Books shelved under “Science Fiction”

Here we are with the last Machineries of Empire book and possibly my favourite, even though I’m giving it a lower rating than Ninefox Gambit (go figure). I think I’m so well-disposed towards Revenant Gun because of Yoon Ha Lee’s dedication to wrapping up the story. Finishing a trilogy satisfactorily is no mean feat, especially when you’ve created a universe as intricate and far-flung as Lee’s.

We pick up nine years after Raven Stratagem,…

Something about the description of this book made me give it a chance even though I’ve been turned off generation ship stories lately. Perhaps it was the fact that the story is confined to a single generation, rather than attempting to span the multiple generations of the ship’s journey. Adam Oyebanji uses the setting to tell an interesting story of political intrigue and cover-ups, mystery, and some intense action. While there are parts that don’t…

As I reflected in my recent review of Children of Time, I’m not really in the mood for grimdark science fiction these days. I get that humanity is facing yet another existential crisis, this time thanks to climate change, and that this makes authors eager to write about us evacuating the planet and whatnot. But I just find it so bleak, and I yearn for hope. So when I first heard about Arkhangelsk…

My best friend Rebecca gave this to me thinking it would be right up my alley—and she was correct. I read it while on a plane to visit her in Montréal, and we had some great conversations about Oona Out of Order. There are some obvious comparisons here, particularly to Slaughterhouse-Five. It also reminded me quite a bit of one of the most affecting novels I have ever read, My Real Children.…

Much thanks to NetGalley and Angry Robot for the eARC.

Rig is a Nightbird, a rebel who does odd jobs—like rescuing refugees—to eke out a living beyond the control of the three factions fighting over the control of the galaxy. She is also Kashrini, a species whose homeworld and culture have been nearly annihilated by her former faction—Pyrite—and now Rig does all she can to preserve any Kashrini artifacts she can get her hands on.…

The multiverse is a weird and wonderful concept. It’s actually several concepts stacked on top of one another wearing a trenchcoat. In One Verse Multi, Sander Santiago plays with some of those concepts to create a universe-hopping mystery involving polyamorous love interests, evil corporate aspirations, and dramatic confrontations. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book, and I don’t think I could have predicted what I got. I wish I had…

What would you do if you could edit your memories—or more precisely, if others could edit your memories? This is one of the fundamental questions of Glasshouse, one of the earlier novels by Charles Stross. Still firmly within the posthuman stage of his oeuvre, this book is less about the implications of the existence of strong AI and more about the implications of mind uploading and an ability to alter physiology and neurology at…

As usual, I read the first in a series and then promptly don’t get around to the sequels. Fortunately, A Closed and Common Orbit is advertised as a “standalone sequel” and definitely fits that bill. You can read this without having read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (though why would you want to skip that?). Indeed, I had largely forgotten the events in that book that resulted in Lovelace’s embodiment and departure…

Sometimes a book sneaks up on you, so viciously quiet you don’t realize how much it has affected you until you reach the final pages. Light from Uncommon Stars starts strange before turning decidedly peculiar, yet somewhere along the way, it transubstantiates into something … pure. I don’t know how Ryka Aoki does it, but somehow, this book satisfied me more than any book in recent memory.

Shizuka Satomi is a renowned violin teacher, though…

Ever read a book where the middle is the best part? Weird, I know. Usually we criticize a book for having a middle third that drags before the action picks up towards the end. But in the case of Constance, this was my experience: the first and final thirds of this book were fine but somewhat unremarkable; the middle third, on the other hand, was a fascinating exploration of the human condition. Overall these…

Perhaps not the most uplifting book to start my new year with, but you cannot beat Octavia E. Butler’s skills. Seriously, she can write. Moreover, this might be my favourite novel of hers so far. It combines some of the insistence on change that marks Lilith’s Brood with the discomfort and hardship of Kindred, yet it does so in a way that hits much closer to home in both respects. I also enjoyed…

This is the year I finish the Murderbot Diaries! Well, sort of. This is the year I finish the original novellas, but I know I have a whole novel to dive into at some point in the future. Exit Strategy has left me more excited for that prospect than I might have been previously—with each new novella, Martha Wells has improved my opinion of this series.

Shortly after the events of Rogue Protocol,…

Oops, I am only now realizing as I sit down to write this review that I read Empire Games, the first book in this trilogy, but not Dark State, the second. When Invisible Sun came out earlier this year, I was just so excited to get back to this story that I forgot to check if I was caught up! Turns out I was not. So, if you are wondering if you can…

Although I dearly love science fiction, I haven’t been as enthusiastic to pick it up lately. I’ve been craving happier books as this pandemic stretches on, and most of the science fiction on my to-read list tends to be of the more depressing kind. Children of Time is no exception, although at the risk of a minor spoiler let me say it does have an uplifting ending, so that’s something. This is my first real…

My review of Ninefox Gambit was, in many respects, a response to critiques I had read about it in addition to a review of the book itself. I promise this look at Raven Stratagem will be more focused—having dispensed with defending Yoon Ha Lee’s calendrical worldbuilding, I can dive right into this actual book and its characters.

I’m going to discuss spoilers for this book (and the last one)!

At the end of Ninefox Gambit…

Kazuo Ishiguro and I go way back to 2009, a year after I started writing these reviews, when I read Never Let Me Go. While I adored that book and his best known The Remains of the Day, each of his subsequent works didn’t do much for me. So when Klara and the Sun kept shining down upon me from various bookshelves and corners of the internet, I was hesitant. Why keep reading…

As with many books, if you have good copy you can often hook me early. Far from the Light of Heaven promises a kind of locked room murder mystery aboard a sleeper ship far from Earth. Tade Thompson delivers on this premise in most senses of the word, and overall I enjoyed the book. Yet there are enough rough parts to the novel to make me hesitate to shout its praises or pick up a…

Every so often I run into an author who is good but who doesn’t click for me personally. Sometimes I enjoy specific works of theirs but don’t enjoy others. Sometimes I like their style in general, but their books start feeling very similar and less exciting. In the case of Ann Leckie, it seems like I’m just not all that interested in the stories she has to tell. I appreciated the skill evident in Ancillary…

Paradise lost and paradise reclaimed can be powerful tropes in science fiction. In Stolen Earth, J.T. Nicholas attempts to harness these ideas. Wish that I could say he succeeds admirably. For the most part, all I can do is acknowledge the attempt.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the free eARC in exchange for a review.

Grayson Lynch, previously of the Sol Commonwealth Navy, now captains the Arcus out in the Fringe. Lynch, like…

Did Kara read this book totally unaware that it’s the middle of a trilogy? Absolutely I did that. I picked this up for $5 from a used bookstore because it’s a Jo Walton novel I haven’t read, and I really like Jo Walton’s books. Even when I don’t love them, I like them, which is the case here. Honestly, you couldn’t tell from this book that there was one previous—obviously the first book would have…