An accidental find, but I like it. This is hard SF, involving a world past the brink of ecological disaster (with many people unaware or actively ignoring it), the US and China in a kind of military impasse, and Canada hiring itself out as the mercenary pool for the whole world.
Audiobook Review + Zoe Hana Mikuta
YA NA / FF / Post-apocalyptic / Mechas / First Person Present Tense.
Love betrayal combat mechas.
Can it get any better?
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'.
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.
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?
Audiobook Review + Adrian Tchaikovsky
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).
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.
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 (better known for her Romantasy stories) does a pretty good (Scifi) Apocalyptic series of novellas, all titled Junkyard Something.
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...
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.
Predictable, I admit, but enjoyable.
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 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.
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.
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...
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...
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.
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!
