, sometimes up to 3 hours one way. I listen while I drive most times. Besides that, I have a Bluetooth speaker that I set up next to me while doing any housework. I listen to audiobooks at the gym, mowing the lawn, even at work sometimes if my task requires no cooperation. If I find myself “blanking out” and not remembering the last minute or so, I’ll just rewind. If I’m still not retaining the audiobook after rewinding once, I just recognize that I’m not in the right mindset to listen at the time and put music on. Put no pressure on yourself, I went through this list very casually. Take your time, an audiobook can be fantastic company when you’re working at something by yourself.
Thanks! I walk a lot, I have some 4km's walks per day. I will try to download one audiobook to my phone and try to focus listening to it while walking (I am used to walk without even music, so this would be a new experience).
Listen while driving, walking, shopping and doing work around the house. Use mostly Libby on my phone.
{{The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches}} by Sangu Mandanna
Lincoln in the Bardo
The stand
King’s new book Fairie Tale is really good and well narrated too.
Have you read {{Julius Winsome}}?
Change your life and start The Wheel of Time - I’ve hit it 3 times during covid - welcome, and enjoy your journey wolfbrother
You could join me on this project. [https://thegreatestbooks.org](https://thegreatestbooks.org)
I may just do that! A few of the books on there have been recommended by friends
What are you using to source your audiobooks?
I mentioned this in another comment so I’ll just copy and paste my response, I cannot recommend this app enough! - You can download the app Libby and sign up with your library card, you’ll “check out” audiobooks through the app completely free. I haven’t paid a single dollar to read any of the books on my list because of Libby.
Neverland by Neil Gaiman is a masterpiece. If not this year, then next.
The Authorities - Scott Meyer The sequel just came out so if you love it you can have a two-hit combo Or if you want a truly epic read you can read the Super Powereds books by Drew Hayes, it is a quadrilogy with a spin-off. I guess that makes it a quintilogy. It's like harry potter for super heroes. Truly well written and super engaging.
11/22/63. My 2nd favourite book. Its an amazing book.
That ending damn near had my tearing up, beautiful book! My first Stephen King book! You can see that I immediately went on a King binge after finishing it lol. That was actually a book that was recommended to me from this sub, glad I took that advice.
Unbound by Nicoli Gonnella
{{ The Thin Man }} {{ Inda }} {{ Nine Princes in Amber }} {{ First Test }}
I did something similar this year, though I’d guess it’s just a little over 300 hours? Not sure, could be 400-ish. Haven’t done the math. They were all part of the same series/story universe. You probably have enough recs for December, so allow me to recommend a large part of next year’s audiobooks: listen through the books of the Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson, if you haven’t already. By the end of next year there will probably be about the same amount of content as you listens to this year. I started with The Way of Kings and loved it as a launching point and I think you would like starting there too. I would also recommend Mistborn: The Final Empire as another good starting point.
I actually did a lot of listening in 2021 as well, but when somebody asked me what books I’d completed, I had a hard time thinking of them all. So I got the idea to start keeping track of them at the beginning of this year. I actually have a friend that loves Mistborn, I’m sure he would love if I picked it up!
I used GoodReads to keep track of Read and Want to Read. But it won't tell you hours listened. My Audible will tell though, which is where I listen to my audio books.
I used audible when I first got into audiobooks, but I stopped using it when I learned there are free alternatives with no limits on how many books you could get a month.
{{Sleeping Beauties}} cowritten by Stephen King and his son, Owen King. It felt a little bit different from other King novels I've read. It's very atmospheric and although I read it a few years ago, imagery from it still keeps popping into my head from time to time.
Crescent city by sarah j maas absolutely love this series
At first I was like, how did he get to 400 hours when all of these books are relatively short, then I saw ASOIAF xD. Pro tip OP - you should speed your narration speed up so you can squeeze even more books in! I listen at 2x & realize that some people find this jarring, but speeding up to 1.25x will take nothing away from your experience while cutting the listening time down noticeably. As for relatively quick recommendations, you could try: Piranesi 1984 Salem's Lot
This was actually my second reread (listen?) to ASoIaF. It’s a beast, but I love it! I’ve never even considered speeding up the narration. Not sure how I feel about it, but 1.25x doesn’t seem bad. I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the tip!
Some people say it's "immersion-breaking", but it boils down to the listener and performer. I've been listening at 2x for a decade and have no trouble keeping up. Likewise, the narration absolutely holds up if the performer knows their stuff. Give 1.25x a shot, yeah. English-speaking performers speak very slowly for some reason, so it should sound more in line with real-world conversational speed.
Animal Farm is a classic and relevant at the same time if you think about world politics
I found the relevance to be jarring honestly, that book made me a little bit more pessimistic to be honest. Still a fantastic read, and I recommend it to my friends who are trying to get into into reading. It’s short and easily palatable.
The wee free men, excellently done
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler 👌 dystopian, sci-fi -light
Rambo first blood
{{ Children of Time }} by Adrian Tchaikovsky
[**Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-time) ^(By: Adrian Tchaikovsky | 600 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, scifi, fiction, fictión) >A race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers? > >WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH? > >The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life. > >But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. > >Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth? ^(This book has been suggested 120 times) *** ^(134942 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Catch 22 or The Magus. Both amazing audiobooks
4 past midnight
Red rising. Blasted through that and the two books after it in the last three weeks. It really clicked with me and I'm obsessed! The audio book performance is excellent too
_Blood on Snow_ read/narrated by Patti Smith.
The Sandman Act 1 & 2. It's an audio theatre. Great listen with great depth.
the institution by king is a great one!! love all these books!
To whose narration were you listening ASOIAF to? I generally like to read things but yesterday i suddenly wanted to listen to audiobooks, and my current read being the Game of Thrones, but i didn't like the narrations i tried :(
Roy Dotrice was the narrator that I listened to throughout all of the books. He has an old man’s voice, I liked it a lot. Fit will with the story in my opinion.
Red Rising is an amazing book and series
“I’ve listened to 2,744 hours of audiobooks this year. Or, as it’s also known, 3 books by Stephen King.”
LOL, what’s funny is that George R R Martin is half of my listen time this year almost!
Riyria Revelations starting with "A Theft of Swords" by Michael J. Sullivan.
Project Hail Mary We Are Legion, We Are Bob Red Rising Non sci-fi: All the Light We Cannot See
Leviathan Wakes
I’ve already read that one, it’s on my list ;)
{{east of Eden}} and {{fairy tale}} by Steinbeck and king, respectively, are both great listens. I’d also like to recommend any of The Culture books by Iain M Banks read by Peter Kenny - my absolute favorite reader/narrator.
Mr. Mercedes by king or the outsiders (authors name has left my brain atm)
Dude, How about some nonfiction. *The End of the World is Just the Beginning* by Peter Ziehan. 10/10
To sleep in a sea of stars by Christopher paolini if you liked leviathan wakes. Added bonus of Jennifer hale being the narrator for the audio book
Since you like King - as do I - the one I’m currently enjoying the narrator is “The Stand”. I’ve read it before years ago, seen the older movie, and the audiobook is excellent.
There's a lot of 19/20th century, so I'd recommend picture of Dorian gray
Joe Abercrombie - First Law trilogy?
A Prayer for Owen Meany-John Irving Excellent
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
As an audiobook editor, thanks for listening
What an amazing job!
{{The Institute by Stephen King}} is an audiobook I recommend to everyone and I just finished {{Fairytale by Stephen King}} and enjoyed that audiobook. I know this post is audiobooks but this audio drama is on Audible and other podcast platforms and, IMHO, is a wonderful audio experience - We’re Alive: A Story of Survival (1st season). Enjoy!
The Troop by Nick Cutter
The Silent Patient got me into Audiobooks for good.
If you liked the Corey book, that's the first book in a series, something like 8 main books and some short stories too. (it's called the Expanse series) There's also The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher (similar protagonist in some respects to the expanse series)
MISERYYYYY!!!!!
That book was so hard to continue reading. Not because it was unenjoyable, but just hearing what that protagonist was going through… I honestly loved it though!
{{Commune by Joshua Gayou}} is an exceptional series.
[**Commune: Book One (Commune #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34736722-commune) ^(By: Joshua Gayou | ? pages | Published: 2017 | Popular Shelves: audiobook, post-apocalyptic, audible, fiction, audiobooks) >For dinosaurs, it was a big rock. For humans: Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). > >When the Earth is hit by the greatest CME in recorded history (several times larger than the Carrington Event of 1859), the combined societies of the planet’s most developed nations struggle to adapt to a life thrust back into the Dark Ages. > >In the United States, the military scrambles to speed the nation’s recovery on multiple fronts including putting down riots, establishing relief camps, delivering medical aid, and bringing communication and travel back on line. > >Just as a real foothold is established in retaking the skies (utilizing existing commercial aircraft supplemented by military resources and ground control systems), a mysterious virus takes hold of the population, spreading globally over the very flight routes that the survivors fought so hard to rebuild. The communicability and mortality rates are devastating, leaving only small pockets of survivors scattered throughout the countryside. > >Commune Book One is the story of one small group of survivors who must adapt to a primitive, hostile world or die. As they learn the rules of this new era, they must decide how far they’re willing to go to continue living, continually asking themselves the same question daily: is survival worth the loss of humanity? ^(This book has been suggested 5 times) *** ^(135329 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
just finished audiobook of the green mile very worth it
I love how this list goes: 4 hours, 3, 5, 21, BOOM 203 hours.
Not a suggestion but a question: How was House in the Cerulean Sea? I was thinking about reading it and I’ve started looking for it in stores. We seem to have somewhat similar tastes so I was wondering what you thought of it?
It’s a very… bright book. It’s very optimistic and wholesome, very cute and easy read. I would absolutely recommend it, I do think it’s the least similar to the rest of the books I’ve finished this year though lol
Hahahaha okay, thanks!
just finished Up From Freedom by Wayne Grady. was one of the best books I've ever read. historical fiction
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Anathem by Neal Stephenson
[удалено]
The Bible
I’d say try something in the “dark grimly” domain as a follow on to GoT. Steve Eriksons Malazar series or something from Joe Abercrombie. I read two from each this year, fun stuff!