I can’t help but smile when I read stories about the underdog and the weak rising in strength. The small things that are overlooked are often what is most important, and something in me just itches to watch that tiny mustard seed grow into a powerful entity in its own right. When I started writing in earnest, I didn’t intentionally set my feet along the same paths. Nevertheless, the stories I write have my DNA within them. Though these books vary in genre, I’m excited to recommend them, and I expect that you’ll enjoy them as much as I did.
I loved this book because Henry Martyn is a cunning and dreaded pirate. I think pirates are cool, but space pirates who have suffered at the hands of tyrannical and brutal overlords are positively exquisite in their vengeance. I also enjoyed this book because of its huge scope and the way it highlights the weaknesses of an overextended central government that is unable to provide justice for its citizens.
While the story of Henry Martyn can be dark at times, the process of his transformation from country folk to the terror of the Monopolity is very gratifying. By the time I got to the end, I couldn’t help but cheer when Henry crushed his enemies underfoot.
Armed with his wit and determination, Henry Martyn, a young rebel, sets out to regain his birthright, stolen from his family by a vicious vassal of an empire seeking to control the entire universe
I like social commentary and messy characters, and this book is a clever science-fiction book that provides both in a package where I found myself rooting for the little guy. It is about a world where great poverty and suffering are rampant to the point where the poor participate in a lottery that can make them utterly rich. All they have to do is work on a mysterious alien space station.
The downside is that even air and water come at a cost, and they are very likely to die. It’s quite a setup for the story’s main character, Robinette. He is really a terrible person, but he puts his life on the line against the entire system and becomes quite rich.
One of the very best must-read SF novels of all time
Wealth ... or death. Those were the choices Gateway offered. Humans had discovered this artificial spaceport, full of working interstellar ships left behind by the mysterious, vanished Heechee.
Their destinations are preprogrammed. They are easy to operate, but impossible to control. Some came back with discoveries which made their intrepid pilots rich; others returned with their remains barely identifiable. It was the ultimate game of Russian roulette, but in this resource-starved future there was no shortage of desperate volunteers.
This book was easy to pick up and hard to put down, and immediately, I felt that the candor of the writing was like an extension of the main character, Beth. This is a tale about an orphaned girl who is beset on all sides by terrible situations, and of course, she is deeply affected by it all. I believe that tough times make tough people, and it always delights me to read about adversity being overcome by the downtrodden.
I loved how the story didn’t gloss over the inevitable changes that life brought Beth. She rose to the challenges and blossomed into a chess master in an arena that does not usually favor the young or the female. It’s inspiring!
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Engaging and fast-paced, this gripping coming-of-age novel of chess, feminism, and addiction speeds to a conclusion as elegant and satisfying as a mate in four. Now a highly acclaimed, award-winning Netflix series.
Eight year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is, until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control. By the age of sixteen, she’s competing for the U.S. Open championship. But as Beth hones her skills on…
I found this book to be a fascinating science-fiction pandemic thriller that covers an epic time scale and some really crazy ideas. The writing captured my attention quickly, and I found this story to be an intense read. The plot surfaced moments in my imagination where I couldn’t help but question the likelihood of these events happening in our modern-day world.
I also relate to Christopher Dicken (the protagonist), a virus hunter who makes an unbelievable discovery. His attempts to uncover the truth about human evolution and save his family against what seems like every power on earth felt very real to me. It’s a wild story that has stuck with me over the years, and it’s definitely worth reading again.
Ancient diseases encoded in the DNA of humans wait like sleeping dragons to wake and infect again--or so molecular biologist Kaye Lang believes. And now it looks as if her controversial theory is in fact chilling reality. For Christopher Dicken, a "virus hunter" at the Epidemic Intelligence Service, has pursued an elusive flu-like disease that strikes down expectant mothers and their offspring. Then a major discovery high in the Alps --the preserved bodies of a prehistoric family--reveals a shocking link: something that has slept in our genes for millions of years is waking up.
I love how this book takes the man of the hour through the wringer and reveals the diamond inside. John Matherson is presented with a choice that causes him to voluntarily give up a lifelong career to handle a difficult family illness. I can’t help but think that the selflessness involved in a choice like that is uncommon and makes for a great hero.
There is suffering, and then the world practically ends. That double-whammy punch and the way John contends with the world around him is what makes this story so riveting. This story is really about one man who stands alone against every nightmare the world has to offer. His endurance against these odds is quite beautiful.
A post-apocalyptic thriller of the after effects in the United States after a terrifying terrorist attack using electromagnetic pulse weapons.
New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.
On a backwater planet, in the vast tundra, lives a caveman named Kpleeb. He is among the least intelligent in his village, and his fate is about to change. He goes on a journey where he is abducted, imprisoned, and experimented on by unknown beings. In his pen, Kpleeb is introduced to a fellow captive, and they join forces to fight the entities. Together, they find love and freedom in a new land.
Unfortunately, their life cannot be so easy. In their new home, strange and deadly warriors scourge the land, and an ancient prophecy is revealed. Far above their simple existence, the machinery of a galactic empire inexorably grinds onward, and Kpleeb must fight and protect everything he holds dear.
I always want to be where I am not. This was why I read sci-fi and fantasy as a child. This was why I left the country of my birth and became a professional nomad. This is why I am spellbound by mountains I will never climb and oceans I will never dive into. Imagination can take you everywhere. It took me to the academy, where speculative literature became my scholarly field, and to the publishing world, where I am now getting ready for the launch of my eighth novel. When you are at home nowhere, you are at home everywhere–including on the summits of impossible mountains.
In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading army of wolf-headed men on their borders and the infectious, ever-evolving, zombie-like Enemy that plagues them at home. When Svetlana meets Andrei, a traumatized and amnesiac soldier from another war, she embarks on a harrowing journey of adventure and self-discovery that leads her to question everything she was taught to…
A voice through Svetlana's mirror guides her beloved MotherLand from behind its' electric tower. The war with Wulfstan is not going as well as Sveta and her parents hope, but Sveta trusts the Voice. When her best friend Tattie goes missing, and Sveta saves Andrei, a soldier in summer uniform in the dead of winter, it takes Sveta through a crucible of Light, doubt, and back to the altar of true belief. Girl of Light unravels Sveta's beloved MotherLand in a war-torn adventure through monsters, missing eyes and broken mirrors.
