This summer, SYNC will be providing two free teen audiobooks each week from April 27th to August 16th. Each week will focus on a specific theme, pairing a classic YA title with a more modern YA title. These two titles will be available to download for free this week only (from 5/4 to 5/10) at the SYNC website. The second week will start on Thursday, May 4th with Feed by M. T. Anderson and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The theme for the second week is a question: “What could the future bring?”
Enter a chilling, twisted future in which one’s every thought and movement is directed and regulated by the “feed,” a computer chip implanted in the brain. This dystopia is seen through the eyes of teenagers: some who embrace the feed and revel in its unbridled consumerism, and one who rails against society’s rampant ignorance and banality. David Aaron Baker’s superb use of inflection renders the teen voices realistic, from their vapid musings to profane outbursts that substitute for conversation. The ensemble cast, representing the cacophony of the feed, resembles the worst of today’s inane commercials. This brilliant production for older teen listeners enhances Anderson’s portrait of a world gone sour, in which even the adults have forgotten how to use language, and everything is dying, including the kids. The library owns this in book, ebook, and eAudiobook formats.
Moments before Earth is destroyed, Ford Prefect, an alien who’s been incognito for 15 years while researching a newer edition of THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, rescues his friend, Arthur Dent. The two stow away on a passing spaceship, and their adventures begin. Ford and Arthur encounter ex-hippie Galaxy President Zaphod Beeblebrox; Marvin, the morose robot; and a slew of otherworldly weirdos populating Douglas Adams’s cult classic. Stephen Fry’s performance is priceless as the interstellar travelers tumble from one near disaster to another. His voice shifts are inspired bits, half schtick, half nonsense. Without editorial comment, Fry injects just the right touches of irony into Adams’s cheeky, always hilarious social satire. This is sure to please fans of Spider Robinson’s THE CALLAHAN CHRONICLES and Terry Pratchett’s DISCWORLD series. The library owns this title in book, ebook, eAudiobook, and CD audiobook formats.
Check out the rest of the month’s schedule here… you can even get text alerts about upcoming titles!
