Station Eternity

Written by: Mur Lafferty

First line: Nobody ever believed murders "just happened" around Mallory Viridian.

Why you should read this book: This fun near-future science fiction murder mystery takes place primarily on the sentient space station where Mallory has fled to escape the constellation of murders that seem to happen all around her on Earth, where nobody believes they're not her fault even though she always finds the real killer. Surely the curse cannot follow her across the cosmos if she's only one of three humans on board, but her peace of mind is shattered when she learns that more earthlings are on their way. Suddenly, she's surrounded by death and mayhem again, and needs to use all her resources to unravel a series of mysteries and save the lives of every life on the station, including the station itself.

Why you shouldn't read this book: There are a couple main characters and many supporting characters, and the narrative perspective shifts frequently, often giving entire chapters to the point of view of a minor character for an entire chapter, which, to me, can be jarring. 

Unexpected Stories

Written by: Octavia Butler

First line: The Robkohn Hao, Tahneh, was sharing her evening meal with her chief judge and discussing the current drought when she first learned of the foreigners who had entered her territory.

Why you should read this book: Two previously unpublished stories written early in the career of the master science fiction author were discovered after her death and come together in this book, highlighting many of the themes for which she went on to become famous. In "A Necessary Being," a hierarchical alien society requires the most powerful among them to serve for the good of all, even against their will. "Childfinder" was originally sold to Harlan Ellison's final, unpublished Dangerous Visions anthology and discusses issues of race and class through the device of a society where psionic powers are controlled by a powerful cabal. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you're unfamiliar with Butler's work, you might want to start with some of her popular novels. 

The Gryphon Stone

Written by: Thomas Watson

First line: I was eleven years old when the last hope the authorities had for plausible deniability died.

Why you should read this book: David's already led a full life of adventure working for the United Nations Multiverse Survey with his non-human friend Trey, and has settled down into a comfortable early retirement to nurse his own regrets, but now Trey is back with bad news: their greatest enemy has taken over the world where David created his greatest regrets. Trey and David must return to Adrathea to hunt down Trey's evil cousin, Edren, who, disguised as a human, has deposed the rightful ruler, taken the throne, and destroyed the relationship between the people of Adrathea and their greatest allies, the Gryphons. With their technologically advanced swords, a beautiful but deadly traveling companion, and the goodwill left over from their previous good deeds, David and Trey need to uncover a hidden artifact, locate a missing prince, and gather an army of allies powerful enough to defeat invaders from another world before Edren destroys Adrathea forever. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The plot is perhaps a bit driven by lucky coincidences. 

Trees Volume 1

Written by: Warren Ellis and Jason Howard

First line: We can see them from up high.

Why you should read this book: It's been ten years since the strange, silent alien entities known as "trees" rooted themselves around the globe, never acknowledging the human populace of Earth, but impacting every aspect of life for those who live in their shadows. This volume focuses on a number of characters: a young Chinese art student, far from home and falling in love with a trans woman he just met; a group of researchers stationed at a remote outpost in frigid northern Norway; politicians in Somalia and New York; a professor and the girlfriend of a gangster-fascist in Italy. For ten years, the trees have stood silently, but now, something is changing, and the trees, it seems are about to speak.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Well, I wish I had acquired the subsequent seven volumes before I started.

The True Meaning of Smekday

Written by: Adam Rex

First line: It was Moving Day.

Why you should read this book: Earth has been invaded and defeated by a race of tacky aliens with vastly superior technology who have benevolently chosen to colonize the planet and relocate its inhabitants to convenient reservations. Gratuity Tucci (her friends call her Tip), whose mother has already been kidnapped by the Boov, decides she's going to drive herself to Florida to reunite with humanity, even though she's a child who can only reach the pedals by nailing cans to her shoes. Along with her cat, Pig, and an outcast Boov who goes by the Earth moniker "J. Lo." she sets out on an epic journey in a hybrid vehicle (half Earth car, half floating Boov scooter) to find her mom, and possibly save her species in the process. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's one of the rare novels that's been adapted into a movie—Home— that's just as good as the book (although it's perhaps a bit surprising that Disney picked it up, considering the references to "Happy Mouse Kingdom" that abound in this story).

The Cosmic Rape

Written by: Theodore Sturgeon

First line: "I'll bus' your face, Al," said Gurlick.

Why you should read this book: Oh, god, it's brutal and necessary, uglier and more violent than I expect from science fiction of this era, laying bare the flaws of mankind while suggesting that what separates us and causes us pain is simply...ourselves. A hive-minded conqueror arrives from space, inhabits a most unlikely vessel, and sets to work attempting to unify humanity for the sole purpose of assimilating it. Not gonna lie—there is some hard to read stuff in here—but the payoff is so beautiful and uplifting that the reader can forgive the author for holding a mirror up to the worse we have to offer.

Why you shouldn't read this book: People kind of suck; we could be much better than we are, and this book kind of rubs it in your face. 



[Note: apparently this book is rare and difficult to acquire? And it's just been sitting on my shelf for 30 years!]

The Dreaming Jewels

Written by: Theodore Sturgeon

First line: They caught the kid doing something disgusting out under the bleachers at the high-school stadium, and he was sent home from the grammar school across the street.

Why you should read this book: It's pure old school science fiction, which posits an alien sort of life form living side by side with earthlings, interacting in surprising and unexpected ways with the inhabitants of our planet. In this story, we perceive them through their relationship with Horty Bluett, an unfortunate abused child who runs away from his extra-villainous adopted father and ends up being taken in by some loving circus freaks. Zena, a little person with undetectable but extraordinary abilities, knows more than she can say about Horty's enemies, and raises him to take revenge on his abuser, but Zena doesn't know everything, yet.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The villains are perhaps a bit one-dimensional; they're just so villainous.

Rosewater

Written by: Tade Thompson

First line: I'm at the Integrity Bank job for forty minutes before the anxiety kicks in.

Why you should read this book: If you enjoy complexity in your science fiction plots and attention to detail in speculative world-building, you'll find lots to love in this Afro-futurism novel (first in a trilogy) about an angry psychic whose world is shaped by an alien entity known as "Wormwood," which has been skulking about the earth's crust since 2012. In 2066, Kaaro lives in Rosewater, a ring-shaped town in Nigeria that has sprung up around the alien "biodome," which opens once a year and heals human maladies, with varying results. But something is killing men and women like Kaaro, and now that he finally has something to live for (love), he needs to figure out what kind of danger he might be in before it destroys him.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I thought I wouldn't be able to get into it because the main character is such a curmudgeon, but he grows.

The Martian

Written by: Andy Weir

First line: I'm pretty much fucked.

Why you should read this book: The ultimate survival story combines a man-versus-nature trope with a hostile alien environment and just about as much science as a liberal arts major can handle as nerdy, foul-mouthed, resourceful Mark Watney survives 549 solitary sols (Martian days) on an unforgiving planet with nothing but a thumb drive of terrible sitcoms for company. Problem-solving at every turn, finding humor in the bleakest moments, nearly dying over and over, typically triumphing against the odds, and recording it all for posterity while the rest of humanity bites its nails and does what it can to help, Watney demonstrates that if anyone is going to get stranded on the red planet, it better be a botanist-engineer who's well-liked by his colleagues. As a bonus, the most ridiculous moment of the movie doesn't actually happen in this book, where it's no more than one of a thousand wisecracks Watney makes to combat the knowledge that almost everything he does could result in instantaneous death approximately one hundred and forty million miles from home.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Can't handle any science explanations whatsoever.

Intro to Alien Invasion

Written by: Owen King, Mark Jude Poirier, and Nancy Ahn

First line: What is that you have.

Why you should read this book: A deeply tongue in cheek graphic novel that really puts the comic in comic book, this is the story of a socially awkward college student and the spring break of terror that results when her gross, inappropriate astrobiology professor illegally smuggles alien-infested soil samples from Russia back to America, resulting in a bunch of kids getting impregnated by extra-terrestrials. Stranded on campus during a hurricane, Stacey and her rapidly dwindling peer group must avoid being infected by tiny blue ladybugs who turn humans into enormous jelly-filled bags before erupting from their bodies to eat and infect more students. It's both silly in its depiction of B-movie horror tropes and touching in its depiction of young adult relationships.

Why you shouldn't read this book: People's bodies swell up and then explode, coating survivors in itchy alien goo, so if that's not your thing, you're going to have a bad time with this book.

Alternate Histories of the World

Written by: Matthew Buchholz

First line: Tracing the evolution of humanity through the early ages has always been a difficult task.

Why you should read this book: In a world where painting monsters into thrift store landscapes has become de rigueur, fake news can change the course of history even when everyone knows it's fake, and anyone can learn Photoshop, this book practically had to happen. The author lays his own fantastic template of robots, aliens, and zombies, with the occasional dinosaur, over the boilerplate of history to create an almost plausible timeline in which Teddy Roosevelt was an early adapter of the jet pack and alliances with river monsters or martians have more than once turned the tide of battle in war. Funnier the more you know about world history as well as the history of speculative fiction, this silly but satisfying book is a delightful distraction from the actual history in which we currently live.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You go ballistic when anyone suggests that humans and dinosaurs ever coexisted.

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet

Written by: Eleanor Cameron

First line: One night after dinner when David was reading Doctor Dolittle in the Moon, and his father was reading the newspaper, and his mother was darning socks, his father suddenly exclaimed: "Well, now, that's very odd."

Why you should read this book: The 1950s were a simpler time, one in which parents could happily grant their pre-adolescent sons to fly to other planets in homemade rockets on missions for local eccentrics; at least, that's what happens in this magical, charming, and wish-fulfilling tale for adventurous boys who weren't quite ready for Ray Bradbury. David and Chuck, the only two boys who see the strange notice in the newspaper, happily build their own rocket ship with scrap metal and then blast off on a mission to save a race of simple fungoid folks on an invisible planet that orbits the earth inside the moon's orbit. Despite their lack of characterization, education, or ability to prize any of their benefactor's admonishments above their own hunger, they enjoy a successful adventure in which no one dies in the vacuum of space.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You like your science fiction a little harder than a boiled egg.

Smile If You're Human

Written by: Neal Layton

First line: Here we are landing at a place I've wanted to visit my whole life.

Why you should read this book: A little alien, armed with a camera and a grin, lands on earth, determined to photograph its favorite earth creature: the elusive human. Apparent to the reader, but not the narrator, is the fact that the aliens have landed at a zoo, one that is mysterious free of human contamination. However, the alien delights in meeting the natives and goes home satisfied.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't smile.

Nod Away

Written by: Joshua W. Cotter

First line: (It's not exactly clear what the first line of this book is.)

Why you should read this book: Fans of the author have been waiting a long time for this first volume in a planned seven-book series. Dr. Melody McCabe has been reassigned to work on the space station Integrity, where she'll continue studying the hub, a clairvoyant child whose mind has been exploited to connect the billions of "innernet" users who employ a neural interface to tap into each other, all the time. Melody is sincere and serious, but nothing going on around her is exactly as it seems, and terrible things are about to happen in minute and astonishing graphic detail.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's big and full of confusing moments that probably won't be resolved for thousands of pages.

Groot

Written by: Jeff Loveness and Brian Kesinger

First line: This is your fault.

Why you should read this book: Did you like anything about Guardians of the Galaxy? If so, you might like something about this silly graphic novel, featuring everyone's favorite space-Ent and his not-a-talking-raccoon companion as they do their very best to hitchhike to Earth. Jolly and light-hearted and amusing.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You demand some gravity in your graphic storytelling.

Black Canary Volume 1: Kicking and Screaming

Written by: Brenden Fletcher, Annie Wu, Pia Guerra, Sandy Jarrell

First line: We got 'em! We got 'em!!

Why you should read this book: It's a different kind of superhero story, featuring a talented fighter with a decent superpower trying to leave the lifestyle behind to pursue a career in music, even though she's not really into music and she can't stop fighting. There are some nice, crazy details and some special appearances from surprise characters. Also, aliens, which always liven things up.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're all about the music.

 

X-Men Longshot

Written by: Ann Nocenti

First line: These troops want me bad!

Why you should read this book: Although I found both the plot and the artwork somewhat convoluted and difficult to follow, the tale of this ridiculously lucky transdimensional alien/slave/rebel leader/amnesiac/pretty boy remained strangely compelling. Basically, imagine that David Bowie is a comic book superhero in the ‘80s, with monstrous bounty hunters chasing him through an increasingly psychedelic landscape. There’s a girl who’s pretty cool, and a bad guy who’s pretty revolting, and some inexplicable magic, and a knotted back story that gets slowly unraveled, plus some cameos by more popular Marvel characters.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Really, it doesn't make all that much sense. 

Earthborn

Written by: Sylvia Waugh

First line: The Gwynns had lived just outside the city of York for the past fourteen years.

Why you should read this book: A great little unexpected novel, it follows twelve-year-old Nesta Gwynn, who, completely unbeknownst to her, is not an Earthling, but actually the surprise daughter of a pair of disguised alien anthropologists on a twenty-year contract to observe Earth culture. Unfortunately, an accident involving another alien of her species means that Nesta's parents have been recalled, and they choose to reveal her origins to her some years ahead of schedule, explaining that they will be returning to their home world that very week. Nesta knows nothing of her home world, and feeling very much like a creature of her adopted planet, refuses to leave, doing everything in her power to stay on Earth, testing her parents' love for her in the process.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're moving.

Orbiter

Written by: Warren Ellis

First line: My first memory is of being held up in front of a tiny black-and-white TV set by my mother and being told, "Remember this."

Why you should read this book: In a seemingly catastrophic but eventually beautiful vision, Colleen Doran illustrates Ellis's tale of a future in which the manned space program has been scrapped in the wake of the incredible disappearance of an entire space shuttle, which reappears under equally mysterious circumstances a decade later, covered in a biological matrix and piloted by an insane astronaut. To determine where the Venture been, how it got there, how it got back, and what happened to the ship and its crew in the interim, the government assembles a team of passionate individuals, all of whom have had their dreams ripped away from them with the dismantling of the space program. If they can crack the ship's secrets and break through the mental blocks of the apparently catatonic pilot, they may be poised to usher the human race into the new age of space exploration.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You prefer not to look up at the night sky.