Top Five Saturday: Science Fiction

For those who like their science fiction hard, this book puts the science front and centre in the fiction!

What sort of evolution would occur on a planet orbiting three stars, vacillating between stable and chaotic eras which destroy its civilisations? How would you wage war across the interminable depth of space?

I suspect that much of the novel’s science passed over me, but I did love the historical aspects of the novel – the horrors of the Cultural Revolution.

I love pretty much everything written by Miéville, and he has such a potent imagination.

The Ariekei – two mouthed aliens – are fascinating: unable to lie or to speculate or to express anything other than the world as they perceive it, they are the most truly alien creation I have come across. The Festival of Lies where they compete to try to approximate a lie, is simultaneously hilarious and tragic.

This one, like most books by Sanderson, is just a riotously fun jaunt! Humanity has been trapped on a distant planet names Detritus, facing regular incursions by aliens whom they try to fight off with a motley inchoate army of space fighter pilots.

Throw into the mix a headstrong young girl with a head full of heroic stories, a lexicon drawn from Beowulf, a chip on her shoulder and the spark of magic in her – plus a sentient and slightly unstable advanced space ship she finds and repairs – and the stage is set for a grand adventure.

In the sequel, Starsight, Sanderson bursts open the universe into a vast new scale.

This was a wonderfully warm novel, bringing together a familiar enough trope – the ragtag crew of a space ship travelling the universe – in a loving, inclusive, generous family.

A series of incidents befall our crew as the make the long journey across the universe, and they learn to love, care for and understand each other in new and deeper ways – and like all families suffer their own share of loss and heartbreak as well.

And the good news? There are at least three more chances to join the crew!

Bonkers. Mad. Grisly. Gothic. Violent.

This is the book supported by that quote “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” And, yes, that pretty well sums it up in a painfully reductive way.

The relationship between Gideon and Harrow – serf and mistress, prisoner and jailor, tortured and torturer, friends and equals and lovers – is at the heart of the novel and it is surprisingly tender, moving and joyful!

Alongside that, it is a gripping locked room murder mystery, And Then There Were None with so many more skeletons!

I am looking forward to the sequel!