So, it’s Armchair Audies time (almost!)
Any day now, the APA will announce the nominees for their 2013 Audie Awards. This has been another great year for Audiobooks, and I feel more and more public scrutiny of the Audies may have interesting affects. Last year, I felt the whole thing was a bit of a fiasco, with one particular company and it’s offshoots almost monopolizing the nominees and an audiobook of the year category made up mostly of celbriturd narrators and productions that were more about hype then the best the industry has to offer. Yet, I’m not totally soured on the whole shebang. I think that we may see some changes to the process in the near future, as the industry changes, so must the awards and I’m quite interested in seeing how these changes take play out.
This year, for Armchair Audies, I will be taking on the Science Fiction and Fantasy categories again. I will probably pick up a third category, after I get a look at the nominees, either Paranormal or Thriller/Suspense.
Today, I will be prediction the nominees in these 4 categories. I am using an intricate formula of my favorites, industry trends, past nominees, hype and WAGs (Wild Ass Guesses) to come up with these nominees. I am also playing a bit with the Genres because, even if a book is decidedly Science Fiction, it very well may be nominated in the Fantasy Category. Also, no once has quite explained exactly what encompasses Paranormal.
So, here are my predictions for The Audies.
SCIENCE FICTION
The Human Division by John Scalzi
Read by William Dufris
Audible Frontiers
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Read by MacLeod Andrews
Audible Frontiers
Lexicon by Max Barry
Read by Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman
Penguin Audio
Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh
Read by Kevin T. Collins, Eileen Stevens, and Ali Ahn
The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Read by Kate Rudd
Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio
FANTASY
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Read by Neil Gaiman
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Read by Alana Kerr
Cold Days by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files, Bk. 14)
Read by James Marsters
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
Read by Kate Mulgrew
Harper Audio
Helen & Troy’s Epic Road Quest by A. Lee Martinez
Read by Khristine Hvam
PARANORMAL
Read by Will Patton
Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia
Read by Bronson Pinchot
Audible Frontiers
The Rift Walker by Clay and Susan Griffith (Vampire Empire, Book 2)
Read by James Marsters
World War Z: The Complete Edition: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Read by A Full Cast
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Read by Khristine Hvam, Peter Ganim, Jay Snyder, Joshua Boone, Dani Cervone, Jenna Hellmuth
THRILLER/SUSPENCE
Read by Luke Daniels
Read by Reg E. Cathey
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews
Read by Jeremy Bobb
Simon & Schuster Audio
Sycamore Row by John Grisham
Read by Michael Beck
Random House Audio
The Lawyer’s Lawyer by James Sheehan
Read by Rick Zieff
The Guilded Earlobe 