Murderbot

Mystery, Mayhem, Murderbot
Must-reads!
~*~

All Systems Red
by Martha Wells
SciFi (2017)

Artificial Condition
by Martha Wells (2018)

Rogue Protocol
by Martha Wells (2018)

Exit Strategy
by Martha Wells (2018)

Network Effect
by Martha Wells (2020)

Fugitive Telemetry
by Martha Wells (2021)

System Collapse
by Martha Wells (2023)

Then watch series...

Murderbot
season 1 (2025)

~*~ * header image source: murderbot

On The Nightstand: Wayfarers

The Wayfarers series Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space-and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe-in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2014

A Closed and Common Orbit
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2016

Record of a Spaceborn Few
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2018

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2021

Rabbit rabbit: Authority

Authority
by Jeff Vandermeer
SciFi, Horror | Published: 2014 | Goodreads
The bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy

After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.

John Rodríguez (aka "Control") is the Southern Reach's newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he's pledged to serve.

Rabbit rabbit: Rabbits

Rabbits
by Terry Miles
SciFi, Thriller | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
Conspiracies abound in this surreal and yet all-too-real technothriller in which a deadly underground alternate reality game might just be altering reality itself, set in the same world as the popular Rabbits podcast.

It's an average work day. You've been wrapped up in a task, and you check the clock when you come up for air—4:44 pm. You go to check your email, and 44 unread messages have built up. With a shock, you realize it is April 4th—4/4. And when you get in your car to drive home, your odometer reads 44,444. Coincidence? Or have you just seen the edge of a rabbit hole?

Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, ten iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. Their identities are unknown. So is their reward, which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past—and the body count is rising.

And now the eleventh round is about to begin. Enter K—a Rabbits obsessive who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. That path opens when K is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong with the game and that K needs to fix it before Eleven starts or the whole world will pay the price.

Five days later, Scarpio is declared missing. Two weeks after that, K blows the deadline and Eleven begins. And suddenly, the fate of the entire universe is at stake.

It's a clone, my dude

Dual (2022)
Director/Writer: Riley Stearns
Stars: Karen Gillan, Aaron Paul
SciFi, Thriller | imdb | my rating: 4

A woman opts for a cloning procedure after she receives a terminal diagnosis but when she recovers her attempts to have her clone decommissioned fail, leading to a court-mandated duel to the death.

The Echo Wife
by Sarah Gailey
SciFi, Thriller | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.

It took me so long to hate him.

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.

And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.

Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.

Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

Foe by Iain Reid

Foe
by Iain Reid
narrated by Jacques Roy

Published: 2018
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press
Hardback: 272
Rating: 4
Horror, SciFi, Psychological Thriller | Goodreads

First sentence(s):
Two headlights. I wake to the sight of them.

In Iain Reid’s second haunting, philosophical puzzle of a novel, set in the near-future, Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with alarming news: Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm... very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won't have a chance to miss him, because she won't be left alone—not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.

My two-bits:

This story makes you question couple relationships. What makes a good one?

How well do you know your partner? Does it matter?

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.
* part of Fraterfest (here)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
by Becky Chambers

Published: 2014
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Genre: SciFi, Space Opera
Paperback: 518
Rating: 5
Goodreads
Website

Wayfarers series:
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Closed and Common Orbit
Record of a Spaceborn Few

First sentence(s):
As she woke up in the pod, she remembered three things.

Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

My two-bits:
Loved this spaceship crew. Loved learning about living in the future with its diverse alien cultures and interactions.

Reminded of tv past scifi shows Farscape and Firefly.

~*~
* monthly theme: SciFi, Supper, Love, Sex and Marriage

Kojiki by Keith Yatsuhashi

Kojiki
by Keith Yatsuhashi

Find out more about this book and author:
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Blog
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Published: 2016
Publisher: Angry Robot
Genre: Fantasy, SciFi, Japan
Paperback pages: 448
Rating: 3

Kojiki series:
Kojiki
Kokoro

First sentence(s):
Tokyo, Japan
Keiko Yamada lifted her battered thirty-five millimeter camera and held her breath.

Every civilization has its myths. Only one is true.

When eighteen year old Keiko Yamada’s father dies unexpectedly, he leaves behind a one way ticket to Japan, an unintelligible death poem about powerful Japanese spirits and their gigantic, beast-like Guardians, and the cryptic words: “Go to Japan in my place. Find the Gate. My camera will show you the way.”

Alone and afraid, Keiko travels to Tokyo, determined to fulfil her father’s dying wish. There, beneath glittering neon signs, her father’s death poem comes to life. Ancient spirits spring from the shadows. Chaos envelops the city, and as Keiko flees its burning streets, her guide, the beautiful Yui Akiko, makes a stunning confession – that she, Yui, is one of a handful of spirits left behind to defend the world against the most powerful among them: a once noble spirit now insane. Keiko must decide if she will honour her father’s heritage and take her rightful place among the gods.

My two-bits:
Female heroines, love triangle, progeny.
And, there be dragons.

~*~
* monthly theme: SciFi, Supper, Love, Sex and Marriage

ME by Tomoyuki Hoshino

ME by Tomoyuki Hoshino
afterword by Kenzaburō Ōe
translated by Charles De Wolf
narrated by David Shih

Published: 2017
Publisher: Akashic Books
Paperback: 256
Genre: SciFi, Japan
Rating: 4
Goodreads

First sentence(s):
I stole the cell phone on nothing more than a spr-of-the-moment whim, without any sense of wanting to do anything with it.

This novel centers on the "It's me" telephone scam--often targeting the elderly--that has escalated in Japan in recent years. Typically, the caller identifies himself only by saying, "Hey, it's me," and goes on to claim in great distress that he's been in an accident or lost some money with which he was entrusted at work, etc., and needs funds wired to his account right away.

ME's narrator is a nondescript young Tokyoite named Hitoshi Nagano who, on a whim, takes home a cell phone that a young man named Daiki Hiyama accidentally put on Hitoshi's tray at McDonald's. Hitoshi uses the phone to call Daiki's mother, pretending he is Daiki, and convinces her to wire him 900,000 yen.

Three days later, Hitoshi returns home from work to discover Daiki's mother there in his apartment, and she seems to truly believe Hitoshi is her son. Even more bizarre, Hitoshi discovers his own parents now treat him as a stranger; they, too, have a "me" living with them as Hitoshi. At a loss for what else to do, Hitoshi begins living as Daiki, and no one seems to bat an eye.

My two-bits:
Creepy and poignant.

Got me thinking of identity and questioning self and responsibilities.

Also, got me thinking of relationships with older family members - parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

~*~
* weekly theme: Japan

* Listed to the audio version

Spotlight: Logan's Run by William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson

Logan's Run
by William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson
-SciFi, Dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads
It's the 23rd Century and at age 21... your life is over! Logan-6 has been trained to kill; born and bred from conception to be the best of the best. But his time is short and before his life ends he's got one final mission: Find and destroy Sanctuary, a fabled haven for those that chose to defy the system. But when Logan meets and falls in love with Jessica, he begins to question the very system he swore to protect and soon they're both running for their lives. When Last Day comes, will you lie down and die... or run!

~*~
Someone close to my heart turns 21 today *HAPPY BIRTHDAY* which got me thinking of books related to that age.

Logan's Run popped up at the top of the Google search.

I remember watching the film version way back. It struck me as a creepy and chilling movie at the time. But, good and sparked the imagination. This calls for a re-watch.

I did not know that it was based on a book. Since the book, there have been sequels, spin-offs, adaptations and possible film remake. After this discovery and reading the premise I am so curious to read the original.

Adding it to my tbr pile...

Dear Cyborgs by Eugene Lim

Dear Cyborgs
by Eugene Lim
narrated by Feodor Chin

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Website

Published: 2017
Publisher: FSG Originals
Genre: SciFi
Paperback: 176
Rating: 3

First sentence(s):
This is in Ohio.

In a small Midwestern town, two Asian American boys bond over their outcast status and a mutual love of comic books. Meanwhile, in an alternative or perhaps future universe, a team of superheroes ponder modern society during their time off. Between black-ops missions and rescuing hostages, they swap stories of artistic malaise and muse on the seemingly inescapable grip of market economics.

Gleefully toying with the conventions of the novel, Dear Cyborgs weaves together the story of a friendship’s dissolution with a provocative and timely meditation on protest. Through a series of linked monologues, a lively cast of characters explores narratives of resistance―protest art, eco-terrorists, Occupy squatters, pyromaniacal militants―and the extent to which any of these can truly withstand and influence the cold demands of contemporary capitalism. All the while, a mysterious cybernetic book of clairvoyance beckons, and trusted allies start to disappear.

Entwining comic-book villains with cultural critiques, Eugene Lim’s Dear Cyborgs is a fleet-footed literary exploration of power, friendship, and creativity. Ambitious and knowing, it combines detective pulps, subversive philosophy, and Hollywood chase scenes, unfolding like the composites and revelations of a dream.

My two-bits:

This sort of reads likes a set of short stories. I liked parts here and there, but did not really get a sense of the whole of it.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Tournament of Books 2018 (here)

The Nobody by Jeff Lemire

The Nobody
by Jeff Lemire

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Blog
Twitter

Published: 2009
Publisher: Vertigo
Genre: SciFi, Mystery, Graphic Novel
Hardback: 144
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
I was sixteen hers old in 1994… The year that John Griffen Walked into Large Mouth.

This is an original graphic novel from an award-winning alternative comics artist! The tiny, isolated fishing village of Large Mouth never saw much excitement - until the arrival of the stranger, that is. Wrapped from head to toe in bandages and wearing weird goggles, he quietly took up residence in the sleepy town's motel. Driven by curiosity, the townfolk quickly learn the tragic story of his past, and of the terrible accident that left him horribly disfigured. Eventually, the town embraces the stranger as one of their own - but do his bandages hide more than just scars? Xeric Award-winner Jeff Lemire ("Essex County") explores themes of identity, fear and paranoia in a small community in a story that will keep you guessing until the very end.

PeekAbook:

My two-bits:

I have enjoyed Jeff's past graphic novels and this one is just as good. He does the small town feels very well.

The stranger in a small town shakes up things to provide just the right amount of excitement for its folks.

Excerpt: The Good Dictator by Gonçalo J. Nunes Dias

The Good Dictator
by Gonçalo J. Nunes Dias
-SciFic, Dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads -giveaway offer ends March 21
An unidentified object parked on the moon - and no one seems to know where it came from. Gustavo, a middle-aged computer programmer with a comfortable and grey life, decides to make a list of what he would need to survive a hypothetical attack. He becomes obsessed with the list, spends a fortune, robs a drugstore: his own family thinks he is going insane. However, after the attack, it’s the insane who are well prepared for a new era in society. First book of a trilogy.

Excerpt:

I’ll ask you something and you may not decline. – Said Rute with a seductive look.

Tell me.

Today, you will have to have dinner with me as a way to repay you for all of your work.

Gustavo gave a little laugh and placed his right hand on Rute's left arm.

You don’t have to repay me; I did it because I like your company.

I won't accept a no, please.At that moment, Gustavo felt like kissing her thin lips, but he thought that perhaps he was misreading her signs and feared being rejected.

I accept the invitation, then. But first, I will go home, take a shower, change, and bring some wine to water the food.

Perfect. – Rute answered with a pleasant smile.

While he dressed up for dinner, Gustavo found himself a little nervous, he liked Rute and felt attracted to her, but he wonder if she felt the same way and it everything seemed so fast and recent that it was best to just have a single peaceful, relaxed night, in good company, and not to try any foolishness. He left home very elegant, with two bottles of red wine and with his hands sweating in anxiety.

When he arrived, Rute was already dressed with one of Marta's beautiful dresses, which was somewhat weird for Gustavo. She was still cooking dinner, and they had an exciting talk which lasted the entire dinner, always watered with red wine, which soon made Rute a little tipsy, since she had not drunk for a long time. They talked about the past and their previous relationships. Rute confessed that she missed her two daughters and her father a lot, but she did not mention her grandson, because she did not want to give the image of being grandmother, she didn't even mentioned having missed her husband, because she actually did not feel that way. Gustavo talked about the list, his obsession with the attack, his idiotic parents-in-law, how they had gotten hold of power and the complicated political situation in which he was involved. He did not know whether or not he should kiss her, if he should make a move, if he was mistaking things; Rute on the other hand, felt like kissing him, but she was afraid he took her as an old woman, that the nine year difference would be too much for him. A little after finishing dinner, there was an uncomfortable silence; Gustavo did not know what to say, nor what subject to bring up, he thought silence was a signal it was time to depart, besides, tomorrow he would have to wake up early for the agricultural tasks. He got up, and when he was ready to speak, Rute got up with him and caught his hand softly; she thought of saying something to keep him from going, but she simply looked at Gustavo’s blue eyes; he was filled with courage and approached Rute’s face and lips slowly. After the first kiss, many others came and their hands ran across both of their bodies with more and more intensity; they got into the small bedroom without stopping their kisses as they took off their clothes as they took off their clothes in a clumsy manner and ended up naked on the old bed that Gustavo had brought a few hours ago.

Waiting on Wednesday - 2.22.17

Waiting on Wednesday
hosted by Breaking the Spine
Spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
I'm waiting for...

The Song Rising
(The Bone Season #3)
by Samantha Shannon
-Fantasy, SciFi, YA
Release date: March 7, 2017
Amazon | Goodreads
The hotly anticipated third book in the bestselling Bone Season series – a ground-breaking, dystopian fantasy of extraordinary imagination

Following a bloody battle against foes on every side, Paige Mahoney has risen to the dangerous position of Underqueen, ruling over London's criminal population.

But, having turned her back on Jaxon Hall and with vengeful enemies still at large, the task of stabilising the fractured underworld has never seemed so challenging.

Little does Paige know that her reign may be cut short by the introduction of Senshield, a deadly technology that spells doom for the clairvoyant community and the world as they know it…

HAVE not yet read book 2, but I am excited to see that the series continues.

Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken

Wayfarer
by Alexandra Bracken

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Just released: January 3, 2017
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Genre: Fantasy, SciFi, Time Travel, YA
Hardback: 496 pages
Rating: 4

Passenger duology:
Passenger
Wayfarer

First sentence(s):
She'd had a doll once, with a painted-on smile, and pale hair and eyes like her own.

I've been orphaned by my time.
The timeline has changed.
My future is gone.

Etta Spencer didn't know she was a traveler until the day she emerged both miles and years from her home. Now, robbed of the powerful object that was her only hope of saving her mother, Etta finds herself stranded once more, cut off from Nicholas-the eighteenth century privateer she loves-and her natural time.

When Etta inadvertently stumbles into the heart of the Thorns, the renegade travelers who stole the astrolabe from her, she vows to finish what she started and destroy the astrolabe once and for all. Instead, she's blindsided by a bombshell revelation from their leader, Henry Hemlock: he is her father. Suddenly questioning everything she's been fighting for, Etta must choose a path, one that could transform her future.

Still devastated by Etta's disappearance, Nicholas has enlisted the unlikely help of Sophia Ironwood and a cheeky mercenary-for-hire to track both her and the missing astrolabe down. But as the tremors of change to the timeline grow stronger and the stakes for recovering the astrolabe mount, they discover an ancient power far more frightening than the rival travelers currently locked in a battle for control. . . a power that threatens to eradicate the timeline altogether.

My two-bits:

This book wraps up the duology well in getting more into the nitty gritty of the time travel logistics and aspects.

A lot of the travel was not as glamourous as expected. As the travel mostly involved going to the past, culture and etiquette restricted the female characters.

More action and adventure fill these pages as the characters quite often found themselves in precarious or soon to be unsettling predicaments when landing at another time location.

I liked how relationships were able to grow and develop despite the time and location movements. Light romance moments tugged at the heart.


~*~
* review copy courtesy of publisher

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Passenger
by Alexandra Bracken

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Published: 2016
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Genre: Fantasy, SciFi, Time Travel, YA
Hardback: 496 pages
Rating: 5

Passenger duology:
Passenger
Wayfarer

First sentence(s):
As they ascended, retreating farther from the winding trails that marked the way to nearby villages, the world opened to him in its purest form: silent, ancient, mysterious.

passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever

PeekAbook:



My two-bits:

Loved the action and adventure while road tripping through time in this tale. Visiting London, Paris, New York (naming just a few) during significant historical moments gave interesting trivia and perspective.

The discovery and reveals presented to the main character, Etta, kept me hooked to the end. This is a coming of age story for Etta as she finds out more about herself and family.

The side romance doses were just right without being a main focus.

Felt elements of Dr. Who and The Da Vinci Code.

Below by Jason Chabot

Below
by Jason Chabot

Find out more about this book and author:
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Release date: August 16, 2016
Publisher: Broken Sky Chronicles
Genre: SciFi, YA
Paperback: 308 pages
Rating: 4

Broken Sky Chronicles series:
Below
Above
Beyond

No one but the dead dare venture Below . . .

The first volume in this thrilling trilogy opens on the barren plains of Below, where Hokk and his fox sidekick, Nym, live in exile amid the remnants of our modern age.

Overhead, on the floating islands of Above, Elia is trapped in a life of endless toil and drudgery as a laundress for the Mirrored Palace. To Elia, the islands’ edges are borders that no one dares cross until the ancient ritual that delivers the dead to Below. But a series of natural disasters rumbling through Above sends Elia’s world crashing into Hokk’s―and she falls Below.

Their journey together will propel them across endless plains and through shattered cities in a centuries-old battle for the very earth and sky around them...

My two-bits:

Good start to this trilogy. There is an introduction to the world of Above and Below to capture the curiosity. At the end it had me wondering about the origin story of the worlds and why things are starting to change.

The story is told through two main characters that were equally interesting.

As mentioned above, I felt this book to be just a start of things to come.

Side note: I would have liked a bit more to the story.

About the author:

I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, but grew up in the rural outskirts of a city called Chilliwack – a Stó:lō First Nations word meaning “quieter water up the river” – where our home was built beside a gurgling creek and surrounded by forests. With no neighbors in sight and only one channel on TV, I had plenty of time to invest in my imagination.

Looking back, the seed for The Broken Sky Chronicles was first planted as a teenager when I worked at a tree nursery that supplied saplings to reforestation programs. I didn’t think a summer job could get any worse – the burning sunshine, the dirt, my aching back, the relentless little flies, always biting. I used to gaze up to the mountain peaks poking above a halo of clouds and wish I could somehow, miraculously, be transported to their alpine meadows, to relax for hours while watching everyone else slave away, far below, in the afternoon heat. “Above” always seemed like the ideal place to be, although I now suspect the bugs would have been larger and definitely more ravenous.

Many other elements of The Broken Sky Chronicles were inspired by places and moments in my life. Growing up on the West Coast, I have always been captivated by nature, whether by our storms, our oceans, or our sunsets. In Vancouver, we are always warned that the Juan de Fuca fault line is long overdue for a horrendous earthquake – so be prepared! And during an amazing trip to Egypt, I was surprised many times to see plastic trash everywhere, half-buried in the sand dunes or floating high in the air, caught in the currents where clouds should be drifting instead.

I chose to write a fantasy adventure novel for young adults because I was intrigued by all these natural elements and how they might affect the lives of two teenagers when their physical worlds collide. While Elia has been enslaved by class and drudgery, Hokk lives in almost complete isolation, and I have enjoyed exploring how each character discovers unexpected strength to survive epic challenges, yet at the same time questioning their perception of reality.

But of course, I suppose Hokk and Elia could have had it worse. They could have worked in a tree nursery!

~*~
* review copy courtesy of publisher