Category Archives: Female Protagonist

Review: Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia by Jason Pargin

Female Protagonist, Near Future, Regular Guy Book Reviews, Series

Author Jason Pargin has made a career out of hilarious and fast-moving books with surprisingly intelligent and thoughtful things to say, despite all the jokes and blood. His latest, Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia, continues this happy trend.

This is the third book in the Zoey Ashe series. The books are near-future dystopian crime-ish romps about Zoey Ashe, a low-ambition but very clever and mouthy young woman who inherits a massive fortune from a ruthless crime lord, who was apparently her father. Despite the hopes of all around her, money does not change Zoey.

In this book, Zoey and millions of others are shocked by the live broadcast of a horrific crime. Looking closer, it appears to be a hoax, but the maybe-fake tragedy brings out a number of tricksters, power players, and high-tech liars to capitalize on the crime and, of course, blame Zoey for everything.

Recommendation: Read it, but I’d start with the first Zoey Ashe book, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits.

Review: The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis

Alien, Female Authors, Female Protagonist, First Contact, Modern, Regular Guy Book Reviews, Spunky Heroine, Stand-alone

Road to RoswelAuthor Connie Willis outdoes herself with humor and heart in The Road to Roswell, where a stealthy, desperate first contact happens right outside a particularly large and conspiracy-laden UFO festival.

I don’t want to spoil the fun by revealing any more about the plot, but this is excellent, light-hearted fare.

Recommendation: Read it!

Review: Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis

Alternate History, Female Authors, Female Protagonist, Modern, Regular Guy Book Reviews

Despite its title, Truth of the Divine is not a religious text, but a fun, fast-paced, clever science fiction adventure. It’s the second book in the Noumena (also not a great title) series. The first is Axiom’s End, and you should read it first.

In this alternate-history first-contact yarn, the government continues to be run by jerks, and the one person the aliens are talking to is a snarky, blue-haired young woman, and all the guys in charge HATE that. Of course, the aliens have their own Alien Issues to deal with, but those are now spilling over to affect the rest of humanity, and all indications are that everything is going to get worse.

Recommendation: Read it, if you’ve already read the first one. Author Lindsay Ellis rose from the ashes of being cancelled to become a bestselling writer. Kudos and a huzzah!

Review: Gravity by Tess Gerritsen

Female Authors, Female Protagonist, Near Future, Regular Guy Book Reviews, Thrillers

Gravity is mildly retro, having been written in the 1990s and features several space shuttles, but it’s one of the most fast-paced books I’ve ever read. It’s as much a medical thriller as a science fiction adventure.

Estranged from her husband, a brilliant research physician achieves her dream of running experiments on the International Space Station, but one of the experiments turns wildly lethal. Rescue missions run into their own troubles.

I don’t want to give any more away.

Recommendation: Read it! I’m looking forward to reading more of Tess Gerritsen’s books.

Review: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Female Authors, Female Protagonist, Funny, Near Future, Regular Guy Book Reviews, Spunky Heroine, Stand-alone, Time Travel

Connie Willis is one of the few authors capable of humor, humanity, and what must be an ungodly amount of research, and she brings all these skills together in the masterful Doomsday Book.

In near-future Oxford, where time travel for purposes of historical research is relatively common, an eager young historian travels to medieval times. Unfortunately, things immediately go very wrong for her. Then a devastating pandemic hits the present day, and no one is able to help her, or even know she’s in trouble.

Recommendation: Read it. The characters range from deeply human to hilariously Dickensian, and the descriptions of the horrors of daily life in medieval times are some of the best I’ve ever read. Oh, and it’s a great story that won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.

Review: Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

Alien, Female Protagonist, Mystery, Near Future, Regular Guy Book Reviews

I’m a big fan of humorous, character-driven books about alien languages (we all have our kinks) and Drunk on All Your Strange New Words checks all the boxes. It’s even an intriguing murder mystery, which gives it extra points.

A young woman is specially trained to communicate telepathically with an alien species that has been on Earth long enough to have their own embassy. The trick to this communication is that it makes the human involved essentially drunk, and after a while, they can’t focus on anything because they’re too busy singing or spinning in their chairs or something.

The protagonist is pretty good at her job, not especially concerned with the rules, and when a dead body hits the floor, is in completely over her head while being thrown into the stew of interstellar politics.

Oddly, I recently reviewed another book with a spunky female protagonist who’s in a unique situation that allows her to privately listen to aliens: Axiom’s End. That’s more of a First Contact adventure (and recommended).

Recommendation: Read it. It’s engaging and fun.

Review: Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis

Alternate History, Bestselling, Debut Author, Female Authors, Female Protagonist, First Contact, Regular Guy Book Reviews

Axiom’s End is one of those books I went back to every chance I could, and I finished it in two days, even when I had plenty of other work to do. It’s a fast-paced, multi-layered First Contact adventure that accomplishes something too rare in science fiction: not only do the aliens really feel like aliens, the humans really feel like humans.

Cora, a flawed, funny protagonist with a famous but horrible father learns that not only are aliens on Earth, they’ve been here for decades, and the government has covered it up. A new alien arrives, and communication between it and Cora is both strange and touching. The story touches on morality, the role of family, the quest for fame, and more, while still staying a great science fiction adventure.

Recommendation: Read it. I’m about to start on the sequel.

Review: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Female Protagonist, Regular Guy Book Reviews

I recently injured my right forearm (fighting robot tigers while rescuing a cute and fluffy alien civilization), which I decided was the perfect time to start reading an 800-page book that I couldn’t put down. So thanks a lot for delaying my recovery, author Chuck Wendig. I blame you and your Wanderers for everything.

A teenage girl leaves her home and starts walking. She does not sleep. She does not eat or drink. She does not communicate in any way. She also does not stop, for anything. Soon, she is joined by others equally silent and equally unstoppable. A disgraced scientist is among those who try to understand what’s going on, as well as those with much darker intentions.

Recommendation: Read it! I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Review: The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith

Alternate History, Debut Author, Dystopian, Female Authors, Female Protagonist, Literary, Near Future, Regular Guy Book Reviews, Spunky Heroine, Stand-alone

The Sky is Yours is a genre-bending book that takes place in a wild, post-apocalyptic world with both dragons and sci-fi elements. Its fun, imaginative, and completely horrifying settings seethe with colorful, well-developed, and deeply flawed characters. It’s hard to believe a tour de force like this is from a debut author.

On a dystopian island (not dissimilar to a surreal Manhattan), the lives of three very different young people (a rich, spoiled brat, star of his own reality show; his sheltered but whip-smart fiancée who hasn’t met him yet; and a feral beauty raised on an island of garbage), collide as they learn about the truths and lies of the burning world around them.

Recommendation: Read it. It’s strange, but fantastic.

Review: Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore

Female Protagonist, Funny, Postcyberpunk, Regular Guy Book Reviews, Stand-alone, Video games

This frenzied page-turner takes some delightfully unhinged ideas (invasion by alien punctuation, rave-themed VR dungeons, and a plane of existence where all ideas physically exist), creates a believable spell-casting system, and inserts a bad-ass heroine as odd as her world.

It’s a fast-paced, genre-bending, bonkers ride, and I loved every bit of it.

Recommendation: Read it. Absolutely.