Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In a near-distant future, life on earth sucks. So everybody lives full, rich lives inside "the OASIS" - a virtual reality computer world; you can live, love, work, and play all in the OASIS, only rarely venturing to reality for food or other personal needs.

When the guy who invented the OASIS dies, he reveals he's left an "easter egg" inside, and the first to find it and solve its puzzles will be his heir. Everybody loses their minds, looking for it.

We follow from the perspective of one teen, scraping by and mostly homeless in the real world, and also searching for the egg and attending high school in the virtual world.

I loved, loved, loved this book and I can't stop talking about it! Everybody in the future is obsessed with the 1980s, so the book is futuristic and sci-fi while also reveling in John Hughes movies, electro pop music, and Atari games. There are these parallels of future and past, while also the parallels of real and virtual. It's a lot to keep sorted, and it's done sooo well.

The Martian by Andy Weir

This is a tale of raw, basic survival in a rough terrain. One man, abandoned on Mars.

We read this for the library's book discussion, and many readers were surprised by how much they liked it. It's more about science than about science-fiction. There aren't ray guns and alien life forms; instead it's about one human surviving because he knows how to do advanced chemistry.

Mark Watney isn't about to give up, despite insurmountable odds. Not enough water? Chemistry! Not enough food? Botany! No communication? Rocks!

I have seen the Matt Damon movie, and it's very good. It's not quite the same, but honestly both stand up pretty well on their own (or even in comparison).

I highly recommend this one, even if you're not into advanced science and especially if you don't enjoy sci-fi. It's a captivating story, and you don't have to understand every formula to understand what a creative thinker the character (hell - the author!) is to persevere in these situations.

Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars by Jessica Abel

Come on, with a title like that you know I had to check it out!

In the future, former Earthlings now are farming Mars for water. Many were contracted into virtual slavery in the process, so contracts have a bad reputation as being exploitive and evil.

Which is why no one's exactly celebrating when Patricia Nupindju rashly signs as a skategirl with the hoverderby league, leaving her farmer family in a lurch without the help - both her labor and her mechanical aptitude.

This volume is an interesting setup - it lays the groundwork for a longer, more detailed story. I especially enjoyed the "wikipedia" entries at the back that give more in-depth explanation of immigration, terraforming, and hoverderby.

I'll be looking for the next volume (fall 2017) to continue the drama.

Super Extra Grande by Yoss

Who knew there's a whole sub-genre of Cuban sci-fi? And apparently, Yoss is the crown prince.

This slim volume features a space biologist who specializes in really, really large creatures (partially because he's very big, himself). The one experience that so-far eludes him is actual research on the living, moving lakes of a distant planet.

When he's offered the chance-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do so, it's not without an ulterior motive. Because not one but two of his former employees are MIA, crash-landed in one of the alive lakes, but they were on a secret mission that cannot be revealed. Also, they're both sort of in love with our hero.

The book was entertaining and the characters and creatures were interesting and new. I felt like some things were a bit too pat - just sort of resolved immediately with no drama or tension. I wanted more!

The real reason I picked up the book was that I'd read about a heavy-metal rocker with a degree in biology who wrote sci-fi, and that was just the kind of strange I had to investigate.

Morning Star by Pierce Brown

In the finale of the Red Rising trilogy, Darrow and the Sons of Ares rise to battle for control of Mars - and other planets in the modern system too. Their goal is the end of government based upon class distinction and birth caste. The battle is mighty.

While Red Rising was about character development and Golden Son was about political positioning, Morning Star is completely about the war: battles, fighting, blood, death, strategy and survival. Who can you trust, and who must you kill? But also, is it all worth it?

This book has twists and heartbreaking betrayals, and just when you think you know how it will end, it twists again. Oh!

What a great series, overall. Highly recommended!

Strata by Terry Pratchett

It's hard to surprise or shock a person when they've lived more than 200 years; they've really seen and heard it all. But Kin Arad is intrigued by the invisible man who appears suddenly in her office and his news of a flat planet's existence.

This was one of Pratchett's earliest books, and he's setting up the cosmology that his later Discworld books are built upon. It's captivating and imaginative. But also a challenge.

This book moves very quickly and presents some extremely foreign concepts: So much so, in fact, that I concurrently read a paper copy of the book (in the house) and listened to the audiobook (in the car). I have never used this dual approach before, and I found I really enjoyed it. With the audio I got characterization and pronunciation while the book allowed me to take a moment sometimes to reabsorb and wrap my head around a new and complex philosophy.

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

In the second of the Red Rising trilogy, class rebellion is nearer to erupting as red-hiding-as-gold Darrow negotiates the political and social intrigue of the ruling class.

This book is all about tactical planning - political, social, and in battle. There are crosses and double-crosses, friends who turn out to be enemies and enemies who aren't what they seem either, and lots of literal and figurative backstabbing.

While Darrow believes every person should be free, he can't let that be know. And now that he's lived among the ruling class for a few years - and enjoyed the fruits of that class' position on the hierarchy - does he still have the drive his wife Eo's death once lit within him?

I could NOT put this book down. It's all scheming and doing, running and fighting, leading and inspiring - action from start to finish. I'm totally recommending this series to my teenage nephew as his next read (and I cannot wait for Morning Star).

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Darrow's part of a hard-working clan who spend their difficult, short lives mining underground on Mars in order to make the planet above hospitable for future colonization.

So he's shocked to discover everything he knows is a lie - for one, that Mars aboveground and many, many other planets and moons have been successfully inhabited for a very long time - when he's given an opportunity to join the rebellion and try to change things.

Comparisons to the Hunger Games series is inevitable - a "game" between young people that leads to the victor's eventual success in politics and society. But this book stands on its own - I didn't feel it was reactionary or derivative of Suzanne Collins' series. It's a great action-adventure story, full of strategy and twists, espionage and doubletalk. It's easy to forget (as it is for the competitors) that there's more to life on Mars than what's happening inside the game.

The book ends in a place that made me say "REALLY? Really!" and the countdown for the second in the series has begun ("Golden Son" has a January release date).

Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I have been threatened that if I did not read these books SOON, I would no longer be sheltered from spoilers. So as my end-of-vacation and holiday-weekends converged, I consumed all three books. I'm going to blog them together but discuss each a bit individually too.

Overall, I loved this series - obviously, I read them all, and fast. Although I had moments of despair, I forced myself to remember that one of my favorite 12-year-old boys told me to plod on ... it gets better. So if he could endure the "which-boy-should-I-choose" dithering, so should I.

• "The Hunger Games" was my favorite of the three - fast-moving drama, unexpected twists. Several times I shouted out loud to myself as I was surprised by the direction of the story. "Romeo and Juliet!" I exclaimed at one point. Nice!

• About halfway through "Catching Fire" I got frustrated. It had deteriorated into Bella Swan territory with the helpless fretting on which boy I should love. Yuck. (Even though I did love the Twilight books) But once the Games began, I was again captivated. I loved the new characters and learning their histories and motivations.

• "Mockingjay" threatened to be just like every other dystopian future fiction: establishing a new colony, reinventing government, chafing at uniformity, etc. And again, once the action began I was swept away. I didn't know what would happen in the end, yet was satisfied by both the events and their conclusion.

Collins does a phenomenal job with the characters in this series. The victors stories were amazing, and kept getting better the more you knew. Even characters that had been present from the start continued to evolve in the third book. You could never just assume you knew anybody. And I thought that was brilliant.

I'll recommend these books - but will add the disclaimer I was given: Keep going. Whatever drags the narrative down will eventually pick up again. It gets better!

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

Due to the failure of our penal system, this near-future novel presents a day where non-violent criminals are re-released into society with genetically altered, rainbow-tinted skin to match their crime: Blues rarely live long upon release (child molesters), but Yellows (misdemeanors, like petty theft) can sometimes find work in minimum-wage, after-hours jobs until their sentence runs out. 

With a million winks, nods and nudges toward Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," our main character Hannah Payne is a convicted Red. Her crime: the murder of her unborn child (she's caught after having an illegal abortion). How sweet, innocent and ultra-religious Hannah became a Red is the compelling tale. 

We find lots of clues about how society got to this strange point -  a plague, political upheaval, technological changes - but that info is doled out on a need-to-know basis. I hadn't expected all the religion in this book, but it's done well. Through her ordeals, Hannah lost her faith and searching for answers is part of her quest. 

The book gave me lots to think about - and yet, it was very entertaining and an easy read. It's one of those stories that stays with you. And with all the hot-button topics it presents, it's the kind of story you'll revisit and reassess long after you've put down the book.

The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson

Somewhere about 300 years from now, a couple of teens are adapting to their bodies - but not in the way you may think: Kara and Locke's brains have been uploaded from long-term storage into brand-new (and slightly improved) bodies. But how exactly did they get here, in this strange future, and what are Dr. Gatsbro's intentions for his progeny? And what ever happened to their friend, Jenna?

I'm not always excited for sci-fi, but I LOVE this series' treatment of ethics and the moral gray areas that technology and medical developments can present. If you could be a stronger, better person ... should you? And at what point is a "being" a person ... or a non-person?

But it's not a heavy-handed lecture. Instead, we get a relate-able character in Locke: he wants to be liked, he wants to enjoy his new-found future, and he just wants things to be all good. Locke doesn't know much about how the world works in this technologically advanced society, and we learn right along with him.

On the other hand, Kara just seems to want revenge. And by the way, where IS Jenna?

I really enjoyed this book. It's a pretty quick read, but certainly not the kind of book you leave behind once you've closed it. (Days later, I'm still pondering the implications of Dot's metamorphosis!)

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

I can't convey how it pains me that I didn't love this book. It took me six months to read this book (a relative LIFETIME), and I refused to give up - I even re-started it once, trying soooo hard to understand and love this book. To no avail.

Future humans aren't really our kind of human - they're created, live, get sick, are healed and even destroyed based on the colors they can see. Marriage among complimentary colors are forbidden, and most people have arranged marriages based on bettering themselves and their offspring on the color scale. Society is based on a set of rules, merits, and feedbacks (like ebay escaped into real life), the past is being systematically erased, and trees can eat you.

It seems like Fforde has great aspirations of current social criticism with this story, but either I'm too obtuse or too American to get it (Fforde is British).

I have loved, loved, loved his other books - laughed out loud while reading them and hand-sold them to tons of our library patrons. But this one passed me by. Unfortunately, Fforde says this is the first in a series; he's got titles for the next two books at the end of this one.

I wish he'd put his efforts elsewhere.