Setting up a reader's beach towel for Sci-Fi Summer!

With Memorial Day weekend just around the corner, the summer season is about to officially begin. Granted, the usual holiday plans that are made this time of year have no choice but to be quite different (and indoors) due to the prevalent health crisis at hand.

However, that doesn't rule out having some fun and that's where a good readathon comes forth to offer just that. Seasons of Reading is now signing folks up for their annual Sci-Fi Summer event, which starts on June 1 and lasts until the end of the month.

The theme is science fiction, with fantasy also included.While I'm more comfortable with the latter than the former, there is one major sci-fi author that I haven't tackled and fully intend to here, for a start on my own TBR for this event:

THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS: This modern classic from Ursula K. LeGuin is set on the planet Gethen, where Genly Ai, a human envoy of the galactic alliance of planets known as Ekumen ,is hoping to encourage them to join this society of worlds.

His mission is fraught with peril, partly due to his discomfort with the formal set of manners that are not defined by gender practiced among the various people that Ai encounters. In fact, the Gethenians are ambisexual, only taking on a specific gender for procreation related purposes.

Ai's journey takes into several ruling realms, finding the social norms and politics to be daunting yet he makes an unexpected friend along the way who not only helps him but changes his perspectives on life and love as well.

This is a major novel in LeGuin's canon of groundbreaking works of fiction and there's no time like the present for me to give such an amazing book a serious try. Perhaps it might lead me to her other works, perhaps not. Nonetheless, this is an adventure well worth the taking:

THE BONE DOLL'S TWIN: In this first in a trilogy written by Lynn Flewelling, we are introduced to Tobin, a young boy hiding in plain sight from those who would destroy him due to the wrath of a usurper king.

Tobin was born into a set of twins, yet due to his uncle King Erius eliminating any females newly entering the royal bloodline, his parents called upon a sorcerer to use dark magic to protect their infant daughter. That spell had dangerous consequences, leaving Tobin with a ghostly sibling and a secret identity to be kept even from him.

While their country is constantly under siege from without and within, Tobin's father and a few carefully chosen allies are awaiting the day when the truth can be revealed and a warrior queen can rise again to save their realm.

I received this book from a mystery box brought during the recent Virtual Con held by Penguin Random House online(it was a fun event!) and since this story line reminds me of one of my favorite Game of Thrones characters-plus, the book cover has a positive blurb from G.R.R. Martin-I am most intrigued indeed:

SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA DOUBLE FEATURE: Not only does this fantastic writer have a great new book coming out this summer(Mexican Gothic) , her impressive body of work has at least two titles that I need to catch up with here.

In The Beautiful Ones, Antonina "Nina" Beaulieu is making her debut into high society, trying to keep her telekinetic abilities at bay in order to find a good martial match.

Her cousin Valerie is meant to be her guide yet when Nina attracts the attentions of Hector, who proudly flaunts his psychic powers , lines are drawn between the two women. It doesn't help that Valerie and Hector were once in love yet she had to give him up for what her family considered a more suitable connection.

At first, Hector is only interested in using Nina as payback against Valerie but over time, his affections start to change. However, Nina is not simply a pawn for either side to play in this emotional game and her own set of magical skills turn this love triangle into a source of true power for herself. This so sounds like if Edith Wharton wrote The Night Circus and I am all in for that!

Gods of Jade and Shadow has it's leading lady, Casiopea, finding herself bound to a Mayan death god and assisting him in his quest to fully regain his divinity. After opening a secret box belonging to her grandfather, she accidentally awakens the imprisoned Hun-Kame and finds out about her family's role in trapping him for decades.

She's less than thrilled to be caught up in this vengeance driven journey, as the deity in question plans to take on his betraying brother, yet along the way, Casiopea learns a few things about life from her new acquaintance and so does he, each gaining a new respect for the other.

Can their quest be completed, however, without a true sacrifice that changes both of their families for good? I've been looking forward to reading this book for some time now and saving it for the summer feels just right. Moreno-Garcia's blend of reality and mythology is truly compelling with a spell binding beauty that engages awe and terror all at once:

There's plenty of time to sign up if you're interested(see link in the top portion of this post) and you can also follow the hashtag #SciFiJune on social media. My thanks as always to Michelle Miller for making these reading challenges easily available to all.

I do like the fact that science fiction and fantasy are both part of this, as fans of one over the other tend to draw battle lines around their preferred genre. In the end, we're all on the same side of the bookshelf here and getting together for some good bookish fun is what's most important, especially these days. A little mock trash talk is fine but agreeing to be reading buddies is even better: