Machina is a near-future space race competition featuring two tech start-ups. The competition's goal is to select a company to build an AI-powered robot to set up a habitat on Mars. This competition is especially crucial as Earth is facing environmental catastrophes and the future of the human race lies in colonizing Mars.
EK Johnston's second book about Padme, Queens Peril, is set before and concurrent with The Phantom Menace. I'll be honest; when I first read the book's announcement, I thought it would be similar to the old journal series where the story is retold from the perspective of a single character. I was wrong. This book is so much more than that. It's a story of empowerment, not just for Padme but for her handmaidens as…
Pickle Pie: A Cyberpink Story is a cyberpunk gladiator sports novella set in a future Greece where the old gods are alive and well. Pickle, or Patty Roo, is a jugger athlete, part of Cyberpink. Cyberpink combines gladiator fighting with a capture the flag similar to some PvP arena battles in MMO games. Hector Troy is an armorer. He is also Patty's reluctant owner.
Venus is our closest neighbor (or it comes closest to us in its orbit link). We discovered the Venusian atmosphere in 1761. Early knowledge of an atmosphere, combined persistent cloud cover of the planet lending it a mysterious air, made it a favorite of science fiction authors. Up until the Mariner probe proved the surface of Venus inhospitable to life, stories about life on Venus were almost as popular as those on Mars. This popularity,…
Murderbot doesn't want to murder. Murderbot wants to watch TV. Unfortunately, Murderbot has to murder. Sometimes. Because Murderbot is a SecUnit, and its job is to protect whoever the company tells it to protect. As a point of discussion, Murderbot's pronoun is it. I'm not dehumanizing it. You could yell at Wells for dehumanizing Murderbot, but Murderbot isn't human. So don't @ me. Murderbot has no name. It thinks of itself as Murderbot because it's…
FFOOOOOTBAAAALLLL IIIIIINNN SPAAAAAAAACE!!! Seriously, Galactic Football League is a far-future science fiction series centered around American-style football. Other human sports have survived. Baseball is there but boring (screw you, baseball is awesome). Soccer exists, but a single species dominates it. On the other hand, football is uniquely suited to multiple species all competing against each other in the same sport. I listened to this from GraphicAudio. Everything GraphicAudio produces is adapted for a full cast…
Take a classic space adventure, mix in a galactic conspiracy, and sprinkle a bit of paranormal activity on top, and you get Ghost Riders in the Sky. An alien species has come to Earth and helped humanity reach much further into the galaxy, allowing for the colonization of other solar systems. But it comes at a cost. Their unique method of faster than light travel requires the use of a navigator that can astral project.…
Sakura: Intellectual Property is a cyberpunk novel set in near-future Japan featuring the heavy metal star turned assassin sentient android Sakura. The country has extremely high poverty rates; most of the populace is retreating further into an augmented reality world powered by the all-powerful American corporation simply called the Mall. Sakura must fight for her freedom and the freedom of her people. Zachary Hill wrote the first draft of Sakura: Intellectual Property. He intended it…
I get it. Books can be expensive, but you don't have to spend a lot of money to be avid readers. In fact, you don't have to spend a dime. That's a big reason libraries exist, and with the embrace of modern technology, it has never been easier to take advantage of their services. Many libraries even allow you to get a library card entirely online, so you never actually have to go to the…
Rosemary Harper, human, joins the multispecies crew of the Wayfarer. Their job is to tunnel wormholes that allow near-instantaneous travel between two points in space. The story chronicles one such trip that requires an unusually long transit time. Set in the Galactic Commons, an area of the Milky Way galaxy controlled by a central, collaborative government, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a multifaceted work of art. Chambers does an exceptional job…