Who else is excited for the The Captive's War series coming out next week? The Expanse novels really established my love for the space opera genre and today I just found out about The Mercy of the Gods. Even better, to find out that it's out on Tuesday is like Christmas. I'm sure many of you knew that already but I genuinely haven't been this excited for a new book since Pierce Brown's Lightbringer.
Some of the reviews by his peers are looking really positive as well.
“James S. A. Corey serves up terrifying alien overlords and a vast intergalactic war with humankind on the brink of annihilation—all while never losing focus on its cast of vulnerable, courageous characters. The Mercy of Gods is the start of something truly epic.” ―Fonda Lee, author of Jade City
“A fast-paced, intelligent book. Corey is always one of the most engaging voices in the genre.”―Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time
“All the things you want in an alien invasion novel: overwhelming aliens, end-of-world terror, and plucky humans who never stop fighting. If that was all there was, The Mercy of Gods would be great, but amid the mayhem James S. A. Corey also manages to weave in a closely observed study of the small things that make us human: our loves and jealousies, our foibles and weaknesses, our empathy and our resilience. A bang-up read. I want more.”―Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Windup Girl
"No one builds a universe like James S. A. Corey. The Mercy of Gods is wilder and weirder than you can imagine, and when it ends, all you'll want is... more."―John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author
I haven’t read a ton of science fiction but mostly thanks to Adrian Tchaikovsky I’ve been getting into it a bit more lately. I’m looking for more books with the trope of a really tight knit crew. Two examples that I’ve read that come to mind are Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Final Architecture series and JS Morin’s Galaxy Outlaws.
My dream is something halfway between the two. Galaxy Outlaws is more of the vibe I’m looking for: lower narrative stakes (i.e. not galaxy-ending threats), story mostly follows the crew of one ship, they don’t really care where their next job comes from or how legal it is. Final Architecture is closer to the actual crew dynamics I want: ride or die found family type thing, they all mostly just want to survive and be left alone (Galaxy Outlaws has this too but the crew isn’t nearly as close).
For reference some of my favorite fantasy series that include something similar are The Black Company, the Bridgeburners from Malazan, the Fellowship of the Ring (obv), Kelsier’s crew in Mistborn, The Gentleman Bastards.
Hoping you guys have something great for me. I’m also very much open to must-read sci fi recs in general!
A while ago, like one or two years I read a story and I can't find it / the author, I didn't like it but after some years I'm willing to give the author another try, however I can't for the life of me remember the name.
So, the gist of it the story is about a guy (I think a soldier) who crashes into an alien planet, where he finds the alien species (Of anthropomorphic cat people) his world is fighting has also crashlanded there too; he encounters one of the furry women and during a fight he tries to communicate and ends accidentally proposing being mates; after he wins she introduces him to the rest of the surviving alien crew and in order to increase their survival / rescue odds they choose to ally, interspecies romance / harem ensues.
That's most of what I remember, thanks in advance to the kind soul that finds it!
Edit1: So, I remembered a bit more about the story, the Catwomen are one petite girl, a tomboy and a milf if I'm not mistaken, and although I don't know the order in which these things happen I'm fairly positive these things went down:
1-MC goes back to the Catwomen's ship to retrieve some Macguffin in order to contact humanity and has to use a radiation suit.
2-At some point they encounter a sentient native species on the planet, they attempt to communicate and establish peace.
3-MC goes back into their own ship for medical supplies for one of the Catwomen I think.
4-The milf tells MC that if he doesn't fuck the girls they will attempt to assasinate him for some reason.
5-MC and girls are moving their camp somewhere else, and MC uses some drugs that can keep him awake for 48 hours to stay viligant while the Catwomen sleep.
6-Milf somehow knew there could be sentient lifeforms in the planet (I think, she also knew waaaaay more than the other 2 girls)
Aaaand that all i remember for now I think.
If I remember more of the story I'll keep you updated!
So, the gist of it the story is about a guy (I think a soldier) who crashes into an alien planet, where he finds the alien species (Of anthropomorphic cat people) his world is fighting has also crashlanded there too; he encounters one of the furry women and during a fight he tries to communicate and ends accidentally proposing being mates; after he wins she introduces him to the rest of the surviving alien crew and in order to increase their survival / rescue odds they choose to ally, interspecies romance / harem ensues.
That's most of what I remember, thanks in advance to the kind soul that finds it!
What are some recent short stories and emerging writers that more people should know about? If you have links to read, please share!
I came across the narrated HFY Sci-Fi stories on YouTube quite by accident and I am curious what the larger Sci-Fi community on Reddit thinks of them.
On a purely technical level, they are rather well done, though the illustrations can seem suspiciously repetitive and generic.
The stories too as well.
I think space opera with a human focus is much more entertaining and effective when less rigidly bound to the formulas used here.
