I stumbled across this book through a re-tweet from the author announcing its release. Whoever says posting to Twitter isn't effective is dead wrong. I stumbled across this book through a re-tweet from the author announcing its release. Whoever says posting to Twitter isn't effective is dead wrong. I am positive I would not have had AL Davidson's book hit my radar otherwise. And I'm really glad it did.
It's a queer space rom-horror that intertwines alien and fungal terror for a ridiculously captivating read. Yes, maybe I'm coining a new sub-genre term. Just go with it, yeah? And hellooo... do you see that cover?
London and Temple have been apart more than they've been together since they started working with the Zeus Project. London's compromised health keeps them locked away in a remote outpost while they perform autopsies on deceased crewmembers who've suffered strange and worrying deaths, while Temple is captain of a team that's been sent to a distant planet to begin terraform procedures. In addition to their health issues, London is also suffering from anxiety, depression, and may be starting to go a little crazy... doors they know they've locked are starting to open on their own, they swear they hear movement and whispers in the lower level of the outpost, and the bodies that are being sent to them, which are without a doubt very dead, also appear to be somewhat alive, even though London knows that can't be possible.
This one is a bit of a slow burn, with a higher focus on the relationship between London and Temple, but once the weirdness starts up, the book gets kicked into high gear. It's an emotional, slightly gory, terror filled journey out amongst the stars.......more
Nope. Got 42% of the way in and I want out. I usually love Tor titles but this one just isn't doing it for me. It's too heavily focused on the lives oNope. Got 42% of the way in and I want out. I usually love Tor titles but this one just isn't doing it for me. It's too heavily focused on the lives of two married women and the men their home colony "pairs" them with in order to propagate and keep the human species going after a rival settlement stole their genetic regeneration whatevers. Ugh. It oozes toxic relationship stuff when I thought it was going to ooze pissed off alien goop stuff.
There's a strong part of me that wants to continue pushing through just in case the focus shifts and crazy alien stuff starts happening because you know, DNFing is such a hard thing for me. But I'm going to try to fight the urge to keep picking it up...
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
... Ok, I am a weak DNFer. I picked it back up and finished it. It got better. Not immensely so, but right after the place I was going to DNF, the book did what I thought it was going to do and shifted focus.
Was it worth not DNFing? Eh. Am I glad I went back to it? Eh. But at least it's finished and I don't have to worry about whether I DNFd too soon and didn't give it a fair shot, right?!...more
I think it's time to create a takes-place-in-outer-space shelf here. I've been reading more and more space fiction over the years and the genre definiI think it's time to create a takes-place-in-outer-space shelf here. I've been reading more and more space fiction over the years and the genre definitely deserves it.
This was a book I was keeping an eye out for and when I noticed it was pretty cheap on kindle, I snagged it. And then once I had it, I couldn't wait to read it, LOL.
It's the 2700's and Jay is a digital clone of himself, awakened from rest and thrust into a humanoid-ish body called a HUSK by the owner of transport spaceship that's gone dark. He's chosen Jay specifically for his previous work as a detective way back in his original life on Earth, and is paying Jay to board his ship and determine why it fell off the grid.
When Jay enters the ship, he discovers dried black ooze everywhere and the dead bodies he locates are also covered in the stuff. Even more disturbing, during his search of the cargo hold, he finds the sole surviving crew member. She's leaking the viscous fluids from her eyes, nose, and mouth, already on the edge of death and not talking any sense, and worse yet, in there with them is the thing that's laid claim to the ship.
From there, it's a race against time - Jay has only so many hours of oxygen in his tanks, and now he's being hunted by an alien lifeform that is somehow causing the entire ship, inside and out, to become overgrown with strange and pollenating plant life. Can he escape the claws of the monster he's trapped in there with? Does he have what it takes to survive? Or will he withdraw too deeply into the memories he's not supposed to have retained that appear to be triggered by the dust of the inky dried goop...?
What a great little eco horror space novel! Even with the obvious foreshadowing throughout, I didn't fully figure out the ending until the jaw dropping reveal. The only complaint I have revolves around my inability to clearly picture some of what was going on. The descriptions didn't always work for me and I struggled to visualize what Jay was looking at or experiencing within the confines of the ship.
You guys, I was sooo close to DNFing this around the 30% mark... it was really slow and kinda boring and not meeting my expectations at all. But I hadYou guys, I was sooo close to DNFing this around the 30% mark... it was really slow and kinda boring and not meeting my expectations at all. But I had read and loved Dead Silence... so I talked myself into giving it more time to wow me. And I'm glad I did.
Ophelia is a psychologist who travels with space teams that have experienced trauma, with the intent of getting them to open up about their grief, help them process their feelings, and assess them for potential risk of ERS - a space based mental illness that, when left unchecked, could cause the sufferer to inflict severe harm on themselves and others. Ophelia is also running away from a past that continues to haunt her no matter where she goes.
The team to which she is assigned is headed out to a planet that used to belong to Pinnacle, her uncle's company, but has been abandoned for the past six years. All scans showed no sign of life. Their mission is to collect some samples and get the hab back up and running. But once on site, she can't help but feel there is something is very 'off' about the place. Bad memories start to resurface, she finds unsettling objects left behind in the debris, and one of the crew members is starting to act strange...
Once the weird stuff starts up, the book really gets rolling, and the last third, gosh, it just flies by at whiplash speed. More psychological terror than actual horror, it'll definitely scratch your claustrophic stuck-in-space itch!! ...more
This was on my kindle for the longest time and I saw so many of you reading it lately. So with this being Women in Translation month, I thought, sure.This was on my kindle for the longest time and I saw so many of you reading it lately. So with this being Women in Translation month, I thought, sure. Why not. Let's dust this bad boy off and get her read.
But ooooff. Really?
I like weird. This is not new news. But maaaan, you #bookstagrammers seem to like your weird on a whole different level! Shaking my head at how many of you are raving over this one.
What starts off with a young, confused girl who survived the horrors of a mentally abusive family and a sexually abusive teacher devolves into a now-grown-ass-woman who still believes her childhood fantasies, manages to marry and then convince her husband of them, and then completely unravels into (view spoiler)[a shared hallucinatory cannabalistic mindfuck (hide spoiler)].
I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I couldn't find one likable character and if I had to hear about her alienness or the factory and brainwashing one more time......more
Project Hail Mary is #book5 of my #bookblurbreadingexperiment. And it was a really really good one!
I had read Andy Weir back before The Martian blew Project Hail Mary is #book5 of my #bookblurbreadingexperiment. And it was a really really good one!
I had read Andy Weir back before The Martian blew up. I really loved that book, but his other two releases just didn't sound like anything I was in a rush to pick up when they first came out. However, Andy blurbed Blake Crouch's Abdanon (the 4th book I read in this reading experiment) and I figured what the heck, I would buy it and finally give it a go. And I am sooo glad I did.
It's another +400 pager and I was afraid it was going to be a slow read but I chewed through it in a matter of two days. Space fiction, when done well, is becoming one of my go-to escapist genres. Andy does a great job of writing intriguing characters, especially ones who can keep you engaged when they only have themselves for company. And I love how he keeps the science at my level, lol.
And omg, Rocky! He's got to be the coolest alien life form ever to have been written! I loved him!
I'm actually a little disappointed that I waited so long to read this one, and honestly, if it wasn't for the book blurb reading experiment, god knows when or if I ever would have!
Sadly, it looks like this is the end of the line for the experiment though. The authors who have blurbed this book are Blake Crouch (who I just read and am not interested in reading more from him), Ernest Cline (who I've already read and... eh...), George R R Martin (no thanks) and Brandon Sanderson (again, no thanks). The blubers are getting further and further away from the kind of fiction I enjoy reading.
But I'm not heartbroken about it. This experiment turned out to be much better than I could have imagined. It started with Hye-Young Pyung' The Hole (loved!), got me reading Lauren van den Berg's Find Me (really loved), Justin Cronin's The Ferryman (which I would never have picked up on my own, and loved), and now this one. 3 out of 5 ain't bad!
And because I really enjoyed it, I think I'll restart this experiment in a few weeks, but this time with a small press book! And we'll see how far that one takes me!...more
In The Seep, we're dropped smack in the middle of an already established alien invasion. These are not your garden variety little grey 'take me to youIn The Seep, we're dropped smack in the middle of an already established alien invasion. These are not your garden variety little grey 'take me to your leader' aliens, though. These particular aliens are bodiless particles that seep into your skin and brain, and take all your pain away. They are more like an essence, doping people up like a drug, and appear to be non-violent. Most people are cool with it and coexist with it, but others have created Seep-free communities, preferring to avoid all contact with it and those polluted by it, continuing to live the old way.
It sounded so good... but just didn't deliver. All of the characters were flat as cardboard, with writing that barely scratched the surface, there were weird random time jumps, and the most annoying part of the whole reading experience is that we're kind of just continiously floating on the periphery of this earth changing and life altering event, never fully being brought up to speed. Like, where did these aliens come from? Why are they chilling out inside the people of earth? Do you have to give them permission to enter you? What's their MO?
So nope. Not a fan. And, can I just tell you that I'm getting tired of the reading rut I've found myself in lately... all these meh reads back to back to back are wearing on meeeee. The only real positive was that it's a wickedly quick read. You can knock this thing out in one sitting if you wanted to. But honestly, why would you? ...more
Holy fuck this was good! Like, the best book I've read so far this year good!
Normally, I struggle immensely with epic multi-generational storylines buHoly fuck this was good! Like, the best book I've read so far this year good!
Normally, I struggle immensely with epic multi-generational storylines but this one was so well written and the order in which it unfolded sucked me in so hard, right from the start.
I wasn't sure what I expected going into it but I definitely wasn't expecting it to blow me away like this. And it's a debut to boot!
I disagree with the comparison to Station Eleven. This hits you in the feels so much harder. This is goosebumps all over my body good. It's historic, it's futuristic, it's apocalyptic and catastrophic, it's cli-fi and survival fiction. And it works!
If this is not on your radar yet, you've just been put on notice. You need to get yourself a copy. You can thank me later!...more
I eyed this one up at the bookstore when it first came out but didn't want to spend the full hardcover price, so I found it online for cheaper. And thI eyed this one up at the bookstore when it first came out but didn't want to spend the full hardcover price, so I found it online for cheaper. And thank god I did because it ended up being just ok.
A gender fluid shapeshifting alien, fleeing their dying planet, crash-lands on Earth and uses online dating apps to have mind blowing sex with humans only to eat them immediately afterward. While interesting in theory, it just got too wrapped up in the inner monologue stuff, which, ok sure, was necessary as a tool to get to know our narrator better, but man did it become a bit repetitive and tedious.
Themes of isolation, adaptability, and survival are threaded throughout. It's quirky, raunchy, and also a little endearing. So I'm not telling you to steer clear of it but if you never read it, you wouldn't be missing much. ...more
I picked up this collection today and had not expected to tear through it so darn quickly!
In Patterns of Orbit, Chloe deftly navigates the harsh realI picked up this collection today and had not expected to tear through it so darn quickly!
In Patterns of Orbit, Chloe deftly navigates the harsh realities of outer space, the horrors buried deep within the ocean, and literally everything in between. Her stories are relentless in the best way. She accomplishes in a few pages what others can't pull off in a hundred.
Steeped in love and loss, comforts and fears, science fiction and horror, these stories will unsettle you. They will gut you. They will crawl under your skin and haunt you. If you don't start looking at forests, bodies of water, and the stars differently after this... do I even know you?
My husband walked into my antilibrary and saw me staring at my stacks of unread books. He asked what I was doing and I told him I was trying to pick mMy husband walked into my antilibrary and saw me staring at my stacks of unread books. He asked what I was doing and I told him I was trying to pick my next read. He said he wanted to pick it for me and chose this one based solely on the title. And what a choice it was!
While the book was quite chunky (clocking in at over 420 page), it read like lightning. Coates wastes no time getting the action going and once it starts, there's no stopping it!
Told in five separate stories from five different outposts, all detailing the same catastrophic alien takeover, we're initially introduced to a small group of women stationed on a remote moon, doing a sweep of the surface to extinguish any lifeforms that may have travelled there on random space junk or comets and asteriods. These lifeforms are typically non-threatening, non-sentient plant life or sludgy stuff that, if left undealt with, could infest the planet and gunk up their equipment.
While on a routine tour around the moon, one of the women comes into contact with something they've never seen before - a large black gooey entity with exploratory tentacles that launches itself at her when she comes within range. There's a struggle, a lot of screaming, and the diagonstics from her suit show that its integrity has been compromised. One of her partners races to her location in an attempt to save her, but the goo tries to attack her as well, and she has no recourse but to flee to the safety of the base. Shortly after, the initial woman knocks at the air lock begging to be let in. Only it's not her. Not really.
How do you fight a monster who looks and sounds like the people you know and love? One that can mimic them to a T, their memories and mannerisms?
Space horror for the win!
Confession - I've only read this and SA Barnes' Dead Silence, but I want more! What other space horror novels would you recommend I pick up?...more
Holy FUCK you guys! I was hoping I was going to like this one but I wasn't prepared for how much I would absolutely LOVE it. I DEVOURED it. I didn't wHoly FUCK you guys! I was hoping I was going to like this one but I wasn't prepared for how much I would absolutely LOVE it. I DEVOURED it. I didn't want to put it down, it was just that fricken good. I stayed up reading past my bedtime because I had to know how it ended.
Told in three parts by three different women who become irrevocably connected to one another through a pandy-apocalyptic event, we're introduced to a horrible new virus that tears through the planet like nothing we've ever seen. If you catch it, you're going to end up so fucked up you'll wish it killed you. Because to survive it means you're ushering in the end of the world as we know it and unlike R.EM. claims it will be, shit ain't gonna be fine. You are all soooo fucking far from fine!
Oh the things this book does and the places it goes! The body horror! The cow brains! And that weird ass crazy ending! If this wasn't on your radar already, it is now. If you aren't sure it's for you, you're wrong, it is! If you don't like it when you're done reading it, do I even know you and how are we even friends?
This was the perfect sick read. I binged on this book in between napping off the first doozy of a head cold slash flu I've experienced since the pandeThis was the perfect sick read. I binged on this book in between napping off the first doozy of a head cold slash flu I've experienced since the pandemic started.
The pacing was perfect, the snark was superb, and the references to Cujo and A Quiet Place were pretty spot on.
The narrative bounces between the first person perspectives of Mike, a melancholy movie producer who appears set on drowning his sorrows in the bottom of a champaign bottle, and Beth, who is house-and-dog-sitting for his neighbor and unbeknownst to him, has been eyeballing Mike and that bottle of bubbly for a while. She finally works up the courage to introduce herself and, as things do in awkward and drunken meetings like this, the two end up doing the dirty back at his place.
The morning after, Beth wakes from the strangest nightmare she's ever experienced, and Mike tells her all about the meteorite shower she missed, showing her the odd spherical ball he and Jake, the dog she's supposed to be caring for, brought back from one of the impact points on the beach. They head back to the ocean to see what more they can see, and what they see are people nervously waiting for a boat to come gather them up and take them away to safety. Safety? What in the world do they need to be saved from? Beth and Mike are beginning to worry that they missed an important memo when a police SUV careens onto the beach, begging everyone to disperse, to go home and lock their doors and await further instruction. Only he appears to have arrived too late... as an unearthly noise sounds off from the other side of the dunes, and a man who was flagging down the boatman is ripped from the spot with a gutteral scream. One second he's there, waiving his hands, and the next, he's just... not.
What follows is a front row seat to the end of the world as it is happening. Mike and Beth are determined to survive the alien invasion if it kills them, which, c'mon, if we're being honest, it might just do!...more
At first, I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. A collection of stories with intricately linked characters spanning hundredsOh gosh you guys.
At first, I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. A collection of stories with intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years in the aftermath of a plague? I worried that it might be overreaching, that it might be spreading itself too thin, that it might be too ambitious for its own good, that the timing might be too soon (I mean, a book about a super plague in the MIDDLE of a real-life pandemic, c'mon!) but boooy was I wrong.
While some stories hit harder than others, each was essential to the whole. What Sequoia has envisioned is a world of survivors, a culture that focuses on celebrating and remembering lost loved ones, a future that is fueled by grief and hope. The people who populate this collection are more connected than they will ever know, their tiny ripples evolving and expanding across generations, across millenia, and yes, even across space.
This is a story of first contact during an alien awakening.
Three strangers - Adaora, a marine bioligist; Agu, an amphibious solider; and Anthony, a GThis is a story of first contact during an alien awakening.
Three strangers - Adaora, a marine bioligist; Agu, an amphibious solider; and Anthony, a Ghanian rapper - are aimlessly wandering the beach in Lagos, Nigeria when a great sonic boom rattles the land, and a massive wave sucks them into the ocean. When they reimerge, they are accompanied by a fourth, a shape shifting extraterrestrial whose people come from the beneath the water. The aliens desire to live in harmony with humanity and require our three reluctant protagonists' assistance to help them begin to assimilate. Chaos ensues as a religious leader and his followers, the military, and some lowbrow hoodlums each set their sights on the alien ambassador.
The book has fun with itself - at one point, the Nigerian president gets all "take me to your leader" and meets with the alien Elders, and our main characters reveal they have had unique superpowers since childhood - but it also speaks directly to how we as a species have been seriously fucking up the only planet we can call home, and we need to stop.
Shit. This was a tough one for me. I was quite enthralled while I was reading it, but once I put it down, the urge to pick it back up just wasn't there. The book's setting and premise are compelling enough, but the writing and pacing was a little wonky and uneven for me....more
This book was a ridiculous amount of fun. Two men, burdened with their own strange secrets, travel together to a tiny little coastal town out near IceThis book was a ridiculous amount of fun. Two men, burdened with their own strange secrets, travel together to a tiny little coastal town out near Iceland to hunt an elusive unicorn and wind up uncovering a conspiracy deeper and darker than anything they could have imagined.
You guys, this book is so well written, and is a delicious mishmosh of sci-fi, magical realism, and cosmic fiction. Keith has a wonderful sense of people and place and his pacing is spot-on. I almost hated to put it down and stayed up late into the night to finish it....more
I picked up this little gem at AWP17. It's a gorgeously designed chapbook with a killer first line. And each page is packed with these amazing little I picked up this little gem at AWP17. It's a gorgeously designed chapbook with a killer first line. And each page is packed with these amazing little sucker-punches.
You think you know breakups? These interconnected shorts will take your worst breakup stories and pick its teeth with them. From the nurse and the surgeon to performance artists and the driverless, runaway bus, you ain't got shit on Mark Leidner!...more
As I read the collection, I thought about how challenging it must have been, as an author, to structure stories u100 stories, each told in 100 words.
As I read the collection, I thought about how challenging it must have been, as an author, to structure stories under such a specific constraint, having to maximize every. single. word. I found myself wondering how many times a story changed because he wasn't able to make it work in 100 words.
In most cases, ML Kennedy really pulled it off. Favorites were "A Question Better Suited for the CDC", "All I See Are Nails", "Between the Worlds Incredulous", "Bugs", "Count Backwards", "Ennui", "Provincetown", "Quixotic", "Scuriomorphia", "The Fundamental Flaw in the System", "Timelocked". These short fictions transported me right into the thick of things. I felt connected, however briefly, to the characters and their situations. I cringed. laughed. reacted.
100 by 100 has something for everyone. It's a fun, fast, and enjoyable read.
*I contributed the title prompt "Torpedo of Rose". ...more
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