Bayou Bytes Blog

 Like most other people who are interested in Xiran Jay Zhao, I first learned about her when I saw her viral Twitter thread critiquing the details of Disney's Mulan. For her, and for us, it was a perfect accident because she was still in the public eye when her book Iron Widow was announced.   Not only does Iron Widow have an absolutely gorgeous cover, it is a delightful read. Xiran Jay Zhao reimagined China's infamous empress, Wu Zetian, and placed her in a fantasy world at war, where paired pilots command mythological creature mecha. The male pilots are doted upon and celebrated, but their female partners are drained like batteries and frequently die in battle.   Enter Wu Zetian. After her sister is killed by a famous pilot, Zetian joins the fray as a female pilot. And she is determined to take down the system from within.   Iron Widow is the first in a series, so I'm already eagerly awaiting the next installment. The worldbuilding here was well don...

I picked up Salvation Day because it was included on a list of Luminous Dead read-alikes. It's been two years since I've read The Luminous Dead , and I still bring it up every chance I get. So I should have known I'd be a little disappointed by anything I tried to compare to it.  Still, Wallace wrote a solid story. Salvation Day switches back and forth between two narrators.  Jaswinder Bhattacharya was the sole survivor of the House of Wisdom disaster. Ten years ago, when he was just twelve, a deadly virus broke out aboard the space station, killing everyone within 24 hours.   House of Wisdom has floated silently in orbit for ten years, and Jas has spent each one trying to forget that fateful day.   But Jas is the only person who can open the genetic locks aboard the ship, and Zahra and her crew need him. They're outsiders, brought together by a man named Adam, who has a plan to free them all from Earth's oppressive government.   If they can ab...

 Evelyn Caldwell has just won an award for her groundbreaking clone research. She would be more excited about it if her husband (Nathan) hadn't stolen that research and cloned her in secret to create Martine. Programmed to be the perfect hostess and soft-spoken wife, Martine is everything Evelyn never was.   But when Nathan winds up dead, Evelyn and Martine must team up to make sure he won't be missed.   This book is a science fiction thriller. If you're looking for fast-paced adventure, this one won't be for you. Told from Evelyn's perspective as she struggles to process her husband's betrayal and her unnerving new partnership with Martine, The Echo Wife is much more of a slow burn. It deals with betrayal and abuse, and it gently touches on ethical questions like the personhood of clones. This is a pretty dark tale, but it's absolutely gripping.  When I first picked up this book, I had no idea what to expect. But the synopsis and cover were creepy enough ...

Leviathan Wakes  is the first book in The Expanse series. It is also the source material for the TV show, The Expanse . A joint effort between Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (who have adopted the pen name James S. A. Corey), The Expanse books currently have eight installations. The ninth and final volume is set to come out within the next year. This is the perfect time to jump on board if you haven't read them yet.  Leviathan Wakes  is set in the near future. Humans have colonized portions of the solar system, with bases on the moon, Mars, and in the Asteroid Belt. But after generations in different environments, physiological and cultural differences have become a prominent source of tension. Martians in their harsh environment are a military-based society, relying on strict order to survive on the rough planet. Belters live entirely on atmosphere-less rocks, valuing teamwork and resource rationing. Both see Earthers as spoiled and selfish people who never have to wonder w...

China Miéville is the author to turn to when you tire of formula fiction. His work is often referred to as "weird fiction" or "fantastic fiction" and each story diverges from traditional genres. Embassytown, like so many science fiction stories, introduces a human colony on an alien world in the farthest reaches of known space. The colony shares the planet with the native Ariekei, with whom they maintain a generally stable peace. But the Ariekei are famous for the oddity of their Language, one that requires two mouths to speak at once. Among the humans, only the Ambassadors (pairs of clones that speak with one mind) are able to speak Language. When Avice Benner Cho was young, she was asked to be a simile for the Ariekei. Since the Ariekei cannot lie, they need someone to act out an event before it can be included in Language. Being a part of Language has given Avice some clout off-world, and she spent several years working in space exploration before unexpectedly re...

Halo: Meridian Divide is the second book in the young adult novels by Cassandra Clarke which serve as a side story to the main Halo franchise.  The story follows 4 teenage students- Evie, Dorian, Saskia, and Victor- who find themselves strapping back into the action on their home world Meridian. Taking place only a few months after their escape from the first book, our heroes are informed that the covenant (a religious extraterrestrial alliance made up of multiple alien races) are attacking Meridian to find an ancient artifact that they believe will help them in their transcendence. Being natives of Meridian, ONI is calling upon our teenage protagonists to help navigate through the cities of Meridian where the Covenant has built perimeters. Partnered with Spartan Owen and a local militia group, they will find out what exactly the Covenant found on Meridian and attempt to push them off their home world. Cassandra Clarke does an outstanding job with differentiating the personal...

In  The Luminous Dead,  Caitlin Starling decided to take on a challenge by building an entire story with two characters and a cave. And it did not disappoint.   On Gyre's planet, the fastest way to make money is to work as a caver, mapping caves and finding mineral deposits deep below the surface. But the caves are perilous, full of steep drops, flooded passages, and the  Tunnelers . These worm-like monsters seem to swim through solid rock, causing earthquakes and cave-ins. The only way to send cavers down without attracting a  Tunneler  is to send someone in alone, encased in a high-tech closed environment suit.    If Gyre does one assignment and survives, she'll have enough money to get off world for good. So she  fakes  her credentials and successfully gets hired on as a caver.  But once she's in the cave she's completely alone. Her only company is  Em , a voice in her ear, the handler who is watchin...

Wizard-For-Hire, Harry Dresden. Courtesy of comicvine.com Harry Dresden usually gets into deep trouble.  Whether it's with trolls, vampires (of four different courts, but all of the same opinion that he needs to die), fairies, thugs, wizards, women, or his know-it-all talking spirit skull, wizard-for-hire has a knack for getting in way too deep with people (or things) that can kill him.  And, hells bells, he would not change it for anything.  The leather duster wearing and gun toting Dresden is sarcastic, handsome, intelligent, and talented, with a white and black sense of good and bad, a strict moral code, and a devil-may-care attitude which helps and hinders him.  Oh, and he mainly uses spells, a blasting rod, totems for protection, and fights Chicago's, the city he loves, underworld monsters, supernatural and human.  The wizard is the creation of American author, Jim Butcher, and debuted in 2000's Storm Front .  Fourteen more books later, Harry's in...

_ Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card In case you missed it, earlier this year Orson Scott Card released Ender in Exile, a novel that takes place directly after the events of his award winning book, Ender’s Game. This book details the time Ender Wiggin spent as the governor of a human colony founded on a world whose civilization he helped to destroy. _ Anathem by Neal Stephenson Once every ten years the gates of the decenarian math open for apert, a ten day event in which the cloistered fras and suurs of the maths go out into the world and discover what has happened in the ten years since the previous apert. After this apert however, world events occur that require the knowledge and skills of these avout. What follows is a whirlwind ride across continents and space in order to save the planet of Arbre. _ The Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J Anderson Published last year, this is the final novel in the Saga of the Seven Suns series. The series begins with Hidden Empire, where humans are ...