Genre: Science Fiction

Flux by Jinwoo Chong Genres: Adult, Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQ+, Science Fiction, Time Travel Published by Melville House on March 21, 2023 Format: ARC, eBook Pages: 352 Source: Netgalley A blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his mysterious employers have inadvertently discovered time travel—and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes . . .   Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family.   So begins Jinwoo Chong’s dazzling, time-bending debut that blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue begin to intersect, uncovering a vast network of secrets and an experimental technology that threatens to upend life itself. Intertwined with them is the saga of an iconic ’80s detective show, Raider, whose star actor has imploded spectacularly after revelations of long-term, concealed abuse.   Flux is a haunting and sometimes shocking exploration of the cyclical nature of grief, of moving past trauma, and of …

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells Series: The Murderbot Diaries #3 Genres: Adult, Fiction, Novella, Science Fiction, Thriller Published by Tor on August 7, 2018 Format: eBook Pages: 150 Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?  Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah’s SecUnit is.  And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good. 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 …

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher Series: Sworn Soldier #1 Genres: Adult, Fiction, Gothic, Horror, Psychological Horror, Retelling, Thriller, Suspense, Speculative Fiction Published by Tor Nightfire on July 12, 2022 Format: Hardcover Pages: 165 From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Fall of the House of Usher.”  When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.  What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.  Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all. Foreboding and just slightly unsettling, T. Kingfisher’s What Moves The Dead is an atmospheric modern retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s famous short story The Fall of the House of Usher. If one is familiar with the literary classic source material, you can …

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells Series: The Murderbot Diaries #2 Genres: Adult, Fiction, Novella, Science Fiction Published by Tor on May 8, 2018 Format: eBook Pages: 149 It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.  Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.  What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks… 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 …

The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard Genres: Adult, Coming of Age, Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Time Travel Published by Atria Books on February 27, 2024 Format: Hardcover Pages: 304 A literary speculative novel about an isolated town neighbored by its own past and future.  Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town–except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.  When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate, yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed …