scifi books

Review: Wildcard (Warcross #2) by Marie Lu

~ megs14malloy

Wildcard (Warcross #2)Wildcard by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Wildcard is the concluding book in Marie Lu’s Warcross duology. For some unexplainable reason, I preordered this book for it’s 2018-release and then never read it.

Even with Warcross being my favorite YA-book of 2017, I didn’t read it’s sequel. Honestly, what’s wrong with me?

Recently, I reread Warcross in order to finally be able to finish off this duology, and of course neither book disappointed. Lu is incredibly talented at her world-building, thought-provoking concepts and engaging character work.

This was devastating though, NGL. It gets pretty heavy towards the end as the truth is revealed, but also offers up a lot of food for thought regarding terrifying future tech.

Even though it’s close to a decade old, I feel like this duology definitely holds up. I would absolutely still recommend it to anyone looking for a fast-paced and thrilling YA-SciFi story. Particularly if you love gaming elements in your stories.

As for me, I’ll certainly be picking up more from Marie Lu!

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Re-Reading Warcross by Marie Lu

~ megs14malloy

Warcross (Warcross, #1)Warcross by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Upon reread, Warcross doesn’t quite live up to the 5-star energy that I felt the first time around, so I’m dropping the rating down to a 4-star.

I still really enjoyed it, and I stand by my experience back in 2017, but yeah, at this point it’s lost a bit of luster for me.

It still stands out in the YA SciFi genre though and I would absolutely recommend it. I’m excited to actually continue on and finally read the sequel. I can’t believe I never got to it.

The competition elements and the intrigue of what’s going on behind-the-scenes of Warcross is what really stood out to me this time through. Overall, I’m super happy to have revisited this story!

Previously:

Yessss, Marie Lu. I absolutely loved this. In fact, Warcross was my favorite YA book of 2017 and for good reason!!!

Emika Chen is a phenomenal protagonist.

She’s smart, super strong, both physically and mentally, as well as independent AF. Everything I aspire to be.

The gaming elements and competitive feel of this book kept it rolling along nicely with plenty of action.

The final two chapters were nothing short of AMAZING!!!

I loved the low-key social commentary about our times, real life issues and philosophical ideas that could be hotly debated. I was very pleasantly surprised by this aspect.

I cannot wait for the next book to be released. I know for sure I will be preordering it!

Update 3/3/21:

While it is true that I did, in fact, preorder Wildcard, I still have not read it. I loved this first book so much and I am afraid that the second book will disappoint me.

Does anyone else do this? Just me? I am really going to try to pick it up soon. I need to complete this duology and see what happens with my girl, Emika.

I need to DO IT!!

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Review: I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends by Kylie Lee Baker

~ megs14malloy

I'll Find You Where the Timeline EndsI’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends by Kylie Lee Baker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

In I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends, descendants of a Japanese Dragon God are gifted with the power to travel through time. Our MC, Mina, is one of these descendants.

Though just a teen, Mina has been preparing her entire life to take her place in the Descendants, a secret organization tasked with protecting the timeline from rogue travelers.

Since this ability is based on your lineage, the rest of Mina’s family has also been involved with this organization, including her sister who went missing while on a mission.

Mina is currently placed in Seoul and has been attending a local high school where she deals with regular teenage issues. It just so happens that on the side she’s trying to find out what happened to her sister and protect the world from deviations in the timeline. No biggie.

After discovering that the organization may be corrupt, and that her sister may have been purposefully erased, Mina decides to team up with a charming rogue agent, Yejun, who she’s come to know in her time in Seoul.

He has a plan to free the Descendants from their corrupt influence, and Mina is hoping through that perhaps her sister’s existence can be restored. As the two join forces, Mina finds herself falling for Yejun.

The closer she gets to him though, the closer she is to discovering the truth. Hopefully, the truth will set her free, and not destroy her very existence instead.

Well, I guess there really isn’t anything that Kylie Lee Baker can’t do. I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends is fun, unique and well-executed. It’s also like nothing I’ve ever read from her before. She has to have one of the most active imaginations on Earth and I love that for her, and us!

I’ll admit I was distracted by the NFL Draft whilst reading this, otherwise I may have enjoyed it even more. I had one eye on the screen, seeing who was going where, but nevertheless, the audiobook kept me quite engaged.

This has some super fun concepts, great action and very endearing characters. Mina is by all appearances such a normal girl, but yeah, with the power of time travel at her fingertips. How amazing would that be?

I thought the romance was beautifully done as well. The build and the development of the relationship had me on tenterhooks. Yejun was certainly a compelling love interest.

It actually surprised me the level of emotion I was feeling towards the end. KLB is first class when it comes to pulling a Reader in. Her stories are all-consuming. I am transported and this one was no exception. I’m surprised this one didn’t receive a bit more buzz upon release.

I would definitely recommend this to any Romance Reader who enjoys stories that play with time. While this is a YA novel, I would recommend it for all ages. There’s nothing ‘too YA’ about it, IMO.

Thank you to the publisher, Feiwel & Friends and Dreamscape Media, for providing me with a copy to read and review. My biggest regret with this book is that it took me so long to pick it up.

Kylie Lee Baker is one of my go-to authors. She has never done me dirty. Her wildly-imaginative stories are an absolute gift to us all. That’s no exaggeration.

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Review: Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman

~ megs14malloy

Operation Bounce HouseOperation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dungeon Crawler Carl has legitimately taken the world by storm, but guess what? Matt Dinniman has lots of other tricks up his talented-sleeves, and he proves that with Operation Bounce House.

This story follows a group of colonists on New Sonora, set in deep space, who suddenly find their home planet being used by Earthlings as a sort of playing field for their VR gaming.

Earth citizens can pay to create their own personal war machines that then get sent to the distant planet via the newly opened transfer gate. They can then use those machines to attack the alien population, all Earth descendants, mind you, in a sort of war simulation game.

The game is called Operation Bounce House.

Our protagonist is Oliver Lewis, and we follow him, his sister, Lulu, and their best friends and loved ones as this assault on their lives and land begins, and we continue to follow them throughout, to the bitter end.

I found this incredibly interesting from the start. As we meet all the characters on New Sonora and learn about their daily lives and struggles, it was incredibly well-developed.

Oliver and Lulu had a family robot Roger, who turned out to be one of my favorite characters in the story. He added humor and was continuously teaching and guiding the humans surrounding him. He also had been on the colony planet since its inception, so was able to recollect the full history of the settlement easily.

I really grew to love the full cast of characters over the course of the story. As you go along with their struggles with them, which is literally a fight for their survival, you can’t help but get emotionally invested in their outcome.

They were all distinctive, with unique attributes and personalities. I felt like I was there with them. That’s how real Dinniman made this little group of colonists.

I appreciated so much the themes Dinniman explored in this, but because of the heavier subject matter, it does have a more serious feel than DCC.

For example, the idea of the ‘other’. The people on Earth viewed the residents of New Sonora as the other; almost subhuman. Therefore, it gave them leeway to do as they pleased in the game.

It made me think of a lot of different things going on in our world, not just now, but really over all time. A sort of us versus them mentality, and how humans can sort of block entire groups off as not being like them and therefore undeserving of the same rights and care.

I like how Dinniman formatted this story as it demonstrates this whole scenario from the ‘others’ perspective. I feel like Dinniman gets pretty thoughtful in this one in that regard whilst also keeping to his basic fun-filled, humorous style.

There’s actually so much to unpack here. My brain is reeling from this ride. It really pulls you in. You feel like you’re a part of this world on the brink of disaster.

I just really appreciated all the important topics Dinniman included without making the narrative feel preachy, or thrusting his own agenda down the Readers throats. He’s laying out a scenario and allowing the Reader to do some free-thinking, which I just love!

I’ll admit it was heavier than I was expecting, as far as tone, but I did appreciate the direction he went with it and would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Thank you to the publisher, Ace, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I love Dinniman’s creativity and writing style. I knew that from reading DCC, but this solidifies that assessment.

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Review: Spread Me by Sarah Gailey

~ megs14malloy

Spread MeSpread Me by Sarah Gailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Spread Me is an engaging, yet startling, SciFi-Horror novella from Sarah Gailey that contains quite a bit of, shall we say, surprising content. It certainly took me by surprise, perhaps you’ll be better prepared than I was…

I can hardly believe I am giving this 4-stars. It’s a strange novella. I’m low-key blushing thinking what y’all are going to think of me when you truly discover what it’s about.

This is one of those cases, rare, but here we are, where I don’t really like to discuss the plot. I want you to be as surprised as I was, because I think that’s half the fun. It’ll have your mind-spinning, trying to get your bearings, while your brain figures out how to respond to all this.

It has to be one of the most bizarre stories, as far as the more erotic/sexual elements, that I’ve ever read. It made me so uncomfortable, but I couldn’t look away; COULD NOT. I still don’t know what to think…

I have to applaud Gailey for their creativity and fearlessness. Honestly, I don’t think this was published with the aim of having big mass appeal. Authors willing to take that kind of risk, to write what they want, always impress me.

Spread Me is definitely niche, and I feel like it may have some serious messaging that I think I am picking up on, but maybe not? It’s tough. I’d love to see the author speaking about their thought process and goals with this one.

While I would recommend this to more seasoned Horror Readers, I would throw caution about the sexual elements. If graphic content, sexual in nature, is something that you don’t enjoy reading, you may just want to skip this one.

If you don’t mind those elements though, and just want to know what all the buzz is about, you should definitely check this out. The SciFi set-up, of this being in a research station, and the type of research the group was doing, that was all well executed and fascinating.

I enjoyed the claustrophobic feel of the station itself. The research group felt extremely isolated, and then when it was discovered what they were dealing with, even more so.

Because this is a novella, coming in at just over 200-pages, Gailey wastes no time getting to the action. In fact, there’s really no lull through the entire story. It’s quick, punchy and effective at making you squirm in a limited number of pages.

I suspect for some Readers the initial knee-jerk reaction is going to be distaste, because I really don’t see people going into this expecting what they’re going to get.

However, I also feel like this story gets in your brain, and the more you think about it, the more you realize how much it actually drew you and impacted you. Whether those feelings were super highs or super lows, it impacted you.

Overall, this is memorable. There’s a very solid SF-Horror plot here, that is somewhat overshadowed by the extreme nature of the sexual elements, but at the the end of the day, it somehow works. As strange as it may seem, it works.

Thank you to the publisher, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio, for providing me copies to read and review. I look forward to Gailey’s next book!

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Review: Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver

~ megs14malloy

Artificial WisdomArtificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

Artificial Wisdom is a near-future SciFi-Thriller set in the year 2050, a decade after millions of people in the Persian Gulf where killed by a unusual heatwave.

One of those killed on that terrible day was Marcus Tully’s wife, who was visiting family prior to giving birth to the couple’s first child. Back home in London, Tully, a well-known and successful investigative journalist, was devastated by her, and their unborn child’s, death.

Even all these years later, he is left with many unanswered questions and doubts. He seems one step closer to answers though after information he receives from a source indicates that the heatwave wasn’t actually a natural occurrence, but how is that possible?

With the world on the cusp of a ground-breaking election where they will elect a global leader for the first time, Tully finds himself swept along and up into all the political drama after someone he is closely-acquainted with is murdered.

Though it started out great, Artificial Wisdom was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It had moments where I was completely locked in; mostly those moments involving the murder mystery. Then other times I felt disconnected and wishing it would hurry up and get somewhere.

I did enjoy Weaver’s writing style, and found it easy to digest, however the plot moved too slowly for me and it was way too long.

With this being said, don’t take this as all doom and gloom. This did have a lot of positive aspects, and I know a lot of Readers are going to love it. The tech concepts and ideas for a potential future alone are worth picking it up for.

I would recommend it for SF-fans who enjoy a more literary type of story, set in a futuristic our world. There’s plenty of content here to sink your teeth into, and I actually think it could make a solid series. There’s definitely more to explore following where the author left off with this one.

At the end of the day, I felt this had great writing and strong SF-concepts, it just wasn’t a super good fit to my tastes.

Thank you to the publisher, Del Rey, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I would definitely be interested in checking out more work from this author.

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Review: Exiles by Mason Coile

~ megs14malloy

ExilesExiles by Mason Coile
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Exiles follows a trio of astronauts, Gold, Chief and Kang, on a mission to Mars. Their goal is to prepare the 1st-ever colony on Mars for eventual human habitation.

Previously, three robots had been sent to set up the base these astronauts will be staying at for their mission. When they arrive though, they find the new base half-destroyed and one of the robots missing.

The astronauts are forced to quickly try to get their bearings and figure out what happened to the base. On an uninhabited planet, their only source for knowledge is the robots, and the things they are told are highly unsettling.

The robots seem scared, relaying things about possible dangers lurking outside, and what may have caused the damage. But it’s more than that, the robots have named themselves and have taken on surprising behaviors and characteristics. The whole thing is just off.

The astronaut crew have been handed a mess, and they need to figure out what’s going on ASAP. In an environment as unforgiving as Mars, the absolute security of their base is a life or death situation. They need to learn what threats they’re facing, so they can tackle them head on.

Mason Coile, pseudonym for Andrew Pyper, may he rest in peace, has penned a brilliant SciFi-Horror with Exiles. It is so intense, and I appreciated how the story came full circle. Coile pulled off a lot in this one with very few pages.

This book, the concepts involved, is the stuff of my nightmares. This is the type of futuristic scenario that absolutely petrifies me. Just thinking about being in the shoes of Gold, Kang, or Chief, is enough to make me shiver.

It’s not just the deep space setting, and all the unknowns involved with that for me, it’s also the robots and AI technology. That’s like a double-edged sword. Anyway you turn it, it’s dangerous with the potential to kill.

This has a phenomenal set-up. It pulls the Reader in quickly, and then just hooks you. There’s no turning back. The intensity holds throughout the story and truly feels claustrophobic and dangerous.

Some of the action, and twists, they were diabolical and brutal. I was getting so stressed, but in the best way possible. In an entertaining way. I couldn’t put it down. I refused until the very end.

Clearly, I adored this. No notes. I highly recommend this to anyone who may be searching for a compelling Horror novella, bonus points if you love SciFi-Horror.

Thank you to the publisher, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

Andrew Pyper, writing here as Mason Coile, was such a talented, talented writer. I’m going to miss getting new stories from him, but he’s certainly left an impact.

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Review: Lakewood by Megan Giddings

~ megs14malloy

LakewoodLakewood by Megan Giddings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lena’s Grandmother was the matron of their little family, helping to take care of both Lena, and Lena’s Mom, who suffers from a chronic illness. So, when Lena’s Grandma passes away, it leaves a big hole in that regard.

Soon it’s clear that the family has a lot of debt and practically no income. Lena must therefore do whatever she can to try to make ends meet for her and her Mom.

Even though she’s enrolled in college, Lena knows she needs to get high-paying work as soon as she can, which may mean putting her studies on hold for awhile. Unfortunately, the job market is depressing as heck and not offering her a lot of opportunities.

Starting to despair, Lena then learns about a chance to participate in some sort of medical or psychological experiment. She’s intrigued. After pursuing it, it seems almost too good to be true.

The downfall, she’ll have to move from home, to the remote town of Lakewood. Her Mom would be alone, which makes her most nervous of all, but arrangements can be made.

With her participation, Lena will get free housing and the pay is very high, more than she could ever make anywhere else given her current options. Additionally, free healthcare for both her and her Mom. She can’t pass that up.

She has to keep her participation 100% secret though. She needs to lie to family and friends. She even signs an NDA to that effect. Luckily, they’ve come up with a believable cover story for her.

The heart of the story follows Lena moving to Lakewood and taking part in the program. She’s recording everything that happens each day, at least what she can remember, writing it down in a letter format and then hiding it, for reasons I won’t go into here.

I liked the way Giddings chose to format Lena’s perspective. It felt very personal, the way she was recounting all that was happening. I felt like that friend receiving the letters.

I also found Lena to be a very empathetic character. She was so honest about everything, and as the Reader, you see this young person struggling, she’s got so much on her plate, and she’s willing to do anything to help her family. Including potentially putting herself at risk.

She’s smart, she’s tough, she’s someone you root for through thick and thin. Lakewood is full of mysteries and the experiments continually get stranger and more dangerous.

The other people who are participating all add their own levels of drama and intrigue to the story as well. The way this softly intensifies throughout is chef’s kiss. I would realize in various moments that I was feeling fear, but I had no idea why. It made for such a cool reading experience.

While it did have a bit of a slow start, I think the pay off was well worth sticking with it. I appreciated the spotlight it shined on medical experimentation and the racial injustices historically witnessed in such practices.

Side recommendation for the non-fiction book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, that I feel could pair nicely with reading this one.

Overall, I think this is a stellar debut. It left me with a lot to think about. I loved the tone and mood of the writing, the topics explored, and Lena as a protagonist. I would recommend it to fans of When No One Is Watching and The Other Black Girl.

For me, it was the shadow organization feel that I really vibed with. The uneasiness of following Lena’s day-to-day existence in this strange place, with even stranger things happening to her, it was powerful. I’m looking forward to picking up more from Megan Giddings!

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Review: The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

~ megs14malloy

The Third Rule of Time TravelThe Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rule One: Travel can only occur to a point within your lifetime.
Rule Two: You can only travel for ninety seconds.
Rule Three: You can only observe.
The rules cannot be broken.

The Third Rule of Time Travel follows Beth Darlow, a scientist, who along with her husband, Colson, developed a machine that would allow a user’s consciousness to travel back through time to relive random moments in their lives.

It’s a stunning scientific breakthrough, yet it does have some limitations, and potential hazards. It also may not be quite as dialed in as they originally think.

After Colson is tragically killed, Beth is left to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and to continue their work alone. She’s aware of the machine’s kinks, and she wants to be sure they get them worked out safely.

She’s poured her heart and soul into this project, and handles it with great care. When she starts getting pushed by the big boss though, Beth needs to take some risks in order to please the powers that be. She’s not fully comfortable with the things they’re asking of her, but she feels she has to proceed nonetheless.

That’s when Beth begins to notice unsettling shifts in her reality. Perhaps they didn’t have the full understanding on this technology like they thought they did?

This is such an interesting concept, unsurprisingly, executed so well, with great writing from Fracassi. I actually wish it would have been longer so all the topics could have been expanded upon even further.

This is only the 2nd-novel I’ve read from Fracassi, the 1st being Boys in the Valley, which was my favorite book of 2023. I was so surprised how wildly-different these two books are, but what they share is Fracassi’s smooth, accessible writing style.

I think it is so impressive when an author can jump around amongst different genres, and still deliver in such a believable way. I gotta give him props for that.

But, yeah, this had such a fun set-up. It was compelling from the start, easily drawing me into Beth’s world and current circumstances with her work.

I enjoy following characters who are scientists, so this one definitely scratched that itch. I like how much mystery there was surrounding what had happened to Beth’s husband, as well as the shady feel of the company she works for.

After Beth starts to push the tech and notice glitches, I like how she questioned all of their research and prior beliefs. She didn’t double-down on anything, she wasn’t arrogant in her stance. She was a woman seeking the truth, and I found that very compelling.

Towards the end it did get crazy. I mean the concepts we’re dealing with, they’re not easy to conceptualize always, and I did have fun trying to track everything happening to Beth.

It did give it a bit of a fever-dream feel, but not in an overwhelming way, so I was fine with that. I actually feel like this is one of those books where I could possibly enjoy it even more upon reread.

I would recommend this to any Sci-Fi fans, particularly if you enjoy stories that play with time and what we understand about temporal space.

Thank you to the publisher, Orbit, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This was a very enjoyable read!

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Review: Overgrowth by Mira Grant

~ megs14malloy

OvergrowthOvergrowth by Mira Grant
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

When she was just 3-years old, Anastasia Miller, wandered into the woods to locate a beautifully-smelling flowering plant. It was then that she disappeared.

A massive missing person search ensued, only to have Anastasia come back home, visibly unharmed days later. It was at that point that her story truly began.

She’d been abducted by aliens. Her purpose now was to prepare, or warn, the humans about the coming invasion.

She told everybody she could, her whole life, even into adulthood. People came to assume it was a quirky character trait stemming from the trauma she must have suffered during the period of time she went missing, but no one seems to really believe she’s an alien.

When an alien signal broadcast around the world starts to get picked up, it’s validity undeniable, it seems maybe people should have taken Anastasia’s warnings seriously.

The invasion is coming. Stasia’s bio-family is finally on their way and their intent could put all of humanity at risk. They were warned. It’s too bad they didn’t listen.

This novel had such a great start. The first 25%, I was so intrigued. The audiobook narration was fabulous, and perfect for Anastasia’s perspective.

The pace was very solid in the first half. I enjoyed the side characters a lot. Stasia’s boyfriend, Graham, and her roommates, they all played huge roles in this story, and I liked the found family feel of their group.

The tone reminded me quite a bit of the Alchemical Journeys series by Seanan McGuire. In fact, I had to remind myself a couple of times that this wasn’t just another installment to that series; even the cuckoos were mentioned.

Unfortunately, this started to lose me in the second-half. The intrigue completely flew out of the stratosphere for me when the aliens flew in. There was just something about the way that was done and presented, the direction it ultimately went, that didn’t work for me.

I was hoping for a vastly different outcome regarding the conclusion, however, there’s no denying the quality of Grant’s writing and character development.

She’s a master of intentional writing. There are no wasted words and everything has meaning and depth. It’s not just entertainment. There’s a lot more going on within her stories, which I do appreciate so much.

So, while this one was a bit of a mixed bag for me, I’m still a huge fan of Mira Grant and will continue to pick up anything she writes in the future.

Thank you to the publisher, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and a review.

If you’re looking for a Alien Invasion story, this is def worth checking out. I know many Readers are going to love this!

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