Sci-Fi Audiobooks: The Future is here with Libby and Hoopla

It's well known that the library offers a great selection of digital audiobooks through our lending platforms Libby and hoopla. Between the two catalogs, there are a staggering number of great titles to explore and new favorites to discover.

Audiobooks directly from my phone are a complete game changer that has transformed my daily commute to and from work into something I start to look forward too. It's my twice daily story time, where the mundane act of getting to and from work becomes a respite. Here is just a small selection of some of my recent favorites.

Chasm City

by Alastair Reynolds

Chasm City was my introduction to Reynolds and a great starting point for anyone wanting to get into his Revelation Space setting.

A stand-alone novel, Chasm City follows former soldier and security operative Tanner Mirabel as he seeks vengeance on the man who killed his former employer. Chasing his target across space from his home on Sky's Edge to the titular Chasm City, Tanner tracks his target through the twisted and bizarre post-melding plague city scape.

Incredible world building and setting bring the story to life as Tanner works his way up from the slums of the Mulch to the upper echelons of society residing in the city's Canopy, where cable cars swing themselves from the weblike growth of the city's plague deformed structures and the rich entertain themselves with cruel and dangerous games. Filled with profound explorations of what technology may look like in the distant future and the resilience of human ingenuity in the face of the unknown, Chasm City is a cyber punk Odyssey filled with plot twists and thrilling reveals.

Leech

by Giron Ennes

It's been an unspecified amount of time since fantastic flying machines dropped death from the skies and reshaped the world. In a land slowly on the mend, a physician from the powerful and enigmatic Institute arrives in the bleak Northern country to replace the baron's former physician after their apparent suicide.

The Institute holds a virtual monopoly on health services. With an unparalleled medical knowledge and an army of odd but supremely professional physicians, there is no public health crisis beyond Institute's abilities. But the inhospitable North hides secrets as insidious, infectious, and as dangerous as the Institutes own shocking operational truth.

Gothic, bleak and crushing, Leech will make you squirm.

Dune

by Frank Herbert

Maybe you've heard about this obscure little sci-fi novel from Frank Herbet. I think they made a movie or several about it.

Alright, we all know Dune is one of those foundational novels that set a new standard in the sci-fi genre. A masterpiece in epic universe building with classic Shakespearian drama, Dune artfully explores timeless political, religious, and economic themes wrapped in a sci-fi narrative.

In a far distant future, the spice Melange is the Empire's most precious commodity. The noble house Atreides has been charged with spice production on the only planet in the galaxy where it can be found, the desert planet Arrakis. But their old enemy, the brutal Harkonnes, won't relinquish such a prize peacefully, and every major power from the Navigator guild to the Bene Gesserit have a vested interest in the control of the spice. Paul, the Atreides heir, will be transformed by the planet in unimaginable ways as an ancient prophecy is fulfilled.