Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Science Fiction * * * * * Stars (Amazing!) When Ryland Grace awakes from an induced coma, he finds himself aboard a spaceship, hurtling towards who knows where, on a mission to do who knows what. His two crewmates are dead, and as he recuperates from his long sleep, he slowly regains his memories. Earth is in great peril from an organism that is draining the sun’s energy, and … Read more
Flawed Flawed duology, bk #1 by Cecelia Ahern Dystopian Science Fiction Suspense Thriller * * * * Stars (Great!) Celestine North has never questioned the Guild that enforces her country’s moral/ethical code until she finds herself in the middle of an incident on a bus where her own personal sense of what’s right trumps the law. She helps an old, Flawed man, who is clearly deathly ill, and her transgressions earn her a life sentence … Read more
Scythe Arc of a Scythe, book #1 by Neal Shusterman Dystopian Science Fiction Suspense Thriller Review #1 * * * * * Stars (Amazing!) “Scythe” follows the story of 2 protagonists: Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch. The book starts within Scythe Curie’s gleaning journal where she explains the history of their civilization and how humans became immortal and created the Scythedom – an organization of Scythes. The Scythes are trained to “glean,” which is killing … Read more
Vern: Custodian of the Universe Tyrell Waiters Adventure Graphic Novel Science Fiction * * * Stars When Vern’s prospects dry up he moves back home and his grandma immediately gets him a job as custodian at a tech company called Quasar. It’s not what he’d expected. He *does* have to clean up a lot of messes, but they seem to involve weird eyeballs creeping through spatial rifts. Vern eventually discovers that Quasar is messing with … Read more
Earth Unaware The First Formic War bk#1 by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston Science Fiction * * * (Pretty good) Free miners are the first to encounter the Formics as the aliens head toward Earth with unknown intent. This follows the stories of a couple of the miner families and a corporate entity who must put aside their differences to warn the Earth of the aliens’ impending arrival. The encounters they have indicate that … Read more
Refraction by Naomi Hughes Science Fiction * * * Stars (Pretty good) Marty Callahan is a dealer in illegal mirrors who finds himself in hot water when enforcement agents get the drop on him. What’s so bad about mirrors, you might ask? Well, ever since an alien spaceship exploded over the Earth, enveloping most of it in an impenetrable fog filled with terrifying monsters, reflective surfaces have only served as portals for the monsters. So … Read more
A Complicated Love Story Set in Space by Shaun David Hutchinson LGBTQ+ Mystery Romance Science Fiction Suspense Thriller * * * Stars (Pretty good) Noa wakes up in space – literally in a spacesuit floating outside a spaceship. He has no idea how he got there. At least he isn’t alone. DJ reaches out to him from the ship with some rather unfortunate news – the ship may explode if they don’t do something to … Read more
Any Sign of Life by Rae Carson Science Fiction Suspense Thriller * * * * Stars (Great!) Teen basketball star Paige Miller wakes up attached to an IV and feeling like death itself. She discovers that she’s all alone and that everyone in her town is dead. Determined to survive, she goes in search of supplies and other people – eventually finding some companions. Together they follow a radio broadcast that promises additional community and … Read more
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi Science Fiction Suspense * * * * Stars (Great!) Jamie Gray finds himself out of work when the food delivery startup he works for downsizes him during the pandemic. Fortuitously, an acquaintance offers him a job with an animal rights organization he works for – conveniently leaving out the fact that the “animals” are in fact not of this world and that he’ll need to travel to another … Read more
The Chosen Twelve by James Breakwell Science Fiction * * * * Stars (Great!) 22 children are all that’s left of the human race. They’re being trained by robots (Edubot is their main instructor) and other AIs using simulations to colonize a planet that’s basically antithetical to human life. Previous colonists managed to create a species of intelligent, but extremely hostile kangaroos that kill anyone they encounter, and the world wasn’t exactly welcoming to begin … Read more