New month, new books
Platform Decay by Martha Wells (coming out May 5) is the 8th installment in a sci-fi series (Murderbot Diaries) about an enslaved android that gains its freedom and claims to hate humans, but it cannot stop saving them. Most Murderbot novels are standalone books, but you won’t appreciate the changes in the protagonist’s attitude and […] The post New month, new books appeared first on The Observer.
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Platform Decay by Martha Wells (coming out May 5) is the 8th installment in a sci-fi series (Murderbot Diaries) about an enslaved android that gains its freedom and claims to hate humans, but it cannot stop saving them.
Most Murderbot novels are standalone books, but you won’t appreciate the changes in the protagonist’s attitude and personality if you don’t know what happened in previous installments.
Platform Decay finds Murderbot and Three (another security unit) on a mission to rescue children from a space station orbiting a decimated planet. Like previous Murderbot books, the heart and soul of this book lies in the humorous interactions between Murderbot, who struggles with crippling social anxiety, and the inquisitive humans around him.
The Franchise by Thomas Elrod (May 12) is an adult fantasy novel about an author who can’t believe his luck when a publisher agrees to serialize his book on a whim. Years later, the book becomes a blockbuster success, and Hollywood comes knocking.
They want to buy the rights to a possible adaptation. The author refuses. He won’t relinquish control over his intellectual property. However, the author eventually dies, and his son is more than happy to cash Hollywood’s cheques.
Now, none of that sounds like fantasy until you read the novel and realize that part of it follows characters living inside the author’s fantasy novel: primarily a young queen tasked with protecting her kingdom from a dragon and the dark tidings it portends.
Most of the novel’s characters don’t realize that their world is fiction. But some of them know the truth. The Franchise has received mixed reviews. Some critics have praised the author for blending The Truman Show with Westworld, The Village, and Game of Thrones. However, others feel like he tried to juggle too many ideas at once.
The Last Contract Of Isako by Fonda Lee (May 5) is exactly what it sounds like. Isako is a 50-year-old Samurai with bad knees, aching hips, and a foul mouth who wants to follow her long-time client into retirement.
But then she is offered one last mission: to stop Sandbar Uchi from joining SoCon GasPro’s Board of Directors, a task that pits the so-called corporate samurai against a company that governs her planet.
The Last Contract of Isako is a mixed bag. The synopsis paints the picture of an action- packed romp in which Isako carves a bloody path through the assassins and operatives sent to foil her investigation.
But the book is more of a quiet, slow-paced sci-fi mystery populated by cold, emotionally detached characters. Many critics and reviewers could not bring themselves to care about the protagonist and her objectives. The Republic Of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed (May 5) takes readers 200 years into the future.
The Safina is a city ship transporting the remnants of Old Earth (kept in cryostasis) and the generations that came after (born on the city ship) to a new habitable world. The crew has one mission: to get their cargo to its destination in one piece.
However, the newer generations are starting to rebel. They don’t understand why the crew is expending so many resources to protect their ancestors, whom no one even cares about or remembers.
More than that, they are starting to question why Admin holds so much authority over so many people. Some critics have compared Mahmud’s novel to The Expanse because of the intricacy of the world he built; the different languages, traditions, and subcultures that exist on the city ship, most of which are futuristic variations of what exists today.
The author uses multiple POVs to paint a vivid picture of the diverse lifestyles that thrive and clash on the Safina. And that should do for now. Happy reading!
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