RJ Barker’s world in The Bone Ships is a rich, vibrant tapestry. The reader is immersed from the start, drowned in the sheer audacity of the writing. Each sentence had a lot of love poured into it, and it comes across clear as a clarion. The prose is dense with strong slice-of-life elements and creates a sense of “otherness” without crossing over into inaccessible. The use of vernacular is masterful, neither too extreme nor too campy, contributing to the je ne sais quoi that pervades the novel as a whole. The world is strange, disturbing, and filled with dangers the characters must navigate at every step… yet which is entirely normal to them in context. … More The Bone Ships by RJ Barker

Tamsyn Muir’s debut novel reaches out and grabs you in its skeletal fist from the very first page and doesn’t let go. Gideon The Ninth is witty, irreverent, and fresh as hell. It’s fucking delightful. It’s not all glitz, glam, and bones though – this is a book with a big ol’ heart hiding underneath the aviator glasses, laugh-aloud banter, and, of course, the mountain of corpses. This is a tight, polished narrative with twists and turns that were hinted at heavily in retrospect, yet take the reader completely by surprise as they unfold. … More Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

My heart broke for the team of the Merian, even as it was flooded with optimism and hope for humanity. Becky Chambers is a master of delivering sadness and devastation right alongside a true and genuine love for humanity, and that is something that illuminates everything she’s written.  … More To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

I didn’t go in to this book expecting to find happiness. I came in knowing this was a dystopian novel. I knew this would be a soul-crushing and painful depiction of an all-too-possible future. However, somewhere between the first page and the last, I was lulled into a sense of complacency, and I was caught off guard by what a damn punch to the gut this book ultimately ended up being. … More The Warehouse by Rob Hart