Two pre-med students find a way to give each other “extraordinary” powers. All you have to do is die. There may be superpowers here, but there aren’t any heroes. It’s pretty dark, very excellent aesthetically, and full of wonderfully complex characters. VE Schwab is one of my favorite authors ever (see also her A Darker Shade of Magic series, fantasy not sci fi, but epic), and I 100% recommend anything written by her.

Enter:

Victor Vale, who makes blackout poetry out of self help books, swallows pills dry, and hangs up the phone without saying goodbye. Also, he can give and take away pain.

Eli Ever, an unkillable murderer, all pretty boy hair and nice smiles, who seems like the perfect med student until the cracks start to show through.

Sydney Clarke, who we find on the side of a rain soaked street with a bullet hole in her arm. She’s 12 years old, and all she wants is a bomber jacket and combat boots. Oh, and she can raise the dead.

Mitch Turner, who looks like he belongs on the “armed” side of an armed robbery, when really he’s the guy in the chair. When he breaks out of prison, the first thing he wants is chocolate milk.

And Dol, a no-longer-dead-dog.

Enjoy!!

P.S. Fun little story: my best friend and I went on a road trip and listen to the Vicious and Vengeful audiobooks while we were driving. Then, my friend went to a convention thing (she works for a bookstore and she was representing them) and met VE Schwab. And my friend told her that we loved her books and she was super nice and signed a bunch of books for me!!! Basically VE Schwab is a top tier human and you should read everything she writes.

Remembered this series when we were talking about the stories we’d read with unique styles in class today. It’s (once again!) written by a woman and a man, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, but (once again!) they just list the woman on Goodreads, so we’re doing it. It’s definitely young adult, so bear that in mind, but it’s also definitely sci fi (spaceships! AI! wormholes! clones! mutant viruses! giant freaky parasites!) and completely one of a kind. A lot of the pages look like this: 

… and none of them look normal. The series is written as a compilation of files, and it includes the following:

• Video log transcripts (done by a weak stomached and easily distracted employee)
• Emails, texts, DMs, etc
• Diary entries
• Fight scenes written in crazy patterns so you have to twist the book around and look dumb in public
• The unfiltered thought processes of a malfunctioning AI (definitely the coolest parts)
• Drawings
• Mugshots and names of dead people (I signed up to have my name put in but I didn’t get selected 🙁 )
• Wiki entries
• And many other funky, cool, and creepy experimental story telling methods!

Definitely worth a flip through just to see all the beautiful imagery. Here’s the amazon link to the first book!

Okay so this one’s cool. Science fiction meets psychological thriller. Super glad I’m posting about it because I learned that not only are there other books by this author (Lauren James) that I haven’t read, but also there’s a movie adaptation (dir. Ridley Scott) coming out next year! So if that isn’t enough of a reason to read it I don’t know what is! But here’s a summary anyway.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

Through some strange circumstances (no spoilers) 16 year old Romy Silvers winds up being the only conscious passenger on a generation ship, completely and entirely alone. And things start getting weird. She’s hearing scratching on the walls, she’s getting reports of war breaking out on Earth, and her anxiety is slowly driving her insane. But she has one thing look forward to – a faster ship is on its way, and it seems like her solitude may finally end. It’s beautifully horrifying and has a great twist at the end. It’s hard to say much else without giving things away, so really just read it. The audiobook is also great (according to my best friend) if you want the full spooky experience.

Enjoy the spooks!

Okay, so I know it’s only my second one of these but I’m already going to cheat a little bit. This book is coauthored by a woman and a man (Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone) but I just read it over Christmas break and I really liked it so shhhh. Forgive me. (And on good reads they say it’s by El-Mohtar so ha! Take that patriarchy!) Anyway here we go!

Spoiler alert! This book is about a time war! Two opposing generals begin to write each other letters. For this one I really just want to put quotes in because the writing is so beautiful! So I give you: ten quotes to make you go read this right now!!

1. “Adventure works in any strand—it calls to those who care more for living than for their lives.” 
2. Words can wound—but they’re bridges, too … Though maybe a bridge can also be a wound? To paraphrase a prophet: Letters are structures, not events. Yours give me a place to live inside.
3. “Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another.” 
4. Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened it so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out? Sometimes I think that’s what I have instead of friends.
5. “Red’s letters she keeps in her own body, curled beneath her tongue like coins, printed in her fingers’ tips, between the lines of her palms.” 
6. Alone. I want to tell you about when I learned that word, really, with all of me. The reason I’m a tumbleweed, a dandelion seed, a stone rolling until she’s planted in place, then kicked up again.
7. “I am more sensitive to your footsteps, I think, than anyone alive. (And everyone is alive, somewhere in time…)”
8. You say my letter found you in a moment of hunger. How to say what it means to me, that I might have taught you this- shared it, somehow, infected you with it. I hope it isn’t a burden at the same time that I want you seared by it. I want to sharpen your hungers fully as much as I long to satisfy them, one letter-seed at a time.
9. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I’ll write it in waves. In skies. In my heart. You’ll never see, but you will know. I’ll be all the poets, I’ll kill them all and take each one’s place in turn, and every time love’s written in all the strands it will be to you.” 
10. “PS. I write to you in stings, Red, but this is me, the truth of me, as I do so: broken open by the act, in the palm of your hand, dying.” 

Anyway, it’s lovely, I read it out loud to myself on a beach because it’s not the kind of book that likes to stay on the page. Enjoy! 🙂

P.S.

.

Look at these dorks! We love to see it.

Hello world!

I’m going to make my first few posts about Science Fiction books by women that I’ve read lately and think are incredible! The genre can seem dominated by men at times, so hopefully I can recommend some exciting books!

First up: To be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Ten reasons why you should drop everything you’re doing and read this book right now

1. It’s only 188 pages so it’s not that much of a commitment. You can literally do it right now. I read it one day (instead of writing an essay during finals but shhh that’s not important)
2. It has a beautiful cast of characters who all have depth and dimension despite the book being (did I mention?) only 188 pages! Also they’re all queer we love to see it.
3. The world building is incredible! The astronauts explore four wildly different worlds that are all so unique and beautiful and the way Chambers describes them is so vivid I can’t even begin to do it justice. Just yeah. She’s so good at world building!!
4. The science is so smart. Instead of trying to terraform the worlds they visit, they alter their bodies to fit the environments. Like they can basically photosynthesize space radiation into energy and all kinds of cool stuff.
5. Has excellent messages about ethical ways to do space travel! (I was learning about indigenous science fiction with Professor Lempert while I was reading this so I was very impressed.)
6. It is one of maybe three books ever that have made me cry. Not really because its sad its just so beautiful and it made me want to go to space so freaking bad!!
7. I read the afterward and she said she gets a lot of her science help from her mom who is an astrobiology teacher and like what a powerful family oh my god. (can they adopt me? please?)
8. I love Becky Chambers so so much she is an absolute genius and like probably one of my favorite authors ever of all time. She’s also written a beautiful series of sci fi beginning with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet which you should also read!! (and maybe I will review at some point.
9. The ending is beautiful and makes you think. No spoilers, so enough said.
10. Basically, it’s just an all around beautiful, thought provoking, and unique book that’s a completely different take on sci fi than I’d ever read before. 12/10 would recommend!!

here’s a link to amazon so you can buy it now

🙂 xoxo have funnn