#Science Fiction Books

[terapsina]

Let's talk books. Sorted in threes by vibes.

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I Support Women's Wrongs (murder, slaughter and body horror galore).

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How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ by Django Wexler - A woman from Earth is dropped into a magical realm, meant to save the Kingdom from the FoRCes of DaRKneSSss... except, unfortunately that might have been a thousand years worth of time loops ago, so it's rather time to lose one's temper and decide to become the Dark Lord herself.

Main character -> basically Deadpool (measured in sanity, humor and levels of bisexual horniness)).

Someone You Can Build a Nest In ⭐⭐⭐⭐ by John Wiswell - Shesheshen, a shapechanging monster who's rudely interrupted during her hibernation by hunters. Manages to to eat one of them, unfortunately she also gets shot by an arrow and falls off a cliff. On the bright side she meets a lovely human woman she might end up falling in love with so much... she'll want to build a nest in her (it's possible there's some Cultural Differences that need to be worked through).

Hench ⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Natalie Zina Walschots - Anna's latest temp job for a villain (because even supervillains need office help) ends with her carelessly injured by a superhero, laid off and with injured mobility for the foreseeable future (because human bodies don't see much difference between getting hit by a truck and getting moved out of way by someone able to pick up a truck). Angry, disillusioned, and looking for some vengeful payback she starts compiling the statistics of exactly how much suffering gets left behind the heroes and in quick order finds a new job working for one of the worst supervillains in the neighborhood.

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Extremely Competent Women Show Up to Fix Everyone's Shit (with a whallop of romance which was actually sweet instead of irritating)

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The Witchwood Knot ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Olivia Atwater - Winifred Hall was invited to the Witchwood Manor under the pretense of being the governess for a very bratty kid, but when said boy suddenly turns into a very quiet and perfectly bland boy overnight it's very obvious her charge has been stolen by faeries (and it might have something to do with the actual reason she's there). Rescue however is complicated by some factors, one, there being something terribly dark and wrong about the house (normal houses don't have screaming faces in the walls), another, the faerie man posing as the manor's butler who would very much like to make her run screaming the way so many servants had before her (unfortunately for him, she's not even half as scared of him as she is the eyes of the father of her charge).

This one's about dealing with past trauma, and otherworldly terrors paling in comparison to mundane monsters, set in a very beautiful and dark and shiver-inducing Victorian time world where the Fair Folk are very real.

(Same world as her Regency Faerie Tales trilogy that Started with Half a Soul but it's not necessary to read that one first to enjoy this one)

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ by Charlie N. Holmberg - Merritt Fernsby inherits a house only to be immediately taken hostage by what turns out to be a very stubborn and opinionated magical house. Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms goes there to facilitate the relationship between the house and its new owner.

It's supposed to be a very simple job. Unfortunately there's a third POV character in this book (no, not the Whimbrel House, though I adore that house and *insert here the Rosa Diaz gif about her new puppy and how she would kill everyone in this room and then herself if anything were to happen to that dog*). Anyway, they're a bit... uhhh... let's go with Bad News.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Heather Fawcett - As one might expect from the title, Emily (a Cambridge scholar) wants to write the first ever encyclopedia of faeries. And she's brilliant enough to do it, what she's terrible at is people (*insert autistic character alert here*).

Someone else might then say it's lucky that a fellow scholar with a far easier time at charming people has stuck his toes in her reaserch trip into the Hidden Ones... that person however doesn't understand how irritating, frustrating and maddening her academic rival Wendell Bambleby actually is.

What follows is a story filled with winter snows, some terrible fae, some adorable fae, some not-very-secret fae, the goodest of good dogs, and lots and lots of squabbling. It's the best.

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Dark and Impactful Stories about Children Who Decide on Their Own Paths

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A Skinful of Shadows ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ by Frances Hardinge - Kate, an orphan and the illegitimate daughter of some stuffy (and evil) aristocrats runs away because being a bastard doesn't mean she didn't inherit the family magic that allows her to get possessed by the dead.

A dead bear ghost is one thing, a Get Out situation is something else entirely.

A Sorceress Comes to Call ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by T. Kingfisher - Cordelia isn't allowed friends or the privacy of closed doors, and whenever she's done something she shouldn't - a category too unpredictable to guard against - she's not allowed power over her own body.

Because her mother is an evil sorceress (think Regina and Cora... except somehow even worse). An evil sorceress that has found herself a Squire to lure into a marriage.

Hester is an old maid living with her brother, a Squire (well look at them coincidences), when said brother acquires a woman clearly set on his fortune. The plan is only to save her brother, except Hester can't help noticing how the woman's daughter keeps flinching in her mother's presence.

In The Lives of Puppets ⭐⭐⭐⭐ by TJ Klune - A family can be an android inventor, his human son (*homoromantic asexual alert*), a sadistic nurse droid, and a very emotional roomba.

And it can be a very happy family. Until one uncovers and wakes up an android that shares a very Skynet past with one's father, said father gets kidnapped, and one has to go on a journey to get him back.

(A book I like to call Sci-fi Reverse Pinocchio)

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Unraveling an Unjust System (and a hero that - on a scale from occasionally to constantly - hears a disembodied voice directly in their heads okay the connection between these three is a bit of a stretch but they're all great books so shut up)

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Hell for Hire ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ by Rachel Aaron - 5000 years ago Gilgamesh conquered the heavens, enslaved the demons and made it so that the only road to magic humanity had access, was through him.

Now, however a mercenary team made up of free demons gets hired by a Blackwood witch to protect him (and his familiar, the talking cat named Boston) while he puts down roots (literally) inside the new forest grove he's about to start so that he can stand up against the warlocks after him.

The witch quickly becomes the best client Bex and her crew have ever had (after all, warlocks under the rule of the Eternal King Gilgamesh are slavers of their kind, they are delighted at the chance to kill some).

Vespertine ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Margaret Rogerson - In a world where the veil between the living and the dead has been kinda broken Artemisia (*another autistic character alert*) is training to be a Gray Sister (magic nun).

Until her convent gets attacked by possessed soldiers and she has no choice but to pick up a Saint's Relic containing a malevolent revenant to protect it.

Problem. Only a Vespertine is supposed to do it. Another problem. The only one "alive" who can teach her to be a Vespertine is the revenant. Another another problem. The revenant cannot be trusted and if she loses control to it, the death toll will be counted in cities.

Terminal Alliance ⭐⭐⭐⭐¾ by Jim C. Hines - Post Zombie Apocalypse, where some aliens showed up, sort of cured the zombies and took the (mostly) cured zombies into their military.

Which leads us to Marion Adamopoulos, also known as Mops, the Leutenant in charge of Shipboard Hygene and Sanitation of the Earth Mercenary Corps Ship Pufferfish.

Right up until a bioweapon turns the entire crew except her crew back into zombies. Congratulations, she's the captain now.

(Space Janitors save the universe story).

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[geekynerfherder]

Showcasing art from some of my favourite artists, and those that have attracted my attention, in the field of visual arts, including vintage; pulp; pop culture; books and comics; concert posters; fantastical and imaginative realism; classical; contemporary; new contemporary; pop surrealism; conceptual and illustration.

The art of Richard M Powers.

[rotten-whispers]

Do YOU like queer protagonists in books? Dystopian horror? Silly sci-fi novels?

Or supporting your local queer indie author?

THEN consider delving into Tales from a Mall, a wacky sci-fi novel where ferrets have mechanical attachments, snails have legs, and there is something sinister going on in the 22nd century Fresh Malls. Perhaps something to do with the rats. Lots and lots of rats...

Only $10!

https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Mall-future-become-ridiculous/dp/B0BK6PVMX3/ref=sr_1_1

Or consider exploring the dark world of Boxes, a sci-fi horror novel following the journey of nonbinary Baxley through the Complex. Monsters roam the halls, stairs descend endlessly into the earth, and a sweet madness has overcome the denizens, turning them into something else entirely. See trigger warnings if necessary!

Only $16!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8BPW3P5/ref=dbs_a_def_awm_bibl_vppi_i0GJhNzA3ZTZmM2I2NGY5ZDVmNWQ1NSwzNzdhNmM0ZGIwMTBiMTg2Y2FmNTZiNDIxZDI4YjA0MWQxMWM0NGY5&ts=1660371335

Not into novels? Try one of my silly sticker designs on Redbubble!!

https://www.redbubble.com/people/molespignoses/shop

Please check out a copy or reblog this post to support my work :)

[godzilla-reads]

“Which god is he, mother?”

“A new one,” Ebor Dendep said in her dry old voice. “The son of forest-fire, the brother of the murdered. He is the one who is not reborn…”

—Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Word for World is Forest”

[thefugitivesaint]

Bob Pepper (1938-2019), ''A Maze of Death'' by Philip K. Dick, DAW 1983

[qbdatabase]

Click on the pictures to see each graphic better, or click on the link in the grey bar directly below each picture. All of these lists can be found at the Queer Books Database!

[yourqueerbookshelf]

Not sure what my motive is here, but . . .

The results will not affect which books I post about, because I actually have to want to read them, but I'm dying to know who likes to suffer!

[franticvampirereads]

I loved this book so much. It was filled with all the political space drama I could ever want and just as much action to balance it out. I loved that Tennal was such a mess for most of the book and that Surit was his exact opposite. I loved when they argued, I loved when they were maliciously compliant with the law and also when they went rogue, and I loved when they became each other’s safe harbor. The other thing that I loved was that Tennal and Surit were both self sacrificing idiots in love. This was such a good read and I really want more of this complicated universe. Ocean’s Echo is getting five stars!

[thistle-nightshade]

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

I received an ALC through Libro.fm for this title.

I have been waiting since April 2022 with baited breath for this book, and was of course worried my expectations would be let down after so much anticipation. They were not. This was really damn good.

I think if it had been the same as Iron Widow, I would have been disappointed. But Heavenly Tyrant has very different tone and pacing. I loved it. It feels like growth. So you took your rage and smashed your oppressors, now what? How are you going to use power for good? It honestly mirrors my own journey of becoming aware of oppression, getting angry, and learning so much more of how the world works. Building a better world takes more thought and effort than angry me would have expected.

The relationships were INTENSE. The world building was so EXTRA. The DRAMA. Goodness gracious I can't wait for the next one. 

[brokehorrorfan]

Bottleneck Gallery will release a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 24x36 giclee print by Karl Fitzgerald today, May 8, at 12pm EST. The hand-numbered edition of 75 costs $60.

[oatmilk-vampire]

This morning I'm crying.

I received an email from my local library asking me if I would like to donate a copy of Tomorrow's Loss, my book.

I'm crying because, I may not be getting paid for them to purchase my book or for patrons to check out my book, but they'll be able to read it. For free.

I'm crying because trans kids will pick up this book and see themselves represented as a protagonist.

I'm crying because gay and even ace kids will see themselves represented as happy and falling in love despite the world crashing down around them.

I'm crying, and even laughing, because I finally did it; and in a red state no less.

This is the beginning for me.

[eggcatsreads]

𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘦 by Michael Nayak is a biological thriller that takes place in the isolation of an Antarctic research base. Feeling like a combination of a zombie and survival thriller, this book somehow remains grounded in reality even as things begin to escalate to an alarming degree.

Written by the author while he was in Antarctica, the location feels real and present during the entire novel. It made me want to visit myself (just, perhaps not during this specific novel, just to be safe!)

With frighteningly realistic politics relevant throughout this novel, at some points it felt like these events could be actually happening at the bottom of the world - with no one aware of the danger brewing.

Ending with a bang, this book is both perfect as a standalone or with a sequel. The author's note at the end indicates a sequel is planned, and I will absolutely be reading it once I have the chance.

Releasing February 11, 𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘦 is perfect for fans of zombie and survival thrillers, Antarctic/Arctic horror, and Darcy Coates and SA Barnes.

Huge thank you to Angry Robot Books for providing me a copy for review and giving me a spot on this tour. Head over to my Instagram to see the full tour lineup - and my original post!

(Rest assured, this book was not harmed taking these photos!)

[theverumproject]

Yesterday, I got an Inkitt notification, somebody reviewed by book. My heart was pounding and I was getting slightly nauseous. I feared that it's gonna be a bad one, perhaps even hate. But...

You see that up there? 0 Chapters read.

It's either a fucking bot or a scammer. They left this exact same review on other stories too.

Man fuck you. I hope you and your family have a nice christmas.

At least it's not hate. And I guess a good rating, though not deserved, is still good!

[tallysgreatestfan]

Happy 20th birthday Uglies

On this day, the first book of the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld was published (08.02.2005).

"Tally believes to live in an utopia where poverty and discrimination do not exist anymore and everybody over the age of sixteen gets beauty surgery for free. But as her rebellious friend Shay disappears, the government blackmails her into finding her."

The first YA Dystopia to use the tropes Hunger Games and other series would make popular in the 2010s, and other than that featuring a messy, unheroic but so human main character and mostly focusing not on its romance plots with boys but the friendship between her and her best friend, pushed against each other again and again. Sadly, the series contributions to the genre are regularly overlooked.

Without these books, I wouldn't be a feminist and I definitely wouldn't have realized that I'm worth something despite being different and become an advocate for neurodivergent justice.

[geoderocks]

Iain M. Banks was incredibly ahead of the times. The Player of Games was published in 1988, and introduces the Culture as a post-scarcity society, with no currency, or any hierarchal power structure of any kind, where everyone freely changes sex whenever they want - everyone is quite simply considered a person, regardless of gender/sex, race/species, status or physiology. This includes the human(oid)s as well as the (extremy advanced) machine intelligences.

When encountering totalitarian empires, Culture citizens find the lack of logic in these societies very confusing and are genuinely apalled by the concepts of conquering, oppressing, and (ecological and societal) destruction. But it never gets generalised/simplified or in any way ‘preachy’. Banks’ social commentary is razor-sharp and uncompromising, and his writing is of a literary level (while immensely readable). And at times, brutal. When there’s violence, he writes it as the truly horrific thing it is.

But there’s also brilliant wit and humour, incredible/insane levels of imagination, and Ship names such as ‘Youthful Indiscretion’ and ‘Just Read the Instructions’. The result is something unparalleled. Rereading this again in 2024, it all feels more relevant than ever. And I think I love these books more everytime I revisit them.