Audiobooks by Mary Robinette Kowal

Celebrated as the author of five acclaimed historical fantasy novels in the Glamourist series, Mary Robinette Kowal is also well known as an award-winning author of short science fiction and fantasy. Her stories encompass a wide range of themes, a covey of indelible characters, and settings that span from Earth's past to its near and far futures as well as even farther futures beyond. Alternative history, fairy tales, adventure, fables, science fiction (both hard and soft), fantasy (both epic and cozy)-nothing is beyond the reach of her unique talent. Word Puppets-the first comprehensive collection of Kowal's extraordinary fiction-includes her two Hugo-winning stories, a Hugo nominee, an original story set in the world of 'The Lady Astronaut of Mars,' and fourteen other show-stopping tales.

Mary Robinette Kowal (Author), Mary Robinette Kowal (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Original

Hugo Award-winning authors Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal team up in this exclusive audio-first production of The Original, a sci-fi thriller set in a world where one woman fights to know her true identity and survive the forces that threaten her very existence. In the near future, humans choose life-for a price. Injectable nanite technology is the lifeblood that flows through every individual wishing to experience the world through the lens of their own theme. While death from mortal wounds is still possible, life is made easier in a socially liberated society where automation and income equality allow passion pursuits to flourish over traditional work. Renewal stations are provided to every law-abiding citizen for weekly check-ins, which issue life-sustaining repairs in exchange for personal privacy. But what becomes of those who check out, of those who dare to resist immortality and risk being edited under the gaze of an identity-extracting government surveillance system? When Holly Winseed wakes up in a hospital room, her memory compromised and a new identity imposed on her, a team of government agents wastes no time stating their objective. With intent to infiltrate and defeat the terrorist group ICON, the agents tell Holly that she is now a Provisional Replica and has one week to hunt down and kill her Original for the murder of her husband, Jonathan. If she succeeds, she'll assume her Original's place in society. If she fails, her life will end. Holly's progress is monitored by an assigned contact that feeds her information as she confronts the blank, robotic world around her, discovering that others view life through the theme of their own choosing. With her newly implanted combat and deduction skills, Holly fends off both attacks by terrorists and doubts about her own trustworthiness as clues lead her to her Original-and to the truth about Jonathan. In the end, one body remains and one walks away. Although questions persist, one thing is certain: life will never be the same.

Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal (Author), Julia Whelan (Narrator)

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Shadows Beneath [Dramatized Adaptation]: The Writing Excuses Anthology

From the Hugo Award-winning hosts of the Writing Excuses writing advice show comes a collection of all-new stories of the fantastic, with beautiful illustrations and a behind-the-scenes look at each story's creation. Brandon Sanderson's "Sixth of the Dusk," set in his Cosmere universe shared by the Mistborn books and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive, showcases a society on the brink of technological change. On the deadly island of Patji, where predators can sense the thoughts of their prey, a lone trapper discovers that the island is not the only thing out to kill him. Mary Robinette Kowal's "A Fire in the Heavens" is a powerful tale of a refugee seeking to the near-mythical homeland her oppressed people left centuries ago. When Katin discovers the role the "eternal moon" occupies in the Center Kingdom, and the nature of the society under its constant light, she may find enemies and friends in unexpected places. Dan Wells's "I.E.Demon" features an Afghanistan field test of a piece of technology that is supposed to handle improvised explosive devices. Or so the engineers have told the EOD team that will be testing it; exactly what it does and how it does it are need-to-know, and the grunts don't need to know. Until suddenly the need arises. Howard Tayler's "An Honest Death" stars the security team for the CEO of a biotech firm about to release the cure for old age. When an intruder appears and then vanishes from the CEO's office, the bodyguards must discover why he is lying to them about his reason for pressing the panic button. For years the hosts of Writing Excuses have been offering tips on brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, and revision, and now they offer an exhaustive look at the entire process. Not only does Shadows Beneath have four beautifully illustrated fantastic works of fiction, but it also includes transcripts of brainstorming and workshopping sessions, early drafts of the stories, essays about the stories' creation, and details of all the edits made between the first and final drafts. Come for the stories by award-winning authors; stay for the peek behind the creative curtain.

Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette Kowal (Author), A Full Cast, Andy Brownstein, Bill Gillett, Bob Payne, Chris Davenport, Chris Genebach, Christopher Graybill, Colleen Delany, Dani Stoller, David Jourdan, Dawn Ursula, Deidra Starnes, Dylan Lynch, Eric Messner, Evan Casey, Gregory Linington, James Konicek, James Lewis, Jeff Allin, Ken Jackson, Kimberly Gilbert, Lily Beacon, Lise Bruneau, Michael Glenn, Michael John Casey, Mort Shelby, Nanette Savard, Nick Depinto, Patrick Bussink, Paul Reisman, Richard Rohan, Rose Elizabeth Supan, Scott Graham, Scott Mccormick, Shanta Parasuraman, Steve Wannall, Terence Aselford, Thomas Anthony Penny, Thomas Keegan, Tim Getman, Todd Scofield, Yasmin Tuazon (Narrator)

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Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show: Big Book of SF Novelettes

Too long to be a short story, too short to be a novel—welcome to the surprisingly potent world of the novelette. The award-winning magazine Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show has been an online haven for this powerful form of storytelling since 2005. Now its editors have selected their all-time favorite science fiction novelettes from the magazine’s eight-year history and reprinted them together in one big book of reading pleasure. Anything that is remotely possible—futures near and far, artificial intelligence and alien encounters, alternate timelines and alternate theories about creating universes, planet-eating black holes and lunar racetracks—is all here under the big tent of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. This anthology features stories by such award-winning authors as Orson Scott Card, Wayne Wightman, Aliette de Bodard, Eric James Stone, Mary Robinette Kowal, Stephen Kotowych, Jackie Gamber, Greg Siewert, Jamie Todd Rubin, Brad R. Torgersen, and Marina J. Lostetter, plus an all-new essay by Orson Scott Card about writing the character of Ender.

Aliette De Bodard, Eric James Stone, Mary Robinette Kowal, Orson Scott Card, Various Authors, Various Authors, Wayne Wightman (Author), Arthur Morey, Emily Janice Card, Gabrielle De Cuir, Paul Boehmer, Roxanne Hernandez, Stefan Rudnicki, Various, Various Narrators, Various Narrators (Narrator)

Audiobook

Shades of Milk and Honey

The fantasy novel you've always wished Jane Austen had written Shades of Milk and Honey is exactly what we could expect from Jane Austen if she had been a fantasy writer: Pride and Prejudice meets Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is an intimate portrait of a woman, Jane, and her quest for love in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. Jane and her sister Melody vie for the attentions of eligible men, and while Jane's skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face. When Jane realizes that one of Melody's suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.

Mary Robinette Kowal (Author), Mary Robinette Kowal (Narrator)

Audiobook