The best science fiction books to read this summer

Whether you struggled to read during the pandemic or zoomed in on your stack of books and craved more, Scientific Fridays the annual list of the best summer science books is here for you.

As the world begins to open up, many of us aren’t quite comfortable traveling the way we once did. But what better way to get away from it all without going too far than immersing yourself in a bit of science fiction? Go to the beach and to another dimension, travel through space from the safety of your backyard, or time hike in another era.

And this summer, we brought in two sci-fi enthusiasts to help us build our list. Annale Newitz, science journalist and author of Four lost cities, and Gretchen Treu, co-owner of A Room of One’s Own bookstore in Madison Wisconsin, share their stunning summer picks with Ira in front of a Live Zoom audience.

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Book buyer and event coordinator for independent bookstore A Room of One’s Own in Madison, Wisconsin

This postcolonial African novel is bursting with magic and follows heroes whose work is about environmental stewardship and the recognition of ways in which ancestral approaches can influence change. The prose is intoxicating and alive, you can almost hear it told as in an oral tradition. The effects of a poisoned climate and unsustainable and unequal practices are accelerating a climate apocalypse. Restoring a balance between many very different and often at odds parts requires a lot of work of mind and unconventional thinking. Master of Poisons is ideal for readers looking for something immersive, complex and magical flourishing.

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A meteor crashes to earth in Minnesota, wiping out a significant portion of a small town and bringing a whole new element to our planet. Control of the element, which turns out to have extraordinary energy potential – or as a weapon – causes social upheaval as different interests compete for control of the scarce resource. There is mystery and intrigue and a heavy dose of Midwestern in this book, which comes across as a modern gold rush.

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Racism and social control via non-consensual experimentation provide the tension in this novel featuring an intersex protagonist whose body is colonized by a fungus that connects her to other people’s memories of the same experience. It’s for readers who want something challenging, unexpected, clever, fierce, and brilliant.

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A very thoughtful, multi-POV novel about how technology can impact human cultures, how technological advancement can sometimes be too led by a lone genius, and luck without caring about the ripple effects. It’s also just an elegiac meditation on how families can be created, how grief affects choice, and the small and powerful ways an individual can turn the tide of history by refusing to quietly submit to it. injustice. This is for readers looking for a science-based, sci-fi-loving world build that examines the human side of technology.

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Firewall
by Nicole Kornher-Stace

This book is the feminist response to Loan Player One and its sequel. The United States is divided into two warring societies. A young woman who earns her living by being slightly famous in a game developed by the companies takes on a parallel job which allows her to discover the wrongdoings of the company. It’s for people who want something action-oriented and a little dystopian with good policy.

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Nguyen’s debut novel is a claustrophobic space survival thriller about how we might survive extreme conditions in space. This one is for people who liked Extraterrestrial and Event horizon or the work of Arthur C. Clarke.

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Science journalist, founder of io9.com and author of numerous books, including Four Lost Cities

Award-winning author Pinsker is a master of character development and shows how new technologies are transforming human relationships on a small scale. In this novel, she introduces us to a frightening and plausible brain implant technology designed to help people focus on multitasking, which bypasses normal rules of regulatory oversight because it is rather a “medical device”. than a drug. We see how this affects the lives of people in a family, and ultimately the world.

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A breathtaking, distant story of what families might look like in a world where network technology allows people to live in multiple bodies at the same time. Tip: There is no privacy and “death” can result from simply shutting down the network.

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Black Sun
by Rebecca Roanhorse

Roanhorse tells a fantastic story of government instability, betrayal, and magic, all set in a world that evokes the technological sophistication and political complexity of the Americas before colonialism.

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Alarm
by P. Djèlí Clark:

This news is a brilliant recreation of southern life during the rise of the Second Klan in the 1920s. Except in this story, the Klans are actually monsters – and they control the minds of white people with the movie. Birth of a nation. What I love about this book is the perfect blend of historical accuracy and gonzo horror satire.

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Khaw’s story of stupid cyborg clones fighting insanely powerful AI is one of my favorite new books on what cyborg consciousness might look like a few hundred years from now.

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