Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Life has become very different in the Belt. It's gone beyond the oddly elongated bodies of the Belters and their tolerance to low gravity: in an abandoned ship, a new lifeform is growing. Jim Holden has to watch his friends and shipmates get nuked when they stumble too close to the secret; the fall-out of which is potential inter-planetary war. And Detective Miller is on the hunt for a missing Earther with important connections. Both are on a trajectory toward a gruesome discovery, but what will happen to human civilization when they arrive?

The book jacket describes Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey as a "kick-ass space opera." Now, I don't know what a space opera is; when I imagine it, I see fat aliens wearing pig-tailed wigs and viking helmets, and somehow I don't think that's what they're going for. So, after reading this book, I would say a space opera is genre-bending sci-fi, since this book is equal parts sci-fi and noir, with some horror thrown in.

Twin-Bred by Karen A. Wyle

Mara Cadell is a human scientist on Tofarn. Like every other human, the Tofa, Tofarn's indigenous inhabitants, are a mystery to her. But it's become clear that humans and Tofa are on the path towards conflict if a way of communicating and mediating disputes isn't found. She begins the LEVI project, named after her long-dead twin (who she has kept alive in her mind), in attempt to forge a bridge between species. Human and tofa children will share a uterus and be raised together, in an attempt to create mutual understanding.

Twin-Bred has an interesting premise, but that's where my appreciation of the story ends. Each chapter opens with a snippet of one of Mara's reports on the LEVI project, but Karen A. Wyle may as well have written the whole book in report-form for all the excitement it engenders in readers. The book is written in such a flat, clinical way that I was unable get excited about anything that happened. I was praying for war just so some suspense would be created.

Suggested book for March 2012

 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams

Genre: science fiction

Satire, space adventure, and randomness abound in this spry tale. Arthur Dent narrowly avoids extinction along with the rest of the human race when he's whisked off-planet by his friend Ford, who coincidentally is an alien. After narrowly escaping the bureaucratic Vogons, Arthur runs into the only other remaining human in the galaxy: Trisha McMillan, who never called him after they met at a costume party. Did I mention they're on the galaxy's most amazing spaceship, which moves in an incredibly improbable way? Enjoy your space travels, friends. Just remember to bring your towel.

View my suggested books by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Earth Bound by J.A. Taylor

Most people despise tabloids; they see the ridiculous headlines and scoff. Even the journalists who provide those headlines, apparently. Matt Granger is one of them, a journalist working for a tabloid to pay the bills, all the while reminiscing about better days and reliving his fall from grace. Then, on an ordinary assignment with the rest of his team, he becomes a believer: He gets abducted.