Time for Monthly Recommendations with Kayla from Kayla Rayne and Trina from Between Chapters (find out more here).
This month's topic is science-fiction. I'll be totally honest, I'm not a huge sci-fi person. For years I have said, in fact, that I read "anything but sci-fi." I'm not sure entirely why this is...ultimately I truly do love books that focus on people in the here and now- family sagas and romantic relationships and friendships that are tested. I'm all about the people, and at least when I was younger it was difficult for me to get past the world-building in some sci-fi/fantasy to the people.
I'm not saying this was the fault of the books or the genre, but me as a reader at that time. I am slowly becoming more open to the genre, but basically I've only read the super popular stories everyone has mostly heard of. I'm excited to hear any recommendations you may have to help further introduce me to this genre!
So here's my short list, which I totally got from this huge list on Goodreads of sci-fi books:
- Brave New World
- I need to reread this, but I remember liking it in high school (and being the only one...)
- The Hunger Games
- Divergent
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
- I read this because it's sort of the grandfather of sci-fi, actually (well, listened, it was an audio book). It was okay, I wonder if it would have been better in traditional book v e-book...but then I may have been caught up with trying to pronounce the crazy Norwegian words. Fun fact: my husband highly enjoyed it. With maybe 2 exceptions, we have completely different tastes in books.
My one actual personal/lesser known recommendation would be the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series from Kay Hooper.
This may fall more under paranormal, I don't know, sci-fi/paranormal/fantasy seem to intertwine a lot in my head. Either way, it's a great series. I've only read a few, and one was actually the spin-off series Bishop Files.
It's a little hard to explain, but basically it's a loose series that deals with psychics and crime-solving. Each psychic has a different type of sense- one just feels a "pull" towards dead bodies, one can read thoughts, one can see ghosts. Noah Bishop is kind of the head character, since the series are named after him. He works within the FBI but also ends up creating a private enterprise to help find and train people with such gifts. You can definitely read these books as stand-alone's (I have, and out of order) but I really want to go back and read them in order.
They often try to use science to enhance and/or block the psychic abilities, since they are working against people with the same powers (usually serial killers). It's really interesting to see the different versions of abilities the characters have and how they each feel about their abilities. It has a lot of personal details and fleshed-out characters, which is always what captures me and what I sometimes miss in sci-fi just because I get caught up in the world more than the people.
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