Reading List: Summer Science Fiction Books

18th-century pirates, in space, on wooden ships. This books is the most inventive and interesting science fiction that I’ve read in a long time. It’s crazy, and boisterous, and wonderful. This is a fantastic book for summer reading. The story tells how our distant future overlaps with a past from an alternate time line, and how these two stories intertwine and overlap. The entire trilogy is worth reading, and this is the one to start. I really don’t want to ruin too much - but if you’re in for a really interesting and non-traditional science fiction story, this is a seafaring space odyssey that you’ll certainly enjoy.

This book has far reaching ideas and ambitions for exploring our society. Generations ago, a ship was launched to the Tau Ceti system to setup colonies in a habitable system. This books starts with the generation that will finally arrive. We loosely follow the explorations of Freya, the daughter of the chief engineer. She travels throughout the ship, and provides us a way to see the struggles of this microcosm of humans. The book has a few pacing issues, but the stories overcome this and are human and interesting. The challenges that this group faces and the questions of what it means to have a home have stayed with me far longer than many of the books I’ve read recently.

A group has arrived on a new planet, 15 years too early and with only half of their training. An ad-hoc leader named Porter struggles as he realizes his responsibilities on this world. A second group explores the world, and begins to uncover the truth of why they are on the planet. This one is written like a screenplay, with good pacing, rapid character development, and a narrative story that moves along quickly. This is a quick and enjoyable read.

This book feels shorter than it’s 258 pages. This is the story of a lighthouse operator that operates outside of an asteroid field along an important trade route. He lives and works in this isolated part of the galaxy, far from the wars that are raging across other inhabited systems. He struggles with his own sanity, his history, and his role that he plays in the future of humankind. This is an unexpected book that delves into his psyche as much as the science. It’s a little dark, but the humor and love story that are carried throughout the novel keep it from being too gloomy.

This is a techno-thriller as much as science fiction. The book struggles a little with similar characters that I had to work to keep track of, and this certainly feels like an authors early work. But the storyline is original and interesting, involving genetic research, the history of human, and the possibilities of vast changes in the near future. This is all set in Indiana Jones style adventuring, kidnapping, and diabolical villains and secret societies. It all adds up to light and fast paced storytelling that I thoroughly enjoyed.

You must think I’m crazy by now. This is an imaginative book that examines our interaction with technology. This is a solid story that takes the protagonist to New Pennsylvania, where the Amish will help settle this new world. This story of settlement is has great characters, a little humor, and a fascinating storyline as the protagonist struggles to find his place and the truth about this new reality.

A nano-technology has brought about famine, war, and a horrifying future. Jeff Carlson writes thoroughly enjoyable novels, and while not being among some list of Great Works of Literature, this is a fun book. The main characters go on adventures amongst a civil war and collapsed civilization to uncover the truth about this plague. We meet interesting pockets of survivors and explore the challenges that we will all face when this civilization finally falls apart. This is book one of a trilogy, and the entire collection is worth reading. This book in particular will make a really exciting movie - and that alone makes it perfect for this list.

Alexis Vonderach and a team of engineers explore a tunnel system under the ice of Europa. They discover hieroglyphics and an unfathomably strange civilization. It is rare that an author can create an interesting alien civilization that it not anthropomorphic - an alien that is completely alien and yet we as readers can empathize with. This book captured me, and I read the full trilogy. There’s some great science in both the space travel and in the technology to explore Europa and the details are interesting without being overly detailed. This started as a short story and there are some leaps and details made that do feel like filler material. But, the overall quality and impression of this book make it a great summer read.

This is a young adult novel, and as such makes this fantastic beach reading! This isn’t a complicated book, and is science fiction almost entirely because of its setting in the dystopian future. In the US Gulf Coast region, abandoned oil tankers are being dismantled for parts. This is the story of a young ship breaker that discovers a boat and a young woman held captive on it. I won’t ruin the rest. Bacigalupi does a great job looking at the extreme poverty of the ship breakers, and tells a worthwhile tale of adventure.

Engineered humans have been created in a distant future Thailand, where industrial society has come crashing down among energy shortages, poverty, and agricultural blight. Calories have become the new currency and measure of wealth, and the gene hacking empires rule the world. This book is gritty and grim, and is the first book I’ve read in a long time that feels like early William Gibson. This book has a complex plot, and complex characters, and forced me to read it over almost a year. I needed time to process it. This post-oil world is fascinating, and his world building is top-notch. The book has several overlapping story lines, and exists in this rich future history that feels both real and authentic. This book is currently a single novel, but leaves enough story open to either frustrate the reader, or excite us for a possible trilogy.

The book begins with Terminator, a city on Mercury. This is among the harder science fiction on the list, for it is based on world building technology and the technology plays a larger roll in the story. The detailed construction of this world is fascinating to me, and serves as a great backdrop for the story of mystery and investigation. This isn’t a book to be taken on lightly, it drags on at times. His exploration of what Earth may be like in 300 years feels authentic. Overall the science and the world building kept this one on my list.