Where to begin...I loved everything about the Murderbot diaries, from the snarky, neurodivergent-coded main character, to the brilliant writing, to the fast-paced plot and thrilling action sequences, to the beautiful exploration of what it means to be human and what it means to care about people and find people who care about you. I loved the moral complexity of the world, where there were very few "good guys" and "bad guys" and a whole lot of people who are mostly just trying to do their best and get by in a world that isn't always kind. And maybe most of all I loved the relationships--the deep, real friendships between people who know all the weird, quirky, annoying parts of each other and love each other anyway. This is my new comfort read, and I'm so happy I found it.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells begins The Murderbot Diaries, a new science fiction action and adventure series that tackles questions of the ethics of sentient robotics. It appeals to fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or lain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans. In a corporate dominated s pa cef a ring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by…
I don't usually read slasher horror. This trilogy was an exception. For someone who usually has a hard time with graphic on-page violence, I honestly could not put this book down. I don't know if it was the gorgeous writing, the compelling main character, the fast-paced plot, or simply the fact that you could tell as you read that the author was having the time of his life writing this, but I have never enjoyed slasher horror this much in my life. I loved every single character in this book, and the writing style and story was so much fun. 10/10 would recommend for anyone who likes horror (or has ever thought about trying it out)--but warning, this is definitely a slasher. There's lots of blood and gore involved.
The Jordan Peele of horror fiction turns his eye to classic slasher films: Jade is one class away from graduating high-school, but that's one class she keeps failing local history. Dragged down by her past, her father and being an outsider, she's composing her epic essay series to save her high-school diploma.
Jade's topic? The unifying theory of slasher films. In her rapidly gentrifying rural lake town, Jade sees the pattern in recent events that only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror cinema could have prepared her for. And with the arrival of the Final Girl, Letha Mondragon, she's convinced an…
This one was just so goshdarn cute. I don't usually read non-queer romances, but I loved this one. I especially loved the fact that the main character so unapologetically took up space--drank, ate huge, delicious meals, was loud and opinionated, and didn't ever make herself smaller for the romantic interest. It was a breath of fresh air. I finished the book in one day and immediately grabbed all of the others--which were just as enjoyable!
A remote resource planet. A mysterious illness. And a rescue team frighteningly out of their depth.
It was supposed to have been an easy job: go in, kidnap or kill his mark, get out. Shine's done plenty of jobs like this before, no problem. But when it all goes suddenly wrong, he has only one option left to save his skin.
He finds himself an unwilling volunteer on a medical mission to a remote resource planet. It sent in a distress call a week earlier, and then promptly went silent. No one knows why, and no one can contact them to find out. And, Shine is increasingly beginning to realize, every person on this mission is politically unimportant--a perfect crew of disposables. Their mission is to go in and figure out what happened, and save whoever they can. But he's smart enough to realize that anything that could cause an entire mining colony to go silent is probably not something accustomed to leaving its victims alive. And after meeting the rest of the crew, he's not sure that they're any safer than what's waiting for him out on the planet ...
Set in the world of The Devil and the Dark, Inhuman is the first book in R.M. Olson's gripping new space-horror series, The Dark Between Stars.
