Zoe Hana Mikuta - Gearbreakers / Godslayers

Audiobook Review + Zoe Hana Mikuta

YA NA / FF / Post-apocalyptic / Mechas / First Person Present Tense.

Love betrayal combat mechas.

Can it get any better?

 

Apple TV - Sugar - Season 1

Series Review + Apple TV + Sugar

Ah... What to make of this...

Good, but...

Xiran Jay Zhao - Iron Widow 1 - Iron Widow

Audiobook Review + Xiran Jay Zhao

Iron Widow is the first part of a duology / trilogy / series (?) with the same name. It describes Wu Zetian's rise through the ranks, in a Chinese inspired scifi / fantasy setting featuring a mystical 'spirit power' (a kind of paranormal energy source) and very large mecha-like creatures called 'Chrysalis'.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time 03 - Children of Memory

Audiobook Review + Adrian Tchaikovsky

The third installment in the series, and (at first) very confusing, but in the end it all makes sense.

Again, Tchaikovsky takes a 'what if' and spins it all the way to its logical conclusion, in this case it's the Ship of Theseus concept.

Apple TV - Sugar - s01e01

Series Review + Apple TV + Sugar

Season one episode one. Very weird, but I love it. I've just finished episode one, and... this is weird.

Who is John Sugar? What is John Sugar?

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time 02 - Children of Ruin

Audiobook Review + Adrian Tchaikovsky

Book 2 in the Children of Time series. I'm probably one of the few who hasn't completed the series yet, but let me start by saying that Adrian Tchaikovsky plays the 'what if' game very well.

Book 1 featured intelligent spiders, and book 2 added intelligent octopi (?) and bacteria to the mix. (Not much of a spoiler as that's pretty clear from the start).

Amy Kaufman - Red Star Rebels

Audiobook Review + Amie Kaufman

First person, present tense, YA. romance / science-fiction. Classic recipe, and typical Amie Kaufman.

But... Published in 2026, this book is a bit of a let-down compared with her earlier co-op work with Jay Kristoff, especially the Aurora series, or The Illuminae Files.

Amy Tintera - Reboot

Audiobook Review

Love. Life. And zombies.

This is a YA first person present tense audiobook exploring the 'I died and came back as a zombie' trope. Fortunately, it's better than the average wannabe-writer 'Isekai' project.

Faith Hunter - Junkyard Cats 4 / 5 - Junkyard Roadhouse / Junkyard Riders

Audiobook Review

Faith Hunter (better known for her Romantasy stories) does a pretty good (Scifi) Apocalyptic series of novellas, all titled Junkyard Something.

Can you still find that (SF) movie, or has Enshittification (TM) taken over full force?

Science Fiction

Let's try to watch some SciFi...

Note: this isn't a 'top 10' kind of list. I was just wondering where you could watch them (legally)...

Note that I'm based in The Netherlands, and availability strongly depends on the region you live in...

Apple TV - Murderbot - s01e01..s01e06

Series Review + Apple TV

It's on Apple, and Apple appears to be doing a banging good job when it comes to SciFi shows. Severance. Silo. For All Mankind. Foundation. 3 Body Problem. Pretty good.

You can now add Murderbot to that list.

Elizabeth Moon - Vatta's War - Series

Audiobook Review

Harringtonish... Nice read, still. Youngling gets kicked out of school, becomes trader, killer, captain, admiral, savior.

Predictable, I admit, but enjoyable.

Rachel Bach (Rachel Aaron) - Paradox Series - Fortune's Paw / ...

Audiobook Review

Down-on-her-luck wannabe-warrior falls in love. Add exo-suits, aliens, baddy evil to fall in love with, an empire, a love story, and Rachel Bach's writing skills.

And what you end up with is a great series.

Ryk Brown – The Frontiers Saga

Audiobook Review

Ryk Brown appears to have become a quite popular self publishing author. I've sampled some of his wares... It's a bit fannish, a bit 'wannabe', to be honest. Some of the jokes and characters are okay, and do bring a smile on my face. The plotholes though (especially the technobabble guffaws) are a bit of a let down.

Chronical: 2067

Movie Review

2067 (also known as Chronical: 2067) is a decent SciFi movie that more or less flew under the radar. Don't expect mega blockbuster style VFX and CGI, huge explosions and robust heroes. This isn't one of those.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008) and a little Summer Glau

Series Review

Summer Glau has a pendant for Sci-Fi 'nerdish' shows. Unfortunately, they're not all successful, but apparently her choice in roles matches my taste in television...

Jeffery Haskell - Grimm's War 6 - A Grimm Decision

Audiobook Review

And yet another space opera / military sci-fi series. Shades of Honor Harrington, and that's fine. Captain Grim leads the crew of his older but still powerful boat through a conflict between multiple sides, Consortium, Caliphate, Guild, Alliance...

Elliot Kay - Poor Man's Fight 6 - No Man's Land

Audiobook Review

Another space opera / military sci-fi series. Main protagonist might be a little too much of an anti hero in the 6th book, but it’s quite readable.

Series starts with greedy corporations that unload endless debts on wannabe students, then moves on to an interstellar conflict between several races. 

Faith Hunter - Junkyard Cats / Junkyard Bargain / Junkyard War

Audiobook Review

Entertaining set of 3 (now 4) novels, in which a post-apocalyptic junkyard owner becomes a kind of queen bee, driven by biotech, and assisted (hampered?) by gen-engineered cats, after aliens overcame earth’s finest.

The Verdict: great read. Looking forward to book 4!

Erik Schubach - Fixit / Glitch / Vashon / Descent / Sedition

Audiobook Review

Supposed to be somewhat ‘lesbian scifi’ but - except for one scene that wasn’t even that explicit - these read as a fast paced nerd-becomes-heroine set of short stories. Does suffer a little from the Mary Sue effect.

Synopsis: dirtside engineer knows how to create sentient robots, and falls in love with a copper-without-impulse-control from the floating cities above.

The Verdict: perfectly readable, light SciFi.