Five Sci-Fi Things I'm Currently Loving

I've been on quite the hiatus from this blog, attending to all sorts of new, exciting projects. For starters, I've been chugging along on the first book of my series of sci-fi adventure novels, hitting the halfway point last week. I've also been writing a number of DC projects, include Suicide Squad: Most Wanted, which hits stores this August. I've got a good deal of other things rolling in the DCU, I just can't talk about them quite yet. 

In the spaces between all this work, I've occasionally had time to pick up a book, watch a show, or read a comic. As I have a nice window to come up for air, I figured I'd share five things that I've found to be especially noteworthy (and that prove that I sorta still live like a human being and not just a writer monkey). So, let's go to the list!

1. Bloodline by Claudia Gray: Can I first, just for a moment, take this opportunity to express how much I love Claudia Gray? Where do I even start? 

First of all, her YA series, Firebird, is amazing. It's fun, exciting, and filled with the perfect amount of sci-fi and adventure. Gray's characters--whether in her own fiction or in the Star Wars universe--leap off the page, and are immediately endearing, complex, and immensely likable, and A Thousand Pieces of You (the first book in the Firebird series) is Gray at her best. 

Also, about Gray--she may have written my favorite Star Wars book of all time with Lost Stars, and that's saying quite a bit, as I've read A LOT of Star Wars books. Lost Stars has everything I want from a Star Wars story, and I never thought it could be equalled until...

Bloodline. Someone once said how The Force Awakens is practically a miracle, in terms of how well it rivals the original films, how many things it gets right, and the sheer number of perfect moments it captures. I agree, and I feel similarly about Bloodline. Gray manages to do the unthinkable, and that's make Star Wars politics riveting (and also salient to our current political climate). Don't get me wrong, I love the prequels. I'll defend them any day of the week and twice on Sunday. But, I don't think they managed to capture the Star Wars political world in the way they were intended to. Bloodline, though, completely nails it--the story is crisp, clear, and captivating. And the handling of Leia's character couldn't have been better if Leia had written this book herself. There's a simple conceit at the heart of this book--and I won't give it away--but Gray handles it with absolute perfection, delivering a moment all fans have probably wondered about but never thought they'd see play out. 

I can't recommend Bloodline, or Gray's work enough. 

2. Dark Matter on SyFy: With the season two premiere right around the corner, I've gone back for a rewatch of season one, and I've found it even more satisfying than the first time around. What I might love most about this show is that there's the right amount of sci-fi campiness to it that the cast and crew fully embrace. While it has plenty of gravitas, the show allows itself enough humor to find this unusual sweet spot between a Saturday afternoon syndication romp and prestige sci-fi. What's really great is that both aspects catch you by surprise. Dark Matter starts as an incredibly well-executed thrill ride, but it evolves into something much more, taking some really interesting twists and turns along the way. The cast does a tremendous job rolling with the places the story leads them (which I won't spoil here), and it's refreshing to see writers willing to take some big chances that lead to some interesting and original places. 

Season two starts in July, I believe, and the first season is streaming on Netflix. 

3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: Somehow, I totally missed this book as a kid. Had someone given it to me when I was 13, i probably would've read it 50 times by now (that distinction is reserved for Slaughterhouse-Five). I'm only halfway through the book, and I'm already feverishly trying to plot when I can carve out time to read more books in the series (though I'm not at all sure if they're any good). I'm fascinated by Ender, and I want to immerse in his world--I can't help it that I'm a sucker for "but what's really going on?" stories. So much of it feels authentic, from Ender's experiences to the power struggles between the students to the world they're inhabiting. And Peter's ambition to rule the world through the manipulation of rhetoric and political gamesmanship couldn't come at a more relevant--and frightening--time. 

I'm probably not opening anyone's eyes with this selection, as I may be the oldest nerd ever to read it for the first time, but for what it's worth, I'm enjoying Ender's world. 

4. Space Dumplins by Craig Thompson: I picked this up for my oldest son, and I think I ended up enjoying it more than he did (though our enjoyment of the fart jokes in the story was neck and neck). I love this kind of story, and I wish there was more of it. It hit all the right notes concerning family, friendship, loyalty, overcoming fear, overcoming the odds, all those evergreen story beats and themes that, when done right, can make a story soar. And Craig Thompson, to say the least, does so much right in this book. The story itself, centering on one girl's journey through the galaxy to find her father, is incredibly rich and imaginative, with great characters and some wonderful heartwarming moments. And Thompson's art--I can't even begin to praise his craft enough. Every moment pops off the page with exuberance, making it a joy to read. 

5. Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn: Okay, this technically isn't sci-fi, it's more fantasy/folklore/myth, but WOW is it good. I picked this book up without knowing a thing about it--I think what drew me to it was the stunning cover (I know, I know, books and covers), which is nearly identical in design to one of my favorite book series in recent years, The Southern Reach Trilogy--and I'm thrilled that I did. In a nutshell, the book concerns a diverse cast of characters in feudal Japan, all vying for their lands and empires amidst significant turmoil. There's magic, there's warfare, there's mystery--it feels like an epic poem, swordplay, tragedy, and all. It has rich characters and Hearn does a masterful job building her universe and tying a lot of plot threads together into one mesmerizing whole. 

Emperor of the Eight Islands is the first book in a series, and I can't recommend it higher.  Book two was released about two weeks ago, and it's sitting on my shelf, begging to be devoured.