Just giving this thread a bump, since I like to get ideas from it of novels to try. Has nobody been reading any sff since the last post here? (Admittedly, I haven't, except for some light bedtime rereading of AC Crispin's Star Trek duology, Yesterday's Son and Time for Yesterday.)
Anyway, I didn't want this thread to die. So what sff things have y'all been reading?
I've been reading, just lost track of this thread for a while...
Recently Read SF/F:
Killing Gravity (Book 1 of the Voidwitch Saga, Corey J. White, SF, on Kindle): The secret agency MEPHISTO, under command of the evil man Briggs, turned Marian into a weapon capable of destroying starships with a flick of the wrist... but, before they could deploy her and the other girls like her, Marian escaped their clutches, taking with her an experimental catlike animal Seven. She's been on the run across the galaxy for years when she gets a lead on the older girl who helped her escape, a girl she thought had died. If Marian beats the bounty hunters and MEPHISTO's agents, she might be destroyed by what she learns...
I got this as part of a free offer from Tor.com. Composed of the usual space opera parts (rampant cybernetics and genetic tweaking, casual system-hopping, gritty characters and dark space station underbellies, etc.) and usual sorts of characters, it nevertheless entertains, plus it reads fast. Marian's a gutsy girl, internally torn over using the powers MEPHISTO gave her, even to defend herself and innocent bystanders. The critter Seven's a decent sidekick, and she picks up a ship and crew along the way. I might read on, especially if I find the next book cheap (or free.)
The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Kelly Barnhill, MG fantasy, hardcover): For generations, the town of the Protectorate has been smothered by a fog of sorrow, trapped between a cursed wood and an endless bog and at the mercy of an evil Witch, to whom they must sacrifice a child every year... or so they've been told. Meanwhile, the aging Xan, last Witch after a catastrophe destroyed the wizards' enclave (while bottling up a restive volcano, true source of the "curse" that makes the woods so dangerous) does her best to rescue the babies inexplicably left in the forest every year, feeding them starlight to make them strong as she finds them new homes in the Free Cities beyond. But a moment of carelessness leads to disaster when she accidentally feeds one small girl moonlight instead of starlight - permanently enmagicking her, making her too potentially dangerous for anyone but a Witch to raise. Thus begins a story full of good intentions and unintended consequences, of questioned traditions and half-forgotten secrets.
This award-winning book is part fairy tale, part fantasy, and part cautionary tale about unanticipated consequences of meddling with or attempting to hold back nature, be it a volcano or a girl's natural abilities, especially when one's vision is clouded by love or sorrow. Some great characters (such as Fyrian, the pocket-sized dragon convinced he's Simply Enormous) and a nasty villain, too. Parts of the end felt a bit scattered, but overall it's an enjoyable tale.
Descender, Deluxe Edition Volume 1 (issues 1 - 16, Jeff Lemire, graphic novel/SF, Nook via Hoopla): The United Galactic Council once provided peace and stability across the inhabited worlds of the Megacosm... until the day the Harvesters arrived, giant robots that appeared mysteriously and devastated the nine core planets. In their wake, sentients turned against the robots in their midsts, with anti-machine cults and bounty-hunting scrappers hunting down even the most benign artificial beings, even as the UGC continues to crumble and reel from the unexpected attack. Ten years later, on a remote mining planet, the childlike companion robot Tim-21 "wakes" to find himself alone on a world of corpses, with only the robotic "dog" Bandit and the surly mining machine Driller for company - inadvertently alerting the Megacosm to his presence as he searches for what happened to his former friend, human boy Andy. The UGC is especially eager to get their hands on him, as his mechanical fingerprint has been matched to the Harvesters, but the scrappers are already on the trail, not to mention the increasingly-bold luddites of the Gnishian Empire and the underground robot terrorist organization Hardwire.
If AI had been done right and not schmaltzy, and crossed with a touch of Blade Runner (and the obscure robot movie Android), it might've looked something like this. Tim-21 and the other bots don't aspire to be human, yet they know themselves to be something more than mere piles of metal. They've reacted to becoming hunted beings in different ways, and argue among themselves about what to do. On the human/sapient side, things aren't black and white, either, making what could've been a fairly flat space opera into something more interesting and nuanced. Very enjoyable. I'm looking forward to seeing where this one goes.
The Shadow of What Was Lost (Book 1 of the Licanius trilogy, James Islington, fantasy, paperback): Twenty years ago, the Augurs were toppled from power by angry Loyalists and executed when their foresight failed them. As for the Augurs' servants, the Gifted men and women, they were shackled by the Four Tenets of a new Treaty, forced into subservience. Those who resist, or who fail their trials, become Shadows, stripped of power and forever disfigured, the only class held in even lower contempt than the Gifted under the new king's regime. But there were threats the Augurs were meant to protect the people from, borders they were meant to reinforce... and enemies ready to strike at the heart of an undefended land. Into this mix are thrust the three friends Davian, Wirr, and Asha, each set on paths to destinies they never dreamed, against forces darker than they'd ever imagined.
I had an epic fantasy itch. The reviews looked good. Unfortunately, it turned into a name stew too thick for me to parse (and I'm familiar with the usual slow-burn epic worldbuilding pace), not to mention overuse of Capitalizations for Almost Everything and the dreaded "aesthetic apostrophe" to make otherwise-ordinary strings of letters into Exotic Names. When it's over halfway through the book and I still can't keep most of the terms, names, people, places, histories, races, and more straight in my head... something ain't right. Add to that an overall dated feel to the writing and story, with lackluster characterization, a very male-heavy cast (women landing predictable roles, such as the Princess or the Green-Eyed Betrayer or the Obligatory Archer), and a strong sense that much of it had been lifted from other fantasies with only a light sanding to obscure the serial runes, and I was rather disappointed. A few nice ideas, and it had potential, but it just never clicked for me.
Currently I'm between SF/F reads.
