I’m a judge for the Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC), and wanted to spotlight some of the authors in the contest! Specifically, I’ll have interviews from my team’s semifinalists. Without further adieu, to the interview!
First off, what’s a foozzzball[his Twitter handle]?
Malcolm: So there’s that table football game, foosball? A foozzzball is that, but lazy. And my internet handle, mostly for use in the furry fandom. It goes on my conbadges and everything.
How did you get into sci-fi?
Sci-fi has been around in my life for a long enough time it’s hard to say what the actual start was, but what absolutely cemented it for me was Diane Duane’s X-Com tie in novel. I was totally wild about that game, and I was… not necessarily a hesitant reader, but I was very much into non-fiction over fiction. The tie-in changed that. I saw this book that was about my favourite thing in the world, and I picked it out for myself. Which was, I think, the first time I’d really seen a book that just absolutely spoke to me. Which also goes to show, the works you don’t necessarily think will have an impact are sometimes the ones that will reach someone at exactly the right time to teach them how rewarding it is to explore fiction on their own.
You mentioned engaging with furry fandom. How has furry fandom impacted your writing?
The furry fandom is great. It’s an unusual fandom, since the majority of it is self-generated. We don’t have a central work to use as a canon, like a film or corporate-owned IP or whatever, so, we’re pretty much all fans of all the wildly creative stuff other furries do in the fandom. That’s been the major impact, honestly.
It makes it a wonderful community, and there are lots of places to go for support, especially as a new author. There are a lot of small presses (shout outs to Sofawolf, Furplanet and Fenris), which provide a lot of opportunities to pick up experience. There are in-fandom awards, there are some organized groups like the Furry Writer’s Guild, there’s pretty much always something going on and someone interested in hearing about what you’ve been making or eager to show you what they’ve made/drawn/written. As a result of all that support, most of my early publications went to furry small presses. And off the back of that I got a short story sold at a pro rate and did enough other professional-ish stuff to join SFWA – which is something several other furry-fandom involved authors have done, so I’m far from an anomaly like that.
The support the fandom gives has been helpful to a lot of authors. But that’s pretty much all strong community stuff, and not unique to the furry fandom. I could cheap out and tell you that writing in the furry fandom has resulted in me being unable to write a character without whiskers, but the truth of it is that the fandom’s helped me value tolerance and acceptance. Furries skew heavily LGBTQ+, and, learning to be a more mindful ally (I am far from perfect, but I try) has undoubtedly made me a better human being. And being around people who work hard to accept each other’s weird sides has helped me accept my own. And that kind of self-acceptance is really valuable for a writer – I don’t worry about what other people think about my writing, because I know that what I think about my writing matters more than other people’s opinions.
When the Arab Spring hit, I kept having one thought, which was, ‘these people have money, so where are the PMCs?’ PMCs, if you’re not familiar, are private military companies. Over in the US there’s Blackwater, which rebranded as Xe Services and then Academi, then Constellis, in a series of jumps to get away from a reputation for, y’know, war crimes. In the UK we have Sandline, who made bold claims about how private military companies could be used to end armed conflicts and replace international intervention efforts with a more efficient, more humanitarian, positive force for change in the face of authoritarian and genocidal dictatorships. Given that PMCs frequently tend to shut down, rebrand, and the same people mysteriously found new companies a few months later (Sandline is currently Aegis), I think it’s fair to say that the Blackwater situation is a little more realistic.
The basic issue is interventionism – it’s one of the defining elements of modern international politics, and the bread and butter for many PMCs. Arguably it’s a continuation of colonialist policies, but at the same time it’s terribly appealing to think someone could stop all the horrible things happening in the world. What if the Arab Spring protestors had someone they could call on to protect them from the violence of their own governments? (Or, as I now wonder, the George Floyd Protestors?) Would that change the situation and turn out better?
One thing that won’t change is that interventionism involves sending someone with no interest in local affairs to hold a gun somewhere nobody wants them to be. The violence that led them there should never have happened, and protection for the communities involved should be coming from within those communities. The fact this soldier is standing there is a geopolitical failure on a thousand levels, and yet they are standing there, holding a gun, getting shot at, and being told to kill people. And, I’ve always thought, it must really suck to be in that situation. And modern conflicts have put thousands and thousands of people into one just like it. But that’s just one aspect to the book.
Your focus on the internal life of the characters and how their actions–or inactions–impacted them is one of the things I enjoyed most about the story. Questions about colonialism, protest, and violence as a problem-solving strategy certainly abound throughout Dog Country.
Do you have plans for more works in the world of Dog Country? What else can readers look forward to from you?
Thank you! The close viewpoint and spotlight on the inner lives is definitely something I’m trying my hand at again – I’ve actually been off the writing-wagon for a few years, so, I’m very pleased to say that I’m in the middle of editing a standalone in the same San Iadras setting, Mouse Cage. The book features Troy Salcedo – a gengineered mouse-person who was built not as a soldier like Dog Country’s Edane, but as a surgical research subject. Also freed in childhood, his story goes deep into dealing with trauma and loss, guilt, a struggle to make an imperfect relationship with the love of his life work out, and the search for a way to be at peace with who he once was and who he now is. This one is very different, very little war-action, much more emotional psychodrama with some romance thrown in. A bit more detail sneaks in about how the setting’s cloned uplift furries came to be, given that Troy grew up in one of the labs making them. So in some ways a total shift in genre, in another, very much the same kind of close character study with a lot of parallels to Dog Country, just without guns. I am hoping to have that done and released in the vicinity of June, but timing is still a little up in the air.
Other than that, I’m trying to find an agent for a non-selfpub novel manuscript, making some notes for the next few self-pub book projects in the San Iadras setting, and thinking about trying my hand at finally writing a space opera I planned out a few years ago, which may or may not have one or two token uplift characters in it.
Finally, where can readers keep track of/follow/obsessively read about you?
If you want to keep track of me, I’m on twitter as @foozzzball, I have a Patreon which is relatively low on exclusive content, but fans can get a spot on my corkboard. And, finally, for anyone just browsing interviews who’s now curious and who’d like a smaller taste, there’s Pavlov’s House, a short story about a side-character who briefly appears in Dog Country, published at Strange Horizons.
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I am a judge for the SPSFC- The Self Published Science Fiction Contest, and I saw Along the Perimeter in another group’s reads. I decided to give it a go after someone in my group said they enjoyed the prologue quite a bit. I’m glad I did, because Steven Healt delivers an absolutely fascinating world that’s full of questions.
The book starts off with a bang–a young man who lives, er, along the perimeter (get it?) of a shield that covers a massive expanse of land that includes several cities, villages, farmland, and more. The shield keeps out the Haze/Fog, a dangerous cloud of deadly gases. The boy is stunned when raiders from outside the perimeter come and steal food from his village, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Fast forward past this pulse-thumping intro and readers are thrown into a fully-formed world in which aliens, the Amboians, live alongside humans and have apparently rescued humanity from certain destruction.
The world is the star in the novel, really, as it makes for a great setting to explore and learn about the characters. What’s especially awesome is how deftly Healt combines elements of both science fiction and fantasy. Even writing that seems to take away a bit from how well Healt does this. It’s clear that the book could be set in our future–the “fantasy” part isn’t so much magic as it is the feel of the world. You know those epic fantasy books that present a big world full of possibilities in every corner? That’s part of what’s happening here–the world both inside and outside of the Shield feels massive. But another way Healt combines the elements is by having a kind of creeping loss of tech the farther you get from the center of the Shield. For example, the communicators people use to pay each other stop working swiftly towards the perimeter, so they continue to rely on coinage and bartering to pay for things. Little touches of world building like this abound throughout the book, and make it an experience start-to-finish.
The plot itself follows multiple viewpoints as characters work alongside the Amboians, explore the world outside the perimeter, and try to deal with the rising level of conflict happening along the perimeter. Each character’s arc has enough to hold interest. What’s clear reading the book is that it is a slow burn, building the world, showing how pieces are moving, and then easing into the action. Mysteries abound in the world of this novel, and only a few answers are even hinted at here. The experience of reading the book feels very much like an introduction to a lengthy saga. Readers looking for a one-off won’t find many of the answers here, but those looking to explore a series will find much to theorize about in these pages.
What’s striking to me, too, is how many of the scenes are memorable even days after finishing the novel. Longtime readers of speculative fiction can certainly name favorite scenes in books, and Along the Perimeter provides a few truly excellent set pieces in which characters get to shine in surprising and challenging circumstances.
Along the Perimeteris a great start to a series that’s full of interesting characters and mysteries. I look forward to reading the next book! Recommended for fans of science fantasy and first contact novels.
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Vintage Sci-Fi Month has come and gone, but the fun continues! As I recall, the rule for calling something “Vintage” is that it was written before you were born, but feel free to adjust that as you like. Follow Vintage Sci-Fi Month on Twitter and get in on the fun, too!
It’s rare that I’ve felt enchanted by a novel. This book has done that. The driving idea behind Invisible Cities is that Kublai Khan and Marco Polo are having a conversation in which Marco Polo is telling Khan about the various cities in his empire in order to inform him about what his conquered realm is like. It’s like an ancient travelogue being rediscovered. But there are glimpses of something more behind the pages here.
The bulk of the book is made up of Polo’s descriptions of various cities. Each is as poetic as the next, and the prose is superb. The descriptions of the cities are wondrous–filled with a kind of delight and lyrical awe that is difficult to grasp. Each city’s name is a woman’s name. It makes me wonder what is meant by it. Is Marco Polo really telling Khan about women, using cities as a fanciful euphemism?
Occasionally, there are snippets of conversation between Khan and Polo interspersed between the many descriptions of cities. In one, Khan asks why Polo doesn’t tell him about Venice, and in the most direct comment about themes in the book, Polo replies that really all the descriptions are about Venice, in their own ways. Is the book really just a kind of love letter to Venice? Or a love letter to women, as hinted above?
We also see the occasional anachronism and fantasy mixed into the book’s descriptions. A hint of New York; a brief aside about San Francisco; a map that shows all the cities that have been or can be or will be. But what does it all mean?
The last three paragraphs ended with questions. That’s on purpose. The book doesn’t answer your questions. Calvino’s work stands as is–ready to be tasted, sampled, and savored. It’s a wondrous, beautiful book. I’m ready to delve back into the realm of the Khan and smile at Polo’s descriptions of the cities. I’m ready to wonder, some more, about the book’s many meanings–or hints at the same. Come, be enchanted with me.
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I read the first 20% of The Jagged Edge as I sampled each of the books for my group. When I got to that cutoff, I felt a bit at a loss. I was intrigued by the concept: Dominic Elliston has moved from a war correspondent to a media mogul. He can travel wherever he wants, do whatever he wants, and be with almost whomever he wants. But when he comes into contact with Victor Sagen, an environmental terrorist bent upon vengeance, his life gets much more complicated. At 20%, I was just getting to the point where Sagen and Elliston met up. Honestly, I’m glad I continued. I wasn’t sold on the story at that stage, but it’s right at that part that it starts to get going.
Sagen is a complicated genius, and his backstory initially seems trope-filled but heartfelt. The scene in which you get his backstory and the reason why he is on a quest for revenge through ecological terrorism is a huge high point in the book. It gripped me and didn’t let me go. I was absolutely invested. And AJ Frazer, the author, rides that high for the rest of the book. I don’t say that in a negative way. What I mean is that it is very difficult to decide whose side you’re on throughout the novel. And then there’s another moment in the novel that makes it all come together in a different way. The main plot is quite well done, though it does take a bit to get going.
The plot involves quite a bit of hand-waving about how programs, hacking, and computer worms work (in one case, almost literally as Elliston powers through a discussion of the technical intricacies about worm vs. virus by basically saying “whatever, you know what I mean”). I honestly didn’t mind that, because I could see most people who are focused on getting the big story being much more interested in the big picture impact than in the details. On the flip side, it’s hard for a non-expert like myself to evaluate how believable these portions of the novel are. Is what is at stake truly possible? I don’t know, but I do know I was invested enough to care quite a bit throughout.
There are some negatives here, though. For one, while there are women characters, they largely fade into the background. The plot is almost entirely dominated by Elliston and Sagen. Another downside is how long it takes the main plot to get going. Elliston as a media mogul/crack reporter is difficult to believe at times because we don’t see him doing much actual reporting apart from interviewing. Some of the plot is suspiciously easy to resolve, but part of that seems the hopeful bend it takes towards the end.
Overall, The Jagged Edgeis a good read with a thrilling story that kept me more engaged the farther in I got. I would recommend it to fans of thrillers and/or science fiction about climate change.
Score (a score out of 10 is required for the SPSFC Rules to help us determine which books are moving on):7/10
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Having finally watched Babylon 5 for the first time (check out my posts for that series at my Babylon 5 Hub), I decided to dive into the novels. I’ll be reading them largely in publication order and reviewing them individually as we go along. Please do not spoil later books for me. There will be SPOILERS for the book reviewed going forward.
Blood Oath is a novel that would have made a stellar short story. It fits the series better than the first two novels, and it doesn’t suffer from the out of character moments those novels had, either. The whole novel is a kind of addendum to the episode from the first season, “The Parliament of Dreams.” This ties it in to the series in a fun way, but it also makes it seem overlong since its plot really is just an extension of that episode.
What happens here is that the daughter of Du’Rog, whose name was allegedly besmirched by G’Kar, takes out a Shon’Kar against G’Kar, swearing to kill him. G’Kar sees the threat as imminent and fakes his death in order to escape. He then makes his way to the Narn Homeworld, independently pursued by Na’Toth, Garibaldi, and Ivanova.
We saw the backstory for this novel, again, in “The Parliament of Dreams.” Vornholt ties this novel quite well into that episode, though some of the timeline is ambiguous. The action moves along well, though the book does ultimately run into some serious pacing issues in the middle section. That section basically has G’Kar running into people (or not) who recognize him (or don’t) while Ivanova and Garibaldi haplessly look for him across the homeworld. There are only so many close misses and chase scenes one can take before it starts to feel like padding, and this novel is definitely padded for length. Some judicious editing would have made it a fantastic short story though, especially with its strong ties to the plot of the show.
The conclusion is great, and we witness a wonderfully fun moment between G’Kar and Mollari right at the end which left me with a sweet taste after the occasional slog.
Fun fact from The Babylon File: The Definitive Unauthorised Guide to J Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 by Andy Lane about Vornholt’s research for the book–which he was given only 2 months to write! Lane quotes Vornholt: “I asked [JMS] for information on the Narn homeworld for Blood Oath, but he told me to make it up. I thought this was very cavalier of him, until I realised he was going to destroy the planet in a war” (388).
Another fun fact, though I’m not sure if it’s intentional: the name “Mi’Ra” for G’Kar’s rival, is quite similar to “Mira,” the first name of Mira Furlan, who plays Delenn in the series. Again, I don’t have a source saying if it was intentional, but it seemed a fun Easter egg at the time I noticed.
Blood Oathis the best of the first 3 Babylon 5 novels, though it still has its issues with pacing. It ties in well to the series, and Vornholt captures the characters believably. Vornholt gives readers more fun character scenes than expected, and so I give it a reserved recommendation for fans of the series.
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Refraction has three storylines set about 80-100 years apart from each other, between circa 1980 and circa 2150. The first of these follows a scientist, Timothy Straus, as he works on a groundbreaking discovery. The second, set in the middle time period, follows Caleb (aka “Cal”) as he learns some of the darker secrets behind his cloistered dream life. The third is centered around Custos, a sentient robot who has become the President of Mars. While these stories initially seem unconnected apart from the link of the first two characters hearing voices, they eventually become entangled within each other in deeply connected ways.
What’s remarkable about this is that at no point did the entanglement of these narratives seem contrived or forced. Welker does a simply phenomenal job of weaving a cohesive narrative across three timelines while keeping readers on the edge of their seat the whole time. It would be easy to fall into numerous traps in this story that eventually features some common stumbling blocks like time travel or temporal difficulties, but time and again Welker makes them fresh or, minimally, presents them in a way that is sensible within the narrative.
Moreover, each society and time period felt fleshed out and full of side characters who mattered. There were several minor characters in each timeline, and they all read as genuine characters that had interactions with our protagonists in ways that had real impact on the plot and characters. The science-y aspects were detailed enough to survive the suspension of disbelief, and the big reveals, when they started to hit, were fun even if occasionally predictable. If I have one complaint, it’s that it could stand to be maybe 50 pages shorter to tighten up some of the narrative. In particular, there’s one part that’s basically just a lengthy scene of explaining why a bunch of different societal structures are doomed to fail. It reads more like a diatribe than something in-character for the novel. That and a few other scenes could be cut out or shortened down to make the flow of the novel better.
The book is almost 450 pages but I sat down on my day off and marathoned through the last third or so of it over a morning (cat on my lap, the best way to read!) because I couldn’t get enough of it. This is a compelling science fiction yarn, folks. It truly is books like this that are the reason I love delving into indie novels. You find treats like this that make all the effort worth it. If you’re a fan of hard sci-fi or character-driven narratives, I recommend Refractionvery highly.
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I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
One question that looms large so far in the Horus Heresy series is what happens to all these legions that have been betrayed–what’s their perspective? Deliverance Lost er, delivers the goods on that question, as Gav Thorpe goes on a deep dive into the Raven Guard in the aftermath of the battle of Isstvan III. Along the way, Thorpe provides a ton of action along with quite a bit of background material beyond the basics.
The novel starts with the Raven Guard in tatters, barely escaping with any remnants as they retreat to fight another day. Corax, the Primarch, is one of the primary actors throughout the story, which is a refreshing change from how often the Primarchs are basically just giving orders from on high through most of the other books. Early on, though, we discover that the Alpha Legion has infiltrated the Raven Guard and are attempting to discover more about the defenses of Terra, among other things, with their presence. The Guard are sent to recover some technology to make more Astartes (I think–I may have misread what exactly was going on here) and then fight through a labyrinth with some pretty awesome ideas backing it up. One such is the notion that the defenses are randomized based on computations from the melting cycle of a local glacier, which makes no sense but is hella metal and awesome.
Afterwards, Corax uses the gene-seed to make more super soldiers, but the heretic Alpha Legion works against this and battle breaks out. Corax raises the Raven Guard from the ashes by rooting out the Alpha Legionnaires and then attacks the Emperor’s Children in a lengthy series of action scenes. The action scenes, though, still contain story and world-building, as Thorpe continues the exposition throughout.
Deliverance Lostis an excellent entry in the Horus Heresy series. We get to see the ramifications of the Horus’s rebellion in a more intimate way, while also getting one of the deepest looks at any Primarch or Legion so far with the Raven Guard.
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First off, Iron Widowhas an absolutely stunning cover. I used the full cover as the pic here, because it is so gorgeous I wanted to share it. Anyway, I wanted to talk about this book because it deserves more attention in the speculative fiction fan community. I saw it described as “Pacific Rim meets Handmaid’s Tale.” I’m often skeptical of book blurbs that try to sell them by comparisons because they often either aim too high (e.g. “Better than [insert your favorite series]”) or are so generic it becomes difficult to know what’s meant (e.g. “For fans of Lord of the Rings”–so basically any fan of fantasy?). Here, though, this comparison is spot-on and specific. Handmaid’s Tale makes me think of the book with its focus on religious practices oppressing women (I haven’t seen the show). Pacific Rim makes me think of giant robots beating up aliens. Well, Xiran Jay Zhao absolutely delivers on a combined experience of those.
The setup–there are some aliens that continue to attack humans. Thankfully, they’re not super bright and seem to just come in huge waves that humans have been mowing down with huge mechs called Chrysalises. These Chrysalis mechs are driven by teams–a man and a woman–who use their chi to drive the mechs to even greater heights of destruction and defense of humanity. Zetian wants to become one of the concubine-pilots (the woman part of the pair is expected to submit to the male partner in every way, whether its taking commands on the battlefield, giving up her life to power his chi, or sexual submissiveness). The reason Zetian wants to be a pilot, though, is to assassinate the pilot who killed her sister.
The book takes readers on a dizzying journey, overthrowing expectations of how the plot might turn out time and again. I enjoyed the many ways the characters around Zetian surprised me throughout the story. I expected certain things from some aspects of the plot, and was delighted when they didn’t turn out exactly how I thought they would.
If I have any complaint, it’s that the aliens/mech combat didn’t occupy more of the book. That’s a matter of my own preference–I just like mech combat and don’t get enough of it in novels. But it was kind of a bummer that the action scenes didn’t give me more of the action in detail. On the flip side, the ending of the novel throws a huge wrench in things that makes me even more excited about the plot developments and desperate for the next book.
Iron Widowis going on my nominating ballot for the Lodestar Award for best YA novel at the Hugo Awards this year. I hope you’ll consider giving it a read, too!
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Dog Country follows the story of Edane, a geneforged dog-person who was created to be a soldier. The powers that be, however, had to acquiesce to citizens’ demands to end the program, and Edane and others were “emancipated”–set free to live by others’ definitions of a “normal” life. Readers follow Edane (and a few other intermittent viewpoints) as he tries to navigate this new world.
Janine is Edane’s girlfriend, and some of the best scenes in the story take place between these two as Edane attempts to figure out how to even express himself. He struggles to live by the standards of what is “normal” and joins up with a MilSim team trying to work its way up the ranks in a simulated combat game. There’s no small amount of discussion of what runaway capitalism could do. This especially looms large in the way the main plot takes off as the geneforged dogs start a crowdfunding campaign to depose a dictator. The campaign is a runaway success and Edane ultimately joins on for real battle, trying to find his own place in the world and meaning for himself. As readers follow the intense action scenes, flashbacks abound to Edane’s first combat action two years earlier.
The action is great, with strategic and tactical decisions abounding. It doesn’t take up much space in the story, but when it’s there, it absolutely delivers. I’m not an expert on military action, merely a fan of military sci-fi and history, and I found it satisfying each time the military action showed up. The political and civil issues raised loom large, but aren’t explored in great depth. Nonetheless, they do create breaks in the intense story of Edane’s life and background that are welcome.
I do have one minor complaint about the novel, which is that I wish the larger stakes had been made more clear. Specifically, while there’s plenty to wonder about here, the premise takes a little bit away from the stakes. We don’t have genetically engineered super-soldiers made from animals (or other geneforged people, for that matter) around. That means many of the questions raised are hypothetical. You have to be invested in the characters–which I quickly was–in order for much of the conflict to feel pressing. Of course, all of this also seems to be an extended metaphor for PTSD, with the geneforged problems standing in as problems with PTSD, and that immediately ups the stakes and brings it all together.
As a side note, I especially appreciated how many women (or at least female geneforged people) were major characters given voices in the book. Edane’s mothers have numerous great moments including some brief discussions of motherhood that are touching. Janine equally is a fully-fleshed out character dealing with her own difficulties as a geneforge. It’s great to see. Also, that cover is to die for. I definitely think it’s among the best covers in the contest.
Dog Country is yet another proof that self- and indie-published books can be and often are superb. It’s an excellent book from beginning to end, with strong characterization, a solid plot, and difficult questions. Fans of thoughtful speculative fiction should dive in immediately, and the military sci-fi aspect of it is strong enough to appeal to fans of the same. Highly recommended.
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The Self-Published Science Fiction Contest is into the semifinalist round. 10 groups have narrowed 300 books down to a top 30, which we will then narrow down even more before finally choosing a winner. Here, I’m presenting the semifinalists along with their (sometimes partial) blurbs, covers, and my own initial thoughts purely based on both.
IN THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE, HOW CAN A PERSON GO MISSING?
The year is 2187. Crucial Larsen, a veteran of the brutal Consolidation Wars, is working as a labor cop on Earth. The planet is a toxic dump and billions of people are miserable, but so what? It’s none of his business. He’s finally living a good life, or good enough.
But then Essential, his beloved kid sister, disappears on Mars.
Initial Thoughts
I don’t know why, but the blurb makes me think of the Mars scenes in Babylon 5 quite a bit, and that definitely piques my interest. Also, there are giraffes on the cover for some reason.
Thirty-five years ago, the world was ravaged by war. Delia, a tough-as-nails survivalist, travels North in search of a future. Gennero is tortured by his violent past and devotion to his hometown. Ordered to apprehend Delia, he follows her into the post-apocalyptic landscape. The wasteland is rife with dangers for those seeking to traverse it: homicidal raiders, dictatorial leaders, mutated humans, and increasingly violent and hungry wildlife.
Initial Thoughts
Post-Apocalyptic novels are fairly hit-or-miss for me. Too often, they’re relentlessly depressing. In this day and age, that’s not what I’m looking for. This one promises some hope, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.
Ord is a black-ops cyborg assassin. A highly-trained human-weapon, dedicated to hunting down the last of the brain hacking syndicates. There’s just one problem…
Her mind was broken from a psychotic episode. Neural programming erased her trauma, gave her a fresh start. But when an old brain hacker cult resurfaces, and a sentient AI is set to govern the entire human population, she starts seeing things. Horrors that can’t possibly be real… that make no sense… that only she can see. Ix, their AI Guardian, is abducting innocent citizens from the streets in broad daylight. And it’s using the Augmented Reality it has thrown over the world as cover. Is the AI hellbent on humanities destruction? Or is her mind tearing itself apart again?
Initial Thoughts
I saw this one in another group back at the beginning of the contest and immediately hoped it would be passed on to the next round. Here it is! First of all, it has one of the best covers in the contest. Second, the words “cyborg assassin” came up and it sounds like cyberpunk plus craziness, and I love that as a premise.
A thousand years in the future, the last of humanity live inside the walls of the totalitarian Kingdom of Cutta. The rich live in Anais, the capital city of Cutta, sheltered from the famine and disease which ravage the rest of the Kingdom. Yet riches and power only go so far, and even Anaitians can be executed. It is only by the will of the King that Nate Anteros, son of the King’s favourite, is spared from the gallows after openly dissenting. But when he’s released from prison, Nate disappears.
A stark contrast, Catherine Taenia has spent her entire life comfortable and content. The daughter of the King’s Hangman and in love with Thom, Nate’s younger brother, her life has always been easy, ordered and comfortable. That is, where it doesn’t concern Nate. His actions sullied not only his future, but theirs. And unlike Thom, Catherine has never forgiven him.
Two years pass without a word, and then one night Nate returns. But things with Nate are never simple, and when one wrong move turns their lives upside down, the only thing left to do is run where the King’s guards cannot find them – the Outlands. Those wild, untamed lands which stretch around the great walls of the Kingdom, filled with mutants and rabids.
Initial Thoughts
The cover had me immediately thinking of hard sci-fi with a chemist going wild, but the blurb sounds more like a kind of dystopia. I am definitely interested, and the series looks complete so if I love it, I can keep going.
Daniela wants more for her family. She’s a track star and an ace student, but for someone born like her, talent isn’t enough.
The Orderist movement has spawned a society that rewards those who supposedly possess “merit,” which includes America’s wealthiest. Manhattan has become the capital of the forty-nine Orderist-led states, while California suffers under an economic embargo. Cities are cocoons where the so called “highborn” enjoy the pleasures of farm-grown food and private parks, while their outwardly perfect children are protected by floating nanny-like drones that follow them everywhere.
Daniela has grown up fighting for the chance to live beyond the desperation of Bronx City. An opportunity to attend the elite Tuck School—a place where even the highborn struggle to obtain a spot—is too great an opportunity to ignore. But what do the richies really want from her?
Initial Thoughts
This was one of my group’s books, and I’ve read it in its entirety already. It’s a great book–a dystopia focused on questions of justice with strong characters. I can’t wait to see what other reviewers think of it. See my review for more.
To be fair, they only started shooting after she started insulting them. She was just about to hand off the package—Wu didn’t know what was inside, and she didn’t want to—when three tentacle-faced strangers attacked. Wu loves a good fight and lives for a good heist. The Captain and her crew make their living taking undercover assignments from questionable clients… and it pays. Or at least, it used to.
But this time the merchandise is a little too hot to handle. So when the squid-shaped xenos show up and destroy the guys who are there to receive it, Wu is barely able to make it back to her ship alive. Soon the Nameless is racing around the galaxy with not only the powerful Commonwealth on its tail, but another dangerous creature bent on revenge. And then an unexpected visitor arrives, putting Wu and her crew in the position of taking care of some very precious cargo. Is it time for the Captain to give up criming and retire to a sedate life more suitable for a woman of her age?
Not a chance.
Initial Thoughts
Sounds like a kind of Han Solo space adventure, and I’ve found those to be wildly varying in how I end up thinking of them. I am excited to see some of this type of book moving on, though, because when they hit well, they’re among my favorite books to read.
High above Daros, sixteen-year-old Brecca Vereen prepares to unload a cargo of trade goods aboard her father’s ship, the Envy’s Price. Nellen Vereen shows her a mysterious artifact bound for a contact below, one that will earn them a lot of credits, and one that they definitely won’t be declaring to customs.
Materializing out of nowhere, alien invaders fire upon all ships, destroy the jump gate, and knock out communications. The Envy’s Price is crippled, and as her father tries to guide it down from orbit, Brecca rescues the illicit artifact and jettisons in a life pod to an uncertain fate below.
On the flagship of the invading fleet, Navigator Frim tries to persist within the cruel autocracy of the Zeelin Hegemony, under constant threat of death, but wishing for something better. And then she notices a whisper of radiation above Daros – the trail of a cloaked Vonar ship. What are they doing in the midst of all this? And will the captain kill her just for revealing this disagreeable news?
Initial Thoughts
The group that chose this one said it was humorous all the way through. I don’t really get that from the blurb, but I’m curious to know how a fairly serious sounding premise combines with humor.
In 1991, strange things are afoot in Boston. Bas is on the verge of hanging up his hat, until his final client—the missing woman’s father—suddenly claims to be someone else entirely. Someone without a daughter.
Across town, Dee Khalaji finds herself seeing visions of someone in the shadows watching a recorded video—one that changes each time it’s played back.
Initial Thoughts
Okay, the premise has me totally sold on this one. Sounds mysterious, I love the lingering sense of haunting confusion behind it all. I am ready to roll on this one!
Jaigar expected to wake up after thirty years to start building a new world in another star system. Instead, he finds himself one of a handful of survivors on an abandoned colony ship.
With no food or water, and only emergency power, his first challenge is to keep everyone alive. The next is to try and solve the mystery of their situation, by figuring out what happened to the original crew and other colonists.
But Jaigar will find survival more difficult than he expects, especially when each of the other survivors has a secret that could help him – or kill him.
Initial Thoughts
Based on the cover and name I was definitely thinking military sci-fi here and was thrilled, because so far we haven’t seen much in the way of space shooting happening. The blurb definitely suggests the “destroyer” might not be the ship but rather whatever happened on the ship. I’m curious, and hoping we get some more military sci-fi out here!
From the moment you are born, you are conditioned to know this truth: Unorthodoxy is wrong action, Heterodoxy is wrong thought. The first will lead to your Detention. The second to your Execution.
A century from now, the walled city-state of a future Paris is enjoying its Golden Age. The horrors of the Singularity forgotten, citizens revel in an intoxicating mix of abandon and apathy made possible by the Orthodoxy—a new world order where everything is engineered for maximum efficiency, including identities. Dividing the population into four neuro-social classes has allowed the government to maintain control and ensure its citizens exist in complete equality, fraternity, and liberty. But, not everyone is satisfied with the status quo.
Initial Thoughts
You had me at that cover, but with the focus on a totally dominant dystopia, I am all in on this one. Excited to read it!
The Caldwells have one goal in life: to be left alone. They’ve been living on the backwater planet of C’dar for years, smuggling and scavenging their way to a comfortable life on their Homestead. But you know the saying about all good things – they come to an end. The Civilization wasn’t content with falling apart the first time and has finally caught wind of the ol’ boys and girls on their little rock in the middle of nowhere. Ain’t nothing much they can do about that, though…except fight ’em.
Initial Thoughts
I get distinct vibes of a kind of Firfely-esque setting alongside some character pieces from this blurb. I am looking forward to reading this one.
When miners on a remote colony dig too deep, the golden age of space exploration comes to a bloody end. A corruption springs from Xanthe’s alien soil, possessing every mind it touches.
Embroiled in civil war, the galactic community spirals into panic, and the Primaterre Protectorate seizes control. In order to preserve Earth, its surface is quarantined, and all further deep space colonisation is outlawed.
Initial Thoughts
There’s more to this blurb, basically describing as cosmic horror, space opera, and more. I am sold. Super excited to dive in to this one. I love a sense of mystery going in.
After centuries of being the most dangerous predators on the planet, dragons were hunted to extinction. That is, until Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali cracked the code to bring them back. Through their research at MIT, they resurrected the first dragon anyone has seen alive since the 15th century.
There’s just one problem.
Someone stole it.
Initial Thoughts
This was from my group and so I’ve read it all the way through. It’s an absolutely delightful mix of Jurassic Park with wonderful characters and Yakuza street action. It’s a riveting read and I recommend it highly. My full review is here.
Opal is on a mission. She’s been seeking something her whole life. Something she is willing to die for. And she thinks it might be on a Lost Ship. Opal has stolen Clarissa, an experimental AI-controlled spaceship, from the military. Together they have tracked down a Lost Ship, in a lonely nebula far from colonised space. The Lost Ship is falling into the gravity well of a neutron star, and will soon be truly lost … forever. Legends say the ships harbour death, but there’s no time for indecision. Opal gears up to board it. She’s just one woman, entering an alien and lethal environment. But perhaps with the aid of Clarissa’s intelligence – and an armoured spacesuit – Opal may stand a chance.
Initial Thoughts
A kind of risky salvage operation? Possible space hijinks with near death? Sounds thrilling.
Introvert Reed Rothwell is part of a subculture of art deco era enthusiasts, pushing back against bland mainstream society and its mandated technology. Stuck with an AI assistant in his head is bad enough, but when he’s inflicted with a forced upgrade to a new beta version, named Mazarin, the navigator starts to take on feelings and opinions of his own. When rumors spread of beta navs turning on their pilots, Reed is determined not to become a victim. Mazarin hasn’t become violent yet—the AI is sympathetic and understanding—but with beta participants coerced into slitting their own throats, it’s only a matter of time before Reed is next.
Initial Thoughts
I think this cover is absolutely stunning. I love the style, and combining an art deco theme with a fairly serious threat sounds awesome. Can’t wait to dive in!
A crowdfunded civil war is Azerbaijan’s only hope against its murderous dictatorship. The war is Edane Estian’s only chance to find out if he’s more than what he was designed to be.
He’s a clone soldier, gengineered from a dog’s DNA and hardened by a brutal training regime. He’d be perfect for the job if an outraged society hadn’t intervened, freed him at age seven, and placed him in an adopted family.
Is he Edane? Cathy and Beth’s son, Janine’s boyfriend, valued member of his MilSim sports team? Or is he still White-Six, serial number CNR5-4853-W6, the untroubled killing machine?
Initial Thoughts
My group’s final choice for semifinalists, Dog Country is an absolutely stunning piece of science fiction. Not only is its cover among the best in the contest (just look at it!), but the plot is incredibly thoughtful on every level. I love it.
None of the other children seemed able to read minds. None of the other children were able to manipulate their toys without touching them. On the morning of her sixth birthday, three men dressed in black arrive to remove her from the loving care of her parents.
She is taken to an underground facility meant for others like her, for Clairvoyants. Stripped of her name and identity, over the years she is fashioned into something scary—something lethal. Each day is an endless struggle and every night is plagued by nightmares. Yet Carmen’s ultimate battle won’t be to save her life but to keep her soul.
Initial Thoughts
Latent mental powers with lurking nightmares and hints at a bigger plot? Sign me up.
Banking is wiped out overnight. No internet, phones, or electricity. Anything “smart” or “connected” turns against humans. The military’s SoldierBots have one function–seek and destroy.
Block is a simple CleanerBot programmed to clean and serve hotel guests. Forced to leave his city, he must avoid dangerous SoldierBots and find a new hotel he can call home.
But when Block discovers a human infant, his surprise attachment to the girl compels him to protect her while traveling across the metal infested wastelands of America to a safe haven. Without his help, the abandoned baby could die before they reach safety. When he encounters Nova – a surly soldier who becomes an unlikely ally – they must tackle the biggest challenge of their lives.
Initial Thoughts
It sounds like “The Mandalorian,” except instead of Baby Yoda, it’s a human and IG-88 is the Mandalorian. Cool.
The Hammond Conjecture is an alternative history novel which explores themes of memory, identity and historical narrative. It is also a lot of fun.
Are you sure you know who you are? If your memories disappeared and were replaced with someone else’s, would you still be you? And what if those memories were not just from another person – but of a different world? London 1982. Regaining consciousness in an isolation ward of catatonic patients, glimpsing the outside world only through a television news bulletin, that is the dilemma facing Hugh Hammond.
Initial Thoughts
Alternate history can be super fun, so I’m interested to see where this novel takes it. I tend to enjoy alternate histories, so I’m excited to read it, especially with the twist of alternate history and being thrust into it.
When New Seattle’s most popular resident—charismatic Delilah—takes a tumble off her balcony, the blame for the seeming accident lands on nineteen-year-old Scottie. More interested in finding out who her parents were than in searching for a personal brand, Scottie’s already scraping the bottom of the popularity list. This will send her down to last place—and that means a short ride out into the frozen wasteland outside New Seattle’s gates.
Initial Thoughts
I enjoy mysteries with sci-fi twists, and this seems like another one. The semifinalists have many books in this vein, but I love the creative title and the notion that everyone focuses on “brand.”
Jonah Everitt is a killer, an addict, and a memory thief.
After being hired to kill a ranking officer of the Pacific Rim Coalition and download his memories, Everitt finds himself caught in the crosshairs of a terror cell, a rogue military squadron, and a Chinese gangster named Alice Xie. Xie is a profiteer of street drugs, primarily DRMR, a powerful narcotic made from the memories of the dead. With his daughter, Mesa, missing in post-war Los Angeles, Everitt is forced into an uneasy alliance with Alice to find her.
Mesa’s abduction is wrapped up in the secrets of a brutal murder during the war’s early days, a murder that Alice Xie wants revenged. In order to find her, Jonah will have to sift through the memories of dead men that could destroy what little he has left.
Initial Thoughts
I love sci-fi thrillers, so I am thinking this one will be right up my alley. I wonder how much character building we’ll see here, because it certainly reads like there’s potential for quite a bit.
The war is over, and there are no winners. Just a broken galaxy.
Now humans and aliens must share this war-torn galaxy. None of this matters to Drake, though, he’s just an artist. He’s tagging along on the busted up ship Trystero, along with its ragtag crew. Together, they traverse the Demilitarized Zone between Terran and Gra’al borders, taking on any job they can find. Big or small. Human or alien.
The galaxy changes when the crew encounters a derelict alien ship, its crew slaughtered. With his dying breath, a crewman points them to a box. In it? An abandoned alien baby. When their government refuses to get involved, Drake and the crew need to return the baby they’ve been calling Bruce home, a bloodthirsty warlord on their tail.
His quest? Find Bruce and claim the Gra’al throne, declaring a new war on humanity.
Initial Thoughts
I’m here for this. There are very few spaceships blowing each other up on this list, and I think this has the potential to be one such book. I’m hoping it is!
The 30th Century is a technological paradise. Androids have built a utopian future of advanced robotics, augmented reality, and simulated worlds. Humanity thrives across the Thirteen Suns.
Why not spread some chaos, shake things up a bit?
Aster Vale leads a secret life as the Wildflower, a competitive street artist with dreams of infamy. When her father joins a mysterious research project in the Vega System, Aster sees their luxury starcruiser as just another canvas to explore. How else is she supposed to channel all this teenage rebellion?
Initial Thoughts
I think the premise for this one feels like so much fun. Sometimes a breath of fresh air is needed, and the style of this feels so different from the other books. I am excited to check it out.
Michael Duckett is fed up with his life. His job is a drag, and his roommate and best friend of fifteen years, Stephanie Dyer, is only making him more anxious with her lazy irresponsibility. Things continue to escalate when they face the threat of imminent eviction from their palatial 5th floor walk-up and find that someone has been plastering ads all over the city for their Detective Agency.
The only problem is: Michael and Stephanie don’t have one of those.
Despite their baffling levels of incompetence, Stephanie eagerly pursues this crazy scheme and drags Michael, kicking and screaming, into the fray. Stumbling upon a web of missing people curiously linked by a sexually audacious theoretical physicist and his experiments with the fabric of space-time, the two of them find that they are way out of their depth. But unless Michael and Stephanie can put their personal issues aside and patch up the hole they tore in the multi-verse, the concept of existence itself may, ironically, cease to exist.
Initial Thoughts
A zany space detective story? Sounds like a blast. The author of this one clearly had fun with the name and premise, and sometimes that makes all the difference. I also love the cover!
Nearly 700 years ago, the Terminal Plague turned Earth into a desolate wasteland—a world now riddled with the devolved progeny of Homo sapiens.
The descendants of the only survivors live out a bleak existence in a lunar city called Omega, where the privileged live deep underground while the poor suffer radiation poisoning on the surface.
Headstrong seventeen-year-old Liam Stone hates it there. When he’s not scrubbing shrimp and algae vats, he spends his limited free time in the Earth Simulator, training to leave the cramped halls and rigid schedules of Omega behind. Boasting higher scores and better biometrics than any other candidate, Liam is confident he will earn a spot on the return mission to Earth…
Until the moment his sister is chosen instead.
Initial Thoughts
Plagues turning evolution on its head sounds like a cool premise for some world building. I think this one has some potential to be something different. Looking forward to reviewing it!
Ten strangers trapped in time…A ticking sound fills the air as Tim MacGregor enters The Daily Edition Café to meet his new girlfriend for coffee. Moments later, the café is transported 67 million years back in time, along with everyone inside.Time is running out as ten unlikely companions search for a way home, while one member of the group plots to keep them all in the past.Who will survive?
Initial Thoughts
A time travel story with a kind of social “Among Us” playing out as well? Time travel is a premise I love, but I rarely see it done well. I think the twists this one throws out in the premise have quite a bit of potential. And, come on, dinosaurs are awesome.
When starship mechanic, Denton Castus, is caught in the destructive path of a devastating war, he abandons his home and seeks refuge on a distant planet. However, this new safe haven has undiscovered threats of its own. Eliana Veston, a scout preparing the planet for the refugees, struggles with a deadly pandemic that is killing off colonists. The hunt for a cure unleashes a new threat to humanity—the Sirens—mysterious beings with incredible powers and a deep hatred for invaders.
Initial Thoughts
Sounds like space opera with a latent mysterious aliens twist. I’m here for it! Also, I love the cover. It evokes shades of Arthur C. Clarke.
The galaxy is in flames under the harsh theocratic rule of Concordance, the culture that once thrived among the stars reduced to scattered fragments. Selene Ada, last survivor of an obliterated planet, joins forces with the mysterious renegade, Ondo Lagan.
Together they attempt to unravel the mystery of Concordance’s rapid rise to galactic domination. They follow a trail of shattered starship hulks and ancient alien ruins, with the ships of the enemy always one step behind.
But it’s only when they find the mythical planet of Coronade that they uncover the true scale of the destruction Concordance is capable of unleashing…
Initial Thoughts
I’m a sucker for space opera, and this sounds like an epic take on galaxy-spanning destruction. I love that we’re seeing some spaceships mixed in, here, too.
Jez is a damn good pilot, and she’s always worked alone. Until she got picked up for smuggling, that is. Now she’s an ex-con and ex-employed, and there are plenty of people with old scores to settle. So when a mysterious stranger in a battered pilot’s coat comes to her with an offer that sounds too good to be true, she reluctantly agrees to listen.
All she has to do is fly one little job.
Initial Thoughts
It says it’s a cross of Ocean’s Eleven and Firefly, so I’m already on board with this space adventure!
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Vintage Sci-Fi Month has come and gone, but the fun continues! As I recall, the rule for calling something “Vintage” is that it was written before you were born, but feel free to adjust that as you like. Follow 
Eclectic Theist 