Category: Sci-fi

Recent Reads: The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy

Posted on by Pam

My review: ????

The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy is set in a future where more of nature has become extinct.

Franny Stone needs to follow the last of the Artic Terns on the migration that could be their last, all the way to Antarctica.

We are taken on flash backs on her life to see how she has been led here, to trying to get aboard one of the last fishing boats, and be able to follow the Terns, who will be following fish.

This is a very emotive book, with beautiful descriptions of the scenery.  I enjoyed the story, and the journey we are taken on.  It’s a sad future with so few animals in the world, which I hope we don’t ever see.

The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy was published on 28th January 2021, and is available to buy from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Charlotte McConaghy on Twitter, Facebook and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Random House.

Recent Reads: The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (Lady Astronaut book 3)

Posted on by Pam

My review:?????

Spoiler alert as this is book 3 in the Lady Astronaut series!  I’ve put links to my reviews for books 1 and 2 at the bottom!

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal is set during the same time as book 2, except it’s from the point of view of Nicole Wargin, and we learn more about the sabotage and terrorism from the Earth First group.

I really enjoyed this book, and seeing things from a different perspective.  I had that moment of reading the beginning, and thinking ‘of course!’. It made so much sense to tell us what happened when we heard so little on Elma’s trip to Mars in the second book!

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal was published on 26th November 2020, and is available on Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Mary Robinette Kowal on her Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Rebellion Publishing.

This is book 3 in the Lady Astronaut series, and if you’d like to read my reviews for the two previous books, please look below:

The Calculating Stars (book 1)

The Fated Sky (book 2)

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal (Lady Astronaut book 2)

Posted on by Pam

My review:?????

Spoilers ahead, as this is book 2 in the Lady Astronaut series!

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal starts in 1961.  The Moon colony has been established, and so now it’s time to travel to Mars, to look to establish a colony there.  Not everyone is thrilled at the prospective of people leaving the Earth, and so have established themselves as Earth First.

Elma wants to go to Mars.  She’s conquered becoming an astronaut, even one who takes the occasional Miltown, but now she’s growing board. 

Another amazing book, with the right amount of pace, scene setting, maths, and rocket science.  It’s such an interesting look into traveling to space at this time, and the aspirations of so many.

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal was published on 21st August 2018, and is available to buy from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Mary Robinette Kowal on her Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or her website.

You can read my review of book 1 in this series, The Calculating Stars here.

Recent Reads: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (Lady Astronaut book 1)

Posted on by Pam

My review:?????

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal starts in 1952, when a huge meteorite crashes into the US, and many cities are lost, including Washington D.C.

Elma is the one who works out the implications of the environmental impact of the meteorite, and her husband Nathanial and she campaign for the US to start exploring space as a viable option for humanity in the coming years. 

Elma is a pilot and is a mathematician, and so she becomes a calculator (think of the film Hidden Figures).  But Elma’s ambitions don’t end there – she wants to be an astronaut!

I really enjoyed this book, and loved the way it was written.  The misogyny and racism of the time is very clear, and not glossed over.

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal was published on 3rd July 2018, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones, and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Mary Robinette Kowal on her Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or her website.

Recent Reads: New Horizons edited by Tarun K Saint

Posted on by Pam


My review: ????

New Horizons edited by Tarun K Saint is a collection of short science fiction stories from South Asia.  There are alien encounters, people going into outer space, and scientific discoveries.

I found the stories to be quite different to western stories.  The end often comes much sooner in these than in many of the stories I read.  You are left to wonder what is going to happen next.  There are a lot of stories about the interplay of people, and how this affects the thing that is going on.

I enjoyed seeing the different views on science fiction, the different journeys I was taken on, and that people will be people, even on the moon.

New Horizons will be published on 20th August 2020, and is available to buy on Amazon and on  Waterstones. I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

If you’re interested in science fiction books, then here’s some others I’ve reviewed, and in particular, if you’re interested in Asian science fiction, try Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Gollancz and the Orion Publishing Group.

Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews.

Recent Reads: The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

Posted on by Pam

My review: ?????

The Last Emperox by John Scalzi is the last book in the Interdependency Trilogy, and I read the other 2 books so I could review the last one.

I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Scalzi so far, and this wasn’t an exception!  It’s a well written sci-fi story.  It’s fast paced, and you’ll enjoy the ride!

The Last Emperox is one that I would recommend you read the other 2 books for first – they are: The Collapsing Empire and The Consuming Fire.  Both of them are equally well written and you will be joining the characters in hoping they succeed.  

The Last Emperox was published on 16th April 2020, and is available on Amazon and Waterstones.  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow John Scalzi on his website, Facebookand Twitter. 

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley, and to Pan Macmillan (the publishers) for this book. 

You can have a look on my GoodReads to see what else I’ve read!

 

Recent Reads: Chew the graphic novel series by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Posted on by Pam

My review: ?????

Welcome to a world where avian flu has swept the world, and where eating chicken has been outlawed.  The most powerful law enforcement agency is the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) as they have to shut down any and all ways of people eating chicken.

Tony Chu is a cibopath, which means that he can see where something he has eaten has come from, it’s memories, you might say.  The same is true if he eats normal food, or people.  The only thing that stops his powers are beets.

This graphic novel series is not for the faint of heart or stomach!  Yes, Tony does indeed take bites out of people, and we have blood, and guts, and other people eating others, because, believe it or not, Tony Chu is an FDA Agent, and eating people is often part of his job.

I’ve read all 12 volumes of the graphic novel, and it was very entertaining, funny, heartwarming, gross and sad.  I really recommend it, but just bear in mind my warnings over the grossness of it!  

If you do read it, I hope you enjoy, and do go all the way until the end!

Chew volume 1 was published in 2009,  and is available to buy on Amazon  and on Waterstones.  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow John Layman on Twitter, and Rob Guillory on Twitter and on Instagram.

Check out my 

GoodReads profile

 to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Posted on by Pam

 My review: ?????

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a quick little book, which is set in a cafe where there is one seat that if you sit in, and drink coffee, you’ll be able to travel in time.  But, you have to drink the coffee before it gets cold, or you won’t return!

The book has four stories in it, and you see different people coming in to time travel.  It’s a science fiction book as it has time travel, but that is the limit of the sci-fi!  It is telling you about the people, their lives, and how the time travel affects them.

I really enjoyed this book. It was light, and refreshingly different as it was written in Japanese, and released in Japan first, and has now been translated.

Before The Coffee Gets Cold was published on 19th September 2019,  and is available to buy on Amazon  and on Waterstones.  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow Toshikazu Kawaguchi on Goodreads.  I’m afraid I couldn’t find their website, or social media!

If you’re interested in self discovery books, then here’s some others I’ve reviewed:

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Pan Macmillan (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

Posted on by Pam

My review: ????


This is one novel, with six stories ranging from a couple of years in the future, to far in the future.  They are all all looking at what life would be like with body modifications, which starts with the good intentions of medical applications, and diversifies from there.  

These six stories have different characters in them, and set in different times, with no exact number of years between, but we’re told it’s ‘a few more years’ into the future.

Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful was an enjoyable sci-fi look at the applications people could find to being able to modify their bodies, and isn’t being told to preach to you, just to give you the room to look at the idea, and how wrong it could go.

Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful was published on 4th December 2018, and is available on Amazon and Waterstones to order, and everywhere else you can find books!  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!


I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Harper Collins (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: Golden State by Ben H. Winters

Posted on by Pam

My review: ?????

We are in the Golden State, where everyone speaks the truth, records their daily activities, and are monitored everywhere.  

But this is a good thing, because we tell each other facts as a form of greeting.  There are Speculators, those with the power to sense a lie, and Lazlo Ratesic is one of these.  He’s been a Speculator for 10 years, and always worked alone.

Until today, when he is assigned Aysa Paige to mentor.  She has an even greater gift for lies.  She can sense when objects are wrong or missing, and this skill helps with the case that they are sent out on.

This was a very well crafted world, where all of this monitoring is justified at all times, and talked about in such a positive way that you can see the brain washing that has been carried out on the inhabitants of the Golden State, which is set in California.

This is a post apocalyptic tale, with you only finding out this at the very end of the book, but isn’t something that impacts the tale.

I really enjoyed this book, and would thoroughly recommend it.  It would be classified as sci-fi for the lie detection powers, and because it’s post apocalyptic.

Golden State is out now, and is available on Amazon, and everywhere else you can find books!  It was published on 24th January this year.

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Random House, and Cornerstone (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!