September 25, 2020
I enjoy escaping into space opera, and as a librarian, I enjoy promoting my favorite reads. I loved K.B. Wagers’ The Indranan War trilogy, starting with 2016’s Behind the Throne, which starred a gun smuggler-turned-princess who leveraged her past in negotiating alliances, avenging her family, and stopping wars. So I was excited to hear about A Pale Light in the…
September 23, 2020
I liked Aurora Rising well enough to check out its sequel, Aurora Burning. And since the first one ended with the squad coming together and actually working as a team (and since that’s my favorite part of any ensemble piece) I figured the second one would be all about Squad 312 versus the galaxy. Aurora Burning (2020) Written By: Jay…
September 1, 2020
A Pale Light in the Black (2020) Written by: K.B. Wagers Genre: Science Fiction Host: Ronya F. McCool Discussion Date: 9/25/2020 The Premise: The Expanse meets the Battle Room in Ender’s Game as K.B. Wagers brings us the rollicking first entry in a unique science fiction series that introduces the Near-Earth Orbital Guard — NeoG — a military force patrolling…
June 19, 2020
We all love to talk about our Favorite Things, but it’s not always the latest and greatest that charms us. Sometimes it’s those foundational favorites, the works that shaped us, that we find ourselves returning to again and again. Here at Speculative Chic, we decided it was way past time to create a dedicated platform to shine a spotlight on these…
May 27, 2020
I wholeheartedly admit that I am a sucker for anything described as “illustrious leader must unite a band of misfits to save the world/galaxy.” Probably a niche genre but yeah, I love stories like Firefly and Star Trek (2009) and Mass Effect. Ensemble pieces where not everyone works together perfectly at first but by the end you have a cohesive…
April 2, 2020
It’s taken me 2 years and a few re-reads to get to this point, but here I am, finally finished with Rhonda Mason’s excellent Empress Game trilogy. And as an official part of my 2020 Resolution Project, I can now mark another book off my list! Was it all worth it? You’ll have to read everything below to find out!…
January 16, 2020
Like a lot of us here at Speculative Chic, I went to Seton Hill University for their Creative Writing program, as did Rhonda Mason. When I heard she’d gotten one of her books published, I picked it up since I like to support my fellow graduates — plus it sounded pretty awesome. And let me tell you, Ms. Mason does…
January 15, 2020
Happy New Year, dear Chicers! I hope your 2020 is off to a good (or at least okay) start. As promised in my resolution post, I plan to reread and discuss the whole of The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) in the next twelve months. I’m also planning to write a book…
January 10, 2020
After reading the first of John Scalzi’s Interdependency series, how could I not press on with the second book? I mean, literally everything connecting numerous human words is collapsing, which will leave them all stranded billions of light years from each other (aka just about everyone is going to die). So I kind of want to know what happens. Even…
January 7, 2020
I have a long and storied history with reading Star Wars novels. For the longest time, the Expanded Universe was the only place to get new stories featuring Han, Luke, and Leia, because we knew there were no new movies on the horizon. All of that changed with Disney buying the franchise. They promised a new film trilogy; they promised…