All packed for a Sci-Fi Summer readathon ride!

With the first big holiday weekend of the season coming up, it’s only fitting that sign-ups for Seasons of Reading’s Sci-Fi Summer readathon have begun! Hosted by Michelle Miller of SOR, this reading challenge prefers to stay within the genre yet does include fantasy as well.

That works for me, since I am more of a fantasy reader but one of my selections for this event is science fiction adjacent at least:

Bride: Ali Hazelwood’s first foray into paranormal fiction has the title character being the daughter of a high ranking vampire who must seal a peace treaty by marrying an Alpha werewolf.

Misery Lark was content to live among humans in order to avoid the politics of her family . However, duty demands that she wed Lowe Moreland as part of the binding agreement between the two rival parties.

While Lowe may be a fearsome ruler, he’s not cold hearted, especially when it comes to Misery. He is suspicious of her motives and rightly so as she is willing to take this step as a means to a personal end. However, can their bond be more than just a matter of convenience?

I have read a couple of Hazelwood’s regular romances and do enjoy her writing style. It should be interesting to see how she does with this particular genre added to the mix, sort of like The Proposal meets Underworld: Rise of the Lycans there:

Exquisite Ruin: This dark fantasy tale by Adrianne May has a sorceress trapped inside a labyrinth with a demonic foe who she must rely on to escape.

Sadare wakes up with no memory other than knowing of her powers and that Daesra, the deadly immortal who appears to be her only companion in this strange place has been an enemy at best. Since it will take both of their skill sets to defeat the menace at the center of the maze , their best option is to work together.

This alliance between Sadare and Daestra soon becomes more than a practical matter and may possibly lead to a more intense emotional bond. Will that new found intimacy be a help or a hindrance in their ultimate quest for survival?

I was gifted this book from the publisher some time ago and decided to save it for this occasion as this story sounds like a magical movie delight:

Death of the Author: This is definitely my sci-fi centric pick as Nnedi Okorafor’s novel focuses on a writer that changes more than one realm of reality with her words.

Frustrated with her life and career (both of which hit considerable setbacks), Zelu decides to forego her usual style of literary fiction and writes a science fiction epic called Rusted Robots, which highlights a war between the forces of artificial intelligence and androids.

The success of the book stuns her but what happens as a result of her work is beyond anything that Zelu has ever imagined. It appears that the story within this story may be the ultimate narrator of what is meant to be.

I’ve heard nothing but praise for Okorafor’s work and this book certainly seems like a good place to start. A story setup like this is catnip to bookish folk and hopefully leads the way to newer worlds of imagination:

If you’re interested in joining in on Sci-Fi Summer, there is a link in the opening paragraph of this post to the signup SOR post. My thanks to Michelle Miller for giving us a great excuse to explore strange new worlds on page, starting on June 1!

I do hope that during this summer(which is going to be challenging in more ways than one, according to the headlines these days) we can find a common bond through the arts to help us all stick together and gain some  perspective on what’s to come before the year comes to a close.

Also, we do deserve to take a break from our everyday concerns and whether that is with a good book or an amazing movie(doesn’t the upcoming Superman film look awesome?!) or even a super snarky superhero show, yes, it’s the best vacation to take right now, if you ask me: