Sci-Fi…. make it so

There are a number of books in this genre that have caught my eye (or ear), some of which I’ve started and others I intend to read soon – so I figured every month I may concentrate (or try to concentrate) on a different genre within the m/m world. Does anybody else like reading Sci-Fi?… as always I love to get recommendations, so please add to my list. I need more in my TBR pile. Really.

18% Gray, by Anne Tenino – I loved her contemporary book Frat Boy and Toppy, so I am hoping to see some of that humour in this book too…..”In a future where the United States has split along party lines, Agent Matt Tennimore’s job is to get people out of the Confederated Red States, whether they’re captured special ops agents from his own country or gay CRS citizens who’ve petitioned for asylum. He never expected to have to retrieve his high school crush, aka the guy who ostracized him for being gay.

Rescuing James Ayala isn’t going to be easy: he’s crawling with tracking nanos and has a cybernetic brain implant that’s granted him psychic power he isn’t sure how to control. That’s the good news. The bad? The implant is compromising James’s mental stability.

So they’re on the run, avoiding surveillance by AI aircraft and hiding from enemy militia. Then James confesses he tormented Matt in high school because James wanted him. Matt can’t resist the temptation James offers, but he wants so much more than sex, assuming they ever make it home alive. Is James really a good bet when he’s got a ticking time bomb in his brain and there’s the question of how much he’s actually changed?”

Escape Velocity, by Anan Crow and Dianne Fox – this is an unusual pick. I have read very mixed reviews on this book; one of which said that the story is best enjoyed as an audiobook. So that is what I did – I bought the audiobook and am listening to it while doing my housework. It is actually quite enjoyable. A lot of sex so far. I think I understand why it may not have been the best to read – I think I would have skimmed a bit….. “Linguist Elios Campbell is thrilled to be granted flight time in a Colonial Guard fighter jet, until he catches sight of his pilot. Spending time with Sender Kinnison holds even more appeal than the flight itself.

Sender’s desire for other men is forbidden by his faith and his family. He tries to resist his attraction to Elios, who is unlike anyone he’s ever known. When he fails, the incredible sex quickly leads to something deeper, forcing Sender to question his long-held beliefs.

Then, duty calls Sender home to the repressed colony of Themis. Will he be forced to give up a future with Elios to honor the ghosts of his past?”

Gravitational Attraction, by Angel Martinez – this is the book that got me started on my Sci-fi journey, and my full review will be up soon ….  “A distress call draws the Hermes to a drifting ship, empty except for gore-spattered corridors and one survivor. Drawn to the traumatized man, Isaac offers him kindness. But Turk harbors dangerous secrets. It will take more than kindness to save them all.

A mysterious distress call draws the crew of the Hermes to what appears to be an empty, drifting ship. Empty, except for the gore-spattered corridors and one survivor locked in a holding cell. Drawn to the traumatized man, the crew’s comm officer, Isaac Ozawa, makes Turk his responsibility, offering him kindness and warmth after the horror he experienced.

Turk longs for Isaac, a desperate, hopeless ache he’ll always carry with him.

But Turk’s brain harbors dangerous secrets, a military experiment gone wrong. When an amoral, power-hungry admiral kidnaps Isaac to convince Turk to become the weapon he’s hungered for, it will take Turk’s strength, the Hermes crew’s ingenuity, the enigmatic Drak’tar’s help, and Isaac’s own stubborn will to save them.”

Jacinto’s Voyage, by Daniel A Kaine – I am not sure how many of you follow the Goodreads M/M group, but they have this great author collaboration every so often where the author picks a prompt and a photo, then runs with a story. It is all free, which is always a good thing 🙂 Right now I am reading this one, only the second published story that I have read by Daniel, and it doesn’t disappoint. He really does write well. His descriptive text transports you to another world ….

“Dane Stiger is a man on the run, but running is expensive when you’re the Captain of a small cargo ship. To make ends meet, Dane and his crew take up mercenary jobs. Yet wherever they go, trouble never seems to be far behind.

On what should have been a routine cargo delivery, the ship is forced to make an unexpected pit-stop on the barren wastelands of Earth. There Dane meets a young man with no name or past, whose only companion is a leopard by the name of Spot. Feeling a connection to him, Dane takes the duo onto his ship, unaware of the trouble he has invited in.

When the young man’s memories begin to surface, Dane leads his crew across space in search of a hidden past, to a backwater planet where something is very amiss.”

Incursion, by Aleksandr Voinov– I am beyond excited to have been given an arc of this story. I love Voinov. I love Riptide Publishing. I love Sci-fi. I cannot wait to share my review with you. All is good in the world 🙂 ….

“Fighting with your back to the wall is all well and good—as long as you’ve chosen the right wall.

When the local authorities ask Kyle Juenger to hunt a shape-shifting Glyrinny spy, he can’t refuse. After all, he can use the reward to replace his paralyzed legs with cyberware, and maybe even to return to his home planet. Besides, he hates the morphs—those invasive, brain-eating monstrosities whose weapons cost him his legs.

Kyle’s best lead is the Scorpion, a mercenary ship armed to the teeth. Grimm, the Scorpion’s pilot and captain, fascinates Kyle. He’s everything Kyle lost with his legs, and he’s from the same home world. He’s also of the warrior caste—half priest, half savior. But Grimm’s been twisted by life as a merc, and Kyle’s stuck undercover as a criminal on the run.

That doesn’t stop Grimm from coming on to Kyle, or from insisting he’s more than the sum of his past and his useless legs. But Kyle has other concerns—like tracking a dangerous morph who could be wearing anyone’s face. And as if things weren’t complicated enough, Kyle can’t tell if Grimm is part of the solution

. . . or part of the problem.”