Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

by Carol2 Comments
I hate to tell you to go back and read Black Sun before starting Fevered Star, but you really should. And the good news is the "to be continued" ending won't bother you nearly as much as it did me if you can head straight into this one. Not that this one has a very satisfying ending either, but it's at least not quite as cliffhanger. As before, the world (a weaving of pre-Colombian influences) is strongly engaging and well developed, with fascinating characters and culture. We have several viewpoints in Fevered Star, some more compelling than others. We learn more about our avatar's powers and about their own interior struggles. We see the people that surround them, those who love them, hate them, or want to use them. Heroes and villains are very much a matter of perspective. There's a war coming and the book is all about forming alliances and putting people in the right places, which can...
Read More
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

by CarolNo Comments
First, go read A Memory Called Empire if you haven't yet. It's a fabulous book and I'm not sure you can fully understand/ enjoy A Desolation Called Peace without it. It's where we are first introduced to the Teixcalaan Empire, which spans across galaxies. It's an empire full of political intrigue and poetry. We also met Mahit Dzmare, the ambassador to Teixcalaan from Lsel Station, a small, independent mining space station with its own culture, identity, and most importantly technology. Lsel creates imagos, memory imprints that are designed to meld into the personality of the wearer and preserve the preceding generations of knowledge. This time around we meet the aliens, the ones killing people on the edges of the Teixalaan Empire. There is so much I could say about this book. The world-building is amazing and the aliens interesting, although maybe not unique. The main characters, and there are several, are each fully drawn with strengths and flaws and...
Read More
Mai Tais for the Lost by Mia V. Moss

Mai Tais for the Lost by Mia V. Moss

by Carol2 Comments
I absolutely love the world Moss created in Mai Tais for the Lost. All those who could, mostly the rich, have left the surface of Earth for underwater habitats. Life, at least for the lucky, is full of parties, designer drugs, and alcohol. Of course, they also brought with them security/ law enforcement and people to do the menial tasks of life, like cleaning. Marrow Nightingale was once one of the lower classes, but through a quirk of fate, was adopted by the rich and famous Nightingales. She drinks and parties with the upper classes, but isn't at heart one of them. She is, however, the only private detective in Electric Blue Moon and her brother has been murdered. Marrow is a tough young woman, both overly trusting and cynical. She's definitely an alcoholic and one of those detectives who rub those in authority the wrong way. Mai Tais for the Lost is basically noir with a sci-fi backdrop and...
Read More

Death’s End by Cixin Liu

by Carol2 Comments
Death's End is the conclusion to the fabulous Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The Trisolarans and Earth are basically at a stand-off, thanks to events in book #2. The "peace" is working well, but of course can't last. Enter Cheng Xin, our main character for this installment. She's a regular, intelligent woman who hops through time, thanks to hibernation, making bad decisions. Maybe that's harsh. She makes decision consistent with her character, but she was more or less put in charge of humanity's fate twice, which seems a little unlikely. it works within the plot, but the story works hard to get you there. Death's End is a tough book to talk about. On the one hand, it's amazing. The scale in time and space that the author is working with is enormous and he makes it believable without making it too easy. There's a lot of science here, I feel like it was explained well enough for me...
Read More

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

by Carol2 Comments
I almost didn't read Project Hail Mary. I enjoyed Weir's Artemis, but had no interest in The Martian, and a lot of reviewers commented that it was a return to the style of The Martian. But, I had a copy from NetGalley and I have a friend who will definitely be reading it, so . . . Turns out, I actually enjoyed it. It's smart and funny and accessible. There was a lot of science and some of it got a little boring, but I never felt like I was lost in the details. Alien microorganisms, astrophage, are consuming the sun’s energy, which will sooner rather than later make Earth colder and lead to another ice age. Ryland Grace, our narrator, is an 8th-grade teacher is a scientist who becomes involved in researching this phenomenon. He wakes up on the Hail Mary, part of a suicide mission to find a way to save Earth. The book shows two timelines, Ryland...
Read More
Sci-Fi Summer Readathon

Sci-Fi Summer Readathon

by Carol3 Comments
The Sci-Fi Summer Readathon starts tomorrow. Thanks, Michelle, for hosting again this year. From Season of Reading: Read-a-Thon dates: June 1 at 12:00am EDT until June 30 at 11:59pm EDT. Since science fiction is a very specific genre, this will be strictly reading science fiction during the event. However, since fantasy is so closely related to the genre (often grouped together), if you feel more comfortable reading fantasy, that is also fine. To check in on social media, we’ll use our new hashtag #SciFiJune. I’m going to try to keep my updates below, but I’m also on Twitter and Instagram. My potential to-read list: Seven Deaths of an Empire by G.R. Matthews A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady MartineThe Echo Wife by Sarah GaileyThin Air by Richard K. MorganProject Hail Mary by Andy WeirDeath's End by Cixin Liu Books finished: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (review)Death’s End by Cixin Liu (review) ...
Read More