Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach
by Kelly Robson
In 2267, Earth has just begun to recover from worldwide ecological disasters. Minh is part of the generation that first moved back up to the surface of the Earth from the underground hells, to reclaim humanity’s ancestral habitat. She’s spent her entire life restoring river ecosystems, but lately the kind of long-term restoration projects Minh works on have been stalled due to the invention of time travel. When she gets the opportunity take a team to 2000 BC to survey the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, she jumps at the chance to uncover the secrets of the shadowy think tank that controls time travel technology.
While I enjoyed the story, I didn’t identify with the characters. That has more to do with me and my background than the quality of the story. If you enjoy environmental issues, you would appreciate the message this short novel explores.
by Mike Haig
Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
This novel has received a lot of marketing, so I read it mainly because it kept popping up in MUST READ lists. I was pleasantly surprised. I found myself wondering how my life would have turned out if it had taken certain turns. Ultimately, I found the message of the novel to say: be careful what you wish for; those turns you may wish your life had taken may not be as pleasant as you think they would have been.
by Roshani Chokshi
In this alternative reality set in late 19th century France, a group of young people with special powers find a way to trick the system and the powers that be to try and get what belongs to them.
I loved the world building, description and writing style the author created in this series. I didn’t become attached to any of the characters and as a result, I’m not really interested in continuing this series. I did give the 2nd book a try, but I got bored with it a few chapters in. The story seemed to be going nowhere. But that’s just my tastes. If you like stories like V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, you might like this series.
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk from Pexels
Andrew M. Friday 