Get me a cute praying mantis robot who can also kick ass STAT | Dead Space by Kali Wallace

I finally moved! Feat. my new couch and blanket, which was handknitted by yours truly.

Amazon

Hester Marley used to have a plan for her life. But when a catastrophic attack left her injured, indebted, and stranded far from home, she was forced to take a dead-end security job with a powerful mining company in the asteroid belt. Now she spends her days investigating petty crimes to help her employer maximize its profits. She’s surprised to hear from an old friend and fellow victim of the terrorist attack that ruined her life—and that surprise quickly turns to suspicion when he claims to have discovered something shocking about their shared history and the tragedy that neither of them can leave behind.

Before Hester can learn more, her friend is violently murdered at a remote asteroid mine. Hester joins the investigation to find the truth, both about her friend’s death and the information he believed he had uncovered. But catching a killer is only the beginning of Hester’s worries, and she soon realizes that everything she learns about her friend, his fellow miners, and the outpost they call home brings her closer to revealing secrets that very powerful and very dangerous people would rather keep hidden in the depths of space. – Goodreads

TL;DR: A solid and accessible foray into hard science fiction with a likeable main character and innovative technological concepts.

Continue reading “Get me a cute praying mantis robot who can also kick ass STAT | Dead Space by Kali Wallace”

I do not like big bugs (and other weird things found at the bottom of the ocean), and I cannot lie. | The Deep by Nick Cutter

Yes, another stock photo because I’m still moving! Soon, though…

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A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget—small things at first, like where they left their keys…then the not-so-small things like how to drive, or the letters of the alphabet. Then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily…and there is no cure. But now, far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, deep in the Marianas Trench, an heretofore unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia” has been discovered—a universal healer, from initial reports. It may just be the key to a universal cure. In order to study this phenomenon, a special research lab, the Trieste, has been built eight miles under the sea’s surface. But now the station is incommunicado, and it’s up to a brave few to descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths…and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine. – Goodreads

TL;DR: I took The Deep as one gigantic and intense extended metaphor with a good dose of creepy crawlies, heebie-jeebies, and our ole friend, trauma. **If you are in any way squeamish, do not read this book.**

Continue reading “I do not like big bugs (and other weird things found at the bottom of the ocean), and I cannot lie. | The Deep by Nick Cutter”

Get me a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka’s Factory because this series was depressing af | Warmer by Amazon Original Stories

Fear and hope collide in this collection of possible tomorrows. What happens when boiling heat stokes family resentments; when a girl’s personal crisis trumps global catastrophe; or when two climate scientists decide to party like it’s the end of the world? Like the best sci-fi, these cli-fi stories offer up answers that are darkly funny, liberating, and all too conceivable. – Amazon

Content warnings:
crass language, sexual connotations, death (both human and animal), violence (domestic and otherwise), suicide, spiraling mental health, racism, classism, climate crisis

TL;DR: These 7 short stories center around the devastating effects of the climate crisis, and while each one ultimately convinces us that humans are Earth’s Mightiest Villains, the stories, overall, leave us mentally exhausted and more confused than we should be.

Continue reading “Get me a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka’s Factory because this series was depressing af | Warmer by Amazon Original Stories”