#r.e. stearns

[owlbear33]

speaking of adult SSF novels, what do people recommend as good new sci-fi, particularly the more spacey end of things

recently I've enjoyed Murderbot (Martha Wells), the Imperial Radch trilogy (Ann Leckie), both the Indranan and Farian war trilogies (K.B Wagers), Barbary Pirates Trilogy (R.E. Stearns), The Wayfarers (Becky Chambers), Tanya Huffs Valour Novels, and I've been super getting into the expanse novels (James S.A. Corey)

so yeah what are other people enjoying

[ninja-muse]

Hi! For the bookish ask game: 🔮🙄🥺 <3

🔮 what book/series has your favorite magic system?

Hmm. For intricate magic system, the Rook and Rose books by M.A. Carrick, because half of it's based on sigils and half of it on tarot and I just find how that all works to be compelling. For simple magic system, the Discworld witches. You do magic mostly by being kind to others and occasionally by being very stubborn, and that seems like a great way to live a life.

🙄 what’s a popular book that you dislike, but you’ll get crucified if you say it?

It might've been my age when I was reading it but I did not connect with Wizard of Earthsea at all. :(

🥺 what’s a truly underrated book/series you recommend and wish the whole world would read?

I am a Shieldrunner Pirates fandom of one. Space pirates, metaphor-aided hacking, epic fight scenes, heists, sinister AIs up the wazoo, lesbian protagonists, incredibly queer and diverse cast, snappy writing…. How is it nobody else seems to have picked it up?

Thanks for asking!

Ask me things!

[st-just]

Another "lesbian space opera" book with less Empire is Barbary station by R.E. Stearns. Basically after graduating from their respective S.T.E.M. university programs, a lesbian couple realize they will never get out from underneath their student debt, so decide to become space pirates.

While capitalism is an evil empire in a way, their conflict is less directly with capitalism and more with the perils of trying to establish themselves as space pirates.

It is an established, healthy, loving relationship from the getgo, so if you're looking for enemies to lovers, you won't find that here.

(For more Sci-Fi enemies to lovers try The Luminous Dead).

Oh that does sound interesting!

Though, like, is it more 'fun pulpy sci fi romp' or 'charming protagonists gradually sliding into atrocity as material necessity, greed and the brutalizing effects of precarity and violence wear away their moral compass"? Because I can kind of see either from the description.

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Lesbians in Space The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi Barbary Station…

[book-warehouse-broadway]

Anassa’s Best Books of the Year!

Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns - Fantastic space opera. James S.A. Corey meets Becky Chambers. Lesbian space pirates!

NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman - A history of autism and autism research, with a whole bunch of debunking.

Ship It by Britta Lundin - A strong, fresh YA novel about fandom, identity, and the messiness of life. If this is her debut, I’m on the Lundin train forever.

[scififr]

Barbary Station, par R.E. Stearns (Saga press, octobre 2017)

Je suis parvenu à la page 140 de ce truc pour lequel l’expression « écrit avec les pieds » est encore trop flatteuse… Je vais éviter les deux volumes suivants !

[fictionalstemladies]

BOOK RECOMMENDATION:

BARBARY STATION by R.E. Stearns

recommended by: @theconqueeror

Synopsis:

Adda and Iridian are newly-minted engineers, but in a solar system wracked by economic collapse after an interplanetary war, an engineering degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Desperate for gainful employment, they hijack a colony ship, planning to join a pirate crew at Barbary Station, an abandoned shipbreaking station in deep space. But when they arrive at Barbary Station, nothing is as they expected. The pirates aren’t living in luxury — they’re hiding in a makeshift base welded onto the station’s exterior hull. The artificial intelligence controlling the station’s security system has gone mad, trying to kill all station residents. And it shoots down any ship that tries to leave, so there’s no way out. Adda and Iridian have one chance to earn a place on the pirate crew: destroy the artificial intelligence. The last engineer who went up against the security system suffered explosive decapitation, and the pirates are taking bets on how the newcomers will die. But Adda and Iridian plan to beat the odds. There’s a glorious future in piracy…if they can survive long enough.

[ninja-muse]

I feel entirely responsible for this being on your TBR so I hope you're enjoying it!

Changed my mind and decided to start Barbary Station instead! This has been on my TBR for far too long and I'm in the mood for queer SFF, but I don't think I should start the Dreamer Trilogy right after reading another contemporary fantasy about dreams.

[captainkirkmccoy]

So there’s this book that’s FIREFLY meets a Kameron Hurley Novel if the Serenity was piloted by a lesbian space pirate couple and you all need it NOW. 

The author, R.E. Stearns, is a debut novelist who wrote the first draft for @nanowrimo.

Also the author is doing an AMA on Reddit so go go go. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/79uw3c/hi_reddit_im_sf_author_r_e_stearns_ama/

[sapphicbookclub]

Shieldrunner Pirates trilogy by R.E. Stearns

(Barbary Station, Mutiny at Vesta, Gravity of a Distant Sun)

Adda and Iridian are newly-minted engineers, but in a solar system wracked by economic collapse after an interplanetary war, an engineering degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Desperate for gainful employment, they hijack a colony ship, planning to join a pirate crew at Barbary Station, an abandoned shipbreaking station in deep space.

But when they arrive at Barbary Station, nothing is as they expected. The pirates aren’t living in luxury — they’re hiding in a makeshift base welded onto the station’s exterior hull. The artificial intelligence controlling the station’s security system has gone mad, trying to kill all station residents. And it shoots down any ship that tries to leave, so there’s no way out.

Adda and Iridian have one chance to earn a place on the pirate crew: destroy the artificial intelligence. The last engineer who went up against the security system suffered explosive decapitation, and the pirates are taking bets on how the newcomers will die. But Adda and Iridian plan to beat the odds.

There’s a glorious future in piracy…if they can survive long enough.

Genres: sci-fi, romance

Get the books from The Book Depository here! (1, 2, 3)

[owlbear33]

I've been on more of an Urban fantasy kick lately, but as far as sci-fi goes I've mostly been reading (and enjoying) The Expanse, not exactly a deep cut

I finally got around to reading Inhibitor Phase the most recent (as far as I know - there're a bunch of spinoffs, there might be a more recent Dreyfus novel) of Alastair Raynolds's Revelation Space series, not exactly a sequel to Absolution Gap, but very good all the same

something I keep meaning to revisit is The Shieldrunner Pirates trilogy by R.E. Stearns, sorta spacey cyberpunk adjacent stuff

of course, there's also The Merderbod Diaries by Martha Wells, very good, always happy to recommend that series

if there's anything I've forgotten browsing "#owlbear reads" on my blog should show all my posts about what I've been reading for the last couple of years at least

sometimes I post a lot about what I'm reading, sometimes barely at all

currently, that's Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys, (sequel to Winter Tide) it's sort of Lovecraft mythos stuff set in the late 40s with a bit of a twist, I'm enjoying it a lot

Have you read much Greg Egan?

though the name rings a bell, I am entirely unfamiliar with the author, any particular reason to bring him up?

I mean, any books you would recommend and why?

[ninja-muse]

Currently reading!

[princesskuragina]

Some of my fav lgbtq books: Who is Vera Kelly by Rosalie Knecht, Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns, Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, This is How you Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar, Another Country & Go Tell it on the Mountain & Giovanni's Room all by James Baldwin, and A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

✨ send queer book recs for pride!

[lgbtqreads]

do you know any books about sapphic pirates ??

Sure do! Try The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie, Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns, Compass Rose by Anna Burke, and make sure CB Lee's upcoming (Sept. 7, 2021) A Clash of Steel is on your radar! There is also definitely some Sapphic piracy happening in Natalie C. Parker's Seafire series - not the MC (unless it happens later in the series than I read) but def worth a mention.

[book-warehouse-broadway]

Our Favourite Fiction of the Year (So Far):

Circe - Madeline Miller

The Good Son - You-Jeong Jeong

Barbary Station - R.E. Stearns

Looking Backward 2000–1887 - Edward Bellamy

A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

Adrift - Rob Boffard