I’m a Korean, Japanese, Scottish American writer born and raised in Hawaii who likes to create badass sci-fi characters of mixed backgrounds while blending cultures and genres as well. I also lean on tropes like sniper, detective, scientist, and genetically modified or cybernetically enhanced individuals, but I try to build symbolism or meaning into each archetype—for example, a sniper who is myopic in general, or a scientist whose life work is creating a new religion. I suppose I enjoy characters full of contradictions. When it comes to the badasses I like, it’s practically a requirement.
Year 2142: Earth is forty years past a near-collision with the asteroid Sessho-seki. Akira Kimura, the scientist responsible for eliminating the threat, has reached heights of celebrity approaching deification. But now, Akira feels her safety is under threat, so she reaches out to her former head of security, now a police detective.
When he arrives at her deep-sea home and finds Akira methodically dismembered, this detective will risk everything and delve back into his shared past with Akira to find her killer. With a rich, cinematic voice and burning cynicism, Midnight, Water City is both a thrilling neo-noir procedural and a stunning exploration of research, class, climate change, the cult of personality, and the dark sacrifices we are willing to make in the name of progress.
A lowly, teenage space miner on Mars, Darrow is kidnapped by a terrorist organization, genetically enhanced, and remade to infiltrate the aristocratic and militaristic Gold society. Soon, his Gold peers start calling him “The Reaper.” By book three, he’s known as “The Morning Star.” That alone tells you that Darrow is not someone to be trifled with. This is some of the best pure escapist sci-fi I’ve ever read, and Darrow, whose life is in constant peril, is the worthy headliner of this incredibly entertaining series.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, BUZZFEED, GOODREADS AND SHELF AWARENESS
Pierce Brown's heart-pounding debut is the first book in a spectacular series that combines the drama of Game of Thrones with the epic scope of Star Wars.
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'Pierce Brown's empire-crushing debut is a sprawling vision . . . Ender, Katniss, and now Darrow' - Scott Sigler, New York Times bestselling author of Pandemic
'[A] top-notch debut novel . . . Red Rising ascends above a crowded dystopian field' - USA Today
Not only is Essun a woman, which, unfortunately, is not common when it comes to the history of badass sci-fi protagonists (thankfully this is becoming less true because of writers like N.K. Jemisin), but she’s a middle-aged mother of two living, or I should say, hiding, out in the cut. When her daughter goes missing, Essun hits the road to find her and reveals her, literally, Earth-shaking abilities. If we threw the badasses on this list into a single universe and had them duel, ten-ringer Essun would clean the clocks of every other protagonist. Or more accurately, turn them to ice. I absolutely loved this series, and Essun is the main reason why.
After her mother's death, a young woman is summoned to the floating city of Sky to claim a royal inheritance she never knew existed in this epic fantasy trilogy from the NYT bestselling author of The Fifth Season.
Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle.
John Perry has lived a full life as a run-of-the-mill, normal guy. He’s a 75-year-old widower who’s a retired ad writer. This all changes when he enlists in the CDF, is given a new, young body, and ventures through the galaxy to fight hostile alien species. A dream come true, right? Absolutely. As an added bonus, the Old Man’s War sex scenes are neck-and-neck in unabashed, bacchanal hilarity with the ones found in The Broken Earth Trilogy. When we talk about Perry and Essun (above), we’re talking about badasses in the bedroom as well.
Perfect for an entry-level sci-fi reader and the ideal addition to a veteran fan’s collection, John Scalzi's Old Man’s War will take audiences on a heart-stopping adventure into the far corners of the universe.
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place.
On Earth, Hari Michaelson is the most famous actor in the world stuck under the ceiling of a rigid caste system. When he teleports to Overworld, he’s Caine, a notorious assassin who the people of Earth watch remotely and cheer on. What I love most about Caine and Heroes Die is the pure audacity. From the cheesy cover art to the excessively violent narrative, author Matthew Stover holds nothing back. Even in audiobook format, the deep, gruff, masculine voice of Stefan Rudnicki is comically spot on. This book, and Caine, is ridiculous in the best way.
A man shouldn’t die with no understanding of why he’s been murdered
Renowned throughout the land of Ankhana as the Blade of Tyshalle, Caine has killed his share of monarchs and commoners, villains and heroes. He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does.
At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet—and bound to keep…
The other protagonists I’ve chosen are certainly clever, but they do often rely on their physical gifts. Ryland Grace, middle school teacher turned astronaut, only has his brains to rely on to figure out 1) how to get his memory back. 2) How to save Earth. 3) How to communicate and build a partnership with an alien on the same mission. 4) How to get back to Earth in one piece. Ryland is, of course, very similar to Weir’s protagonist in The Martian, but the degree of difficulty of his mission is far, far higher. How does one make friends with an ammonia-breathing space crab and save the world at the same time?
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through…
Burne’s been hiding out in the forest since deserting the King’s Guard. Each time he tries to return to the village, he begins to panic. And then one day, he encounters a handsome stranger picking flowers and hides behind a tree instead of talking.
He wants to be braver—and he’s about to get another chance. Because the stranger is Gray, a fairy and master of illusions who’s now following Burne home. And Gray’s got more on his mind than talking. Would a fairy that beautiful ever want someone like him? Stranger things have happened.
Burne hid behind a tree. He wanted to talk to the handsome man picking flowers at the edge of the forest, but he'd only flub it if he tried-he'd stumble over his words and blush bright red. And now the man is gone.
He tries to continue on to the village, but the same thing happens as always: his hands start shaking and panic wells up inside him. What if he runs into the bullies who tormented him in the King's Guard last spring? Ever since he deserted, he has hidden out in the…
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