Originally published on Amazing Stories Website: https://amazingstories.com/?p=212406
Someone asked me if I felt safe going back to my normal summer activities in the face of the ongoing unpleasantness. Well, since finding a quiet place in the shade to hang out with a good book is my idea of the perfect summer activity, I’d say yes. OK, it’s not everything, but it’s still fun, and there are plenty of books coming out that are perfect for social distancing.
Mary Robinette Kowal expands her Lady Astronaut series in The Relentless Moon returning us to the 1950/60s alternative history space effort to get humans to Mars before the Earth dies. She turns her focus to a different member of the original six Lady Astronauts, and I highly recommend it. Another book I really liked was Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis, in which Cora Ortega is the daughter of a conspiracy theorist/leaker that says the government knows about aliens and isn’t telling. It’s a different sort of first contact novel and very well done.
Both Kill Orbit by Joel Dane and Automatic Reload by Ferrett Steinmetz are full-on action and mayhem, the first about a squad of “genius fuckups” and the second about a former drone pilot gone full cyber and haunted by those he killed while taking on a cover agency. Both are brilliant but very different.
More mayhem abounds in Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air as Jackson Ford brings Teagen (The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind) and her crew back to deal with an esper like herself, but one that can trigger quakes. Of course it’s set in California. More mil-sf worth considering is Battle Luna put together by Travis S. Taylor and a handpicked team, each who wrote a story to move the plot along in a very thoughtful exercise in lunar conflict. It is more of a relay race than an anthology, but thoroughly enjoyable.
Madeline Ashby finishes up her Third Machine Dynasty with ReV, a bit of Westworld and a bit of Asimov gone rogue, You’ll find more sympathetic robots in My Battery Is Low and It Is Getting Dark, a really fine collection from Zombies Need Brains about abandoned robots and second chances.
