Nerd for Hire

BookReviews

Oliver K. Langmead 223 pages Titan Books (2024)

Read this if you like: novels-in-verse, Ursula K. LeGuin, Jeff VanderMeer

tl;dr summary: Colony ship engineer wakes from stasis to learn she slept through a war and is one of the few experts left to complete their mission.

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Dorene O’Brien 156 pages Baobab Press (2019)

Read this if you like: Karen Russell, Carmen Maria Machado, quirky short fiction tl;dr summary: Collection of (mostly) literary stories in which characters hope, for better or worse (mostly worse).

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Adrian Tchaikovsky 388 pages Orbit (2024)

Read this if you like: unique alien ecosystems, Rick Claypool, Vernor Vinge

tl;dr summary: Political prisoners in an Orwellian dystopia are sent to a labor camp on Kiln, a planet where the life is aggressively symbiotic and potentially sentient.

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Carrie Gessner 419 pages Self-Published (2016)

Read this if you like: The Wheel of Time, David Eddings, character-driven high fantasy tl;dr summary: Three magic users in a world where magic is dying set out to avert war, solve a murder, and avoid bringing about a prophecied doom.

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Leech Girl Lives Rick Claypool 307 pages Space Boy Books (2017)

Read this if you like: Philip K. Dick, high-tech dystopias, creature horror

tl;dr summary: Woman on far-future fungus-infested Earth gets leeches for arms, uses them to save humanity.

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Rios de la Luz 143 pages Broken River Books (2017)

Read this if you like: Isabel Allende, V. Castro, Arundhati Roy

tl;dr summary: A pair of sisters in a magical family navigate the grief of losing their Abuelita, grow up

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Isabelle Allende 443 pages Vintage Español (2011)

Read this if you like: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Chilean history, genre-blurring coming-of-age novels

tl;dr summary: Teenager on the LAM finds refuge in a small village in Chile and learns about both herself and her family’s history in the process.

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Anthony Veasna So 260 pages Ecco (2021) 

Read this if you like: Karen Russell, Jennifer Egan, Alan Heathcock

Tl;dr summary: Various views of the day-to-day lives of Cambodian refugees in California. 

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Ann Leckie 407 pages Orbit Books (2019)

Read this if you like: Kerstin Hall’s Star Eater, N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, fantasy with unique voice & POVs

tl;dr summary: Fantasy-mystery-thriller narrated by an ancient god who shares highlights from his very, very long life along the way.

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Hilary Hauck 387 pages Olive Rose Press (2023) 

Read this if you like: historical fiction, unique POVs, intrigue-driven plots

tl;dr summary: Jilted British woman travels to Italy to find her suddenly departed lover, instead finds lies (and herself, natch)

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