Twelve Tomorrows ★★★★★

Fields of Gold by Liu Cixin ★★★★★★

"Are the stars very far?"
"They’re getting closer." 
Six stars.  Jaw droppingly good.  I gasped!  

Alien Covenant Origins by Alan Dean Foster ★★★☆☆

The Covenant is getting ready to launch and fulfill mankind’s promise of colonizing the stars.  Who wouldn’t want that?  

Engineering Infinity

Laika’s Ghost by Karl Schroeder ★★★★½ 

When an American finds evidence of a Russian pyramid on Mars he is hunted down by Google and other geopolitical entities.  Declining American witness protection he flees to Russia.  This proves to be a great decision because a small group of online patriots have been creating a new hope for Russia, and possibly the world.

Across the Void by S.K. Vaughn ★☆☆☆☆

Oh this was bad.

The way it was marketed I expected Interstellar, with a dash of 2010, and enough romance to bring me to tears. It was none of those things.

Galactic Empires

Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson ★★★★★★ 
Yes, six stars.  With shades of Ender’s Game and Gemini Man this was the best science fiction short I’ve ever read.  A full story and good glimpse into an imperial world on knife’s edge. Riveted!

Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon's Children #1) by Alastair Reynolds ★★★★★

Un-for-gett-able. 

A new millennium foundation work of solarpunk and afrofuturism.  It’s hard to believe this has not been snapped up and made into a series.  Fools! 

Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future

Girl In Wave: Wave In Girl by Kathleen Ann Goonan ★★★★★ “Unlike earlier children, we have a new power. With the invisible power of literacy we can put ourselves in the place of others... We are far too addicted to the joy of learning and life to have time to contemplate the destruction of others.” 

Brilliant! Through individualized teaching methods, and minor nanobiotechnical assistance, all children are able to read and learn with an ease previously known to few. 

By empowering children, giving them the space and freedom to learn, they build, and pass on, a better world. 

It reminded me of Vegan Stories. Children have good moral instincts about what’s wrong but we acculturate them to accept degrees of violence: adulteration.

The excellent notes section after the story pointed out that, “In 1963, Finland made a decision to make education its number one economic priority, and the highly effective educational system that emerged is the result.” 

So now I have to read Finnish Lessons 2.0 and contemplate moving there. 

Dark Sky (Keiko #2) by Mike Brooks ★★☆☆☆

Drift shrugged. “I’ve made a career out of never quite being killed by everything around me going wrong.” 
Plenty went wrong. 

Dark Run (Keiko #1) by Mike Brooks ★★★☆☆

"Buckle up, everyone. Jia’s taking us down ahead of schedule, and incidentally has lost her fucking mind."

"I heard that."

"You were meant to." 

Treasure of the Abyss (The Kraken #1) by Tiffany Roberts ★★★★☆

Reread - This is exactly what the day needed, some kraken fun.

Merfolk May is Kraken Awesome!

Hold (Hold #1) by Claire Kent ★★★★☆

Exactly as advertised! Hot intergalactic hetero prison sex smut with an HEA; on the food pyramid this would be a doughnut.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman ★★★☆☆

"I didn’t know how realistic a picture they had of their future. Their lack of a future, that is." 

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell ★★★★★

“I was naked before God and I was raped." 

I'm trying to remember a book that traumatized me this much and failing.

Binti (Binti #1) by Nnedi Okorafor ★★★★☆

An Afrofuture tale of personal first contact, war, heritage, and understanding.

Far Orbit: Speculative Space Adventures

From A Stone by Eric Choi ★★★★★ 
“It is information. An… an artifact of the mind.” 

Hard SciFi! What an unexpected treat! 
Government scientists on a routine asteroid sampling mission discover signs of life. But is it intelligent life? 
A hot debate, a cool conclusion.

American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett ★★★★☆

Are you tired of aliens that look like Bob-your-neighbor with pointy ears or some other negligible difference? 

Are you tired of predictable plots you see a mile away? 

Have no fear, this is not one of those! These are ALIENS. 

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson ★★★★★

“If our government tries to back the banks instead of us, then we elect a different government. We pretend that democracy is real, and that will make it real.” 

Substantially better upon reread! I loved it, I had fun, it did not even feel long! 

Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs #1) by Richard K. Morgan ★☆☆☆☆

"If you want justice you will have to claw it from them." 

Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga #2) by Peter F. Hamilton ★★★★★

“The fact that it was he who in the end had underestimated the Starflyer gave his situation its wretched poignancy.” 

Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga #1) by Peter F. Hamilton ★★★★★

Welcome to the future.

Old age, true death, and lack of space are things of the past. Wormholes have given us new worlds, peace, and prosperity.

Through a grand cast of characters, side stories and back stories, Peter Hamilton makes you a resident of the Commonwealth. Nine hundred pages of investment before the nuke hits the mountain and your gut clenches. 

I downloaded the kindle and audiobook to Judas Unchained before writing this review.