Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
“Bear, then, offers plenty of big, bold, fascinating ideas in a narrative that culminates in a double showdown with a dazzling array of said thoughtful beings…. Impressive at the core. Readers who relished the Jacob’s Ladder trilogy will certainly enjoy this one.” — Kirkus
Library Journal’s Best Books 2018 includes both Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (the fourth book in the Murderbot Diaries), and The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal!
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
“In this highly original novel by Lee (the Machineries of Empire series for adults), 13-year-old Min must venture to the stars of the Thousand Worlds in order to find her older brother, Jun, who is suspected of deserting the Space Forces to search for the legendary Dragon Pearl. Min’s quick wits and technical prowess come in handy, but it’s her abilities as one of the fox people to shape-shift and charm others that prove vital after she leaves her home planet of Jinju aboard the freighter Red Azalea. When her brother’s former ship rescues the vessel from mercenaries, she poses as slain cadet Bae Jang, promising his ghost that she will avenge his death in exchange for impersonating him on the ship. Disguised as the dead cadet, Min is able to continue both quests, enlisting the aid of two of Bae’s friends—female dragon Haneul and nonbinary goblin Sujin—all the while avoiding the scrutiny of Captain Hwan as the ship heads to the Ghost Sector, the probable location of the Dragon Pearl. Lee offers a perfect balance of space opera and Korean mythology with enough complexity to appeal to teens.” — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
“Martha Wells’s EXIT STRATEGY (Tor.com) is the fourth and final part of her brilliant Murderbot Diaries, a series of far-future novellas set in a universe worn out by corporate indifference and bureaucratic inertia. A single grumpy security unit—Murderbot—fights for life, liberty, and the pursuit of hours and hours of soap operas. The first book, “All Systems Red,” won both Nebula and Hugo Awards this year and is definitely the place to start.
I came late to these novellas, and during a difficult month this year I read almost nothing else. Murderbot’s voice, a beautiful blend of exhausted cynicism and deep, helpless love, was the only thing that felt like both a match to my mood and an appropriate response to the events provoking it. Murderbot has no illusions about the way the world works and will say so blisteringly, but remains so passionately committed to the people it loves and doing what’s right that I kept welling up in response. Its angry, poignant point of view, wrapped up in sharp, short bites of space adventure, is utterly addictive, and I’m genuinely delighted—as well as a little relieved—that the series’ success has greenlit a full-length Murderbot novel, so that I don’t yet have to bid it goodbye.” — New York Times
The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson is on the Tor.com Reviewers’ Choice list for 2018! Congratulations, Seth!
