Chilling Effect

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes, 434 pages

This was our January Orcs & Aliens read, and it featured a fantastic found family on a space ship, an intergalactic mafia, ancient tech that nobody can explain, some possibly psychic cats, a guy that just CANNOT take no for an answer, and alien planets that featured everything from mind-controlling alcohol-brewing monks to dinosaurs that need their own soap opera. In other words, this book was a ton of fun to read, and a ton of fun to discuss!

Goldilocks

Goldilocks by Laura Lam, 340 pages

In the near future, Earth is nearly uninhabitable, thanks to a booming population, a decimated environment, and an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. Spurred by the misogynistic policies of the world's space agencies, five female astronomers steal a space ship that was meant to carry a crew of male astronomers to Cavendish, a planet that is not too hot, not too cold, and just right for human habitation. Led by genius inventor and philanthropist Valerie Black, the women of the Atalanta are excited to be traveling to the planet they've dreamed about for so long. But when problems start occurring on the ship, the crew (and particularly Valerie's protegee, Naomi Lovelace) are concerned that Valerie is keeping something from them.

This is a thrilling tale that seamlessly weaves together the misogyny of The Handmaid's Tale, the corruption of The Power, and the action sequences of more interstellar travel books than I can list here. It's captivating, beautifully presented, and leaves plenty of space for further ruminations after the final page. I loved it, and I highly recommend it.

Providence

Providence by Max Barry, 306 pages

Several years after first contact with aliens, humans are now in an interminable war with the hive-like species they've dubbed "salamanders." Thankfully, humankind has some very high-tech interstellar warships, run by artificial intelligence so good that a crew of just four can run a successful mission against thousands of salamander ships. But despite (or perhaps because of) the light workload, the human crew members have a difficult time dealing with the long hours in space, punctuated by short battles in which they merely monitor the ship's systems. It gives them too much time to think about what they're doing, why they're doing it, and whether the ship is really their "friend" in this war.

Barry's written quite the pageturner here, with plenty of action-packed battle sequences and a suitably creepy alien villain. But it's also a fascinating look at the psychology of war and space travel, as well as thought-provoking in regard to what is or isn't a person. It's a lot packed into a thrilling read. Highly recommended.

Chilling Effect

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes, 434 pages

Eva Innocente is minding her own business, carting goods across the galaxy when she learns that her sister has been kidnapped by The Fridge, a criminal syndicate that's known for cryogenically freezing its victims until their loved ones pay off exorbitant ransoms. And that's just what has happened to Eva's sister, forcing Eva to take on increasingly dangerous missions to pay the ransom. Oh, and in the meantime, she has to figure out how to deal with the massive bounty placed on her by a rich guy who just couldn't take no for an answer when he hit on her.

This book won't win any awards, but it's a fun galaxy-trotting caper with a vibrant cast of alien beings (including the clawed quennians, who emit smells that correspond with their emotions), a great Latina protagonist, and some psychic cats (who I'm pretty sure are just regular cats that they think are psychic). I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it for fans of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe.

The City in the Middle of the Night

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders, 366 pages

January is a tidal-locked planet, where the Earthborn colonizers have settled into two cities in the dusky area between the absolute light and the absolute darkness. Xiophant is a highly regulated place with bells tolling the hours and automatic shutters creating "nightfall"; a crazily complex economy with ten different kinds of currency; and a rigid language and social structure. Argelo, on the other hand, is a chaotic, time-free, slap-dash mess of a city ruled by nine competing crime families. The story, however, revolves around two women: Sophie, a lower-class student in Xiophant, who takes the fall for a crime that she didn't commit; and Mouth, the last member of a nomadic people that once traveled through the dusk, but is now a smuggler braving the wilds between the two cities. As the tale unfolds in its many twists and turns, we see outlaws and uprisings, threats both human and non-, and the toll that ignoring the past can play on people on both the micro and macro scale. Anders has created here an odd world full of strange flora and fauna, yes, but she's also created a story that resonates much much closer to home. While it took me a bit to get into, I loved this book, and I'll be ruminating on it for some time to come.

Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds

Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds, Science Fiction --524 pages.
Tanner Mirabel must hunt down Argent Reivich and kill him to avenge the killings of Gitta, the woman Tanner loved, and her husband, Cahuella, Tanner's boss. Missing him in one attempt before Reivich gets off-planet, Mirabel must travel through space, sleeping for 15 years, to track him down. As he enters Chasm City in the final phase of the hunt, Mirabel discovers things about himself that don't add up(he can see in the dark, he seems to have never had his foot amputated), that lead him to wonder who he is and who is really being hunted. Long, but never dull, it ends on the kind of note that lets you know its part of a series. Patrick