science fiction

The Stardust Grail

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The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

If you enjoy the science fiction subgenre of space opera, I suggest reading Stardust Grail, the author’s second novel. A little like Becky Chambers’ work, but not as optimistic, along with some Indiana Jones; the characters are searching for a grail, after all.

Maya Hoshimoto is human, but was infected with the Frenro virus years ago. During migraines she has brief visions of the past or the future. Maya can hear Auncle’s voice in her head and respond telepathically. Auncle is very tall with tentacles. Xie is Frenro, an aquatic species. Wil, an armored human female and Medix, a robot, join them in their quest.

Maya, along with Auncle, found and returned stolen artifacts. Now she’s a grad student with writer’s block on Earth, at Princeton. Liam is a fellow graduate student. Then Auncle arrives, asking Maya to come along on one last adventure. They have the journals of Dr. Huang to guide them, one of the last to see the stardust grail, which is desired by multiple species.

The four of them, later joined by Liam, travel through many space nodes, get involved in a space battle, and visit settlements, a watery moon, and an underground museum with booby traps, with Maya wondering if anyone will survive to return home. And just where is home for her?  An entertaining and thought-provoking read.

Brenda

When the Moon Hits Your Eye

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When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

Another entertaining book in the category of highly improbable plots. If you enjoyed Scalzi’s recent Kaiju Preservation Society or Starter Villain, as did I, this near future novel may be right up your alley. I was lucky enough to hear the author read from Chapter 2 at an author event last fall, which thoroughly entertained the audience.

The premise is that the Moon has suddenly turned to cheese, but is the same mass as our familiar cratered, rocky satellite. Moon rocks in museums have also transformed. At first, it just seems like a great opportunity for silly jokes. Then it gets a little more serious. A moon landing is planned, and how will that go? The Moon is now brighter, and a few other aspects are different; and so…? How did this happen, and how will the people of Earth react? And just what kind of cheese is it??

Told from several points of view, including a museum director, an astronaut, and a government staffer, this is a fast-paced read that has some science, a little bit of philosophy, but is mostly very funny. Enjoy.

Brenda

The Orb of Cairado

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The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison

A very welcome novella for fans of Addison’s science fiction, set around the time of The Goblin Emperor, but closer in tone to The Witness for the Dead. Ulcetha Zorvena, a shopkeeper’s son, was a history scholar until five years ago. He was accused of stealing the bejeweled Orish Veltavan from Osmer Bruna Aidrina. Aidrina, a scholar from the University of Cairado, found the object in the ruins of the Summer Palace. Ulcetha is not a thief, though he has spent the last several years writing provenances for fake artifacts.

After the sudden death of a friend, Ulcetha is stunned to find himself traveling to the site of the Summer Palace on an expedition for the ultimate prize, the Orb of Cairado. Faced with difficult choices, Ulcetha keeps trying to steel himself to do the next right thing. A twisty plot, a mix of mystery, adventure and scholarship set on a steampunk world populated by elves, goblins, and half-elves make for a fast-paced read. I really enjoyed the scenes set in the university library, where Ulcetha no longer has a scholar’s access.

This memorable novella has me looking forward to Celehar’s return in The Tomb of Dragons, just published this month.  While I read an eBook, Subterranean Press also offers a gorgeous hardcover.

Brenda

The Mars House

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The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

January Stirling is a principal dancer for London’s Royal Ballet until severe flooding has him looking for refuge. When offered a chance to immigrate to the Tharsis colony on Mars, he gratefully accepts. But once on Mars, his employment options are limited to heavy labor, as he is Earthstrong, and must wear a device to keep him from injuring the tall, slender, and frail naturalized citizens, except in his small apartment or while working in a factory. Unwilling to go through a risky naturalization procedure, January is stunned when Senator Aubrey Gale offers him a very unusual job.

While January is male, citizens on Mars, incubated in a uterine replicator, don’t label themselves with a gender. Religion is also not practiced on Mars, though many immigrants celebrate their traditional holidays. Gale is running for Consul, head of the Senate, and needs January to help their image. An unusual dust storm leads to a power shortage and the need to either build a new solar array, with the workers wearing heat suits, or to accept help from China in building a nuclear reactor.

Gale loves linguistics and their aides warn January that Gale will speak on the topic at great length. On Mars, a variant of Mandarin Chinese is spoken, along with some Russian and English. In my favorite part of the book, Gale shares that with technology, they can communicate with a herd of mammoths, who are enormously tall in the low Martian gravity.

The house in the title is huge, and has an indoor bonsai garden, a koi pond, some very high ceilings, and in places a glass floor. January often sees a person who may be a ghost, but who is never mentioned by anyone else. January finds Gale fascinating, even as their views on naturalization are very different, and January is still suffering a bit of culture shock.

Pulley is known for her Watchmaker novels, beginning with The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, which I remember as having elements of steampunk fantasy and time travel. I found that trilogy highly unusual, but excellent. Mars House is wondrous, charming, and unlike any other Mars books I have read.

Brenda

The Martian Contingency

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The Martian Contingency: A Lady Astronaut Novel by Mary Robinette Kowal

Elma York, 48, is the deputy administrator on Bradbury Base on Mars. The year is 1970, but this is an alternate timeline. In Kowal’s award-winning Lady Astronaut series, the race to space was accelerated after a meteor strike in 1952 triggered global warming as well as causing many, many deaths. Technology developed for space is also helping conditions on Earth. Racism and discrimination against women are evident here, but they are being dealt with much sooner than on our version of Earth. Elma and her husband Nathaniel, an engineer, are part of the 2nd expedition to Mars, and they will not be returning to Earth. Elma really enjoys math, piloting, and baking, especially when she’s anxious. Nathaniel is a workaholic and they are both Jewish. On the base the habitat observes Jewish, Islamic, Chinese, Hindu, and Christian holidays. The calendar is a focus here as days on Mars are 39 minutes longer and the year is twice as long as on Earth, and there is a time lag for communications. While technology is more advanced than our Earth was in 1970 (or in 2025), in others not so much, such as for healthcare. Secrets from the first expedition are gradually uncovered, and there are complications in preparing for the next expedition, which will include teens as well as adults. This is the fourth book, after The Relentless Moon. Calculating Stars is the first book, and they are all excellent, compelling reads. I am enjoying the combination of science fiction and alternate history, as well as the memorable characters. I read a digital review copy; the novel will be published March 18.

Brenda

Alliance Unbound

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Alliance Unbound: The Hinder Stars II

Published five years after Alliance Rising, science fiction novel Alliance Unbound is well worth the wait for Cherryh’s many fans. Increasingly hard to put down, this story about trade in interstellar space both delights and thrills. Three main characters narrate: Senior captain JR Neihart of the Large FTL family ship Finity’s End, young Jen Neihart, an up-and-coming member of Finity’s Security team, and her sweetheart, Navigator Ross Monahan of smaller family ship Galway. One of the real delights is an arboretum on the wealthy station Pell. Jen escorts the nine Monahans currently traveling on Finity’s End, and it’s great to see Pell and the arboretum through their eyes. Their visit to Pell also provides clues to a mystery, sending the ship to visit remote, closed-down space stations. Naturally, they find all the excitement a reader could want at one of the stations, with Ross and Jen having significant roles.

Ross can sense the binary stars at the stations they visit, as can Finity’s chief navigator. Alliances are forming among the merchanters and the space stations, but what Finity’s crew encounters could challenge the whole Alliance. A subplot is about waiting for news about Galway, testing out a possible FTL route to Sol, currently visited only by sublight cargo ships, while also dealing with armed intruders.

I love Cherryh’s Foreigner series, but this book is a close second. I will likely reread Alliance Rising while waiting for book 3. These books are an excellent entry point into the Hugo award-winning Alliance-Union universe.

Brenda

Moonbound

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Moonbound by Robin Sloan

This science fiction novel has wizards, dragons, talking beavers, and swords of destiny. It’s also set on Earth, but 11,000 years in the future. If you, like me, enjoy genre-bending tales, you may enjoy the wild ride with young Ariel de la Sauvage and an unseen Chronicler. Dragons (who may actually be robots) live on the Moon and have enclosed Earth in a sort of bubble. Part of the bubble is torn when Durga comes to Earth in stasis, aboard a small spacecraft.

As young Ariel journeys across a far future version of the British Isles along with robot Clovis, Durga, beaver Agassiz and others, he also visits a town dedicated to recycling and remaking and a virtual memory café. Ariel has a lot to learn and has numerous adventures. I enjoyed this very imaginative tale from the author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough.

Brenda

Drunk On All Your Strange New Words

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Drunk On All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

Lydia has a rare aptitude: she can hear the alien Logi speak, in her head, and translate for them. She recently graduated from a special college where she studied their language, which appears to the reader as English. The Logi can hear her internal speech as well, but they can’t read each other’s thoughts. This science fiction novel is set in the future, in Manhattan and in Halifax, near Manchester, England. The problem with translating for the Logi, or just talking soundlessly with them, is that it makes the human translator feel intoxicated after a while.

Lydia’s assignment is with Fitzwilliam, the Logi’s cultural attaché in New York City, and they attend operas, plays, concerts, and after parties. Once Lydia was so incapacitated after translating that she took a bad fall, but Fitz caught her. There is a crime in which Lydia is a suspect. With secret help from Fitz, Lydia investigates. Another Logi, Madison, demands so much additional help from Lydia that she has trouble focusing. Sea levels have risen since our time, and the tip of Manhattan is now surrounded by a tall sea wall. Back in Halifax, Lydia is seen as rather posh, especially by people who live in 3-D printed shacks that aren’t durable. Lydia’s mother plays and reviews virtual reality games, and helps Lydia with her investigations. Her brother Gil used to modify old cars and drive them on back roads with Lydia. Modern cars all use Smart Steer, but Lydia can override the software and takes a diplomatic car for a very wild ride in Manhattan.

The Logi are intriguing characters. Their world is warmer than our, and they all wear hats, mostly concealing head spikes. Often, they wear a face wrap, possibly like the atmoscarves worn on Jupiter in Malka Older’s The Mimicking of Known Successes. Lydia has smart glasses where she reads her news feeds. She has the truthiness level set high, at 80, but occasionally looks at popular Chime feeds with low truthiness levels to keep up with trending topics. This is a compelling read, thought-provoking and with a very convincing near future setting. Readalikes include New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson and The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis.

Brenda

The Downloaded

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The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer

I enjoyed downloading this short science fiction novel by the multiple award-winning Sawyer to my e-reader. Readalikes include The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters and Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold. Characters include a robot who dislikes Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, which amused me.

Astronauts headed on a sublight journey to Proxima Centauri upload their consciousness to a quantum computer, where they enjoy what seems like four years of their preferred virtual reality simulations. Only Captain Letitia Garvey can visit their virtual silos, if needed.

Another group of characters are prisoners with 20-year prison terms who have agreed to an upload which will feel like 20 years but last only 10 months in the real world. Roscoe Koudoulian regrets his crime, and is eager to not miss his daughter’s whole childhood. His experience is much less pleasant, as he is in a virtual prison and must regularly revisit his crime scene, with only short videos of his daughter to keep him going during what feels like 24 years, not 20.

Both groups are downloaded at almost the same time to their cryopreserved bodies, where the astronauts learn that they’re still on earth, in Waterloo, Ontario. They also learn that way more than 20 years have elapsed, and the city is deserted, with only peaceful farmers living nearby. The groups elect a mayor, surprisingly not Captain Garvey, and explore their surroundings, trying to decide how they shall live. Also, how many of the former prisoners are dangerous? And who is interviewing the groups via holographic image? This thought-provoking novel was a quick, compelling read. It’s available as an Audible audiobook narrated by Brendan Fraser, and as a print book.

Brenda

Rose / House

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Rose / House by Arkady Martine, narrated by Raquel Beattie

I listened to this science fiction/horror/locked room mystery novella set more than 100 years in the future, in a California desert. Architect Basit Deniau left Rose House for his last creation. His remains are now in a large diamond displayed in the house, which has an AI caretaker designated Rose House. Narrator Raquel Beattie does an excellent job with the voices of several humans and the AI. A basement vault in the house has files of architectural and AI designs that are highly desired by other architects and corporations. Unfortunately for them, only Dr. Selene Gisil has access to Rose House. She is a former protégé of Deniau’s who later disagreed with him, but was named archivist after Deniau’s death. Dr. Gisil can stay in Rose House for one week each year. This year, she lasted three days before she called Detective Torres of China Lake Precinct to pick her up. Water theft is the precinct’s most common crime. Torres’ partner, Officer Maritza Smith, gets a call from Rose House stating that a body has been in the house for the past 24 hours. How can she get in? Only Dr. Gisil has access, and she’s out of the country.

Rose House AI is unsettling, even creepy, especially its laugh, and the house is built in a confusing spiral pattern. There are nanites, which can form images, but may also trigger asthma. There are Andorrans (Europeans, not aliens) and, of course, roses. Many roses. This novella, while different from Martine’s longer Teixcalaan science fiction novels, beginning with A Memory Called Empire, is a compelling and memorable read.

Brenda