The new Charlie Jane Victories Greater than Death is very sci fi (sort of Star Trekky)has a female protagonist, and is good. And was being given away by Tor recently, I think? Like subscribe to a newsletter and get a copy of this book kind of deal. I already had my copy so I didn’t pay much attention
I just read Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black series and she’s a female protagonist but is it SF? I think it’s probably more horror.
Vacation read: hmmmmm. This suddenly feels like a pop quiz that I am unprepared for. I will think about it some more.
I keep forgetting that I want to rec The Unravelling - it’s way far future sci fi so society is pretty much completely different, humans are pretty different, and explores some interesting ideas with that, among them vids, fic and shipping. I mean, that’s not a big part of the story but I was delighted to find them at all.
Jesse - SB Divya’s Machinehood, Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti, Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire …
(I mean yes I love it when people read Updraft also! ❤️)
These are all excellent recs.
Jesse, if you haven't picked up Ann Leckie's "Imperial Radch" series, I highly recommend it. My current tagline - "In the end it's only ever been one step, and then the next" - is from the final book in the series.
Nicola Griffith's Ammonite, N.K. Jemisin's "Broken Earth" and "Inheritance" trilogies, Le Guin's The Telling, Sue Burke's Semiosis (haven't read Interference yet), Kate Elliott's Unconquerable Sun . . . .
Jesse, have you read anything by Becky Chambers? She's become one of my favorite recent SF writers.
A Closed and Common Orbit
is probably the closest fit for this challenge, and is also my favorite of her books so far (though I haven't read her latest yet). It's a sequel of sorts to her first book, but you don't need to have read the first one to understand or enjoy the story, though it does spoil a fairly big plot point from the first book.
hippocampus, some of my recent faves are
Circe
by Madeline Miller,
Bellweather Rhapsody
by Kate Racculia, and
Such a Fun Age
by Kiley Reid.
I have not read any of these books!
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue was wonderful. It is not, however, a happy, light romp.
I, personally, love The Goblin Emperor, but I've also become *obsessed* with Victoria Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor. It's just. So. Gah. The plot is there, but it's really about personal journies and friendships and finding a place for yourself. I also just read N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became, which is fabulous.
If you’re looking for something soothing, I devoured MCA Hogarth’s books (but don’t super recommend the princes one which is super disturbing, but all the others are awesome warm hugs)
