Ocean's Echo

Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

Rich socialite, inveterate flirt, and walking disaster Tennalhin Halkana can read minds. Tennal, like all neuromodified “readers,” is a security threat on his own. But when controlled, readers are a rare asset. Not only can they read minds, but they can navigate chaotic space, the maelstroms surrounding the gateway to the wider universe.

Conscripted into the military under dubious circumstances, Tennal is placed into the care of Lieutenant Surit Yeni, a duty-bound soldier, principled leader, and the son of a notorious traitor general. Whereas Tennal can read minds, Surit can influence them. Like all other neuromodified “architects,” he can impose his will onto others, and he’s under orders to control Tennal by merging their minds.

Surit accepted a suspicious promotion-track request out of desperation, but he refuses to go through with his illegal orders to sync and control an unconsenting Tennal. So they lie: They fake a sync bond and plan Tennal's escape.

Their best chance arrives with a salvage-retrieval mission into chaotic space—to the very neuromodifcation lab that Surit's traitor mother destroyed twenty years ago. And among the rubble is a treasure both terrible and unimaginably powerful, one that upends a decades-old power struggle, and begins a war.

Tennal and Surit can no longer abandon their unit or their world. The only way to avoid life under full military control is to complete the very sync they've been faking.

This is Maxwell's second book in the same universe. I love what she does with gender presentation!

Maxwell, Everina. (2022). Ocean's Echo. New York: Tor.

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu is an collection of amazingly well written, engaging stories that vary from historical fiction to science fiction. 

This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken's award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" (finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards); "Mono No Aware" (Hugo Award winner); "The Waves" (Nebula Award finalist); "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" (Nebula and Sturgeon Award finalist); "All the Flavors" (Nebula award finalist); "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King" (Nebula Award finalist); and the most awarded story in the genre's history, "The Paper Menagerie" (the only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards).

If you are a fan of good writing, read this book!

Liu, Ken. (2016). The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. New York: Saga Press.

The Ministry of Time

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley:

A civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering 'expats' from across history to test whether time-travel is feasible.

Her role is to work as a 'bridge': living with, supporting and monitoring expat '1847' - Commander Graham Gore, a former Victorian polar explorer. Gore, an adventurer by trade, soon adjusts to this bizarre new world of washing machines, feminism and Spotify; and during a long, sultry summer the pair move from awkwardness to friendship to something more.

Bradley, Kaliane. (2024). The Ministry of Time. New York: Avid Reader Press.

Rosewater (#1Wormwood Trilogy)

Rosewater by Tade Thompson is the first book in his Wormwood trilogy - an Afrofuturist science fiction romp. 

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry, and the helpless -- people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again -- but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

Tade Thompson's innovative, genre-bending, Afrofuturist series, the Wormwood Trilogy, is perfect for fans of Jeff Vandermeer, N. K. Jemisin, and Ann Leckie.

Thompson, Tade. (2016). Rosewater. New York: Orbit.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi posits what would happen if the moon suddenly turned to cheese - both scientifically and emotionally for everyone on Earth.

One day, suddenly and without explanation, the moon turns into a ball of cheese.
For some, it’s an opportunity. For others, it’s time to question their life choices. How can the world stay the same in the face of such absurdity and uncertainty?

Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and patients at the end of their lives – over the length of a lunar cycle, each gets their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to hope, to laugh and to grieve. All in a story that goes all the places you’d expect, and to many others you could never anticipate. For the people of the earth, this could be the end – or the beginning of a whole new world.

Scalzi is a great writer who can write about anything, including writing a serious scifi novel about an absurd premise! 

Scalzi, John. (2025). When the Moon Hits Your Eye. New York: TOR.

The Book of Phoenix

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor is a science fiction book in which one modified, magical woman fights to set things right in a world gone wrong.

Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York’s Tower 7. She is an “accelerated woman”—only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix’s abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperienced in the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading e-books, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7.

Then one evening, Saeed witnesses something so terrible that he takes his own life. Devastated by his death and Tower 7’s refusal to answer her questions, Phoenix finally begins to realize that her home is really her prison, and she becomes desperate to escape.

But Phoenix’s escape, and her destruction of Tower 7, is just the beginning of her story. Before her story ends, Phoenix will travel from the United States to Africa and back, changing the entire course of humanity’s future.

The Book of Phoenix is a prequel to She Who Fears Death. Okorafor has a unique style of story that I find un-put-down-able. 

Okorafor, Nnedi. (2015). The Book of Phoenix. New York: DAW. 

Winter's Orbit

Orbit by Everina Maxwell is a gay space romance between people married as a political contract. 

Prince Kiem is a minor royal of the Empire, the least favorite grandson of the Empress. He is about to be married to Count Jainen, a treaty to keep the outlying planets in line. Their marriage is one of the items to get in line before the Empire renews a Resolution with the alien species that keeps them from being invaded by neighbors.

Neither Prince Kiem nor Coutn Jainen want to be married, but understand it is their duty. To add pressure to a new couple who had never met before, there is a conspiracy and a plot to sabotage the Resolution.

Maxwell's novel is everything you could want in a space opera or in a romance story. A great read!

Maxwell, Everina. (2021) Winter's Orbit. New York: Orbit.

The Future of Another Timeline

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz is a queer, feminist, punk time travel novel. 

1992 - Beth is at a Riotgrrl concert with her friends when a decision they make creates a new path in the timeline. 

2022 - Beth is part of a group of time travelers who are hoping to make small changes in the past to ensure body autonomy for women in all timelines. 

1892 - In the White City as Chicago's World's Fair is about to open the battle for the future in on. Trends started by Comstock and his followers could take away women's rights for the whole of the future.

Newitz is a science fiction genius. They take stories to places few others would think of. Due to the current political climate in the US this is not an easy book to read right now, but maybe corrections are coming here too.

Newitz, Annalee. (2019). The Future of Another Timeline. New York: Tor.

The City in the Middle of the Night

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

January is a dying planet - divided between a permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Humanity clings to life, spread across two archaic cities built in the sliver of habitable dusk. 

But life inside the cities is just as dangerous as the wastelands outside. Sophie, a student and reluctant revolutionary, is supposed to be dead, after being exiled into the night. 

Saved only by forming an unusual bond with the enigmatic beasts who roam the ice, Sophie vows to stay hidden from the world, hoping she can heal. But fate has other plans - and 

Sophie's ensuing odyssey and the ragtag family she finds will change the entire world. [from fantastic fiction]

Anders is a talented writer who takes stories places other authors don't even think of. Her science fiction is amazing and will leave you thinking of the characters long after you finish reading. 

Anders, Charlie Jane. (2019). The City in the Middle of the Night. New York: Tor.

Wanderers (Wanderers #1)

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig is the first of two books dealing with a plague and its aftermath. 

Something is causing an illness that makes people lose all sense of themselves. The illness causes a white fungus to form on their faces giving it the name White Mask. 

At the same time, something else strange is happening to a small group of people. Shana's sister Nessie is sleepwalking and cannot be awoken. Shana follows her and as they go, more sleepwalkers are joining her. They cannot be stopped or communicated with. Soon there are sleepwalkers and their loved ones heading across the country. 

Set is a familiar-feeling time politically, society begins to collapse. Terror and violence are rampant. The CDC assigns it best investigator to follow the sleepwalkers while others search for the origin of White Mask. 

Wendig has written a compelling series. It is gripping, haunting and realistic. Book two takes place about five years after the onset of the disease, in the time after the illness has run its course. I HIGHLY recommend this two-book series. It is one of the best I have read this decade!

Wendig, Chuck. (2019). Wanderers. New York: Del Rey. 

The Glass Hotel

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel is a wonderful genre blending story.

The Hotel Caiette is on the northern edge of Vancouver Island. Vincent is working at the hotel the night someone carves a message into the front window, the same night a very wealthy man is due to arrive. 

What follows is a story hinted at in Mandel's novel Sea of Tranquility, the story of Vincent and the life she lives with the very wealthy Jonathan Alkaitis. 

This is a story of crisis and survival, greed and guilt, unintended consequences, and the search for meaning. Emily St. John Mandel is one of the great writers of our time. Read all of her books!

Mandel, Emily St. John. (2020). The Glass Hotel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 

Sea of Tranquility

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel is a story with a mystery that spans 489 years.

Edwin St. Andrew is a second son in England at the beginning of the 20th century. As he is not going to inherit his father's house and wealth, he is sent to Canada to make a life for himself. In 1912 he has made it across the continent to Vancouver island. Walking in the forest toward a maple tree he experiences disorientation - seeing a terminal with a man playing the violin.

Olive Llewellyn is on a world tour for her pandemic novel as it is about to become a movie. In 2203 while walking through an airship terminal, passing a man playing the violin, she suddenly sees trees in a forest. 

In 2401 in a colony on the moon, Gaspery Roberts is hired by the Time Institute to investigate an anomaly in North America. He will travel back in time to interview four people in different times, all connected to an airship terminal in Oklahoma City.

Mandel has created a compelling puzzle of a story. This is a fun book. Read it now!

Mandel, Emily St. John. (2022). Sea of Tranquility. New York: Alfred A Knopf. 

The Future

The Future by Naomi Alderman is a science fiction book that takes place a few years from now technology-wise. 

Martha Einkorn was raised on a compound in Oregon. She now works for a social media mogul who wants to control everything. 

Lai Zhen, raised in Hong Kong, is an internet-famous survivalist. She writes articles, interviews and posts videos that have millions of followers. 

Both Martha and Lai have a role to play in a chain of events set into motion to change the course of the world, to hopefully save humanity. If something happens to make people willing to restructure their lives to help the Earth repair itself. One or both of them are unaware of their roles.

Alderman is a masterful storyteller. The twists and turns in this thriller will keep you up late reading. 

Alderman, Naomi. (2023). The Future. New York: Simon and Schuster. 

Starter Villain

 

Starter Villain by John Scalzi is a wonderful read! 

Charlie, the youngest of four siblings, lives in his father's house with his cat Hera. It was part of his father's will that Charlie could live there as long as necessary, then split the sale with his siblings. 

Charlie was a journalist but was laid off with most of the magazine industry. He has been substitute teaching and working at a pub to pay bills. 

Then a woman shows up on his doorstep and tells him that his uncle has died. He has not seen his uncle since he graduated from college, but if he is willing to stand for him at the funeral he will receive his inheritance. 

What Charlie doesn't know is that by standing for his uncle he is announcing that he is the heir apparent to his uncle's business. As far as Charlie knows his uncle owned parking garages. He doesn't know his uncle was a super villain and that every rival will now try to kill Charlie.

Scalzi has written a fun, quick read that will have you laughing out loud. Fans of cats will be delighted by this book.

Scalzi, John. (2023). Starter Villain. New York: Tor. 

Audacious (Kris Longknife #5)

Audacious by Mike Shephard is the fifth book in his space opera featuring Kris Longknife.

As all of Kris Longknife's assignments, she is being sent somewhere to be kept out of trouble. And like all assignments, that is not the real mission. The problem is that no one ever tells Kris what the real reason is for her being in what feels like the wrong place at the wrong time.  

The planet of New Eden is controlled by the descendants of three Earth nations - a precarious balance that no one outside of the government really understands. Partly because of the inordinately high price to subscribe to any media source. Most citizens cannot afford to pay it. 

There are factions at work who want to overthrow the government and are using the lack of media as a kind of shield to get things started. Kris has to figure out a way to get information out of this frustrating planet. 

The one thing that might help is that Abbey, Kris's maid / bodyguard / maybe-a-spy is from New Eden. She may have sources - only she left more than a decade ago and never looked back.

The Kris Longknife series is a swashbuckling good read. 

Shephard, Mike (2007). Audacious. New York: Ace Books.

The Splinter in the Sky

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa is a brilliant space opera, filled with political intrigue, espionage and some deserved comeuppance! 

On the distant moon of Koriko, a territory of the Holy Vaalbaran Empire, those who live on the planet are not doing as well as they were before they were subjected to the Empire.

Tea Specialist and Scribe Enitan Ijebu is about to become a political prisoner to ensure the uneasy peace between the Empire and the Ominirish Republic. Losing both people she cares about, she is taken to the capital planet - home of the God-Emperor.

The seat of government, and the upper classes, is a floating city that hovers over the planet long abandoned by all who could. There Enitan will do everything necessary to save her sibling, exact revenge and try to free her home planet. 

Ashing-Giwa has written a wonderful science fiction, espionage story. This is a great read-a-like for fans of Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire. 

Ashing-Giwa, Kemi. (2023). The Splinter in the Sky. New York: Sage Press.

Resolute (Kris Longknife #4)

Resolute by Mike Shephard is the fourth book in his space opera series featuring Kris Longknife. 

To get the trouble-making (for some) Kris Longknife out of the way, she is assigned to a planet on the Rim. The planet Chance is one not many people have even heard of. She is to take over the guarding of two jump gates. 

When Kris arrives, with Jack, Penny and Abby, the station she is assigned to has been mothballed. The ship they arrived on is more a floating museum than a proper Navy ship. And she has no personnel - everyone from Chance has been retired and moved back to the planet. 

With her usual "luck" five Greenhaven ships enter the far star gate. Greenhaven has been commandeering planets since the alliance with Earth broke down. Now Kris has just a few days to invent a way to defend Chance space.

Shephard has created a badass character in Kris Longknife. This series is every entertaining. 

Shephard, Mike. (2006). Resolute. New York: ACE Books.

The Terraformers

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is the story of creating a habitable planet out of a rock spinning in space. 

The Environmental Rescue Teams job on the planet SASK-E is to keep things in balance. Teams through the ages have been guiding the planet through stages from oxygen production to soil enrichment to plant growth. SASK-E is now in a Pleistocene-like era.

Destry, an Environmental Research Ranger, in the year 59,006 is charged with caring for the planets and helping when the ecosystems need it. 

While accompanying another ranger to the south of the main continent, they discover a city that should not exist - a people who should be impossible. This will make Destry rethink all she knows about SASK-E and Verdance, the corporation who owns the planet. 

Newitz has written a great environmental science fiction story that will make you think differently about our world and all kinds of people. This is a great book.

Newitz, Annalee. (2023). The Terraformers. New York: TOR.

Titanium Noir

Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway is a genreblend of science fiction and detective series. 

Cal Sounder is a detective who works with the police on sensitive cases - those involving Titans. Titans are the superrich who have taken T7 therapy to expand their lives, a side effect of which is to make people extremely tall. 

When Roddy Tebbit, a professor and Titan is found dead, Cal is called. Tebbit does not fit the usual profile of a Titan but his height says he is one. How did someone on a professor salary pay for the ridiculously expensive therapy? Why did Stefan Tonfemecasca, the man who controls the technology and who gets to use it, allow Tebbit to become a Titan?

Harkaway has created a moody noir setting in both the underbelly of the city and in the supertalls where the Titans live. This is a great combination of noir and science fiction. Fun read!

Harkaway, Nick. (2023). Titanium Noir. New York: Knopf.

Defiant (Kris Longknife #3)

Defiant by Mike Shepherd is the third book in the Kris Longknife science fiction series. 

After returning to Wardhaven following a daring rescue of her best friend, Kris learns that her position has been taken - likely the consequences would be worse if not for being one of those damn Longknifes. 

What is available is a squadron of fast attack boats called mosquitos. They are untried in combat but may be an idea for planetary protection from invasion - something that is more likely since the galaxy wide alliance has ended.

A theory that Kris and her crews will be able to test when war ships enter Wardhaven space. 

Shepherd has written and entertaining space opera series featuring an audacious character with a band of friends who help keep her alive. 

Shepherd, Mike. (2005). Defiant. New York: Ace Books.