science fiction

This book is a meditation on evil, and embodiment, and what it means to be human, and what it means to love. How can activists succeed against a totalitarian government when everything is networked and everyone is under surveillance.

It was published in 1996, and since then we have only stumbled (or been shoved and dragged) closer to the dystopian future it portrays.

It’s well written, swinging from immediate danger to philosophical conversations, from discussions of genocide to ordering takeout. The new technologies are well named and smoothly layered into the story with deft clues for the reader to follow along.

Recommended if you don’t mind horror mixed into your cyberpunk. I prefer to avoid dystopias for my fiction reading – I can read the news for that.

Coincidentally, Kate Nepveu post her notes on a ReaderCon 2025 panel  about this book.

Available at bookshop.org.

Recommended to me by: Seeing it in a Little Free Library and recognizing the title

I read this as a teen when I was inhaling all the science fiction and fantasy I could lay my hands on. Several decades later, I vaguely remembered the ouija board scene and the ending, but didn’t remember they went with this book.

The book is beautifully written in spare, expressive prose that pulls the reader forward without the need for extreme violence. The whole book is understated, “civilized,” to go with the calming, “civilizing” influence of the aliens. From a more experienced adult viewpoint, I can see some of the subtle manipulation that underlies the plot

The book is also entirely focused on men. Even the aliens go by “he” and mirror the men in business suits they’re interacting with. There are two women in the book, wives of more active characters, and they do not pass the Bechdel test.

There is a wholly unnecessary invention of some reverse racism so that it can be punished more severely than anything else. Reminded me of Heinlien’s “Farnham’s Freehold,” which even as a bored teen I only read once.

“Childhood’s End” was published in 1953. The world’s ills that it was trying to address feel very relevant 70 years later. Without aliens to put a stop to people gathering power and resources to misuse them, it has only gotten worse. And the aliens are in a hierarchy themselves.

Recommended if you don’t mind a book trying to address the harms of patriarchy with a very patriarchal gaze.

Available at bookshop.org.

Subtitle: An Extremely Silly Tale of Alien Abduction, Starship Teapot #1
Recommended to me by: free download offer on mastodon (now expired)

The dedication at the front of the book says, “For everyone whose mind is reeling from, well, everything and who can’t cope with another serious novel about serous people dealing with serious problems. Not right now.”

And the content notes are “Anaphylactic shock, minor injury to a dog. Also, please note that trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people are who they tell you they are. This book is not for TERFs.”

With that reassuring beginning, the book starts out with Lem and their dog, Spock, settling in to a camping vacation, and proceeds immediately to the silly alien abduction. A group of alien abductees soon coalesces and works on getting back home. There are universal translators, but each person has to come up with their own names for individuals and species they meet, since sound production varies so wildly between aliens.

Silly, warm, with just enough danger to keep the plot moving forward. This book delivers on what it offers up front. Recommended if that’s what you need right now.

Available at bookshop.org.

Recommended to me by: Luzula

I loved the world-building in this book. Humanity has dispersed to the stars, and brought corporate greed, income inequality, and the need for insurance along, not to mention complex social politics. These people are so rich that they create a white sand beach complete with ocean and waves on a satellite.

There are characters of African and Asian descent and their presence is taken for granted in high society, so at least that has improved in this future world. Names are multicultural, with a wealthy family named Mendez-Yuki. The main character goes undercover as Evelyn Ojukwu, a socialite from a distant planet. Judaism and its cultural and religious rules play a role in the plot, to my delight.

The book centers capable women, with men as annoying hindrances or servants. LGBT relationships are apparently looked at askance, but a budding romance between the main character and another super-competent woman is a main focus of the plot.

The other focus is revenge. The main character is a con artist. Lying is what she does for a living, and she’s good at it. There is some judgement of con artists in the book, but overall the main character takes it for granted that it’s a fine thing to do, which bothered me.

I’m not quite the target audience for this book, but it was well-written, inclusive, and the plot moved right along. Recommended if this is your kind of thing.

Available at bookshop.org.

Recommended to me by: Sean Eric Fagan’s Kindle giveaway @wandering.shop

This urban fantasy is not at all my kind of book, with a hard-boiled first person narrative and a lot of violence. I nearly put it down a couple of times, but kept reading because I have some time on my hands and the plot kept humming along. In the end, there was less dance involved than I hoped for at the beginning. It’s great that the main character is a woman, although the male side character is the one who grows and changes.

While the main character’s parents seem loving and involved in her life, raising child soldiers is still child abuse.

I appreciate the anti-xenophobia message of the book. At the same time, I wonder why none of the characters in New York City read as Black (thank goodness the monsters don’t read as Black) and some of the non-humans read very much like exoticized Asian women.

This is the first in a long series of InCryptid books with “discount” themed titles, per the InCryptid page on Seanan McGuire’s website, good news if they’re your kind of thing.

Available at bookshop.org.