The Warm Hands of Ghosts
by Katherine Arden (Del Rey, 2024)
audiobook read by January LaVoy & Michael Crouch (Penguin, 2024)
Arden captures the normalised horror of the First World War, and both the overwhelming mental trauma and what must have been near-surreal fatalism of those who lived through it. Though the speculative element is neatly entwined, the story perforce remains downbeat, bemired.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
by Alix E. Harrow (Orbit, 2019); audiobook read by January LaVoy (Hachette Audio, 2019)
It’s hard to put a finger on why this doesn’t quite satisfy. Harrow’s world-building is convincing; the characters are strong and without artifice; even the apparently meandering diary entries prove part of the weave. Yet the journey and destination aren’t fully commensurate.
Star Wars: Last Shot
by Daniel José Older (Del Rey, 2018); audiobook read by Marc Thompson with Daniel José Older & January LaVoy (Random House, 2018)
The audiobook reading of Last Shot gives fervent and overly dramatic voice to everyday situations. This exposes not only the mundaneness of Older’s writing but also the more general propensity (Star Wars house style?) for self-indulgent character moments and laboriously scripted banter.