Seylan Baxter has narrated 4 audiobooks on Listento.it by 10 authors. The most-rated is The Handfasters.
Voices in the Darkness
Summary
Sometimes the world is a very dark place. You know the magic is still out there, but it feels distant or displaced. Voices in the Darkness is an attempt to create a link, to bring some of those voices together in a single work of art. Six award-winning authors lent their talent to this work. The stories are unique and dark, filled with wonder and emotion. Included are: Nadia Bulkin's "Vide Cor Meum (See My Heart)", narrated by Gigi Shane, is a unique twist on true crime as fiction. Kathe Koja's "Pursuivant Island", narrated by Joshua Saxon, will resonate differently with every listener, has meaning on different levels, and touches on an actual artistic event. Elizabeth Massie's "Baggie", narrated by Edward Gist, explores the horror of losing control of one's life, self, everything to another. Cassandra Khaw presents "I'd Rather Wear Black", narrated by Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney, a story that takes you on a journey through the pain of bad relationships, while reminding her listeners of their own self worth. Nick Mamatas takes on the historical character behind the old, old song "Mack the Knife", in his tale, titled appropriately "Ba boo Dop doo Dop boo ree," narrated by Seylan Baxter. Brian A. Hopkins' novella La Belle Époque, narrated by Laurie Catherine Winkel, explores history, Winchester rifles, and addiction of a very personal persuasion. We all hear voices in the darkness; in this audiobook, you will hear six of them very clearly.
©2021 David Niall Wilson, Nadia Bulkin, Kathe Koja, Elizabeth Massie, Cassandra Khaw, Nick Mamatas, Brian A. Hopkins (P)2021 David N. Wilson
Ghost Frequencies
Summary
Susan MacDonald is desperate. Unless she makes a breakthrough soon, Ashford, the millionaire businessman financing her project, will shut it down and disband her research team. She knows she’s close - that she’s on the verge of proving her theory of Retrocausality, which will enable her to harness quantum mechanics to produce a revolutionary new form of instantaneous communication - but results are proving frustratingly elusive. The last thing Susan needs is a team of ghost hunters moving into her base of operations, Ashford Hall - a building with a troubled past. Nor does she need the odd sounds - snatches of random conversation and even music - that are hampering her experiments; but does this interference represent the presence of "ghosts" as some claim, deliberate sabotage as suggested by others, or is there an even more sinister explanation?
©2018 Gary Gibson (P)2019 Gary Gibson
Dead Lines
Summary
This audio edition of Dead Lines includes a new foreword by David Niall Wilson as well as an author's foreword by Criag Spector and an afterword by John Skipp. Dead Lines is about a young writer/artist type named Jack Rowan, who lives in NYC and whose career never took off. His life is in the toilet. He's broken up with his girlfriend and is crashing on the couch in the loft of his more successful photographer friend, Glen, while Glen is off in LA on a shoot. In the first chapter, Jack finishes his manuscript - a collection of short stories titled Nightmare NYC - takes swigs of vodka then boxes the manuscript up, writing, "Do Not Open Until Doomsday" on it. He then hides it in a crawlspace in his friend's apartment. Then he walks up a ladder he set up in the living room, puts the rope he tied to a steam pipe around his neck. He takes one last swig of the bottle, looks at a photo in his hand of himself and a woman, and says, "Look what you made me do." Then he tosses the bottle and pitches the ladder off. The rope goes taut. Jack's neck snaps as he pinwheels around in midair, knocking over the ladder, swinging wildly as he hangs himself. Finally, he goes still. His body hangs there for weeks, visible through the fourth floor windows of the loft...if anyone was looking, which no one was. He remains there until Glen gets back. Glenn freaks out and promptly moves out. The loft is renovated for new tenants. A couple of girls who don't know each other move in. Meryl is from a wealthy family in Boston and is trying to escape her overbearing father by going to college at NYU. Katie, the other girl, is a waitress who used to know Glenn...and Jack. Meryl convinces Katie to pretend to be her roommate to get Meryl's father off her back. At first Katie says, "No, thanks," but then she goes back to her Svengali-esque boyfriend, Colin's, apartment, where she lives. She finds him in bed with two girls - customers - as Colin is a low-level drug dealer and all-around scumbag. They fight. Katie shows back up on Meryl's doorstep that night and takes her up on the offer. Meryl is surprised. She wasn't expecting a roommate for real. But Katie has no place to go, so Meryl lets her crash there. They start to become friends. One night while Meryl is fixing up her room, she finds the box containing Jack's lost manuscript. She starts to read the stories and becomes intrigued with this mysterious writer and his dark, brooding, moody vision of the city. What neither Meryl nor Katie realize is that Jack's soul, upon the moment of his death, literally imploded into the atomic substructure of the apartment, frozen in a kind of tormented limbo, forever, until Meryl starts reading his stories. And the sheer energy of her reading his words in bed each night, and fantasizing about him, starts to bring him back. His soul coalesces, bit by bit, and awareness and consciousness return. Suddenly, he's back, and he's Jack - but he's dead, a presence haunting the loft, which is his prison now. But Meryl keeps reading, drawn deeper into his world each night. By day she searches for him in bookstores - but his work has never been published. She see echoes of his images on the streets of the city. She can feel his presence through his stories. Her nightly fantasies become dreams...and the power of her dreams allows Jack to visit her, like a succubus, a night-lover in spirit.
©1989 John Skipp and Craig Spector (P)2020 David N. Wilson
The Handfasters
Summary
Coming from the Highlands to Edinburgh in search of a husband, Alison Lamont finds herself in all sorts of trouble. Scotland, 1811. Thrown out of a fashionable ball for a stolen kiss, Alison flees from a riot in the notorious Old Town and ends up staying the night with Willie Kemp, an eccentric boatbuilder. While she falls deeply in love with Mr. Kemp, her aunt wishes her to marry the obnoxious but rich John Forres. Alison takes drastic measures to solve her dilemma, including a long trip through the snow-covered Pentland Hills. But who left the mysterious footprints outside her cottage, and what secrets is Mr. Kemp hiding?
©2016 Helen Susan Swift (P)2020 Helen Susan Swift