Good Reads & Views

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Fiction

For readers interested in: Pro wrestling, the 13th Amendment, Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy, and Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

What it’s about: In a near-future America, the country's most popular form of sports entertainment is the Chain-Gang All-Stars, a modern form of the gladiator system. Incarcerated people have one way out of a brutal private prison system—to survive three years of deathly combat while on camera for all the country to see. The story focuses on two women who are “Links” in one of these chain gangs: Loretta Thor, who is only two battles away from reaching freedom, and her lover, Hamara “Hurricane Staxx” Stacker. As they contemplate freedom, one of them learns of new rules that will change everything. The incisive satirical commentary on capitalism and the prison industry is humanized by fully realized characters and enlivened by non-stop action; the result is a harsh yet lyrical political allegory.

Critics say: “Some of his best fight sentences sound as if Joe Rogan had fallen into a trance and assumed the diction and rhythms of Toni Morrison. If you recoil at that unholy fusion, that’s kind of the point; and the author keeps pulling off this shock, page after page” (Giri Nathan, The New York Times Book Review).

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Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Fiction

Read this if you like: Genre blending, the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, and stories about chosen family, music, and the L.A. food scene, especially donuts.

Featuring: Katrina Nguyen, a runaway trans girl who is an untrained but naturally gifted violinist; Shizuka Satomi, an infamous violin teacher--dubbed the Queen of Hell--who made a nasty bargain with a demon and is searching for a seventh soul to turn in for her own, and Lan Tran, the matriarch of a space alien family running a donut shop that's also a star gate.

What happens? Shizuka discovers Katrina and becomes her mentor with the intention of using Katrina as her final sacrificial soul. But Shizuka’s heart is softened when she develops a crush on Lan, who is simply trying to protect her children from the ravages of a galactic war. Katrina wants to be safe, play her violin, and be herself. An adventurous blend of science fiction and fantasy that’s a hopeful story about identity, acceptance, and understanding.

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A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Fiction

What it’s about: Mahit Dzmare is eager to take the post of ambassador from Lsel to the Teixcalaanli Empire, but she arrives to find that her predecessor is dead – possibly murdered. Now Mahit must find out who wanted Yskandr dead and why, all the while guarding her people’s memory technology. Author Martine portrays the complex and seductive Teixcalaanli culture while keeping the human characters believable. 

Why you might like it: Martine’s Hugo Award-winning space opera with sympathetic characters and fully developed world building draws the reader into the palace intrigue and civil unrest surrounding an interplanetary empire. 

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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Fiction

For readers who like: Space operas, the TV show Firefly, found family, and ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

What it’s about: Loner Rosemary Harper joins the motley crew of the Wayfarer, an aging and patched-up spaceship tasked with constructing wormholes for interstellar travel. When the rag tag crew members—who are wildly and imaginatively diverse—are offered the job of a lifetime, they agree to take on the challenge, despite the enormous risks involved. Narrated by multiple characters, this warm-hearted debut novel is a delight and a joy to read.

Series alert: This is the first book in the Hugo award-winning Wayfarers series. Titles can be read in any order—each title also works as a stand-alone. The follow-up titles—A Closed and Common Orbit and Record of a Spaceborn Few, and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within—are equally focused on character, complex relationships, and asking tough questions.

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A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Fiction

What it’s about: Set in post-apocalyptic Panga, tea monk Dex leads a satisfying life wandering the road, serving tea, and listening to their clients—until the urge for something more takes them off-road and on this gentle adventure. Then Dex encounters Mosscap, a wild-built robot, “offspring” of the robots that became self-aware and left Panga’s civilization centuries ago. Mossback has been sent to answer the question, “what do people need?” If they join forces, will either of the two find what they are looking for? A delightful, companionable read about friendship and discovery.

Who is this for? Fans of comfort-punk and hopeful science fiction will enjoy the excellent, effortless world-building, and the simple, whimsical, and introspective story with deep character development. It’s like a nice cup of hot tea—but exactly the right tea as prepared by a tea monk like Dex.

You might also like: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune, The Bear by Andrew Krivak, The History of Bees by Maja Lunde, and The Wild Robot by Peter Brown.

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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Fiction

The elevator speech, short version: There is a library between life and death. The books shelved there represent an endless variety of possible lives—each one offers the reader a chance to live a different life.

Wait—what?? Nora Seed is unhappy with her life and decides to end it, but instead of dying she lands in the Midnight Library, where she has the chance to try different versions of her own life—like new books—until she finds a life she truly wants to live. Guided by a thoughtful librarian, Nora makes new choices with each attempt at an alternate life; which decision will lead to her best life? Haig’s playful tone approaches difficult subjects—suicide, mental illness, and the quantum physics that make the Midnight Library theoretically possible—with a gentle hand. An engaging and whimsical story about living a fulfilling life.

You may also enjoy: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, another thoughtful story featuring a character living multiple versions of their own life; and Or What You Will by Jo Walton, starring another protagonist that attempts to re-write their story while hovering between life and death.

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The Resisters by Gish Jen
Fiction

Read this if you: Like your dystopian fiction served up with a healthy dose of humor, think that a good game of baseball solves everything (can you say underground baseball league?), and believe anything can represent the Resistance, even knitting.

What it’s about: Imagine a future America—AutoAmerica—flooded due to climate change and watched over by an artificial intelligence known as “Aunt Nettie.” Society is divided into the “Netted”—those who live on dry land, and have work and college opportunities and privileges, and the Surplus—mostly people of color, or who aren’t Christian, or who are “odd-bodied,” eking out a living on soggy ground or on water. The story focuses on a Surplus family—former teacher Grant, activist Eleanor, and their baby daughter Gwen, who displays amazing baseball pitching ability from her crib. What gifts or consequences will Gwen’s golden arm bring to her family in an unequal society? Sensitive and thought-provoking yet charming.

What critics say: “The magic of Gish Jen’s latest novel, The Resisters, is that, amid a dark and cautionary tale, there’s a story also filled with electricity and humor.... Rippling with action, suspense and lovingly detailed baseball play-by-plays, there’s a sense throughout the book of both celebration and danger” (Diana Abu-Jaber, The Washington Post); “Jen has too much humor and heart as a writer to do a full-out futuristic nightmare. Instead, the feel of The Resisters is more like that noir sequence embedded within It's a Wonderful Life....” (Maureen Corrigan, NPR).

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The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Fiction

What it's about: Set in 1950s USA, a huge meteorite strikes off the East Coast, obliterating Washington DC and upsetting the climate. The International Space Coalition is created to get as many people off Earth as possible before it becomes uninhabitable.  But Dr. Elma York, a pilot and a "computer" for the ISC, can't help but notice only men are being selected to be astronauts. After an appearance on a children's show to explain rocketry, Elma finds herself dubbed the Lady Astronaut by the press. Now if only she can convince the ISC to take women seriously.

Reviewers say: "Readers will thrill to the story of this ‘lady astronaut’ and eagerly anticipate the promised sequels" (Publishers Weekly);  "A fast-forward thrill ride, Hugo Award winner Kowal's exciting alternate history...highlights the space race and the sexism of the time" (Library Journal).

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The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
Fiction

What it’s about: In a world plagued by seismic upheaval and waves of disasters known as Seasons, there are people, called orogenes, who have special powers to control the land, but are tightly controlled by authorities. Three orogenes are at major turning points in their lives. Damaya has been torn from her childhood home; Syenite's life’s work is challenged; and Essun has set off on a vengeful pursuit of her husband, who murdered one of their children and kidnapped the other. The first of the Hugo Award winning Broken Earth series.

Why you might like it: Come for the excellent and fascinating world-building and the lyrical and gritty prose, but stay for the vivid, diverse, and intensely real characters. Essun is a rarity—a fierce and strong middle-aged heroine in a science fiction series.

Reviewers say: “Jemisin’s graceful prose and gritty setting provide the perfect backdrop for this fascinating tale of determined characters fighting to save a doomed world” (Publisher’s Weekly).

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Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill
Fiction

Why you might like it: This post-apocalyptic robot western features a deeply sympathetic main character, Brittle, a caregiver model who no longer has a human to nurture. Action-packed, thoughtful, and laced with humor, this is a wild ride through a barren landscape.

What it’s about: It has been thirty years since the last human died, slaughtered by the robots they created. Brittle survives by culling parts of dying and dead robots, just managing to stay ahead of the hive mind of the robot overlords—the One World Intelligences known as OWIs—that are out to destroy all the individual robots that remain. When Brittle is attacked by another scavenger after her own parts, she sustains damage to her core, and will die if she can’t find new parts. Then a group of rebels fleeing the OWIs offer her access to secret treasure trove of parts in exchange for leading them through the wasteland known as the sea of rust. Haunted by memories of the war with the humans, wracked with guilt and ready to face her own death, Brittle decides she has nothing to lose by joining the rebels.

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