This fall I read a few different science fiction adult reads that I never managed to write full book reviews. But no more! Today I’m featuring these mini reviews of adult science fiction reads with different vibes for everyone. I’ll be reviewing System Collapse, The Archive Undying, and The Darkest Stars.
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System Collapse by Martha Wells
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.
But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast.
Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
System Collapse the next highly anticipated Murderbot novella series delivers yet again. Being back in this world of corporations, of robots, and gun fights is a thrill. I loved being immersed in this action packed detailed world. It’s these installments which advance how Muderbot realizes themselves especially with this recent problem. It operates on this larger plot level with Murderbot’s problems, while also navigating the individual story.
If you’re a longtime fan of the Murderbot series then this is an easy choice. And if you love snarky characters who are so sure of themselves until they aren’t, then this is for you. It’s action, mystery, and doubt. Find System Collapse on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.
The Darkest Stars by Kristy Gardner
After discovering everything she’s ever known has been a lie, Calay understands humanity’s brutality firsthand. Now, depleted rations, unexplained aberrations, and an ecosystem in collapse have driven her to the brink of madness–even with Jacob by her side. When a mysterious woman sent from the stars promises to grant every desire she’s ever locked away in her shattered heart, she’s forced to make an impossible decision: remain on a dying Earth or journey to a planet two-billion lightyears away in an effort to save them all. Clinging to the dream she might yet find somewhere to call home, she agrees. After all, how much worse could it get?
When she arrives on the shimmering, glass-city planet Téras, Calay desperately want to believe in a better future. Despite being haunted by the past she’ll never escape, her hope is buoyed by the reunion with the mother she thought long-dead and the possibility of uniting their civilizations. The reality, however, is more horrifying than anything she could have imagined.
As the universe descends into darkness, she finds herself trapped in the far reaches of deep space, face to face with dangerous forces, unyielding truths, and feral monsters that will force her to confront the darkest parts of herself, pushing her to the very limits of what it means to be human.
In this gripping queer sci-fi odyssey, Calay’s journey through love, betrayal, and self-discovery becomes a fight not only for her life, but the survival of Earth itself.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Left in the trauma of the first book, The Darkest Stars explores the monsters around us and within us. It can be our tendency to try to run from the bad memories, the past, but with Calay going further than ever before she will ask us how we move forwards. We’re surrounded by monsters in plan sight, in shadowed hallways, and in the stars. We can think we know what love is, but when we begin to control, to know what they know and don’t, then that isn’t love.
The Darkest Stars is a testament to how we are all products of the choices we make. The ones that tempt us in the night and the ones we refuse to consider. It’s a story that has evolved in front of our eyes and explores how we can embrace, realize, and deny monstrosity around us. Find The Darkest Stars on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon
WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT
WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND
WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK
When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he’s seen. He’s run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines.
The Archive Undying is the first volume of Emma Mieko Candon’s Downworld Sequence, a sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies.
Come get in the robot.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The Archive Undying is a rich and gigantic science fiction world. From the very beginning you can feel this expansiveness, this sense of scope. It reminds me of the language we have to learn to read a science fiction. All the specific pieces of language and the world that are alien to us. The Archive Undying is one of those books where the concepts and the ideas in it are so rich, so detailed, and intricate. But that’s also where I got lost at times.
At time people would ask me what I’m reading and I struggled to have this grasp balanced with my almost never ending questions. I survived reading The Archive Undying on science fiction vibes. With this intense gap between our world and the world in the book, I was falling into chasms. The elements had me – a main character who feels a bit cynical, believing everything he touches turns to ruin, and a mysterious AI. A world in which our mind, our choices, our beings don’t feel like our own. If you have the time to sit with The Archive Undying, to get to the revelations and can be swept away by the vibes and themes, then pick this one up. Find The Archive Undying on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.