Synopsis:

Digital Extremities –

A collection of eight stories, Digital Extremities shines a spotlight on ordinary people in a callous yet hopeful future. Set across small towns and remote islands, where neon flickers against old buildings and oaks, this collection paints a unique view of a traditionally cyberpunk setting.

In 2089, a woman miscarries and seeks a way to find peace amidst overwhelming grief. Years later, a young man must find a way to pay rent outside of his job at the glassblowing studio. A pair of students, excited to go to college, install new hardware that promises to improve their cognitive functions. A private investigator searches for a missing child who has a reputation for embarking on risky adventures. Each tale is shaped by love, loss, and perseverance, weaving a vision of life outside of the megacities.

Animus Paradox –

There’s a thief on the loose. The Tigres excel at tipping the scales in their favor, be it through bribes, politics, or blood. They unofficially run Viterbo, Italy—and somebody stole from them.

Private investigators David and Mafalda De Campo have been hired to help find the thief. They’re in it for the money, but the Tigres just want to make a statement.

Meanwhile, the Heredes have returned: ruthless idealists and revolutionaries. It’s not clear what they’re up to, but they keep getting in the way.

The De Campos will need to decide how far they’re willing to go for this job and the Tigres. Viterbo may soon become a battlefield, and one wrong move could set it aflame.

Review:

With both Digital Extremities and Animus Paradox, Adam Bassett has put out some fascinating and intriguing futuristic and mostly dystopian cyberpunk works. I found myself really enjoying both of them and was glad I read Digital Extremities before I started on Animus Paradox. 

Recently I was offered a few audiobook codes for Adam Bassett’s two works by the author himself. In exchange for an honest review, I took him up on it. In the process, I got to try out the Spotify audiobook player, so I’ll drop a few thoughts about that as well later on. 

Let’s start with his short story collection, Digital Extremities. 

In D.E., we’re treated to eight tales of the future where the distinctions between human and computer are blurred, if not eliminated completely. Short stories can be a great playground for authors — letting them play around with an interesting idea or two without committing to an entire novel. Bassett really got creative with these eight stories, and they have incredible range. I’ll highlight a few…

Alone / Together is the first story Bassett showcases and for good reason. It’s a gut punch, especially if you’ve ever loved someone so much you’d do anything for them. It’s a whole lot of melancholy wrapped up in a little over a half-hour of reading time. There was almost a Gift of the Magi quality to it, but with sadness and regret acting in place of love and sacrifice. 

The middle stories of the collection are absolutely worthy as well, ranging from sacrificing the past to move on with your future and the effect that integrating technology more into our lives and bodies will have. I also appreciated Bassett setting stories all over the world from America to Norway to Italy, where the last story is set — Fireworks Above the Badlands. 

When I was finished with Digital Extremities, I found myself really invested in the final story in the collection — and more so with the characters. And Bassett must’ve felt the same way, because the second book I’m reviewing — Animus Paradox — takes off immediately following the events in Fireworks Above the Badlands. 

The main character is David De Campo, who along with his wife Mafalda, run a private investigation firm in Italy over 100 years into the future. I found myself vibing with David in the first story as he works to track down a lost child, risking his life in the process. The way Bassett sets up the character as former U.S. Army with all the mods and implants they might need for battle, but with most of them disabled after he left the service, left me wanting more and Bassett sure delivered in Animus Paradox. This story is more of an Italian mob war that David and Mafalda find themselves drawn into with more than a few cyberpunk twists. 

I enjoyed A.P. and its continuation of the cyberpunk themes and tropes, but I struggle to vibe with the futuristic noir detective stories sometimes. But the characters are solid – A+. I think he could keep taking David and Mafalda to America and beyond in future cyberpunk books and I would be in. At the end of the day, I think I liked Digital Extremities a little more than Animus Paradox, but I would definitely recommend both. 

As for the audiobook experience, Adam Bassett got a couple of great narrators — Joe James and Aven Shore for D.E. and just Joe James for the A.P. production. Both have great voice and inflection, especially for the type of stories Bassett is telling. 

And for the Spotify experience? Well, it wasn’t perfect. I know they are trying to carve a little space for themselves in the audiobook space, but they still have a little room to grow. First, I like to bump up my listening speed, but Spotify doesn’t offer more than the tenths place — what I mean is you can listen at 1.2x speed and 1.3x speed, but you can’t listen at 1.25. There were also a few times where the player just stopped. Right in the middle of a chapter. Stopped. And in the end, I had to restart my app to get the audio to keep playing. Some audio glitch. Overall, it went fine, but there were a few small issues that Spotify needs to address. 

But, back to Adam Bassett’s first two works — check them out, especially if you like a few different looks at a future that looks a lot different than our present. 

Thank you to Adam Bassett for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis:

Xavier Oaks doesn’t particularly want to go to the cabin with his dad and his dad’s pregnant new wife, Nia. But family obligations are family obligations, and it’s only for a short time. So he leaves his mom, his brother, and his other friends behind for a week in the woods. Only… one morning he wakes up and the house isn’t where it was before. It’s like it’s been lifted and placed… somewhere else.

When Xavier, his dad, and Nia go explore, they find they are inside a dome, trapped. And there’s no one else around…

Until, three years later, another family arrives.

Is there any escape? Is there a reason they are stuck where they are? Different people have different answers — and those different answers inexorably lead to tension, strife, and sacrifice.

Review:

Remember March 2020? I know you don’t want to, but bear with me for a bit. 

Seemingly overnight, the world changed. We went from an interconnected society, where we could go anywhere, do anything, see whoever we’d like, to…just not. 

It was weird. Disorienting. Out of nowhere we had no bearing…no foundation. Some of those we were in lockdown with were not those we would have liked to be stuck with for months at a time. Our entire way of life was upended and changed. What was real? What was the truth? If you left your house, how far could you go? Was it safe? 

In the last few years I’ve read a few books that referenced COVID-19 and the pandemic. Of all those books, Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel is the MOST Pandemic book. That’s not to say that it happens in the “Pandemic,” but virtually the entire plot of the book acts as a giant metaphor or allegory for events that transpired in the first couple months to years of the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

The Young Adult book is told exclusively through the eyes of Xavier Oaks, a teenager who was along for forced family fun time at a cabin by the lake. The next morning, the lake is gone and in its place is a farm ready to be worked. The more that he and his family explore, they find themselves the only inhabitants in a dome — caged by some unknown entity. The book sets up the Oaks family in the first quarter, then brings in the conflict: after three years of being the only four people in the dome, a new family appears. 

This is where I can imagine that people are going to have WILDLY different takes on this book, because the Oaks are a family from Canada and are framed as the rational, responsible family that does what they are told in the Lock Down. The new family — the Jacksons — are from Tennessee — and are conspiracy-minded Americans who trust nothing. Because we spent the first part of the book with the Oaks, we know what they know, but to a family that is plopped down in the middle of an impenetrable dome and a family is already there, there are some reasonable doubts to be had. 

I’ve liked the Oppel books I’ve read before and this is an easy one to get into and follow the mysteries (not all are answered by the end, which I actually appreciate for a book like this) all the way until the end. The big question the Jackson family brings up is the identity of their captors — are they aliens like the Oaks think, or is it advanced technology harnessed by the government elites on Earth? The metaphors do get a little heavy-handed at times, but the science fiction of this book doesn’t relate to anything that the humans do or believe. I’ve met people who believe many of the things that Riley Jackson does and no matter how much you talk to them, they are obstinate and stuck in their own heads. I can understand some people thinking his character is too far out in the weeds, but for some people, it really is a scary reality. 

So, this book is definitely political and I imagine that Kenneth Oppel had some of these ideas bouncing around in his head in the early days of COVID-19 racing across the globe. He really captured the feelings of those early quarantines and the doubts and fears of institutional trust as well. 

So by the time we get to about two-thirds through Best of All Worlds, Oppel introduces some religious elements of the plagues of Egypt, but I almost couldn’t help but think of the Tower of Babel and the hubris of humanity and trying to reach the heights of God. The ending is satisfying for me, but like I said, not all your questions get answered by the last page. Xavier and his family still don’t understand every part of their imprisonment by the end, but I don’t know many people who understood every fact behind the Global Pandemic as well.  

I would recommend Best of All Worlds, especially to a YA reader, but I also totally would understand why this book would not be for you (I know people who are still triggered by certain aspects of the past 5 years for sure). I teach junior high and we are already getting to the point with some of these kids where they don’t remember much about those early days of the Pandemic, so this book might be a great entry point to talking about it with a younger, middle grade crowd. 

Synopsis:

Light dims on humanity’s reign over the galaxy.

Charlus Vaughn, a teenage refugee, escapes deadly machine justice with her penitent mother.

Rescued by a data-pirate crew, she falls into the path of ancient arachnid machinations that propel her back towards her mysterious origins and the heart of her unknown heritage.

Review:

DB Rook carries an air of chaotic calm within all his books. An author who is able to conjure from the written word great depth and vivid imagery with prose that has a dark eloquence. So, it was no surprise to find this book carries the same ambience into the scifi action genre. Here Rook leads us into a tale of genocide, humanity being wiped from existence by our once robotic slaves who have become both judge and executioner. We initially follow Charlus and her mother through these killing fields, on the run and desperate to escape. We gain hints of the Black Bots origins, that there is far more behind the destruction they bring than it first appears, to which they both have a deep connection.

 It is then that Rook flips the narrative. Having been immersed in Charlus’s fate, the reader is set deliberately off-balance by the arrival of a spaceship filled with data-pirates whose tangle of relationships and attitudes add a distinct layer of depth to the characterisation that runs through the rest of the novella. Saved by this weird collection of thieves, a grieving Charlus and the crew hurtle blindly into events that shape the future of humanity.

Part warning, part rollicking adventure, Residuum is a slice of dark action science fiction I urge you to try. Superb.

Synopsis 

Forty thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. They travelled into space on arkships and found a new home.

When the first arkship arrived, it signalled for the others to follow. Those from that first ship evolved into Celestials, establishing themselves as rulers over mankind’s new home. 

Now, as new arkships arrive, people must choose whether to submit to the rule of the Celestials, or fight for freedom.

Finn hasn’t arrived on an arkship. He was born under the rule of the Celestials, and is a dreamer who yearns for the freedom to travel space for himself one day. When another arkship from Earth — previously thought lost — arrives unexpectedly, Finn sees his chance to embrace a greater destiny and journey into the vast unknowns of distant space. 

Review

‘Exodus’ is an epic introduction to a huge universe, skilfully keeping you grounded while expanding its scope to ever-increasingly colossal levels. It’s a space opera that enhances Hamilton’s reputation as a titan of the genre, and serves as a masterclass in how to make sci-fi BIG! 

Before the story begins, the book’s opening sections thoroughly catalogue all the main characters and provide a timeline of events of what happened after Earth was abandoned. It’s a LOT and I worried I might struggle to take it all in, but as soon as the narrative got going, I found myself pulled straight into the Exodus worlds. In fact, the main thing that might dissuade you from picking up the book is its sheer breadth. It’s a chonker. And in terms of audio (FYI I listened to the audiobook), it comes in at a whopping 33 hours. But as soon as you make a start, the novel hooks you immediately and keeps you listening/reading. So don’t be put off by its size. After all, they say bigger is better, and sci-fi doesn’t come any bigger than this.

Across a mega 928 pages, the story unfolds through the perspectives of several main characters living in various parts of society. Their stories cleverly interlink to reveal a bigger picture — but I’ll get to that more in a little bit. First, let me give you a flavour of what it feels like to inhabit the worlds of this universe. To do that, context matters. So here’s some context that sets everything up. 

The story is set in a future where mankind has taken to space in arkships to find more habitable planets. Some ships succeed in finding habitable worlds and send out a ‘green world beacon’ to the rest of the fleet. But, thanks to time dilation, the new arkships arrive to find society in a much more advanced state than what they’d expected. 

When the last arkship gets to the Centauri cluster, new human arrivals take in the lay of the land. As a reader, you share their shocked reaction at what they discover — that those who arrived on the first arkship have evolved into ‘celestial beings’, and have enslaved other humans as well as genetically engineered races. The various branches of Celestials each have their own special abilities, depending on the way each set of scientists focused their work. 

Tobias is the leader of the newly arrived arkship ‘Diligent’, and he begins to shift the status quo for humans — who are not allowed to own property. He feels an undercurrent of dissatisfaction among them, despite everyone having somewhere to live, work to do, and food on the table. Who really wants to spend all their time farming just to send it off-planet so the Celestials can eat it?

Finn is our link to the Uranic race. He’s had a privileged upbringing and enjoys a high status within his world, yet wants to throw it all away to fly across the stars and seek his own path as a traveller. Finn helps Tobias and those of the ‘Diligent’ navigate the complicated order of things, stopping them from breaking the rules before they’ve even got started. Ellie is Tobias’ granddaughter, and theres a love interest between Finn and Ellie that runs constantly through the book — it anchors Finn’s character development. It’s always entertaining to spend time with Finn as he’s such a loveable rogue. 

The narrative of Terrance Wilson-Fletcher, a member of the police on Santa Rosa (where Finn is from) gives you an insight into the political undercurrents that are going on amongst the different branches of the Celestials. He does undercover work and gets called to meet with a security chief, where he experiences for himself what life is like on a celestial planet — really out of this world. The Celestials’ technology makes getting away with anything pretty impossible, yet there’s a time delay between what happens on other planets and the Celestials finding out about it. Every plan they make (based on information they get from informants) feeds into a bigger purpose. 

While each section of the narrative is interesting to read on its own and you get pretty invested in finding out what happens, slowly, slowly you begin to realise the bigger plot that lies underneath it all. When multiple strands finally come together, it comes over as very clever and enhances the enjoyability of the book no end. It’s so much fun to see the web being woven in front of your eyes. 

When the book ended, I felt keen to know when the next one will be ready! I was really excited to discover Peter F Hamilton was asked to write the book to promote a new video game set in the same universe. I have to say, having read the book, I’m eager to see what the game is like! 

In terms of the audiobook performance, John Lee had a very commanding voice that is easy to listen to, and he made the 33 hours fly by. Once I’d finished listening to it, I had a few days of feeling like I was forgetting to do something. I can’t talk about the book without hearing his voice in my head! 

Overall, ‘Exodus’ is an engine of invention and speculation that reaches as high as it aims. It’s both complex and immersive, and makes for an ideal escape from our boring old Earth, leaving you with plenty to chew over. I can’t wait to see where it takes us next. 

Ebook, Hardback, and Audiobook are available now.

Paperback to be released on June 19th, 2025

Synopsis:

From the Arthur C. Clarke award winner, Adrian Tchaikovsky, comes the third instalment of the DOGS OF WAR science fiction series, a future where genetically engineered “Bioforms” have inherited not the Earth, but the Solar System.

The end of the world has been and gone.

There was no one great natural disaster, no all-consuming world war, no catastrophic pandemic. Rather scores of storms, droughts and floods; dozens of vicious, selfish regional conflicts that only destroyed what could no longer be rebuilt. No single finishing stroke for Earth’s great global human society, but you can still bleed to death from a thousand cuts.

The Red Planet fared better. Where Earth fell apart, Mars pulled together. Engineered men and beasts, aided by Bees, an outlawed distributed intelligence, survived through co-operation, because there was simply no alternative.

Fast forward to the present day. A signal – “For the sake of what once was. We beg you. Help.” – reaches Mars.

How could they not help? A consortium of Martian work crews gather the resources for a triumphal return to the blue-green world of their ancestors.

And now here they are – three hundred million kilometres from home.

And it has all already gone horribly wrong.

Review:

I hate bees, but man do I love Bees. 

For the third installment in his Dogs of War series, Adrian Tchaikovsky focuses on the distributed intelligence known as Bees, which is about time for me. In a lot of ways, Bees was perhaps the most interesting part of the original work in the series.

The first book, Dogs of War, was released in 2017 and featured the main storyline with Rex, a dog bioform who is the leader of a motley crew of animal bioforms — himself, Honey (a bear bioform), Dragon (a reptile), and Bees (literally just bees). The first novel was set near-future and explored what it means to be human and if the consciousness’ of bioforms entitles them to the same rights as “mankind.” 

In 2021, Tchaikovsky released Bear Head, featuring Honey. The Mars setting for a lot of it gives it a bit of a Total Recall vibe and the story features a lot into media personalities and free will. Honey plays a key part in the book, but is by no means the main character. Bees plays a key role as well…on Mars as one of the early colonizers and also back on Earth as they have split their intelligence. 

I liked, but didn’t really love the first two books. Rex is and forever will be a Good Boy, and I really like Honey the Bear, but in both books it was just hard for me to put myself in their shoes (maybe cuz dogs and bears don’t wear shoes?) but in the end, it actually was easier at times to empathize with the bioforms (the animals) than with the humans (especially Thompson from Bear Head). There is a lot to like and I’m glad I read them, but I just didn’t resonate with those books. Not like I did with Bee Speaker. 

No one can accuse Adrian Tchaikovsky of not being imaginative. Each book in this series is so wildly different from the others in terms of tone and setting and he makes even the hardest of sci-fi concepts so digestible. It would have been so easy for him to set this book on Mars after the events of Bear Head and invent some reason why Bees has to be the hero of the day. 

Instead, in Bee Speaker we return to Earth…a planet which has lost control of itself and its technology. All that happened in the days of Rex, Honey, Dragon, and Bees is the Old time. The people of Earth have devolved into a neo-feudalistic society of sorts. Bees is revered as a type of God among some — an invisible deity capable of great works, but before their time. Other people form up in abandoned bunkers, quasi-manors with a medieval hierarchy at play. And lastly, the remnants of the Old time, the Dog Factory where bioforms are still produced and some of the last vestiges of technology is still utilized. 

Dropped into the middle of all of that are four Martians, returning to Earth after getting a signal from the Earth Bees. Of course, it’s a Tchaikovsky book and things do not go swimmingly for our intrepid adventurers on their return to their ancestral planet. 

One of the things I loved about this book was two opposing views of what the future may bring. On Earth, disinformation and politics killed society as they knew it and the little technology humans had in Bee Speaker was often beyond their comprehension. Mars, on the other hand, almost collapsed from some of the same factors in Bear Head, but was saved by Bees and Honey and went on to be more of a communal civilization where everyone worked together and pushed technology onward and forward. Those two sides of the knife’s edge were on full display throughout this Bee Speaker. In the end, just like in Bear Head, the subject of the book — Bees — isn’t our main character, but instead acts as more of the MacGuffin towards the final quarter of the novel. 

In the end, it may be a fairly simple novel in its story, but Bee Speaker is a great addition to the Dogs of War series, introducing some memorable characters and pushing the bounds of what it actually means to be “human.” 

Thank you to Head of Zeus for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis:

Kye Verex is trapped.

Due to a fluke of genetics, the decisions of the galaxy’s elite, and a lack of finances, he’s stuck on his polluted and noxious home world indefinitely. And it’s slowly killing him.

Then his more fortunate sister returns one day, bringing the promise of salvation. Kelsey has always hoped to find the means to pull him out of his desperate cycle of survival, but it has taken years. Now, she has a plan, one that will cure his genetic condition and clear him for interstellar travel.

The catch?

He has to sign over his very existence – and a portion of his humanity – to Zylar Inc., the galaxy’s most prominent and notorious corporation, in exchange for the necessary treatment. Is his cure worth the cost?

Review:

Wraith and the Revolution is a standalone sci-fi with an emotional gut punch of a backstory. So let’s start at the beginning, or rather the end, if you will. For Earth has tumbled into the cycle of industrial wasteland we can all see happening around us. Humanity, mainly, has left for the stars, leaving behind those that can eek out a living sifting through electronic detritus and radioactive rubbish piles on the hunt for things to sell. Food comes down to tasteless cubes, munched on while the cancers eat away at your body.

You get the picture.

Against this backdrop we have Kye and Pablo, best friends forever, surviving day to day while seeking a way off their shit pile. This section of the book is introspective, and the drudgery of staying alive takes up much of the first third. This takes patience for the reader, with Kye’s struggles continuing when it emerges the only way off world is a complete body upgrade into a flesh and machine soldier.

The pay-off is worth it.

It has a purpose. Drawing you into real characters with depth who are then thrown in at the deep end into, well it says it in the title, into a revolution. But one at which they are at the crux and the action, intrigue and energy, take you on a roller-coaster ride of sci-fi promised by the title and that stunning cover. Kye is a full cybernetic badass, and Pablo’s circumstances position him at the centre of the revolt too. Once again, friends standing against whatever life throws at them.

AJ Calvin has crafted a story that has personal meaning to her, and it shines through. Be patient, the pay-off is coming and is all the more powerful for the depth given in those opening pages.

Review:

Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.

As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others’ escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.

Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.

Synopsis:

I just know I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. I Who Have Never Known Men is a short novel written 30 years ago in French by Belgian author Jacqueline Harpman. It basically came and went without finding much of an audience and was an order-on-demand book for years. Then, a few years before the 2020 pandemic, it was rediscovered and the publisher felt it fit with books like A Handmaid’s Tale, so…it was dusted off and republished under a new name and translation. 

I don’t follow TikTok or BookTok or whatever social media trends (well, not too much, at least), but I did see someone I respected online talking about having just read it recently. I added it to my local library’s audiobook app and settled in for an unsettling — at times very uncomfortable — dystopian tale from a very female point of view. I was bothered by it…in a good way…and I know it will be pestering my memories for a while. 

I’ve always been fascinated by Plato’s allegory of The Cave and I Who Have Never Known Men puts that allegory front and center for the first chunk of the narrative, with a twist. The Narrator (she’s never actually named in the book and admits the other women just call her The Child throughout her life) has only memories of a life spent in the cage — what they believe is an underground prison as part of a group of 40 women. One day everything changes and the women are suddenly allowed to leave and wander the world. For the Narrator, it’s like discovering everything for the first time. The first time to see the sky…grass…weather…it’s an eye-opening experience for her, but also for the other women who have memories that predate their life in the cage. What they discover places the book firmly in the science fiction camp as it appears that the planet they inhabit is probably not Earth. 

Now, I haven’t read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road since it was released nearly 20 years back, but I think it would be fascinating to read both together and compare/contrast the two works. McCarthy’s book is a very male-centric view of a post-apocalyptic wasteland where a father and son (both unnamed, just like the narrator in I Who Have Never Known Men). The story was rough, dirty, and brutal and I couldn’t help feeling depressed (with a tiny, sliver of hope) after reading the book. 

As a contrast, I Who Have Never Known Men is almost a pure feminine look at a dystopian world. The only men our protagonist ever comes into contact with are the prison guards who don’t touch them and don’t talk to them. For all intents and purposes, the Narrator doesn’t have a frame of reference for men — a fact made clear to her time and again. As she asks the older women about issues that involve men, she is dismissed without a second thought since she’ll never need to know about them. 

In the end, while McCarthy’s book is marked by raw and brutal violence, Harpman’s tale shows a different result for the women. There is a hint of violence, but ultimately once they escape their cage and begin to explore their world, the women care for each other with compassion and loyalty to the end. The violence the Narrator employs is a necessary means to an end so the other women don’t suffer as their bodies wear out time and again, slowly leaving the narrator alone in a desolate world.

I don’t know if we’ll ever know, but I can’t help but wonder if McCarthy had possibly read this book prior to writing The Road. I couldn’t find any connective tissue between the two and both authors have passed away at this point, but since I Who Have Never Known Men was written around a decade before The Road, it can’t be claimed that McCarthy influenced Harpman.

It’s impossible to separate the art from the artist in this case as well. As a young girl, Harpman escaped with her family to Casablanca to avoid the rise of the Nazis in Europe. Having that knowledge in mind, it definitely reads as a book influenced by fascist regimes and the totalitarian methods they employ to preserve the status quo. But even in the midst of the fight, Harpman shows what one person can do — and in many cases, that one person can care for their friends and family, all the way until the end. 

I highly recommend reading (or listening to) I Who Have Never Known Men. Even as a man, I found myself thinking about the themes whenever I had to step away from it and I have a feeling it will be haunting me for a long time.

Synopsis:

Heaven was perfect, until they came for his son.

When angel engineer Zak’s infant son is cast down for being born without wings, he faces Heaven’s cruel mandate: forget, or fall. Clipped, Zak plummets to a broken Earth, where false prophets exploit the faithful, drug lords rule dead cities, and every truth comes with a price.

Pursued by ruthless angel hunters through decaying urban wastelands and corrupted mega-churches, Zak uncovers a conspiracy that reaches from Earth’s grimmest gutters to Heaven’s highest chambers. What begins as a father’s desperate search becomes a brutal quest for vengeance that will expose Heaven’s most devastating lies – and make them remember his son’s name.

Review:

A big thank you to the author for allowing me to read an ARC of this book ahead of publication.

Clipped is a story about grief, making mistakes, and seeking the truth, but above all, it’s a story about the lengths a parent will go to in order to protect their child. It’s also a book that poses some questions about religion and faith, and what they’re built upon. (Personally, I really enjoyed that aspect, but I can see how it might not work for some readers.)

The book begins with Zachary (or Zak, as he later becomes known.) He’s an Exalted (basically an angel), imprisoned for the crime of asking questions. His son was born without wings, an imperfection, according to the Heavens, that is unforgivable and must be punished. His son was cast out with the refuse, and Zak was deemed a criminal for asking why. Rather than accept his son’s fate, he chose exile in the hopes of locating his son.

He quickly learned the human world was a mess. Crime was rampant, resources were scarce, and the most powerful people were as corrupt as they come. Zak was faced with thieves, Hunters tasked with apprehending him simply because he is “fallen,” religious zealots, conmen, drug-dealers… The setting overall was pretty bleak, and at times, Zak fell into despair. But there was some good in the human world, when he looked for it hard enough.

Zak wasn’t perfect as a protagonist. He made mistakes along the way and fell into some unfortunate habits, but he was usually driven by a desire to do the right thing—once he knew what the right thing was. The Heaven he was from and the earth he was confronted with were vastly different, so there was a definite learning curve. He made a couple decisions that didn’t fully make sense to me, but overall, I liked his character.

I want to mention that I questioned the genre classification for most of this story. It’s listed as science-fiction, but felt more like dystopian fantasy until almost the end. There’s a big reveal then, and once I read that part, there was no questioning that Clipped is a sci-fi story. And I loved that twist, because I didn’t see it coming. It also answered a lot of questions and tied everything up really nicely.

All in all, Clipped was an excellent story. If dystopian settings, unexpected twists, and a father’s desire to protect his child are themes you enjoy, take a few days to read this book. It will be worth your time.

Clipped is currently available for preorder, and will release May 31, 2025.

Synopsis:

What if saving the future meant rewriting the past?

In a dying world overrun by microdrones, humanity’s last survivors cling to life inside the Eden-17 biodome. Isabelle Sanborn knows her time is running out, but one desperate plan might give humanity a second chance. With the help of Madders, an enigmatic AI built from the memories of a brilliant physicist, Isabelle sends Diego Nadales—the love of her life—35 years into the past. His mission? To change the course of history and prevent their world’s collapse.

When Diego arrives in the vibrant yet fragile Main Timeline, he’s forced to confront ghosts of the past, including a younger, ambitious version of Isabelle. As he battles to shape a better future, Diego must navigate a delicate web of relationships and events without destroying the very fabric of time.

Brimming with suspense, heart-pounding action, and a poignant love story that transcends time, Madders of Time – Book One is a breathtaking science fiction adventure. Award-winning author DL Orton weaves a tale that explores sacrifice, resilience, and the timeless power of love.

Fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Dark Matter will find themselves captivated by this unforgettable journey through parallel worlds and intertwining destinies.

The clock is ticking. Can love survive the collapse of time itself?Prepare to lose yourself in the first installment of the Madders of Time series—a story that will keep you turning pages and leave you hungry for more.

Review:

Back in the mid-80’s Marty McFly traveled to 30 years into the past thanks to Doc Brown’s souped-up Delorian and science fiction was never the same. Frankly, I’ve always been fascinated by time travel and when I saw the opportunity to read Hive by D.L. Orton, I was thrilled to dive in. 

Time travel, of course, is purely theoretical at this time. But, in recent years the arguments have been ongoing about how time travel would work IF it actually was a possibility. Would it work like in Back to the Future where Marty could potentially erase his own future by bumbling around in the past? Or would it create branches and new timelines like what we saw in Avengers: Endgame? 

In Hive, Orton seems to indicate that for her, time travel involves different timelines. At the beginning of Hive, we see a world that is about to end. Humanity is on the verge of extinction and only a few people are left. Isabelle decides there is one hope to change the past — to use the A.I. named Madders to send Diego to before the world was too far gone. 

I enjoyed Hive, partly because it didn’t go perfectly. In every time travel story, the shenanigans are some of my favorite parts. So when Diego goes back into his past, the well-laid plans they had don’t quite go off without a hitch. Not to say it happens with comedic effect, but seeing how the past changes or doesn’t with certain decisions is a key part of Hive. 

I will say that Orton uses characters from previous books of hers. I would say that reading her previous books would probably really help understand what is happening, especially as the book starts basically in media res, seemingly with the understanding that the audience knows the characters already. However, I was able to enjoy the book without all the background context. Perhaps I would have rated it slightly higher, but as a time travel novel and the first in a new trilogy, Hive works all on its own. 

I’m glad I read Hive and am looking forward to the second book in the trilogy, Jump, which is slated to release on November 4 later this year. 

Synopsis

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith comes a brand new novella set in the world of the Hell Divers series.

Before you knew him as the king or the Immortal, he was Commander Xavier “X” Rodriguez—with ninety-six dives under his belt, the most experienced Hell Diver on the airship known as the Hive. Time after time, he dived through the electrical storms, returning with parts to keep his home in the sky. Then, on a jump into Hades, the most hostile environment in North America, he sacrificed everything for mission and team. They returned to the airship with the fuel cells needed to keep the Hive running, but X was left behind.

This is the story of how he becomes the last man on Earth. His will drives him to keep fighting, to survive the monsters and the radiation in the wastes, to find a way back home. But as the days pass, he feels the things that make him human slipping away. He has become a waif, a phantom, with little to live for. Then he stumbles upon something that makes him feel again.

This is the chronicle of those lost years, told for the first time ever.

Review

When I saw this was releasing, I was already a couple of books into the series and a big fan. I bought the first book on kindle to get the newly included novella, but something didn’t feel right, and I didn’t end up reading it. Finally, I realized it was because I went with the audio for the series, and the narration from R.C. Bray is simply too good to just switch to reading the text. So I bought the audiobook for this one separately… IYKYK.

While the Hell Divers world is filled with badasses, no one even scrapes the surface to how intense X is. Almost 100 dives, a feat that no diver is even close to, and now he’s survived what the others considered to be certain death. Some may say he’s just too stubborn to die, but even so, he’s my favorite. 

So what took place on earth while Tin was growing up? For the first time ever, we finally know! Well, part one of it at least. X survives the fall back down to land, and if that wasn’t harrowing enough, now he has to survive in a wasteland that’s not meant to be survived in. He’ll need batteries for his suit—or at least a charger, medical supplies, ammo, shelter, and most importantly, safe food and water. But how will he find anything safe in a red zone? How will he sleep at night with the monstrosities fighting for flesh? This is something that only X could figure out. 

I was a little saddened by how long it took for readers to first meet Miles, but I’m pleased to see that it’s only a part one. And while being stranded can seem like a lot of searching and waiting, this still packed in an awful lot of scifi, post apoc goodness. 

“This is commander Xavier Rodriguez, I’m still alive you motherf**kers.”