I am trying to get to a lot more novellas this year, which means the lot of you will have to put up with some quickfire reviews about some quickfire books. Automatic Noodle, by Annalee Newitz, is a short 200-page novella about a near-future American dystopia where a collection of abandoned service robots open a…
I haven’t had the chance to check out Tender Is The Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica’s international hit, so I figured I would treat myself with her latest outing. The Unworthy is a nightmarish fever dream in which one woman chronicles her time with a cloister of women in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by climate change. The…
Continue reading ➞ The Unworthy – Bask In The Light Of The Holy
Artificial intelligence has been a mainstay within science fiction since the genre’s inception. We all know the various tales of robots, their human creators, and the inevitable rebellions that are mustered forth, just or unjust. The large language models and generative AI that are dominating the cultural discussion and banging on the doors of our…
Continue reading ➞ Mechanize My Hands To War – Forever Unto The Breach
A little while ago I read Africa Risen, a collection of short stories featuring authors from Africa focusing on the African Diaspora. It was a wonderful collection with a few authors I wanted to keep track of. One of whom was Tlotlo Tsmaase, who wrote a story called “Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition).” So when I…
I’ve been feeling alien vibes lately, thanks to some of my favorite podcasts discussing the subject. Because of this, I finally picked up The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey after it sat on my TBR for years. It’s a popular young-adult science fiction novel that came out in 2013, and you may be familiar with…
Powerless by Lauren Roberts is a fantasy romance set against a dystopian backdrop. If you’re looking for a slow burn that focuses heavily on relationship building then this is the story for you. This book will easily scratch your romantasy itch without investing in a complicated world or magic system. Citizens with Elite and Mundane…
Let's take another break from the deluge of generation ships and instead focus on another type of ship, the ark. Didn’t see that one coming did you? Or maybe you’re here to hold me to task on the books I promised to read in our Black Author Appreciation post from earlier this year. Either way,…
Continue reading ➞ Lost Ark Dreaming – An Enthralling Vision
Folks, serendipity has shined its beautiful face upon me. I rarely read several books so closely together that tackle themes that resonate strongly with me, while each successive work expands on them in different ways. If you don’t follow my work in particular, I urge you to take a look at The Dark Beyond The…
Continue reading ➞ Venomous Lumpsucker – A Sobering Draught of Dystopic Essence
A couple years ago, Cole gifted me Adam Roberts' The Thing Itself. I enjoyed the book greatly, and it lives in a special place within my heart, but I also felt inadequate to the task of reviewing it. It is a dense 350 page book that mixes philosophy with cyberpunk movie action, asking: what is…
The Free People’s Village, by Sim Kern, is fun, sad, and uncomfortable in equal measure. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and at times it comes off as preachy, but I could not pry my eyes away from it. Al Gore has won the 2000 election and declared war on Climate Change. Initiatives introduced…
Continue reading ➞ The Free People’s Village – No Place I’d Rather Be
