Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading.
Twitter: @MissLiberty
2025 will go down in my history book as the year I started loving audiobooks! Since I began listening a few months ago, I have already found so many great ones that delighted my brain, so I thought I would tell you about three of my favorites.
Also, since it’s Nonfiction November, if you want a sci-fi-adjacent nonfiction audiobook, it’s great fun to listen to Michael J. Fox talk about filming Back to the Future in Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum. The audio includes clips of dialogue from the movie and interviews with some of the cast and crew. (He also really loves the f-word.) (Same, tbh.)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow, narrated by Moira Quirk and Sid Sagar
This is my favorite Alix E. Harrow book so far! I read it a few months ago for an event I had with her, and then I listened to the audio when it came out and loved it even more! It has two narrators, one for the mighty but conflicted knight of legend, Sir Una, and one for Owen, a historian whose field of expertise is the legend of Sir Una. Owen is sent back in time to help Sir Una fulfill her destiny so that the outcome of her sacrifice results in a better country in the future. But as he goes back in time again and again, and watches her die repeatedly, it becomes harder to guide Sir Una down the path he knows will lead to her demise. (Related: There’s a name purposefully redacted in the text of the book, and the audio makes this really cool noise when it happens, which surprised me the first time, even though I had read it.)
All Access members, read on for two more SFF audiobook recommendations.
Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading.
Twitter: @MissLiberty
The Raven Scholar: Eternal Path Trilogy, Book 1 by Antonia Hodgson, narrated by Daphne Kouma
What fun! This is a doorstopper start to a trilogy, so I decided to go with the audiobook, which is 24 hours long. But every minute is a fantastic time! It’s an epic high fantasy involving different factions named after animals, with court intrigue and politics, betrayal, love, a contest to become the next emperor, and more. It’s also really, really funny (Cain is the best!), and the voice Daphne Kouma does for the ravens is so great, especially when they are feeling indignant. I am surprised by how little attention this got when it came out, but maybe people are intimidated by the page count? So this is me officially saying, “Don’t let that stop you!” Like The Will of the Many, I think this is an amazing first in a series that, while off to a slow start in terms of readership, will eventually garner a huge following. I am desperate for the next book!
Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson, narrated by Matt Godfrey, Sacha Chambers, Kholan Studi, and Ari Fliakos
And last, but not least, this exciting first contact novel from the author of the Robopocalypse series. (Daniel H. Wilson really likes to destroy the world in his books!) I loved that it used several narrators, because there are several important main characters, so having the different voices was helpful. Pertaining to the arrival and landing of a UFO in Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, the novel follows a single dad on the reservation trying to keep his estranged teen daughter safe; the scientist who first identified that the space craft was headed to Earth and her wearable tech, which goes bonkers after; a government man with a comically large backpack sent to investigate the invaders; and an unnamed man in a basement, referred to as the Man Downstairs, who is kept there specifically to identify threats to the United States and alert the higher ups. It’s an action-packed novel and went in directions I was not expecting!
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the BR podcast All the Books! and on Instagram.
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