Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Summer Reading List 2020: Paul

While winter is for reading and trying to stay warm in the Great White North when the Ice Giants and the White Dragons roam the wastelands of Minnesota, summer is for getting out there and enjoying the all too brief warm weather. In this age of the Pandemic, however, the transitory nature of summer is even more poignant, since long trips for adventures are currently not in the cards. My journeys this year may well be almost exclusively  to places between the covers of books.

 So here, find a list of six of the books I am looking forward to getting to before Summer turns to Fall, and green shifts to hues of red, gold, and orange before a clattering change to brown.

On my 2019 list I read five out of the six books . And so on to 2020!


1. Prime Deceptions, Valerie Valdes.


Chilling Effect was a superb first novel of found family and space adventure, including Psychic cats, that had a deep and intense story that was belied by its fluffy cover. I am really interested in the newest adventure of Captain Eva Innocente and the found family crew of La Sirena Nigra.







2. Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders: A Dominion of the Fallen Story by Aliette de Bodard.

 Ever since the first Fallen novel, House of Shattered Wings, I have been #teamasmodeus, truly enjoying the antagonist that has stomped through all of the novels and stories De Bodard like a striding giant. In this latest tale, Thuan, Asmodeus’ Dragon husband, brings Asmodeus home for Lunar New Year. This is a family reunion I don’t want to miss.







3. Seven Devils, Laura Lam and Elizabeth May


Seven Devils is billed as a feminist space opera where seven resistance fighters are taking on the tyrannical  Tholoisian Empire. I am all aboard for a retelling of the classic formula of “Seven against Thebes”, except in Spaaace! Recasting classical history and mythology into Space seems to be a thing this year (c.f. Unconquerable Sun) so I am looking forward to seeing how Seven Devils tackles it.





4. Or What you Will, Jo Walton


Stories about self-aware characters who have knowledge of their own nature, and seeking to change it is a tricky metagenre to try and work on. But the author of works like Tooth and Claw, Among Others (a novel all about reading and the importance of reading and books) and the Just City trilogy is an author I trust to tell the story of a character idea seeking to transcend the mortality of his creator, and perhaps, her own as well.





5. Chaos Vector, Megan O’Keefe

I really enjoyed O’Keefe’s first  Soace Opera novel, Velocity Weapon, a twisty and complicated story grounded in the story of two siblings in a far future solar system, and an AI with a definite Agenda. Now with having released the AI and its ship, it looks like Sanda and Tomas are on the run, with a secret inside of Sanda’s head the reason why they are on the run. It sounds like more shenanigans, more twists, and more excellent space opera action beats.






6. Ashes of the Sun, Django Wexler

A story about building a new empire in the ruins of a fallen empire? Two siblings on opposite sides of a war? Mysterious magic and artifacts?  Crunchy Crunchy Worldbuilding? This start of a new series from Wexler sounds like it is pressing all of my favorite Epic Fantasy buttons. Wexler has just about gotten into my coveted autobuy list on the strength of his previous series. This new novel could catapult him into that status.






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POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.