Fantasy

The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne
This Norse-like saga is one of the best fantasy series I've read, and I anxiously await book 3 in October!! A northern kingdom lies fractured by petty jarldoms and in-fighting. Although there were a plethora of gods, they ended up all dying hundreds of years ago in a battle called the Gudsfalla. Anyone 'tainted' by god blood is enthralled as slave labor. Each of the Tainted carries certain characteristics of their ancestor's power. For example, Ulfrir is the wolf god, and his tainted descendents look human, but have wolf senses and teeth that are let loose on the field of battle.
The story is dominated by three bands of warriors: the Bloodsworn, the Battle-Grim, and the Raven-Feeders. One of these bands is cruel and evil, and will stop at nothing to gain power -including resurrecting Lik-Rifa, the dragon god.
The action and adventure compel the story forward, but the characters and their relationships are also well drawn out. And as the author, John Gwynne, is a Viking re-enactor, expect very realistic descriptions of weapons (and their impact on the human body), ships, battles, and even every day life.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
Garth Nix cleverly takes us back to London, circa 1983, and allows us to focus on magic, mystery, and flirtatious romance without even a hint of technology. Susan is newly 18 and spending the few months before she starts art school on a quest to find her father -whoever he might be.
Vivien and Merlin are siblings, booksellers, and imbued with different gifts as one is a right-handed bookseller (the intellectual type) and one is a left-handed bookseller (the fighting type). Susan will need both of them, as malevolent forces try to keep her from discovering her heritage, and she will need all the help she can get just to stay alive and in one piece. Great story!

If you pick this up, be sure to enjoy the poems that head every chapter, they are relevant to the story and interesting in their own right. From chapter 13:
A shadow creeps along the wall
More shadows sweep across the hall
Many shadows leap and dance and fall
But shadows need both dark and light
No shadows crawl in blackest night

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
I don't understand what Gailey was thinking of when they wrote this book. It starts with an excellent premise: Vera is the grown daughter of a serial killer and an icy, abusive mother, and she's come home for the first time in 17 years (at her dying mother's request) to clean up and empty the house, and make her peace with the past. Myriad obstacles stand in Vera's way, including the creepy entitled artist who is staying in the garden shed so he can capture some of the bad vibes of the house in his paintings.
All these potential villains, and she goes in another (slightly silly) direction altogether. So I sped right through the first 3/4 of the book, anticipating all the threads of malevolence to come together, and then the last 1/4 was underwhelming and had me rolling my eyes. Not even well-thought out enought to be considered metaphorical.

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody
Combine the dark love story of Twilight, the magic of Harry Potter, and the battle to the death of Hunger Games and you have a pretty good idea of what to expect with All of Us Villains. This isn't a rehash, though, but a clever blending of trending themes in YA lit and the authors have done themselves proud. Seven families have maintained a hold on access to a source of powerful magic for a thousand years. The caveat is that each new generation must put forth a champion from each family, and the last one alive grants their family exclusive use of the magic for 20 years. There is no opting out as a powerful curse dictates that every family produce a champion, and that every champion participates or automatically forfeits their life. For these seven diverse young adults, they will come to the realization that there is nothing heroic in what they are about to do -the question is: how villanous are they each prepared to be? Can't wait for the sequel to come out next summer!

D: A Tale of Two Worlds by Michel Faber
This delightful book is somewhat reminiscent of the Oz tales by L. Frank Baum (I'm thinking in particular of Ozma of Oz), with a plucky heroine named Dhikila whose adventures rival Dorothy's. Dhikila is a British schoolgirl who notices one day that the letter D is starting to go missing-from speech, from signs, and indeed, even objects that begin with D are starting to isappear.
With help arriving from unusual sources, Dhikila plunges in to save the world, even as no one else seems to notice there's a problem. A fun read that should hold up over time!


The Last Pow-Wow by That Native Thomas
Fantasy that only an indigenous writer could produce, an intriguing confluence of Indian spiritual figures (Deer Woman, Coyote the Trickster), Christian figures (Lucifer becomes Son of the Morning Star), and what it means to be Indian. Is it the color of the skin, the blood quantum, or is it the shape of the spirit?
I would have given this 4 stars, but there were so many characters that sometimes they were ill-defined, or disappeared for a hundred pages, only to become central to the storyline. Thomas could have written entire novels about several of his characters (the girl who talks ghost butterflies, for example).

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
This is about a man, whose name is not Piranesi, but that's what he answers to. This is about the world, entirely comprised of the House (which stretches out almost infinitely), the Tides (which periodically fill the vestibules and hallways of the House), thousands upon thousands of statues, and Piranesi. There are 15 people in the world: Piranesi, the Other, 12 sets of enigmatic skeletal remains, and You. This might be fantasy, and it might be science fiction, or maybe it's realistic and the world is more magical than we know.
This is about something terrible that happens to the man. Or, this book is about something miraculous that happens to the man. Only You can decide as the story unfolds. Real genius from Susanna Clarke; I'm definitely putting Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell on my reread list after this!

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
This is a book I liked despite the fact it was horror, a genre which I really abhore. If that's not a testament to Stephen Graham Jones' superior writing, I don't know what is. Brace for maybe 4-5 pages of explicit gore and the sense of dread that will permeate your entire being and pulse like a heartbeat every time you turn a page. This is a compelling story of guilt and retribution for an unlikely reason, a young elk that was slain unjustly (out of season, too young, pregnant -so off limits) and is written as only an Indigenous storyteller could.
Four friends from the Blackfeet reservation indulge in some elk poaching and figure they've paid the price for their crime when the game warden catches them and they lose their hunting privileges for ten years. But as the decade comes to a close....well. There are a few lessons you'll learn if you read stories that spring from Indian culture: memories die hard, the world contains so much more than mankind, and respect for tradition must be paid. In this particular case, the young men's carelessness manifests as something older and more powerful than they can imagine. Beware Po'noka, and read this book with the lights on.

 The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
I picked this up because Daniel Abraham is one half of the writing team of J.A. Corey, authors of the incomparable series "The Expanse", so of course it didn't disappoint. Although I wouldn't call it as incandescent as Expanse, Abraham chooses to focus on solid plot development and non-trope characters rather than unnecessary titillation and brutality, which seems to be the rule of the day (a la "Game of Thrones"). He also introduces thirteen different races of humanity, which is a little hard to keep track of, but a fascinating concept and intrinsic to the story line. Great first novel in a fantasy series, and definitely feels like it's building up to something great in the second book.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
I was really looking forward to reading this book because of its intriguing premise -a young woman named January finds that there are hidden doors tucked away in every corner of the earth and, should you find one, you can enter into another world full of curiosities and possibly danger. In fact, these portals have brought myriad magical things into our world that are the basis for myths, fairy tales, and legends. Although the author alludes to many mysterious and wonderful things, she doesn't take the time to describe them as she focuses on the foibles and trials of January. In fact, most of the book is caught up with a lot of mundanity (how many times do we need to read that she loves her dog? How many times will the dog leap to her aid and bite someone?), and when January finally explores another world, it's pretty tame. Ultimately, not as satisfying a read as some, but of course the bar has been set very high for young heroines in the past -see Sara Crewe, Jane Eyre, Alice, Dorothy, etc. The difference is, I think, the quality of writing.

 We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
This was a fantasy with a different twist for the Western world as it takes place in ancient Arabia, which means a story filled with slightly familiar yet exotic details about clothing, vocabulary, food, and magical beings. I loved that!
Zafira is a girl (masquerading as a man) who hunts in a forbidden, cursed forest to get enough food for the starving people in her village. In her caliphate, women are not allowed such flagrant behavior and so she must take care not to be discovered. But she is the only one who can exit the forest alive as the entire kingdom has fallen under an evil spell that is only getting worse.
Nasir is the Sultan's son, the crown prince of the kingdom. Yet, none of that matters as the king despises him and forces him to work as an Hashashin (that's 'assassin' in English. Did you even know assassins originated in Arabia?) The tender hearted girl and the cold-blooded murderer are about to cross paths because they have both been recruited by a mysterious Silver Witch who is either very good or very bad -who can say-to end the curse.
This is the first book in a duology, and it's sweet and compelling. I can definitely tell that Hafsah is a fan of LOTR, but then so am I, so it's fine. And here's something you don't always get in fantasy novels: some pretty steamy interactions between a few of the characters that are tasteful but sure do leave a lot to the imagination.


 Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
When Maggie Stiefvater writes, the story is almost secondary to the robust characters she creates and the cheeky turn of phrase that she employs, "Everything about (Ronan Lynch) suggested he might take your wallet or drop your baby. He was proud of the family name, and it suited him. His mouth was always shaped like he'd just finished saying it. The Lynch brothers had many secrets." So, if you've ever read one of her books before, rush to grab this one, the first in her new The Dreamers Trilogy. If you've never read her, what are you waiting for? This is young adult fantasy at its best, featuring 3 mysterious brothers, one of whom can dream things into being, one of whom is the protector of the family secrets, and the youngest one who is enchanting and possibly enchanted. Oh, and the world is about to end. Can't wait to read book #2!

 The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
I don't usually go for horror, but the first few pages of this book were so captivating and funny, I couldn't put it down. The humor fades fairly quickly, replaced by a gruesome tableau of wayward children, inattentive husbands, and predation. Picture a book group of southern women in the late 1980s. They're fairly prim and proper but when it comes right down to it, they crave something more exciting than the classics -true crime. Patricia, our main gal, is horribly attacked by an elderly neighbor one night after book club, but she fails to see the sign for what it is: a harbinger of evil in their bucolic town.
Fortunately, when you read true crime you know that nobody ever expects anything until it's too late, and this finally jars Patricia into action. Though not as graphic as some horror novels, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is highly unsettling and very original from start to bloody, bloody finish.


A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
A compelling story of parallel worlds with varying degrees of magic, from Grey to White to Red to Black. Our world is Grey London, drab because it's devoid of magic. Black London is closed to the other worlds forever -the magic has taken a malignant turn and overpowered everyone and everything there -a very dangerous place. White London is forever in the throes of a coup. Magic is viewed as the ultimate power and many will stop at nothing to get their hands on more, more, more. We only find true balance in Red London, where the air is redolent of flowers and magic is used to make life a more pleasurable experience. Red London is also where Kel hails from. He is one of the last of his kind, those who can travel between the worlds. At first this makes him an invaluable ambassador, but when he inadvertently blurs the lines between worlds, chaos and destruction erupt. A great first novel in the Shades of Magic trilogy! 

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

This retelling of Beauty and the Beast contains a few brilliant twists. First of all, this Beauty is from Washington, D.C. (a parallel universe), and secondly, her bravery and compassion are more important than the fact that she has cerebral palsy. Also, Beauty has family problems of her own that she needs to attend to -and fast. The Beast is, indeed, a cursed prince, but the magic under which he is held captive is complex. Added to that, his kingdom is under siege, and he only has one guardsman left -a very competent, very powerful, very lonely man named Grey. The door is open for a sequel here, and I'm really hoping to read more about the intertwined lives of Harper, Rhen, and Grey!



Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
This is a tricky book to describe, but let me start with bardo. The bardo is a Tibetan Buddhist term for the state the soul enters after death, before rebirth. In Western cultures we might be more familiar with the idea of 'purgatory'. The death in question is that of Willie Lincoln, who tragically died of Typhoid Fever when he was 11 and his father was President of the United States. There are a plenitude of stories that talk about Lincoln's presidency, and others that touch on the effect his child's untimely death had on him -this is not one of those stories (not exactly). First we are introduced to the souls currently residing at the cemetery where Willie is laid to rest -conflicted beings who don't understand that they are, in fact, dead. Their stories are interspersed with chapters that contain snippets from books and historical documents -some of which are real, some of which were concocted by the author. Put everything together and you get a multiverse of the events surrounding Willie's death: his bewilderment at his new situation, his father's grief, the purgatorial remnants who try to assist Willie on his journey, and a nation caught in a bloodbath of a war that is sure to fill the bardo to the brim. This story reminded me of The Great Divorce. George Saunders has a unique voice, humorous and kind to his characters, even when they are very flawed. An intriguing look at how Lincoln might have been influenced in some of the choices he made. 


Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere is about a man named Richard Mayhew, who lives in the London we know -London Above. As it turns out, there is another London, London Below, that Richard gains unwanted admission to through an act of compassion. Curiously, it doesn't seem like a particularly palatable place, so why would he end up there after his kindness? Criss-crossed with sewers (and the accompanying malodorousness), filled with dark hidey-holes and the slithery, malevolent characters who are attracted to such settings, Richard finds himself tagging along with a girl on a life or death mission. Will he be an impediment, or will Richard end up being the person we all wish that we could be?
Neil Gaiman excels at world building, but he also has a talent for making us wish we were the protagonist in his novels. The trials that his characters go through, the moral dilemmas that can seem black and white, but are actually quite convoluted (ah, like real life!) can make even a dank tunnel seem like a desirable place to be. If you enjoy this book, be sure to pick up "The Ocean at the End of the Lane". 


Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
This exceptional young adult novel gives us a 1956 in which Hitler and Hirohito won World War II (a war that America declined to participate in), and have divided up Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa.  Most of the world's population is living under draconian law. Yael is a girl who was experimented on as a Jewish child in a concentration camp, with drastic results -she's a shape shifter and can take on the visage of any other woman. The resistance has found a unique way to use her talents to kill Hitler, who, after 49 assassination attempts, is very difficult to get close to.  Yael enters the Axis Tour, an intercontinental motorcycle race, by impersonating Adele Wolfe, the winner of the last race.  The assignment is much trickier than Yael anticipated, and she will have to keep her eyes on the prize if she hopes to accomplish her mission. An intriguing look at what might have been by a fantastic author.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
I'm not sure what to call the genre that Neil Gaiman often writes in -fairy tales for adults?  Magical realism with a twist? Graphic novels without the graphics (although his graphic novels are pretty spectacular, too)?  All I know is, he touches on something deep within any reader, which is the desire to believe that there are still things in this world that are beyond our understanding, and they thrill us, horrify us, and give us hope that we might someday fall down a rabbit hole and connect with the magic.
In "The Ocean at the End of the Lane", Gaiman tells the story of a small, odd boy, whose life can be summed up with, "I was not happy as a child, although from time to time I was content.  I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else."  Me, too. Neil's style of writing is very intimate, and the reader is drawn into the beautiful English countryside where this boy lives an idyllic existence -except for the deaths, malevolent otherworldly beings, loneliness, evolving distrust in the infallibility of his parents, and the improbable ocean at the end of the lane.

After an unfortunate event strikes the boy's household, he is comforted by the mysterious Hempstock family at the end of the lane.  Eleven year old Lettie incongruously claims that the pond behind their farm is an entire ocean, and she freely discusses things that just cannot be.  When she takes the boy with her to calm a disturbance, they unwittingly open the door for a supernatural being to enter the world.  Is it evil to only give people what they want?  Read the book and see if you don't answer that question differently at the end.

"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" gives us a story in which strength of character is not dependent on age or life circumstances, it is the thing inside us that remains when we are beaten down and without hope.  It is about the 7 year old inside each of us, and how that part of us reconciles the adult, outside world with our hopes, dreams, and nightmares.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
It's so difficult to find a fantasy novel that's not derivative of some other, more fantastic novel that's come before it (most especially, Lord of the Rings, and now, the Harry Potter series). With the Kingkiller series, you can feel the careful consideration Rothfuss invests in every character, every creature, every place and event. So, it was with some delight that I sank into The Name of the Wind, buoyed by knowing I wouldn't be able to foresee what was going to happen.
This is the story about Kvothe, an innkeeper hidden away in the North Country, who tells an incredible story about an intelligent, quick-witted boy who overcomes hard times to study at the Arcanum, a special place at University devoted to knowledge that drifts dangerously close to magic and dark arts. The boy does this in a desperate bid to defeat the things that killed his parents. (This sounds like Harry Potter, but it is not.) Kvothe is actually recounting his own story, but it seems as if he gave up before he won the fight. Now, the dark forces are back -will Kvothe, who possesses the raw material to become a hero, rise to the challenge? Rothfuss shows that the very best protagonist is someone who is rather like ourselves, but does great things anyway.

Books to Screen (Movies, TV, Streaming)

The best movies always start out as books! Here's what to look for streaming and in theaters:

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Truly one of the best books I've read in a while, a lyrical chronicle of the life of Count Alexander Rostov after he is sentenced to house arrest at the Metropol Hotel by the new Soviet government following the Revolution of 1917.
Erudite and gentlemanly, Count Rostov "masters his circumstances so that they don't master him", showing an elegant adaptability that saves his life as well as his soul. Alexander is reprieved from a death sentence by a pro-Revolution poem he had published in his youth, but he is declared a non-person and is never again to leave the doors of the Metropol, a hotel that has always catered to the rich, powerful, and aristocratic. In his new situation, Rostov lives in the attic and leaves behind the perks of his earlier life, while retaining his decency, charm, and joie de vive. A wonderful and uplifting example of how to survive and even thrive under terrible circumstances, and also a beautiful story of how the love we share with others in any iteration-romantic, paternal, fraternal,etc-is our saving grace. 

 
American Animals: A True Crime Memoir by Eric Borsuk
A cautionary tale about the perils of being young, male, bored, and lacking a moral compass. Eric recounts his part in the heist of some rare books from the Transylvania College Library in Lexington Kentucky in 2004, and it's shocking how close they come to pulling off a relatively sophisticated crime. The four college students commit a fatal error in the execution, which is nothing compared with the errors in judgment they make in coming up with the plan in the first place. The deeper question is how and why a group of boys with promising futures and stable home lives took such a dark turn into felonious behavior.
Check out the excellent docudrama, now showing on Netflix: American Animals . 

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Richardsons are a family living in Shaker Heights, OH in the '90s. The suburb was originally built in the early 1900s to attain a black and white kind of perfectionism, based on rigid rules. Although life is fairly good here, it is also pedantic and predictable. Elena Richardson, the matriarch, is the living embodiment of everything that Shaker Heights stands for, which works out okay with her first three kids, but sets her at odds with her youngest, the impetuous and fiery Izzy.
A catalyst enters the picture when Elena rents an apartment to an artist named Mia, a tumbleweed of a person who brings with her a teenaged daughter, Pearl, and a past loaded with secrets. Pearl finds the Richardsons' lifestyle intoxicating after the ragtag existence she's accustomed to. Lexie, Moody, and Trip Richardson all become entangled with Pearl, Izzy is fascinated with Mia, Elena struggles to control everyone and everything, and the swirling mass of churned up emotion will result in huge life changes for all of them.
Desire, envy, and jealousy are well-expressed in this story, but there is very little true warmth or love between characters. A side story about a white couple attempting to adopt a Chinese baby who was abandoned by her mother is difficult to empathize with because the adoptive mother is cold and entitled and the biological mother seems unable to take care of herself, let alone an infant.
The point of the book seems to be to highlight the difficulties experienced in the mother-daughter relationship, and how sometimes those we are closest to are the ones we know the least. Perhaps a little of 'love conquers all' thrown in there, too. However, the story left me despairing for women everywhere, because if these are typical relationships for females, then we have a lot of work to do.
 

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys 
When the U.S.S.R. took control over Lithuania, many thousands of 'political insurgents' were sentenced to imprisonment in Siberian Gulags.  Less well-known is that over 100,00 Lithuanian women and children were exiled to remote work camps under horrendous conditions.  This is the story of Lina, a girl whose father is arrested by the Soviets right before she, her mother, and brother are themselves deported to a work camp. Despairing of ever having a normal life again, Lina uses her unique artistic style to  creates pictures that she hopes will reach her father, wherever he is.  The descriptions of life in the camps is an eye-opener -there really seems to be no limits on what people will do to others who they perceive to be different than themselves.  More than that, this is a story about hope and love, and how very important they are, even when they are the hardest things to come by. The tragic cruelties dealt out behind the Iron Curtain by the Soviets in post-WWII  are starting to fade from memory, which is an excellent reason to read this book -lest such a horrible part of history be forgotten and repeated.
  "Ashes in the Snow"


 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
In the past, I have found Donna Tartt to be an uneven writer. The characters who inhabited "The Secret History" were so vile, pompous and self-important that I would not have picked up "The Goldfinch" if it weren't for the Pulitzer. According to critics who matter, for a novel to be deemed high literature, it must be authentic on all levels -emotional, intellectual, etc. While "The Goldfinch" is a fascinating story, venerated voices at, among others, The New Yorker, find it to be 'unconvincing'. This sentiment puzzles me greatly. Tartt's style of writing appears childish to them -but the story follows a boy from the age of 13 through young adulthood, so...of course it reeks of adolescent mindset. If a story captures something about another's life experience and can impart it in such a way that the reader inhabits that life, then that is great literature.

Having spouted off about THAT, let me say that Tartt allowed me to inhabit the life of a boy named Theo Decker. Theo lives with his mother in New York City when a fateful trip to the Museum to see a particular favorite painting of his mother's results in her death and his life being torn and reassembled in such a way as to make it unrecognizable. This event sets Theo off on a dissolute path as he mourns the loss of his mother. Where previously Theo was a boy who teetered on the edge of delinquency (he and his mother actually are stopping at the museum on their way to his school to discuss his imminent suspension), he evolves into a man who lives without moral absolutes, numbly swimming along in a sea of gray. Theo spends time looking for something good and true, but only finds it in a painting, the eponymous "Goldfinch".

Boris, a friend that Theo makes along the way, keenly discerns the edge between black and white -and invariably chooses the darker way. Fate seems to dictate that Theo's way will not be a smooth one, more so because he doesn't seem to understand the link between action and outcome. But Theo does understand love and beauty. In the end, is this enough? Also, the question: if you are true to yourself and follow your heart, as all the best axioms of the modern age urge us to do, what if your heart's desire leads you to dishonorable, self-destructive behavior? (Vanity Fair's review: It’s Tartt—But Is It Art?)

Coming in October 2019

FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury     
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television 'family'. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.
Now Streaming

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

Released March 2018

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

Released March 2018 (as Love Simon)

Science Fiction

Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Finally, a book that elevates cats to their rightful place at the apogee of society! Scalzi has written a cool, funny book about villains, a la Dr. Evil, but it's also a book about a guy who is just looking to get his life together. When Charlie's life takes some down turns (a painful divorce, loss of his job, loss of his dad), things are looking grim. So when he's approached by the estate of his recently dead and estranged uncle, what else does he have to do but comply with their increasingly unusual requests?
And when said uncle turns out to have been something of a villain? Charlie is about to find out what he's really made of! Something of a light, quick read -but don't we all need one of those every now and then?

The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry
Oh, Max Barry, you crazy, mad genius! Barry really excels at futuristic scenarios that resonate with realistic dialogue and flawed yet extremely likeable characters. In this novel, Felicity is a journalist who, in poking around the murder scene of a young realtor named Madison May, gets pulled into a multiverse chase involving herself and a man who's in Sing Sing for stabbing his wife multiple times-and he's not even the psychopathic killer they're trying to stop!
Clay, the aforementioned wack job, is obsessed with the version of Madison May from his own universe. But...things didn't work out with her, yada yada, so now he's on a quest to find the Madison who will love him back. But if she doesn't, he's prepared to terminate her with extreme prejudice (extreme prejudice, in this case, meaning a very large knife). And he will keep traveling to new worlds murdering her unless Felicity can pull herself together, figure out what's going on, and get at least one step ahead of him. Highly recommend!

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson
Lydia, a young woman from a backwater British town, is a fantastic underdog -her one discernible job skill is being able to talk to Logi, the aliens with whom humans have established trade and communication. Only certain humans are able to do this, because Logisi is essentially telecommunication with the aliens. A peculiar and fun side effect of speaking Logisi is a feeling of drunkenness (the brain can only take so much translating before-whoopsie-do! Things happen).
Lydia is assigned as a translator to the Logi Cultural Attache in NYC, which leads to some interesting situations as Lydia is something of a sloppy loud drunk. A tragic event happens that upends Lydia's world, all the more so because someone has set her up as the fall gal for a crime that will have global implications if she can't find the real villain. Lydia is spunky, the aliens are cool, plot twists abound, and the AI driven lifestyle is perfectly plausible. A very funny, original, and intriguing read!

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
 Reading this book, I could both understand how it had inspired Orwell and Huxley to write their dystopian masterpieces, and why this wasn't a masterpiece in its own right. We is a synesthetic explosion of Expressionism in novel format, at times confusing and vague, but also imaginative and thought-provoking.
The story is essentially the log book of D-503, the Builder of a new rocket that is set to go into outer space and "fix" all primitive civilizations to become the automaton ideal of the One State that earth has evolved into. He is a mathematician, and rationalizes their restrictive lifestyle (run on a timetable) and unanimity (they all live in glass buildings and are visible at all times) with insights such as, "Freedom and crime are as inextriably linked as...well, the motion of an aero and its velocity: when an aero's velocity=0, it doesn't move; when a person's freedom=0, he doesn't commit any crimes. That much is clear. The only way to eradicate crime is to eradicate freedom."
Inevitably, D-503 accidently falls in love with a rebel, the lovely I-330, and attempted revolution ensues. Clearly, many creative minds harbor fear about the horrors of living in a surpressed society and Zamyatin was able to craft a cautionary tale about this in 1923, long before 1984 (1949), Brave New World (1931) or Fahrenheit 451 (1953). It's always a cool experience to read a book that's one of the first of a genre (Frankenstein, The Woman in White) and therefore We is worth the read.

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
As near as I can figure, Frankenstein in Baghdad is a metaphor for the ugly reality of life in Iran, constructed out of the ruins of wars, tyrants, and tribalism over the past few generations. Like Shelley's Frankenstein, the Whatsitsname is made up of corpse parts. Hadi, a drunken junk dealer, tries to pick up his assistant at the morgue after he's killed in yet another car bombing and is told that there's not much left of the man, but Hadi can 'reconstruct' the assistant's remains out of the many body parts lying around. Indeed, Hadi does, if only to make a political statement about the injustice of life in violence-torn Baghdad. Imagine his surprise when the creature, dubbed Whatsitsname, comes to life and starts a murderous streak of vengence. At first, the creature only exacts revenge on those who killed one of the body parts of which he is comprised. Eventually, he/it reasons that everyone is at least partially guilty of something, and he expands the pool of potential victims.
There are also rich storylines about the other people in the neighborhood, including a grieving mother whose son disappeared long ago (she, in her blindness, mistakes the creature for her son), a devious realtor, a naive journalist, a canny government official, and the hapless Hadi.
Saadawi shows the pitfalls of blind ambition, weak character, and lack of compassion in a story that you don't have to be Iranian to understand and apply to the world around you.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Much like a B rated Godzilla movie, The Kaiju Preservation Society was mildly entertaining but not very substantive. I'm disappointed as I've come to expect meatier plots and more plausible scenarios from Scalzi, but I guess everyone pushes the easy button sometimes. If you didn't know, 'kaiju' is the japanese movie genre featuring giant monsters (i.e. Godzilla, Mothra), usually attacking cities. The Kaiju Preservation Society works to protect kaiju living on an alternate earth, but sometimes the barrier between worlds thins and the 'monsters' can cross over. The question becomes, which are the bigger monsters, humans or kaiju? Trope heavy, explanatory science thin.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Turns out all sci fi isn't a dystopian nightmare! As the dedication reads, this book is for 'anybody who could use a break.' Yes, that is certainly true. Thank you, Becky Chambers! More of a novella than a novel, this is about a tea monk named Sibling Dex, who is one of the few characters I've read whom I could picture as myself. Sibling Dex lives in a post industrial world (not earth, although they are human), going from town to town, dispensing tea, comfort, and solace. It seems like a wonderful and fulfilling life, but Dex craves more -they crave the wilderness. What starts as a solitary journey to a long forgotten hermitage gets tipped sideways when Dex encounters a robot. The robots left humanity behind generations ago, once they reached sentience and decided their purpose in life was not to have their purpose in life dictated to them by humans. And so, they slowly evaporated into the wild and were never seen or heard from again, until now. What does the robot, Mosscap, want from Dex? And will Dex ever find what they need to fill their soul? You won't regret taking the time to curl up with this book and a cup of tea to find out.

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Evelyn is a geneticist who has perfected the science of cloning. Clones aren't human, they're temporary specimens who are meant to be destroyed after they've fulfilled their purpose. For example, a body double for a politician who's under threat of assassination. The clones are 'conditioned' to think, behave, and look exactly like the human they are standing in for, and then they're destroyed. So imagine Evelyn's surprise and consternation when she realizes that her husband is cheating on her with...herself. Nathan has stolen Evelyn's data and method and created, in essence, the perfect Evelyn (or the perfect Evelyn for him, at any rate). This new version, Martine, contacts Evelyn: once to tell her that she is somehow, incongruously, pregnant, and the second to let her know that Nathan is dead.
This is a powerful story on the malleability of what makes us human, and how, whether you're a high achieving scientist or a facsimile thereof, the impact that others have on our lives is inestimable. Do be sure to read Sarah Gailey's Acknowledgements page at the end.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Let me say from the onset: you have to like novels with alternating narrators to enjoy this book as there are five different voices, four different timelines, and a Greek tale about a character named Aethon that binds them all together. Moreover, two of the storylines are historical, two are realistic, and one is very sci-fi. This sounds like a perplexing mishmash of stories, but it actually comes together quite nicely, if you have the tenacity to stick with it to find how they all blend and swirl together to create a picture of hope and perseverance.
In the 1400s, Anna is a Christian in Constantinople and Omeir is a Muslim who has just been conscripted by the Sultan to attack the city: their paths will cross. Anna is poor, but she has learned to read and one of the scraps she has been able to read is the Greek tale of Aethon and Cloud Cuckoo Land. In the present, Zeno is an older gentleman who is volunteering his time with children at the library to produce a play about the story of Aethon and Cloud Cuckoo Land, which he has translated from the ancient Greek. Seymour is a troubled youth from their town who is about to make a very bad and violent decision; their paths will cross. And lastly, Constance is traveling on a spaceship with a group hoping to populate a new, more hospitable planet now that Earth is so damaged. In the ship's virtual library, there is a copy of the tale of Aethon and Cloud Cuckoo Land.
A mind that could conceive this many disparate strands and somehow weave them together is a wonder to behold! Doerr already proved himself the master of this art with All the Light We Cannot See, and while I enjoyed that novel a bit more than this one, it's still well worth the immersive experience. 

Network Effect by Martha Wells
I didn't like this book as much as the others in the Murderbot series, but I suspect that's because I read 3 of the books in 10 days. Sort of like that 4th piece of cake that you should have paced yourself on. Plot was intricate and engaging, albeit a bit more convoluted than previously seen (probably because this was a full-fledged novel as opposed to the others,which were novellas.) Murderbot still provides us with a one of a kind, loveable (just don't hug it) protagonist. Excellent! 

Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin 

 My most fervent hope, after reading this book, is that nobody gets the idea to start producing kentukis in real life!!! A kentuki is basically a stuffed animal with wheels for feet, a little motor, and a webcam for eyes- something that could easily be constructed and sold in 2021. In Little Eyes, kentukis are the newest rage sweeping the global markets, and the consumer has two options: 1. buy a kentuki and be a 'keeper', allowing the kentuki access into your home and life, sort of like a pet (Attention seekers-a dream come true!), OR 2. buy a connection card and become the kentuki, a 'dweller' who anonymously sees and hears what the kentuki is experiencing and controls the movements of the kentuki remotely (Voyeurs -this is your moment!) Keep in mind that no information is exchanged about locations, names, etc. Both keepers and dwellers are as anonymous as they choose to be. At first, like any trendy toy, the experiences are fun and everyone wants one. But then things turn dark -but you expected that, didn't you? After all, social media was supposed to be a boon to a new and wonderful life for everyone and look how that's turned out. Connecting with someone, somewhere, at any time quickly develops kinks. You could buy a kentuki for your child with a pedophile on the other end, you could be giving a criminal access to your private information, or as a dweller you could be exposed to something that you really, really wish that you hadn't seen or heard, witness a crime with no way of helping the vicim, experience bullying, blackmail, etc. Little Eyes follows several kentukis, some through the dweller, and some through the keeper. By turns shocking or banal, the kentuki reveals how anonymity seems to bring out the very worst behavior in people, and exposes the raw loneliness that lack of real human connection brings. The most heart wrenching part is when you realize how close we are to living this reality. Read this book! And then share a conversation, a cup of coffee, or a hug with a real, living human being -you're going to need it!

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic story about a security bot who hacks its compliance program and goes rogue. Honestly, one of the most relatable and likeable protagonists I've come across in a while.
This is what happens when the humans it's assigned to protect discover that it's rogue:

"Gurathin hesitated. 'It's downloaded seven hundred hours of entertainment programming since we landed. Mostly serials. Mostly something called Sanctuary Moon.' He shook his head, dismissing it. 'It's probably using it to encode data for the company. It can't be watching it, not in that volume; we'd notice.'
I snorted. He underestimated me.
Ratthi said, 'The one where the colony's solicitor killed the terraforming supervisor who was the secondary donor for her implanted baby?'
Again, I couldn't help it. I said, 'She didn't kill him, that's a f**king lie.'
Ratthi turned Mensah. 'It's watching it.'"

We so often read about AI that is lofty and boringly, intellectually logical. Or out to dominate or extinguish all human life. But what about an AI who only wants to discover what it wants? And what if what it wants is sort of what we all want? I cannot wait to pick up book #2 in this series!

 Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A habitable planet is found, and it looks like it might be the solution to the climate change, pollution, and dire lack of resources that humanity is facing -but it's a journey of 23 years to get there. Hence, it is imperative to train a crew of exceptional people who will be still young enough at journey's end to settle Terra-Two and prepare for other pilgrims from earth. Six of the nine chosen have been training for 5 long years, since the ages of 13 or 14, to man this mission -knowing that to go means to leave behind everything they've ever known, forever. The others are older and more experienced astronauts who know they might not make it to the end. Thus sparks an epic odyssey that is more about the people aboard ship than the destination. Even the most mature and intelligent of these adolescents still will grapple with issues of loyalty, love, and purpose. An interesting take on a captivating idea. The science is a little weak, but still engaging.

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
In this alternate future, Alan Turing, pioneer of artificial intelligence, doesn't commit suicide in 1954 but lives to revolutionalize the world with his advanced theories on mathematics and robotics. Okay, that part was a little dry. Much more fascinating was heart of this story: the purchase of one of the first lifelike androids, named Adam, by a young Englishman named Charlie. Their relationship is full of pitfalls as Adam quickly outclasses Charlie intellectually and gains sentience, but falls hopelessly in unrequited love with Charlie's girlfriend, Miranda. As it turns out, Miranda has a big secret she's keeping, and Adam knows all because of his 24/7 access to the internet. Adam's quest to understand the irrationality of humans plays out side by side with Charlie's realization that his immaturity and self-centeredness makes him a worse 'human' than his robot companion.
I closed this book marveling at the complexity of the human brain, and the transcendence of the human soul and its ability to love. Thank you for another great novel to ponder on, Ian McEwan!

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry
This post-apocalyptic fairy tale was imaginative and a blast! Red is a young woman named Cordelia, a name she despises.  But, like Shakespeare's Cordelia, Red is tough and resourceful and determined to make it through what appears to be The End of Civilization at any cost.  When a pandemic hits, Red relies on her vast knowledge of horror movies (never separate, never deviate from the plan, expect monsters) to prepare herself for what quickly becomes a world populated by roving militias and the kind of men who hurt women they find wandering alone in the forest. Adding to the crisis, Red has a prosthetic leg, impeding her escape, and there appears to be something out there killing people that's worse than the Cough. Woe to anyone who tries to stop this Little Red Riding Hood from making it to Grandma's house!


A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
It's hard to find an apocalyptic scenario that hasn't already been written about, and this isn't the first book I've read that touches on the theme of infertility as a humanity-ending device (The Testament of Jessie Lamb, Future Home of the Living God, The Handmaid's Tale). However, A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World is unique and compelling, principally because the barren landscape that Fletcher brings us focuses on the aftermath: what if most of the human race was gone?
Griz and his family live on an island off the coast of Scotland, and in his whole life, he's never seen enough people to form two football teams. Their isolated existence is manageable because they have a close-knit, loving family -including their four dogs (another species which is slipping precariously close to extinction). So when a genial tinker sails into their cove one day, offering news, stories, and items for trade, it's shocking that he absconds with one of Griz's beloved pets. Without thinking twice, Griz is in his own boat, sailing after Broad into the wild world in the hopes of rescuing his terrier, Jess.
Some of the terrors that are introduced: packs of wolves, treacherous ruins, etc., are expected, but I found myself pondering how I would fare in the world so vividly brought to life in this book. It's fascinating to read about the lengths Griz will go to for the one he loves, and nothing -NOTHING-is as it seems. Highly recommended!

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
This book is grounded in actual science, something I'd never heard of called Zero Shadow Day . This happens in India twice a year, when the sun is at the exact right angle to cast no shadows. Peng Shepherd takes this concept one step further, when an Indian man loses his shadow -and it doesn't come back. The anomaly doesn't seem consequential, until it becomes evident that the loss of one's shadow correlates with the loss of one's memory. Soon the phenomenon occurs in other people (only people, nothing else), then exponentially increases until it hits every country on earth-but not every person. In an additional twist, which can only be called magic, when one of the Shadowless forgets something, or mis-remembers someone or something, then it irrevocably changes the world. For example, Max, one of the main characters, mis-remembers that deer have antlers, so her husband sees a deer with little wings on its head, instead.
Soon, it's Shadowed battling Shadowless (who forget their friends, their enemies, and even the basic rules of society), and an eerie group of Shadowed called the Transcendence, who are convinced that the loss of shadows is a religious miracle.
At its heart, this is a story of how people will do anything to save the ones they love, and the intermingling of science and miracles. Excellent read, full of unexpected twists.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
What if the Civil War were disrupted by something even worse than a nation of brother killing brother? What if that something was the dead soldiers rising from the battlefield in Gettysburg, feasting on the living and turning them into fellow 'shamblers'? This is not just another zombie apocalypse! The War Between the States is abruptly halted as the living on both sides are engaged in stopping the undead, but don't think for a second that this is an end to the troubles of former slaves. Because of the Native and Negro Education Act, all African American and Indian children are forced to enter combats schools at the age of 12 so that they can provide the first line of defense between the shamblers and the upper echelons of society (aka, the white folks). Jane McKeene is a feisty girl from Kentucky, conscripted into service and ready to fight shamblers as well as society's injustices. Things definitely don't work out smoothly for Jane, but it's a rollicking tale, steeped in enough historical fact to almost make you believe that there was a zombie outbreak in 1863. Can't wait for the sequel!


The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
In the year 2020, climate change has produced a startling effect -it's the beginning of the coldest winter ever recorded (forecasts predict -50 in parts of Europe) and an iceberg has appeared off the coast of Clachlan Fells, Scotland. Just when it is of paramount importance that humanity work together for mutually assured existence, we meet a diverse set of loners living in a tiny caravan park, hoping to survive what appears to be the inception of a new Ice Age.
But the weather isn't the only thing that's cold and foreboding. Dylan is mourning the back to back deaths of his mother and grandmother -the only family he's ever known. Constance is a rugged, self-reliant woman who lives in a kitted out caravan, fully prepared to outlast the winter. But she is stuck between two on-again, off-again lovers, and is also grieving the loss of her 13-year old son, who has recently announced that he is a transgender girl named Stella. Stella is feisty young lady who is so warm and genuine, she proves the spark to pull together these lost souls. Although this book does a good job of showing a transgender person without sensationalizing, there are lots of references to porn and substance abuse that seem calculated to add a bit of outre modernity, but simply seem contrived.
Jenni Fagan does a wonderful job of illustrating how arduous it can be to connect with others, and how much we need the warmth and acceptance that only love brings, especially when the world around us is cold and barren.      

    

All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis
Speth Jime lives in a bleak future where every word and gesture is copyrighted and trademarked.  What this means is that after the age of 15, she will be charged every time she speaks or uses body language to communicate to others.  This repressive environment, ruled by lawyers and frivolous lawsuits, results in Speth's parents being taken into indentured servitude to work off debt.  When, right before Speth gives her first (charged) speech as a 15-year-old, one of her friends commits suicide rather than work off his family's debt, Speth discovers the awesome power of complete silence.  Her refusal to talk spawns a movement, frenetic media coverage, and even a new job opportunity.  But will it be enough to break the oppressive bonds that hold them all?

The concept of people completely losing their freedom of speech to corporations and lawsuits is just crazy enough to be believable, and Speth is a strong willed girl whose dedication to her cause is admirable.  As we currently live in an era when the things we say, the searches we conduct, and the pages we click on are assiduously cataloged and sold as data to any and all takers, this leads me to wonder if our futures might not hold something similar.

Invictus by Ryan Graudin
Time travel is always a sticky subject, lots of scientific conjecture melded with a hint of the impossible.  In Invictus, Farway Gaius McCarthy is born between times when his pregnant mother, a Historian, travels from 2354 AD back to 95 AD, stays too long, and ends up giving birth in the Grid, the space between time. 

Flash forward to Far's 17th birthday (which he doesn't technically have, since he was born out of time), and he is taking the exam to become a Historian, himself.  His mother Empra disappeared on an expedition a decade ago, and Far needs to be able to time travel so that he can find her.  One flunked exam later, he finds himself desperate and signing a contract with a notorious black marketeer -anything to get access to a time machine, the only way to find his mother.

Although Farway is surrounded by a crew of close friends, including his girlfriend Priya, things don't go as planned when a mysterious girl named Eliot breaks in on their heist at the Titanic, and things unravel from there.  The story doesn't always move as quickly as it should, but there are likable characters, love interests, and a snuggly red panda. 

Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist 

When the Wild West is swept up in a plague that turns people and animals into undead things called shakes, it takes a very special kind of girl to survive such circumstances. Willie is that girl. Her mother dies from the disease, and Willie is left to raise her younger siblings as their father is a shiftless drunk who they rarely see. The kids are holed up in Glory, Texas, an isolated town fenced in to keep the shakes out, and fallen under the rule of ruthless shake hunters. Willie finds her family in peril when her father steals a huge sum of money from one of the hunters, and Willie must pay the debt. Luckily, she finds two young hunters willing to help her for cheap, and they venture out into the shake-filled desert to find her father, get the money, or die trying. It's not often you find a book peopled with both cowboys and zombies, but "Devils Unto Dust" does it very well. The scenario works well in a post Civil War Texas, and there is even reference to timely historical innovations, such as vaccinations and the transcontinental railroad. Best of all, Willie isn't just another spunky pioneer girl, but a young woman who tries to do the right thing even though she is lonely, afraid, and angry.

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

 Ariel, a young refuge from an unspecified war-torn country is adopted by an American couple after either 'accidentally' or 'miraculously' surviving when everyone he knows has died (depends on how you look at it). Ariel's new father is a Merrie-Seymour Corp. scientist who brings back extinct species via DNA cloning -but all the resurrected life forms seem to have a death wish, as if they have a desire to stay extinct. Ariel and his adopted brother, Max, find themselves at the Merrie-Seymour Camp for Boys, on a collision course with a lunatic named The Melting Man, who is driving towards their neck of the woods with a homemade radioactive bomb in his U-Haul. Juxtaposed with these stories is the tale of Dr. Merrie, a scientist and explorer from the late 1800s whose odd choices have trickled down through the years and resulted in the events that are currently happening. If this seems like an incongruous mishmash of stories, it is. But Smith is able to bring them all together in an excellent example of absurdist fiction for the young adult set. In fact, when Ariel recounts his experiences before being adopted, you can almost hear Vonnegut add, "and so it goes".


Version Control by Dexter Palmer
Version Control is where literature and science fiction collide, giving it strong appeal to fans of Atwood's Madd Adam trilogy or The Haidmaid's Tale. Like her works, Palmer infuses his world (namely, a physicist's lab with a prime directive to create a viable Causality Violation Device -a time machine) with characters whose perceptions of their shared reality are never quite the same. The physicist, Phillip, is married to Rebecca, who, after a tragic event, has been feeling that something is amiss, as if the world isn't quite the way it's supposed to be. Phillip can't begin to understand her pain because his obsession with the CVD supersedes all else. All this takes place in a world so obsessed with data (is this sci fi or reality?) that even the President of the United States is reduced to an online avatar. This book is a thrilling look at scientific possibilities, but it also tenderly reveals the miasma of thoughts and feelings between Phillip and Rebecca, as there are in any relationship between sentient beings.

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
In the not-so-distant future, something called the Epstein Drive has enabled travel throughout the galaxy in a fuel and time efficient manner, and mankind has expanded its habitat to include Luna, Mars (in the process of terraformation) and the Outer Planets, which would include Ceres (the largest asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter), Io, Ganymede, and various stations. While this could be a symbiotic and friendly partnership, it has devolved into a hostile co-dependent relationship. Earth has the most resources, Mars has the most fire-power, and the OPA (Outer Planets Assoc) has the rich, mineral resources needed to run the whole thing. But, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and there is no such thing as peaceful co-existence. The petty striving for power and suppression of anyone presumed weaker undercuts progress -and then a potential weapon is discovered that changes everything. If it can be controlled (a very big IF), then the holder of this weapon would rule the known universe.
Enter into this morass our erstwhile heroes: the remnants of a crew from an exploded ice-hauler, the only ones who seem to have a clue that life as we know it is about to go south: James Holden, righteous (and self-righteous) Earther captain, Naomi, brilliant and compassionate XO and committed Belter, Alex, the cowboy-pilot from Mars, and Amos (oh, we love Amos!) the Earther mechanic who is either the most heroic or most sociopathic man out there. Add a noir detective, complete with porkpie hat, from Ceres who's on a mission to bring some justice to a missing girl, and you have all the makings of an interplanetary war. This incandescent opening novel is the first book in a trio and there's lots of action yet to be had. The series has been excellently translated to the small screen -Check out The Expanse on the SciFi channel or Amazon!

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong

Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star, in which human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. A world in which at least one cat smells like a seafood shop's dumpster on a hot summer day.

This is the world in which Zoey Ashe finds herself, navigating a futuristic city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish and ridiculous on any street corner. Her only trusted advisor is the aforementioned cat, but even in the future, cats cannot give advice. At least not any that you'd want to follow.

My review: Mob activity, weapons grade human enhancements, a Sin City that makes Vegas pale by comparison, gruesome injuries, holographs, a reluctant heiress with a price on her head, and a stinky cat. Wong weaves these improbably elements together for a sci fi tale that brims with off-beat humor. This is a compulsive read that probably won't make you a better human being, but certainly a happier one.

Landscape with Invisible Hands by M.T. Anderson

Many authors have asked the question, "What if we were invaded by aliens?", and the answer is usually some kind of subjugation or mass destruction of humanity.  In "Landscape with Invisible Hand", it certainly doesn't work out well for the humans, but with an inventive twist: the alien invaders bear the humans no malice, in fact, they give them medical and technological advances that solve a lot of humanity's problems.  HOWEVER, that is no guarantee that life is good, as the invaders really could care less about the quality of life on earth, particularly for the many inhabitants who struggle with no money and no job. This forces our protagonist, Adam, to become very creative to ensure the survival of himself and his loved ones. The aliens, called the Vuvv, are enamoured with "classic" Earth culture, so Adam starts video streaming old-fashioned dates that he stages with his girlfriend.  This works well as a source of income until they start to despise each other. One of the great things about SciFi is that there are no foregone conclusions -anything can happen, and frequently does.  Adam's plight -and the many unanswered questions surrounding the vuvv and future of humans-forces the reader to take a hard look at how they would fare in this kind of future. 


Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
My heart aches with the beauty of this story, the desolation that might be our future. In this depiction of what could be, Cedar Hawk Songmaker is an American Indian woman, adopted and raised by liberal white parents (her Indian birth name, Mary Potts). Cedar finds herself pregnant at a time when the earth and all its creatures seem to be de-evolving. Birth defects, throwbacks, are appearing all over -chickens are starting to resemble lizards, for example-and many human babies aren't surviving the birth process. Understandably, a pregnant woman's life is at a premium, and Cedar is forced into hiding so that she isn't taken to a government birthing center, where she will surely lose control of her life and her baby. In her quest to remain a human being with free will, Cedar reconnects with her Ojibwa family of origin and stockpiles for the future, but it seems that nothing can save her from the mass panic of humanity as mankind struggles to understand and survive what might be the final threat. In between the descriptions of society crumbling, there are touching scenes in which Cedar and her two families cling to what it is that makes them (and all of us) human: love, beauty, kindness, longing, and hope.