Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

I’ve been following Laffery’s works ever since I found the Heaven series  (starting with Heaven: Season One) on podiobooks. I knew I’d eventually read this one as soon as I heard Lafferty was writing it. I was in the mood for some science fiction so it seemed like the time to read the book.

Published: 2017

Genre: science fiction murder mystery

Length: 364 pages

Setting: 2200s-2493 Earth and the spaceship Dormire

Summary: Short version: Closed room murder mystery involving clones

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A Human’s Life by George Nikolopoulos

This week promised to be the regular kind of busy instead of the crazy kind of busy, so I’m back to my usual blog posting schedule. As such, today’s post is the next short story in the Event Horizon 2017 collection of short stories highlighting authors who are eligible for the 2017 Campbell award for best new writer.

Published: September, 2016 in Galaxy’s Edge: Issue 22. It’s was also featured on an episode of StarShipSofa, if you prefer to listen to your short fiction as I do.

Genre: science fiction

Setting: the planet Pandaesia, far future

Summary: Short version: An alien’s guide to owning a human

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I know Monday is usually a review of short fiction, but I’m in the middle of five different books right now (a read aloud with the kids, the audiobook we started and didn’t finish on our trip to the outskirts of Philly this weekend for a gymnastics meet, a book Mr. Curiosity and I are reading together for school, and two books for my pleasure because I couldn’t help starting the second one) and I just can’t manage to add another to the mix without my brain exploding. So, another book review it is.

For our last read aloud, Mr. Curiosity requested a science fiction book. I actually had a hard time coming up with something that was the right length (I like novella length so the book doesn’t take forever to finish) and something I wanted to read to the kids. After looking through a bunch of recommendations, I settled on this classic. It’s something I read in high school, but remember very little of (beyond things like “Ending is better than Mending”).

Published: 1932

Genre: science fiction

Length: 152 pages

Setting: near future London

Summary: Short version: In the future, we consume, not think.

What I Will Be Reading #36: It’s Been a While

It’s been a while since I’ve had a What I Will Be Reading post. Trying to homeschool on top of teaching a 70+ person class AND a lab (even if it only has 11 students in it) has been a bit too much for my brain. But, I don’t have much grading to do today so I thought I’d add some books to my reading list.

Let’s start with a couple of suggestions from The Modern Mrs. Darcy. Let’s face it, I could basically populate my reading list with books she writes about, but I’m going to try to branch out a bit.

Miss Adventure is nearly a teenager, which makes Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood by Lisa Damour highly appropriate. This book came from a post about books to help you navigate the tween and teen years. As an extra added bonus, it provides that elusive “U” for my Title Alphabet Challenge.

My second book from The Modern Mrs. Darcy is another nonfiction book. This time, though, it’s a book about books – my favorite. The book is called Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence.

My next book is a suggestion from my mother-in-law. She reads quite a bit and besides having a stronger taste for mysteries than I do, has a similar taste in books. If she suggests a book, I’m likely to enjoy it. She’s suggested I read The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See. A major thread of the story is about growing and picking tea. I’m a tea drinker, not a coffee drinker, so I think this will be interesting to read.

Finally, a science fiction book to round out my books for the day: Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. I’m a long time fan of Mur, ever since she started her Heaven series (which is still available to listen to on Scribl for free). Six Wakes is her new novel and it is nominated for a Hugo Award this year. It’s a murder mystery in space. Who has killed the entire crew? The clones don’t know, since they’ve just been woken and everyone is dead.

So, any books look good to you? What else should I add to my book list?

If you’re interested in purchasing the book, you can click on the cover image or title to follow an Amazon affiliate link to the book and thanks for supporting my blog!

Gone Rogue by Marissa Meyer

This is the Volume 2 of the Wires and Nerves graphic novels, part of the Lunar Chronicles series

Artist: Stephen Gilpin

Published: 2018

Genre: science fiction YA graphic novel

Length: 324 pages

Setting: Earth, soon after the events of Wires and Nerve (which I apparently never reviewed last year)

Summary: Short version: Alpha Steele gets his just desserts, eventually

Solar Crossroads by Claire Davon

This is the next short story in the Event Horizon 2017 collection of short stories highlighting authors who are eligible for the 2017 Campbell award for best new writer.

Published: October 2016 in Chronicle Worlds: Paradisi

Genre: science fiction short story

Setting: near Earth, near future

Summary: In eight words: Pregnant wife leaves sick husband for new world

Johnny Rangers: Space Detective by Artie Cabrera

This is the next short story in the Event Horizon 2017 collection of short stories highlighting authors who are eligible for the 2017 Campbell award for best new writer.

Published: 2016 in The Cyborg Chronicles, although I can no longer find a link to it online

Genre: science fiction noir detective

Length: 31 pages

Setting: Gravity City, far future

Summary: Johnny Rangers is a vigilante, trying to keep the riffraff from taking over Gravity City. A hot dame comes to see him in a dive bar, with a story about being followed by some goons. He takes out the goons, but she still ends up dead. He suspects foul play and ends up taking out the bad guy who whacked her.

Final thoughts: Not my style of story. It definitely is a noir detective story. You’ve got the lonely detective, trying to push back the tide of organized crime, a beautiful woman who needs his help, a variety of goons with amusing names like Dickey Jets or Sinister Squid, and even a kid sidekick. The story felt like it was a piece of a larger work. The ending hinted of much larger machinations that weren’t resolved and I was just left confused.

Title comes from: It’s the name of the main character, written so you realize you’re getting a noir story