Sci-Fi Month 2019 TBR

In just a few short weeks, it will be November!  While some may await this month so they begin holiday festivities in earnest, I’ve been waiting for a whole different reason: Sci-Fi Month!  This delightful blogging celebration is hosted by deargeekplace and imyril and encourages people to write, tweet, and generally flail about all things sci-fi.  While the focus is primarily on books, enthusiasm about everything from tv shows to video games is encouraged!  If it’s sci-fi, we want to hear about it!  Those who’d like to participate can sign-up with the form provided at the link above.

As for me, I’m mainly using Sci-Fi Month as motivation to dive into my backlist of books.  I have a healthy mixture of things that fallen through the cracks in the last few years, from new releases by favorite sci-fi authors, to STAR WARS tie-ins, to 2019 releases I just haven’t had time for.  Below is the tasting menu I’ve decided on.  I won’t get to all of these, but these are the books I really, REALLY have been wanting to read, and now I have an excuse!  This may change over the next few weeks, but either way, it’s a list of books that are calling for me to read them.

Want to read any of these?  Covers link to Goodreads!

Backlist Catch-Up

    

THERE BEFORE THE CHAOS by K.B. Wagers
The first book in a new trilogy featuring gunrunner-turned-empress Hail Bristol.  I got this for Christmas last year and somehow haven’t had the time to read it.  But with the second book coming out in December 2019, I need to make time – now!

BINTI: HOME by Nnedi Okorafor
I read the first book in this novella trilogy last year and really enjoyed its exploration of a character trying to balance honoring the traditions of her people while exploring new worlds and questing for new knowledge.  I’d love to continue on and read at least the sequel this month (or maybe finish the trilogy!)

LOST STARS by Claudia Gray
After absolutely loving what Gray did for Leia Organa Solo in the STAR WARS book BLOODLINE, I’ve been wanting to check out her earlier STAR WARS work, a YA romance called LOST STARS.  This features a Rebel and an Imperial soldier who grew up together who now face each other from opposite ends of the battle field.

    

RECORD OF A SPACEBORN FEW by Becky Chambers
I really liked the first two books in the loosely connected WAYFARERS series, and bought the third book last year. This time around, we follow human space colonists who are ending their generations long journey to a new home.  Becky Chambers has a flair for writing about groups of people who come to work together, and I’m excited to check this out!

THE DAZZLING HEIGHTS by Katharine McGee
This sci-fi YA thriller is a sequel I’ve been trying to get to for the last few months, and I’m hoping to squeeze it in now.  100 years in the future, a thousand-story skyscraper has been built that is literally its own city.  People live and work inside, without ever needing to leave the building. This sequel follows a group of teenagers dealing with the ramifications of a death at the end of book one, THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR.  Book one was full of soapy YA drama that I’m not usually here for, but for some reason I couldn’t put it down.  Now for consequences!

THE STARS ARE LEGION by Kameron Hurley
Let’s hear it for standalone novels! This space opera has the usual fare: war, love, betrayal, dying ships.  But it also features an all female cast — if I remember what I’ve heard correctly, there isn’t a male to be found in this universe!  Hurley’s work is known for being a bit weird but wonderful, so it goes on the list!

SPACE OPERA by Catherynne M. Valente
Confession time: I’ve never watched Eurovision.  In fact, I’d never heard of it until reading the synopsis for this book, which said it was inspired by Eurovision.  So after accepting that there was this whole international singing competition that somehow hadn’t made its way to my American ears, I found myself intrigued by the concept of SPACE OPERA.  Imagine, if you will, an interGALACTIC singing competition.  One where winning proves you belong amongst the sentient races, and losing means they might just wipe your race from existence.

2019 Releases

    

A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by Arkady Martine
I got this book at SDCC 2018 and was so excited to read it and then I…never did.  That changes this month!  I’m determined to read this space opera political murder mystery before 2019 comes to an end, and Sci-Fi Month is here to help!

THE TOLL by Neal Stephenson
The third and final book in the ARC OF THE SCYTHE trilogy releases in November! I LOVE this YA trilogy which envisions a world where technology has essentially eliminated death.  In such a world, population control is still necessary, so a handful of humans are designated Scythes, tasked with randomly “reaping” people.  This series so easily could have been trite, but instead it’s been a gripping exploration of the consequences of removing death from the world and what that does to humanity’s psyche.  Book 2 ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to get my hands on this last book in time for Sci-Fi Month!  (Come on library waitlist, don’t fail me now).

AURORA RISING by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
These two authors are on my “I should read their works at some point but I haven’t yet” list.  I haven’t read ILLUMINAE, NEVERNIGHT, or any other works by these prolific writers, but that may change in November!  A YA tale about a group of misfit space cadets who get thrust into a galaxy-saving adventure seems like a good place to start reading this author, no?

   

RESISTANCE REBORN by Rebecca Roanhorse
Ever since I heard that the author of one of my favorite books from the last few years, TRAIL OF LIGHTNING, was writing a STAR WARS book, I have been dancing with anticipation.  RESISTANCE REBORN releases in November and is a bridge novel between THE LAST JEDI and upcoming THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.  I’m letting myself splurge and buy the hardcover, and as I need to read it before THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, why not fit it in this month?

SALVAGED by Madeline Roux
This a sci-fi horror tale, about a woman working as a space janitor who arrives to clean up another research expedition gone wrong, only to find that the crew on the ship is not dead.  Instead, they’ve been taken over by an alien parasite.  It’s up to the woman and the captain of the ship to find a way to contain and defeat the problem before all of humanity is threatened.

There you have it, my tentative list of books I’d love to read during Sci-Fi Month!  Have you read any of these or excited to read them for yourself?  Let me know – and let me know if you’re going to be joining in the fun for Sci-Fi Month!