A Sci-Fi Summer of wonder and delight

With July officially here, I am happy to report that my success on the Sci-Fi Summer readathon( hosted by Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading)challenge was rather reasonable.

I finished two of the three books on my TBR for this event and as of this writing, still reading the third with pleasure.

The first book completed was Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author , which I must say up front is definitely going on my personal list for Best Books of 2025. To be sure, I already have two other titles on that list as it is but this novel is staking its claim to the top spot there.

The main story concerns Zelu, an American author of Nigerian descent who is paraplegic , who is dealing with frustrations in both her personal and professional life. After coming to a crossroads of sort, she decides to chuck the literary fiction she’s been working on and writes a full blown science fiction story that becomes a runaway bestseller.

That book is titled Rusted Robots, with a plot about how the last remaining life forms on Earth are androids and AI who battle it  out for control of their world. This book is blended in with Zelu’s story and beyond that, I cannot say anymore than this in order to avoid spoilers.

What I can and will happily say is that Okorafor is the kind of writer that you regret not having read her work sooner. Her wit, insight and subtlety of style are amazing to behold with emotionally realistic characters (yes, even the robots) and a narrative that flows as smoothly as water.

The science fiction elements are easy to engage with and while I know her other works are not all in this format, there is no doubt about the incredible quality of her prose. This was a good intro to Okorafor for me and I hope to take more imaginative voyages with her stories in the future:

My next stop was to fantasy via paranormal romance with Bride by Ali Hazelwood(note to the jerks who harassed this author so much that she ditched the internet; shame on the lot of you for your biased behavior and for dragging Suzanne Collins into your vicious campaign!).

Our heroine here is Misery Lark, the daughter of a powerful leader among the Vampires who is reluctantly marrying the current Alpha leader of the Werewolves , Lowe Moreland. In this world, vampires and werewolves are separate species rather than supernaturally cursed beings.

 This alliance is meant to maintain enough of a truce to keep both sides, plus the Human population, from plunging into a brutal war. However, Misery has a very personal reason for agreeing to this arrangement and as it turns out, Lowe has a few secrets that are not fully his own to keep in the bargain. Can this marriage of convenience be more than just a means to rather different ends for them both?

I’ve read a couple of Hazelwood’s romances before and liked her style already so this turn into the paranormal wasn’t an unpleasant one; in fact, I use to indulge in quite a few urban fantasy/paranormal romance novels back in the day so it was nice to revisit the genre with a new guide.

The book was engaging and entertaining with a nice setup for a sequel (Mate, due out this October) which gives us more werewolf action in the best sense of the term:

At the moment, I’m still in the midst of Exquisite Ruin by AdriAnne May(got a late start on the book, that’s on me!) and willing to take my time with it.

The story begins with Sadare, a sorceress who wakes up trapped in a maze with no memory of herself.

Her only companion at first is a demon named Daesra, who informs her that they both must seek the monster hidden with the center of the maze in order to escape.

Sadare is less than willing to trust him, especially since he has all of his prior memories intact and holds a strong grudge against her for actions she can’t remember. Nevertheless, neither of them has much choice in the matter so they set off to face the challenge of the labyrinth together, gathering a pair of unusual allies along the way.

The pacing is swift yet allows for solid character development and even with the darker elements of the plot(Sadare has to use pain to activate her powers; content warnings are provided before the book begins), the emotional journey that both Sadare and Daesra are taking is richly heartfelt.

So, I will keep on reading and see where these two crazy kids end up-a sequel is due out next year(Divine Descent) and sounds well worth the wait. In a weird way, this book makes me think of that 1985 cult fantasy movie Legend, only with better writing and more mature content that certainly would’ve enhanced that story!:

So, all in all, this has been a great start for my summer reading and much thanks to Michelle Miller for making this all happen. 

I plan to join in the Midsummer readathon in August (got a nice stack of romcom reads set aside already!) and hope that everyone who took part in this latest one had some page turning fun there.

We have a big holiday weekend ahead of us and understandably, most folk don’t feel that there is much to celebrate right now, given the daily chaos dominating the news cycle (not to mention the wider world). However, we can use this time to recalibrate our weary spirits and enjoy being with loved ones as best we can.

Part of my holiday plans include reading (finally started The House of Eve the other day and really liking it!) and watching the small screen premiere of Sinners(streaming on Friday and airing on HBO Saturday), one of the best movies I’ve seen this or any other year. Take joy where you can find it, folks; it’s what makes us stronger in the challenging days to come: