Doomsday Prepping and Post Apocalypse – New Earth ARC by Devon C. Ford

Kate says... Humongous asteroid will impact Earth in 12 years. Suppose you were rich enough to hide that fact, at least for a while, and plan the human race's survival. And your plan worked... mostly. This is the premise of New Earth ARC, which is Part One of the series. The book does answer the …

Sim City in Space – We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor

Kate says... This series is wildly popular, and I've run across it more than once. Finally, I had to read Book 1, even if the title does sound silly to me. But, as I discovered, it fits perfectly. Bob's head is cryo-preserved after his death, and he wakes up far in the future to discover …

Physics of Black Holes in a Complex Story – Infernum by Jayson Adams

Kate says... When a discovery sends a military spaceship on a suicide mission, grudges and personal demons are awakened, and an old enemy reappears. Friends become foes and enemies become allies. This is a great story, with well developed characters and loads of scifi: spaceships, black holes, exoplanets, and androids. You'll also find a few …

Fun Read, Sweet and Clean, on a World of Robots – Crazy Foolish Robots by Adeena Mignogna

Kate says... Here's a light story you could share with kids. Amazingly advanced robots with weird gaps and glitches in their technology. A disgruntled human teenage pilot can help them, and then maybe they'll allow her to go home. I found myself easily drawn into Ruby Palmer's dilemma. Thanks to a dreadful experience in her …

Time for a Space Adventure – Entanglement by Gerald M. Kilby

Kate says... Everything you expect from a space story is here. But this book is special. These battles, whether ships in space or hand-to-hand, feel real, with a bit of speculative quantum physics. On a long, lonely mission surveying the asteroid belt, Commander Scott McNabb and his crew find an enigmatic quantum device. The salvage …

Super-soldiers in the Amazon, Alien Probe, and More Than You Expect in Seeker by Douglas E. Richards

Kate says... This story has it all. Alien probe - check. Enhanced super-soldiers - check. Deadly battles in the depths of the Amazon jungle - check. But after a peek at the alien probe in the opening, there's a short lesson in compound interest. Yes, this story is more than you expect. Kagan is part …

Not “If This Can Happen” But “When Will This Happen?” Suspense Builds in The Enceladus Mission by Brandon Q. Morris

Kate says... If you like the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, this is the book for you. The mission - to search for life beneath the thick ice of a deadly moon - is breathtaking, but the story begins with training and equipment tests on Earth, and then a long claustrophobic journey as six astronauts …

Alien World Challenges Expectations, and that butterfly will keep you guessing – Suppose We by Geoff Nelder

Kate says... Will humans travel to strange, yet habitable planets? Will aliens they encounter fit the mold of humans with funny-looking foreheads that's popular in so much scifi? Yes! to the first question. No! to the second. Here's a story to prove it, a long novella. Four astronauts scouting a planet for possible colonization encounter …

AI Out For Justice – Story That Could Join the Scifi Classics – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Kate says... I never expected this: an intense story told by an Artificial Intelligence that was once an interstellar warship, that lived for thousands of years, and could occupy dozens of human bodies simultaneously with her ship. She encounters political machinations as complex as those found in the classic Dune. Violence comes in short, sudden …

Teens Move from Dying Bodies into Fantastic Robots in a story that’s cool plus more – The Six by Mark Alpert

Kate says... Imagine you're a dying teenager, living life from your wheelchair through virtual reality games where you're always the hero. What if your mind could be transferred into a mighty, weaponized robot? And your consciousness could then jump from the robot to a tank or plane? Would you join a team with five other …