Tag Archive: sci-fi



From a Distant StarFrom a Distant Star by Karen McQuestion

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a fun ride! I wish I would have noted where I heard about this book. Since it cost $1.99 I would guess someone recommended it to me. Thank you, whoever you are!

This was sci-fi. Not my favorite type which is on other planets or roaming outer space. But it is the next best thing, an alien on this world.

Those who have lost others or have had cancer may find the first part of the book a little triggery as the love interest is dying of cancer. But this holds hope, so stay with it. It gets better.

I was lucky to have a free credit at Audible and could listen to Kate Rudd narrate the story. She is very good at the different character voices. I kind of wish Lucas’s voice was a little more distinct from Scout’s but there wasn’t enough of that voice to worry about. Kate kept the story interesting, I think more interesting than had I read it without Whispersynch.

Get ready because around the middle of the book you won’t want to put it down, it gets more and more exciting. And all threads are neatly tied up at the end. Even so, I miss the characters and wish there were more. Maybe more from the alien planet and what happens next there? And maybe a connection happens between the new friends. Maybe Lucas could develop some sort of ability?

But even as a solo book, it was a lot of fun! I gave up binging on another series (TV) because the book was far more interesting. If you get the chance to read this, you should. I think you’ll like it.

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Catacombs (Tales of the Barque Cats #2)Catacombs by Anne McCaffrey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am so glad I was able to pick this up from my local electronic library, both the Kindle and the audio versions. I’m also glad I was able to purchase and read the first book in this series. It made this book easier to understand to know what happened before. But I think it might’ve been understandable to read it without the first book and still get it. Oh, how I miss Anne McCaffrey!

My favorite parts were the polydactyl cats who are proven to be the earliest space explorers landing in Egypt helping with the engineering of the pyramids, etc. With so many fingers and toes, and trained to use them in the ways humans use their fingers they were able to do far more than humans could.

This is my kind of space travel sci-fi getting to know other planets at the creatures. Getting to know the process of being in outer space for long periods of time. Done the way only Anne McCaffrey could.

If you get the chance please read these two books they may seem silly on the surface but they are deeper than they seem.

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Catalyst (Tales of the Barque Cats, #1)Catalyst by Anne McCaffrey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While perusing my local library system’s site of ebooks and audios I saw the second book in this series by one of my favorite authors, Anne McCaffrey. Well, I hate starting in the middle of a series so I bought the first one and the Audible version to go with it.

If you love cats and space travel adventures, this is the book for you. I thought it was going to be too much fluff, a childish book, a book about kitty cats. I was wrong. This gave a new perspective about cats and space travel.

I just happen to have a polydactyl black cat and I have wondered if, with the right training, all those toes could be used like our hands. Could she be a Barque cat? Could she fly a space ship? My husband and I spend our retired days trying to read our cats’ and new dog’s minds. Sometimes we think we know them pretty well. We provide the words to the bubbles over their heads. Just imagine if instead of watching the mice for entertainment if they could kill the space alien?

Anyway, this was fun and I didn’t stop between the two books and got right into book two. I have to admit to wishing there was more! R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey. I miss you!

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Life as We Knew It (Last Survivors, #1)Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Every now and then a person needs a good disaster movie or book. I’ve yet to figure out why. I think it is watching how predictable those in charge cause even more problems and how the human spirit can rise to the occasion in spite of everything. By the way, this one doesn’t have zombies. Imagine that!

I bought this Kindle book and its Audible companion quite a few years ago and just forgot about it. I don’t know what brought it to mind now, but I am glad I found it again.

Not only is the story engaging from the very beginning, Emily Bauer’s narration keeps it all alive. I love that this particular disaster stays rather calm in the crises as the mother tries to get her family prepared and she fiercely protects them.

The story starts with a family that is probably as familiar as our own, divorce included. It shows how love is still there even where the living together failed. And the children of this break up are not less well off, just different.

As the world becomes spread out because of the lack of working communication devices, the daughter keeps her diary going. It is through her communications with herself that we learn the story of life after the meteor hit the moon and causes tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanos and more. The global mess becomes personal as this teen tries to adjust from boys and kisses and proms to washing the laundry by hand and staving off hunger.

I highly recommend this book. There was a lot to learn here for all of us.

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Legend (Legend, #1)Legend by Marie Lu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am SO impressed with this series! Especially since I had to read it backward. For the most part, I read it on my local library’s Kindle and listened to the library Overdrive version. This last book, book one, I actually had had the chance to buy the Audible version. I figured I will eventually buy all of this series (Kindle and Audible) so that someday I would read it in the correct order. If it is good and held together reading it the way I did, imagine how good it is reading it the right way!

Spoilers are hard to avoid as I write this. In fact, I thought by knowing what was to come I wouldn’t be able to continue. Then something happened between Metais and Day. Something seemed off as I remembered what was to happen in book two. Luckily, by the end of book one that issue revealed itself properly. Everything else held together very well. Again, I am so impressed with the world, characters and story that Marie Lu (author) built.

In this first book, you get to see how June and Day meet and start falling for each other. I had wondered about that. You get to see how Day meets Tess. You actually meet Day’s family. You meet all the people who play crucial roles later in the series and now you know why (if you read it back to front, that is).

Yesterday, I saw that Legend is on sale on Amazon. It is $3.00. If you can, I suggest you buy it. If I had more than a dollar to my name, I would buy it now. Alas, that will have to wait.

Now a comment on the narration by Mariel Stern and Steven Kaplan who play June and Day respectfully. I don’t know if this is their first narration gig or if they were finding their voices to these characters, but this one felt like they were new. Especially, Mariel Stern, whose voice appeared higher and a little crackly in comparison to the later books. Maybe she was attempting to sound younger? And, of course, if they recorded them in order that would still be the case, right? But as this story continues both voices become stronger and true to the characters. I was often in a situation where wearing headphones and listening were impossible and I had to read the book strictly by sight, and there were times my eyes were tired and I just listened, either and both methods hold up and maintain a fantastic story. An author who writes very well, combined with narrators who read very well, makes a wonderful experience, even in a dystopian world.

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The Ocean at the End of the LaneThe Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can see my friends faces as they shake their heads and murmur, “It’s about time!” So. Yeah. This is my first Neil Gaiman. Note the five stars. I know! He’s written Doctor Who episodes that I loved. How could I not love his other writing? I do have another book and narration sitting around waiting for me to get around to it. But this one took priority. Library book. They always take top of the list because of their due date. So, sorry other authors, waiting for me to get to your books. When a book comes off hold and lands in my lap, I have to read it first.

Do I dare say I would have love to have a teacher read this aloud to my class as a kid. You know the chapter books that you would have to put your head on your desk as the teacher read. Yeah, it had it’s scary parts, but I think a child could handle it.

Okay. I can, also, hear mumbling about my reading goals of strictly female writers with strong female characters. Well, it’s not written in stone is it? Sometimes a person has to stray to see the color of the grass or, in this case, interesting writing of the others.

Though the main character is a young boy, the heroes of this story were women. Strong women! Witchy, magickal womyn! Without these womyn, this story would be BORING! But you never get to know them or get inside their heads. This is all from the boy’s head. In fact, you never even learn his name or where he is. And since there are references to place in gestures, food, accents, it seems unnecessary to name it. Funny how that bothered me, but I didn’t care if I had the kid’s name. Really. Did I miss something? My guess is this is somewhere in southern US. But other clues made me wonder if it were in some British colony (Australia? South Africa?). Hmmm.

But enough about needing labels. This story was the most imaginative I have read in a while. And yet, maybe because it is coming from inside the head of a kid, the most believable. Ocean in a bucket. I want that bucket! I miss the ocean so here in the Nevada desert I could have my beach!

Oh, and talk about brilliant! The transitions between the boy and his adult self, are seamless. And the character remains the same person. I am more amazed by the book the more I think about it! How is that possible?

So I plan to read more Gaiman very soon! And watch more Doctor Who. Thanks, my friends, for being patient while I catch up! 😉

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Outsider: The Flawed Series Book TwoOutsider: The Flawed Series Book Two by Becca J. Campbell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was given the ARC by the author for an honest review. Because of it being an ARC, I will not count into this review any of the editing errors that I did pick up. In fact, the story caught me up so firmly that I hardly noticed these oopsies.

About that story! Wow! Told from the viewpoints of the main character, Josh, and his female interest, Alex, and their nemesis, Nic who is out to kill Alex. I like that you can get into the heads of each of these people. Sure, one could guess at the insecurities young people have about starting a new relationship, but Ms. Becca Campbell (author) gives us deeper insights than those surface issues. Put into that mix suddenly awakening abilities and one can understand the deep confusion. And seeing what was motivating the bad guy was ingenious!

This series is so much fun! It keeps one on the edge of one’s seat wondering what is going to happen? How will they get out of this one? Try to read this one so that the last half is long before bedtime. I was lucky that I was able to finish long before sleep. There are nightmare elements that I didn’t want to have entering my subconscious. (Course the next book I picked up then was by Neil Gaiman, gulp!)

It had been a long time since I read the first of the Flawed series, Flawed. Even so I found a reread wasn’t necessary. Enough review is set up in this book two that one wouldn’t feel lost. In fact, one could read this without having read the first book. But the depth you would have from reading the series in order is unbeatable. I highly recommend reading this series if you are inclined to read fantasy books about new or young adults. This one was more contemporary than other fantasies. In that way, it is fun to visit Colorado and California as they are.

I can’t wait to read the next in the series!

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Review: Prodigy by Marie Lu


Prodigy (Legend, #2)Prodigy by Marie Lu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have never read a series of books so out of order as I have had to with this series. It was too expensive to buy each of the three books so I consulted the library. They had the large print hardback book and the CDs to listen to available right away. They didn’t have the first book and the second was already borrowed. So I read/heard book three first. I was very impressed with the author that the story line and characters held together without the background of the first two books. Soon the second book became available in only the OverDrive (audio) version. So I took my chances.

Once again, I am impressed with how well the story holds together even reading it so out of order. As with book three the narrators: Mariel Stern (June), Steven Kaplan (Day) keep the story moving from within the characters’ points of view. Though the ending of book two felt like the narrators were hitting their stride, the beginning felt a little unrehearsed. Still, I think this is a great way to tell a story from the male and female viewpoints. I think it makes the book more accessible to both genders. That’s my guess. I wonder how males react to this way of telling a story. Both June and Day are fearless and human and show they deeply care for each other and their people. Both are trying to make a dystopian world a little more livable for all. I imagine that the audio versions of this story add so many more layers of believability to the story.

This was the first book I have had to rely strictly on the audio version. There was no Kindle or tree-book available to read along on. With my ADD that made it hard to stay within the story. But I limited my visual stimuli to crocheting a mundane pattern or closing my eyes. I think if I had a car, this would be a great ride along story. It isn’t so exciting as to make the drive dangerous, but it keeps your attention.

Now that I know how the story ends, and how the middle is told, I will have to read the first part. I found I had one credit on Audible so as to ‘buy’ book one. Once my finances are better I will grab the Kindle version to go with it. I may eventually reread the story in the right order to see how much different it comes across. I highly recommend these books for young adults and older. The romance isn’t horrible sticky. Rather it adds another layer of depth to the story. Enjoy!

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Review: Champion by Marie Lu


ChampionChampion by Marie Lu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Five stars! And that’s with me starting to read it on book three! I never do that. I like to start at the beginning and read a long series to the end. Starting in the middle or later can be chancy at best. But there was no choice. I saw such high ratings and I think a GoodReads friend recommended it. So I jumped over to Amazon. WAY too expensive for me right now. So I went over to my library website to see if they had it. The had the regular version of book two and this third book. BUT with this large print book I was able to land the audio-CDs. How lucky was that?

Let me take a moment out for a font complaint. Why is it that large print versions don’t give spaces between lines? Even with the larger font I still couldn’t read it straight through. I needed to use my trusty dusty bookmark to keep track, like a first grader! Old eyes, what can I say?

What kept me going, though, was the audio version. The voices of June and Day were read by Mariel Stern and Steven Kaplan respectively. They were wonderful narrators! I must make sure when I finally get this series for myself that I get the Audible Whispersync with the Kindle version.

I must marvel at the writing of Marie Lu. That I can come into the story this late in the game and not feel lost is to her credit. Sure, I felt like I was missing a little background on how it all started and how relationships grew, or didn’t, but I felt I already knew, somehow. There wasn’t a lot of background descriptors dragging the story out, so I assume Ms. Lu snuck it all in there somehow. Magic!

And I am surprised that coming out of the book I have a hunger to read the entire series, real soon! I put all the books on all my wishlists. Just reading a book three should have had me feel I was finished, ya know?

Oh, and if you read this one, have some Kleenex on hand near the end. It’s not horrid, but I haven’t cried like that near the end of a book for a long time. But that shows the amount of truth that this story held for me. No, I am far from being a teen–65, but I could still relate to all that was going on with these characters.

Oh, and this is the first book in a long time that felt that either guys or girls could read it with equal fervor. Each chapter is either June or Day (Daniel) and both are tough but caring human beings.

As I have said before, where were authors like Marie Lu when I was a teen? This book kept my interest from beginning to end. And I think that if you are unlucky enough to not get the first two books you can start here and still have an active adventure!

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