Good Reads & Views

The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
Fiction

What it’s about: In the 2050s, NASA has scrapped crewed flights after a disastrous Mars mission, leaving space exploration mostly in the hands of private company KSpace. But when a KSpace astrophysicist makes a startling discovery, he risks his job to tell NASA: a bizarre object in space is decelerating and heading directly for Earth. NASA and KSpace are now in direct competition to chart a course for the alien object and figure out what it wants, which means NASA must pull its last remaining astronaut out of retirement. The rest of the novel is an intensely cinematic and disturbing journey, as both crews enter the strange ship and find nightmarish creatures inside. Action-packed, character-driven, and featuring perhaps the grossest scene of alien body invasion since Alien itself, The Last Astronaut is an exciting addition to the first contact canon. My only quibble is with some of the pretend tech: a “neutrino gun,” according to Fermilab physicists, would be an unmanageable and absurd communication mechanism, even in the future.

Introducing: Heroic former NASA Mission Commander Sally Jansen, the last astronaut of the title, who’s called out to head the Orion 7 first contact mission. After leading a failed attempt to reach Mars on Orion 6 in 2034 (a misstep that cost the life of a crew member), Jansen is traumatized, ashamed, and out to prove that she can successfully keep her group safe.

Try this next: The criminally underrated and claustrophobic psychological horror film As Above, So Below or Ericka Swyler’s Light From Other Stars—an ambitious novel about NASA, astronauts, and time travel.

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Dread Nation: Rise Up by Justina Ireland
YA Fiction

What it’s about: The dead rose up at Gettysburg just after the battle, and the nation is still recovering from the war and the zombie apocalypse. Now Jane McKeene is training to become a lady’s attendant (bodyguard) against the shamblers and trying to find out what happened to her ex-boyfriend’s sister and her family, but she makes powerful enemies in the process.

Why you should read it: This reads a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets the Wild West. African-American Jane is smart, sassy, and ferocious, protecting those she cares about and commenting on the world as she knows it. Well worth finding on audio too.

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The Outsider by Stephen King
Fiction

Starring: Ralph Anderson, Flint City detective, and Holly Gibney, former assistant to Bill Hodges of Mr. Mercedes fame.

What it’s about: It looks like an open and shut case when Terry Maitland, local coach and all-around great guy, is arrested for the brutal murder of an 11-yr old boy. There were reliable witnesses who saw Maitland, and his DNA and fingerprints are all over the evidence. Ralph Anderson is sure he has the right guy and arrests him at a public event. But then Maitland produces an iron-clad alibi that has witnesses and DNA evidence putting him in a different place when the murder was committed. The contradictory evidence is grounds to bring in investigator Holly Gibney, who played a crucial part in King’s Bill Hodges trilogy. This being Stephen King, the supernatural eventually finds its way into the plot and if you have a phobia about worms you may want to let someone else recap the last part for you.

Audio note: This is a great experience on audio; Will Patton does an excellent job voicing all the characters, with much emotion and expertise, as he did for King’s Bill Hodges trilogy.>

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The Passage by Justin Cronin
Fiction

Things aren’t going so well for humanity at the beginning of this book. Swaths of land have become uninhabitable, the war against terror is a losing battle, and attempts to create a super-soldier by using a virus found in the jungle have gone awry. The twelve virus-infected human guinea pigs have escaped, killing everyone in their path and creating a horde of “virals.” Only one six-year old girl, who was infected to see if her age made a difference, has some characteristics of a “viral” but has retained her basic humanity. Fast forward almost 100 years, and a small band of the descendents of the original uninfected human survivors are looking for a way to keep the few remaining uninfected humans safe. This first in the trilogy is followed by The Twelve and the final The City of Mirrors.

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The Fireman by Joe Hill
Fiction

A sense of dread permeates this horror thriller, set in a time when humanity is being destroyed by an infectious spore that decorates the skin with beautiful scale-like tattoos that eventually cause the infected to smoke and spontaneously combust. School nurse Harper, pregnant and infected with Dragonscale, is attacked by her husband and rescued by a near mythic figure known as the Fireman. He takes her to a secret community of the infected, who have learned to control the combustion with group experiences, generating a light they call “the Bright.” Meanwhile, Harper’s husband has joined a Cremator Squad, and is hunting down and killing the infected. Just as Harper begins to find a purpose in her new surroundings, the peace of the camp is threatened both from within and from outside. Which is more monstrous: human nature when threatened, or the deadly infection? This enthralling tale is grounded with plenty of pop culture figures (J.K. Rowling, MTVs Martha Quinn), and features a captivating heroine you’ll want to cheer on.

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The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
YA Fiction

I’ve noticed this book for years, watched it win awards, but hesitated to read it until now. What a treat! Like Ray Bradbury’s story “Homecoming,” it weaves a spell of a very different kind of life yet with characters who feel very familiar. I especially like the illustrations, which also remind me of The October Country and The Halloween Tree.

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Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
Fiction

This is King’s follow-up to his 1977 book The Shining, which established him as the successful writer he has become. Doctor Sleep won the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and I’d be remiss to give away too much of the plot. Danny Torrance, the young boy in The Shining, is now an adult with issues that can be traced back to the horrible events of his childhood. A young girl shares the same powers he has but there’s a group of people, especially their charismatic leader, who wants them both dead. RVs and their traveling owners are involved, so are the measles (yup!), recovering alcoholics, and a cat, together with some remnants of the first book. I found this follow-up much more enjoyable than the first one, possibly due to the fact that King is now much older and demonstrably much wiser.

The Girl With All The Gifts by Mike Carey
Fiction

Melanie and the other students in her class live in cells and are strapped into wheelchairs before being brought into the schoolroom. Melanie loves her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau, even though the teacher sometimes seems very sad. Occasionally the doctor in charge will ask for a student or two, and those students are never seen again. So what’s really happening here? Why are the children fed only once a week, and why are they only fed grubs? This gritty horror story, soon to be released as a movie, will keep readers riveted.

The Devil’s Only Friend by Dan Wells
Fiction

17 year old sociopath John Wayne Cleaver, teenage hunter of serial killers, is back in this fourth outing of the series (after I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and  I Don’t Want to Kill You). The FBI has decided to make use of his talents and adds him to a secret team that has one task, to find and kill the “withered” – demons who come in the disguise of ordinary human beings. But the withered have taken notice and soon the tables are turned. Publishers Weekly says that “top-notch writing and well-structured suspense elements keep the story moving briskly as John tries to manage his baser instincts.”

Something Red by Douglas Nicholas
Fiction

Orphaned teenager Hob is frightened. Evil has followed the small troupe of musicians which adopted him as it makes its way slowly across thirteenth century England. Repeated attacks have battered them, and killed other innocents in their path. And their attackers don’t all seem to be human. The troupe thought it had found a refuge in the massive hold of Blanchfontaine. But now the evil is inside with them. For fans of historical dark fantasy and mystery.