Welcome to Litsy!

Interesting ideas but I never was really drawn into the story.

Another recommendation from Veronica Roth‘s best books end of year email. This one has a fascinating premise: a bunch of women sent into space responsible for saving humanity, complete with sperm bank so they can get pregnant and start repopulating 😅 this is a whodunnit, when part of their ship is compromised and someone loses their life and our narrator is charged with figuring out who did it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A unique science fiction debut that really picked up in the second half. Two timelines: a past where teen Asuka is competing in an elite school to earn a spot on a mission to reestablish humanity on "planet x" in the wake of climate change and world wars. The present is Asuka and colleagues in space, dealing with the aftermath of an explosion that killed the captain, leaving them with a locked-room mystery to solve. NB + sapphic characters!

A soft pick on this debut murder mystery in space which takes an interesting approach to generation ships and the weight/cost of being humanity‘s hope. Marketed as adult, this often read more like YA as it bounced between the present, after the ship is sabotaged & people die, and the past as we learn more about the backgrounds of those on board. A solid enough debut I‘ll probably read more by this author in the future.

My reading brain is all over the place these days so diving into deep space, a generation ship, and murder…

A fast paced mind-bending space mystery in a shuttle containing humanity‘s last hope for survival. It was a fun ride that highlighted how we carry our bias with us even when Earth and its politics are millions of miles away.

June #doublespin complete! @TheAromaofBooks

Okay, but all books that take place in a space should include diagrams of the ship! This book has two and they really help visualize what's going on. I can use my imagination for a castle, or even a city, but I have no reference points for spaceships. It's one of the things that typically turns me away from hard scifi...

Second stop for #IndependentBookstoreDay was @eastcitybookshop also near Eastern Market.

East City is also celebrating their 8th anniversary 🎉

Now back to the metro to head to the northwest part of the city to visit Loyalty Books.

This was a fun Sci-Fi mystery set in space. Earth is dying, so a single spaceship sets off to Planet X. When a bomb is detonated, three crew members are killed and the ship is knocked off course. Asuka is asked by the captain to find out who made the bomb. It was a fun book.

In this sci-fi thriller debut, a mission to a new planet goes awry when an explosion knocks them off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, has to prove her innocence and keep the crew from turning on each other. For a debut, this was pretty solid! The first half had a lot of pacing issues and the characters weren‘t as fleshed out, but overall it was entertaining and also surprisingly heartfelt. 3.5/5⭐️

🎧 I love me some spaceshipping sci-fi/dystopian/mystery/horror!

80 young elite traveling to a far off world. A bomb kills 3 & the remaining survivor of that group Asuka quickly becomes suspect number one! Suspicion, fear, racism begin to tear them apart.

Asuka feels like the weakest link & is suffering from imposter syndrome.

2 timelines where everything Asuka does or thinks now is justified by something in her past.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

On a mission to colonize a distant planet, funded by a billionaire who trained them from adolescence, a lethal explosion rocks not only their spaceship but the crew‘s faith in each other. This promising debut is part space thriller, part character study of a Japanese-American girl struggling with belonging and self-worth. There are some pacing issues, but I loved the world-building across timelines and would have followed this crew indefinitely!