Ryan

This was a fun little collection of personal essays from a Back to the Future fan on why the trilogy is so important to him, and what he likes most about it. A fine read if you are likewise a fan.

This was such an incredibly powerful book. Butler presents us with a slow sort of apocalypse - there is no singular moment that changes the world, but rather just a gradual descent where everything falls apart. Reading this at the tail end of 2022, it feels disturbingly prescient - the issues of global warming, police brutality, a housing crisis, and food insecurity were all issues that existed in 1993, but they weren't quite as front-of-mind as they are today.

Of course, the powers of prediction isn't the only way to value science fiction, and that's not all that Butler offers here. What makes this novel such an important read is that it lights a candle in the darkness - it shows us, through Lauren and her burgeoning faith, that we will survive all this. That we can have hope and rebuild. That's what makes this such a special read.

This was a wonderfully creepy horror novella. I can't remember the last time I was so simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by a tale. Thompson has created an all-time classic of the genre with this story.

They stuck the landing perfectly. That's not an easy thing to do in any situation, but especially when you've created such an epic and large narrative over the course of eight novels.

I'll be honest - I've never really cared for any Section 31 stories and this affected my enjoyment of this story.

Avatar is essentially the pilot episode for the new, post-TV series version of DS9, and as a pilot it works really well. The new additions to the cast are all interesting, a new status quo is established for the station, and drama abounds. Ro and Kira's relationship seems like it'll be really interesting, as well as the new direction for Ezri.

I'm excited to see where things build from here!

This was a nice, cozy little sci-fi story.

I spent the first two years of Discovery hoping that they would introduce Emony Dax. Having her appear here was nice.

This was a fantastic end to an epic series. Fonda Lee had created a fascinating urban fantasy world in the first two books in this series, but this finale takes things to another level and really fulfills all the promise of the earlier books.

A fun retrospective for fans of the series.

An instant classic from Hiassen. The Trump parody elements were kind of inevitable given the Florida association, but if anything it feels like he went a bit easy on him? Aside from that, Angie was a fun protagonist.

Seeing a novel written in 2020 use the term “post pandemic” was a little awkward.

This was a really exciting Cold War alt-history thriller set at the end of the Apollo era. Hadfield has a fairly unique perspective on the details of being in space, which adds a nice degree of reality to those parts of the story. Beyond that, he knows how to spin a good yarn and keeps the story moving at a fast pace.

This was a simply sublime collection of stories. Robson deftly works through multiple genres, filling each story with interesting characters, fascinating environments, and thoughtful prose.

I've always thought that DAX was one of the most interesting characters in Star Trek, and this is an interesting look at the different people they have been.

I love these hippopotamus cowboy stories so much and would happily read 100 more of them.

A bit outside of what I would normally enjoy, but Kelley Armstrong can basically do no wrong.

This was an odd read. I'm glad to see Barclay return to writing political satire! But political satire relies on topicality, and as this came out right before the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems like it was from a million years ago. Topics like getting the police to pay for the premier's new van off the books, or staffers commiting nepotism would normally be a big deal, and Barclay had no way of knowing what was coming, but it all seems like small buck-a-beer compared to our current reality.

Full of time travel ridiculousness, but entertainingly so.

The past year has been fraught with the search for meaning. And while the experience of living through a global pandemic don't compare to Frankl's experience surviving a concentration camp, the lessons that he brought out of it are still important and relevant to our modern experience.

The plot was interesting enough, but the narrative choices kept taking me out of the story. For a Generation Z kid growing up in Manhattan, Jamie sounded an awful lot like a baby boomer from Maine.

This is an absolutely fantastic translation of Beowulf. Accessible for new readers, and charming and original for those that have heard it all before. Headly approaches the text in a way that's fun yet respectful - you can tell she truly loves Beowulf and wants others to love it as much as she does.

Beautiful end to a great series. Exactly what I want out of a Star Wars novel.

I was brought here by the recent Netflix series, but I'm kind of surprised I had never read any of Lupin's adventures before that. These stories are charming and engaging, and I'll definitely be back for more.

Andrew Robinson's portrayal of Garak in Deep Space Nine was one of the many excellent parts of that show, and seeing him flesh out the character's backstory was really interesting.

This is a great beginning for a new chapter of Star Wars. The High Republic feels like we're finally seeing the payoff of the Jedi Order that Obi-Wan described in the first Star Wars movie - a legendary order dedicated to spreading peace and justice throughout the galaxy.

The way that Soule presents the Jedi are fascinating, and I was drawn into them immediately. They're an engaging and interesting ensemble, and I'm looking forward to him and the other High Republic authors exploring these characters further.