Summary: An interstellar craft is decelerating after its century-long voyage. Its destination is V538 Aurigae ?, a now-empty planet dominated by one gigantic megastructure, a conical mountain of such height that its summit is high above the atmosphere. The ship’s crew of five hope to discover how the long-departed builders made such a colossal thing, […]
Science Fiction
Review: I AM AI (A Novelette) by Ai Jiang
Synopsis If you have the opportunity to give up humanity for efficiency, mechanical invincibility, and to surpass human limitations. . . would you? Ai is a cyborg, under the guise of an AI writing program, who struggles to keep up with the never-blinking city of Emit as it threatens to leave all those like her […]
Review: The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Synopsis The archipelago of Prospera lies in the middle of a vast ocean. Created by a mythic genius known only as The Designer, Prospera exists in splendid isolation, forgetful of whichever untold horrors inspired its creation. Citizens of the main island enjoy fulfilling and privileged lives, attended to by the obliging support staff who live […]
The Diamond Device (Accidental Capers, 1) by M. H. Thaung
This is a review in conjunction with the 2023 Self Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC2 for short!) The Diamond Device is one of six semi-finalist that the judging team, Team Escapist, is reviewing as they seek a finalist to move forward in the competition. Synopsis After diamond power promises to replace steam, an unemployed labourer […]
TBRCon2023 Highlight: The Importance of Diverse Futures (Panel)
Every week, we are highlighting a panel from TBRCon2023, looking back on the amazing variety of panels that we had the honor of hosting.
This week, join moderator/author/editor Xueting C. Ni and authors Micaiah Johnson, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Alex White, Khan Wong and Ciel Pierlot for a TBRCon2023 author panel on “The Importance of Diverse Futures.”
Review – Light Bringer by Pierce Brown
Summary The Reaper is a legend, more myth than man: the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains. But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of Mars: a husband, a father, a friend. Marooned far from home after a devastating defeat on the battlefields of Mercury, […]
Book Review: A Space Girl from Earth (The Kyroibi Trilogy, 1) by Christina McMullen
Synopsis Yesterday, her biggest worry was failing an exam. Today, it’s saving the galaxy. From her six foot four inch height to the uniform white dots that peppered her skin in perfect geometric patterns, Ellie Whitmore was certainly unusual, but an alien from the other side of the galaxy? Of course not. That’s just what […]
Audiobook Announcement – The Fall Is All There Is by C.M. Caplan
Synopsis You never want to ruin a really good dramatic exit.When you flee home on a cyborg horse the exact second you turn 18, you don’t really expect to go back to the place you fled from, you know? But sometimes your old life hits you from behind. Sometimes you spend years away from home, […]
Review: Have You Decided On Your Question by Lyndsey Croal
Synopsis If you could live your life over again, what would you ask to change? Something big? Something small? A single moment? Have you decided on your question? Zoe has. Tired of feeling alone and lost, Zoe seeks out an experimental virtual therapy experience from Alternative Reality Tech, which offers patients the opportunity to explore […]
Review: Light Bringer (Red Rising #6) by Pierce Brown
Light Bringer in itself is a twister of emotion – a torrent so raw and aggressive it scratched away at my psyche only to pick at the scab chapter after chapter. It was brutal, but not in the way of Dark Age. If the previous book was huge, total war in its bloated and truest of forms, then this was personal, a knife in the dark, twisted.
Review: Myriad by Joshua David Bellin
Synopsis Miriam Randle works for LifeTime, a private law enforcement agency that uses short-term time travel to prevent crimes from happening. Though a seasoned time traveller, she is continually haunted by the death of her twin brother, whose murder remains unsolved years later. When a routine assignment ends in tragedy by Miriam’s hand, she finds […]
Review: Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace
Summary: One young woman faces down an all-powerful corporation in this “profound…resonant” (NPR), all-too-near future science fiction debut that reads like a refreshing take on Ready Player One, with a heavy dose of Black Mirror. New Liberty City, 2134. Two corporations have replaced the US, splitting the country’s remaining forty-five states (five have been submerged under the […]