Book Review: Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Little Brown Books for Young Readers


Summary:   Noemi Vidal is a teen soldier from the planet Genesis, once a colony of Earth that's now at war for its independence. The humans of Genesis have fought Earth's robotic "mech" armies for decades with no end in sight. 

After a surprise attack, Noemi finds herself stranded in space on an abandoned ship where she meets Abel, the most sophisticated mech prototype ever made. One who should be her enemy. But Abel's programming forces him to obey Noemi as his commander, which means he has to help her save Genesis--even though her plan to win the war will kill him. 

Book Review: The Disappeared (Retrieval Artist #1) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Roc


Summary:   His name: Miles Flint. His occupation: Retrieval Artist. His job: Hunt down the Disappeared--outlaws on the run, wanted for crimes against alien cultures. The catch: Flint isn't working on the side of the law.

In a universe where humans and aliens have formed a loose government called the Earth Alliance, treaties guarantee that humans are subject to alien laws when on alien soil. But alien laws often make no sense, and the punishments vary from loss of life to loss of a first-born child. Now three cases have collided: a stolen spaceyacht filled with dead bodies, two kidnapped human children, and a human woman on the run, trying to Disappear to avoid alien prosecution. Flint must enforce the law-giving the children to aliens, solving the murders, and arresting the woman for trying to save her own life. But how is a man supposed to enforce laws that are unjust? How can he sacrifice innocents to a system he's not sure he believes in? How can Miles Flint do the right thing in a universe where the right thing is very, very wrong? 

Book Review: Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota #1) by Ada Palmer

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Tor Books


Summary:  Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer--a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away.

Book Review: Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson

Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher: Bantam Spectra


Summary:  The bestselling author of the classic Mars trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt returns with a riveting new trilogy of cutting-edge science, international politics, and the real-life ramifications of global warming as they are played out in our nation’s capital—and in the daily lives of those at the center of the action. Hauntingly realistic, here is a novel of the near future that is inspired by scientific facts already making headlines.

When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged thirty feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to fifteen. One August the ice broke. The next year the breakup started in July. The third year it began in May. That was last year.

Book Review: Caliban's War (The Expanse #2) by James S.A. Corey

Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Orbit

Summary:  We are not alone.

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.

In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .

Book Review: Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1) by James S.A. Corey

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Orbit


Summary:  Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, "The Scopuli," they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Book Review: Alive by Scott Sigler

Alive by Scott Sigler
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Summary:   A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way free brings little relief—she discovers only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people…and no answers.

She knows only one thing about herself—her name, M. Savage, which was engraved on the foot of her coffin—yet she finds herself in charge. She is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the others trust her. Now, if they’re to have any chance, she must get them to trust one another.

Book Review: Threshold by Janet E. Morris

Threshold by Janet E. Morris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Roc


Summary:  Threshold is a space habitat between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter with a population of a quarter million. Run by a latter-day United Nations, one of its duties is to keep humans off of Earth, now a preserve. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims from other systems are not pleased at being kept from Mecca. Their leader's daughter decides to experience Threshold's decadent (to her) society with the heir to a powerful exploration corporation, who is also smuggling illegal life forms into the habitat, thus threatening the stability of a conference on the rights of nonhuman races and ALIs--Artificial Living Individuals which the Muslims treat as they do their women: like property. Captain Joseph South, on a test flight through interstellar spongespace, is translated 500 years into our future to arrive at Threshold just as all this is occurring. He has strange memories of a fly-by of system X-3, which match up with visions from an artifact brought to Threshold by a prospector.

Book Review: This Shattered World (Starbound #2) by Amie Kaufman

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher: Disney Hyperion


Summary:  The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Book Review: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher: Disney Hyperion


Summary:  Luxury spaceliner Icarus suddenly plummets from hyperspace into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive – alone. Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a cynical war hero. Both journey across the eerie deserted terrain for help. Everything changes when they uncover the truth. 

The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

Book Review: Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown

Golden Son by Pierce Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Del Rey


Summary:   With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation.

Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within.

Book Review: We Are The Destroyers by D.K. Linder

We Are The Destroyers by D.K. Lindler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher:  First Life Publishing


Summary:   Many thousands of years ago on a planet in the Belt of Orion, Captain Bel'lar accepts a monumental task. Overconsumption is destroying his home planet, and synthetic foods are turning his people into degenerated mutants. As one of the few remaining but persecuted Organs, Bel'lar and his small crew are sent to find the semi-mythical blue-white planet and discover if it is really a place for humanity to begin again. But the visions of his beautiful companion Ry Sing, a mystic and seer shake Bel'lar. She tells him that eons ago, Bel'lar was faced with the burden of saving his people from their own greed. Only then he was the Great One, the sacred head of their religion. He had seen no other way to liberate them than to destroy the planet in a great cataclysm. . . But could this vision be true? Bel'lar and his crew find the blue-white planet, a wonderful, habitable place. They return home but 350 years have passed. The Synthetics have taken over the planet and Organs don't exist anymore. Searching for anyone to take back to the blue-white planet, Bel'lar is captured and taken to the Compound of the Congress where he learns he will be sacrificed at the Last Rites of Ester. When Bel'lar is brought out to be sacrificed, the truth of Ry Sing's vision begins to reveal itself. Will he be able to avoid his destiny this time? Or is he fated to live the vision once again?

Book Review: Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress

Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Summary:   Aliens have landed in New York. 

A deadly cloud of spores has already infected and killed the inhabitants of two worlds. Now that plague is heading for Earth, and threatens humans and aliens alike. Can either species be trusted to find the cure?

Geneticist Marianne Jenner is immersed in the desperate race to save humanity, yet her family is tearing itself apart. Siblings Elizabeth and Ryan are strident isolationists who agree only that an alien conspiracy is in play. Marianne’s youngest, Noah, is a loner addicted to a drug that constantly changes his identity. But between the four Jenners, the course of human history will be forever altered. 

Book Review: Defenders by Will McIntosh

Defenders by Will McIntosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Orbit


Summary:   The invaders came to claim earth as their own, overwhelming us with superior weapons and the ability to read our minds like open books. 
Our only chance for survival was to engineer a new race of perfect soldiers to combat them. Seventeen feet tall, knowing and loving nothing but war, their minds closed to the aliens. 
But these saviors could never be our servants. And what is done cannot be undone.

Book Review: Day 21 (The 100 #2) by Kass Morgan

Day 21 by Kass Morgan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers


Summary:   No one has set foot on Earth in centuries -- until now.
It's been 21 days since the hundred landed on Earth. They're the only humans to set foot on the planet in centuries...or so they thought. Facing an unknown enemy, Wells attempts to keep the group together. Clarke strikes out for Mount Weather, in search of other Colonists, while Bellamy is determined to rescue his sister, no matter the cost. And back on the ship, Glass faces an unthinkable choice between the love of her life and life itself.
In this pulse-pounding sequel to Kass Morgan's The 100, secrets are revealed, beliefs are challenged, and relationships are tested. And the hundred will struggle to survive the only way they can -- together.

Book Review: The 100 (The 100 #1) by Kass Morgan

The 100 by Kass Morgan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers


Summary:   No one has set foot on Earth in centuries -- until now.

Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents -- considered expendable by society -- are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.

CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves -- but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.

Book Review: The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) by Blake Crouch

The Last Town by Blake Crouch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer


Summary:   Welcome to Wayward Pines, the last town.

Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work. Their children are taught that David Pilcher, the town’s creator, is god. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed.

But Ethan has discovered the astonishing secret of what lies beyond the electrified fence that surrounds Wayward Pines and protects it from the terrifying world beyond. It is a secret that has the entire population completely under the control of a madman and his army of followers, a secret that is about to come storming through the fence to wipe out this last, fragile remnant of humanity.

Book Review: The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Ember


Summary:   This haunting story centers on Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he's given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.

Book Review: Wayward (Wayward Pines #2) by Blake Crouch

Wayward by Blake Crouch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer


Summary:   Welcome to Wayward Pines, population 461. Nestled amidst picture-perfect mountains, the idyllic town is a modern-day Eden...except for the electrified fence and razor wire, snipers scoping everything 24/7, and the relentless surveillance tracking each word and gesture.
None of the residents know how they got here. They are told where to work, how to live, and who to marry. Some believe they are dead. Others think they’re trapped in an unfathomable experiment. Everyone secretly dreams of leaving, but those who dare face a terrifying surprise.

Book Review: Pines (Wayward Pines #1) by Blake Crouch

Pines by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Thomas & Mercer


Summary:   Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels…off. As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.