Genre: Science Fiction

This review is based on a complimentary Advanced Reader Copy provided by Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. An intriguing blend of fantasy and science fiction elements, Naomi Ishiguro’s The Rainshadow Orphans is a unique crossover novel full of Japanese cultural and folklore inspirations. Mixing a variety of concepts across the SFF genre umbrella, this book is an appealing and accessible read that feels like a throwback to YA fantasy novels of the mid 2000’s modernized for current tastes. The start of a planned high fantasy trilogy, though the Rainshadow Orphans is quite lengthy and occasionally drags in places, it’s an appealing start to a series full of great potential. Set in a fictional island archipelago and primarily taking place in the affluent Rainshadow City and the impoverished Keeper’s Crescent, the Rainshadow Orphans tells the story of young adult characters (plus Haru) caught amid the Royal Emperor Asayo’s revisioning of the island and the illegal gang activities of the Lucky Crows. Presented through multiple POV’s, the story is one that is part fantasy magical object and creature-based, and part futuristic technology-based with light hints of dystopian turmoil. The book covers the events of 48 hours that put the futures…

Masquerading under the guise of a cute and innocent story of sentient robots starting a take-out noodle restaurant, Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle is brilliant satirical novella that is full of creative and imaginative metaphors. Part start-up company business story and part reflection on human experiences and rights, Automatic Noodle is a smart scifi themed exploration of many prominent and hyper-relevant social, political, and cultural topics, its charming robots serving as potential proxies for a wide variety of disenfranchised groups in a post war torn San Francisco. A timely book appropriately written for the US, minus certain conservative readers who may take issue with the thematic messages, Automatic Noodle is a unique and quirky story best suited for those that like their scifi stories to have intellect and substance. Before I get into the book’s creative success, I think it’s important to address a common misconception I see with this book and quite a few past reviews of it. For those interested in reading this book, Automatic Noodle is NOT a cozy scifi story. While the story has an inherent cozy feel to it due to the lack of fast-paced action and an almost whimsical feel to it at times, there’s…

An incredibly meta and satirical novel, Lincoln Michel’s Metallic Realms is an ambitiously written story that defies conventional genre classifications. Featuring a collection of scifi-based short stories within a larger memoir-esque story, Metallic Realms recaps the highs and lows of the Orb4 writing collective group on their real and grounded struggles in creating cosmic literary art. Full of real-world metaphors, social commentary, and sharp jabs at the publishing and online communities, this book is an incredible experience written for hardcore SFF geeks and struggling millennials.   Note: For greater clarity for those who have not read this book, I will be referring to the author by his first name “Lincoln” instead of my usual review format where I would use his last name instead. When I drafted this review, I felt it might be confusing and too easy to misread the character Michael and Michel back-to-back.  Before I get into why I found this book so incredible, I feel the need to address some of the confusion about this book and offer some respectful advice for those potentially interested in it. First and foremost, Metallic Realms is a book full of satire, far-reaching scifi and fantasy references (and by that, I mean affectionately dragging fantasy), and general…

A sweeping love story across time, Alix Harrow’s the Everlasting is a wildly ambitious fantasy story about freedom of choice, the making of legends, and ever-changing nature and distortion of history by written records. Utilizing time-travel concepts applied to the high fantasy genre, the resulting book is a masterfully crafted reworking of how a knight’s origin story literally affects a nation’s future. Featuring a complex plot, nuanced themes, outstanding character work presented through an elegant prose, the Everlasting is an impressive story that is unlike any other fantasy romance book out there. While Lady knights are having a bit of a moment this year, this book is much more complex than its scholar x knight premise would suggest. Set thousands of years apart, the Everlasting tells the story of an anxious and dispirited historian Owen Mallory who is sent to chronicle the legend of the famed historical icon Sir Una Everlasting. The loyal beast of a knight to the first Queen, with her famed adventures and conquests in the name of the cross, it is her ultimate demise that cements her figure as the martyr and inspiration for all of Dominion. Or so how history has told it. Enraptured and…

This review is based on a complimentary Advanced Reader Copy provided by Atria Books via Netgalley. A romance story across time mixed with traces of speculative fiction and fantasy, Amy Tordoff’s debut novel All We Have Is Time is an accessible story filled with interesting historical fiction snapshots spread over the course of four hundred years. Time-travelers and immortal beings are two common elements separately, but this book’s unorthodox cross of the two gives it a unique spin and for its characters, different repercussions from its genre’s norm. Easy to follow and generally fast-paced in nature, All We Have Is Time is a safe pick for historical romance readers, though those looking for a strong speculative fiction storyline or deeper introspective character work may find this book underwhelming and bland. Marketed for fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, at first glance All We Have Is Time appears to fly too close to the sun with what is clearly one of its inspirations and at risk of being highly derivative. Both books feature a withdrawn female protagonist cursed by a fantasy being with immortality and walking through history a shadow of a person. Both books also feature a tragic…