Another selection of graphic novels read in May

My Time Machine by Carol Lay (2024) 168 pages

IN A WORLD, where H.G. Wells' book is nonfiction and the 1960 movie is a documentary, "Carol Lay's My Time Machine is serious and funny, a sly cautionary political satire." It was a fairly quick read that I read in one day. I loved the pop culture sci-fi references as the author's stand-in and her engineer ex discuss theories about time travel and build a working time machine. Survival and exploration and a concern for our future are all reasonably realistic. It is a fun adventure with solid art.

Laika by Nick Abadzis (2007) 205 pages

This is only around 200 pages, but it is jam packed with story panels. Unless you are cold-hearted, you will cry. It is such a sad story. There are moments when Kudryavka "Little Curly" later renamed Laika "Barker" is treated with kindness, but also neglect as if expendable. We follow Chief Designer Korolev of the space program and Yelena the dog handler hired by the medical department as well. Yelena truly cares, Korolev is ambitious to prove Soviet technological supremacy. Kudryavka's voice and inner imagination is also brought forward. She just wants to be free and in a loving home. I finished it while cuddling with one of my cats with kleenex close by.

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden (2018) 537 pages

This combines coming of age, a found queer family, and two timelines. It is difficult to describe, but I do love sci-fi and fantasy being mixed. Sunbeam is the name of the fish space ship that Mia's found family flies to restoration jobs. We meet Mia post-high school starting a new job with this crew that does building restorations through outer space. Five years earlier, we see Mia's experiences in a girl's boarding school where she befriends Grace. Through games, work and learning, and through mischief, pain and challenging relationships, Mia discovers herself. Finding out how past and present converge feels so satisfying. I love the art! The limited color scheme works and even delivers some beautiful nature shots and awe inspiring galaxies and nebulas. Floating buildings and creatures that take on gaseous forms are magical too. As the primary color of different sections change it does sometimes take a moment to recognize who is who, since some of the main characters have similar haircuts. But it is not a problem often. The mystery of where Grace comes from and the serious trouble Mia goes to to reunite with her makes for a heartwarming conclusion.

Lady Astronaut Universe #4-4.5

 

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal (2025) 400 pages

Mary Robinette Kowal visited Left Bank Books here locally to promote this fourth novel in the series. I read my signed copy with much excitement. Astronaut Dr. Elma York is in a leadership role on the second Mars expedition. Most of the international crew are couples with professional skills to continue developing the habitat on the surface of Mars. The series of novels is alternative history beginning just after WWII. The events of this book take place in 1970. Kowal is great at details about what it would be like living in space in orbit or on the surface of Mars. The crew works really well together, but Dr. York begins to realize that something very wrong happened on the first Mars expedition. This past problem leads to a current problem in the technologically complex system of a Martian habitat.

"The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Mary Robinette Kowal (2014) 33 pages

This short story is the first thing Kowal wrote in this universe, featuring Dr. Elma York. Chronologically is takes place decades after the events of book four with Elma and her husband already longtime residents of Mars. It is a sad story as Elma's husband Nathaniel has diminishing health from a nerve disorder. I read it on Hoopla after The Martian Contingency. 

The Murderbot Diaries #6-7

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (2021) 168 pages 

System Collapse by Martha Wells (2023) 245 pages

 
As of now, this is the conclusion of the series. I continued with the same GraphicAudio editions with a full cast. I really enjoyed book 6. It is the most straightforward murder mystery of the series. The Sec Unit uses his skills to be a detective on Preservation Station with help from many returning characters. The security staff on the station does not often have to solve murders, so his surveillance and analysis skills are very helpful. Book 7 has the return of the AI ship system ART, who I suddenly realized was missing from the murder mystery adventure previously. This is the first time we really get to see what the Preservation crew does as they go on a planet survey mission. There are colonists, who have faced a dangerous alien contamination incident. Then they learn of a separate colony that the first colony has lost contact with. A small Preservation party travels across the planet to investigate. It becomes a competition to convince the people there that Preservation's humanitarian goals in connection with a University are better for them than the corporation Barish-Estranza's aim to enslave them. The corporation does not present their deal in those terms. Preservation's crew puts together a documentary. It has the excitement of "let's put on a show," but, of course, is more how do we present the most compelling facts to unselfishly help these isolated survivors. A good message to close this series, but I could see this series continuing.

The Murderbot Diaries #4-5

 

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (2018) 163 pages

Network Effect by Martha Wells (2020) 350 pages

As I mentioned, I'm continuing with the GraphicAudio editions on Hoopla narrated by David Cui Cui and a full cast. Book 4 Exit Strategy is my favorite so far. Instead of constantly introducing new episodic characters, characters from Book 1 return. Murderbot, the Sec Unit, has grown in his ability to maintain relationships somewhat. He's still anxious and cynical though. The book still has the same formula with action and futuristic corporate maneuvers. It feels good to check in with Dr. Mensah and her Preservation crew of non-corporate scientists. On audio the first four books are all under three hours. Book 5 Network Effect is over eight hours. The first full-length novel continues to have the Preservation crew working with MurderBot and developing deeper bonds together. Dr. Mensah's daughter is a major character. Plus ART, the AI of a spaceship, who might be "in love" with MurderBot, returns. More pages allow for more twists and turns in the plot with alien remnants and the constant threat of evil corp GrayCris. It is enjoyable, but doesn't quite reach the heights of Book 4.

The Murderbot Diaries #1-3

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2017) 152 pages

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (2018) 159 pages

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (2018) 150 pages

I really like the GraphicAudio dramatized adaptations available on Hoopla. They are narrated by David Cui Cui with a full cast of actors providing the other character voices. I'm going to make my way through the whole series because they are each short and that works for my commutes. Murderbot is an unnamed construct (part robot, part organic) Security Unit. Corporations are still very much in charge in this future. He was contracted for Security on a certain planet and under mysterious circumstances he murdered many people. After an attempted memory-wipe and going rogue, he is a free-agent Sec Unit with a lot of guilt. Murderbot is what he calls himself. No one else does. As a character, he is coded as being neurodivergent. He is always anxious and prefers watching media, particularly sci-fi serials, to in-person interactions. Each of these three novels contain some futuristic corporate intrigue and a couple scenes of laser gun action. Murderbot has a quirky way of looking at the world. He is the only recurring character. These three all feel a bit expositional. There is a larger hinted corporate conspiracy that may have major reveals in the fourth book, and characters from book one may return.
 

Time Enough for Love

Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long by Robert A. Heinlein  589 pp.

Lazarus Long (born Woodrow Wilson Smith) is the oldest person in the universe having lived many lifetimes on many worlds. His extended life of over 2000 years is a product of the Howard Families genetic experiments which are too convoluted to explain and I'm not sure I really understand it all. The story contains various episodes of his life with his wives and children mostly told by Long himself. To give a brief description of it is nearly impossible. I really enjoyed this book and rank it equal to, or even better than Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Published in 1973, Heinlein channels the sexual freedom that took hold in the late 1960s through the 1970s in the attitudes of the characters toward free love. I won't reveal the ending but it involves Long time traveling back to see his parents.

The Night Masquerade (Binti #3)

The Night Masquerade (Binti #3) by Nnedi Okorafor (2018) 208 pages

I finished the trilogy. The third audiobook on Hoopla was consistently narrated by Robin Miles. The second book left us with a cliffhanger when Binti received devastating news. I was a bit frustrated that this third one did not resolve this cliffhanger right away. Binti is deep in the desert with the Enyi Zinariya, the tribe of her father and grandmother. She is becoming close with Mwinyi, who is teaching her the ways of their unique harmonizing. She spends awhile in a trance-like state before returning home to find the destruction of her home. It turns out I was right to feel that the resolution at the end of the first book, which involved a treaty between the majority culture on Earth and the Meduse, was too easy. The antagonism between the two groups is not so simple to sweep away. The title The Night Masquerade refers to a mythical creature (actually a ceremonial role played by a Himba elder), who appears to Binti's people to signal societal change. In the Himba tradition, usually only men have a vision of the Night Masquerade, but Binti sees it three times. Using this as the title suggests an importance to this role, which I do not think was very successful. Characters are coping with death multiple times through the story and are moved to action for good or for ill because of it. Tribal clashes continue. Battles are threatened. Diplomacy seeks peace. Feelings of triumph and grief are mixed in a strange concoction. Then we are back in space and Binti's DNA goes through more modifications. Math continues to be a meditative and energizing force. Miracles are performed in ways you only see in fantasy/sci-fi. Ultimately Binti becomes a combination of skills and parts from all the different sources that have influenced her being. And aren't we all like that.

Home (Binti #2)

 

Home (Binti #2) by Nnedi Okorafor (2017) 176 pages

I continued the series with the next audiobook narrated by the same person, Robin Miles. I love the artwork on the cover of this one. Binti's former adversary Okwu, a Meduse, is now a good friend, almost a sibling. I did not grasp the change that happened to Binti near the end of the first novella, but it is clear now that she has been injected with some Meduse DNA, and her dreads are now freely moving Medusen tentacles. Binti and Okwu have spent a year at University building new lives amongst many different aliens. Binti feels called to return home for a cleansing pilgrimage. This middle part of the trilogy is really about how going away to college changes you and your home is not the comforting place you once knew. I relate to Binti's character so much. Meanwhile, the alien technology that Binti found when she was eight that came in so handy in the first book, which she has been learning to use at University, breaks. Binti's family is generally polite, but they still think of Okwu as a monster. Binti also learns about her family's bias against the more "savage" people who live in the desert hinterland. They are her father's people and they have different "harmonizer" abilities to communicate over great distances using alien nano-technology. There are some external plot developments, but we really delve into Binti's internal life, the rejection she feels from her family, the confusion she feels about her path.

Binti

 

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2015) 96 pages

I previously read Okorafor's memoir Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected about her personal experience as a teen star athlete who becomes paralyzed and finds purpose as a writer of science fiction, specifically africanfuturism.

I listened to the audiobook, the start of a trilogy, on Hoopla. It is narrated by Robin Miles. It is super short and sets up the characters and world in a way that leaves me wanting to find out what happens next. This is a story of diplomacy and stopping a war between alien species. Binti is from a desert community in Africa on Earth. Her peoples' culture and habits seem foreign to the Western majority culture. She loves mathematics and wants to go to the prestigious Oomza University on another planet. She is accepted, but all her friends and family discourage her because they think she will never truly be accepted as representing the larger Earth culture, so she runs away. The spaceship is a sort of living giant shrimp thing with hollow spaces for the humans to inhabit. Binti's new Uni life is interrupted en route by a Medusen attack. There has been a long-standing armed conflict between Earth's majority culture and the Meduse. I picture the Meduse as human-sized jellyfish. Binti's position as an outsider even among humans, coming from a long line of diplomats called "harmonizers," and an alien piece of tech that she does not completely understand makes her unique in position to stop more violence when the spaceship arrives at the University. We meet more diverse alien species at the University, and the resolution happens a bit too quickly. But, perhaps, it is the diversity that leads to quickly accepting the wrong that has been done, apologizing, and ending the war.

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 3: In Other Worlds

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 3: In Other Worlds by G. Willow Wilson with art by Christian Ward (2021) 128 pages

Several years ago I read G. Willow Wilson's complete run of Ms. Marvel graphic novels. This series looked really intriguing when it started in 2019, and it won a couple Eisner Awards. I love the marbled vibrant colors and the themes that Wilson explores in this sci-fi adventure. All three volumes are available on Hoopla. The back cover tagline and summary for Volume 3 bears repeating. 

"The Path of Most Resistance  

On the run through the darkest depths of the galaxy, Grix, Vess and the crew of the Sundog are captured by a faction of mysterious new Nones, and now, they'll have to face The Point of No Return."

From the beginning, the crew reminded me of a combination of the characters from the TV show Firefly and several characters from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The characters here are unique enough that the story is not a rehash of those other adventures. We are in a universe with a mono-religion that is mainstream, but also corrupted by its ties to a monopolistic corporation (like Amazon). This third volume especially incorporates elements that we all would recognize from the past few years of dealing with the pandemic, such as the reaction to interrupted supply chains despite record profits for the biggest corporations. All of our main characters discover that it is more important to do the right thing even when powerful religious or corporate entities encourage something else. The conclusion felt satisfying with Grix and Vess, our queer protagonists, saving the day and finding each other again.

 

The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, 222 pages

Last month's book for the Classics discussion group was The Martian Chronicles by Mr. Science Fiction himself, Mr. Ray Bradbury. This was my first time reading through the novel, though I recall reading some short stories in high school that I liked. However, if you're new to Bradbury et al., this is a great place to start. The book is comprised of several pieces--short, short stories, vignettes--some are only a page long. The entire thing is sort of a birds-eye-view on what would happen if we colonized Mars over the course of a few centuries. Bradbury really does a good job of just dropping the reader into the middle of an on-going story just before eking out some kind of twist or thought-provoking ending. Of course at the time, Bradbury had no idea what Mars was really like, so he had plenty of room to use his imagination and expand on some ideas that became the basis for most Mars-oriented material (aliens, mind control, etc). Flash-forward to The Martian by Andy Weir, and almost all of that old tchotchke kind of Martian fare is gone. But Martian Chronicles to me is kind of where man's love for Mars really began. I was making parallels to Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues, not in style or tone but really just in discovery. In this book, there's no singular character to follow, no real plot development, except that by the end it all, the reader should come away with a cautionary view of colonizing some one else's potential home. Really, this book speaks to ideas of anti-technology and unknown frontiers. Stories of note: Usher II, There Will Come a Soft Rains, The Third Expedition. Great for teens to adults. Recommended. 

Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, 478 pages

This is my second time through this book, and my thoughts haven't really changed since my first blog post on it last year. This time around, I read it for the Orcs & Aliens Book Group earlier this month, and wow, did we have fun chatting about this one! It was a great conversation about the nature of humanity, engineers, language, alien life, and space travel. SO GOOD.

Project Hail Mary

  Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, 478 pages.

I actually already reviewed this book last July! You can read that here. Overall my opinions about it are pretty much exactly the same, but with less surprise this time. One difference is that I was reading it with someone else (and in preparation to discuss it with more people) which definitely led to some interesting conversations. And I'm looking forward to more conversations with Orcs and Aliens tonight!
 

Chilling Effect

 Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdez, 448 pages.

Captain Eva Innocente is working very hard to keep her crew afloat doing strictly legal jobs (which pay much worse than the illegal kind). This resolve is severely tested when her sister is kidnapped by a sprawling criminal organization called "The Fridge," who have a habit of putting their victims in cryostasis. Now Eva has to do a series of dangerous jobs to pay her sister's ransom with the complications multiplying by the day, so it's only a matter of time until something gives.

This book is pretty much unbridled fun. It reminds me of an old serialized adventure story. It's not a book that takes itself to seriously, and asks the reader not to take it too seriously either (this is really hammered home by the time you hit a live T-Rex soap opera). If you're willing to suspend pretty much all disbelief and go along for the ride it's a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to talking about it at Orcs & Aliens next week. (Although the psychic cats feature less than I had hoped)

Goldilocks

 Goldilocks by Laura Lam, 340 pages.

Kara has actually written a couple of blog posts about this one, but the one with the plot summary is here. For another, even briefer summary, the blurb on the front describes this book as The Handmaid's Tale meets The Martian and I think that may be the most accurate crossover-style description I've ever read. 

It was also quite good. There were a few bits that were a little tough to buy, but overall it was both exciting and philosophically interesting. A really interesting read, and it was really fun to talk about with the Orcs and Aliens book group.

Goldilocks

Goldilocks by Laura Lam, 340 pages

I read this book about female astronauts stealing a spaceship last year, so I won't rehash the plot here. I read it again for our Orcs & Aliens discussion this past Monday, and I loved it both times. And it was great for discussion!

How to astronaut

 

How to astronaut: everything you need to know before leaving earth / Terry Virts, 319 pgs.

This is a personal story but also very educational.  Not many of us are going to get the opportunity to leave earth...but if you do, this gives you many hints and tips for your trip.  Virts spent an extended period on the space station but that wasn't his only space trip.  He has lot so experience and tells it how it is.  Yes, you learn about how the bathroom works (and how he had to fix it) but also a lot of more serious information for the future traveler. Fascinating stuff.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate

 To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers, 153 pages.

In this near-ish future version of Earth space travel has evolved to the point that instead of changing distant planets astronauts change themselves instead. A mission of four astronauts is sent to explore four terrestrial bodies orbiting a distant star, a round trip that the reality of physics assures will last longer than the lifespan of anyone they know on Earth. These astronauts, in a big twist on the genre, are not setting out to colonize distant worlds, but rather to observe and learn as much as possible while effecting the things they touch as little as possible. This novella is a long exploration of scientific discovery.

Much like Chambers' other novella that I read, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, this novella feels more like an idea than a story. It's a great idea, which makes this interesting reading, but it somehow doesn't feel quite complete. Still, the setting is super interesting, as are the questions it asks about science, ethics, and the nature of community. I need to get around to reading one of Chambers' full novels to see if this is universal for their style or just a common product of novellas.

Project Hail Mary

 

Project Hail Mary / Andy Weir, 476 pg.

Hell YES, Andy Weir is back!  Author of The Martian returns with his third book after a middling second book and all I can do is say Hail Mary!  This book is great. Our protagonist wakes up on a space ship on his way to save the world.  He can't remember much after being in a coma for several years of travel, unfortunately his fellow crew members did not survive.  Out there by himself, he is trying to find a solution to the problem of our sun being eaten.  In so many ways, the next sentences could be a spoiler.  Instead, I will tell you that there is a lot of fairly plausible science and a heart warming friendship in this story told in present day with flash backs to how we got there.  Fascinating stuff!

Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, 478 pages

When Ryland Grace wakes up from a coma, he has no idea who or where he is, much less why he's there. Slowly, however, things start to come back to him, and he soon discovers that he's the lone survivor on a "Hail Mary" mission to save Earth from a rapidly dimming sun. Oh, and that he's 12 lightyears from home, on his way to visit the star that may have some answers. But when he arrives, he finds out he's not quite as alone as he thought, as an alien ship has also come, possibly for the same reasons that he has. Soon, what started as an apocalyptic survival story becomes a first contact story...but without forgetting that first part.

After a second novel that only diehard heist fans would like (me. this is me), Weir has returned to form with Project Hail Mary. It's full of the hard science and humor that made The Martian such a success, this time tinged with compassion and creativity that we hadn't seen before. I absolutely loved this book, and it's well worth the hold list.