I’d like to kick off this whole blogging thing by first giving some love to some other authors whose books I have read, enjoyed and recommend. Now, I could list all the usual suspects in the science-fiction genre: Asimov, Heinlein, Banks, Dick and so on… but I’m not going to. There are enough websites that throw up the huge names already; it’s understandable, they’re the heavyweights of the genre for a very good reason.

There’s also the fact that I’ve barely read any of them.

I love science fiction, and I love reading. The trouble is, in the past, the two have rarely lined up. I spent most of my childhood reading Fantasy primarily: the Terrys (Terries? Terrii?) Pratchett and Brooks, the Harry Potter series (of course), and J.R.R. Tolkien. The only written science-fiction series that I had the pleasure of reading at a young age was the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. After that, I tended to read a lot of non-fiction, and my primary science-fiction exposure was through TV, Film and videogames.

Lately though, I’ve gotten back into reading… I wonder why?

In the last year I’ve read a few more science-fiction works and I’m going on a journey of discovery of some of the things I have inexplicably missed out on. I started with Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks, which I found very enjoyable. But, as he’s one of the heavyweights, I’m not going to talk about him (but rest assured, I will be delving back into reading the Culture series at some point).

So, what on earth am I recommending? Simply, three books by smaller authors that I have had the immense joy to discover:

1. The Shadeward Saga by Drew Wagar

I discovered Drew Wagar a few years ago as part of the Elite: Dangerous community. Many of you who are gamers of my dad’s generation will likely recognise the name ELITE. Written by Ian Bell and David Braben, the revolutionary space trading and combat game, ELITE was released on the BBC Micro in 1984, and subsequently on a whole host of other 8-bit machines such as the C64 and ZX Spectrum, and even later on some 16-bit consoles such as the NES. Drew Wagar has been part of the ELITE fan community since the very beginning, and when the fourth game in the series - Elite: Dangerous - was released in 2015, he ran and successfully completed a Kickstarter bid to write an official novel set in that universe. That novel was called Elite: Reclamation. Now, I came to know of Drew as he was making plans for its sequel, Elite: Premonition (which is a fantastic sci-fi book in its own right), and I was amazed and impressed by the feat he achieved of influencing the community actions of an online game, culminating in one of the best (and most infamous) in-game events in its history, then putting that all together in a really bloody good book!

However, it is in his very own creation that his true talent for worldbuilding and incredible characters shine.

The Shadeward Saga, published by Fantastic Books Publishing, is a four-part science-fiction series with the writing style of a fantasy. A bit of a hybrid in style, if you will. It’s set on the planet Esurio, a tidally-locked world in the Lacaille 9352 star system, and it is a beautiful blend of hard sci-fi and medieval fantasy. The story follows Kiri, Meru and Zoella as they uncover the secrets of the past and fight to undo the influence of the mysterious and evil Witches of Drayden. I’ve got to be honest here, the emotions run really high in this series. You really grow to love these people as well as the other supporting characters, and the final book - Shadeward: Expiation - utterly destroyed me. The world-building is top-notch, and has been intricately researched. If you ever wondered what life would realistically be like living on a tidally-locked world (a world in which our familiar day/night cycle does not exist, as the planet’s rotational period is the same as its orbit, leaving one side perpetually facing its parent star, and the other shrouded in eternal night) around a red dwarf star, you will find absolutely nothing better - I guarantee it. This series is honestly a masterpiece that has been ten years in the making for Drew, and more people really need to read it.

2. Nine Streams of Consciousness: The Anthology of Humanity’s Second Chance

I’ve never read an anthology of any kind before, but I found out about this one through Drew Wagar’s twitch streaming channel. He gathered nine new and experienced authors from around the world together on Twitch to each write short stories that fit together in a single, overarching story.

It’s an amazing accomplishment that has been likened to herding cats! Nine Streams of Consciousness chronicles thousands of years of human future-history, as we as a species rebuild after an apocalyptic event. I would classify it has hard sci-fi, especially towards the beginning. Add thousands of years of progress onto it and the SF softens a bit (which is to be expected, give the story's breadth). The world-building is done very well, and the speculative scientific concepts are researched to a high standard. If the layout of the book didn't make it clear that you were reading a selection of short stories from different authors, you’d think it was a singular novel.

It was a very interesting read overall, and you can see the differences in the authors’ writing styles (this could be a little jarring, but if you know what you're getting into, you'll expect it). My favourite short story in the book is Shattered Worlds by Glenn R. Frank. I highly recommend this, not just for the novelty, but also the really quite engaging and insightful story.

Blogger, Nicole from Inkwell Spills has written a fantastic author spotlight on her page, interviewing the contributors to the anthology. It was great to get a glimpse into the process behind the making of such a work. So check out the article in the link just above if you want to know more.

3. Once a Year: A Story of Love, Heartbreak and Dangerous Consequences by Charlotte Rose

Wait… what?

As you may be able to tell from the title, this one’s the odd one out! You might be asking yourself, “what’s a young-adult romance novel doing on a science-fiction writer’s website?”.

First of all, you’re right, it’s not my usual preferred genre. I bought it for my wife initially, but out of curiosity I ended up reading it myself. And you know what? The story’s pretty damn good.

It’s a debut novel, and as such it can be a little rough around the edges (I’m under no illusions about my own novel either!) but I found myself pleasantly surprised, and I enjoyed reading it so much that I finished it in an afternoon!

The story follows Delphine as she finds young love in an idyllic Greek island paradise, but struggles when she returns home and life has to return to normality, with the added stresses of going to college sending her into a downward spiral of anxiety and bad decisions. It went places I didn’t really expect it to, and took a real deep dive into anxiety. That’s one of the things that made it so engaging.

I’m interested in seeing more from this author, which is great because I’ve heard that she’s working on both a sequel - Blanche Amour - and another novel by the title of Brown Coffee and Milk.

And that’s all I have for you right now!

Go check out these books on Amazon - I've linked to them in the titles above. Check out Drew Wagar’s website for more of his amazing SF/F novels. And many thanks to Nicole over at Inkwell Spills for letting me post up the link to her article.

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I’ll probably revisit this topic at a later date once I’ve had a chance to check out some more stuff, and hopefully I won’t just end up parroting every other website or blog like this!