Where to Start with Mary Robinette Kowal
- Best entry point → The Calculating Stars
- Best standalone → The Original
- Start the BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY series → The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- What fans keep coming back to → Rip-Off!
- Highest rated by listeners → Unbound
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The Calculating Stars
Lady Astronaut Universe • Book 1
Narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal
★ 3.98 ABR Score (42.9K ratings)★ 3.95 Goodreads (38.2K) ★ 4.28 Audible (4.7K)11h 41m listening time • Released 2018 -
The Original
by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal
Narrated by Julia Whelan
★ 3.95 ABR Score (12.9K ratings)★ 3.78 Goodreads (9.9K) ★ 4.4 Audible (3.0K)3h 25m listening time • Released 2020Julia Whelan's performance anchors this sci-fi thriller with such precision that the identity-bending narrative hits harder than it has any right to in three hours. Sanderson and Kowal crafted something genuinely unsettling about consciousness and autonomy—and the audio format lets it burrow under your skin.
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The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
by John Joseph Adams, Stephen King, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Moorcock, Sharyn McCrumb, Stephen Baxter, Anne Perry, Barbara Hambly, Tanith Lee, Neil Gaiman, Rob Rogers, Naomi Novik, Anthony Burgess, Dominic Green, Laurie R. King, Barbara Roden, Tim Lebbon, Peter Tremayne, Bradley H. Sinor, Edward D. Hoch, Vonda N. McIntyre, Darrell Schweitzer, Mary Robinette Kowal, H. Paul Jeffers, Geoffrey A. Landis, Amy Myers, Chris Roden, Tony Pi, Chris Roberson, Mark Valentine
Narrated by Simon Vance, Anne Flosnik
★ 3.88 ABR Score (23.4K ratings)★ 4.39 Goodreads (22.7K) ★ 3.96 Audible (736)21h 21m listening time • Released 2010 -
METAtropolis: Green Space
METAtropolis • Book 3
by Jay Lake, Tobias S. Buckell, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ken Scholes, Dion Graham, Robin Miles, Mark Boyett, Scott Brick, Allyson Johnson, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Jennifer Van Dyck, Jonathan Davis, Elizabeth Bear, Karl Schroeder, Seanan McGuire
Narrated by Dion Graham, Robin Miles, Mark Boyett, Scott Brick, Allyson Johnson, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Jennifer Van Dyck, Jonathan Davis
★ 3.75 ABR Score (972 ratings)★ 3.75 Goodreads (354) ★ 4.28 Audible (618)14h 16m listening time • Released 2013 -
Unbound
Annwn Cycle #The Dead's Revenant • Book 1
by Shawn Speakman, Terry Brooks, Seanan McGuire, Mark Lawrence, Anthony Ryan, Tim Marquitz, Brian Staveley, Michael J. Sullivan, John Marco, Peter Orullian, Kat Richardson, Sam Sykes, Kristen Britain, Mazarkis Williams, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Harry Connolly, Delilah S. Dawson, David Anthony Durham, Jason M. Hough, Mary Robinette Kowal, Joe Abercrombie
Narrated by Dick Hill, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Nick Podehl, Allyson Johnson, Christian Rodska, Emily Bauer
★ 3.74 ABR Score (1.3K ratings)★ 3.96 Goodreads (1.0K) ★ 4.13 Audible (246)20h 55m listening time • Released 2016A star-studded anthology where twenty-three fantasy masters tell exactly the stories they want, each perfectly matched to a narrator who elevates the prose—Dick Hill's gravitas, Tim Gerard Reynolds' intensity—making this feel less like a collection and more like a curated experience.
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METAtropolis: Cascadia
METAtropolis • Book 2
by Jay Lake, Mary Robinette Kowal, Elizabeth Bear, Ken Scholes, Karl Schroeder, René Auberjonois, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Tobias S. Buckell
Narrated by Rene Auberjonois, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Jay Lake
★ 3.63 ABR Score (2.2K ratings)★ 3.68 Goodreads (834) ★ 4.09 Audible (1.4K)12h 55m listening time • Released 2010 -
Rip-Off!
by Gardner Dozois, John Scalzi, Jack Campbell, Mike Resnick, Tad Williams, Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Robert Charles Wilson, Allen M. Steele, Daryl Gregory, Lavie Tidhar, Nancy Kress, Paul Di Filippo, James Patrick Kelly, David Marantz, Dina Pearlman, Allyson Johnson, Marc Vietor, Ilyana Kadushin, Nicola Barber
Narrated by Wil Wheaton, Scott Brick, Christian Rummel, Jonathan Davis, Stefan Rudnicki, L. J. Ganser, Khristine Hvam
★ 3.29 ABR Score (2.5K ratings)★ 3.39 Goodreads (914) ★ 3.7 Audible (1.6K)11h 58m listening time • Released 2012A stellar cast of narrators elevates this clever anthology where top sci-fi writers hijack famous opening lines and spin them into wildly inventive original stories that feel both playful and genuinely surprising.
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How We Rank Audiobooks
Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.
Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.
We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.
Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.