Fantasies, Mysteries and Nonfiction Perk Up the Ears of Audiophiles

Audiophiles are clamoring for escapism this year, and the realm of fantasy is providing it. Big sellers at the Long Beach Borders bookstore this holiday season are “The Lord of the Rings” box sets and “anything on Harry Potter,” said manager Chris Forster. The titles have been top sellers nationwide, agreed Kristina Finlay, senior publicity manager for Random House Audio. She expects them to sell into next year.

We can expect more narrative nonfiction and novels to be the big sellers next quarter, says Carrie Kania, associate publisher for Harper Audio. She thinks there will be fewer celebrity bios, business titles and self-help audios, and predicts an increase in children’s sales.

Publishers are also banking on movie tie-ins to be popular early next year. Harper will release an unabridged version of “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” read by Dixie Carter; “We Were Soldiers Once and Young,” by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway; and “Minority Report,” which will be a Stephen Spielberg film starring Tom Cruise, based on the Philip K. Dick short story. Random House Audio will be offering the recorded version of the next “Star Wars” movie, as well as the monthly continuation of that sci-fi series.

At Simon & Schuster Audio, “the most exciting thing happening in 2002 is Michael J. Fox’s memoir, ‘Lucky Man,’ which he is recording himself,” says Patricia Keim, the associate director of marketing. A new Mary Higgins Clark audio, “Daddy’s Little Girl,” and Tom Clancy’s “Shadow Warriors,” part of his nonfiction Commander series about special operation forces, are also expected.

Stephen King fans can anticipate a March release of short stories, “Everything’s Eventual.” Keim said the title story and four others will be culled from his upcoming book, “Everything’s Eventual and Other Stories.” “Riding the Bullet” from that collection will be released on audio in May with more coming in the fall.

For current titles to fill a loved one’s Christmas stocking with breezy fun, you can do no better than “Carter Beats the Devil,” by Glenn David Gould. (Harper Audio; abridged fiction; six cassettes; nine hours; $29.95; read by Stanley Tucci.) This intriguing book is wry, fast moving and evocative of its time. Both a romance and a mystery set in the 1920s, it is rich with period detail and historical factoids. Tucci does a wonderful job with this eccentric story of Carter the Great, a magician suspected of killing President Warren G. Harding. The actor manages a myriad of accents and his interpretation of a rival magician is particularly humorous-snide, effeminate and just this side of campy.

If you are looking for something geared specifically to the season but cannot bear another version of “A Christmas Carol,” serve up “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding & The Mystery of the Spanish Chest,” by Agatha Christie. (Audio Editions; unabridged short stories; two cassettes; three hours; $18.95; read by Hugh Fraser.) These sweet little mysteries, featuring Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, are quick paced and flawlessly narrated by British actor Fraser, who plays Capt. Hastings in the “Poirot” television series.

“Christmas in Plains” is an utterly charming and thoroughly engaging companion piece to former President Carter’s touching memoir “An Hour Before Daylight.” It reveals the one constant in Carter’s life: Plains, Ga., and the holidays made memorable there by generosity of spirit. Carter reads this tenderly rendered account of Christmases past with vibrancy and warmth. It is one of the best audio book titles released this year. (Simon & Schuster Audio; unabridged nonfiction; two cassettes; three hours; $18.00.)

Anew Stephen King/Peter Straub audio book has been released in time for the holidays, but only real fans of these horrormeisters will truly appreciate it. “The Black House,” a sequel to “The Talisman,” a 1984 Straub/King collaboration, is overwritten, overwrought and underwhelming as well as graphic and gory. (Random House Audio; unabridged fiction; 15 cassettes; 26 hours; $54.95; read by Frank Muller.) Jack Sawyer, the young boy who travels to a parallel universe in “The Talisman” is now grown and gets caught up in a series of gruesome murders in a small Wisconsin town.

If fantasy is the genre that makes your favorite audiophile smile, consider the latest from Neil Gaimon, the author of such strange and intriguing novels as “Neverwhere” and “Stardust.” His latest unusual and graphic tale involves ancient deities, genies, leprechauns, ghosts and confused humans. “American Gods” is a supernatural road trip in which a recently released felon finds himself aiding and abetting a race of dying gods from the Old World who came to this country with our ancestors. (Harper Audio; unabridged fiction; 14 cassettes; 20 hours; $44.95; read by George Guidall.)

Putting up one last fight, these forgotten gods pit themselves against new idols worshiped at alters set before television sets and shopping malls. Guidall, another favorite among audio book listeners, enhances the production with his resonant voice and the ease with which he adopts accents and various personalities.

Naxos AudioBooks, a British company that releases carefully produced classics married to classical music, has recently released “The Works of Jane Austen, Volume 2.” It contains abridged versions of “Sense and Sensibility,” “Persuasion,” “Pride and Prejudice” and a full cast production of “Lady Susan.” British actress Juliet Stevenson reads the first two titles, with Jenny Agutter narrating “Pride and Prejudice.”

Volume 1, containing “Emma,” “Mansfield Park, “Northanger Abbey” and “Jane Austen: A Biography,” was released last year. (Eleven cassettes; 13 hours and 18 minutes; $54.98. It is available in stores, or you can call [877] 629-6723.)