Review – Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Autonomous
By: Annalee Newitz
Website: https://www.techsploitation.com/
Release Date: September 19, 2017
Publisher: Tor Books
Rating:


A book I had my eye on for some time was Autonomous by Annalee Newitz. This is a book about autonomy, what makes someone autonomous, and a race across the globe as an illegally distributed drug begins to rack up an unexpected death toll.

Autonomous is, in a lot of ways, very dystopian. Or it wanted to be. I can’t help but feel that everything wrapped up much too nicely to be considered dystopian. (In the traditional sense of the genre and not counting the Young Adult Dystopians that relate more closely to dark fantasy/sci-fi than to adult dystopian).

Review – Snotgirl Vol 1 by Bryan O’Malley

Snotgirl
By: Bryan Lee O'Malley; Leslie Hung
Website: http://radiomaru.tumblr.com/ ; http://milkmanner.tumblr.com/
Release Date: February 28, 2017
Publisher: Image Comics
Series: Snotgirl #1
Rating:


A graphic novel I’d heard about on booktube (that’s book based youtube videos for any who aren’t familiar with the term) and decided to pick up is Snotgirl by Bryan Lee O’Malley (creator of Scott Pilgrim) and Leslie Hung. While having a slight air of mystery here, this graphic novel doesn’t fall into the usual science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres I normally read.

Review – I Hate Fairyland Vol 1 by Skottie Young

I Hate Fairyland Vol. 1: Madly Ever After
By: Skottie Young
Website: http://skottieyoung.com/
Release Date: April 20, 2016
Publisher: Image Comics
Series: I Hate Fairyland #1
Rating:


One of the parts that I love so much about this series as a whole is that, yeah, the idea of a world that is perfect and charming in every way would become very frustrating and annoying very There is nothing I love more than completely over the top humor or stories that point out flaws and misconceptions in things usually considered ‘good’, ‘normal’, or ‘benign’. I Hate Fairyland Vol 1: Madly Ever After by Skottie Young does both of these things with near perfection.

New Release! – Warcross by Marie Lu

Warcross
By: Marie Lu
Release Date: September 12, 2017
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Series: Warcross #1
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


After a major reading slump in September and October, I’m back to my normal reading pace and have tackled several novels that have been sitting around for much too long. The first of these is a fan favorite and one I’d been meaning to read for a long time. I’ve done it. I’ve finally read Warcross by Marie Lu.

Review – Dreams of Distant Shores by Patricia McKillip

Dreams of Distant Shores
By: Patricia McKillip
Release Date: June 14, 2016
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Rating:


Anthologies can be difficult to review. Each story is different and, in a perfect world, each story would stand on its own, considered for its own merits and demerits. When bound with many other short stories or slightly longer works, it becomes difficult to impossible to allow one story to stand purely on their own. Compared to those stories that come before and after it, perspective can be skewed. This is something I try not to let happen when reading an anthology, but this book in particular had many ups and downs for me. There were stories that I loved, stories that proved fun in the moment but ultimately unmemorable, and stories that didn’t live up to the expectations I had for them.

New Release – It Devours! by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

It Devours!
By: Joseph Fink; Jeffrey Cranor
Website: http://www.welcometonightvale.com/
Release Date: October 17, 2017
Publisher: Harper Collins
Series: Night Vale #2
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Welcome to Night Vale, the popular, long running podcast, has just released a second novel, It Devours! written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. This follows last year’s novel titled simply as Welcome to Night Vale. It Devours! is a thriller-esque tale set in the town of Night Vale, a small place somewhere in the mid-west where every conspiracy theory is true, monsters are real, the rules of time-space are more like guidelines, and the citizens take everything in stride, because, to them, it’s all quite normal.

Review – Invisible Planets Edited by Ken Liu

Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Fiction in Translation
By: (Editor/Translator) Ken Liu
Website: http://kenliu.name/
Release Date: November 1, 2016
Publisher: Tor Books
Rating:


I had been meaning to read this book since its release last years, and I actually picked it up at one point. Unfortunately, life happened, and I was forced to focus my efforts on other things. But now, almost six month’s later I’ve finally read the book in its entirety, and couldn’t be happier. Invisible Planets, edited by Ken Liu, is a fantastic collection of science fiction by Chinese authors translated into English, and is a must read for fans of the genre.

Review – Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol. 1

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol. 1
By: Hiro Ainana
Illustrator: Ayamegumo
Translator: Jenny McKeon
Release Date: March 17th 2014; January 31st 2017
Publisher: Yen On
Series: Death March Rhapsody to the Parallel World #1
Rating:


I have read a lot of stuck in another world type fantasy. High fantasy, light novels, manga, stuck in a video game, or fallen through a wardrobe – I read them all. Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody by Hiro Ainana is one of my all-time favorites within the genre. While bearing a different sort of humor and extremely different main characters, Death March is just as excellent a deconstruction of the genre the light novel Konosuba. It is a light novel I highly recommend, and an anime I highly anticipate within the coming year.

Review – The Everything Box by Richard Kadrey

The Everything Box
By: Richard Kadrey
Release Date: April 19, 2016
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Series: Another Coop Heist #1
Rating:


Yet another title I have had my eye on since its release has finally been read. The Everything Box by Richard Kadrey is a fun, fast paced book with a host of likable, quirky characters.

The book opens several thousand years ago with an angel atop a mountain who is ready to fulfill his duty and begin the apocalypse. The problem? His pockets are empty, and the doomsday device is inexplicably missing. In the modern era Coop, master thief of magical items, is hired to steal a small black box for a client. But Coop isn’t the only person after this box. He soon finds himself with the Department of Peculiar Science, a government organization dedicated to the supernatural and unexplained, who claims that this device isn’t only an old family heirloom. This device could set off the end of the world.

Review: Priceless (Rylee Adamson #1)

Priceless (Rylee Adamson #1)
By: Shannon Mayer
Website: http://www.shannonmayer.com/
Release Date: November 11, 2012
Publisher: HiJinks Ink Publishing
Series: Rylee Adamson Series
Rating:


Another series, another loose cannon Private Investigator with supernatural abilities. Despite how much this sounds like the Dresden files (and some of the blatant similarities) I found myself able to look past it and enjoy the first book the series.