I read a lot within the genre I write in – LitRPG – but I like to read a number of the entries in the SPSFC each year, partly as a chance to stretch my brain and partly to give indie authors a chance. I review any book I finish! Rather than give a star rating or a points value, I like to give:
- a brief summary of the book
- who shouldn’t give the book a try
- who should give the book a try
- squares the book fulfills in this year’s r/Fantasy bingo sheet
Without further ado, here are the books I’ve finished so far for this year!
Star Language – The Crossing – Kenai – Replacement – To Flail Against Infinity – Icebreaker – Grey Enigmas – Kizuna – God of Small Affairs – Orphan Planet – Castle of 1,000 Doors – Tribute King – BETA – Aria of the Forgotten – Southron Deception
Star Language by Charon Dunn
This book is a straight-up TRIP. It tells you on the first page that it’s going to end kind of poorly, and I was still sitting there the whole time hoping for good things for the protagonist.
Human-ish aliens come to Earth and need to pick up our language and bacteria before taking over the planet. Who wants underlings if you can’t tell them what to do? They have translation software so they can kind of understand our stuff, but the fact that we have multiple languages confuses their efforts to translate their tongue to ours. They do pick up on the idea of human trafficking, so they’re like “Ah! Why kidnap humans when we can just buy some legally? And they’ll be our concubines. Awesome!”
The story is told from the viewpoint of one of these trafficked women, who is the first to learn the alien language and ends up as the chief diplomat in their initial contact with Earth society.
Are there plot holes? Yeah, probably. But I was so deeply immersed in the character’s viewpoint that I barely noticed them. I certainly didn’t care.
All the trigger warnings you’d expect on this one, although the aliens themselves are surprisingly gentlemanly.
Don’t read if: Sexual content, sexual violence, or abusive families are not things you can read about
Read if: You like the idea of a really really unique alien invasion story and don’t mind if it gets a bit explicit
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Published in 2023
The Crossing by Laurie Janey
“Somewhere deep in the forest lay a valuable corpse, and it was Berro’s job to find it.”
What an absolute banger of a first line.
Do you like seemingly wholesome science/magic utopias with dark undercurrents? Do you want to follow a group of plucky college-age protagonists as they discover what’s really going on around them… and try to stop it? Can they possibly succeed when their own youth and interpersonal drama make them their own worst enemies at times?
Don’t read if: You don’t like stories that follow multiple characters, you don’t like stories with a lot of set-up before the payoff
Read if: My review made it sound good
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Queernorm setting
Kenai by Dave Dobson
MC is an ex-military security guard on an exoplanet archeological dig.
This is one of those books where things are happening at the beginning and you’re like “Hm, enjoying the writing and main character but this all seems pretty nonsensical. I have a hard time believing it’ll come together by the end.” You know what? It pretty much did. I liked it a lot.
Don’t read if: You don’t like first-person perspective or mystery
Read if: You like weird sci-fi nonsense and an interesting MC
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Published in 2023
Replacement by Jordan Rivet
Set in a future where 10% of the population are purpose-bred clones commissioned by corporations to fulfill specific jobs, our protagonist is a “leftover” clone who doesn’t know why she was born. Interesting sci-fi YA story made more interesting by the fact that the protagonist is part of and mostly supports the idea of a cloned populace.
Don’t read if: You don’t like YA
Read if: You want to read a book from a perspective of a person raised as a product
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Young Adult (hard mode)
To Flail Against Infinity by JP Valentine
This book is a sci-fi western-style cultivation story. If that meant nothing to you, then it’s a story of a working-class kid on a space station experiencing a tragedy that leaves him able to grow in strength in a way usually only accessible to the elite upper-class of the universe… but his version seems different than normal. He needs the teaching the elite groups provide to safely grow in strength, but getting that training with his low-class background and weird powers might prove difficult.
Very strong “voice” to the protagonist made this a fun read for me.
Don’t read if: Hm. I’m struggling here. I guess it’s not a very fast-paced story, so don’t read if you’re looking for that
Read if: You want to dip your toes into the progression fantasy genre OR read a xianxia-type story that’s a little different than most
Bingo squares: Mundane Jobs (hard mode), Self-pub or indie, Published in 2023
Icebreaker by Steven William Hannah
Post-apocalyptic books are popular, but this is the first I’ve read where civilization was destroyed by a memetic threat, one that continues to imperil and shape the lives of the survivors. The story’s main character is a scientist attempting to research the phenomenon that destroyed civilization; a difficult task when examining it too closely will doom him.
Don’t read if: You’re a hard no on books written in present tense, occasional typos will drive you nuts. (It’s overall well-edited, but expect homophone issues, e.g. dessert instead of desert)
Read if: The uniqueness of the premise draws you in
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode)
Grey Enigmas by Gareth Lewis
This book is a crime mystery that takes place in a society where investigation is mostly a thing of the past. Everyone has AI riding in their heads and reporting on their actions, so there are really no mysteries to solve. Crime still happens, but all that’s necessary is for Enforcers to come pick the person up for mental reprogramming. No need for an investigation. The guilty be released from their mindscape after they’re rehabilitated of whatever led to their crime.
But then, someone commits murder and – impossibly – isn’t caught. Our protagonist, a detective who was arrested, is released from rehab on probation to try to solve the crime, along with the “help” of an Enforcer minder.
Honestly, I really liked this book. There are some grammar issues, and the writing is confusing and ambiguously-worded at times, but this is a great and fun mystery book. The characters are delightful and the twists are foreshadowed but not obvious.
Don’t read: If you don’t like mysteries
Read if: You like mysteries and settings where the implications of new technology on society are fully thought-through.
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode)
Kizuna: Or How To Lose a Spaceship and Still Go Places by Jamie Watt
As soon as I found out that the protagonist of this book was essentially a space garbage collector and hauler, I was excited. That’s different! The MC is basically a bright and nice guy who has never lived up to his potential, something I think a lot of us can empathize with. He ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time and things end up going very… very… wrong for him.
At times, I wasn’t sure where the plot was going, but I enjoyed the journey. There’s an AI character, and I’m a sucker for those.
Don’t read if: You aren’t okay with a meandering story
Read if: You like character-driven sci-fi
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Mundane jobs (hard mode), Queernorm setting, Featuring Robots
God of Small Affairs by Olga Werby
So, the conceit of this book is that nonhuman beings have been living alongside humanity since time immemorial, guiding us to safety and better futures. A First Nations tribe from Alaska has long thought of Ay-Tal as a god, an immortal being with otherworldly powers… but still vulnerable. It’s John Uolan’s job to protect Ay-Tal on her way back to the tribe after a long sojourn south where she acted as a legal advocate for the tribe’s interests. When things go wrong, John has to find a way to get her home and has to re-evaluate the way he thinks about his god and his tribe, as well as get to the bottom of the shady business taking place in the small town he ran to for shelter.
Don’t read if: You don’t like character-focused stories
Read if: You like thinking about things from different perspectives
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Magical Realism (hard mode)
Orphan Planet by Rex Burke
So “Earth is doomed, the last of humanity is escaping the planet” is a common trope… but that’s not quite what this is. It’s “The Earth is in bad shape, some people are trying to fix it, but an eccentric billionaire has scraped together a space mission to colonize a planet elsewhere and recruited a bunch of brilliant people who don’t have a lot of reasons to stay on Earth.” The first book largely follows Jordan, a history teacher who is revived from hypersleep far earlier than expected because there was a glitch in the birth control that allowed six of the crew who stayed awake to get pregnant in the same few months before it was fixed. The kids were raised communally for a few years, then put into the care of a teacher. When their first teacher passes away unexpectedly, Jordan is forced into the role of near-parent for six teenagers.
It’s unexpectedly cozy, with a lot to say on the topics of loneliness, family, and finding your purpose in life. I quite enjoyed it and actually read the two sequels as well.
Don’t read if: You don’t like slow stories or YA
Read if: You don’t mind slow stories and like the idea of a cozy space exploration series
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Young adult (hard mode), Published in 2023
Castle of 1,000 Doors by Kenny Gould
This book is a sci-fi LitRPG, set in a world where both science and magic are real, and are basically at war. The protagonist, a sports star, gets caught up in the middle of some political maneuvering and accused of treason. His death sentence gets commuted into an opportunity to delve into the last bastion of magic near the technological kingdom he’s part of for the source of that magic. If he succeeds, he’ll live, but he’ll most likely die.
The book is a strange blend of silly and serious, but it worked for me.
Don’t read if: You absolutely cannot accept the idea of an electromagnetically-charged sapient potato
Read if: Sapient potatoes make you curious
Bingo Squares: Self-pub or indie, Published in 2023
Tribute King by Brandon Hill
A spoiled and rude prince is forced to wed a naga princess. Kind of a McCaffrey thing here, where the sci-fi looks like fantasy for a long time, but you eventually figure out the scientific basis for the fantastical setting. I wasn’t sure what I thought of the book for a lot of the way through, but I did keep reading. The way that the naga wife is unquestionably the more physically powerful member of the relationship made it an interesting read in and of itself – straight men aren’t often in positions where they are concerned about being overpowered by their romantic interest, and I’d almost call it worth reading just for that alone.
Don’t read if: Interspecies romance is a hard no, romance is not your thing
Read if: You like romance and speculative fiction and are up for a kind of weird semi-inverted Beauty and the Beast tale
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Title with a Title
BETA by M.T. Zimny
This is a YA superhero story, and a pretty fun one. The protagonist is enrolled in high school at an elite academy in the world’s most superheroey city. She herself is not a superhero, but finds herself in more and more trouble as her family’s secrets come to light and she gets closer to her classmates – many of whom are secretly superheroes.
The protagonist makes a lot of boneheaded decisions to move the plot forward, but there were some fun surprises. The secrets of the protagonist’s family, in particular, were very interesting to me.
Don’t read: If you don’t like YA, if you can’t stand illogical main characters
Read if: You like YA, superheroes, and plots with a mythic feel
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Superheroes (hard mode), Young Adult (hard mode)
Aria of the Forgotten, Book One: Bloodletting by Sean Thomas
This was some solid sci-fi, but wow, did the contents not match the title/cover. With a title like that, I was thinking maybe… space vampires. With the cover, a spaceship, I was thinking maybe space warfare. What I actually got was a detective story set in a cultural melting pot immigrant planet where dozens of races lived, but one was privileged above the rest. The main character is a half-breed known as a “Forgotten.”
The one thing I do want to throw out as a caveat: while this was a good book, with a great setting and characters, this is definitely not for people who aren’t okay with riding the wave of uncertainty. While we’re given a few physical details about the various alien species, and I eventually got the sense that they were all mostly humanoid (Maybe this is set in some post-Earth universe where all the races were descended from humanity at some point?) the author was totally okay with just throwing me in the deep end. Unexplained race names, place names, slang… They provided good flavor, which I assume was the intent, but I know this kind of thing would drive some readers batty.
Nice commentary on racism and the effects of systematic prejudice.
Don’t read if: You don’t like being thrown into the thick of things and getting a sense for the setting as you go
Read if: you like detective stories, police procedurals, and social commentary
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode)
The Southron Deception by J.L. Birchwood
This is more political/cultural sci-fi than technological sci-fi.
I almost dropped this book in the first few chapters, which had the weakest writing, but I’m glad I pushed through. It’s a character-focused look at a dystopian successor to America in the south. Climate change has made resources scarce, and many groups have had their freedoms walked back – some by law, others by custom. The story is told from the viewpoint of a young woman who starts out as a patriot, doing PR for the government. We’re taken with her on an emotional journey as she comes to realize that much of what she believed was wrong, and many of the people closest to her aren’t who she believed them to be.
Word of warning: It’s hard to find this book because Amazon and Google don’t believe you’re typing “Southron” and not “Southern.”
Don’t read if: You don’t want something character-focused or don’t have patience for a shaky start
Read if: You like the idea of watching someone’s emotional journey as she becomes a traitor to those closest to her
Bingo squares: Self-pub or indie (hard mode), Published in 2023
That’s it for now!
I’ll continue to add to this list as I read more! You can also check out my own series, Apocalypse Parenting, available on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible.
