Sci-fi to binge - part 1
Intro
Sci-Fi is a genre that is traditionally considered the cousin (if not even the sibling) of fantasy (or viceversa). I have very mixed experiences with sci-fi. Many times I struggle with it, the use of robots and artificial intelligence makes the story too robotic (pun intended) for me. There is no better way for me to describe it other than this; this type of world does not excite me and I need something different to get me going. What I really need something close to political intrigue, war and anything in between. I feel that there is a common thread in these requirements: it is a specific sub-genre of space opera.
What is space opera?
I was very confused about the use of the term; I thought it was mostly connected to the fact that it was an opera or a soap opera. I did not fully understand the term until I got curious enough to open wikipedia and lo and behold, there is a full wikipedia page dedicated to defining what this subgenre of sci-fi is. In essence, these are stories focusing on space warfare and they are set entirely in outer space. A very notable story in this genre is Star Wars.
I guess this is where I get pulled in, the warfare aspect of the events. Now, not all the stories below focus on war; in fact, in a few cases it is all about preventing war. Yet, this gives you the level of stakes that we are talking about in this list!
Series I read
I might have the warmest feelings for Murderbot diaries by Martha Wells. This is a story that follows an android character that learns (or has to learn) to deal with humanity. It is a character driven story (and most of the books are quite short), focusing on Murderbot’s experience with humans. I also felt that this was a wonderful exploration of introverts (the type of person who needs time on their own to recharge, they take their energy from within).
Martha Wells is also a prolific author in both sci-fi and fantasy and her literary skills are sharp and on point when sharing her stories in this world. This is a wonderful adventure; I think most readers could enjoy this story, irrespective of the genre they explore.
The other series that I loved is Texicalaan by Arkady Martine. This is a duology and this story explores new worlds; what impressed me the most was the world building, first and foremost. On a deeper level, I loved the author’s exploration of self identification; Mahit, the main character, needs to deal with being one or multiple (and others, in the series, explore having one consciousness in multiple bodies) and I found this one of the most compelling aspect of this story. It is a mystery story, it is a story that requires investigating and life (and world) threatening events. Just a wonderful story.
In this same category I would put Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell, a comic book series. This is the story centered around a green lantern with limited power (meaning that the ring has only a certain amount of power but there aren’t limits to what the ring can help make) and a new world, new characters, a murder mystery to unravel that threats the well being of an entire sector. Wonderful character development, great world building and fantastic art are the key components of this story told by a master of story telling, N.K. Jemisin!
Last but not least on this series there is The Protectorate by Megan O’Keefe. Admittedly I read only the first book into this trilogy and it swept off my feet. This is a political thriller with a very good twist one stumbles into around 50% of Velocity Weapon. There are two rivals in the star system, Ada Prime and Icarion. We follow the story mostly from the perspective of two siblings, Sanda and Biran. The story telling through siblings is what brought me to reading this series in the first place. And I felt in love with this series.
I will be working on a follow-up on this topic, other space opera series, including The Expanse series and a few other that are on my TBR and I cannot wait to get to them!
