There are an absolutely bonkers amount of books in my house, and I’m making that even more bonkers by getting more books. The Rule of Five continues this week with a nerdy, literary, and certainly fantastic collection of additions that I’m sure will make my day…when I am able to read them!
What nifty books do I have to share this time?
Here they are:
- Anthropocene Rag by Alex Irvine (Tor)
Honestly, I bought this book almost entirely for the title and my current fascination with the Anthropocene period. That the story also interrogates American myth-making is just a bonus. Really. It’s that simple…just like me. Sometimes. - Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
I’ll tell you what. This book is getting blurbs from some of the big names in SF/F publishing. If that isn’t enough of a draw, then the fact that Premee Mohamed is really cool and that the book appears to deal directly with what happens when people try to play god with technology should do the trick. Plus, that inkblot circle thing is really cool! - Sixteenth Watch by Myke Cole (Angry Robot Books)
I’ve been a Myke Cole fan since we first interviewed him on The Skiffy and Fanty Show for his Shadow Ops series. This book is his first space-based scifi novel, so you better believe it’ll be meticulously researched. After all, Myke is that guy on Twitter who probably ruined the Spartans for you (rightly so). 😛 - Then the Fish Swallowed Him by Amir Ahmadi Arian (Harper Via)
While this isn’t explicitly an SF/F novel, it does deal with life in Iran and some of its more dystopian aspects from the perspective of an Iranian. Part of what interests me about these works is the way their authors attempt to explore the psychological and physical damage of broken, corrupt, and abusive societies, whether all the way over in Iran or right here in the U.S. In this case, there’s clearly a Biblical metaphor at work with some just-this-side-of-real imagery from within a part of the world that, frankly, I don’t know a whole lot about. - The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata (Hanover Square Press)
Say hello to a bit of meta-commentary on literature, genre, and Latin America. This one made me think a lot of Kurt Vonnegut, who sometimes featured absurd science fiction authors within his narratives (Kilgore Trout!). In this case, the fictional author is in the title: Adana Moreau. I love me some metafiction! 😀
And there you have it. What are you reading?
