I have 3 free audible books. Need recommendations
I've burned through like every audio drama I can think of. Trying Audible. I like cyberpunk and sci-fi like Neal Stephenson. Super dark and gritty fantasy like the Netflix show Castlevania or the audio drama Aethuran: Dark Saga.
I'm open to any recommendations. Thank you.
You like Stephenson? What about William Gibson? Seems like you woud have already read most of it, but just in case...
Most Cyberpunk, classic even, his first: The Sprawl Trilogy
Great move from the farther future, hard cyberpunk to day-after-tomorrow (maybe my favourite): The Bridge Trilogy
Even more to the today/tomorrow feel, but maybe a steep hill to climb without following his previous "evolution" : Blue Ant Trilogy
Connie Willis's Oxford Time Travel books!! Lighter in tone than what you are referring to, but often compelling. There is an order to the stories, but it's not vital, really. With Three free books I would suggest "To Say Nothing About the Dog", then "Blackout" and it's continuation "All Clear".
"Lovecraft Country" and "Destroyer of Worlds" are a pair that focus on a black family's experience of late 50s/early 60s (can't remember) Sorcery in the U.S.
Stand alones? Have you read "Project Hail Mary"? Great bit of non-sequential storytelling as the narrator regains his memory and figures out where he is and why. Avoid spoilers, even synopses for this one for maximum effect. A.G. Riddle's "Lost in Time" was a balance of whodoneit and time travel that I found enjoyable.
Iain Banks is great SF The Culture novels in particular.
They all have dark elements but Use Of Weapons especially so. Look to Windward is my favourite, but I would not suggest reading it first. Player of Games is a good entry point into The Culture universe.
Joe Abercrombie, The First Law Trilogy
Darth bane triligy starting with Path of destruction
Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. A collection of short stories but they're rather dark and many interesting ideas in there.
One of my favourite "reads" on a particularly late night drive up to Edinburgh that still sticks with me nearly 10 years later.
Travis Baldree is a really great narrator, but I'm not sure what he's narrated that's dark/grimdark. He does mostly fantasy.
If you haven't checked out Ursula K. Le Guin, I highly recommend her. Lathe of Heaven is a great/short taste of her style, but if you want something darker I'd say maybe The Eye of the Heron.
Give GraphicAudio a try. They do professional full cast audio productions of novels/series.
Some series that i have tried and enjoyed:
I would highly recommend the Deathlands series by GraphicAudio.
I would recommend the classic Asimov series, Foundation. It's a post major galactic society. It's not much on cyber, computers were not a thing when it was written. But in replacement of that, everything nuclear is cool and amazing.
Ooh, check out N.K. Jemisin's "The Broken Earth" trilogy.
The story opens with a cataclysmic event followed by shifts in how it's narrated that sometimes results in brutal circumstances being treated with a jarring casualness. And while there is a lot of worldbuilding at the beginning of the first book, I thought it made sense pretty quickly and I suddenly found myself in a world of survival and power struggles. Add in a magical ability to manipulate the earth and it's an incredible fantasy series.
It is dark and grim and unpredictable. It mixes unspeakable cruelty with moments of brilliant kindness. The characters are complex and so beautiful connected.
...I think I need to go read this series again. I had almost forgotten how much I love it!
Of the few sci-fi classics I have gotten through in the last couple of years, Neuromancer (William Gibson), Dune (Frank Herbert), and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Phillip K. Dick, listed as Bladerunner in Audible) have been my favorites, all for different reasons too.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez is wonderfully read by Joel de la Fuente and it's a really special book.