artsy musings of a bibliophile

sci-fi month

2015 YA Sci-Fi to Look Forward to

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It’s always fun to see what sci-fi trends are popular in a certain year. In 2013, it was mainly about time travel with popular releases like Cristin Terrill’s All Our Yesterdays, Kasie West’s Pivot Point, and Lauren Miller’s Parallel and a comeback of dystopia with Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave, and Alexandra Bracken’s continuation of The Darkest Minds series with Never Fade and Amy Tintera’s Reboot.

In 2014, YA sci-fi releases had varying degrees of success, some were hyped too much others not at all and most involved a group working towards a common goal. Duology starters like Mindee Arnett’s Avalon and Claudia Gabel and Cheryl Klam’s Elusion failed to impress many readers while, Sophie Jordan’s Uninvited fast-paced story kept us hooked and Melissa Landers’ Alienated slowly build up to its finale. Others like Marissa Meyer’s Cress, Erika O’Rourke’s Dissonance and Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s This Shattered World have been included in the highly anticipated lists of many.

What does 2015 have in store for all of us? I compiled a list of top sci-fi to look out for next year.


Sci-Fi Series Starters

Series starters are roughly mentioned according to their release dates. I just hope the ones without any don’t get pushed back to 2016 because hello, awesome book blurbs!

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton – More fantasy than sci-fi, Seeker has already been optioned by Columbia Pictures. Seeker follows a female assassin who travels the globe from Scotland to Hong Kong. I expect great things.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab – This is much more of sci-fi fantasy with magic, parallel worlds and time travel and a protagonist named Kell who’s a smuggler. Hello, new series with a treacherous main character, I think I’m going to love you seeing as the 150-page preview blew my mind.

Dove Arising by Karen Bao -Initially, this book had an awesome cover and I wanted to read it mainly because of that. Sadly, they changed it

The Cage by Megan Shepard – A half dozen teenagers trapped in a human zoo which is controlled by an otherworldly race known as Kindred.

The Leveller by Julia Durango – Fall into a brand new series about Nixy whose job is to be a bounty-hunter with a twist. Dragging kids from virtual reality back into real life should be easy enough but not when the game’s billionaire developer’s son, Wyn, goes missing.

After the Red Rain by Barry Lyga, Rob DeFranco and Peter Facinelli – This is probably going to be a series and from the intel I’ve gathered, it’s supposed to be a huge dystopian hit. I get Barry Lyga but co-authoring are a director and Carlisle from Twilight? Do I want to read this? From what we do know about After the Red Rain, it’s that the protagonist is a boy name Rose who lives in a world that’s environmentally collapsing and discovers he has inhuman powers. Pretty standard dystopia however, I will admit that anything with environmental in it gets me every time.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – There’s so much hype regarding Illuminae and for once, I think it’s well-deserved because have you read These Broken Stars and Stormdancer? Illuminae follows a hacker and her ex-boyfriend on a fleet who team up to uncover the the truth behind the plague ravaging it.

The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight – Already optioned by Lionsgate, The Outliers includes a psychological weapon called EQ Transference and the group which calls itself the Outliers and is set in a utopian world.

Passenger by Alexadra Bracken – The news about Bracken’s new series came at the right time as her highly acclaimed The Darkest Minds series came to an end this year. Passenger follows a modern teen’s accidental discovery of her ability to time-travel and involves a treasure hunt. Fun times ahead.

Futuristic Stand Alones

Everyone likes a standalone now and then and good stand alones are getting increasingly hard to find. Hopefully that won’t be the case next year.

The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick – Spanning from seventeenth century to 1920s and ending in a spaceship voyage to another another world, The Ghosts of Heaven promises a lot of things. The fact that there aren’t many historical sci-fi in the young adult genre makes it all that more enticing to look forward to.
The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons – A sci-fi dystopia which I thought was going to be a series but apparently it’s not? The Glass Arrow takes place in a world where women are auctioned off to the highest bidder and must run to survive.
The Memory Key by Liana Lu – Lora Mint lost her mother five years ago and now she’d have lost her memories due to the Vergets disease, a viral form of Alzheimer’s, if not for the memory key. But when her it goes haywire, Lora remembers a moment that puts everything into question. Lu’s debut aims to question the significance and consequences attached with out ever-increasing need for technology.

Duplicity by N. K. Traver – Duplicity has hacking plastered all over it. It’s a digital hell for Brandon when his reflection starts moving with a mind of its own. Now that’s scary and exciting as hell!

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley – Despite being primarily fantasy, Magonia has sci-fi elements as it takes place in a land of trading ships. With a gorgeous cover and a promising story, Magonia is set to enchant its readers.
5 to 1 by Holly Badger – Another futuristic The Handmaiden’s Tale-esque story where the ratio of girls to boys is 5 to 1. In a twist, the women decide to institute a series of tests for the boys to win wives instead of marrying them of to the highest bidders. Girl power, yo.

Illusionarium by Heather Dixon – Illusionarium follows an apprentice scientist who’s desperate to save his family. There are parallel worlds and humor and who doesn’t want to read a book like this.
Tracked by Jenny Martin – Tracked introduces rally racing in the world of science fiction. But really, what more do you really need when there are fast cars involved? The cover could’ve been better, though.

Armada by Ernest Cline – If you haven’t read Ready Player One yet, now’s the time to do it. The highly anticipated sophomore novel is releasing four years after Cline’s groundbreaking debut. Armada introduces us to Zack Lightman who discovers that the videogame he is so obsessed with is real and that Earth needs his help to defend itself from a possible alien invasion. I want.

The Good Ol’ Sequels

I thought about not including this category but hello, it just means that we all get to get excited about these all over again heee. Here goes.

Fairest and Winter by Marissa Meyer – The fact that there will be two Marissa Meyer books releasing next year makes it worth the wait. First we get Queen Levana’s story in January which sets the scene for Winter releasing in November 2015. Excite, much? Hell. Yes.

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson – The sequel to Steelheart got pushed back to January 2015 from its initial release date of November 20th, 2014. The good news is that the early reviews suggest it’s a classic Sanderson awesomeness.
Unleashed by Sophie Jordan – The action-packed duology finale to Uninvited finds Davy on the run from government agents. What will her fate be?
Unchanged by Jessica Brody – Unchanged promises to reveal the the reality of Diotech along with secrets, and enemies unheard of before.
End of Days by Susan Ee – If you haven’t read Angelfall and World After, you fail at life. End of Days is an I-just-know-it’s-going-to-be-epic finale to Penryn’s story and that’s all we really know. Here’s to more from the story in Raffe’s point of view maybe?
More series continuations and finales to look forward to are Aimee Carter’s The Blackcoat Rebellion’s third installation titled Queen, Lindsay Cummings The Death Code, Lydia Kang’s Catalyst, Erin Bowman’s Forged, Anna Jarzeb’s Tether, Mindee Arnett’s Polaris, Claudia Gabel and Cheryl Klam’s Etherworld, and Jennifer Rush’s Reborn.
What are you looking forward to in 2015 (which is only a month away eep)?

Hello There, Sci-Fi

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Take out your light sabers ’cause it’s that time of the year again. Last year, the month long event was hosted by Rinn and this year it’s being co-hosted by her and Oh, the Books!

Like last year, I wouldn’t be posting as much as I’ve yet to write the posts despite having written all my ideas down. I’m not a hardcore sci-fi reader or sci-fi anything, to be honest. Yet I do enjoy the genre thoroughly and some of my favorite movies are sci-fi like Inception, Avatar, The Adjustment Bureau, and Megamind. When it comes to books, I only recently read Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One before which I’ve only read YA sci-fi and Dan Brown books. I guess I got too distracted by YA fantasy to read much of anything? Oops. But sci-fi fantasy counts so it’s all good.

My plans for celebration of sci-fi aren’t as ambitious as they were last year because I always fail. Darn it.

Sci-Fi on a Screen

For all my love for the genre, there are some essential sci-fi movies I haven’t yet watched but really want to. I’m planning to watch all the X-Men movies and whoa, there are a lot of them (meaning that I might not watch all seven of them).

X-Men
X2

X-Men: The Last Stand
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men: First Class

The Wolverine
X-Men: Days of Future Past

And oh, I’d be continuing watching Doctor Who.

Sci-Fi in Graphics

It’s my goal this year to read at least one manga and I think I’ll go for sci-fi fantasy graphic novels. I was a huge Archie Comics reader and then I just drifted into the world of books without any illustrations.

The Wicked + The Divine Volume 1 by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie – This I really want to read because it’s totally calling to me.
Saga Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – Everyone raves about this graphic novel series and now I’m curious.

Sci-Fi to Read

There are some YA titles that I’ve been saving up to read in November which is basically Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles. I’d be rereading Cinder because I really want to and Fairest releases in January so it also helps with that.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (reread)

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Cress by Marissa Meyer

Sci-Fi to Post

My plans are still under wraps so stay tuned!

Do you like sci-fi? Are you taking part in Sci-Fi November? What are some of your favorite sci-fi reads?

O Good Scientist, Where Art Thou?

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Science is wonder. Science is life-saving. Science is golden. Scientists are- wait those are simply evil; especially in fiction. Aren’t they supposed to reveal the bad, the worse and the worst that scientists are capable of in the real world? Yes? No? What even?
Most good scientists are portrayed as aliens in science fiction. Spock (Star Trek), a half-Martian, science officer aboard the Enterprise. The Doctor (Doctor Who), an alien who relies heavily on science on his adventures. Liet-Kyne (Dune), a planetologist on planet Arrakis. Science in fiction, however, does portray scientists whose purpose is to explain the science because who’s going to believe non-scientists?

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A villain is a welcome distraction from the onslaught of heroes upon heroes in fiction, but a villain who is a scientist is simply an evil genius. Intellectually obsessed, morally crippled and emotionally detached, scientists know what the stakes are; in fact, they thrive on them. What could be better than this? Even the best of them are misguided in their intentions. The worst, come hell or high water, just want to take over the world. 
Did Dr. Frankenstein create a monster or he himself is one? The morals of Dr. Jekyll are tested to the extreme when he struggles between his good and evil selves. Why are scientists becoming more and more amoral in fiction? What is the science that decides what image of the scientist to represent? Could this be based on theories that were defied over and over only to have them proven true decades later? Galileo was suspected of heresy when his theory of how the earth moves around the sun was made public knowledge. Nikola Tesla’s peculiar nature gave him the image of a mad scientist. Einstein’s theories were regarded as highly controversial at first. Did all of this lead to scientists finding a common ground with their evil intentions in fiction? Or is it because villainy is best suited to the intellectuals?
There are good and bad sides of everything so why a scientist must be regarded with suspicion over his desire and curiosity to know more about the natural world? Why must they be the Faustians of the world; dissatisfied with their lives to the point that it drives them to sell their moral integrity in exchange for unlimited knowledge? Unless they have an agenda of their own, scientists are generally ignored in fiction. In the real world, we are grateful to science for making our lives easier than ever but in fiction, evil inventions and horrendous experiments are carried out for the greater good.

Roslynn D. Haynes says it best in her book, From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature:

“With the exception of the superficial characters of much science fiction, the dominant picture has been of scientists who recapitulate the unflattering stereotypes of earlier centuries – the evil scientist, the stupid scientist, the inhuman scientist – or, as a peculiarly 20th-century contribution, the scientist who has lost control over his discovery.”

Do you think there is a lack of good scientists in science fiction? Or am I being delusional like I usually am? (No, I’m not). Seriously though, tell me what you think.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Starters in YA Science Fiction

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Science fiction is currently divided into a dozen sub-genres which means that there’s something for everyone. So I decided to pick up ten of the most popular titles that YA science fiction has to offer. There are no descriptions because it’s all pretty self-explanatory.

So have you read any of these? If not, do you plan to?

Essentials of Science Fiction

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There is no one universally-accepted definition of science fiction and as the genre develops more and more, sprouting new sub-genres; the present definitions are blurred even further. Today, I talk about the science of fiction that turns it into science fiction.
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A SENSE OF WONDER

The concept of space and time is as old as the Big Bang itself and cocooned in our own world, we often tend to forget how vast it really is. As children, we used to find wonder in the every little thing, our curiosity spilling out in the form of endless questions. But as we get older, that curiosity is curbed to a great extent. We become overwhelmed with living our lives where studying and working are the top priorities. We simply lose the sense of wonder so much so that we wouldn’t mind going through sensory overload once in a while. 
Good science fiction contains an element of wonder; there’s always something we haven’t come across yet., something that hasn’t given away wonder in order to become mundane. A new possibility. A beginning of what-if. Something that pokes at your beliefs. We know it isn’t real but entranced by the possibility, the implications of the action being taken, the immense plot revealed for the reader in all its glory; we develop a sense of wonder.

PLOT REVELATIONS

There’s always the question of whether the plot will manage to leave us in shock and awe. This is a turning point in any science fiction because it tests the reader as much as it tests the character because both are experiencing the full force of it for the first time (usually). It can end either way. Probably why there are so many things one can simply love or hate, there’s no inbetween with them. It’s like the fate of the world depends in the hands of an 11-year-old Ender and everything is alright in the world again.

Or not.

The worst case scenario is when the revelation just leaves you indifferent. You cannot bring yourself to care no matter what you do. All you can think is why would any reasonable person do this. The fate of the world cannot depend on an 11-year-old Ender because duh.

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THE MYSTERY ELEMENT

Science delves into mysteries all the time whether it’s testing out a new technology or developing a cure for cancer. Science fiction works the same way. Sometimes it’s better to tell the backstory than to show it. The mystery can either be about what’s going on with the story of the characters in it as long as the reader doesn’t lose interest. If the execution is done right, our curiosity is fed.

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PLAUSIBILITY

It’s always been said that there’s only so much you can read about until it turns into a cliche. Science fiction hasn’t escaped that fact but this doesn’t mean that readers don’t want plausibility. I’d like to think that there’s a reasonable explanation, a science behind it all. Questions are just the beginning. As a reader, I want the book I’m reading to make me curious and not just gloss over the details to get to the romance or the main conflict.

Scientific plausibility is a plus in science fiction. Sometimes, TV shows and movies ignore it which only angers hardcore sci-fi fans. We all know time travel isn’t possible (yet) but if there’s a possible explanation of it, I’d like to know!

(This is not to say that I will hate a book if it doesn’t explain the science properly because a chance of it really happening on earth is really no comparison to teleporting but that doesn’t make teleporting any less awesome.)

EMOTIONAL PUNCH

You’re reading a science fiction book which has everything. An absolute sense of wonder about the setting, the plot reveal shatters your illusions about life, the mystery is too hard to handle and it feels like something that could totally happen right now- but the main character is a drab. Instead of the book giving you the emotional punch, you want to give the main character a kick in the gut. You’re baffled because the concept is out-of-this-world good but the character is ruining everything for you. You’re not emotionally invested, there’s no moment happening and you feel like you don’t care about the stakes because you don’t know their importance.
That’s the power of emotion; it can make or break a science fiction for you. Pixar knows it.
Oh, WALL-E… *goes into a corner and sobs* Source