Hello, fellow sci fi fans, here we are for some more books that I love. I first read the first book in this series for a blog tour, what feels like forever ago. I loved it and read the second one for a follow up blog tour too. Indeed a few titles in this series have had the same treatment, the rest I read originally, just for me.
Karl’s a great writer, and this series has an intriguing premise or two that I really liked. Plus I love a snarky AI system and the relationship they build with their human crew mates. And this has that too.
Opal is looking for her missing sister Clarissa, and has stolen a ship to do that. Which means her investigation into the mysterious Lost Ships and Clarissa’s whereabouts is somewhat hampered by the unimpressed former employer who wants their ship back.
As the series continues and the AI Opal originally names after her sister gets more intelligent, they become a real team. On the run, and still searching for answers.
There’s also a series of novellas, all based on characters we meet along with Opal, and mostly the ones in pursuit of our renegade ship and her crew. Which gives an interesting opposing perspective on events and plotlines. It’s a fully realised universe in many ways and I can’t wait to see where it goes next (I still haven’t read book 4, but now book 5 is here, it’s time!)
Check out the cover for upcoming release by Debbie Iancu-Haddad, The Goodbye Kids!
The Goodbye Kids: A YA SF space adventure (The Children of the Stars #1)
Expected Publication Date: September 6, 2023
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
A million stars, but no friends.
Plus-size teen Haley grew up friendless on a space station thinking she’d never fall in love. She spends her time with her robot dog Nano, dreaming of the day she’ll leave the remote station and become an intergalactic pilot.
Haley’s plan shatters when Jorden, a boy on a suicide mission, drags her into his lethal scheme.
Jorden Lund isn’t the chosen one, he’s the guy who volunteered.
Raised by his controlling father in an eco-terrorist cell on Earth, Jorden volunteers for a mission to save the planet. He has four months to travel to the space station, build a bomb, and blow up a spaceship.
Falling in love is definitely not part of the plan.
When Jorden arrives on the space station, disguised as a traveler, Haley’s access to the station’s restricted areas makes her an asset.
But Haley has a strict rule: ‘No new friends’, because traveler friends always leave, taking pieces of her heart with them.
As the two grow closer, strange events wreak havoc on the station.
Amidst the growing danger can Haley stop Jorden before he breaks her heart and destroys her home?
This book is perfect for readers who enjoy soft, character-based, Sci-Fi, first-person dual POV, clean teen romance, space stories, talking robot dogs, and plus-sized heroines just living their life with no mention of weight loss.
Debbie Iancu-Haddad is a Jewish Israeli author living in Meitar in the Negev Desert.
She spends her time taking part in Anthologies (seven to date with two more on the way), writing VSS on Twitter, and buying way too much stuff online. Her goal is to promote body positive characters and include characters dealing with physical challenges. #ownvoices
For her day job, she gives lectures on humor, laughter yoga workshops and chocolate workshops, and sees how often she can make her two teenagers roll their eyes.
I didn’t think I liked sci fi, raised by a dad who loves Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate (if it was set in space, had a military angle and star in the title, he watched it), put me off. I didn’t see myself in those shows or in the classic sci fi books in the library.
But in the last few years there’s been a boom in sci fi that’s smart and inclusive. Queer writers, writers of colour, women writers are all there now, some of the most interesting work in fiction is taking place in the genre. Because in sci fi, you can be anyone, do anything, hold a mirror up to our reality and tilt it.
A lot of the sci fi I’ve been reading recently has been tackling the effects and legacy of colonialism, something that much fiction is leery about covering. But set it in the far future on another planet, with aliens or even future humans and you can explore the dark history of humanity and discuss its terrible lasting damage without upsetting anyone (well, except the usual reactionists, and we’re the snowflakes!)
There’s something for everyone in the new sci fi, plenty of writers are still writing space marines and war stories but more and more there are queer characters, non binary and trans characters, found families working as a crew. And they’re funny. A lot of those classic books I found in the library took themselves very seriously. You’re in space! With aliens! Laugh.
So I’m embracing this brave new world, and will be sharing various favourites across the summer here and on Instagram, so keep an eye out.
To whet your appetite, here’s a few of my favourites.
The Word For World is Forest – Ursula K. LeGuin
LeGuin is one of the greats, her Earthsea series remains a stone cold classic. But one of my favourites is this slim volume from 1972. Partly inspired by the author’s condemnation of the Vietnam War, this novella looks at a logging colony set up by humans on a forest planet and the enslavement of the native people – the Athsheans. While some criticised the book as too polemical, I think that LeGuin was making a clear comment about colonialism, slavery and ecology. The military that runs the logging camps cares nothing for the Athsheans or their planet. When they finally start to fight back, they are met by brute force and violence.
Saga – Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples
This is actually a long running graphic novel series but is one of my absolute favourites. It’s about a family trying to stay together despite the odds. Alana and Marko fall in love even though they are fighting on opposite sides of a seemingly endless war. When Alana gets pregnant, they go on the run with their friends. It’s narrated by their daughter, Hazel. They live in a space ship made from a tree at one point. Endlessly creative and inclusive, the nanny is trans and the babysitter’s a ghost.
Telling the story of these outsiders alongside those of some of the other players searching for this special family. I love the various bounty hunters and especially Lying Cat, who can tell when you lie. There are currently 11 books, in various bindings and I only have 10! Ahh!
The Red Scholar’s Wake – Aliette de Bodard
This came out very recently and as well as being very beautiful to look at, is a captivating romance between a ship, Rice Fish, and her captive/wife. They’re pirates fighting to ensure their survival after The Red Scholar, Rice Fish’s wife, dies. There are enemies everywhere and an empire looming at the edges, hoping to crush the pirates completely.
I came to this via de Bodard’s fantasy series set in a future destroyed Paris. As a French-Vietnamese writer, she is tackling colonialism from within, giving a different perspective on the history and struggles of colonised people.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars – Christopher Paolini
The crew of the Wallfish are smugglers who answer a distress call and get dragged into an epic space war involving ancient alien artifacts and species. It’s a sprawling story that travels across the galaxy, attempting to create peace but finding only chaos as both humans and aliens refuse to even attempt to understand one another.
I haven’t read the Eragon books, despite my love of dragons the series never appealed, but this intelligent space opera really captured me. Paolini spent years writing it and while it is a big book, it doesn’t feel laboured.
La Sirena Negra trilogy – Valerie Valdes
Prime Deceptions introduces us to the crew of La Sirena Negra, a freighter, captained by Eva Innocente, a former mercenary. There’s a whole tribe of psychic cats on board, which I adore, and it is also quite queer. Followed by Chilling Effect and Fault Tolerance as the crew get dragged into various misadventures including rescuing Eva’s kidnapped sister, and stopping a terrifying alien race from destroying the galaxy.
This whole series is very funny and there’s lots of action as Eva can’t say no to a fight, even when her opponent is much bigger than her. Aided by her faithful crew, even when they should know better, it’s space hijinks galore.
What sci fi do you enjoy? Any recommendations? Keep an eye out for more Summer of Sci Fi posts coming soon that might include some books you’ll enjoy!
*images used were found via Google. If you are the owner and wish to be credited, please let me know*
She Dreams in Blue Light is the debut novel by A. R. Malecki which forces readers to think about the implications of our tech-driven society.
She Dreams in Blue Light
Publication Date: June 27, 2023
Genre: NA Fiction w/ Sci-Fi Vibes
“A wonderful ode to love, autonomous thinking, and the possible implications of living in a tech-forward society.” – Reedsy Discovery
Eleanor Crawford believes she can solve any problem with computer code. At just twenty-six years old, she holds a coveted software engineering position at Atlanta’s hottest startup, Agora, dubbed “The Gathering Place of the Internet.” She might be the only woman on her team, but that won’t stop her from being at the forefront of the platform’s most exciting new feature: Assemblies.
But the pressure for profit will change the nature of Eleanor’s work, challenging her idealistic, build-something-great mentality. Swept up in the fast-paced, prestigious world of Big Tech, she becomes entangled in ethical gray areas as well as an unexpected romance.
When tragedy strikes her family, she’s forced to confront the consequences of the very technology she helped create. Eleanor’s naive ideas of success come unraveled-caught between the company that’s defined her career and identity and her growing sense of responsibility to society.
Told with empathy and insight, “She Dreams in Blue Light” is both an inspiring story about one woman’s journey to find meaning in her work, and a scathing critique of today’s profit-centered, corporate mindset.
ANNA “A.R.” MALECKI is the author of debut novel “She Dreams in Blue Light.” Her writing has appeared in Infinite Worlds science fiction magazine and she’s a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. She’s worked as a software engineer and in product design/research.
To avoid the apocalypse, a boy must cannibalize the dead in . . . THE IMPORTANCE OF EATING ERNEST
A Tarkagen barbarian returning home to retrieve an ancient elixir faces his own worst fears in . . . HONDO RANE AND THE CITY OF ILLUSION
After World War IV, a giant, radioactive floating brain haunts the wastelands. Can a psychic girl harness her powers long enough to stop it? . . . in THE FLOATING BRAIN.
Join these poor souls and many others as they struggle to survive in worlds gone wrong. Can you handle the shock? Or will their stories leave you in a crumpled heap, screaming in vain to escape.
Andrew Schrader is a Los Angeles-based author and film director known for his fascination with the stranger sides of human nature. He’s directed two feature films, music videos for bands Osees, Moon-Drenched, and White Reaper, and was a script consultant on “Afterlife,” a horror series for Crypt TV.
His three-book series, What Goes On In The Walls at Night, was featured on the Reddit No Sleep podcast and twice won the Red City Review Book of the Year for fantasy and horror. He also wrote several episodes of the animated show Tig n’ Seek. Bad Realities is his fourth book of short stories.
Fractal Noise is the thrilling prequel to the masterful space opera To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by internationally bestselling author of Eragon, Christopher Paolini.
On the planet Talos VII, twenty-three years before the events of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, an anomaly is detected: a vast circular pit, with dimensions so perfect that it could only have been the result of conscious design. So a small team is assembled to learn more – perhaps even who built the hole and why. Their mission will take them on a hazardous trek to the very edge of existence.
For one explorer, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. For another, a risk not worth taking. And for xenobiologist Alex Crichton, it’s a desperate attempt to find meaning in an uncaring universe. But every step they take towards that mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last. Ultimately, no one is prepared for what they will encounter.
My thoughts: I loved TSiaSoS, but while this is set in the same universe, twenty three years earlier, it is a very different book, and not just because of its lengths.
In a way it is a desperately sad book, these four humans more or less alone on an alien world, a hostile environment, making it hard for them to sleep, to walk, to do anything. Alex, the protagonist, is mourning his wife, the other members of the team have their own traumas and damage. As they trudge endlessly across an uncaring planet, towards an unknown goal, their exhaustion and isolation make them spiral.
They’re convinced someone made the mysterious, loud, EMP emitting hole, it’s too perfect to be accidental, but the only creatures they encounter are somewhat hostile and make no attempt to communicate, they are so strange that no one knows what to make of them. They don’t seem to be doing anything recognisable, we always try to equate things back to what we understand from human experience – but these creatures or machines, follow no patterns the team can discern.
As they get closer, a series of accidents make it harder and harder for them to accomplish their work and their mental states start to struggle. The desperate straits they find themselves in are worsened by not being able to contact the rest of the crew, isolation pushing them to breaking point. None of them are particularly easy people to be with, and there’s a distinct lack of team spirit. Alex withdraws into himself and his memories, and the rest of the team aren’t any better.
What their mission achieves is minimal and for a moment, all seems lost. There’s a Pandora’s Box effect for Alex, suddenly looking up, the ship passes overhead. And hope sparks. Perhaps we aren’t alone – we have each other.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the book tour for A.E. Bennett’s Gathering of the Four, the first novel in the Serrulata Saga!
Gathering of the Four (Serrulata Saga #1)
Publication Date: April 2, 2021
Genre: Dystopian Sci-Fi/ Fantasy 18+
“In the Realm, every citizen knows their place.”
Leora of Mae is a young woman orphaned at birth and raised on a remote farm. As a wielder of Xanthcraft, her abilities set her apart from her adoptive family and the other villagers.
Shortly before her twentieth birthday, she learns of her family’s plot to sell her into servitude. Fearing for her life, she flees from the only home she’s ever known—defying societal conventions and breaking the edicts of the Realm.
As she runs, Leora meets Roland Shallowbrook, a traveler on the Thieves’ Road; Lady Aurora Verte, daughter of a powerful member of the gentry; and the White Rider Leopold, a soldier with a secret.
Together, this found family will have to band together to survive.
Set in the far distant future, Gathering of the Four is the first book in the Serrulata Saga.
Excerpt
Leora beat her arms to make the blood and feeling return to them. She hated sleeping in the barn, although the only alternative was on the floor by the hearth in the cabin, which Liza only permitted during the coldest winter months. The cabin had been built before Leora was born and probably could have been modified to comfortably sleep more than three people, especially when one was a child. But Liza would have none of it and had banished Leora to sleeping in the barn shortly after the marking of Leora’s fourteenth birthday. Nial had protested, and a compromise had been made, but it was now Third Month, so Leora had recently moved back into the loft.
She knew sleep would continue to elude her so, grumbling, she stood slowly for a walk around the small parcel of land that her adoptive parents could call their own—as much as anyone could call anything theirs under the gentry. She made it to the lone serrulata tree on the lawn before she realized she was not the only one awake.
She crouched down and held her breath as she strained to listen to the voices coming from the direction of the farm- house. Concentrating as she closed her eyes, she breathed in and out slowly, then opened them, feeling a surge of triumph. Her skin was tinged lavender, as was everything around her, which meant her Xanthcraft was working. She was now invisible. She still had to creep toward the farmhouse, though. No one could see her, but they could still hear her if she made any noise.
“I don’t care; we made a promise—”
“Promise nothing!”
Liza and Nial were arguing in hushed whispers. Although Leora had heard them disagree in the past, Nial’s voice was more urgent and strained than she’d ever heard it.
“It’s been nineteen years! Years! And now this comet! And we’re starving —”
“—not starving! What are you talking about? The comet means nothing—”
“—put that thing before your own son—comet a sign—time to let her go—”
Leora shivered when she heard her adoptive mother refer to her as a “thing.”
A slight breeze picked up then, rustling the grass and making it impossible to hear their next few sentences. It died almost as quickly as it had come, and Leora slapped her hands over her mouth at the next word she heard.
“Servantry.”
She knew Liza hated her, but not even she could be so cruel. Or could she?
“Are you out of your mind?” “Keep your voice down!”
There was a pause, as though a heavy cloud had descended on the field.
“You needn’t be here—will come for her—out in the field—don’t even have to say goodbye—”
“I cannot—cruel.”
“Not cruel—our son—our family—”
There was another dark pause. Leora’s chest constricted, as though a large beast had curled up and taken residence within her heart. Surely Nial couldn’t—wouldn’t—let her go. Not like this! She only had another half of a year before she would be of age and could go off into the world…and leave the family with nothing to profit from. Twenty was the legal age of majority throughout the Realm, no matter a person’s station, and a child under that age could be sold into the servantry. An adult who had committed no crime could not.
Her twentieth birthday was this summer.
Bile rose in her throat. Nial had yet to give his wife a firm no. He had been her one ally against Liza’s, and eventually Preston’s, cruelty. He had tended to Leora’s skinned knees and bruised elbows and other growing pains. He’d mopped her forehead free of sweat during that one winter, years ago, when she’d fallen ill with fluenza. He was the only one in the farmhouse who’d had time to give her smiles and asked about her well-being. He couldn’t abandon her. Not when she needed him so desperately.
“—make it quick—I don’t want to be here when they come.”
If you enjoyed the Divergent series or The Uglies, you are going to want to read ReInception by Sarena Straus! Read on for more info and a chance to win a fantastic giveaway!
ReInception
Publication Date: October 2022
Genre: NA Sci-Fi/ Dystopian
REINCEPTION WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND…whether you want it or not
A hundred years in the future, ReInception is used to modify the brain and eliminate unwanted behaviors–everything from overeating to the worst criminal impulses. Unmodified 20-year-old Leandrea Justus feels ordinary compared to her perfect friends who like living in a ReInception world.
Not everyone is in favor of modification–some remain quiet, while others are outwardly insubordinate. After a protest turns violent, a rogue member of the serving class known as The Prole saves Leandrea and exposes a new reality to her: The true purpose of ReInception may be far more nefarious than advertised. Now, her free will may be her greatest asset. But Leandrea’s discoveries about ReInception are putting her life at stake. Can she save society or will the secrets she uncovers start a Civil War?
ReInception is a fiction-debut, the first in a new, action-filled sci-fi trilogy with surprising twists, and a story that may be closer to reality than we think.
I write novels for the curious and adventurous, for people who are intrigued by a “what happens if,” scenario, and who like to explore the outcomes. My characters are ordinary people who find out that they are capable of extraordinary things and discover that one person can truly make a difference.
After receiving a BA in art history and political science from Barnard, I graduated from Fordham University School of Law. I then worked for five years at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office (BXDA), where I prosecuted sex crimes and child abuse cases. After leaving BXDA, I published a true-crime memoir, Bronx DA: True Stories from the Sex Crimes and Domestic Violence unit (Barricade, 2006). In 2010, my book sold as a TV Pilot to CBS/Paramount.
I’ve gone on to publish numerous legal articles and works of poetry, and I was an editor for a legal magazine. For a few years, I was also a talking head, commenting on current criminal cases in the media on tv and radio.
Today, I live in the Hudson Valley, NY with my husband, our two children (also budding writers), two naughty Labrador retriever ladies, and two barn cat boys. I’m now working on sequels to my debut novel ReInception and will keep you posted about them on my site.
When not writing or lawyering, I love to scuba dive, take photographs, and travel off the beaten path. I’ll swap diving or courtroom stories with you all day long or happily talk to you about books–writing them or reading them!
From Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time and winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Lords of Uncreation is the final high-octane instalment in the Final Architecture space opera trilogy.
He’s found a way to end their war, but will humanity survive to see it?
Idris Telemmier has uncovered a secret that changes everything – the Architects’ greatest weakness. A shadowy Cartel scrambles to turn his discovery into a weapon against these alien destroyers of worlds. But between them and victory stands self-interest. The galaxy’s great powers would rather pursue their own agendas than stand together against this shared terror.
Human and inhuman interests wrestle to control Idris’ discovery, as the galaxy erupts into a mutually destructive and self-defeating war. The other great obstacle to striking against their alien threat is Idris himself. He knows that the Architects, despite their power, are merely tools of a higher intelligence.
Deep within unspace, where time moves differently, and reality isn’t quite what it seems, their masters are the true threat. Masters who are just becoming aware of humanity’s daring – and taking steps to exterminate this annoyance forever.
My thoughts: Idris sometimes reminds me of Rincewind from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, a rather nervous man who seems to have stumbled into something bigger than him and doesn’t quite know how to get out of it. In Idris’ case it really is much, much bigger than him. Universe sized really.
He has finally, almost delved enough into the unreal to find the masters behind the planet warping Architects. But can he convince everyone else to go after that and not just the crystalline creatures?
There’s also an attempt at a coup, a very angry Aklu the Unspeakable, the Vulture God limping on, complete with Olli and Kit still on board, even as the rest of crew travel on the Eye with Idris.
This series is hard to explain in a way, it plays with some huge and complex ideas – unspace, the Architects, the Ints like Idris. There are some brilliant concepts too, terrifying ones like the Parthenon and the Essiel and brilliant ones gone a bit awry, like Hugh. The characters are all great, I love Olli and Kittering, their racketing around the universe, holding the ship together with not much more than a few nuts and bolts and determination.
The existing order is in free fall and the ragtag gang trying to fix the universe are all that stands between complete destruction and what’s left of humanity and its allies/enemies/whatever the Hegemony is. I am sad it’s ended, but it was an incredible ride.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the tour for Soul Sucker by Kayla Maurais! Read on for more, and make sure to visit one of our Bookstagram hosts for a chance to win a hardcover edition and some other bookish goodies!
Soul Sucker
Publication Date: February 17th, 2023
Genre: YA Sci-fi/ Fantasy
If the horror planet they’re trapped on doesn’t kill them first, their sibling rivalry just might . . .
For siblings Dash and Shea, stealing and selling rare artifacts across the galaxy is the family business. Meticulous planner Shea yearns to make her father proud, while chaos comedian Dash secretly wishes to be a normal teen.
When Dash fails to return from a classified heist on a planet in the Realm of Shadows, his negligence falls on Shea, and it’s up to her to rescue him. Again. Locating her brother is tricky enough, but upon her arrival Shea discovers that not only has Dash lost the portal key that was meant to deliver them home, the vile creature he was sent to steal has latched onto him and now feeds on his soul.
To save her brother, Shea must enlist the help of a runaway spellcaster in order to find the cure. Nobody else can guide them across a treacherous terrain filled with viscera-laden rivers and forests lurking with carnivorous predators. Relying on someone else means being vulnerable for the first time. And as Shea’s confidence in herself and her tolerance for her brother’s mistakes start to waver, she must decide what’s more important—being the perfectly-polished leader her father raised her to be, or letting her guard down to save her siblingship and her little brother’s soul.
Kayla Maurais is a Young Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy author from New England. She first started writing creatively when she was thirteen. Since then, she’s gone on to get a Masters in Screenwriting. When she isn’t writing, Kayla enjoys spending time in nature and going on road trips to discover new places. She is also a certified TEFL teacher, birth doula, and an intuitive empath.
ramblingmads 