Science Fiction

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
What does it mean to be an Expendable? It means that, when colonizing new planets, ships can only carry so many humans. They need biologists, doctors, botanists, security, pilots, etc. But, there are some dangerous jobs in space and when landing on unknown worlds, so each crew needs some...redundancy. A crew member that they don't mind losing. In Mickey's case, he is that redundancy. He has no usable job skills and so joins a crew as an Expendable-talk about dirty jobs! In case of death, his body has been mapped and his memory uploaded so that they can just print out a new Mickey and carry on. And the law is ironclad: there can only be one copy of each Expendable at one time, or they all get chucked down the corpse hole and a new copy is made.
You'd think he'd be used to dying by the time he wakes up as Mickey7, but you would be quite wrong. Even worse, when Mickey7 finds out that his death has been reported prematurely and there's already a Mickey8, that's when the trouble starts. Not to mention that the cause of his latest death are the inhabitants of the planet they're trying to colonize, and they don't play well with others. Fantastic book, soon to be a loosely adapted movie.

Providence by Max Barry
Reasons to read a Max Barry sci fi novel:
1. Believable dialogue, relatable characters. I haven't found a character he's written about yet that didn't seem like someone I'd want to have a cup of coffee and chat with about their life experiences. That takes some finesse!
2. Inventive and unique premises in every book. In Providence, 4 humans are sent on a 4 year mission in an AI ship that doesn't seem to need them at all. Are they a PR stunt, to gain humanity's support for their fight against a destructive alien species that creeps ever closer? Or will they, in fact, turn out to be pivotal to the war effort and ultimate survival of earth?
3. As engaging as Neal Stephenson, without the ICK factor. Inevitably, Stephenson will put something inappropriate or just plain gross and unnecessary in his novels (exception: Anathem). Barry doesn't seem to struggle with that, although Machine Man was occasionally gross, but with purpose.
4. Lastly, Barry's cool sci fi concepts go hand-in-glove with lots of social commentary that will give you something to think about.
Providence is an action packed novel that will leave you pondering about AI, propaganda, and what will actually happen when we meet up with an alien species. 

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.

Historical Fiction

James by Percival Everett
I usually don't care for adaptations of classical novels, it feels like cheating and rarely does the second author come close to touching on the genius that made the first author a classical writer in the first place. But Percival Everett's retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the slave Jim's point of view is nothing short of brilliant. In fact, reading both novels together would enhance the humor and dark injustice in both tales.
In Everett's version, Jim puts up a front to reassure the whites that he is harmless and simple minded, such as all slaves must do. His interior dialogue shows him to be erudite and well-read, a dignified man who identifies as James. When he runs away to avoid being sold, he links up with Huck Finn and the adventures begin. While the ensuing shenanigans mirror the action in Twain's book, James's perspective casts a pure light on what life in Mississippi must have really been like at that time. This book could revolutionize teaching American Literature!

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Considered ground-breaking at the time, Solzhenitsyn's fictionalized account of the daily horrors of life in the Soviet gulag opened the world's eyes to what was happening to the Russian people at the hands of their own government. (Solzhenitsyn, himself, was sentenced to 8 years in the gulag for writing a criticism of Stalin in a letter -this after serving with honors during WWII in the Soviet army!) In this novel, we meet Ivan Denisovich on a typical day during an endless sentence at a Siberian prison camp. His matter-of-fact delivery of injustices and depravations is a marvel of human endurance and a testimony to the vigors of the human spirit. Also, though, it's startling to read about the callousness and cruelty that people will dish out to each other -how many times do we need to see this illustrated for us, across the spectrum of human cultures, to understand that we are part of a very flawed race? To learn more about Solzhenistyn, his battle with cancer, his exile, his conversion to Christianity, his awesome 1978 commencement speech at Harvard, and his Nobel prize: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian
There's something to be said for maintaining a sense of suspense throughout an entire book. One good way to do it is to be ruthless with your characters -but that rarely happens. I get it. If you go to the trouble of conjuring up this fascinating ensemble of folks to people the pages of your novel, you'd probably feel pretty protective of them. However, Bohjalian suffers no such compunction, which is what elevates this story.
When Katie Barstow, her new husband David, and a host of friends and family decide to go on photographic safari in Africa, it seems exciting, yet safe. The year is 1964, Katie is a wealthy actress, and no expense is spared on hiring the best guides available for the trip of a lifetime. However, when kidnappers descend on the party, there's no limit to how badly things can and do go wrong. And that plethora of challenges -scorching heat, predators, cold-blooded criminals-leave the reader biting their nails as you wonder if anyone will be left alive. And that's not even including a few deadly secrets that some of the members of their party are hiding... A mesmerizing read!

The Snow Hare by Paula Lichtarowicz
I wasn't sure about this being a 5 star book at first, but the story deepened in emotion and meaning as it progressed, until it totally captured my heart. Lena is a Polish girl who only wants to be a doctor, but with the advent of WWII and a series of other tragic events, her dreams go unfulfilled. Misery seems to beget misery, culminating in her family's exile to the harshness of a Siberian workcamp.
But throughout the story, Lichtarowicz has juxtaposed small chapters of Lena's future life, hints about what she has endured and what happiness is yet to come. The pastiche of memories holds the threads of a fairy tale ending, in that through the pain and desolation, there is always something or someone to rejoice about. The Snow Hare gives us a piece of history that is rarely written about, and shows us the importance of tenderness and memory amidst the harshness of life circumstances, and the incredible power of forgiveness and grace.

The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep by Allan Wolf
Allan Wolf is a great historical fiction author, and certainly the story of the Donner Party is compelling, but....BUT. I had to drag myself through the book because putting a humanized face on this cannibalistic tragedy made for a very difficult read. Most particularly, because Wolf used alternating narrators, and many of the voices were children. So. Well written but hard to categorize as 'enjoyable'.

 

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towle
Amor Towles' way of turning a phrase make his books true rare pleasures.  
"Time is that which God uses to separate the idle from the industrious. For time is a mountain and upon seeing its steep incline, the idle will lie down among the lilies of the field and hope that someone passes by with a pitcher of lemonade. What the worthy endeavor requires is planning, effort, attentiveness, and the willingness to clean up."
This story of two brothers (one recently out of juvenile lockup, one only 8 years old) undertaking an arduous trip to find their mother after their father has passed away is certainly on par with all the heroic journeys from antiquity -perils, betrayal, yearning, derring-do.  And like Greek myths of old, the story is less about the destination than it is about all the steps it takes to get there.  Also, as you get to know Emmett, Billy, and their assortment of friends and acquaintances (Woolly, Duchess, Sally, Ulysses, etc), the underlying theme that it's all just about living life resounds in their words and actions.
I would read anything by Towle because I enjoyed this novel and A Gentleman in Moscow so very much.

 

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
Although the narration of this story, undertaken by a ghost who haunts an orphanage, takes a bit of getting used to, the unfolding drama of Frankie Mazza's life from 1941-1946 is worth the extra effort. Frankie and her two siblings are sent to an orphanage after the death of their mother because their father isn't able to care for them. It's a rough life which grows lonelier when their father remarries and moves away, taking his son but leaving his daughters in the institution. Pearl, the aforementioned ghost, has quite a story of her own to recount as she tries to figure out why she hasn't passed on to the other side yet. Both tales are replete with courage, betrayal, grief, love, and friendship. Best line in the book, "Why does the world want girls to be beautiful, only to punish them for it?'

Lovely War by Julie Berry
If a tale that involves unrequited love, war, death, injury, infidelity, and racism could be called sweet and poignant, than this is the one. In 1942, Hephaestus catches his wife, Aphrodite (goddess of love) cheating with his brother, Ares (god of war) and decides to put them on trial to see what they have to say for themselves. Speaking in her own defense, Aphrodite weaves the story of Hazel and James, a pianist and a soon-to-be soldier who meet in 1917 only two days before he is shipped out to fight in the Great War to show that love and war are often intrinsically linked.
Shifting perspectives between the gods and the very human lives that they are impacting, the reader becomes captivated with the young lovers and some friends they meet along the way. Hazel goes to France to volunteer and meets a young Belgian girl, Colette, who has lost her whole family and village to the Germans. Aubrey is a member of the 369th, an American unit of all Black soldiers who also have the finest military band, led by one of the finest conductors in the U.S. Although all four of them encounter hardships, there is hope and joy in their stories. The trial of Aphrodite and Ares also brings some surprises of its own. I can see why Lovely War was listed in the Teens' Top Ten for 2020!

Deacon King Kong by James McBride
I love James McBride because he always writes about those things that bring us together instead of what separates us. This story, about love, intrigue, crime and passion in a NYC neighborhood circa 1969 is uplifting as well as funny. As President Obama said about the quality and worth of McBride's writing, he "humaniz(es) the complexities of discussing race in America.” 

The titular deacon is a handyman at an apartment complex in a NYC neighborhood, as well as a gardener for a mobster's aging mother, a baseball coach for the kids in the complex (an ex-player whom has chosen to deal drugs), and a pretty ardent drunk. One day, the deacon strolls up to (or drunkenly staggers up to) the dealer and shoots him for wasting his God given baseball talent, a chain of events is set off that involves organized crime, drug pipelines, revenge, and a hidden treasure secreted somewhere in the neighborhood.  The church and its congregation play a pivotal role in this disparate cast, and lots of humor is discovered in what could be a morbid and depressing situation.  Of course, unguessable outcomes are the best, and the twinklings of love that unexpectedly come to pass lend this story heart.



The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This is a really good piece of historical fiction about a man named Hiram, who is a slave in Virginia in the mid 1800s. Hiram has a photographic memory, but despite this he has managed to block out the last day he saw his mother. This is significant, because the day his mother was sold (when Hi was only 9), left him without family -except for his father, the plantation owner, and his brother, also White. Hi is buffeted by forces much more powerful than himself: a culture of slavery and White superiority/Black subjugation, a robust Underground that he is destined to cross paths with, and the mysterious power of Conduction that lies within him undiscovered.
Coates does an excellent job at tapping the emotions Hiram struggles with, as well as delicately conveying the horribleness that surrounded the practice of slavery. Moreover, he addresses the complications that arise when a slave owner takes advantage of a female slave, resulting in a child. How could anyone look at their son or daughter and consider them property, something from which they could glean financial gain? What kind of relationship could one possibly expect from such beginnings? Well done.


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.

 The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
Oaths and blood feuds, shield walls and raiding, this 12th century depiction of a fledgling Norway is so adventurous and exciting, you'll wonder how anyone survived to tell tales of the Vikings. Ragnvald is a young sailor/raider who barely escapes a murder attempt by his captain, only to find he must fight to regain his lands from his treacherous stepfather, all while the legendary Harold struggles to become the first king of a united Norway. Alliances shift on a dime, and the plight of being a woman is sharply brought into focus by Ragnvald's sister, Svanhild, who refuses to be tucked away safely and ends up in the clutches of Ragnvald's archenemy. A compelling read that reminds me of the excellent show The Last Kingdom about the Dane invasion of the British Isles and Alfred the Great's rise to power.

A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
The juxtaposition of two Palestinian-Americans, a mother and daughter, who are both caught between the old world devaluation of women and their desire for freedom and happiness. In 1990, 17 year old Isra is given in marriage to Adam and finds herself relocating to Brooklyn from Palestine, dispossessed of all that she knows -except for the devout Muslim view that she is to quietly stay at home, serve the men and her mother-in-law, and have (hopefully) male babies. There is no room in Isra's life for love, desire, dreams, or joy.
Moving forward to 2008, Deya at 18 is the oldest of Isra's four girls. Untenably, she is also expected to conform to an arranged marriage, with no possibility of college, career, or romance. Both Adam and Isra died when Deya was only seven, so she is denied the understanding and compassion that her mother would surely have given her. However, Deya is determined to rebel, and thus finds that there is a secret shrouding the circumstances of her parents' deaths.
The lifestyle that Isra and Deya experience would be anathema to most American women; codes of silence and shame, subservience and honor. The missing component is love, which isn't to say that all women in their circumstances are deprived of it; this family is a tangled up knot of obligation and anger. A novel that gives a voice to those who desperately need to be heard.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
In ancient Greece, women were portrayed by male voices as either beautiful prizes or evil witches, or simply and anonymously as slaves and drudges.  In this retelling of the siege of Troy, the story is flipped to focus strictly on the story through the eyes of a woman -Queen Briseis, who is enslaved to Achilles after her city is overtaken by the Greeks.  The manly heroes might shine gloriously on the battlefield, but as witnessed by the women in the camps, they are beastly, demanding, and self-obsessed.  Many are rapists, and a scant few are worthy of love. Briseis is obedient to Achilles, and even finds some things to admire about him, but refuses to soften to the man who killed her brothers and father.
Achilles does value Briseis, though, and when Agememnon demands her 'company', Achilles refuses to go to battle -with dire consequences.  Though Briseis is a pawn in a man's game, her voice comes through strongly as she struggles to survive.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Imagine a world so cruel that people are arbitrarily forced into labor and tortured, raped, and murdered if they don't comply. That part is (unfortunately) a matter of historical truth. Colson Whitehead intriguingly melds fact with fiction as he explores the pre-Civil War South through the eyes of Cora, a slave escaping from the Georgia plantation where she is in imminent peril from her new master. Where he chooses to weave new fictional details into this terrible time is an underground railroad that is actually underground -hidden tunnels squirreled away and managed by conductors who assist runaways to freedom. The railroad is a saving grace for Cora more than once, as a dogged slave catcher named Ridgeway is obsessed with seizing her and bringing her back to captivity. What he doesn't count on is her truly indomitable spirit -Cora is an epic heroine who bears the souls, hopes, and dreams of many as she makes her way, inch by inch, toward freedom.
(Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2017, National Book Award 2016)

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
In 1849, Leah Westfall and her gold miner parents reside in a panned-out Georgia when the news comes: prospectors are getting lucky out in California, and a new Gold Rush is about to commence.  Leah possesses a secret ability: she can 'sense' when gold is near.  Before she and her parents can consider what this means for them, tragedy strikes and Leah is on her own.  Forced to flee malevolent forces, Leah becomes Lee and decides to travel out West alone, disguised as a boy, hoping to meet up with her best friend, Jefferson.
At first I was a little put off by the 'girl disguised as boy' trope, and the magical gold-sensing ability.  But this is actually a very well-written and plausible book that captures the pioneering spirit of the mid-1800s.  Leah is a sensible girl who is more likely to rescue someone else than be in need of rescuing. The trek to California is full of pitfalls and threatening situations, especially for a teen-aged girl, which makes for an engrossing read. (Longlisted for the National Book Award)

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 by C.S. Lewis, another intriguing look at life after death. 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. (Winner of the Man Booker prize)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Werner is an orphan growing up in German mining country in the '40s. Despite an impressive aptitude for science (radios in particular), his outlook is bleak until he catches the eye of a Nazi officer. Marie-Laure is a girl in France, living with her beloved father, who is the locksmith and key maker for the National Museum of Natural History. Despite going blind at 6, Marie-Laure has a rich life and her father devises ways to circumvent her disability. Primarily, he constructs a miniature version of Paris so that Marie-Laure can feel her way around the model city, learning the routes before venturing out to into the real world. As Werner and Marie-Laure grow into young adulthood, their paths will collide in wholly unexpected ways. 
This book reminded me of "The Book Thief" (another excellent read) in that these children growing up in war-torn Europe are warmly and richly brought to life. Doerr paints so vividly with words that the reader feels as if they themselves have fled to St. Malo, as if they are being conscripted by the Hitler Youth, as if they are charged with saving a 133 carat diamond from the greedy hands of the Nazis. When Marie-Laure cups a shell in her hands, you will feel the cool, smooth curves for yourself. Truly deserving of the Pulitzer.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
I didn't realize until after I had finished this that the two main characters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, were actual historical figures. The Grimke sisters were outspoken abolitionists in the 1820s and 30s whose impassioned pleas to end slavery came from the dark reality that they grew up in a prominent South Carolinian home with slaves and were both strongly affected by the cruelty and injustice of the 'peculiar institution'.
In this fictionalized account, the story switches between Sarah's voice and that of a slave, Handful, who is gifted to Sarah on her 11th birthday by her rather coldhearted mother. Sarah rejects the idea of owning another human, but she is told that she will and she'd better accept the situation. Sarah counters by secretly teaching Handful how to read (in real life, Sarah actually did teach her handmaid reading and writing), an unlawful act that brings dreadful retribution on both of them when it is discovered. Sarah never does accept her place in Charleston society, but finds her calling as a Quaker in Philadelphia, and eventually as a voice crying out for freedom.
Although Handful is purely fictional, her unflinching character is brought wholly to life by Ms. Kidd, and it is her story that really touched my heart. Handful endures so much loss, humiliation, pain, and yet she never gives up and never accepts that she is lesser than the whites merely because of the color of her skin. Her devotion to her family and her intelligence highlight the absurdity, the hubris of anyone daring to claim another human being as their property.
I would highly recommend this novel, followed by reading the actual pamphlet Angelina Grimke wrote as a plea to the women of the South to end slavery: An Appeal to Christian Women of the South