BookOwl

  3.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* The Supernova Era was a complicated read for me. On the one hand, I think it was as thought-provoking as Liu’s previous works, such as The Three Body Problem , but that the characterization was superficial and the book’s timeline a bit muddled. That’s why my rating is at 3.5 stars. It got rounded up to 3.5 for the story’s conceptual framework. A massive star eight light years from Earth—practically in our stellar neighborhood—ends its life in a powerful supernova, transforming into a neutron star. In the process of the supernova, the star sends an intense jet of radiation that ends up hitting Earth and messing a bunch of things up.  If you recall from your biology classes, radiation is bad for living things, damaging the DNA. The fact of Earth’s magnetosphere protects us from most of this harmful cosmic radiation and helps keep our atmosphere from being stripped away. Two particularly important things we need to live, aside from water and food....

4/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* I was a huge fan of The Priory of the Orange Tree , so I knew I had to read its prequel, A Day of Fallen Night . Taking place 500 years before the events of The Priory , Samantha Shannon adds a stellar addition to her “The Roots of Chaos” series. Because this book is tasked with filling in the puzzle pieces readers wondered at in the events of Priory , it’s a bit of a slow-burn to the action, but by no means does this take away from the outstanding story and complex characters contained in its pages. We see Glorian Berethnet, ancestor to Queen Sabran the Ninth of Inys, struggling with the obligation to bear an heir to continue the line that is supposed to keep the Nameless One from returning. (Readers who’ve read Priory know that the whole foundation of the Berethnet dynasty is built on lies, but alas, tradition runs strong.) “Can you imagine what that’s like – to be seen only for the life you could make, not the life you already possess?” To the so...

  4/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* As I come to the closing of the “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy, there’s a part of me that’s still left in the epic space opera penned by Cixin Liu. Among those who have hopped and skipped across the timeline of events in the past three books, is aerospace engineer Chang Xin, who is awakened in the “Deterrence Era” after being put under hibernation in our present (the 21 st century). She was part of a secret program known as the Staircase Project that sent an emissary of humanity on a probe to meet the Trisolaran fleet. Upon her awakening, she is disappointed to learn that no one has heard anything back from the Trisolarans about coming upon such a probe. This whole series has been about humanity leaving Earth to explore the Solar System and beyond and coming to learn that the universe is a hostile “dark forest” in which there are players big and small warring it out for survival. Chang Xin unwittingly finds herself at the center of the ong...

  If you're looking for science fiction with a more intellectual bent, here are a few suggestions to start: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu The Three Body Problem  by Chinese science fiction writer Cixin Liu is the first in a trilogy named “Remembrance of Earth’s Past.” The three-body problem in physics describes the mathematical difficulty of predicting the motion of three gravitationally bound bodies. This book primarily takes place in China, starting during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when intellectuals were persecuted in a wider attack against capitalism by communists.   The book starts with a physicist, Ye Wenjie, who goes to work at the Red Coast Base radio astronomy laboratory to protect herself from Cultural Revolution persecution and makes a fateful discovery that will change the course of humanity forever. It then jumps 40 years into the present, when the scientific community is facing a crisis over fundamental science seeming to unravel during a ...

  4/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* The Dark Forest is the second book in Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” series. I felt that it was a bit denser of a read than the previous book. Plus, with the constant time jumps as our protagonists wake up after being put in hibernation, I understand The Dark Forest is doing a bunch of heavy lifting, zooming towards the final confrontation I am sure is coming in book three: the promised invasion four centuries hence by the Trisolarans. Nevertheless, I found myself enjoying the exploration of a human society wrestling with invasion by an alien species much more technologically advanced, despite this alien civilization having to be resilient and constantly restarting after climatological disruptions caused by the planet’s chaotic orbit around its system’s three stars. Trisolarans fear humanity for their exponential leaps forward in technology in their relatively short existence as a civilization and are actively...

  4/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* Fevered Star is the second installment of the “Between Earth and Sky” series—based on Pre-Colombian and Polynesian cultures—by indigenous author Rebecca Roanhorse. This sequel does a decent job of picking up where the last book ended, on one heck of a cliffhanger I might add. The city of Tova is still engulfed in the chaos of the eclipse caused by the Crow God’s return. Caught up in the very fluid political situation are Xiala, the former Priest of Knives, and the Captain of the Shield for the Carrion Crow Clan. They find their personal loyalties tested as political and supernatural forces rise.   "‘We are but fevered stars,’" he intoned, like an orator on a stage. "‘Here a little while, bright with promise, before we burn away.’" Serapio was supposed to die after the massacre at Sun Rock, but Okoa was able to save his life. Naranpa is brought back from death by the witch Zataya, under employ of her crime boss brother. Both have to c...