Cover Characteristics- To The Stars!

Cover Characteristics is a meme by Sugar and Snark- every week a characteristic is selected and we post 5 books with that week's theme.   

This week's pick- To The Stars!   

This week I'm going rogue looking at retro scifi. Since January is Vintage SciFi Month (hosted by Little Red Reviewer) it seems like a good time to revisit this topic. I've done retro SF before but this is specifically to celebrate Vintage Month. 

Sunday Post #178

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

So... three weeks into January and not much happening. Just reading and Netflixing a bit and playing around with some flash fiction along with more serious writing stuff. Now that the year is underway I'd like to spend more time on that.  Hopefully we'll survive and I'll be considering each Sunday Post to be a milestone from here on out. I'm only partly kidding. :) 

We're about a week (okay a little more) away from the premiere of The 100 S4. I am SO ready for the return and will be reviewing episodes again this year. So if you're a The 100 fan don't be shy! And of course I think It Starts at Midnight will be doing her usual reviews with her partners in crime- those are not to be missed.    

I reviewed Dark Matter this week (mind blowing) and discussed Would You Live Forever If You Could? Next week's discussion will be on Cover Love and specifically urban fantasy- Is It Hot?  And... my copy of Freeks arrived! 

Last Weeks Stuff:

I did a Cover Characteristics post featuring storm clouds. Tuesday Tagline featured Royal Bastards and my Top Ten was all about the underrated reads. My discussion post this week was Would You Live Forever If You Could? And I reviewed Dark Matter- an awesome read. Bookcover Spotlight #84 takes a look at an upcoming read.      

Next Week: 

Cover Characteristics will look at retro scifi- I'm linking it with Vintage SciFi Month. Tuesday Tagline returns along with Top Ten freebie and a look at urban fantasy art for my Wednesday discussion post. And I'll be reviewing Rising Tides- a dystopian set in a world of elevated sea level. Bookcover Spotlight will look at one of my fave covers of the year so far. 

PULP COVER OF THE WEEK: 

NEW ARRIVAL/ UPCOMING REVIEWS:

BOOKISH LINKS

Bookcover Spotlight #84

I just love this cover with the seaside setting, the waves rolling in and the clouds and moon.

Dark Matter

Dark Matter is a trip. Literally. A trip through what if- decisions that you might have made differently, choices that take you in a different direction- the road not taken. It's fascinating and I can't say enough good things about it. Jason Dessen is a guy who gave up his dreams of being a top physicist when he married Daniela and had Charlie- now he's a professor at a small college. Daniela too has given up dreams but they're happy. Aren't they? 

One night on the way home Jason is abducted and given a drug that screws up his senses, and when he comes out of it he's somewhere... else. Same Chicago... but in a parallel universe. Turns out Jason had an idea to build something that would allow humans to access the multiverse- the infinite parallel universes that spring up every time we make a decision. Change your major? Decide not to get married? Every choice creates a new reality where a version of you lives that life. And the Jason of this reality never married Daniela, was obsessed with his work... and succeeded in building the device. 

That's about all I can say without spoilers. Suffice to say that this is a mind blowing, very thought provoking- and thrilling- read. I was on the edge of my seat pretty much all the way through. 

Jason has a hard time coming to grips with what's happening, and he makes some decisions that I disagreed with. For such a smart guy he seemed a little slow on the uptake- but then again it is kind of mindblowing. And the whole premise of it- the scientific underpinning behind alternate realities- is a little iffy to me. The book doesn't get too into the weeds but a large idea here is that observation defines reality, or affects it- you may or may not agree with it based on how it's presented. But regardless it's fascinating and there are moments when I was just like- whoah. 

I've read Blake Crouch before with his Wayward novels and this one is even better. It's fast paced, scary and hard to put down- I could barely stop reading. I had to know what was coming next, and there is a twist that blew my mind. Jason was sympathetic and went through a gut wrenching experience, there's a side character Amanda that I loved, and Daniela is awesome. Even Charlie kinda kicks ass. And it was fascinating to see Jason and Daniela come to grips with- are they really happy? What do they want? And how far will they go to get it? How far would you go? 

Would You Live Forever If You Could?

"Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire." So says the tagline for The Lost Boys, one of my favorite vampire movies. I was thinking about this after seeing that Rob Thomas (of Veronica Mars) was bringing a Lost Boys show to the CW. He mentioned in an interview that he wanted to explore the idea of being 22 and never aging beyond that point. 

"The story that I'm trying to tell in Season 1 of The Lost Boys is a story about two brothers and how tempted they are to fall in with these vampires and how tempted they are to want to be 22 forever. I am leaning into the Peter Pan notion of, if you join these vampires, you never have to grow up. Your life can be fun and you can attack life each day you're immortal, and how appealing is that?"

How appealing indeed? To be 22 forever, never age, be free? Or is it freedom? Would it be a curse to never age, never die, always be stuck in one place? Not to mention the slight complication of having to feed on, you know, people. So there's that moral element as well. Although maybe there's ways around that- but I'm not sure needing blood to survive is a good trade-off. 

It's fascinating to think about. Many people fear death or at the very least are not super crazy about the idea. Don't we all, on some level, want more time- or want to live forever? Of course if you're a Christian you have the hope of eternal life and death is but a doorway to another existence (that doesn't necessarily make it any less frightening). Other religious traditions have their own views of the afterlife. I've heard it said that living forever without dying would be a curse of sorts, since you would never die and therefore never enter God's presence. Interesting thought. 

I think JRR Tolkien addressed this somewhat in his world building with the forebears of Aragorn. The Numenoreans had an elongated lifespan but still didn't come near to the immortality of the elves, and I think it's been stated somewhere (maybe in the Silmarillion) that Eru kept mankind mortal so they could die and proceed to another plane of existence (sound familiar?). Whereas the elves, being immortal, could travel to Valinor but not where mortals go.  

Personally as much as I would like to have a lifespan perhaps measuring in the hundreds, immortality might be too much time, you know? But I'd like to know what you think. Are you familiar with The Lost Boys? And would you live forever? 

Top Ten Books That Are Underrated/ Hidden Gems

 

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new Top Ten list will be posted. Everyone is welcome to join. Link back to The Broke and the Bookish so everyone can check out other bloggers' lists. It's a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers.

This week's topic is Top Ten Underrated or Hidden Gem Books.  

This is a good series with two books released so far but I think it might fly under the radar a bit. 

 I'm not sure I've seen any other reviews of this one, and I loved it. You can check out my thoughts here. I push this one every chance I get. 

Greek gods and Manhattan. A modern day Artemis hunting predatory men- and ritual murders.  

Boarding school (on an island) plus SF elements. 



This is an excellent SF set on a water planet.  



 Morgaine must close the Gates no matter what, even if it dooms entire worlds. A great examination of dedication and ruthlessness in pursuit of a goal. 



Switching gears here- this was a cute story set in Italy about a girl who goes there to spend the summer with her father. Who she's never met. 



I did see reviews of this one, but not a ton. I thought this was solid but that  TWIST.