Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Title: Exit Strategy (Murderbot Diaries #4)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2018

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 176

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.
But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?
And what will become of it when it’s caught?

Oh what a ride! I wish that I had planned my week better so I could have read this in one sitting. Unfortunately I had to break it up into two reading sessions. We get the return of some previous characters and learn more about what GrayCris has been doing. Murderbot’s narration has continued to entertain me on every page. I love the little asides and commentary on human life. My favorite part was definitely the reboot process. Fascinating to watch Murderbot understand who they are. I must read the next one (a full length novel!) soon.

Murderbot Diaries:

• #1 All Systems Red

• #2 Artificial Condition

• #3 Rogue Protocol

• #4 Exit Strategy

• #5 Network Effect

• #6 Fugitive Telemetry

Next up on the TBR pile:

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Title: Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries #3)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2018

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 150

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook

Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?

Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah's SecUnit is.

And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

Oh Yes! This series just keeps getting better and better. I sped through this volume enjoying every quip from Murderbot and every action sequence. There’s not a deep plot to this one, but we do get more information on the larger conspiracy afoot. Plus we get to see Murderbot interact with another group of humans and bots in an attempt to figure out their identity. So good! I’ll be quickly picking up the next novella.

Murderbot Diaries:

• #1 All Systems Red

• #2 Artificial Condition

• #3 Rogue Protocol

• #4 Exit Strategy

• #5 Network Effect

• #6 Fugitive Telemetry

Next up on the TBR pile:

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Title: Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries #2)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2018

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 149

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook

It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.
Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.
What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

I’m again loving the Muderbot’s narration of space adventures. We get a bit more of the overreaching storyline, but mainly focus on an encounter with a collective and a devious company agent. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I hope we get more ART in future books and more of Murderbot attempting to pass for human. Very entertaining!

Murderbot Diaries:

• #1 All Systems Red

• #2 Artificial Condition

• #3 Rogue Protocol

• #4 Exit Strategy

• #5 Network Effect

• #6 Fugitive Telemetry

Next up on the TBR pile:

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

Title: The City We Became (The Great Cities #!)

Author: N.K. Jemisin

Publisher: Orbit 2020

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 449

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook; MMD 2020

In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power.
In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her.
In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.
And they're not the only ones.

Jemisin has officially landed on my must-read author list. I have enjoyed everything that I have read by her so far and I have more to read. The start of these series came from an intriguing short story about cities being born. She takes the idea and expands the story in an epic multiverse. I loved how Jemisin weaves real-world characters with otherworldly characters and supernatural horrors. Jemisin really takes inspiration from a variety of sources and it shows. I loved how she connects personalities to each of the New York City boroughs. It all makes sense. I kept having ah-ha moments in every chapter! I cannot wait to see where this story goes next.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Sever by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Sever (The Chemical Garden #3)

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2013

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Pages: 386

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library

With time ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed, and she takes refuge in his dilapidated house. However, the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.

Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and on the past her parents never had the chance to explain.

While I really enjoyed the first book in this series, the second and third books just didn’t really land for me. I was disappointed that the relationship between Rhine and Gabriel went really no where in this volume. In fact, he doesn’t even appear in the book until the last section. Instead, we get more focus back on Linden and Cecily and I was just bored with those characters. The ending was incredibly weak and I just didn’t buy the conclusion. Meh. Just another book off my list I guess.

The Chemical Garden

• #1 Wither

• #2 Fever

• #3 Sever

Next up on the TBR pile:

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Title: All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2017

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 155

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

I picked this up as a free download from Tor.com and absolutely loved it so much! We get a concise novella following a “murderbot” as it navigates it’s latest work assignment that goes wrong. I loved getting into the mind of the SecUnit but especially loved it’s voice. Such fun to listen to it’s stream of consciousness and journey. I sped through this adventure story in just a few hours and can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Murderbot Diaries:

• #1 All Systems Red

• #2 Artificial Condition

• #3 Rogue Protocol

• #4 Exit Strategy

• #5 Network Effect

• #6 Fugitive Telemetry

Next up on the TBR pile:

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Title: Upright Women Wanted

Author: Sarah Gailey

Publisher: Tor.com 2020

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 171

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook

“That girl’s got more wrong notions than a barn owl’s got mean looks.”

Esther is a stowaway. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her—a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.

The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.

So Sarah Gailey is most definitely going on my must read author list. I love how they write with fun classic tropes turned on their heads. On the surface, this is a story of a post-apocalypse(ish) world where a resistance faction has risen up with the aid of traveling librarians. Sounds like a typical scifi book. But Gailey really focuses on the relationships of the characters and explores gender and identity in this strange world. They did similar things in River and Teeth and Taste of Marrow and I am totally on board of this! This short novella really packs a punch. I wanted so much to see the the further adventures of Esther and Cye along with the resistance. I wanted to learn more about the world they live in. I wanted to meet more interesting characters. Maybe we will get another book set in this world from Gailey.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Title: The Deep

Author: Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes

Publisher: Gallery 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 175

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.

This was such a beautiful and incredibly sad and angering book. It’s less a book with a plot and more an examination of the legacy of slavery in America. The fantastical elements allow Solomon the leeway to explore concepts of memory and history and responsibility. It took my a few days to wade through these pages as they are so incredibly dense and yet lyrical. It is a hard book to read if you think about the real life situations the book mirror. I’m pretty sure Rivers Solomon is now on my must-read author list. This is amazing…

Next up on the TBR pile:

Planetfall by Emma Newman

Title: Planetfall (Planetfall #1)

Author: Emma Newman

Publisher: ROC 2015

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 320

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library; Goodreads Random - April

Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi’s vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown.

More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony's 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.

Ren continues to perpetuate the lie forming the foundation of the colony for the good of her fellow colonists, despite the personal cost. Then a stranger appears, far too young to have been part of the first planetfall, a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Suh-Mi.

The truth Ren has concealed since planetfall can no longer be hidden. And its revelation might tear the colony apart...

After ranting and raving to my husband for the better part of a half hour, I decided to give this book 2 stars. I do not think that this is a good book. There are so many storylines, plot threads that get muddled and ultimately lead no where. They bring up the potential parasite in the newcomer’s stomach, but no one seem really interested or concerned. There are allusions to the tragedy that was unfolding on Earth, but no follow up. Ren’s “disorder” is thrown into the mix at the height of the conflict, but no real discussion or resolution. Religion comes up again and again but seemingly only in passing with no real focus. The entirety of their journey to the new planet and any technology used is glossed over. The book ended up being a mix of about 6 Star Trek episodes with no real follow-through or conclusions. I will not be reading the rest of the series.

Planetfall

• #1 Planetfall

• #2 After Atlas

• #3 Before Mars

• #4 Atlas Alone

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen Flynn

Title: The Jane Austen Project

Author: Kathleen A. Flynn

Publisher: Harper Perennial 2017

Genre:

Pages: 384

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library; Random TBR Pick

London, 1815: Two travelers—Rachel Katzman and Liam Finucane—arrive in a field in rural England, disheveled and weighed down with hidden money. Turned away at a nearby inn, they are forced to travel by coach all night to London. They are not what they seem, but rather colleagues who have come back in time from a technologically advanced future, posing as wealthy West Indies planters—a doctor and his spinster sister. While Rachel and Liam aren’t the first team from the future to “go back,” their mission is by far the most audacious: meet, befriend, and steal from Jane Austen herself.

After renewing this book from the library multiple times, I had run out of time. And then, the libraries all closed due the pandemic and I got extra time to read this one. I finally dove in and was upset with myself for waiting so long. I really enjoyed this time travel story focusing on the life of Jane Austen. I do love Jane Austen and it was a treat to dive into her world even if the book was fictionalized. I loved Liam and his mystery background. Rachel was a less interesting character, but I did grow to enjoy her over the course of the book. I was fully invested in Rachel and Liam’s mission. I didn’t want to leave the world. My only issue was the rushed ending. I would have liked a bit more of an ending. But the rest of the book was great.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Title: Redshirts

Author: John Scalzi

Publisher: Tor 2012

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 317

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It's a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship's Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn't be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship's captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues' understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

Oh such fun! Random fun fact: Scalzi was writing this book while working on Stargate: Universe. Love that show and really really enjoyed this book. Throughout most of the book, I found myself chuckling at the references and absurd situations. I loved following Dahl and his friends as they attempt to understand just what is wrong with the Intrepid. I could have told them, but you know, characters have to figure it out for themselves. My one issue was the book was the length. I thought it was a lot longer than it was, but the main story ended a bit abruptly. I would have liked a bit more of a conclusion to the story on the Intrepid. However we did get some interesting codas involving various other characters. I did enjoy those. Fun book for science fiction fans.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Fever (The Chemical Garden #2)

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2012

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Pages: 354

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but they’re still in danger. Outside, they find a world even more disquieting than the one they ran away from. Determined to get to Manhattan and find Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan, the two press forward, amid threats of being captured again…or worse.

The road they are on is long and perilous—and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and men die at age twenty-five, time is precious. In this sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price—now that she has more to lose than ever.

Mixed feelings about this one… I definitely wanted to continue reading this series after enjoying the first book. I was concerned about where the second book was going, but thankfully most of the book was good. I really liked being able to change setting from the mansion and explore a bit more of the world. The plot moved at a pretty good pace keeping the action. I really enjoyed that bit. My only issue is with Rhine. She can be very annoying at times and I really wanted her to own up to some things at times. Plus I really wanted to see more her relationship with Gabriel. Guess I might need to read the last book to see how everything ends.

The Chemical Garden

• #1 Wither

• #2 Fever

• #3 Sever

Next up on the TBR pile:

Vox by Christina Dalcher

Title: Vox

Author: Christina Dalcher

Publisher: Berkley 2018

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 336

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library; Monthly Theme

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

This is just the beginning...not the end.

I was intrigued by the set-up and the comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale. Unfortunately, what I read was a book trying way too hard to be relevant in our current political climate filled with unlikable characters and a ridiculous thriller style plot. Shoehorned in there is very surface level commentary about sexism, religion, politics, and science. And don’t get me started on Jean and Patrick’s relationship, their relationship to the children, and Jean and Lorenzo’s relationship. Just no. But what irked me the most was the timeline. This is all supposed to have happened in a few short years and then is undone in less than a year. Um no. I don’t buy it without some catastrophic event like a plague or war. Girly Book Club has once again disappointed me with their science fiction selection. We only get one a year and last year’s was terrible (American War) and this year’s choice is just as bad…

Next up on the TBR pile:

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Title: An Unkindness of Ghosts

Author: Rivers Solomon

Publisher: Akashic Books 2017

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 340

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library; Monthly Theme

Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.

Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war.

This book has been on my radar for awhile but I somehow never picked it up. I decided to add it to my short list for February and immediately started reading after finishing Kindred. The two books ended up being a great pairing. Both deal with racial issues by using science fiction to highlight the problems. I loved reading Kindred that mainly dealt in the past and how it relates to the modern, but this book took it further in dealing in the future to highlight the present. Plus we get commentary on power structures, gender divides, trans issues, class issues, and even education and knowledge. There are so many layers to this book! There are so many different topics being addressed that I don’t think I caught everything. I may have to reread this book in a few years. Beyond all the interesting topics, we get a great fast-paced plot centering on Aster’s uncovering the meaning behind her mother’s suicide and the overall mystery of the ship and where it’s headed. I was definitely along for the ride! I even loved the ending. I’m still thinking on many of the issues highlighted days later. So good!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Title: Kindred

Author: Octavia Butler

Publisher: 1979

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 287

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library; Monthly Theme - February

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Such a powerful story! I’ve been meaning to read this one for years, but it kept getting shoved down my TBR pile. Finally picked it up and sped through it. It’s a fast paced plot with great characters. But more importantly, the book dives into very hard situations and questions what’s right and wrong in any given situation. I really found Dana’s inner turmoil over her place both in the 1800s and in 1976 challenging. The passages detailing violence were very difficult to read but important to confront past (and sometimes current) injustices. Even though the book was written 40 years, the topics touched upon feel very relevant to today.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Wool by Hugh Howey

Title: Wool (Silo #1)

Author: Hugh Howey

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2013

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 528

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook; Monthly Theme

In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

This series has been on my list for awhile now. Overall I did enjoy the story, but I was slightly confused about the form. I thought it would be one continuous story. Instead we get a bit of jumping in characters and timelines. In the end, I did enjoy the story and the world created. The silos are an interesting concept. I had hoped to learn more about the apocalypse. Maybe in the continuing stories.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither (The Chemical Garden #1)

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2011

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Pages: 384

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual; Monthly Theme January

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years—leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement; her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next; and Rhine has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive.

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

This one has been on my list for years at this point. I finally dove in and read this story in just a few days. I wouldn’t say that I absolutely loved this book, but it was a solid young adult science fiction book. Rhine is a decent heroine put in an impossible situation. Even though I like Rhine, I loved Jenna and Cecily. They are great side characters. Linden is a wet blanket, but I guess that’s his role in the story. I just wished that Gabriel was a more compelling character and love interest for Rhine. Maybe in book two? I think I’ll continue the series, but I’m not going to rush out right now.

The Chemical Garden

• #1 Wither

• #2 Fever

• #3 Sever

Next up on the TBR pile:

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Title: Feed

Author: M.T. Anderson

Publisher: Candlewick Press 2002

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 236

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual - NPR Teen, Top 100 YA; Dancing with Fantasy and Scifi - Satire

For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon — a chance to party during spring break. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its ever-present ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. M. T. Anderson’s not-so-brave new world is a smart, savage satire that has captivated readers with its view of an imagined future that veers unnervingly close to the here and now.

Ooofff. This one really did not land well with me. I was immediately thrown off by the large amounts of slang through in. Are we trying to do a Clockwork Orange? IF so, it’s off putting. Beyond that, I could not stand any of the characters. I just didn’t care what happened to them at all. I did enjoy the world set-up and premise of the novel. It just failed when it came to all the characters. I get Anderson’s point, but seriously, I could not deal with any of the characters. Hard pass on this one.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Second Deluge by Garrett P. Serviss

Title: The Second Deluge

Author: Garrett P. Serviss

Publisher: 1911

Genre: Proto Scifi

Pages: 215

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook; Dancing with Fantasy and Scifi - Proto Scifi

I routinely listen to The Apocalist Podcast highlighting apocalypse books chronologically and they haven’t recommended many of the books for listeners to read. This one was an exception. I dove in not knowing much about this apocalypse book, but ended up really enjoying it. The book reminds me of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. There’s an adventure story punctuated with random science writing. We get a protagonist which no one listens to until it’s too late. We have some wild plot points. There isn’t many female characters, but that’s pretty typical of writings from the time period. The plot is fairly laughable in 2019 standards, but this was a fairly enjoyable classic science fiction novel.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Alien: Echo by Mira Grant

Title: Alien: Echo

Author: Mira Grant

Publisher: Imprint 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 299

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Dancing with Fantasy and Scifi - Another Planet

Olivia and her twin sister Viola have been dragged around the universe for as long as they can remember. Their parents, both xenobiologists, are always in high demand for their research into obscure alien biology.

Just settled on a new colony world, they discover an alien threat unlike anything they’ve ever seen. And suddenly the sisters’ world is ripped apart.

On the run from terrifying aliens, Olivia’s knowledge of xenobiology and determination to protect her sister are her only weapons as the colony collapses into chaos. But then a shocking family secret bursts open—one that’s as horrifying to Olivia as the aliens surrounding them.

The creatures infiltrate the rich wildlife on this untouched colony world—and quickly start adapting. Olivia’s going to have to adapt, too, if she’s going to survive..

I’ve loved all of Mira Grant’s other books (and all her writing under Seanan McGuire), so I had to grab this one from the library. Slight confusion when the story started, but I quickly realized that this story is set in the Alien universe. Should have been clued in my the title and yet I wasn’t. Once I dove into the story, this was a ride from one chapter to the next. It was horrifying to be right along with Olivia figuring out how the aliens operate. Definitely full of terror. I ended up reading this one in less than 24 hours. Definite fun.

Next up on the TBR pile: