Science Fiction

An appropriate title for a unique and colorful twist on the familiar Ocean’s Eleven formula, Makana Yamamoto’s Hammajang Luck is a futuristic, high-tech, Hawaii-inspired queer romp that I never thought to want yet quite enjoyed. A scrappy breaking-and-entering story at its core featuring an entirely queer roster, Yamamoto’s debut is full of social and cultural representation. Incorporating very strong community and family values, local Pidgin English, and a familiar blend of cultures that can only be found in Hawaii, this unorthodox pairing with a cyberpunk space station aesthetic is unlike anything I’ve read before. Growing up and living most of my life in the islands, Hammajang Luck has that hidden element that only long-time locals can tap into and has my full Hawaii-resident stamp of approval. Yet underneath all the science fiction elements, queer reworking, and Hawaii cultural flavor, Hammajang Luck’s story is surprisingly simple, predictable, yet comforting. However, from a narrative perspective I often found myself wishing Hammajang’s story and cool concepts went further or more time was spent exploring the Kepler station’s intriguing world. That said, the flavors and decorative details around the story are so fun, they can almost sell the premise on their own. When I…

What if you stumble across odd coincidences between seemingly unrelated incidents and your brain starts working overtime in the background to try to make sense of these odd occurrences? Random connections abound, that is the concept and world of Terry Miles’s novel Rabbits. Taking place in a realistically and authentically portrayed version of Seattle, Rabbits explores a mysterious hush hush game played in real-time that involves players following strange connections and coincidences that shape and alter the world and reality around them. A self-contained story taking place within the world of a 2017 pseudo-documentary podcast of the same name, no knowledge of the podcast is required to read and understand the novel, though it certainly enhances the read. Conceptually great and full of details and references that will make any internet junkie or video-game geek jump with glee (sorry the pun was too tempting), its actual execution is a bit of a mixed bag and one that many readers may find frustrating or disappointing to read. This is one of those novels that I appreciated the ambition and ideas while finding the actual reading experience less enjoyable. Easily the biggest highlight and strongest element of Rabbits is Terry Miles’s attention…

The following review is based on a complimentary copy for review purposes provided by Melville House Publishing via Netgalley, thanks for the reviewing opportunity. Part speculative fiction, part Asian American character drama, Jinwoo Chong’s debut novel Flux is an incredibly complex story filled to the brim with incredible character work details. Despite being billed as a science fiction/time-travel associated story, the sci-fi elements largely take a back seat to Chong’s frank and startlingly good exploration of topics including biracial cultural identity, queer labels, the power of image, Asian portrayals in media, and the ever present theme of guilt. A unique blend of genres, this is easily one of the most ambitiously written novels I’ve read this year while simultaneously being one of the most difficult novels to recommend to others due to how tricky and alienating its presentation can be. While I found it to be an amazing and fascinating read, I acknowledge I’m also the exact match for the type of reader this book is clearly suited for; one that is a critical reader fully immersed in the story, reading between lines. One of the primary reasons why I believe Flux has such polarizing reviews is due to the…

Entry #3 in Martha Wells’ Murderbot series, Rogue Protocol continues the series’ perfect formula of a great action adventure with snappy and sarcastic humor. While I found the previous entry Artificial Condition to be a bit slow and a tad heavy with its setup, Rogue Protocol felt like a welcome return to All Systems Red’s more ideal balance with a more extensively developed plot that connected back to the series’ loose overall narrative. At this point it goes without saying that the tone and humor of the series is pitched perfect for me and something I don’t really need to spend much time on (I would assume if you’re reading this review you must be familiar with the series or my past reviews unless you’re one of those chaotic and unhinged mid-series readers). Murderbot’s character voice and narration is always a joy, yet somehow Wells manages to one-up herself yet again: There needs to be an error code that means “I received your request but decided to ignore you.” Then there was Asshole Research Transport. ART’s official designation was deep space research vessel. At various points in our relationship, ART had threatened to kill me, watched my favorite shows with…

After the largely self-contained All Systems Red, the second novella in Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries series Artificial Condition had a lot to cover within <160 pages. As the sequel in a now extended series, this novella needed to function both as a standalone story as well as a transitional piece for the rest of the series. While it ultimately accomplished both tasks, I personally found Artificial Condition to be slower and less exciting to read compared to All Systems Red (still a great overall read however). While All Systems Red featured functional, albeit limited world-building that was just enough to be functional for its story, Artificial Condition greatly expands on the Murderbot universe and spends most of its first half setting the scene for what’s to come later in the series. This story introduces several new types of bots, expands the scope of the series to other stations and moons, and introduces new characters for the hilariously dry and sarcastic Murderbot to interact with. One of my favorite elements of All Systems Red was Martha Well’s great sense of humor and witty dialogue. Artificial Condition continues the humor and cranks it up a notch with the introduction of ART. Murderbot…