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5 Great Novels in My Lineup for #SciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

SciFiMonth 2021

November is here and it’s time for SciFiMonth, that great blog-along managed by Lisa of Dear Geek Place and imyril of There’s Always Room for One More. If you want to sign up, they have set up a master schedule where you can enter whatever you plan to blog or tweet about. Check out Lisa’s and imyril’s pages for the simple rules, how to sign up, and ideas for getting started on SciFiMonth.

I’m not going to commit to specific dates for publishing reviews, but here are the books I hope to finish and write about for SciFiMonth. Except for the first, I’m not at all sure of the order in which I’ll read the following, many of which are continuations of series I’ve already begun.

The Fallen by Ada Hoffman

Ada Hoffman’s The Fallen is number one. Having loved The Outside, the first in this series, I couldn’t stop and so jumped into reading this second novel. As I mentioned in the earlier review, Hoffman combines great science fiction adventure with excellent portrayals of characters who deal with autism and effects of trauma. But her work is much more than that!

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor’s Remote Control , in the publisher’s words: “An alien artifact turns a young girl into Death’s adopted daughter in Remote Control, a thrilling sci-fi tale of community and female empowerment from Nebula and Hugo Award-winner Nnedi Okorafor.”

Azura Ghost by Essa Hansen

Since I thoroughly enjoyed Essa Hansen’s Nophek Gloss, first volume of The Graven, I’m quite excited to get into the second in this series, Azura Ghost. Here’s part of the publisher’s blurb: “A young man on the run finds himself on the wrong side of his former best friend’s gun in this action-packed space opera perfect for fans of The Expanse and A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.”

The Quantum War by Derek Kunsken

One of my favorite series of the past few years has been Derek Künsken’s The Quantum Evolution. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the third volume, The Quantum War, to see what happens to Belisarius, a member of the enhanced human species known as Homo Quantus, his former lover Cassandra, and the wild crew he assembles to carry out his plans to subvert the ruling powers of the universe they try to survive in.

Slipping by Mohamed Kheir

Here’s the publisher’s summary of Slipping by Mohamed Kheir: “Musical and parabolic, Slipping seeks nothing less than to accept the world in all its mystery. An innovative novel that searches for meaning within the haze of trauma, it generously portrays the overlooked miracles of everyday life, and attempts to reconcile past failures—both personal and societal—with a daunting future. Delicately translated from Arabic by Robin Moger, this is a profound introduction to the imagination of Mohamed Kheir, one of the most exciting writers working in Egypt today.” Rachel Cordasco has a wonderful review of this book on Strange Horizons, and I’ll see if I can add anything to her brilliant insights.

So that’s what I’ll be blogging about in the next four weeks for SciFiMonth as well as tweeting about other things. Hope you’ll join in.

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Filed Under: Science Fiction in Translation, SciFiMonth Tagged With: Ada Hoffman, Derek Kunsken, Essa Hansen, Mohamed Kheir, Nnedi Okorafor

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Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

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A late-comer to the worlds of science fiction, John Folk-Williams circled around it, first by blogging (primarily through Storied Mind) about inner struggles and the mind’s way of distorting reality. Then he turned directly to SFF as an amazing medium for re-envisioning the mind and the worlds it creates. He started this blog as a way to experiment with writing science fiction and to learn from its many masterful practitioners.

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