Years ago when I first started listening to audio books I felt there wasn’t much available in the way of great science fiction. Recorded Books did have a lot of good Sci-Fi titles, but they weren’t easy to get. This week I noticed many of those Recorded Books titles have come to Audible, and many other award winning science fiction books are now available. I decided to see just how many Hugo winning novels could be bought at Audible.com and I was surprised to find quite a few.
The Hugo winning novel I’d like to hear the most on audio is Hyperion by Dan Simmons. But if you’re an audio book publisher there’s plenty of good titles to produce.
I also checked these other sites to see if I could fill in any gaps – but with limited luck.
- BA – Blackstone Audio
- BOT – Books on Tape
- RB – Recorded Books
- AB – AudioBookstandDL
| Year | Title | Audible | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman |
Yes | |
| 2008 | The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon |
Yes | |
| 2007 | Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge | Yes | |
| 2006 | Spin by Robert Charles Wilson | Yes | |
| 2005 | Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke | Yes | |
| 2004 | Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold | Yes | |
| 2003 | Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer | Yes | |
| 2002 | American Gods by Neil Gaiman | Yes | |
| 2001 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling | Yes | |
| 2000 | A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge | Yes | |
| 1999 | To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis | Yes | |
| 1998 | Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman | Yes | |
| 1997 | Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson | Yes | |
| 1996 | The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson | Yes | |
| 1995 | Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold | Yes | |
| 1994 | Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson | Yes | |
| 1993 | A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge Doomsday Book by Connie Willis |
Yes/ Yes |
|
| 1992 | Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold | Yes | |
| 1991 | The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold | Yes | |
| 1990 | Hyperion by Dan Simmons | Yes | |
| 1989 | Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh | ||
| 1988 | The Uplift War by David Brin | Yes | |
| 1987 | Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card | Yes | |
| 1986 | Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card | Yes | |
| 1985 | Neuromancer by William Gibson | BOT | |
| 1984 | Startide Rising by David Brin | Yes | |
| 1983 | Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov | ||
| 1982 | Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh | ||
| 1981 | The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge | ||
| 1980 | The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke | Yes | |
| 1979 | Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre | Yes | BA |
| 1978 | Gateway by Frederik Pohl | Yes | |
| 1977 | Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm | Yes | |
| 1976 | The Forever War by Joe Haldeman | Yes | |
| 1975 | The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin | ||
| 1974 | Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke | Yes | |
| 1973 | The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov | ||
| 1972 | To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer | Yes | |
| 1971 | Ringworld by Larry Niven | Yes | |
| 1970 | The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin | ||
| 1969 | Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner | ||
| 1968 | Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny | Yes | |
| 1967 | The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein | Yes | |
| 1966 | Dune by Frank Herbert This Immortal by Roger Zelazny |
Yes/Yes | |
| 1965 | The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber | Yes | |
| 1964 | Way Station by Clifford D. Simak | Yes | |
| 1963 | The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick | Yes | |
| 1962 | Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein | Yes | |
| 1961 | A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller | ||
| 1960 | Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein | Yes | |
| 1959 | A Case of Conscience by James Blish | Yes | |
| 1958 | The Big Time by Fritz Leiber | Yes | |
| 1957 | Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein | Yes | |
| 1956 | They’d Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley | ||
| 1954 | The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester |
Auxiliary Memory 
This is a great list you’ve pulled together!
I thought you’d like to know that four more Hugo-winning novels are currently in production in our very own Audible studios:
HOMINIDS by Robert J. Sawyer
LORD OF LIGHT by Roger Zelazny
…AND CALL ME CONRAD (aka THIS IMMORTAL) by Roger Zelazny
THE BIG TIME by Fritz Leiber
I expect that the Sawyer and the Leiber will be available at Audible by the end of April. The Zelazny’s should follow by the end of May / early June.
We’ve also just produced a slew of Hugo-winning novellas by Allen Steele; Joe Haldeman; Connie Willis; Harry Turtledove; and Mike Resnick. All are, or will be, available by the end of the month.
Again, these are not recordings we are just distributing. We produced them ourselves. It’s part of our current, major effort to bring as much sci-fi & fantasy into audio as is humanly possible!
Steve Feldberg
Director, Content
Audible.com
This is tremendous news. Those are all titles I’ve been very anxious to hear, but especially Lord of Light. And I had already noticed the Connie Willis and Allen Steele stories too. I need to list the short fiction Hugo winner too, and the Nebula award winners.
Has Audible consider setting up a system to allow fans to vote for books they’d like to see produced?
Jim
Great list! I’m on an audio book kick right now but am mainly listening to YA stuff and/or fantasy. I just listened to Bill Wallis reading Simon Armitage’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It was fantastic!
The only one I’ve listened to on your list there is American Gods and it is an incredible performance. This is one of the few Neil Gaiman novels in which I am glad it is someone besides him reading because the reader is perfect. It is one I hope to pick up on audio CD someday cheap. Right now it is still too pricey.
That’s a great list . . . time to sign up for Audible again.
I listen to a lot of audiobooks. I mean A LOT – like 8 to 10 hours a day, seven days a week during my work seasons. I’m a professional window washer and part-time writer and I load up my mp3 player and listen while I work from Spring to Fall. Audio makes my job fun.
I’ve listened to a lot of the books on your list already, even some that you don’t list as being available yet (like Hominids and A Fire Upon the Deep, for example). I have a sight-impaired friend who gets them through some program for the blind and she loans them to me. Others I get through the library and many I just purchase.
Thanks again for the compiled list.
CV Rick – now that’s a major fringe benefit for a job. You probably get 2-3 novels a week finished – that’s some major multitasking.
Have you ever considered the lectures from The Teaching Company. You could be taking educational classes and working at the same time.
Jim
I have listened to TTC lectures at times. I have a couple dozen of them in my library. To tell the truth (as if I’d do anything else), I spent my fair share of time in University as both a student and a teacher and the lectures for the most part bore me. I’d rather listen to a great biography or historical account (such as that written by David McCullough) than listen to the TTC lectures.
I actually put my currently loaded list of books on my blog this past Saturday if you’d care to see a flavor of the variety of books I like to listen to.
Another thing I’m experimenting with is opening up a group discussion on a story. In this test case I’ve posted links to the audio and text versions of The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang and the ensuing discussion has been everything I could’ve hoped for. It’s currently my feature post . . . and, by the way, a superior story if you ask me.
I am listening to “American Gods” right now, and I agree George Guidall is excellent as the narrator.
I am a library rep for Recorded Books. Recently we announced that we are adding a science fiction imprint. We will be adding a minimum of six new titles per quarter all on CD. Also, many of our titles previously available on cassette are now on CD. I think audible.com has some digital rights of our sci-fi recordings.
With lectures, we have a Modern Scholar series that might be of interest. Especially the Michael Drout lecture, “From Here To Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction”. A review of it can be found here; http://www.sffaudio.com/?cat=1118
He also does one on fantasy.
A list of all the courses can be found here; http://www.modernscholar.com
Ask your librarian for help in finding them at your local library.