Rachel Neumeier’s Medical Emergency
This novella deals with some of the backstory of the ship’s doctor in the Invictus series—namely, how did he learn so much about treating people from the other side? It also provides some info on another group that will presumably feature in the upcoming duology set in this world. This was enjoyable! I really like the doctor character. A-.
Rachel Neumeier’s Invictus: Crisis
This was a little slow on a reread for me, though I love the last third! Really satisfying conclusion. I’m psyched the author is returning to this world.
Rachel Neumeier's Invictus: Captive
Rereading this because Neumeier has a few books set in this world coming out soon, and also, I really like this book! It has a lot of my favorite things: politics, diplomacy, people trying their best, etc. The story is sci-fi and involves a dude from a genetically-engineered people whose escape pod is captured by the titular ship Invictus--piloted by people from their former enemies (and creators), who they have an uneasy peace with. Is he the innocent survivor of a tragedy as he claims, or a deep-cover operative? Really interesting world-building here, especially with the genetically engineered people and their skillsets, and I love all the characters. This was fun to reread and see how things all fit together, knowing what was going to happen. Also interesting to reread this as I've been rewatching Battlestar Galactica recently. I will say this does end very abruptly, as it’s really just the first part of a longer story. Luckily the second half already exists and I will be rereading that one starting now!
Kathy Miner’s The Journey Is Our Home
So this series ended up being pretty compelling even as parts of it annoyed me (it was written over ten years ago but there are still way too many Harry Potter references). It was fine. Happy endings and heteronormative pairings (ok there is one gay couple) for all. B+.
Kathy Miner’s Where The Light Enters
The second book in this trilogy was fine, there is still a lot of rape but mostly off page. I was actually pretty into it until the very end, mainly because I dislike the youth pastor character so much. Maybe he’ll get it together in the third book but I doubt it. B+.
Kathy Miner’s What Survives Of Us
I actually had to put this book down for a while and wasn’t planning on picking it back up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so here we are. Anyway, this book involves a plague that kills 99 percent of humanity, and the survivors are changed. Warning that this book is VERY RAPEY, two of the POV characters are young women captured by DIFFERENT militaristic groups of men and treated horribly, it’s very graphic. I much preferred the sections with the mom who can communicate with animals and even the annoying youth pastor. I still want to know what happens next so I guess I’m reading this whole trilogy. B+?
Virginia Black’s No Shelter But the Stars
I’m not really into enemies-to-lovers as a plot, but it kind of works here because these two women are ACTUAL enemies, the only survivors of a spaceship battle, stranded on a fairly inhospitable moon, and they have to work together to survive. I did think this bogged down a bit in the middle, and the political stuff was pretty basic, but it was a solid romance! I’d read more stories set in this world. B+.
Becky Chambers’ As You Wake, Break the Shell
Chambers’ latest took me a minute to get into— it’s a sci-fi story about two women—one, a botanist, who secretly makes illegal medicine, the other, a pilot for a living spaceship (my fave!!!!) that she has a sort of psychic bond with—who meet and fall in love, which is interspersed with their lives like a decade or so later. And it all felt very JUMPY at first! Just when I would settle into a narrative, we’d suddenly be somewhere else entirely (some of the early chapters are really short). There are also a lot of lengthy discussions of science stuff that had my eyes glazing over a little. BUT there are also so many cool moments and I loved all the characters, and by the end I was super into it. It’s the first in a duology and I hope the second comes out soon!! A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.
Audrey Niffenegger's Life Out of Order
Normally I'd reread The Time Traveler's Wife before reading its long-awaited sequel, but I wasn't sure that a book I loved in my early 20s would hold up (and didn't want to find out, lol). I appreciate that Niffenegger is doing something different here and trying to write something relevant to our current times--lots of fascism, AI, and climate change woes--but it didn't always work for me and I wasn't always interested in Alba. I loved the sections about Clare, though, especially when she falls for a cool academic woman! I also appreciated that the author brings in trans and Black characters, though I did think some of their depictions were maybe not great? (Another issue is that while the Henry/Clare relationship is specifically called out as “squicky,” apparently it’s fine for an adult lady time traveler to get with a seventeen year old boy.) Anyway, some highs and lows, definitely an engaging read, new character Oliver is cool, the vision of the future is grim and yet optimistic, I have some lingering questions about the mechanics of everything but maybe sometimes it’s better to just let it be and enjoy it. B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 6th.
Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven
Saving the best for last! (I know she has two other early novels which do share a couple characters per a chart* at the back here, but they can’t top this so maybe I’ll reread them later.) The last time I read this was right after the miniseries came out, and I actually thought it kind of paled in comparison! But I loved it again this time. (The miniseries is great though and I actually might rewatch it!) It’s so funny which parts stick with you from read to read, and how the tv version muddled my memory a bit. But the book once again is all about the connections between people—I love the different ways the author explores this idea. And this is a gentler future than some of the others she’s imagined.
* I want yall to know that while rereading these books, I was taking copious notes on all the overlaps of character/phrase/etc and then discovered this lovely little graphic and was just like metaphorically crumpling up my paper and tossing it away.
Emily St John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility
I think I liked this more than the first time I read it, partially because I’m all immersed in the Emily St John Mandel Universe, and maybe partially bc it’s less stressful to read a pandemic novel in 2026. This one is more straight up sci-fi (several sections are set in far future moon colonies and there’s a bunch of time travel shenanigans) as a dude in investigating a weird anomaly and the people who encountered it (including some characters from The Glass Hotel). I want to research the inter-connectedness of these novels, though, because there are some interesting small things happening that I think must be deliberate.
Emily St John Mandel’s Exit Party
Mandel’s latest STRESSED ME OUT, but was also beautiful? She’s good at that. We start in Los Angeles 2031, where after a coup and a civil war, the former United States has splintered into a bunch of new countries and republics, controlled by militias. TOO REAL. Our main character is a woman who’s just gotten out of prison, and she and her roommate go to a party—where suddenly two dopplegangers of party guests appear, and their host vanishes. The story moves on from there to cover arms dealers, art heists, and other worlds. It’s totally engrossing, like I gulped this down. There is definitely some overlap with some of the other St John Mandel books and I might do a big reread of her backlist to see all the connections? And hope none of her visions of the future come to pass????? A????
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.
Naomi Salman’s Nothing But the Rain
I’m always looking for more novels that are epistolary/told as diaries, and this novella was a doozy. It’s told by a 63 year old woman, a doctor, trapped in a town where the rain erases your memories—and it’s almost always raining. Honestly haunting! I’ll be thinking about this one for a while and will definitely check out whatever Salman writes next. A/A-.
Kate Elliott's The Law of Becoming
Elliott has a lot to balance in this final volume of the Jaran series--the whole rebelling against alien overlords thing has been simmering on the back-burner for the last couple books, and that comes into play, plus all the on-planet politics and battles we're invested in. Plus there's a whole thing with two sects of a religion that each think the other are heretics. But actually it’s pretty clear she meant to write at least one more book in this series—this does wrap up a lot of plot lines but it does feel like there’s so much more to tell! So obviously I loved this but am bummed it doesn’t seem like any more will be coming (since these came out over twenty years ago). Or maybe I’m just bummed that I can’t spend more time with these characters (even the minor ones get some awesome moments in this one, I especially would love to know what happens next with Sonia and the ke). A.
Kate Elliott’s An Earthly Crown
Elliott shakes things up in book two of the Jaran series by adding a bunch of new POVs and greatly expanding what’s going on, with politics and culture clashes and war and a troupe of Shakespearean actors all playing a part. I’m super into this series!!! Note that some of the culture clashes involve one group being totally cool with queerness and the other more of a don’t ask, don’t tell situation, so there are more openly queer characters but also some homophobia. Still, for a book written in the 90s, it’s pretty awesome. A.
Kate Elliott's Jaran
The SHEER DELIGHT of stumbling onto a series by an author you like that you somehow didn't know about, and it's everything you like in a series, and you can just SINK INTO IT! This is the start of a sci-fi series in which a young woman, whose brother is an important dude in the galaxy, isn't sure she's capable of being his heir--and then she stumbles onto political shenanigans on another planet involving their alien overlords. A planet her brother is supposed to control, in order to let the indigenous people thrive and not be taken over by all the STUFF in the galaxy (though he is absolutely and hilariously trickling in books on like Newtonian physics to their university). Anyway, she gets adopted by a group of nomads and I LOVE THEM, this is such good world-building, adventures and politics and romance ensue! A!
Meg Charlton’s Voyagers
Really interesting novel about a dude who, when he was six, disappeared with his friend, and when they returned, they told a story that seemed like an alien abduction, and became somewhat famous as a result. Now he’s an adult, living under a different name, working as a lawyer, when the whole world starts getting a signal from space. Is this contact? This is all interspersed with flashbacks to his childhood and his friendship, and how they eventually became estranged, as well as pieces involving their imaginary alien friend. The writing is super engaging, I really loved reading this! A/A-.
Rebecca Thorne's Moss'd in Space
I read and liked Thorne's first couple of Tomes and Tea fozy fantasy novels, but haven't kept up with her more recent stuff--clearly I need to catch up! This was a very fun cozy fantasy involving a woman who's determined to go to another planet to save her sister's life, and buys the only spaceship she can afford--which is run by a colony of sentient moss with abandonment issues. Fun adventures and new friends ensue! Looking forward to book 2. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 30th.
Natalie Zina Walschots' Villain
The sequel to Hench is very clearly the second book in a trilogy (or series?). Some great moments, some terrifying moments, but I wasn’t as into it as the first one. Like I finished it and felt pretty bummed out! I will still read whatever Walschots writes and hope for the next book soon! B+.
Natalie Zina Walschots' Hench
Rereading this bc the sequel came out!! I remembered that I liked this but the only detail that really stuck with me was the body horror stuff near the end, but really everything else is so funny and sad and good and action-packed. Perfect narrative voice. If you haven’t read this, it’s about a woman who’s a temp, doing data entry for villains, when she’s badly injured by a superhero. And then starts doing the math on how much damage superheroes actually cause. And this starts a whole villainous journey. Really engaging, I’m so excited to see what comes next.
