If the world’s going to end in a big, messy apocalypse, surely we need more than one measly book to battle through the ruins of our civilization.
(All the descriptions below are for the first books in the series.)
Category Archives: Series
Review: Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Shards of Earth hits everything I love about space opera. Great characters, a grand scale, interesting technology, aliens that are actually alien, Big Mysterious Things, and general fast-paced awesomeness.
The Architects are moon-sized aliens that, inexplicably and unstoppably, tear inhabited planets apart and turn them into flower-like structures, killing everything on the planet. This has already happened to Earth. However, a ragtag group of scavengers stumbles upon a floating, wrecked spaceship that may have an answer to stopping the Architects. If they can survive long enough to attempt to stop them, that is.
Recommendation: Read it, if space opera is your thing. Author Adrian Tchaikovsky is fantastic.
Review: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake is an excellent book, interesting and strange, that grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. It manages to be more about character than plot but still moves quickly.
Review: The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
A man dies in an apparent suicide, but a police detective suspects it may be murder. However, he can’t get anyone else to care because a four-mile-wide asteroid is going to hit the Earth in six months and probably wipe out humanity.
Review: All Systems Red: Murderbot Diaries #1 by Martha Wells
The least human character in All Systems Red is also the most human. A half-robotic creature (or maybe more than half) privately calls itself Murderbot, and it’s got a good reason to. All the humans around it consider it just another security android, which is fine by Murderbot; it’d rather watch bad TV than have to interact with humans.
Best Modern Science Fiction Book Series
Discovering a new book series is a fantastic feeling. Here’s hoping you find something new below.
If none of these is enough for you, look into the Perry Rhodan series. A new novella has been published weekly since 1961, and there are currently over 2700 stories. If that’s still not enough of a challenge for you, they’re also in German.
Review: Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
My whole family had a ton of fun reading Ready Player One, and its sequel Ready Player Two gives more of the same (this is a good thing). There’s a hugely important, intricate puzzle to be solved that requires massive amounts of 80s pop culture knowledge, and our hero and his friends must crack it before the bad guys ruin everything.
Review: Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick by David Wong
I’m a big fan of author David Wong, and his latest family-friendly-read-aloud-to-the-kids book, Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick, is awesome. As usual, Wong combines outrageous humor with surprisingly deep, three-dimensional characters, and very little literal dick-punching.
Review: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds
I’m a big fan of Alastair Reynold’s earlier books like Revelation Space. I didn’t like Terminal World, his foray into steampunk, and unfortunately, I had a similar reaction to Revenger. Continue reading
Review: Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre
This YA novel is surprisingly inventive with a great, trouble-causing, mouthy protagonist, the kind you can’t wait to see what she does next.