REDSHIRTS
WRITTEN BY: JOHN SCALZI

BOOK SYNOPSIS: Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assign to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled to be assigned to the ship’s xenobiology laboratory, with the chance to serve on Away Missions alongside the starship’s famous senior officers.

Life couldn’t be better. . . until Andrew begins to realize that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces; (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations; and (3) sadly, at least one low-ranking crew member is invariably killed.

Unsurprisingly, the crew below decks avoid Away Missions at all costs. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is. . . and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

NERDY THOUGHTS: Redshirts is a winner of the Hugo Award for Best novel in 2013, and a New York Times bestseller! Full of gory humor, conspiracies, space ships and alternate realities Redshirts will suck you in from the very first sentence. With Borgovian Land Worms and Ice sharks and killer machines this book will leave you on the edge of your seat biting your nails! From all 294 pages not one will make you want to put the book down. (Trust me I know, I finished it in one sleepless day!)

PATRICK ROTHFUSS – NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE NAME OF THE WIND: “I can honestly say I can’t think of another book that ever made me laugh this much. Ever.”

JOE HILL—NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF HEART-SHAPED BOX: “Redshirts is (a) ruin-your-underwear funny, (b) a mind-bender sure to Philip K. Dick you over, and (c) absurdly rich in ideas and feeling. John Scalzi sets his imagination to STUN and scores a direct hit. Read on and Prosper.” 

For a look into John Scalzi visit his website here! -- http://whatever.scalzi.com/

WE ARE LEGION

(BOOK 1 OF THE BOBIVERSE)

WRITTEN BY: DENNIS E. TAYLOR

BOOK SYNOPSIS: Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it’s a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.

Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling A.I. in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The Stakes are high, no less than first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he’ll be switched off and they’ll try declines the honor, he’ll be switched off and they’ll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target for sabotage. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.

The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. The way to get there is to do what the state wants. But to get to that point, he will have to survive everything from foreign saboteurs to guerilla raids. If he manages to live through launch day, there’s still a good chance the other probes will be armed and focused on eliminating the competition the old-fashioned way.

And Bob will discover that the universe contains entities even more unfriendly that the competing probes.

NERDY THOUGHTS: We are Legion was the most out of this world, engaging book that I have read this year. There wasn’t a time when I wanted to put it down, just ask my husband! (Poor guy) Being the nerd that I am, this book grabbed me from the very first page, after the first chapter I had more in common with the main character Bob, than I had with most people. Which is very hard to do considering I rarely find a book that I can get into extremely fast, I usually get to the first paragraph and put it lower on my ‘To Read’ list.

We are Legion has everything a science fiction loving nerd (like myself) loves in a book, from Von Neumann probes to exploring the galaxy and finding aliens. For only being Taylor’s second book published I’m quite impressed and am looking forward to the second book of the Bobiverse!

--To find more information on Dennis E. Taylor’s future books visit his website at Dennisetaylor.org