John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

Author Nick Snape raises the ante in his immersive military sci-fi series with Zuri’s War, a first contact thriller that is equally thought-provoking and action-packed. Leaving the dangers of Haven behind, Zuri, Noah, Finn, and Yasuko find a horrific new enemy on a human-seeded planet, and they are quickly pulled into an interspecies war of epic proportions. The world-building on Bathsen is done beautifully, showing readers how “humanity” could evolve on a separate path, while the three-dimensional characters of this tight-knit crew continue to deepen and strengthen. Neatly balancing action sequences, interpersonal plot development, and philosophical questions of extraterrestrial intervention, […]

A middle grade adventure with an original twist and a cast of endearing young heroes, Time for PsyQ by Marti Ward is a phenomenally fun read. Certain schoolchildren who live near the Large Hadron Collider develop psionic abilities, leading to some very clever mystery-solving, in a kind of mash-up of Scooby Doo and Harry Potter. Like other young fellowship series, the key is the strong relationship dynamics, which are especially strong here, specifically between Airlie and her parents, as well as Yan and Kate, two of her eccentric powered-up pals. The story is marred somewhat by formatting mistakes, grammatical […]

A wickedly smart story of a mother losing patience and a son finding direction in the most unusual way possible, Thar She Blows by Susan Emshwiller is a deep dive into the tenderness and tension of mothers and sons. Pushing the literary boundaries of magical realism, this one-of-a-kind novel is a bizarre tale of losing, seeking, and finding…inside the belly of a whale. The tongue-in-cheek prose offsets the serious issues at hand, while the premise of a booze cruise gone ridiculously awry teeters perfectly on the brink of allegory, parable, and farce. With whip-smart characters, exceptional comedic timing, and high […]