THE TOP TEN NOVELS THAT I READ IN 2024

Good morning! It's time again to unveil the best books that I read this year. This is the sixth consecutive year I do this since I started this blog. In fact, I've been making these lists for a bit longer than that. They're a bit too long to post on normal social media, like Facebook or Threads. Even sites like Goodreads and The Storygraph aren't well suited for this. That's why I launched this blog. I wanted a place where I could share my reviews and opinions with the world.

This year, I decided to post this list now, rather than in December as usual. That makes it less likely that a great read I finish last-minute doesn't make it as one of the picks. It almost happened with Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. It was a fantastic book, but I read it very late in 2023. I just would rather not cut it too close again. Without further ado, here are my choices for the top 10 books I read in 2024:

BOOK REVIEW: THE EDGE OF FOREVER BY MELISSA E. HURST

Title: The Edge of Forever

Author: Melissa E. Hurst
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Published on: June 2, 2015 by Sky Pony

In 2013, sixteen-year-old Alora is having blackouts. Each time she wakes up in a different place with no idea how she got there. The one thing she is certain of? Someone is following her.

In 2146, seventeen-year-old Bridger is one of a small number of people born with the ability to travel to the past. While on a routine school time trip, he sees the last person he expected—his dead father. The strangest part is that, according to the Department of Temporal Affairs, his father was never assigned to be in that time. Bridger’s even more stunned when he learns that his by-the-book father was there to break the most important rule of time travel—to prevent someone’s murder.

And that someone is named Alora.

Determined to discover why his father wanted to help a “ghost,” Bridger illegally shifts to 2013 and, along with Alora, races to solve the mystery surrounding her past and her connection to his father before the DTA finds him. If he can stop Alora’s death without altering the timeline, maybe he can save his father too.

I started reading The Edge of Forever with moderate expectations. The cover’s good looking, but it was the synopsis that drew me in. It made this book sound similar to the Rewinder trilogy by Brett Battles, which I’ve read. The protagonist of this story is Bridger Creed, a seventeen-year-old cadet from 2146 United States. In his world, there are people born with the ability to travel back in time. Bridger’s one of them, which is why the Department of Temporal Affairs is training him. At the start, Bridger is on a training trip to a significant event. What’s supposed to be a straightforward mission soon takes an unexpected turn.

Bridger witnesses something that he has a hard time believing. His father Leithan, a DTA agent, is present—even though he’s supposed to be dead. The man quickly vanishes before Bridger can do much of anything. But his distraction has disastrous consequences. Vika, Bridger’s girlfriend and fellow trainee, is severely injured. Their superiors quickly shift back to their time. There, Bridger not only has to deal with the consequences of leaving his post. He also has to ponder why Leithan wanted to save someone from the past. People in Bridger’s time call these people “ghosts”, because their fates are fixed and it’s against the law to mess with them.

BOOK REVIEW: CHRYSALIS BY BRENDAN REICHS

Title: Chrysalis

Author: Brendan Reichs

Genre: Science Fiction

Published on: March 5, 2019 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

The stunning finale of the Project Nemesis trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Brendan Reichs.

 

The 64 members of Fire Lake’s sophomore class have managed to survive the first two phases of the Program—and each other. Now, they alone have emerged into the dawn of a new era on Earth, into a Fire Lake valley that’s full of otherworldly dangers and challenges. Although staying alive in this broken world should force Min, Noah, Tack, and the others to form new alliances, old feuds die hard, and the brutality of the earlier Program phases cannot be forgotten. But being a team isn’t easy for the sophomores, and when they discover that they may not be alone on the planet after all, they’ll have to decide if they’re going to work together…or die together.

The quest to save humanity continues in this final entry of the Project Nemesis series. With the way Genesis ended, the author could have satisfactorily wrapped it up as a duology. Min Wilder, the main protagonist, managed to save all 64 members of her sophomore class. They went through Phase Two of Project Nemesis for millions of years while Earth healed from an apocalyptic event. Thanks to living as data inside a supercomputer, the students experienced all that eternity in a few months. Now they’re back in physical bodies in the real world.

It’s been a few months since Min and her classmates emerged from the supercomputer. They returned to a vastly different Fire Lake than they remember. Along with Noah, her boyfriend, Min’s built a fledgling community. Project Nemesis left them with every supply humanity could need, stored in a decommissioned missile silo. For the moment, their world is small. The student’s former town of Fire Lake is now an island surrounded by a vast ocean. There’s nothing around, except for an island a day’s sail away.

BOOK REVIEW: ATHENA’S ASHES BY JAMIE GRAY

Title: Athena’s Ashes

Author: Jamie Gray

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: August 22, 2014 by Clever Crow Press

It’s Renna’s biggest job yet — convincing MYTH leadership that she’s put away her lock picks and is ready to save the galaxy, despite the dangerous implant in her brain. But with the Athena on the run, she’s working solo and facing her most ruthless enemy, the traitor Pallas, who’ll go to any lengths to destroy the MYTH organization. Including framing Renna for a devastating assault on MYTH HQ that leaves their defenses crippled and hundreds dead.

Now that MYTH believes she’s a dangerous double-agent, Renna escapes their firing squad before they put more holes in her than a pair of fishnet stockings. But the ticking time-bomb in her head is the one thing Pallas needs to complete his master plan and he’s not about to let her get away. Even worse, he’s discovered the only thing that will bring Renna to her knees — threatening Captain Nick Finn.

Out of time and options, Renna’s got one shot to take down the traitor before he annihilates everything she loves, even though winning this battle may cost her everything.

A new book finds galactic thief Renna Carrizal continuing her adventure. She's a 25-year-old human woman who got involved in a mission to save the galaxy. One of the top leaders of MYTH, a covert intelligence agency, persuaded Renna to lend her skills for a special mission. This unexpectedly reunited her with someone she believed dead, a guy now known as Captain Finn. The latter deeply distrusted Renna at first due to her reputation. They slowly ended up falling for each other. It seems opposites do attract, eh? Renna may not be one of the bad guys, but she still ran with shady people. And Captain Finn became as righteous as the likes of Steve Rogers. 

Together, Renna and Finn managed to uncover a conspiracy threatening not just MYTH, but the whole galaxy. Now, Athena's Ashes begins with Renna fighting a new battle. During her confrontation with a mad scientist, he injected her with an experimental formula. The compound will integrate Renna's high-tech brain implant with her nervous system, turning her into a part-cyborg. That is, if she survives the process. Renna thought her best chance was to return to MYTH. She uses her need for medical help to get inside and unmask the identity of a traitor. All that Renna knows about him is his codename, Pallas. This guy is the book's main antagonist. His goal appears to be to create an army of cyborgs to take over the galaxy. 

BOOK REVIEW: THE THOUGHT PUSHERS BY DIMA ZALES

Title: The Thought Pushers (Les Pousseurs de pensée)

Author: Dima Zales

Genre: Science Fiction

Published on: October 29, 2015, self-published

La suite tres attendue du livre Les Lecteurs de pensée par un auteur de bestsellers au classement du New York Times et de USA Today.

Que suis-je ?

Qui a tué ma famille ?

Pourquoi ?

Il me faut des réponses avant de me faire tuer par la mafia russe.

Si mes amis ne me règlent pas mon compte avant.

This second entry in the Mind Dimensions series picks up shortly after the ending of the previous one. Les Pousseurs de Pensée (I read the French editions of this series) continues the story of Darren Goldberg. He’s a seemingly average man in his mid-twenties who works as a hedge-fund analyst in New York. The story takes place in our contemporary time. What’s different is that there are two groups of people with special mind abilities. Darren is a Thought Reader, which is self-explanatory. And as he discovered recently, he’s also a Thought Pusher: someone who can control the minds of regular people. Darren found out by accident while trying to save his new friend Mira Tsiolkovsky’s life. It seemed like they might be attracted to each other, but Mira is now furious with Darren and won’t talk to him.

There’s a good reason why Mira is acting that way now. She and her brother, Eugene, had already told Darren that Thought Readers and Thought Pushers hate each other. They have been warring for centuries. As if that wasn’t enough, one of them murdered Mira and Eugene’s parents. Whoever this Pusher is, he or she is still around and gunning for the siblings. Now this person seems to have Darren on their sights. He only narrowly escapes a murder attempt thanks to his newfound Pusher ability.

BOOK REVIEW: GENESIS BY BRENDAN REICHS

Title: Genesis

Author: Brendan Reichs

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: March 6, 2018 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

“Reichs knows exactly how to mix action, suspense, and characters into a breathless read.” —Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of Warcross

The blistering sequel to the instant New York Times bestselling Nemesis by Brendan Reichs.

 

Noah Livingston knows he is destined to survive.

The 64 members of Fire Lake’s sophomore class are trapped in a place where morals have no meaning and zero rules apply. But Noah’s deaths have trained him-hardened him-to lead the strongest into the future … whatever that may be. And at any cost.

Min Wilder knows that survival alone isn’t enough.

In a violent world where brute force passes for leadership, it’s tempting to lay back and let everyone else battle it out. But Min’s instincts rebel against allowing others to decide who lives and who dies. She’s ready to fight for what she believes in. And against whomever might stand in her way.

Following a shocking cliffhanger, I was eager to read Genesis. It’s the second book in a sci-fi series following a high school sophomore class. The story takes place in Fire Lake, a tiny town somewhere in Idaho. If you’ve read Nemesis, you’d know this trilogy is also a post-apocalyptic story. The main character is Melinda Wilder, who prefers to go by Min. She’s a sixteen-year-old who got killed on her birthday every two years and somehow kept coming back. Nemesis revealed the truth: her killer was a man spearheading a black ops project aiming to save humanity.

The man, who now calls himself The Guardian, helped save Min’s entire sophomore class. In total they are sixty-four students. The Guardian told them all that Earth was ravaged following a stellar event that happens every certain million years. This event was unavoidable, as was the end of all life on Earth. Min and her class now live in a virtual recreation of Fire Lake. They have a task ahead of them now as part of Phase Two of Project Nemesis. The Guardian doesn’t give many details, though. Noah Livingston takes the virtual world’s objective to heart and betrays Min. He shot her twice, killing her.

THE TOP 10 BOOKS I READ IN 2023

Good morning, folks! It’s time again for my annual list of the 10 best books that I read. This year was my most prolific yet. I’ve finished 84 books as of the time I’m writing this post. It could increase slightly, but I’m pretty much done for the year. And though I read so many books, there weren’t that many to choose from to pick my top 10. It seems the…likability of the books I read this year wasn’t as high as usual. Despite that, there were still plenty of books that I greatly enjoyed.

One of my picks this year was a huge surprise. This book was so good I added it to this list at the very last minute. Usually, December is a wind-down month for me; I either read less books or pick only books that I’ve read before. But this last-minute book is part of a series I didn’t want to postpone until next year. And boy, was that a good choice. The book is Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. It was absolutely earth-shattering in my opinion. I liked it so much I couldn’t not include it in this list. And it damn near beat all my other picks. Here’s the full list:

BOOK REVIEW: THE STAR THIEF BY JAMIE GRAY

Title: The Star Thief

Author: Jamie Grey

Genre: Science Fiction, romance

Published on: December 29, 2013

Experience the romance and adventure of the best selling futuristic romance.

Stealing another galactic secret will get her arrested, but playing by the rules might just get her killed.

At twenty-three, Renna Carrizal is the most notorious thief in the galaxy. There's just one problem - all she wants is to get out of the business.

But after Renna rescues an injured boy on her final job, she finds herself on the run from the mob instead of enjoying retirement. She unwittingly becomes ensnared by MYTH, the empire's top-secret galactic protection agency, who offer her a choice - either help them on their latest mission, or spend the rest of her life on a prison ship.

Forced to work under the watchful eye of handsome but arrogant Captain Finn, Renna learns the former mercenary-turned-space marine has a few dirty secrets himself. As Renna works to discover the truth about Finn's past and keep the tantalizing man at arm's length, she unearths a plot to create an unstoppable army. The target? The human star fleet.

Now Renna must pull off the biggest job of her career - saving the galaxy. And maybe even herself.

I haven’t read many space opera novels. They’re a fascinating sci-fi subgenre for me, especially when done right like Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. After I came across The Star Thief, I thought it sounded cool. The protagonist is 23-year-old Renna Carrizal, and she’s perhaps the best thief in the galaxy. The novel doesn’t specify how far into the future the story is set, only that it’s several centuries after our time. Renna is introduced while she’s in the middle of an assignment. Someone hired her to steal some tech prototype. Renna is able to find it, of course. When she’s about to leave, Renna gets into a snag. She is forced to outrun the building’s guards with extra cargo that she hadn’t anticipated.

Just when Renna thinks she’s made it away, an unknown group shows up. They’re not the goons Renna just stole from. These newcomers seem to be some sort of paramilitary unit. Renna can’t help but think of them as ninjas, especially as they use swords. She tells the reader that swords went out of fashion eons ago. They’re highly effective in the hands of these guys, though. The squad make short work of the goons and take Renna hostage. Of course, Renna tries to escape and almost manages it...until she sees who sent the ninja soldiers after her.

BOOK REVIEW: THE THOUGHT READERS BY DIMA ZALES

Title: The Thought Readers (Les Lecteurs de Pensée)

Author: Dima Zales

Genre: Science Fiction

Published on: July 27, 2015

Une nouvelle série sur les mediums par un auteur de best-sellers (classements du New York Times et de USA Today) 
Tout le monde pense que je suis un génie.

Tout le monde a tort. 

Oui, je suis sorti de Harvard à dix-huit ans et je me remplis les poches dans un fonds spéculatif. Mais ce n’est pas parce que je suis extraordinairement intelligent ou travailleur. 

C’est parce que je triche.

J’ai un talent unique, voyez-vous. Je peux sortir du temps pour entrer dans ma version personnelle de la réalité — un endroit que je nomme ‘le Calme’ — où je peux explorer mon environnement pendant que le reste du monde est immobile. 

Je pensais être le seul à pouvoir le faire — jusqu’à ce que je la rencontre.

Je m’appelle Darren et voici comment j’ai appris que j’étais un Lecteur.

 

After teaching myself French, I searched for novels in that language in the Kindle store. It ended up being harder than I expected, as there aren’t that many. Les Lecteurs de Pensée is one of the first I came across. It’s part of a series centering on the character of Darren Goldberg. He’s a guy in his early twenties who has an unusual ability. Darren first discovered it when he was a kid. He can stop time, in a way: Darren can phase out of his body, a la Doctor Strange, and the world around him freezes. He calls this “drifting into the Calm”. Darren has used this power to his advantage a myriad times once he learned how to control it. For instance, freezing time allows Darren to cheat at casinos without being caught. The book introduces him during a game of poker.

Unbeknownst to Darren, his life is about to change irrevocably. A new challenger comes to the table to play. All of a sudden, the world freezes around Darren. Only this time, Darren didn’t willingly drift into the Calm. Then he sees the challenger, a woman around his age, who has phased out of her body and inadvertently brought Darren with her. This is significant because his whole life, Darren has believed he was the only person who could “freeze time”. He goes to regular therapy sessions because of this. Before Darren can question the woman, though, she bolts out of the place and vanishes.

BOOK REVIEW: NEMESIS BY BRENDAN REICHS

Title: Nemesis

Author: Brendan Reichs

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: March 21, 2017 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Orphan Black meets Lord of the Flies in this riveting new thriller from the co-author of the Virals series. 

 

It's been happening since Min was eight. Every two years, on her birthday, a strange man finds her and murders her in cold blood. But hours later, she wakes up in a clearing just outside her tiny Idaho hometown—alone, unhurt, and with all evidence of the horrifying crime erased.

 

Across the valley, Noah just wants to be like everyone else. But he’s not. Nightmares of murder and death plague him, though he does his best to hide the signs. But when the world around him begins to spiral toward panic and destruction, Noah discovers that people have been lying to him his whole life. Everything changes in an eye blink.

 

For the planet has a bigger problem. The Anvil, an enormous asteroid threatening all life on Earth, leaves little room for two troubled teens. Yet on her sixteenth birthday, as she cowers in her bedroom, hoping not to die for the fifth time, Min has had enough. She vows to discover what is happening in Fire Lake and uncovers a lifetime of lies: a vast conspiracy involving the sixty-four students of her sophomore class, one that may be even more sinister than the murders.

After reading book series like In The Company of Killers, I’m used to a tad of darkness in fiction. The synopsis for Nemesis is unquestionably dark. Some suit-clad guy kills the same girl every two years on her birthday. Yes, you read right: he murders her more than once. Evidently, the girl comes back to life somehow. This is as compelling a synopsis as it gets. What could possibly be the reason behind these murders? That’s what drew me to Nemesis. I wanted to find out what was going on.

The girl in question is Melinda “Min” Wilder, the protagonist. She’s sixteen when the book starts. It’s an odd-numbered birthday, so the man in a suit shows up as expected. Whoever he is, he kills Min yet again. And like before, she comes back completely unharmed. Min lets the reader know more about her murders. The man in the suit always succeeds, no matter what Min does. Why doesn’t anyone (like her mother) know about this? Well, the first two times Min told people about her deaths, they dismissed it, even the sheriff. Then a shrink told Min the experiences weren’t real. She’s been seeing the doctor ever since, and kept quiet about the murders.

Min has a best friend, Tack. They’re the inseparable kind of friends, akin to Harry and Hermione or Clary and Simon. The two are sophomores and live in a tiny Idaho town called Fire Lake. Min and Tack lead pretty normal teen lives (apart from the murders, which Tack has no idea about). They have to put up with the requisite school bully, Ethan. Min has a short fuse, which leads her to make a reckless decision at one point. It was quite shocking to me. Tack covers it up, which shows how faithful he is to Min. There doesn’t seem to be any romance brewing between them, though. I doubt it’d improve the story if Min and Tack became an item.

Shortly after Tack is introduced, Nemesis reveals another strange plot point. There’s an asteroid nicknamed The Anvil, and it’s seemingly on a collision course with Earth. This Anvil is a potential planet-killer. Everyone is anxiously waiting for a NASA live announcement that will answer whether the Anvil is striking Earth or not. Min’s mind is so busy wrapping itself around her murders that she barely even cares about the potential end of the world. But what does an asteroid have to do with a suited man who kills the same girl over and over? That’s one of the biggest questions in Nemesis.

The second protagonist is Noah. He is also a sophomore but doesn’t run in Min’s and Tack’s circles. Also, whereas Min lives in a trailer park, Noah is from one of the wealthiest families in Fire Lake. Min and Noah have something in common, though. Min’s investigation into what’s behind her murders (and resurrections) leads her to Noah. It seems he’s involved, but Min has no idea how. She’s relentless, so she eventually uncovers more truths about a mysterious government program. By this point I was still trying to guess what Nemesis is about. I had a few ideas in mind, but still.

When Min and Noah discover the truth about Nemesis, it surprised me. I did not see that coming. I made a few correct guesses, but the big picture? Nope. I’d never even dreamed about the…astronomical idea behind Nemesis. The truth (as well as the fates of the characters) raised more questions, though. The grand plan also has a few eyebrow-raising aspects. Why Fire Lake? And why are kids involved? I wouldn’t say the ending was underwhelming, though. The betrayal was particularly shocking. I’m definitely reading the next books to find out what happens next.

My rating: ★★★★★

5 stars - Absolutely must-read. It's outstanding!!!

BOOK REVIEW: EMPIRE RISING BY CHEYANNE YOUNG

Title: Empire Rising

Author: Cheyanne Young

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: January 1, 2016 (first edition); February 8, 2022 by Quinova Press (latest edition)

Eighteen years ago, Maci Knight’s family was destroyed when Aurora Falcon killed her mother. Now Aurora’s partner, Felix, has kidnapped Maci’s brother. For five long months, there’s been no sign of Max. His Codex is offline and she can’t feel even the slightest trace of his power. Maci refuses to give up hope, but when a new threat on King City emerges, Maci is ordered to abandon her search.

Somehow Felix has managed to do the unthinkable: repower all the villains that Central has depowered over the years. Now they’ve banded together to get revenge on the Supers who wronged them. What feels like an arduous mission becomes an opportunity when Maci realizes that if she can stop the villains, she can get them to lead her to Felix—and her brother.

In the action-packed conclusion of the City of Legends trilogy, Maci vows to save her city and bring her family back together—no matter the cost.

Previously published by Amazon Publishing and Alloy Entertainment, LLC

 

Five months have passed in-story since the ending of The Valiant. This final entry in the trilogy sees protagonist Maci Knight handling her most important mission yet. The previous book ended with main antagonist Felix running away with Max (Maci's older brother) in tow. The entire Hero Brigade has been searching for him this whole time. They're starting to give up, though, which disappoints Maci. She feels that the Elders may even think Max dead, considering how long he's been missing. At least Maci has support in the form of her twin sister, Nova. The latter recently gained the trust of the Super community after she helped save a bunch of them from Felix.

Nova starts the book as a newly-minted member of the Hero Brigade. This means she can go on official missions and have her own Codex (a bracelet gadget only Heroes get that's kind of a glorified smartphone). Nova has a supersuit now as well. It's identical to Maci's but with reversed colors: white instead of black. I thought this was fitting, and not only because they’re twins. Black suits Maci because, whether she had the potential to turn villain or not, she still has a short temper and a fierce protective instinct for her loved ones. Nova’s white suit is likely a sign her loyalties have completely shifted to the Hero Brigade, as she was raised by villains.

FAVORITE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS FROM BOOKS, PART 2

Good morning! Today I’m publishing the second part of a post I wrote almost three years ago. In it, I listed some of my favorite characters from the books that I’ve read. I re-uploaded the post recently because the images embedded in it were lost. I didn’t alter any of the text, but it did give me the opportunity to pick better “casting choices” for some of the characters. I’m not a big movie buff, so I don’t know as many actors as some people do, but I still fancy imagining who could play certain characters.

In the three years since I first uploaded that post, I’ve read a lot of books. Inevitably, I’ve met new characters who I ended up liking or admiring. A few are from very popular series that I hadn’t had a chance to read yet. Like with the previous post, this list is in no particular order. Here it goes:

***

BOOK REVIEW: CYTONIC BY BRANDON SANDERSON

Title: Cytonic

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: November 23, 2021 by Delacorte Press

Spensa’s life as a Defiant Defense Force pilot has been far from ordinary. She proved herself one of the best starfighters in the human enclave of Detritus and she saved her people from extermination at the hands of the Krell—the enigmatic alien species that has been holding them captive for decades. What’s more, she traveled light-years from home as an undercover spy to infiltrate the Superiority, where she learned of the galaxy beyond her small, desolate planet home.
 
Now, the Superiority—the governing galactic alliance bent on dominating all human life—has started a galaxy-wide war. And Spensa’s seen the weapons they plan to use to end it: the Delvers. Ancient, mysterious alien forces that can wipe out entire planetary systems in an instant. Spensa knows that no matter how many pilots the DDF has, there is no defeating this predator.
 
Except that Spensa is Cytonic. She faced down a Delver and saw something eerily familiar about it. And maybe, if she’s able to figure out what she is, she could be more than just another pilot in this unfolding war. She could save the galaxy.
 
The only way she can discover what she really is, though, is to leave behind all she knows and enter the Nowhere. A place from which few ever return.
 
To have courage means facing fear. And this mission is terrifying.

 

After a long year of anticipation, I was finally able to read Cytonic. This is the third book of Spensa Nightshade's story. For a little recap: in the previous entry, Spensa learned that the war her people have fought for decades is way bigger in scale than they thought. It turned out that a galactic coalition called the Superiority was the true enemy. They'd been keeping Spensa and her people imprisoned on their planet, called Detritus. At the end of Starsight, the Superiority tried to destroy the planet by harnessing delvers, which are entities from a dimension called the nowhere. Just one delver is so powerful that Spensa barely managed to send it away. She's cytonic, which means she has nowhere-derived dimensional powers.

Due to a surprising betrayal, Spensa was forced to escape from the Superiority. She had no choice but to flee through a nowhere portal. The Superiority takes to using these to banish their enemies, so you'd think it would be bad to go into one. Spensa took her trusty AI, M-Bot, with herself. M-Bot used to run on a top-of-the-line starfighter, but after the Superiority disassembled it, the AI uploaded itself to a small cleaning drone. Together, Spensa and M-Bot emerge into a way more normal-looking place than I expected. It's not long before you realize that the nowhere is anything but normal. And Spensa can't just warp away with her cytonic powers, so she's stuck for the meanwhile.

BOOK REVIEW: THE VALIANT BY CHEYANNE YOUNG

Title: The Valiant

Author: Cheyanne Young

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: August 1, 2014 (first edition); February 8, 2022 by Quinnova Press (latest edition)

After the most vicious villain attack in centuries, Maci Knight is struggling to put the shattered pieces of her life back together. She survived, but barely, and her family will never be the same. The only good thing to come out of the attack is that the Elders have granted her probationary Hero status. Now she’s desperate to prove that she has what it takes to shine in the field.

Maci gets her first chance when she’s called in to stop an illegal fighting ring where humans are battling to the death. But when she goes toe-to-toe with the fighters, she’s shocked to discover that even she can’t contain them. The humans are strong—supernaturally so. Maci knows that this is the work of the villain underground and is determined to put an end to it. But how do you fight an enemy who won’t show their face?

In the second installment of the City of Legends trilogy, Maci Knight will find out what she’s truly made of.

 

Even though I really liked City of Legends when I first read it in 2015, I didn’t continue with the series. I’m not sure why, but one element I was a bit “meh” about was the mechanics of the characters’ superpowers. In this series, the main characters are Supers. But instead of having different powers, they all have the same: super strength, speed, healing, and enhanced senses. All that sets them apart is that not all Supers have the same power levels. What gives them these abilities is an extra set of silver “power veins”. The power that flows through them seems to be metallic, because Supers are vulnerable to certain kinds of magnetic attacks and weapons.

The main protagonist of this story is Maci Knight, an 18-year-old Super. She’s also the daughter of the Super community’s President. Maci recently became a probationary member of the Hero Brigade, something she’s desired all her life. The Elders granted her this status after she helped defeat a villain. In the process, though, Maci lost the power in her right arm. She tried to save her father from the depowering machine, but almost got sucked in herself. Maci’s twin Nova, whom she believed dead, saved her. President Knight wasn’t so lucky. The depowering process is excruciating, so it’s almost lucky that he’s alive.

BOOK REVIEW: ANCILLARY JUSTICE BY ANN LECKIE

Title: Ancillary Justice
Author: Ann Leckie
Genre: Science Fiction

Published on: October 1, 2013 by Orbit

Ancillary Justice is Ann Leckie's stunning debut -- the only novel to ever win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke awards -- about a ship's AI who becomes trapped in a human body and her quest for revenge. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey.

"There are few who write science fiction like Ann Leckie can. There are few who ever could." -- John Scalzi.

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren -- a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

 

 

Where to start with this one? I started Ancillary Justice with high expectations. I mean, it's won the three most significant awards a sci-fi novel can get. It's gotta be great, no? The main character is Breq Ghaiad, a super-advanced AI occupying a human woman's body. Ancillary Justice is told from her third-person point of view. Breq tells the reader that she used to be a spaceship called the Justice of Toren. Apart from controlling the ship, Breq was also its army of special soldiers, all connected together. It wasn't exactly a hive mind; the Breq AI was just one mind split among a ship and several bodies. The soldiers themselves are known as "ancillaries". They are human, but they're, well, not alive per se. Some people actually refer to them as corpse soldiers. It reminded me of Amy Tintera's Reboots.

Why is Breq a single body now? The novel doesn't reveal that until later. It introduces Breq when she's on an alien planet. It's winter, and while going around, Breq stumbles into a barely-alive soldier she once knew. The soldier's name is Seivarden. Breq collects this person and heals them. It doesn't seem like Seivarden will stick around at first. Then the book reveals how long Seivarden has been missing: a thousand years. Breq herself has been "alive" for way longer than that. It's been twenty years since she was reduced to a single body, though.

BOOK REVIEW: RECURSION BY BLAKE CROUCH

Title: Recursion

Author: Blake Crouch

Genre: Science fiction, thriller

Published on: June 11, 2019 by Ballantine Books

“Gloriously twisting . . . a heady campfire tale of a novel.”—The New York Times Book Review

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • BookRiot

Reality is broken.
 
At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery—and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself.
 
In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth—and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery . . . and the tools for fighting back.
 
Together, Barry and Helena will have to confront their enemy—before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos.

 

Ever read a novel that turned out to be way deeper and more layered than the premise suggested? Recursion is a prime example. It’s a hard sci-fi novel mainly set in present-time New York City (as of 2019). The main characters are Barry Sutton and Helena Smith. Barry is a seasoned NYPD detective. He’s divorced and had a daughter who died in a tragic hit-and-run years ago. Helena is a gifted neuroscientist searching for a way to reverse or stop the effects of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Barry and Helena don’t know each other at first. They even live on opposite corners of the U.S. The story begins with Barry failing to prevent a suicide. A woman jumped from a building after being unable to endure FMS any longer. False Memory Syndrome is a mysterious affliction that’s emerged recently. Sufferers claim to have vivid memories of a life that never happened. Barry is intrigued after his encounter with the woman. He decides to get to the bottom of what FMS is and where it came from.

BOOK REVIEW: CITY OF LEGENDS BY CHEYANNE YOUNG

Title: City of Legends

Author: Cheyanne Young

Genre: Science fiction, Young Adult

Published on: September 7, 2013

Maci Knight has grown up in the shadow of legends. Her father and her brother, Max, are Heroes, worshiped by humans and Supers alike for their strength and valor. All she’s ever wanted is to follow in their footsteps, to fight villains and protect humankind. But Maci has a secret—one that could change everything.

Maci had a twin sister who died the same day they were born. In their world, one twin is always good, while the other always eventually turns evil. There’s no way to tell which twin will go rogue . . . which means no one knows if Maci will suddenly become a villain.

The closer she gets to her eighteenth birthday, the more she has feelings she can’t control: Violence. Rage. Revenge. Maci wants to be a Hero. But she may not have a choice . . .

The first in a trilogy, City of Legends introduces a new superhero mythology and an unstoppable heroine.

Previously published by Amazon Publishing and Alloy Entertainment, LLC

 

This is a book I came across when searching for superhero-genre novels. In particular, I wanted to read something that wasn’t Marvel or DC. City of Legends sounded right up my alley. The main character is Maci Knight, a Super. In this world, Supers evolved from humans not long after the dawn of mankind. The reason given is that they were exposed to a special fictional element found in caves. This gave Supers an extra set of silver power veins that grant them strength, speed, enhanced senses, and an increased healing factor. In the present time, most Supers live in King City, a secured city in Utah.

Max grew up in King City with her older brother, Max. Their father is the President of the Super community. His name is not mentioned in the book, though. Max and the President are both in the Hero Brigade. This inspired Maci to follow the same path. She’s been training to become a Hero ever since she was a kid. Now that Maci is about to turn eighteen, she’s going to take a test that will decide whether she gets into the Brigade. Fate may have other plans for Maci, though. She discovers a family secret that rocks her world. It causes Maci’s already short temper to be more on edge.

MY TOP 10 READS OF 2022

 

Good morning! It's once again time to share the books I enjoyed reading the most this year. And in 2022, there were a lot of books to pick from. So far I've read over 70 books, which I track with The StoryGraph. That's pretty much the same as the number of books I finished in 2021. I ended up selecting just 10 books as always, which makes for tough decisions.

This is also the second year in which I've exclusively used The StoryGraph instead of Goodreads. I moved over because the latter remained static the entire decade I used it. It was also quite bloated and didn't have a handful of features I consider must-haves. Rating books in fractions of a star is the biggest advantage The StoryGraph has, in my opinion. I can also see reading statistics, which tells me I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi this year. Anyway, here are the books I ended up selecting:

***

BOOK REVIEW: THE THIRTEENTH WORLD BY A.N. WILLIS

Title: The Thirteenth World
Author: A.N. Willis
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: September 29, 2015 by Alloy Entertainment

Time is running out for Stel Alaster. The Corridor, the only portal between First and Second Earth, is failing and the barriers between all twelve worlds are thinning. Using her unique ability to travel through the multiverse, Stel sets out to save the Corridor . . . and ends up discovering a mysterious new world.

In the sequel to The Corridor, will the thirteenth world hold the key to the Corridor’s secrets? Or will the portal implode and take every last universe down with it?

 

 

After the last book ended in such a cliffhanger, I eagerly got a copy of The Thirteenth World. The protagonist is Estele “Stel” Alaster, an eighteen-year-old girl who can travel between parallel realities. Stel’s home, First Earth, hosts an inter-dimensional portal called the Corridor. It connects to Second Earth, a world that was ravaged when the Corridor opened. Dr. Samantha Tabor, Chair of the Corridor Facility on First Earth, has been after Stel since learning about her power. She thinks that Stel can fix the increasingly unstable Corridor. It threatens to unleash a new Pulse that could be worse than the one that hit Second Earth.

A stunning betrayal landed Stel in Dr. Tabor’s clutches. The former is now being held in the Facility. Dr. Tabor has been questioning Stel for weeks, and has gone as far as torturing her. Fortunately, an ally within the Facility helps Stel out. This person is Justin, Stel’s older brother. He is a recent deserter from the Corridor Guard. Justin is a very upstanding, by-the-book kind of person. That doesn’t keep him from protecting his loved ones, though. Together, Justin and Stel flee throughout the multiverse to join back up with their friends. The Corridor established that there are twelve Earths linked together somehow. Stel sent her group to one of them, Libra Earth, before Dr. Tabor captured her.

BOOK REVIEW: THE CORRIDOR BY A.N. WILLIS

Title: The Corridor
Author: A.N. Willis
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: June 23, 2015 by Alloy Entertainment

Infinite worlds. Endless possibilities . . .

Stel Alaster has never known life without the Corridor. It appeared suddenly seventeen years ago, the only portal to a parallel version of our world—Second Earth. Everyone on First Earth fears Mods, the genetically modified Second Earthers who built the Corridor. They are too smart, too strong, and have powers that can’t be controlled. Any Mod found on First Earth is branded, then detained in the Corridor’s research labs.

Only Stel has a dangerous secret. She has a power, too: She can open a portal to Second Earth . . . and several other parallel universes she’s discovered. If anyone ever finds out, she’ll be imprisoned, no better than a Mod or common lab rat.

But when the Corridor starts to fail, emitting erratic bursts of energy that could destroy First Earth, Stel must risk everything to save the people and world she loves. With the help of an escaped Mod and an infuriatingly arrogant boy from a third universe, Stel sets out to unravel the mysteries of the Corridor and stabilize it before it’s too late. The fate of every world lies in the balance. . . .

I've never actively searched for parallel universe sci-fi novels, but I've read a bunch of them. The Corridor is one of those. I found this book while browsing the Kindle store. The synopsis sounded compelling, and I liked the cover art. The Corridor's main character is Estele "Stel" Alaster. She's a girl in her late teens who lives in a world very like ours. The difference is that its people know that parallel realities exist. Almost two decades ago, a sphere portal they called the Corridor opened without warning. It leads to Second Earth, a place that used to be far more technologically advanced than Stel's home. The Corridor ravaged Second Earth, though, so the people of First Earth have been helping them since the opening of the portal.

When the story begins, Stel is doing schoolwork in the observation area near the Corridor. As her father is Chair of the Corridor Facility, they both live in the compound. The portal suddenly acts up, and in the aftermath Stel ends up with a special power. She can open up her own temporary portal, which lets her visit other worlds. Yes, it doesn't take Stel long to discover that there are more parallel worlds besides Second Earth. Unfortunately, the Corridor's flare up had other consequences. Beyond damaging the Facility's structure, it caused Dr. Alaster to lose his post. Stel has a best friend named Lissa, whose scientist mother became the new Chair. This drove a wedge between the two friends.