Review: The Ghosts of Trappist by K B Wagers

Ending the Neo-G trilogy by leveraging the found family on board the ships of the futuristic space coast guard to tell a story of secrets lies, and autonomy.

The previous two novels in K B Wagers’ series, A Pale Light in the Black and Hold Fast Through the Fire have shown the development and growth of the crew of the Zuma’s Ghost (as well as other spacecraft) of the Neo-G, the futuristic space coast guard that patrols not only our solar system, but also the Trappist system, currently under colonization. But the secrets, lies and past of both Zuma’s Ghost and its sister ship Dread’s Treasure, and their crews, come roaring back, even as ancient secrets in the Trappist system threaten all they hold dear.

This is the story of The Ghosts of Trappist, the final novel in the trilogy.

There are many tangling plotlines and development that have gone through the series, a layering of characters, groups of characters, goals, ambitions, wishes, hopes, fears and dangers. In this novel, Wagers, using a new and the biggest threat yet to the Neo-G yet. And then there are the personal challenges, and remembrances of past events, that haunt the members of Zuma’s Ghost and Dread Treasure, and not only threaten their on the job skill, but their very lives as well. The title Ghosts of Trappist has a multilayered meaning on the word "ghost", both on character's level as well as the main overarching storyline of ghostly enemies threatening the Trappist system.

And did I mention the Neo-G is trying desperately to maintain their standing as Boarding Games champions? Back in the first novel, they were up and comers, trying desperately to make their mark. Now, they are at their peak, at their pinnacle, but uneasy lies the crown, and staying the best is harder than fighting one’s way to the top in many ways (it is no coincidence that the lyrics of the song “Eye of the Tiger” ran through my head in the Boarding Games sequences).

It’s hard to wrap up a series, although this is Wagers’ third trilogy that she has brought to a conclusion. With a lot of spinning plates, and a lot of plotlines to squeeze into the pages, Wagers does an admirable job in bringing the character arcs of all of the characters to satisfactory and reasonable manner and it is no mean feat. As always, I am a big fan of Jenks, who in addition to her knowledge of 20-21st century lore, also has a deep and abiding heart. I am also a fan of the artificial dog, the Rover known as Doge. Doge is an AI, of a nature and capability that no one, not even him, is fully sure about.

I want to talk about AI, because the major focus of the novel is artificial intelligence. Not ChatGPT sort of Large Language Models, but actual artificial intelligence. Or is it? How do you recognize real artificial intelligence, a sentient artificial being that can grow, change and learn? And what do you do about that when you encounter one? Wagers explores, from a couple of sides, the ethics of autonomy, freedom, self-determination and the rights of such beings... and what makes someone intelligent in the first place. And, given the conflicts of the novel, what happens when such a being (not Doge, he’s a good dog!) goes rogue and becomes a danger to others?

Another character’s storyline I want to highlight is that of Lt. Max. Maxine is part of the powerful solar-systems-spanning Carmichael family. Her enlistment and her career in the Neo-G are expressly against the orders of the family, who are horrified that a scion of the family could “stoop” to such a position, a level, and a role. They have and had, after all, a position, a path, a life mapped out them. And Max is being ungrateful and selfish for not following that path and position. In the course of the novel, Max struggles with how to deal with her family. And at one point she considers severing ties with her family completely and utterly. She has a heart-to-heart with a former family member. The former family member uses language about the risks and realities of being ostracized that I recognize today in discussing the LGBTQ experience. It is most definitely meant as a metaphor in a novel. In a series and from a writer who is very keenly interested in depicting and promoting a queer friendly world (and this world is very much so), Wagers nevertheless shows the reality of our world today through this metaphor.

No matter what, though, the end, for Max, for Doge, for all the other characters for that matter, there are no HEA’s, only “good for now” in a world like the Neo-G and even that can be fragile, and still haunted by the ghosts of the past. There is hope that the moment is good, but there is a strong sense of fighting for that good moment, and recognizing that it’s time will finally come to an end--but not right now. Now can be good. But it is not won without effort, and sometimes, cost. That was a theme of the second book, and that is very definitely a theme of this third book.

One way I really liked how Wagers tied it all together is the final set piece confrontation with the artificial intelligence enemy in their stronghold. Having spent much of the book fightings ghosts and shadows to finally unmask their foe, the finale is a tour-de-force of a capstone of a long set of action sequences. These sequences give everybody on the two crews a chance to shine, moments of spotlight, and to contribute to the overall goal. Characters unleashed to be the best part of themselves, doing what they do the best. I made the connection to the Boarding Games immediately, and Wagers makes it clear that the Neo-G plays hard in the Boarding Games, so that they have the skills for the “real world”. One can pick out, in this capstone long set, how various ideas and metaconcepts of the Boarding Games reflect the complicated and dangerous approach to dealing with the foe. Even though the Boarding Games competition is over by the time of this capstone action sequence, this sequence against their enemy on multiple levels, and vectors, problems and problem solving, and outright courage, daring and skill, felt like the real Boarding Games all along.

With this book, the author now has nine books in her oeuvre, and a real penchant and talent for action oriented space opera that is queer friendly, has lots of female and NB protagonists, and is a lot of fun to read. I’ve enjoyed the evolution and development of her writing, deepening her skills while maintaining the balance and innate fun of her novels, and look forward to what she will write next.

--

The Math

Highlights: Team Jenks, thought-provoking ideas on artificial intelligence, excellent and fun action beats that keep the pages turning

Wagers, K.B., The Ghosts of Trappist, [Harper Voyager 2023]


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

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 new and forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about?

Chambers, Becky. A Psalm for the Wild-Built [Tordotcom Publishing]
Publisher's Description

In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk & Robot series gives us hope for the future.

It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.

One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.

But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.

They're going to need to ask it a lot.

Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?

Why We Want It: You're a fan of the Wayfarers novels, right? They are collectively excellent and, generally quiet and personal about family (found or otherwise). A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a step away from that series and is a standalone novella that may be the first in a new series and it's about a monk going on a journey with a robot and that's the whole thing. It's quiet and peaceful and a balm for today.

Kuhn, Sarah. Hollywood Heroine [DAW]
Publisher's Description

The fifth book in the smart, snarky, and action-packed Heroine series continues the adventures of Asian-American superheroines Evie Tanaka, Aveda Jupiter, and Bea Tanaka in a demon-infested San Francisco.

Over the years, the adventures of superheroines Aveda Jupiter and Evie Tanaka have become the stuff of legend–and now they’ll be immortalized in their very own TV show!

The pair head to LA for filming, but Aveda struggles to get truly excited. Instead, she’s preoccupied wondering about the fate of the world and her role in it. You know, the usual. Now that Otherworld activity has been detected outside the Bay Area, Aveda can’t help but wonder if the demon threat will ever be eradicated.

When the drama on set takes a turn for the supernatural, Evie and Aveda must balance their celebrity commitments with donning their superhero capes again to investigate. And when the evil they battle reveals a larger, more nefarious plot, it’s time for the indomitable Aveda Jupiter to rise to the occasion and become the leader she was meant to be on a more global scale–and hopefully keep some semblance of a personal life while doing so.

Why We Want It: This is the year I'm looking to get back into reading Sarah Kuhn. As noted in my Summer Reading List, I read Heroine Complex back in 2018 and am looking to continue with the series this year and I expect to push right on to Hollywood Heroine.

Nguyen, Lena. We Have Always Been Here [DAW]
Publisher's Description

This psychological sci-fi thriller from a debut author follows one doctor who must discover the source of her crew’s madness… or risk succumbing to it herself.

Misanthropic psychologist Dr. Grace Park is placed on the Deucalion, a survey ship headed to an icy planet in an unexplored galaxy. Her purpose is to observe the thirteen human crew members aboard the ship—all specialists in their own fields—as they assess the colonization potential of the planet, Eos. But frictions develop as Park befriends the androids of the ship, preferring their company over the baffling complexity of humans, while the rest of the crew treats them with suspicion and even outright hostility.

Shortly after landing, the crew finds themselves trapped on the ship by a radiation storm, with no means of communication or escape until it passes—and that’s when things begin to fall apart. Park’s patients are falling prey to waking nightmares of helpless, tongueless insanity. The androids are behaving strangely. There are no windows aboard the ship. Paranoia is closing in, and soon Park is forced to confront the fact that nothing—neither her crew, nor their mission, nor the mysterious Eos itself—is as it seems.

Why We Want It: I do like a good sci-fi thriller set on a ship in deep space and this one sounds absolutely exceptional.

Parker-Chan, Shelley. She Who Became the Sun [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.

To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything

“I refuse to be nothing…”

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.

Why We Want It: I can be a sucker for pre-release hype and everything I have heard about She Who Became the Sun has told me *this* is the debut to watch in 2021. This is the book to pay attention to. Adri reviewed it in June.

Wagers, K.B. Hold Fast Through the Fire [Harper Voyager]
Publisher's Description

The Near-Earth Orbital Guard (Neo-G)—inspired by the real-life mission of the Coast Guard—patrols and protects the solar system. Now the crew of Zuma’s Ghost must contend with personnel changes and a powerful cabal hellbent on dominating the trade lanes in this fast-paced, action-packed follow-up to A Pale Light in the Black.

Zuma’s Ghost has won the Boarding Games for the second straight year. The crew—led by the unparalleled ability of Jenks in the cage, the brilliant pairing of Ma and Max in the pilot seats, the technical savvy of Sapphi, and the sword skills of Tamago and Rosa—has all come together to form an unstoppable team. Until it all comes apart.

Their commander and Master Chief are both retiring. Which means Jenks is getting promoted, a new commander is joining them, and a fresh-faced spacer is arriving to shake up their perfect dynamics. And while not being able to threepeat is on their minds, the more important thing is how they’re going to fulfill their mission in the black.

After a plea deal transforms a twenty-year ore-mining sentence into NeoG service, Spacer Chae Ho-ki earns a spot on the team. But there’s more to Chae that the crew doesn’t know, and they must hide a secret that could endanger everyone they love—as well as their new teammates—if it got out. At the same time, a seemingly untouchable coalition is attempting to take over trade with the Trappist colonies and start a war with the NeoG. When the crew of Zuma’s Ghost gets involved, they end up as targets of this ruthless enemy.

With new members aboard, will the team grow stronger this time around? Will they be able to win the games? And, more important, will they be able to surmount threats from both without and within?

Why We Want It: Wagers is one of my favorite science fiction writers working today and it should be no surprise that I loved her first NeoG novel A Pale Light in the Black, so I'm super pumped for Hold Fast Through the Fire.

Wallace, Matt. Savage Bounty [Saga]
Publisher's Description

The sequel to the acclaimed, spellbinding epic fantasy Savage Legion by Hugo Award–winning author Matt Wallace about a utopian city with a dark secret…and the underdogs who will expose it—or die trying.

The call them Savages. Brutal. Efficient. Expendable.

The empire relies on them. The greatest weapon they ever developed. Culled from the streets of their cities, they take the ones no one will miss and throw them, by the thousands, at the empire’s enemies. If they live, they fight again. If they die, well, there are always more.

Why We Want It: I didn't have the opportunity to write the NoaF review of Savage Legion, but I did rank it among the best novels published in 2020 and then convinced Adri to read and love it. So, so good. I'm a Matt Wallace partisan but he delivers each and every time and I know he's going to bring the goods with Savage Bounty because that's what he does.

Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 5x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. He / Him

(Deconstructed) 6 Books with K B Wagers

 K.B. Wagers is the author of the Indranan and Farian War trilogies from Orbit Books and the NeoG Adventures from Harper Voyager. They are a fan of whiskey and cats, Jupiter Ascending and the Muppets. You can find them on Twitter @kbwagers and Instagram @midwaybrawler for political commentary, plant photos, and video game playthroughs

Today, K.B does a deconstructed Six Books Format. 

Hello all, thanks for joining me here at Six Books while I break all the rules of this challenge and get kicked out on my ear! I am K.B. Wagers, science fiction author of the upcoming HOLD FAST THROUGH THE FIRE (7/27 Harper Voyager). 

I’m currently reading ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS by Ocean Vuong which is a breathtaking autofiction both because of its beautiful prose and its heartbreaking story of an immigrant boy dealing with the memories of his mother, his coming out journey, and trying to survive in America. I am really loving it and glad that I followed my curiosity to look for it when I heard about it. And I’m almost finished with Kate Elliott’s UNCONQUERABLE SUN, a book that stole my heart from the moment I heard “queer, gender-bent, Alexander the Great in space.” It is everything I hoped for and more.

I could sit here all day and talk about the books that are coming out which make me clap my hands in glee. But since I’m only supposed to pick one, let me tell you about SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by Shelley Parker-Chan (7/20) and how excited I am for this “lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.” I have been all in on historical reimaginings lately as you may have guessed.

New books being written all the time means I can barely keep up with my TBR list, let alone go back to reread books I’ve loved, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to revisit Nghi Vo’s THE EMPRESS OF SALT AND FORTUNE because I am such a sucker for the story within a story and she does it so brilliantly. (By the way, Vo has a novel coming out June 1st that is inspired by the Great Gatsby and I have heard it’s amazing so if that’s your jam go check out THE CHOSEN AND THE BEAUTIFUL.)

I love reading beautiful books because I don’t feel like that’s necessarily my strong suit, however, if you love found family, queer relationship dynamics, and explorations of trust, betrayal, and forgiveness all wrapped up in a space adventure with some of the most competent folx you’ll ever meet then joining the NeoG might be for you. You can come meet the crew in July with HOLD FAST THROUGH THE FIRE, or get a sneak peek at them with A PALE LIGHT IN THE BLACK which is my beautiful pandemic book. Thanks for joining me today and I hope you found something in here that excites you!

Thank you, katy!

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

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Mind Meld : One Spot Holodeck

For years, the essential sci-fi blog SF Signal published Mind Meld, a regular column I and others created that featured a weekly roundtable discussion of the tropes, themes, politics, and future of genre fiction. The Mind Meld solicited answers from writers, editors, readers and fans on a rotating basis. After the closure of SF Signal, this feature was picked up and continued for a time by the Barnes and Noble Sci Fi Blog. I am delighted that I have resumed the feature here at Nerds of a Feather.

Today’s Mind Meld question is the following...

Congratulations. You have been given a Star Trek style holodeck, fully capable otherwise,you can bring in anyone you want, hold a roomful of people but not an entire Worldcon in it,  but you can only program it to be fixed to one time and place or the verse of one fictional work or series. 

Where/what do you program your holodeck for? (Star Wars and Star Trek are off the table!)

Fonda Lee

Fonda Lee is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of the Green Bone Saga, consisting of Jade City, Jade War, and the forthcoming Jade Legacy, which releases on November 30. 

Assuming I can program the holodeck to also give me the illusion of powers in said fictional world, I’m definitely heading to the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Who wouldn’t want to travel in style on a flying bison to visit the different kingdoms? Myself, I quite like the idea of striding down the deck of a Fire Nation warship in Azula’s boss outfit and and bending the elements to my will. 

Beverly Bambury

Beverly Bambury is a publicist who promotes and markets SFF, horror, mystery and more. Find her at beverlybambury.com

I would set my holodeck for Themyscira. Who could be better personal trainers than the skilled and strong Amazons? I mean, maybe if I hung out on the island and followed their routines I could get the buff shoulders I’ve always wanted. It's not all about fitness, either. Time spent in Themyscira would be time I’d never have to worry about any men sending unsolicited, um, photos. What’s not to love? Anyhow, I am the furthest thing from a badass warrior, but I like to think I’d learn a thing or two from the Amazons. 

Cora Buhlert

Cora Buhlert was born and bred in Bremen, North Germany, where she still lives today – after time spent in London, Singapore, Rotterdam and Mississippi. She has been writing, since she was a teenager, and has published stories, articles and poetry in various international magazines, and is a two-time Hugo finalist for Best Fan Writer. Visit her on the web at www.corabuhlert.com or follow her on Twitter under @CoraBuhlert.

I've decided that I'd like to program my holodeck for the solar system as it was imagined in the pulp science fiction of the 1930s and 1940s. 

There are plenty of fascinating places to explore, whether it's the dying desert world of Mars with its canals and ancient ruins, the fog-shrouded jungles and misty oceans of Venus, the twilight belt of Mercury, the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn and of course the asteroid belt with its floating casinos and pirate hideouts. Every single world in this version of the solar system is not just habitable, it's also full of fascinating alien lifeforms. You can hop between planets in gleaming finned rockets and enjoy an early 20th century idea of futuristic luxury.

The pulp science fiction shared solar system is a fascinating place I've always wanted to explore, so that's what I'd program the holodeck for.

Arturo Serrano

Arturo Serrano, is translator for Constelación Magazine, and reviewer for Nerds of a Feather Flock Together, currently querying an alternate history novel. 

I would travel to the DCAU, which is still the unsurpassed interpretation of the DC heroes (and the work that introduced me to Vixen, the best superhero ever). What struck me about the DCAU is how seamlessly it handled varying scales: one day you could have a massive spacetime anomaly and the next day you could dismantle a weapon smuggling mafia, and it would still feel like the same universe. Plus the characters were masterfully layered and you never felt you were done knowing them.

Mikaela Lind

Mikaela Lind is a Swedish fantasy author who started to write in her teens. She is somewhat surprised that she is still doing it, and equally surprised that people actually read her books. You can find her on twitter as  @mikaela_l , on Facebook  and on www.mikaelalind.com where she irregularly blogs.

 When I read the subject for this MindMeld I immediately knew where I wanted to go. Maybe in a time of my life I would have picked something else, but right now I really, really need a vacation. So I am taking a bunch of my friends and going to a beach. Which beach? I am leaning toward the Shifting Sands resort, which is a fictional resort in the Caribbean catering to shifters. What can I say, after the last year I need sun and warmth and a frozen daiquiri. 

Hannah (H. M.) Long 

Hannah (H. M.) Long is the author of the Viking-inspired epic fantasy HALL OF SMOKE, the upcoming TEMPLE OF NO GOD (01.18.22), and numerous other works of fantasy and science fiction. She lives in a ramshackle cabin in Ontario, Canada, where she writes her books, reads too much and tries not to get eaten by the local wildlife. You can visit her online at www.hmlongbooks.com and find her on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook @hmlongbooks, as well as on Twitter @hannah_m_long. 

I feel like it’s telling that I didn’t even have to think about this... I’d go to Skyrim, Elder Scrolls V style. I’d lock that holodeck in on my own epic quest as Dovahkiin, bring in my family and nerd friends as trusty companions and *fus* a path to glory from Helgen to Sovngarde. The weapons! The enemies! The settings! The music would be a must too – some Jeremy Soule to back climbing snowy mountains, riding dragons and fighting draugrs in ancient tombs. 

Claire O'Dell

Claire O’Dell is a writer, a reader, a mother, and a geek. Her latest works include her Janet Watson series from Harper Voyager, and the re-release of her epic fantasy series, A River of Souls. Check out more details at www.claireodell.com.

Oh gods, there are SO many wonderful worlds to choose from. Okay. Plucking my first idea from the air…I choose Heather Rose Jones’s historical fantasy series, set in the mythical country of Alpennia, and taking place in first quarter of the 19th century. The books are all about women—women with swords, women as scholars, as friends and lovers, as scientists, seamstresses, and politicians. 

Maurice Broaddus

Maurice Broaddus is an exotic dancer, trained in several forms of martial arts–often referred to as “the ghetto ninja”–and was voted the Indianapolis Dalai Lama. He’s an award winning haberdasher and coined the word “acerbic”. He graduated college at age 14 and high school at age 16. Not only is he credited with inventing the question mark, he unsuccessfully tried to launch a new number between seven and eight. When not editing or writing, he is a champion curler and often impersonates Jack Bauer, but only in a French accent. He raises free range jackalopes with his wife and two sons … when they are not solving murder mysteries. He really likes to make up stories.  A lot.  Especially about himself.

You should already know my answer is going to be Wakanda. The great thing about it is the depth of it as a world and how it sets a great context for all sorts of interesting conversations. It is a culture of stories and how they relate to one another. A people’s history embedded into all of the traditions within it. It’s the intersection of art and science impacting its look, including its architecture. In short, every aspect of Wakanda as a setting reinforces and is defined by the worldview of the people. A place I’d be excited to explore. With guests.

Catherine Lundoff

Catherine Lundoff is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher from Minneapolis, MN. Her latest book is Blood Moon: A Wolves of Wolf’s Point Novel (Queen of Swords Press, 2021). www.catherinelundoff.net

I waffled around on my responses to this because while I normally go for adventurous fun times, real life has been awfully exciting of later. So I’m picking Lois McMaster Bujold’s Beta Colony as my holodeck destination and all of you who want to join me can come along.  Why? It’s so very civilized, with its relative calm and its earrings that signal one’s romantic and sexual interests, its emphasis on consent and art and beauty. Sure, there’s that pesky weapons-development thing, but it can be ignored, at least for a time, in favor of other scientific wonders. Maybe Cordelia can give us some pointers on what to go see.

K.B. Wagers

K.B. Wagers is a whiskey-drinking, non-binary author of science fiction whose latest NeoG adventure Hold Fast Through the Fire, drops July 27th. 

If I had access to a holodeck, I'd gather some of my closest friends to go spend the day sailing the open seas during the Golden Age of Piracy. All the joy of the wind in your hair, the salt in the air, the horizon stretching on forever, (okay and maybe some plundering as well *grins*) without the risk of scurvy or hanging! Who could ask for more? 

Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. She is the Hugo, Sturgeon, Locus, and Astounding Award winning author of around 30 novels and over a hundred short stories. Her most recent novel is MACHINE, a science fiction adventure about a trauma doctor who specializes in deep space rescue.

Because a holodeck is for recreation, I would pick a lovely laid back vacation spot, a pleasure garden of lush trees, sandy beaches, a constant mild warm temperature, and an array of great recreational opportunities. 

I think that leaves me with the Southern Continent of Anne McCaffery's Pern series, where you can go swimming, you can go horseback riding, you can lie on the beach and eat fruits named after primary and secondary colors, you can fly on dragon back or laze around on the veranda and as long as interstellar parasites aren't falling from the heavens, the skies are blue and full of telepathic lizards.

Camestros Felapton

Camestros Felapton is a blogger and a 2018 Hugo finalist Fanwriter. He and his cat can be found at https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/ His current work in progress is a history of the Sad Puppy controversy entitled "Debarkle".

I'm going to assume there is some massive and very creative AI behind this holodeck that can extrapolate the fictional universe it replicates and fill in the gaps. I'm going to go and visit the enigmatic Sisterhood of Karn from Doctor Who. There's only a small bunch of them but in theory, they are the most likely people to have the foggiest idea of what is going on in the crazy timey-wimey mess of Doctor Who continuity. They also look like a cool bunch of people to hang out with for a bit.

Andrew Hiller

This is the second time Andrew has melded minds. He now knows things he shouldn't. Andrew was named author of the year in 2019 by the Baltimore Faerie Faire for A Halo of Mushrooms and his first picture book, Pitter Patty Finds Another Day is scheduled to be released in 2022. You can find his work in print, on canvas, and on the radio at andrewhiller.net

When Geordie pulls off his visor to become Lavar and asks, “What world would you like me to read you into?” be careful. Being asked to enter a world created by a holodeck is as dangerous as parsing out how to phrase a wish a genie has just offered.

I mean do you want a house to fall on you? Do you want a Lost Boy to stab you? Are you going to risk indigestion at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe after the chef realizes that Yelp ratings don't matter once the universe ends?

Do your homework. Be specific. Don't blurt. 

Me? 

I might choose Catherynne Valente's Fairyland after the shadows were returned. Imagine the food, the celebratory magic, the creatures, and all that exuberant music.

Mind you, I'm getting out before the next book starts. 

K.B. Spengler

K.B. Spangler lives in North Carolina with her husband and two completely awful dogs. Her most recent book is The Blackwing War.

Before the pandemic, I would have said my Holodeck adventure was set in Pern, or Narnia, maybe even standing alone with my sword in a tulgey wood. An adventure! Something new, something novel, something beautiful and terrible and, most of all, beyond!

Now? I want to go back to Disney World with my family. It was our first vacation together since my niece turned old enough to have a personality. She loved it, experiencing all of these pieces of fiction that were recurring characters in the background of her daily life.

To me, Disney is a slick streamlined package of forced nostalgia and commercialism which exists to stripmine both intellectual property and bank accounts. Before the pandemic, I gritted my teeth and endured the crowds, commercialism, and Florida. Clarification: Florida in late July.

After the pandemic, I don’t want anything more than to see my niece lose her shit over Rapunzel.

I want to be there as my niece enjoys her Holodeck.

Nancy Jane Moore

Nancy Jane Moore’s fantasy novel For the Good of the Realm is coming June 1 from Aqueduct Press.

The Murderbot ’Verse. Not only am I, like many others, obsessed with Murderbot, but Martha Wells has created a universe with a huge realm of possibilities for play. For starters, people could run The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon along with many other shows from SecUnit’s media storage. You’ve got the Corporate Rim contrasted with Preservation, ART’s missions, and alien contamination. The minute I saw Amena pursuing the catalogue for the Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland, I wanted stories about her as a student there. Plus all the nice moral dilemmas about who counts as a person.

Shelley Parker-Chan

Shelley Parker-Chan is an Asian-Australian former diplomat who worked on human rights, gender equality and LGBT rights in Southeast Asia. Raised on Greek myths, Arthurian legend and Chinese tales of suffering and tragic romance, her debut novel She Who Became the Sun owes more than a little to all three.

One of the most frustrating things about being a fan of Chinese danmei (queer) TV dramas is how productions have to bend themselves in knots to comply with China’s strict broadcast rules. Queer content, time travel, reincarnation: banned! Given that the source novels are full of disallowed content, TV adaptations can end up like Swiss cheese. One of the worst cases of a great novel turned incomprehensible show was Guardian (2018), which involves a mild-mannered professor who’s actually the King of Hell, and his cop boyfriend who’s the reincarnation of an elder god. I’d materialise the incredibly charismatic cast of that show—then I’d feed the original webnovel into the computer, and get myself a faithful, uncensored adaptation. With kissing.

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

New Books Spotlight: March 2021

Welcome to another (slightly belated) edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 new and forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about?

Chambers, Becky. The Galaxy and the Ground Within [Harper Voyager]
Publisher's Description:

Return to the sprawling, Hugo Award-winning universe of the Galactic Commons to explore another corner of the cosmos—one often mentioned, but not yet explored—in this absorbing entry in the Wayfarers series, which blends heart-warming characters and imaginative adventure.

With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.

At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.

Why We Want It: Chambers has said this will be the final Wayfarers novel and we can't pass up one last opportunity to visit this galaxy full of very different people trying to do right by each other.

Gailey, Sarah. The Echo Wife [Tor]
Publisher's Description:

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.

Why We Want It: Well, first and foremost, it's Sarah Gailey. It's also one of the best sci fi thriller concepts I've seen in years. Did I mention that it's Sarah Gailey? There's no way we'd be passing this one up.

Martine, Arkady. A Desolation Called Peace [Tor]
Publisher's Description:

A Desolation Called Peace is the spectacular space opera sequel to Arkady Martine's genre-reinventing, Hugo Award-winning debut, A Memory Called Empire.

An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.

In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.

Their failure will guarantee millions of deaths in an endless war. Their success might prevent Teixcalaan’s destruction—and allow the empire to continue its rapacious expansion.

Or it might create something far stranger . . .

Why We Want It: A Memory Called Empire was an incredible debut (see Adri's review), winning the Hugo Award for Best Novel - it's a significant science fiction novel that will be read for years. There was a larger story set up in that first novel, plus the hope that Martine could write a follow up that lived up to the promise of A Memory Called Empire. Spoilers, it does. Adri has reviewed A Desolation Called Peace here and I've read it as well. It's excellent.

Polk, C.L. Soulstar [Tor.com Publishing]
Publisher's Description:

With Soulstar, C. L. Polk concludes her riveting Kingston Cycle, a whirlwind of magic, politics, romance, and intrigue that began with the World Fantasy Award-winning Witchmark. Assassinations, deadly storms, and long-lost love haunt the pages of this thrilling final volume.

For years, Robin Thorpe has kept her head down, staying among her people in the Riverside neighborhood and hiding the magic that would have her imprisoned by the state. But when Grace Hensley comes knocking on Clan Thorpe’s door, Robin’s days of hiding are at an end. As freed witches flood the streets of Kingston, scrambling to reintegrate with a kingdom that destroyed their lives, Robin begins to plot a course that will ensure a freer, juster Aeland. At the same time, she has to face her long-bottled feelings for the childhood love that vanished into an asylum twenty years ago.

Can Robin find happiness among the rising tides of revolution? Can Kingston survive the blizzards that threaten, the desperate monarchy, and the birth throes of democracy? Find out as the Kingston Cycle comes to an end.

Why We Want It: After Stormsong, we'll follow Polk anywhere (and Witchmark was pretty darn good as well!) and Robin's story is one we're excited to read.

Wagers, K.B. Out Past the Stars [Orbit]
Publisher's Description:

Gunrunner empress Hail Bristol must navigate alien politics and deadly plots to prevent an interspecies war, in the explosive finale to the Farian War space opera trilogy.

When Hail finally confronts the Farian gods, she makes a stunning discovery. There are no gods—only the Hiervet, an alien race with devastating powers who once spread war throughout the galaxy long before humanity’s ancestors crawled out of the sludge of Earth’s oceans.

But this knowledge carries with it dire news: the Hiervet have returned, eager to take revenge on those of their kind who escaped. And they don’t care who gets caught in the middle of the battle—Shen, Farian, or Indranan.

Once again, the fate of the galaxy is on the line and Hail will have to make one final gamble to leverage chaos into peace.

Why We Want It: Wagers is a particular favorite of several of our writers and we have adored her Indranan War and Farian War novels. Out Past the Stars wraps up the story of Hail Bristol. We've been following Hail since Behind the Throne and this has been a killer series.

Yu, E. Lily. On Fragile Waves [Erewhon]
Publisher's Description:

The haunting story of a family of dreamers and tale-tellers looking for home in an unwelcoming world.

Firuzeh and her brother Nour are children of fire, born in an Afghanistan fractured by war. When their parents, their Atay and Abay, decide to leave, they spin fairy tales of their destination, the mythical land and opportunities of Australia.

As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found.

When they arrive in Australia, what seemed like a stable shore gives way to treacherous currents. Neighbors, classmates, and the government seek their own ends, indifferent to the family’s fate. For Firuzeh, her fantasy worlds provide some relief, but as her family and home splinter, she must surface from these imaginings and find a new way.

This exquisite and unusual magic realist debut, told in intensely lyrical prose by an award winning author, traces one girl’s migration from war to peace, loss to loss, home to home.

Why We Want It: On the strength of "The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees" Yu won the John W. Campbell Award (now Astounding) for Best New Writer back in 2012 and we've been reading her ever since. We're particularly excited to read her debut novel.


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 4x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. He / Him.

Microreview [book]: Out Past the Stars by KB Wagers

Winningly brings to an end the second trilogy of novels featuring the green haired gunrunner turned Empress of Indrana. 

Hailimi Mercedes Jaya Bristol, Empress of Indrana, has been through a lot. From being dragged back from her runaway gunrunner life to the center of seat of power in the first trilogy, and trying to stop a long standing civil and interstellar war in the first two books, including a dark turn with being kidnapped and going to dark psychological places, she has been through the wringer.

Now, here in Out Past the Stars, KB Wagers brings this six book arc to a conclusion, as the interstellar conflict between the Farians, the breakoff splinter Shen, and the mysterious Gods of the Farians comes to a season ending all stops conclusion.

This is in many ways a very different book than the previous book, Down Among the Dead. Reading it in quick succession after the second book might give some emotional whiplash, it certainly is a gear shift. It’s much more like the first book of the Farian War trilogy, There Before the Chaos, in the sense that it builds up to a big set piece finale of a conflict. Unlike that first book, though, this book is much more about the action beats. 

This shows the range and power of the author across the three books, and sets them apart from the first trilogy as well, which is more adrenaline filled. This trilogy features a political thriller and maneuvering, followed by a deep psychological dark dive, and now followed by more action beats and revelations and explosive action. Through it all, Hail remains a compelling and strong central character with multiple facets, strengths, weaknesses and the center of a social web. While the original conception of her, back in the first trilogy was billing her as a gunrunner version of Princess Leia, she is far more complicated and envisioned than that. She shows strength, decisiveness, vulnerability, doubt, determination, mercy, and more, and that is just in this last capstone novel. It is as if Wagers is trying to have the final word on her Empress (say it isn’t so!) in this last book.

But for all of the intriguing plot, revelations and worldbuilding we get (and I see echoes and intimations of a bunch of SF in her expansive ideas, ranging from, yes Star Wars, all the way through Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1 and beyond), for me the strength of these novels, and the strength of this novel, the real strength is not the pulse pounding action that makes you turn the pages. It’s not the rich worlds and locations that you want to visit again and again. It’s not the sharp and well honed writing, now, six novels in, really showing the power of the author’s craft. All of that is excellent and could each individually be a reason to pick up this volume, pick up this trilogy, pick up this entire series.

No, for me, where this set of books, where this trilogy and where Out Past the Stars shines and what I read these books for, first and most of all, is the characters, their relationships and how those relationships are shown, grow and change. Relationships in Wagers’ verse are dynamic, growing, changing things, showing central cores of roots and stems, and still, surprising and flowering and taking new directions. 

For Hail herself, the center, the Star of Indrana, a quote from Kate Elliott’s Unconquerable Sun comes to mind: “There is but one true sun, and each of us casts nothing more than her reflected glory". This is not to say that the other characters are not compelling, with arcs and stories and developments of their own, but she IS the center, and her relationships which burn the brightest and get the most play. The trust she has in her Ekam, her bodyguard, Emmory. The long distance communications and chats with her designated heir, Alice, who, like most of the rest of the Empire, is not happy their Empress is off dealing with the Farian War problem rather than administering the Empire. The wonderful relationship she has with her sworn brother Hao which hit a peak in the second book, and here we see the implications of Hao's vow in how he now treats his "little sister".

But it is her relationship with the Shen Mia, that has developed over the three books and comes to full fruition here in this third and final novel. There is definitely a strand of full on queer romance here for Hail and Mia.  I don’t think its a spoiler too much to say that there is an HEA here, but does the relationship and the characters themselves go through a hell of a lot to get to that HEA? You bet they do. 

Wagers makes sure the both of them get the Happy ending only after a lot of doubt, uncertainty and danger. There is a lot that they go through, both outside of their relationship and inside of it, before they get to that personal happy ending, and the SF beats and the social and romantic and emotional beats line up. It stands in stark contrast to the space opera of ages past, where relationships took a very distant backseat, if they were ever even in the car, with the worldbuilding and action sequences of the novel. Here, they are harnessed in twain, and Wagers knows when to push one and when to push another, but they really are all parts of the same engine. Is this a kissing book? Yes, yes it is. Is it also a book where Hail goes toe to toe with putative Gods with the fate of species and worlds on the line? Yes, yes it is.

And that gets me to a more plot and theme and tone commentary on the book. For all that the novel seems to want to set up the situation as absolutely hopeless (Hail versus an alien species that might as well *be* Gods?) , the novel and its tone are in the end optimistic and positive. Individual action matters, what people choose and the decisions they make do make a positive difference. Parts of the world may be broken, bad things may occur, horrors may strike, the galaxy may threaten to go to devastation and destruction (some of the visions that Hail gets in the course of the novel are truly chilling) but it is action and standing up and standing firm that will get the characters, the Empire, the universe through it all. To take up arms against a sea of troubles and so doing, end them. It's a positivist message, and one surely and sorely welcome in this day and age.

Wagers sticks the landing with Out Past the Stars and while Hail’s story seems complete at this stage, it has been quite the journey for a former princess turned gunrunner turned Empress turned galactic heroine. Wagers is doing slightly different and interesting things with their Neo-G series, but I maintain that if you want to try the author’s work, starting with Behind the Throne and getting to meet Hail and company, first, still stands as the best way to then start buying the rest of their work, through this book and to Neo-G. And, one hopes, out past those stars, too.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10.

Bonuses: +1 for a complete package of a book that has emotional, social, political and action beats in equal measure

+1 for sticking the landing on a second trilogy that satisfactorily brings Hail’s story to a conclusion. 

Penalties: -1 for a bit of gear shifting needed for readers.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10 well worth your time and attention

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

Reference: Wagers, K. B. Out Past the Stars  [Hachette 2021]

Top 9 Books of the Year

Some people do a top ten list, others do a top eleven (insert your outdated Spinal Tap joke here), some may go shorter, though I don't understand those people. My list is 9 books long. Why? Partly to be a little bit different and partly because I want the tenth spot on my list to be reserved for that really great book which I simply did not get the chance to read during 2020. That really great book may also be something I have only heard whispers about and I may not discover for several more years. Whatever that tenth great book is, I’m holding a spot for it on my list.

Also, there is no doubt that this list, like every other list out there is built entirely on the combination of the books I've actually read with my own prejudices, taste, preferences, and the choices I made when selecting books to read across the breadth of 2020. That's really what we're saying when we say we've put together a list of the "Best Books of the Year". It's the best we've read, the best we can remember, the best based on what we appreciate in speculative fiction. One of the other best books I've read this year is Louise Erdrich's latest novel The Night Watchman, but this is a speculative fiction blog focusing on more nerdy endeavors, so for the sake of theme I'll limit this list to science fiction, fantasy, and everything in between and around the edges.

Most years I think I stay fairly well on top of the genre and will read most of the significant novels of the year. I'll miss some, of course, but granting my abovementioned prejudices, taste, preferences, and choices - on the whole, I know the shape of the year and there's usually only a handful of books that I wanted to read that I didn't get to before it comes time to make this list. 

This is obvious, but 2020 has not been a typical year in any stretch of the imagination and for numerous reasons I've missed out on a whole lot of really exciting novels which I do still absolutely plan to read next year - but I can only consider those books which I've actually read. Keeping reading after the list for a brief discussion of the stuff I missed out on. Remember that open tenth spot? 

This Top Nine List is more or less in order. The top two slots are a complete lock, but ask me tomorrow and some titles may shift around a bit. The order you see below is not the order in which I started this article. Whichever order the list is in, these are the nine novels published in 2020 which I feel were the strongest titles of the year.

1. The City We Became: I find it difficult to write about The City We Became without talking about N.K. Jemisin's previous novels even though they have absolutely nothing to do with The City We Became, but that's because the explosive excellence of her Broken Earth trilogy set a level of expectation that I was legitimately anxious that The City We Became would not be able to live up to. It was an impossible task that was only relieved by this novel being just about as different from those historic novels as can be - but the thing is that N.K. Jemisin is writing at the top of her game and while my apprehensions were founded because how the hell do you follow The Broken Earth, the answer is - with this. 

The City We Became is the personification of New York City writ large, a city being born into something greater and distinct beyond just being a significant city(which is a concept I absolutely adore) and Jemisin turns the whole thing into a cosmic battle that is absolutely intense and raw and everything I didn't know that I wanted from a novel. This was an absolutely incredible experience. Adri reviewed The City We Became earlier in the year and thought highly of it, but I absolutely loved it. I don't think that's because I had a childhood on Staten Island and Adri did not, but you never know. Also, having a childhood on Staten Island would not make me the hero of this book so perhaps I won't lean too much onto that connection.

 

2. Harrow the Ninth: Gideon the Ninth was an impossible debut, bold and astounding and groundbreaking and, as Adri put it in her review, "the queer NecRomantic murder mystery you've been missing all your life". It was just about as spectacular a debut as a writer could have and Tamsyn Muir could have ridden the coattails of that novel and given readers more of the same. Even granting the ending, Gideon's voice was so singular and so iconic that to move away from it would be unthinkable. And yet, Harrow the Ninth does exactly that and throws everything you think you know from Gideon the Ninth in question. Frankly, its maddening. It is also flawlessly accomplished. 

The scope of what Tamsyn Muir attempts and achieves in Harrow the Ninth is staggering, which is why I'd like to quote Adri's review of Harrow to conclude. Muir spends at least half of Harrow on a knife edge and a single slip would invite disappointing failure. Muir's hand is steady.

"And that's the real big question, with a book this dense and complex and self-contradictory: is Muir going to pull it off? In a word: fuck yes. It's that payoff to a deeply ambitious structure that really puts Harrow over the top, even when compared to its juicy but more classically-plotted predecessor; it takes serious talent to turn part of your sequel into a nonsensical retcon of the events of the previous book without completely losing your audience, let alone to turn that retcon into a vital strand of the plot and a vehicle for character growth in its own right. Even when it's refusing to take itself and its own genre seriously on the surface, every twist in Harrow's tale draws the audience deeper into its terrifying, ridiculous, mystical world and the people within it. This is a rare series that lives up to its hype and then some, and Harrow the Ninth one of the best books I've ever read."

3. Savage Legion: I've written at various lengths about Matt Wallace's Sin du Jour series of gonzo-culinary urban fantasy novellas (here's my review of the final volume, Taste of Wrath, with links to the previous six). While I'm going to talk about Savage Legion a bit here, I can't help but to make my strongest recommendation to go find a copy Envy of Angels, starting reading, and thank me later. But we're not here to talk about Sin du Jour (well, you're not. I'm always here to talk about Sin du Jour). We're here to talk about Savage Legion - Matt Wallace's epic fantasy debut, a twist in the concept of what Epic Fantasy (capital letters) does and can do within the framework of the sub genre. We're here to talk about why it's so friggin good. 

Paul Weimer wrote about Savage Legion back in June (which feels like two lifetimes ago) and does a great job covering the scope of what Wallace is working with here. Weimer writes, "the novel is a much more complicated and inventive novel than the title, cover and promotional matter led me and might lead you to believe. There are potent themes here that Wallace is exploring, the writer’s ambition to write a story that talks about some fundamental and difficult subjects, even in a secondary world setting far removed from our own, is done with verve, nuance and burgeoning skill. The role and power of the poor in society. Oppression, control of news and information, and endless war. The horror of war, environmental degradation, resource extraction and the uses of power. It’s a heady cocktail that Wallace plays with. It’s even more impressive with the savage and bloody battle scenes, the slice of life character moments, and the nuanced relationships that develop between various characters in the novel. While I am annoyed and call out again the novel is not what it seems to be, the action sequences are top notch, pulse pounding, and excellently done, a real highlight of the book."

 

While I acknowledge Paul's point that the promotion of the book focused on Evie's storyline of forcibly joining the legion and the novel is so much more, but I do not share his annoyance with that fact because I've never expected Matt Wallace to just tell a simple story of pulse pounding action. Matt Wallace doesn't write simple. Of course, far be it for me to complain about someone else taking issue with a book's promotion given my own history.  The point, of course, is not about the promotion of Savage Legion, successful as it may have been in drawing Paul and I towards the novel. 

The point is that everything about Savage Legion kicks ass. Yes, the action scenes which are specifically written to kick ass do, in fact, kick ass. Wallace writes action like nobody's business. But it is Wallace's deft treatment and handling of the socio-political in this novel which really sings. Everything is vibrant and rich and immediate. It's not that you can't look away, it's that you don't want to. Savage Legion is a fucking accomplishment.

 

4. Unconquerable Sun: These days Kate Elliott is most known for her epic fantasy novels - Crossroads, Spiritwalker, Crown of Stars, Black Wolves, and Court of Fives. Unconquerable Sun is a return to her science fiction roots - though like a good space opera it does read in some ways like epic fantasy in space (which, I think, it is an entirely separate essay and conversation). Given the high concept of "gender-bent Alexander the Great in spaaaace", that works remarkably well. High concepts and elevator pitches are nice and fun, but at least for me it's all about the execution and my trust in the writer. I have nothing but trust in Kate Elliott and she has earned every bit of it. Unconquerable Sun nails the whole thing. 

Other than having once seen Oliver Stone's Alexander movie starring Colin Farrel and having forgotten just about everything in that movie, I don't know the story of Alexander the Great. It's just a name, a half forgotten legend. It doesn't matter. Kate Elliott may be using that as the framework, but it shouldn't be considered a barrier to entry. Unconquerable Sun is a science fiction epic, a story of family and high political plotting and drama. It's a novel of ambition, both Sun's and of the author's. Kate Elliott doesn't reach for the stars, she lives there and Unconquerable Sun shines as brightly as can be. 

If you don't believe (which you should), perhaps check out Paul's review of the novel. He mentions one bit of Elliott's worldbuilding which might be my favorite bit of this wonderful novel, "her use of the idea of Channel Idol. How does one try and come up with an interstellar idea of Arete (excellence) in a way to mirror Alexander’s rise to power, fame and reputation? Easy. Create an interstellar network of news and entertainment called Idol. Add in a Eurovision like contest called Idol Faire." It's a side bit of shade and color to the novel, but it is so well constructed it feels as natural as it anything else.

 

5. The Ministry for the Future: This is the first novel on the list that I've previously written about, so I'm going to crib from myself while talking about it. 

"It may be a stretch to call The Ministry for the Future the last major novel of Kim Stanley Robinson, though I listened to an interview with Robinson where he did suggest this may be exactly that because he was changing his novel writing focus after the intensive work to put together this novel and the last several. If so, The Ministry for the Future is one heck of a way to close out this chapter of his career.

Though it begins with absolute horror, The Ministry for the Future is ultimate a hopeful novel. Robinson looks hard at our present and pushes towards the global, societal, ecological, and economical catastrophes that are looming and makes them happen. Then, he offers hope for how humanity could (and arguably must) transform our cultures to tackle the very real climate breakdowns that are occurring. This isn't much of a spoiler to say that it would require a fundamental change to human culture and that there will be some nations (the United States, say) who lag behind in effective response.

The Ministry for the Future is an impressive work of imagination and prognostication. It offers a road map that we are unlikely to take until things are too late, but then that is not much different from the path taken in the novel."

 

One point which I'd like to rehash a bit is the idea that The Ministry for the Future is a significant work of imagination and a major and important novel. As big as Kim Stanley Robinson is within the field of science fiction, I believe his work has ranging impact in the wider world. While I'm not sure the extent of Robinson's impact, he is very effective in shining a light on the consequences of our collective actions and to propose a way forward.  He's also a heck of a storyteller. If you don't believe me, maybe Barack Obama's opinion carries a little more weight.

 

6. A Pale Light in the Black: In just four years K.B. Wagers has become one of my favorite science fiction storytellers. They have published five books in the Indranan and Farian War series (so far!) and I was surprised that A Pale Light in the Black came out before The Farian War was complete, but any (brief) hesitation I might have about starting a new series from a favorite author was gone on the first page. Oh. Right. I'm in good hands and on comfortable ground. 

 

More than anything else, A Pale Light in the Black is fun. There is heady, serious science fiction that wants to teach you a lesson while telling a story (this is not a knock, look back at my thoughts on The Ministry for the Future) and that science fiction is great (told you). There is also room for the science fiction that takes your hand and pulls you along on a romp of a ride, thrilling you at every turn. Some do it with epic space battles an others do it with a fabulous cast of characters you want to be friends with and follow along on any of their adventures, whether it is drinking with your crew in the bar or participating an an intra-service military skills competition. A Pale Light in the Black is the second kind and is a pure friggin delight to read from start to finish. 

By now I've pretty much ceded the reviewing of K.B. Wagers' novels to Paul. He's done a bang up job and, frankly, he's far more prolific and consistent of a review than I can hope to be right now. As such, this would be an excellent time to check out his review of A Pale Light in the Black. 

What I think I appreciate most about A Pale Light in the Black is *who* the book is focused on. The Near Earth Orbital Guard. NEO-G. It's the Coast Guard in space, which is just about perfect. They, like the actual U.S. Coast Guard perform an incredibly important mission and are highly skilled professionals who save lives. They, like the actual U.S. Coast Guard are often looked down upon as being a lesser branch of the military (which is wrong and incorrect, they have a particular mission and perform it with excellence, but the idea remains - I also wrote that previous sentence the week the new Space Force were announced to be Guardians, so we'll see how that condescension shakes out). So when it comes to the Boarding Games, the aforementioned military competition, the NEO-G team has a lot of somethings to prove. 

I've also gotten this far without mentioning Jenks, the most delightful damn character I've read this year, which is why we've got Paul taking point on the reviews.

 

7. Stormsong: Witchmark was one of the quietly buzziest debuts of 2018, which sounds absurd on the face of it but (at least from my perspective) the story of Witchmark built and built until it was one of the most significant novels of the year. In the end, Witchmark was a World Fantasy Award winner and a Nebula Award finalist, among others. I described Witchmark as "a lovely novel and excellent debut" and I stand by that. It was excellent, but it is also a novel that has been slightly diminished in my estimation by the passage of time. I admit, I may be one of the only readers to have had that reaction given how beloved a novel it was and the award recognition it received. 

 

Then came Stormsong, a novel which exceeded any expectation I had. Everything Witchmark did well (which was a lot) Stormsong did better. Plus, it added a more than heavy dose of political intrigue to go with the top notch interpersonal relationships C.L. Polk crushed in Witchmark. But what Polk does so exceptionally in Stormsong is the melding of the political with the personal - which, I suppose is what politics can be, the personal writ large. 

Stormsong is exceptional storytelling. The smoothness and the naturalness of Polk's storytelling in Stormsong is an absolute wonder.

 

8. Architects of Memory: Each year has several prominent debut novels and, generally, two or three or them are likely to make my list of favorites. Architects of Memory was one of my more anticipated debuts and I'm quite happy that it live up to the anticipation. I may not have been able to read all of the books (debuts or otherwise) I wanted to this year, but the ones I did were quite good. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Sean Dowie wrote about Architects of Memory back in October and had this to say:

"The most singular talent of Architects of Memory is finding a new bent on a space opera story—a genre that’s been well-trodden so thoroughly and covered in footprints that it can seem impossible to find a patch of your own. And while Karen Osborne does steps on patches that have been stepped on by seemingly every sci-fi author, there are idiosyncrasies to characters and twists regarding alien life that more than make it fresh. While characterization isn’t at the top of the novel’s mind, it does do a much-more-than-serviceable job of establishing believable motivations and ample depth to keep you caring.

But the greatest joy of Architects of Memory lies in its plot and the themes they develop. Whether it tackles individuality and collectivity, the belligerent survival instincts of humanity, or relationships in secrecy, it lays the foundation for those themes and builds upon them, never leaving them underdeveloped along the way. The most intriguing theme is how memory is so tied up with our sense of self. We’re a collection of the knowledge we accrue and the relationships we build, but without memory, those things slip through our fingers like sand. Love can change from everlasting to a brief sensation. Familial bonds that we preoccupy ourselves with if the world around us is rotten becomes lost if our memory – our personal storage locker that tethers all our meaning – is gone.  

Space operas can sometimes be so unwilling to take risks and stray from conventions that they’re forgettable. Stories that have edifying substance don’t matter if they immediately leave our memory. The best way to counteract that is to have original characters, and hard-hitting themes despite how well-trodden some story beats are. Architects of Memory does that. Its craft, emotional intelligence, and smooth writing style work to create a gem that will be at the top of my mind for a long time."

9. The Relentless Moon: One thing I appreciate about Mary Robinette Kowal's science fiction is that it is ultimately optimistic. If I may be excused the pun, and even if not, I might suggest that her science fiction is relentlessly optimistic. Sure, the Lady Astronaut series began with a meteorite crashing into and devastating the Earth, but each of the novels have been about problem solving and a belief that the seemingly insurmountable is something that - with enough science, ingenuity, and hard work - can actually be overcome. To quote myself, The Relentless Moon is "about striving towards excellence and truly building a better tomorrow even in the face of a devastating future."

With The Relentless Moon, Kowal moves past the focus of Elma York of the first two Lady Astronaut novels, away from the race first into space and then Mars. Kowal brings the focus to the Moon (it's in the title, after all). The focus is on the moon, but also on the challenges of Earth. Not everyone is satisfied (let alone happy) about the existence of the space program and the diverted resources that could be better used to recover from the meteorite. That's the deepest core of the novel. 

 

To further quote myself, 

 

"There's a lot going on in The Relentless Moon and Kowal keeps everything moving and flowing together with remarkable deftness and an underlying compassion that smooths the edges off even the harshest aspects of the novel - including Nicole's eating disorder, racial issues, domestic terrorism, and a desperate fight for survival on the Moon. Everything is handled with sensitivity, though Kowal does not shy away from the emotion of the worst moments - it's more that Kowal is such a smooth writer that the reader is in safe hands. The novel leans into the pain, but with a light touch.

The Relentless Moon is more than the pain, of course. I am very much not the first to appreciate the generally healthy marriages in the Lady Astronaut novels, but reading about a relationship where both partners support each other and recognize the sacrifices they make to achieve goals and just build each other up is absolutely refreshing. Equally refreshing, especially perhaps when reading this novel during a pandemic, is that science is celebrated and problems are typically solved by smart people working very hard to come up with a solution. To paraphrase both Mark Watney (The Martian) and Vanilla Ice: if they have a problem, yo they'll solve it by sciencing the shit out of it. That's delightful. It's also important. There is violence in The Relentless Moon, but it is mostly off stage. The struggle is that of science, engineering, imagination, and decency. This novel, like the two Lady Astronaut novels before it, is about striving towards excellence and truly building a better tomorrow even in the face of a devastating future. The Relentless Moon is hopeful science fiction, and that's something worth celebrating - especially when it's this good."

 

As I mentioned in the introduction, for as many books as I read in a year, there is always something amazing that I missed and that I just didn't have time to get to. Or, as plugged in as I try to be, that I just haven't heard of (or heard enough about). As much as I wanted to, I did not read Black Sun (Rebecca Roanhorse), The Burning God (R.F. Kuang), Ring Shout (P. Djeli Clark), Network Effect (Martha Wells), Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger), The Once and Future Witches (Alix E. Harrow), Piranesi (Susanna Clarke), Mexican Gothic (Silvia Moreno-Garcia), Machine (Elizabeth Bear), Axiom's End (Lindsay Ellis), A Deadly Education (Naomi Novik), The Angel of Crows (Katherine Addison), among others. The list of highly recommend and presumably stellar novels that I just didn't get to read this year is long and distinguished. That's the reason for the tenth spot on the list.

 

POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 4x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. He / Him.