scifi books

Review: Into the Dark (Star Wars: The High Republic) by Claudia Gray

~ megs14malloy

Into the Dark (Star Wars: The High Republic)Into the Dark by Claudia Gray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

Into the Dark is a 2021-Canon release set within the era of The High Republic; known as the golden age of the Jedi.

The events in the three recent High Republic books all take place concurrently in the year 232 BBY.

As you discover in this novel, this is the year of the Great Disaster, an event that caused numerous ships galaxy-wide to be suddenly launched out of hyperspace.

It also destroyed moons and created a great amount of debris causing further problems for ships and navigators.

To be clear, the events in this book take place before any previous media you may have watched or read.

We’re talking all new Star Wars goodness! Now with that little bit of timeline info out of the way, let’s get into the review, shall we?

Jedi Padawan, Reath Silas, dreams of days spent pouring through the archives versus deep space adventures. He’s comfortable in Coruscant, known to be the center of the Core System and home to the Jedi Temple.

When his Master, Jora Malli, gets assigned to the new space station, the Starlight Beacon, in the Outer Rim territories, he has to go with. An assignment he’s not happy about.

Malli takes off early, leaving Silas to travel aboard The Vessel, a civilian transport ship, with three other Jedi: Master Cohmac Vitus, Orla Jareni and Dez Rydan.

The only other passengers aboard The Vessel include its Captain, Leox Gyasi, Co-Pilot, Affie Hollow, and Navigator, Geode.

It’s during their journey to Starlight Beacon that the aforementioned Great Disaster occurs, virtually ejecting them from the hyperspace channels and stranding them in deep space.

As you can imagine, that’s not good.

The group discovers an ancient space station, the Amaxine, that seems to be abandoned. Unfortunately for the intrepid crew and passengers of The Vessel, they aren’t the only ones to discover the station and not everyone is friendly.

Making matters worse, the dilapidated Station may not be as abandoned as it appears.

Claudia Gray, surprising no one, did an exceptional job bringing this story to life.

It was an absolute joy to read and learn about this earlier era of Star Wars history. The characters were incredibly well done. I loved their interactions with one another and getting to read from all of their perspectives.

My favorite character was obviously Geode. If you read the book, you will quickly discover why. He was the best and I loved every scene that he was in.

There is a ton, a ton, a ton of action, with some very serious baddies that need to be stopped. A lot of the action focuses on some ancient idols that were discovered on the station, thought to have been left there by the Sith.

I would highly recommend this story to any Star Wars fan, or really even someone who is just looking to get into the books. This is the literal beginning. What better place to start?

Thank you so much to the publisher, Disney LucasFilms, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. It was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it did not disappoint!

I cannot wait to pick up the rest of The High Republic materials!

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Review: The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

~ megs14malloy

The Echo WifeThe Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

Oh wow, you really brought this full circle, didn’t you, Sarah Gailey?! You clever, clever, clever human.

I read the majority of The Echo Wife in one sitting today and I had so much fun with it. There are a lot of great themes and ideas to think about with this one.

This is the first novel I have read by Sarah Gailey, but absolutely will not be the last. I have already added three of their other books to my TBR.

This novel follows Evelyn Caldwell, who is an award-winning research scientist in the field of genetics; more specifically, her work deals with genetic cloning.

We hear this entire story through Evelyn’s perspective, which personally, I found quite refreshing actually. It seems like most novels I read are multiple perspective, so it was nice to just sit with one narrator the whole way through.

Evelyn’s husband, Nathan, has betrayed her with another woman who just so happens to be a clone of Evelyn.

Essentially, he has replaced her with a version that will be more compliant with his wants and needs. More docile in their relationship, something Evelyn never was.

When Nathan ends up dead, Evelyn’s clone, Martine, suddenly becomes a very real problem for her. One that could end her career as she knows it.

Evelyn needs to get control of the situation, and Martine, before everything she has worked for is taken from her.

As Evelyn and Martine begin to work together, Evelyn is shocked when she begins having actual feelings for the clone; like she is a real person.

This novel explores so many fascinating, and frankly, frightening topics. Set in the not too distant future, it examines the ethical issues that arise when you are involved in cloning and cloning research.

What makes something human? What are the parameters that should be followed in this type of research? What if something goes wrong, or a clone goes rouge? Who has the authority to decide the clone’s fate?

In addition to the fabulous scientific elements, I really enjoyed getting to know Evelyn Caldwell. I felt she was such a well-developed character.

We learn how Evelyn’s parent’s relationship shaped the woman she would become. Her parents had quite a contentious relationship and Evelyn was the silent observer to it all.

Her Father was brilliant, he taught Evelyn so much and set her on the career path she ends up on, but he also was a raging tyrant.

Her Mother taught her another set of skills entirely. While she viewed her Mother as mild and cowardly, her experiences with Nathan and Martine caused her to re-evaluate those beliefs.

While this is just a subplot to the greater story, it contributed quite a bit to my enjoyment. I felt it added a lot of depth to Evelyn’s character and allowed me to better understand her choices and motivations.

I really connected with Evelyn. I’m sure many will find her cold, but I think she is more determined and driven than uncaring. Choices she made, if made by a man, would probably be viewed differently by a lot of people.

Overall, this is an extremely intelligent and well-constructed story. My one very small negative, was that I was pitched Thriller and was expecting that. To me, this really isn’t much of a Thriller even though it is quite compelling.

I do highly recommend this. I think it would make an incredible Book Club selection, or Buddy Read, as there are a ton of deep issues to discuss.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I cannot wait to pick up more titles from this author!

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Review: Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff; Illustrations by Marie Lu

~ megs14malloy

Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2)Gemina by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THE BEST MOST WONDERFUL REREAD!!!
💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙

I originally read Gemina, the second installment of The Illuminae Files, in December of 2019. I listened to the audiobook and I had a hard time connecting with it. I really felt like I didn’t retain any of the story.

I decided to pick it back up and give it another shot, as for me, I genuinely believed it was a choice of formatting issue and not a story issue.

Oh, how right I was. I loved my time reading my hard copy and was surprised to learn there was artwork by Marie Lu incorporated into the story, one of my favorite YA authors!

This time through I was connected right away. I could not put it down and ended up finishing it very quickly.

Gemina takes place on the Jump Station Heimdall and follows two new characters, Hanna, the station captain’s daughter, known to be a spoiled princess, and Nik, the resident bad boy with a heart of gold.

After the Kerenza invasion, you may recall from Illuminae, that Kady Grant was heading to the Heimdall Station; unfortunately, she’s not the only one.

When a BeiTech strike team boards the Heimdall, it is up to Hanna and Nik to work together to try to salvage all they can and hopefully expose BeiTech and their misdeeds along the way.

This gets seriously intense. As with Illuminae the unconventional structure makes this a unique reading experience. One that is memorable and a ton of fun!

I am hoping to continue on with Obsidio very, very soon and add this to my completed series list!

I cannot recommend this series highly enough. I am so happy that I went ahead and reread this as opposed to skipping straight to Obsidio. Hanna and Nik are now two of my favorite characters ever and I would have missed that had I not reread this.

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Review: We Hear Voices by Evie Green

~ megs14malloy

We Hear VoicesWe Hear Voices by Evie Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

During a mysterious flu pandemic, Rachel’s son, Billy, lies close to death. Rachel is so distraught. He is just a little boy, how could this happen?

Defying all odds, Billy fights through and survives, but he brings a friend back with him from the brink. An imaginary friend who he calls, Delfy.

Rachel knows that many children develop imaginary friends to help them cope through difficult times, so she’s not too concerned about it.

From what Billy is telling her, Delfy is encouraging him to get stronger and that can’t be a bad thing, can it?

But when Billy’s behavior takes a frightening turn, Rachel knows Delfy is to blame.

Billy’s older sister, Nina, also thinks Delfy’s influence is harmful, and she is determined to get to the bottom of it. Her theory is that the flu is the root of the issue and she believes other children may be experiencing the same phenomenon.

There’s a lot going on in this novel; some of the subplots being more interesting that others. One of my favorite aspects was reading about the pandemic, obviously made more eerie due to everything happening in our world.

This novel follows multiple perspectives as it builds out the dreary post-apocalyptic atmosphere. We follow Rachel, a struggling mother, Billy’s sister, Nina, who is part of a space program for teens, and a doctor, whose name I can’t recall, who treats children hearing voices post-flu.

While many of the aspects of this were interesting to me, once they were mushed together, it became a bit much. It was like the plot suffered a little because there was almost too much going on.

The pacing was off because of this as well, with me much preferring particular perspectives to others. Frankly, I could have done with just Rachel and Nina’s points of view.

Even though this is pitched as Horror, I would categorize it more as a Sci-Fi Thriller.

In spite of the tiny criticisms mentioned above, I still found this be to an engaging story and Green’s writing style to be quite pleasing. I would definitely pick up future work from this author.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I truly appreciate it.

On the heels of 2020, now is the perfect time to pick this one up! You’ll know what I mean once you read it.

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Review: The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin

~ megs14malloy

**3.5-stars**

Hello, my lovelies! Earlier today I posted a bit about Jane Gilmartin’s new SciFi release, The Mirror Man.

At the time of that post, I was 71% of the way through and was predicting a final star rating of between 3.5 and 4. I am happy to say, I finished up with it a couple of hours ago, and as predicted, my final rating is 3.5-stars!

On my rating scale, a 3-star book is a good book and a 3.5-star book is getting close to really good. It’s a book I would recommend to certain people with particular tastes, but not necessarily to everyone.

For me, the first 3/4 of this book was quite compelling. Our protagonist, Jeremiah Adams, finds himself in a precarious situation, essentially held hostage at his place of employment due to an illegal cloning experiment.

As we get towards the end however, it loses all its danger. It’s like the baddies just give up. It just didn’t make sense and ended up way to neatly for the protagonist. I didn’t get that choice. He should have had to fight harder or something. There were also a few plot holes that I thought could have been improved upon. I’ll admit, I was let down by the way it ended.

Overall though, it is an interesting story that would translate well into film. Perhaps they could add a bit more suspense towards the end. I think this would be a great read for someone just getting into Techno-Thrillers or SciFi in general as the concepts are all easy to understand.

Thank you so much to the publisher, MIRA, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review, as well as including me in the blog tour. I appreciate the opportunity and had fun reading this one!

Blog Tour: The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin

~ megs14malloy

Hi, book friends! Good morning! Happy Sunday and start to Halloween Week! The most wonderful time of the year.

Let’s chat about The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin. This fast-paced, Sci-Fi Suspense novel explores the ramifications of a near future, illegal cloning experiment.

Our protagonist, Jeremiah Adams, works in the marketing department for ViGen Pharmaceuticals. He’s surprised when he is offered the opportunity to take part in a top-secret scientific experiment, for which he will be generously compensated. We are talking millions of dollars.

What does he have to do? It’s pretty simple, he agrees to allow ViGen to create a clone of him that will then go out and live his life, while he is secluded in a luxury apartment for a full year.

Just to be clear, this means, the clone, who will have Jeremiah’s memories basically uploaded into its head, will then go and live at Jeremiah’s house with his wife, Diana, his teenage son, Parker and their dog, Louie.

Jeremiah agrees. He’s been having a rough go of it at home lately, anyway, and could use a break.

As part of his agreement, Jeremiah will be required to watch the clone go about his life for a minimum of 4-hours a day, via carefully placed video cameras. Another employee of ViGen, Brent, is to be his companion during these viewing sessions. They’re trying to determine if the clone veers at all from Jeremiah’s normal pattern of behavior.

He also must meet with a psychologist to discuss how the whole process is making him feel. Other than that, his only contact is with the two heads of the experiment, Drs. Scott and Pike.

I am currently 71% of the way through this novel. I have been flying through it. The narrative style is very addicting. It’s a solid Techno-Thriller and would definitely make a good movie.

I was impressed with how quickly the action kicked off. There’s no pages and pages of background filler on the experiment. The opening scenes are the clone getting its finishing touches before heading out into the world, and just like that, Jeremiah is enclosed in his room.

It’s mere moments before you can feel a sense of dread starting to seep in. Like when Jeremiah realizes the exterior door of his apartment doesn’t have a handle on his side. He is literally a prisoner at the mercy of the few ViGen employees who are actually privy to the experiment and know of his whereabouts.

As you continue turning pages, the true sinister nature of the story begins to reveal itself. I am loving the relationship between Jeremiah and Brent, right now. Brent brings a lot of much need humor. Although some of the plot is predictable in a 1990s-Techno-Thriller way, it’s still fun and engaging.

According to my e-Reader, I have under two hours left. So, I am going to go finish it up now and then I will circle back here with a full review. Right now my star rating is hovering between a 3.5 and 4. Stay tuned to find out more!!!

Review: The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

~ megs14malloy

The TommyknockersThe Tommyknockers by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

Okay, I know, I know. This isn’t a perfect book.

Luckily, I am not a critical reader. Therefore a book doesn’t need to be entirely perfect in order for me to love it.

I rate books based upon my reading experience and I absolutely loved my time rereading The Tommyknockers.

This SciFi-Horror novel, first published in 1987, is set in the small town of Haven, Maine.

One day while walking in the woods of her rather large property, local woman, Bobbi Anderson, quite literally stumbles upon a mysterious metal object protruding from the ground.

Unable to understand what she is seeing, Bobbi quickly becomes obsessed with freeing the object.

The longer she’s around it however, the more she begins to notice certain disturbing side effects suffered by both herself and her old dog, Peter.

Regardless of any strange happenings, Bobbi continues to feel the pull of the object in the woods.

Around the time Bobbi has developed this new obsession, her old friend, Jim Gardener, known as Gard, finds himself in the depths of a true alcoholic bender.

On a morning where he is moments from ending it all, Gard experiences an overwhelming feeling that Bobbi is in real danger; he needs to call her.

Unable to get through, he does what anyone would do. He hitchhikes to her house.

He finds Bobbi in a state of, shall we say, disrepair.

Bobbi gives Gard, her trusted friend, a run-down of all she has been up to; including showing him the object.

She enlists his help in her mission to free it. Although he has reservations, Gard loves Bobbi in his own way, and ultimately does decide to stick around and help her out.

From there, we meet the town of Haven. The other locals who have begun to feel the effects of the object’s greater exposure.

The fallout seems to be having an effect on the health and wellness of the entire town. Incidentally, it also has a significant effect on anyone passing through.

Written towards the end of the Cold War, at a time when discussions of nuclear weapons, power and nonproliferation evoked a lot of passion amongst people, that influence can be felt here.

The fact that I am using the word fallout, as an apt way to describe what was happening to the citizens of Haven, exemplifies that.

In addition to the social commentary, which I feel King is genuinely good at weaving into his stories, he also incorporates various other elements he seems to enjoy exploring.

There’s author protagonists, both Bobbi and Gard are writers, alcoholism, mental telepathy, revivalist preachers, dolls, rats, bats, creepy kids and a fantastic array of body horror. It really has it all.

Also, as usual, this story is full of witty humor and characters that are so well-developed you feel like you’ve known them your whole life.

As a Maine native, I can tell you this story is full of Mainerism, as well!

Overall, I had such a fun time sinking my teeth into this one again. I had forgotten so much.

Additionally, I picked up so many more connections to the great Kingverse than the first time around; having an additional 20-years to read his stories.

I think this one is underrated. Not just underrated, it gets a solidly bad rap.

However, I humbly disagree. I think if you love King, and love SciFi, you can love this book as well.

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Review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

~ megs14malloy

To Sleep in a Sea of StarsTo Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Originally, I was planning to give To Sleep in a Sea of Stars 4.5-stars and round up.

After having some time to reflect on my reading experience, however, I can give this nothing but 5-stars. I CANNOT STOP thinking about it.

This novel is quite the accomplishment for Paolini. If I am remembering the Author’s Note correctly, he worked on this project for nine years and it shows; as close to perfection as you can get.

In the beginning of the story, we meet and follow Kira Navarez, a xenobiologist, who discovers an alien relic while on a survey mission to an uninhabited planet.

The relic isn’t as dormant as it first appears and ends up contaminating and binding with Kira. This event has lasting repercussions, leaving her feeling responsible for some negative events that follow.

This is a story of first contact. I wasn’t aware of that going in, although it says it directly in the synopsis, I missed it somehow.

I love first contact stories. It’s actually one of my favorite subgenres of Science Fiction. It is so well done here, you can definitely tell that Paolini is a Sci-Fi fan himself.

This story is so vast, it is hard to give brief plot points that would sum up the entirety of this novel’s scope. There is so much that happens from the first time Kira comes in contact with the alien suit to the stunning conclusion.

Reading this, I became so attached to her and the other characters as well. The crew that Kira travels with, defending the Universe, are the perfect rag-tag group of lovable rebels.

I loved how Paolini incorporated humor and witty banter into this story. It made the characters seem so real; they were reacting how you expect people in real life to react to such crazy and dire circumstances.

I was so engaged throughout my time reading this. It did not feel like a close to 900-page story. I got through it way more quickly than I had anticipated.

I would note this is straight-up, good old-fashioned Science Fiction. If you are thinking this will be more SFF, based on Paolini’s past works, you could be disappointed.

If you do not normally enjoy Science Fiction, you may not like this. If you are a fan of Sci-Fi though, you will eat this up. The delicious science bits are woven throughout. Start-to-finish, the details are incredible.

Also, if you do pick this book up, be sure to read through the Appendices at the end. There’s definitely a lot of interesting supplemental material there.

My favorite being a timeline of events that lead up to the world as we find it at the beginning of the story. It basically fills in the blanks between our current world through Kira’s time. It’s not very long, but I found it to be a thoughtful addition to the story.

The audiobook is fantastic as well, if you think that would be a good option for you. At first, I was thinking, why didn’t they go full cast, as there are quite a few characters. After getting into it, however, I never thought of it again.

The narrator, Jennifer Hale, did an absolutely tremendous job bringing this story to life. She is such talented voice artist and I was shocked to learn that this is actually her first audiobook. Talk about coming out swinging!

I am going to be thinking about this story for a long time to come and would love to read it again someday.

Highly, highly recommend!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor Books, for providing me with both an e-book and audiobook copy of this release to read and review.

I had so much fun with this story and hope Paolini continues to write Science Fiction for a long time to come!

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Review: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

~ megs14malloy

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4)Winter by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A bittersweet conclusion to a fantastic YA-SciFi series. This is retelling GOLD!

Winter is the fourth, and concluding novel, in Marissa Meyer’s beloved, Lunar Chronicles series.

Coming in at over 800-pages, this hefty book provides the final stand-off between our intrepid heroes, their allies, and the wicked Lunar Queen.

There was a ton of action in this installment, some of it quite brutal, and I enjoyed learning a bit more about each of our main characters.

I can’t believe it is over. As some of you may know, I have a difficult time continuing with series. There was no problem with this one. I was that compelled to pick it up.

I love how Meyer built the world out. Each book, you gain more characters, more knowledge of the world and the stakes are steadily increased.

In this book, our newest character, per the title, is Winter, the Lunar Princess.

She was such a delight. Due to repressing the use of her glamour, her mind is a bit janky. She hallucinates and people in the kingdom think she is bit crazy, but love her nonetheless.

Again with this one, I appreciate so much the connections to the original fairy tales.

As a set of retellings, I think The Lunar Chronicles is top notch work. I would love to read further retellings from Meyer and definitely have boosted Heartless up by TBR.

I’m so happy that I finally took the time to pick this series up! I was enthralled the entire way through.

If you haven’t given this one a shot yet, and are a Sci-Fi fan, you should definitely check it out!

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Review: Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura

~ megs14malloy

Poe Dameron: Free FallPoe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars**

Teenager, Poe Dameron, wants adventure and freedom. On his home planet of Yavin 4, he feels smothered by a father he views as overbearing.

He doesn’t want to take over the family farm, he wants more. Why can’t his father understand that?

His father, Kes Dameron, was a sergeant in the battle against the Galactic Empire. Along with his wife and Poe’s mother, Shara Bey, a renowned Rebel pilot, the two lived the sort of adventurous life Poe dreams of.

His mother taught him how to pilot his own craft and it’s well-known that he is gifted behind the controls; well exceeding his peers.

Since his mother’s tragic death, Poe and his father have had a difficult time connecting and it seems her death has made his father even more protective over him.

Considering Poe is really all Kes has left, it is no surprise he may be holding on a bit too tightly. Poe doesn’t see the reasoning behind it, however. He’s young and just wants to be able to choose his own path.

When an opportunity arises for him to flee Yavin 4, he jumps on it without too much consideration.

His means of escape just so happens to be piloting a ship full of Spice Runners. The Spice Runners of Kijimi, to be exact, one of the deadliest crime syndicates in the galaxy.

The Spice Runners needed a new pilot, after the demise of their own, and Poe just so happens to be in the right place at the right time.

He jumps on his chance and off they go. Of the crew he now finds himself with, Poe bonds quickly with young, Zorii Wynn, a human female, a native of Kijimi and an all-around badass.

They become quite close. It’s no surprise, considering they’re the same age and they continue to rise up the ranks together.

Their relationship has moments of romance, but mostly is built on a mutual respect. Zorii has grown up in the Spice Runners and Poe learns a lot from her regarding their lifestyle and practices.

Ultimately, Zorii is hardcore, she has loyalties that go much deeper than any Poe could ever feel for the criminal organization.

When the two begin to be at odds about what the future holds for them, tough decisions must be made, pushing both of them to their limits.

Y’all, I really enjoyed this. As an origin story for a character I love, I thought this was fantastically presented.

I really felt for Poe. It can be so hard to be a kid who feels like you were made for great things, but you don’t feel supported in pursuing those things.

I love that he had the boldness of character to set out on his own. Even though the way he went about that was reckless, it ultimately made his life what it is.

I think he needed that experience with the Spice Runners to truly understand what he was meant to do; his destiny.

Overall, this is a great addition to the Disney Canon. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to read it.

Finding out the details behind Poe’s early life and his relationship with Zorii, a relationship that shaped them both, it was just so satisfying.

As far as the Canon timeline goes, this novel falls after The Mandalorian and prior to the novel, Bloodline.

If you have watched the new trilogy movies, you are probably familiar with Poe Dameron’s character and if you enjoy him, as I do, you should definitely check this book out. It’s a heck of a good time!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Disney LucasFilms Press, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review.

I was so happy to have the opportunity to get my hands on it early and provide my thoughts. Available everywhere in the galaxy, Tuesday, August 4, 2020!!!

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