I have always loved science fiction. I spent years studying to be a scientist before I became a writer (I have a PhD in geophysics), and I love fiction that uses, remixes, and twists our weird and wonderful universe in interesting ways. But stories don't really grab me unless there is a strong emotional core. I need characters--I need people. And that's where my love of mysteries and thrillers comes in, with all the tragedy and trauma they can hold. This is the recipe for my ideal fiction: creepy mystery, human trauma, big ideas, weird science, and a little bit of a murder, as a treat.
What's better than a locked room mystery? How about a locked room mystery set aboard a spaceship transporting thousands of sleeping colonists to a distant world? A crew of clones wakes up midway through a long journey only to discover that their former selves have been murdered, and they have to solve their own murders when they are also the only suspects. One review called Six Wakes a cross between Clue and The Thing and, honestly, I can't think of a better way to describe it. It's a delightful puzzle of a story with elements of horror, a rich cast of characters who might not know each other or themselves as well as they want, and a mystery with plenty of twists and turns.
In this Hugo nominated science fiction thriller by Mur Lafferty, a crew of clones awakens aboard a space ship to find they're being hunted-and any one of them could be the killer.
Maria Arena awakens in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood. She has no memory of how she died. This is new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died.
Maria's vat is one of seven, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so…
James S.A. Corey's The Expanse series deals with big science-fictional ideas about humanity's place in the vast cosmos, but the story's beginning is rooted in the tropes of a more intimate genre: the noir mystery. In a future in which the Asteroid Belt has become humankind's gritty and neglected industrial district, a disillusioned detective is asked by his corporate bosses to find the rebellious daughter of a rich and powerful man. At the same time, a bunch of blue-collar workers on a transport ship find themselves in the middle of a horrific tragedy without knowing who to blame. The threads of the two mysteries wind together into a sprawling tale of cosmic consequences, but what I love most is how they both start so very small: with ordinary people just trying to do their ordinary jobs, caught up in spiraling circumstances so much larger than themselves.
Humanity has colonized the planets - interstellar travel is still beyond our reach, but the solar system has become a dense network of colonies. But there are tensions - the mineral-rich outer planets resent their dependence on Earth and Mars and the political and military clout they wield over the Belt and beyond. Now, when Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war. Attacked by a stealth ship belonging to the Mars fleet, Holden must find a way to uncover the motives behind the…
All Murderbot wants to do is watch its favorite shows, avoid uncomfortable social situations, and keep its humans from getting themselves killed while they survey an unfamiliar planet. It's that last goal that proves to be a bit tricky, because somebody else is out to kill the survey team, and it's up to contracted robotic security guard Murderbot to stop them. This book--and the rest of the delightful series--aren't standard whodunnits, because we pretty much always know that the who that dunnit is some variation on "evil corporations and their goons", but there is plenty of mystery to be found in these stories, along with a great deal of humor, heart, extremely sassy artificial intelligence, and one of the best first-person POVs in all of sci-fi.
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…
Chasm City is part of Reynold's Revelation Space series, but this future-noir mystery is perfectly readable as a standalone. It follows a man on a mission of revenge, one that takes him into the crumbling, plague-ridden remains of a once-great civilization that has descended into chaos and squalor. The world-building is top-notch—this is a dying, decaying city that you can feel in your bones—and full mysteries that explore ideas of identity, memory, and redemption in a twisty mystery that ties together past, present, and future.
Come to Chasm City and embark on a mind-bending ride through the universe of Revelation Space
Tanner Mirabel was a security specialist who never made a mistake - until the day a woman in his care was blown away by Argent Reivich, a vengeful young postmortal. Tanner's pursuit of Reivich takes him across light-years of space to Chasm City, the domed human settlement on the otherwise inhospitable planet of Yellowstone.
But Chasm City is not what it was. The one time high-tech utopia has become a Gothic nightmare: a nanotechnological virus has corrupted the city's inhabitants as thoroughly as it…
How do you make a mystery setting even more claustrophobic than a locked room? How about sticking your character in a cave, by herself, with limited resources, terrifying monsters, and exactly one link to the outside world—and that link is the voice of a person she doesn't know, can't trust, and who might be lying to her about everything? This is great sci-fi horror, but it is all built around a layered mystery that gets uncovered clue by tantalizing clue the deeper we go into the cave. The evolving mystery, the dangers of caving, and the fraught connection between the two characters all make for a very engaging read.
"This claustrophobic, horror-leaning tour de force is highly recommended for fans of Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation and Andy Weir's The Martian." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A thrilling, atmospheric debut with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the creeping dread of Annihilation, in which a caver on a foreign planet finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival.
When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she'd be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She…
In Dead Space, an investigator must solve the brutal murder of an old friend in this tense sci-fi thriller. Hester Marley used to have a plan for her life. But when a catastrophic attack left her injured, indebted, and stranded far from home, she was forced to take a dead-end security job with a powerful mining company in the asteroid belt. When a friend is violently murdered at a remote asteroid mine.
Hester joins the investigation to find the truth, both about her friend’s death and the information he believed he had uncovered. But catching a killer is only the beginning of Hester’s worries, and she soon realizes that everything she learns about her friend, his fellow miners, and the outpost they call home brings her closer to revealing secrets that very powerful and very dangerous people would rather keep hidden in the depths of space.
I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives.
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.
The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…
