Cybermage’s Summer Reading Recommendations

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Jun 082011
 

Sun or Rain doesn’t matter when you have a good book. These are my recommendations for this Summer. The linked titles goes to my reviews…

Enjoy!

Fuzzy Nation
by John Scalzi
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This is the best fan fiction I ever read. It is about a disbarred lawyer his dog and fuzzy aliens. Perfect for the beach. Might be the beginning of a great series.
Amazon US | UK
Yarn
by Jon Armstrong
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The best scifi you will ever read about a tailor, sales warriors and psychedelic cloth. About a dignified tailor and his quest to make clothes for a former love. Yes I know how it sounds but it is awesome.
Amazon US | UK
The View From The Imperium
by Jody Lynn Nye
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This fun space opera is pretty close to the Jeeves stories by P. G. Woodhouse. As a member of the Imperial family Thomas Kinago lived a secluded life and now reality hits back as he deals with a mind affecting tyrant in a distant sector of the Empire. I warmly recommend this light-hearted novel.
Amazon UK | US
Embassytown
by China Miéville
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Decent little science fiction about a girl lost in alien translation and a looming war. Slow at the start but the second half is better. A must read if you like China Miéville’s writing.
Amazon US | UK
To the Galactic Rim
(John Grimes 1-3)
by A. Bertram Chandler
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First in a series of omnibuses about John Grime – a classic pulp scifi hero. These are his first voyages. Read my review of the first novel. Fun and fast reading for a rainy day.
Amazon US | UK
The Kings of Eternity
Eric Brown
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Alien mysteries that unravels along two timelines. About a writer in the 1930-ies looking into mysterious happenings in the wood and a modern writer on Crete who meets love. It is big science fiction at an everyday backdrop, great characters and a wonderful love story.
Amazon UK | US
The Clockwork Rocket
by Greg Egan
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Yalha has to save her world in this alternative reality where Hurtlers, strange meteors are threatening their planetary system. They will require knowledge and technology far beyond anything her civilization has yet achieved! Sounds absolutely steampunky.
Amazon US | UK
Embedded
by Dan Abnett
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Lex Falk is an acclaimed and seasoned war correspondent and he sees straight through the stonewalling from the military. Determined to find out the truth he allows himself to be embedded in the mind of one of the soldiers fighting the insurgency on an alien planet. It has character, personality, action, combat, mysteries and a love interest.
Amazon US | UK
The Nine Lives of Chloe King
by Liz Braswell
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A young girl dies only to discover she lives again. She is a member of an ancient race hunted by human assassins since ancient times. Read the novels and watch this summer’s new tv show with the same name.
Amazon US | UK
Germline
(The Subterrene War Trilogy 1)
T. C. McCarthy
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New to me military science fiction series and author. About a reporter in a war fought by genetically engineered super-soldiers far under the surface. Problem is Pandora’s box can’t be shut once it is opened …
Amazon US | UK
Son of Heaven
by David Wingrove
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This is the first book in a remake and republishing of David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo series. The western world has been plunged back to farming after a great economic collapse some twenty years ago and the main character Jake Read is making his living in rural Dorset with his 14-year old son. Now the Chinese are coming …
Amazon US | UK
Heaven’s Shadow
by Michael Cassutt & David S Goyer
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Three years ago, an object one hundred miles across was spotted on a trajectory for Earth’s sun. Now, its journey is almost over. As it approaches, two competing manned vehicles race through almost half a million kilometers of space to reach it first. But when they both arrive on the entity, they learn that it has been sent toward Earth for a reason. An intelligent race is desperately attempting to communicate with our primitive species. And the message is: Help us.
Amazon US | UK
Up Against It
by M. J. Locke
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A thrilling story of a criminal takeover attempt of Phocaea, a strategic and independent asteroid colony. It is a straightforward hard sf read where the mysteries and characters keep you interested. It reads a bit like classic science fiction but with modern ideas and people.
Amazon US | UK
Miserere: An Autumn Tale
by Teresa Frohock
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Exiled exorcist Lucian Negru deserted his lover in Hell in exchange for saving his sister Catarina’s soul. But she is not what she was. When Lucian refuses to help her, she imprisons and cripples him. Determined to rescue Rachael from Hell, Lucian flees his sister, but Catarina’s wrath isn’t so easy to escape!
Amazon US | UK
Dreadnaught
(Beyond the Frontier 1)
by Jack Campbell
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Captain John “Black Jack” Geary woke from cryogenic sleep to rescue a fleet caught in a trap behind enemies lines. Now he brought the fleet back only to be sent on a suicide mission against the aliens thought to be behind the war.
Amazon US | UK
Leviathan Wakes
(Expanse 1)
by James S. A. Corey
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Leviathan Wakes is a new shiny Space Opera by James S.A. Corey (a pen name of  Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). Space opera, big ships, interstellar travel, secrets, conspiracies, and high adventure according to Orbit books. It is the first book in The Expanse. I like it! The blurb sounds like something I would really like to read but I am not familiar with either author.
Amazon US | UK
Hell Ship
by Philip Palmer
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The Hell Ship holds thousands of slaves, each the last of their race destroyed by the ship. But Sharrock has sworn vengeance. Outside Jak has followed the Ship for years and their battles have left Jak broken, a mind in a starship’s body, focussed only on destroying the Ship.  Sounds fun.
Amazon US | UK
A Dance With Dragons
(A Song of Fire & Ice 5)
by George R.R. Martin
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I recently finished A Clash of Kings. The long awaited fifth novel in this epic fantasy series is finally here. The future of the Seven kingdoms hangs in the balance once again. The leaked point of view character list contains some of my favorite characters. HBO just started to air a show based on these books named after the first novel Game of Thrones.
Amazon US | UK
The Rogue
(Traitor Spy Trilogy 2)
by Trudi Canavan
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The Black Magician trilogy continues with this one. Sonea is on the hunt for the rogue that plagues her city while her son Lorkin is trapped in the Traitors sanctuary. They are on to some old secrets. A little bit of love and romance is never wrong in summertime.
Amazon US | UK
Dead Reckoning
(True Blood 11)
by Charlaine Harris
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I really liked this book. Charlaine is back to her usual good writing skills as Sookie takes on a bothersome henchman of the new King. It might tide you over until True Blood returns June 26.
Amazon US | UK
Kings of the North
(Palanin’s Legacy 2)
by Elizabeth Moon
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This is the second installment of Paladin’s Legacy and it continues the story of the people touched by the Paladin Paksenarrion and it takes up the rein just after the events in Oaths of Fealty. It contains a well deserved love story as well as the usual conspiracies and battles. A great read .
Amazon US | UK
The Book of Trans-formations
(Legends of the Red Sun 3)
by Mark Charan Newton
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I recently finished City of Ruins and the second part there blew my mind. Just the kind of fantasy I like. Multiple main characters is usually not to my liking but this it is a strong Fantasy Science.
Amazon US | UK
Harbinger of the Storm
(Obsidian & Blood 2)
by Aliette de Bodard
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Aliette de Bodard has done it again. Harbinger of the Storm is an action packed Aztec mystery opera with magic, interventions from the gods and more twists and turns than the first book. It even has a love story with amusing snippets here and there, I love formidable women. The story is self contained and can be enjoyed standalone, but you will not want to miss out on the first.
Amazon US | UK
The Noise Revealed
(The Noise Within 2)
by Ian Whates
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Humanity has finally made first contact, or is it? Black-ops soldier Jim Leyton and friends want to find out. It is quite an entertaining Syfy thriller. I liked the first book in the series The Noise Within
Amazon US | UK
Grail
(Jacob’s Ladder 3)
by Elizabeth Bear
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I love this series. It is like blending LOTR with The Diamond Age and Matrix with a crust of Ghost in the Machine. Grail is a satisfying conclusion to Jacob’s Ladder loaded with tension, intrigue, treason, revelations and humanity. Singularity has become something of a Holy Grail in current science fiction but here Grail is a planet and trans-humanism a gateway to becoming human which is refreshing. I recommend this as one of the more significant science fiction trilogies in later years. You should really read it, I enjoyed it immensly.
Amazon US | UK
Center of Gravity
(Star Carrier 2)
by Ian Douglas
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Ian Douglas likes the theme of humanity against a huge galactic empire where the American military by human ingenuity and flexibility overcomes both the aliens and the stupid civilian administration that tries to lead them astray. The civilians are not so over the top stupid this time but that is not to say they are smart.
Amazon US | UK
Citadel
(Troy Rising 2)
by John Ringo
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The second book in Troy Rising focuses on Dana Parker; a young Engineering Apprentice just arrived on Troy, the huge battle station that saved humanity’s behind in Live Free or Die. And I like the way the author uncovers the wonders and the engineering work to make the station battle ready.
Amazon US | UK
The Hot Gate
(Troy Rising 3)
by John Ringo
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The Hot Gate is the third novel in the Troy Rising series. The feisty female pilot Comet is the main point of view character once again even if Tyler Vernon comes in as close second. We also get inside the heads of some of the alien commanders which I like. Earth is under siege and huge battle stations guard the wormgate. Attack after attack has been beaten off but the aliens are getting smarter. If that was not enough wait until you see what meets Comets when she transferes to a new squadron.
Amazon US | UK
The Deserter
(Bone World 2)
by Peader Ó Guilín
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The Deserter is quite an enjoyable read with a lot of adventure, tense moments, revelations, action and love. I would really like to read more of Peadar Ó Guilín after this. His characters are just like I like them and the clash of primitives against technology is a favorite theme of mine. You might read The Inferior and The Deserter as a standalone duology but it is part of a trilogy. I have no idea when the last book will be out though I await it with high expectancy.
Amazon US | UK
City of Ruins
(Diving Universe 2)
by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
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I like strong female protagonists and Boss is one of them. Diving into the Wreck was the first in the series and City of Ruins in May continues the story about the mysterious stealth technology she first found on the Destiny ship in the first story. It is kind of weird to read a whole novel and never learn the real name of the main character but it works well here.
Amazon US | UK
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