Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been in love with science fiction since I watched Star Wars for the first time at the age of seven, and haven’t looked back since. Besides being a voracious lifelong reader, I’ve written several dozen science fiction books myself, and my favorite sub-genre is space opera. I’ve read most of the Hugo and Nebula-winning novels, as well as several that those awards have overlooked, and my stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines including Again, Hazardous Imaginings, After Dinner Conversation, Bards and Sages Quarterly, and Twilight Tales LTUE Benefit Anthology.


I wrote

Brothers in Exile

By Joe Vasicek,

Book cover of Brothers in Exile

What is my book about?

Deep in the Far Outworlds, a derelict space station holds the bones of a long-dead people—and a beautiful young woman…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Dune

Joe Vasicek Why did I love this book?

Dune is, in my opinion, the most perfect science fiction novel ever written. The world-building accomplishes the rare feat of feeling immensely complex, impressively alien, and also uncannily believable. If we could take a time machine twenty thousand years into our future, we would probably find a galactic empire very much like the one in Dune.

By Frank Herbert,

Why should I read it?

62 authors picked Dune as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender's Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune: winner of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, and widely considered one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.

Melange, or 'spice', is the most valuable - and rarest - element in the universe; a drug that does everything from increasing a person's lifespan to making interstellar travel possible. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world of Arrakis.

Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.

When the Emperor transfers stewardship of…


Book cover of Foundation

Joe Vasicek Why did I love this book?

While the Foundation novels feel a bit dated now, Asimov’s vision of a sweeping galactic empire has influenced everything from Star Wars (Coruscant is basically a rip-off of Trantor) to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The series chronicles the fall of the old empire and the rise of a new one, and raises questions of fate vs. free will, historical inevitability, and the impact that individuals can have on the course of events much larger than themselves.

By Isaac Asimov,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked Foundation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first novel in Isaac Asimov’s classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series

THE EPIC SAGA THAT INSPIRED THE APPLE TV+ SERIES FOUNDATION, NOW STREAMING • Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
 
For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings…


Book cover of On Basilisk Station

Joe Vasicek Why did I love this book?

David Weber’s Honorverse is what Star Trek wants to be when it grows up, and the first novel, On Basilisk Station, is a wonderful place to start. It introduces the main character, Honor Harrington, at an early part (but not the beginning) of her military career, and introduces both the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its primary antagonists (at least for the earlier books in the series), especially the Republic of Haven.

Book cover of Shards of Honor

Joe Vasicek Why did I love this book?

The Vorkosigan Saga is one of my favorite science fiction series of all time, not just because of Bujold’s wonderful insights into human nature, but because of all of the exciting intrigue and twists and turns. Most people’s favorite part about these books is the charisma, charm, and intelligence of Miles Vorkosigan, the series’ primary antagonist, but I actually think that Shards of Honor is the best place to start. It introduces Miles’s parents and shows how the unlikely couple got together, with a great deal of adventure thrown into the mix.

By Lois McMaster Bujold,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Shards of Honor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group
from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by Aral Vorkosigan, commander of the
Barrayan ship that has been taken over by an ambitious and ruthless crew member.
Aral and Cordelia s


Book cover of Barrayar

Joe Vasicek Why did I love this book?

Shards of Honor and Barrayar form a duology within the wider Vorkosigan Saga, and starting with them both is the best way to become acquainted with the wider series universe and with the origins of Miles Vorkosigan. All of the later books refer back to events that happen in Barrayar, and one of the core conflicts of the novel is the struggle between the conservative isolationists who don’t want to integrate with the rest of the galaxy, and the liberal reformists who do. The political intrigue is extremely well done, and the adventure is superb.

By Lois McMaster Bujold,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Barrayar as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sick of combat and betrayal, Cordelia Vorkosigan is ready to settle down to
a quiet life. But when the Emperor dies, her husband Aral becomes guardian of
the infant heir to the imperial throne of Barrayar and the target of high-tech
assassins in a dy


Explore my book 😀

Brothers in Exile

By Joe Vasicek,

Book cover of Brothers in Exile

What is my book about?

Deep in the Far Outworlds, a derelict space station holds the bones of a long-dead people—and a beautiful young woman locked in cryofreeze. When the star-wandering brothers Isaac and Aaron Deltana find the sleeping girl, they soon realize they're her only hope for rescue. With no way to revive her, they set a course for the New Pleiades. After a series of brutal civil wars, the Gaian Empire has turned its sights outward. A frontier war is on the verge of breaking out, and the brothers are about to be caught in the middle of it.

They both harbor a secret. Somewhere in the Outworlds is another derelict station—one that they used to call home. That secret will either bind them together or draw them apart.

Book cover of Dune
Book cover of Foundation
Book cover of On Basilisk Station

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Book cover of Glimmer of the Other

Heather G. Harris Author Of Glimmer of the Other

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Heather's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Delve into this internationally best-selling series, now complete! A fast paced laugh-out-loud mix of Urban Fantasy and Mystery.

I can tell when you’re lying. Every. Single. Time. I’m Jinx, a PI hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a bar–yet my gut tells me there’s more to this case than a party girl gone wild. Firstly, she’s a bookish soul who’s as likely to go off the rails as Mother Theresa. Secondly, I’m not the only one on her trail; she’s also being tracked by the implacable and oh-so-sexy Inspector Stone. Stone…

By Heather G. Harris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Glimmer of the Other as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

I can tell when you’re lying. Every. Single. Time.

I’m Jinx. As a private investigator, being a walking, talking lie detector is a useful skill – but let’s face it, it’s not normal. You’d think it would make my job way too easy, but even with my weird skills, I still haven’t been able to track down my parent’s killers.

When I’m hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a bar – yet my gut tells me there’s more to this case than a party girl gone wild. Firstly, she’s a bookish…


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