Bookquarium

I'm not a super hardcore Star Wars fan. I was, once. I saw Phantom Menace 11 times in theaters, and had a huge crush on the kid who played young Anakin. (I was small, okay? I made poor life choices.) Now, though, I am getting a little burned out by the constant onslaught of Star Wars and it's practical monopoly on media. (Or should I say Disney?) But! I still am trying to hang in there and enjoy the media as much as I can, and for me, lately, that means books. Did you know there were Star Wars books? Like, a shit ton of them? When Disney took control of the Star Wars franchise, they book all the old Star Wars novels (of which there were just buttloads, not all good) and categorized them as "Star Wars: Legends". Then they began releasing new ones to tie in to the new movie trilogy we're coming to the end of. It is those new books I am currently trying to read. No shade to the old ones! They're fun! I've read some! But the new ones have something the...

When Andy Weir's first novel, The Martian,  came out, I devoured it like a heaping piece of cake. Weir has an excellent sense of voice, good pacing and drama, but most importantly, he gets the SCIENCE behind science fiction without it getting too bogged down or boring. My brain is not made to understand complex science things. I wish it were. I find science fascinating! But man, it's hard for me to understand. Weir makes it easy for me to understand the science in his books. But we aren't here to talk about The Martian . (Although if you haven't read it, go read it right now. It's great.) We are here to talk about his second novel, Artemis. The Recap:   Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a port...

This book gives us some heroines that Ripley would be proud of! Alien: Echo is an original young adult novel set in the Alien film universe which means yes, we absolutely get to see the creepy, drooly, chittering aliens from the movies. The premise:  Twin sisters Olivia and Viola are daughters of two xenobiologists (coolest job title ever.) Their family is stationed on a new colony world. When they discover a new and deadly alien species (hmm, I wonder what it could be?) they are forced on the run in hostile terrain in a fight for their lives. Queer main character alert!! So excite! I loved Olivia, our protagonist. First off, she kicks SOOOO much ass, but in a smart way. Not a "blustering around, shooting anything that moves" type. She was smart. She had the knowledge. She used it and common sense to survive. Viola, her twin sister, is sassy and real and a nice opposite to her sister. One of the side characters I legitly wanted to punch in the face, which is probably...

Do you know how many times I've spelled "Crichton" wrong when trying to help library patrons find his books? Turns out it's a big deal if you put the H before the R, as far as finding his books on the shelves goes. Today, I'll be talking at you about one of the great pieces of thriller/science fiction literature, The Andromeda Strain.  And how, uh... I thought it was maybe a little bit boring?? I really enjoy Crichton's work. He's fast paced, he has a tendency to write tropes I really like (including this one - killer alien plague that threatens to wipe out all of humanity? I'll take two.) He's very edge of your seat, and seems to get the science at least in the ballpark. (I say seems because I don't know a photon from a hole in the ground, and wouldn't know to start fact checking if I wanted to.) To that end, I will say that I found the initial people dying horribly bits super interesting. The whole premise was interesting! It was  v...