​The Wayfarers book series by Becky Chambers.

I've only read 2 of the 4 books but this is a unique series. First of all, the world building is top tier. Several alien species with fully realized cultures and biologies. Set in a future where mankind has left behind a dying solar system (the sun has burned out) and humans now live on any number of planets and ships in what was an already established federation of species when they left Earth behind.

Here's what makes these books unique - so far. There is no main bad guy or impending universe destroying cataclysm. The stuff that the characters go through is just "shit happens" kind of stuff. Which I hate saying because it sounds boring but a) it's refreshing to just enjoy a world and the characters and sit in the mud with them and b) I appreciate the low level of drama. 

Real life is full of stakes; being late to work for an important meeting, car breaking down and no money to fix it, breaking a leg and there's no elevator or whatever. The difference here is the context. Being an AI in a robot body is not as liberating as the AI expected. A spaceship not working is incredibly dire because no matter how far in the future this is, humans still can't survive the vacuum of space without technology. 

Book 1 - A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, so far is my favorite. After reading it, I could pinpoint what every crew member loves. (Finding that for all my characters is going to be a major factor in my future writing.) And all of them are awesome. Definitely gave me Firefly vibes, in that the crew is so loveable and generally awesome. 

Book 2  - A Closed and Common Orbit, follows a whole new set of characters but continues to build on what we know about the other species and the tech that is used in this reality. I don't know if we'll come back around to the crew of the Wayfarer or if all the characters converge at some point. 

I'm starting book 3 soon, so yeah, highly recommend.

​This month I want to recommend two books by the same author. Ted Chiang. He wrote the short story that inspired the movie "Arrival" with Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams. 

"Arrival" came from his first collection of short stories titled, "Stories of Your Life, and others."  "Stories of Your Life" is the short story that "Arrival" was taken from. I was completely fascinated by the idea of how language shapes our perception of reality. That idea is explored much more deeply in the text of story. Not to mention how does one write a story when time is not perceived in a linear manner. If you have not watched the movie this will not make any sense.

All that to say, each story in his first collection was unique and memorable. When I saw that he had another collection, Exhalation, I bought it without hesitation. I was not disappointed. Again each story so full of imagination. Ted Chiang's stories are also packed with philosophy and wonder. 

Every single story in both books feel like wholly separate and fully realized worlds. It's mind blowing to be honest. I think he is a singular talent and I can't wait to read whatever he comes up with next.

“Inside a barn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a scientist searching for an Alzheimer’s cure throws a switch—and finds herself mysteriously transported into her husband’s body. What begins as a botched experiment will change her life—and the world—forever…

Over two decades later, all across the planet, “flash” technology allows individuals the ability to transfer their consciousness into other bodies for specified periods, paid, registered and legal. Society has been utterly transformed by the process, from travel to warfare to entertainment; “Be anyone with Anyone” the tagline of the company offering this ultimate out-of-body experience. But beyond the reach of the law and government regulators is a sordid black market called the darkshare, where desperate “vessels” anonymously rent out their bodies, no questions asked for any purpose - sex, drugs, crime... or worse.

Anyone masterfully interweaves the present-day story of the discovery and development of the flash with the gritty tale of one woman’s crusade to put an end to the darkness it has brought to the world twenty-five years after its creation. Like Blade Runner crossed with Get Out, Charles Soule’s thought-provoking work of speculative fiction takes us to a world where identity, morality, and technology collide.”

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I bought this book because I’m mad at Disney. The book I really wanted was “Star Wars: Light of the Jedi” by Charles Soule. It had good chatter from people I trust on social media and I’m interested in the galaxy far, far away outside of the bad choices of certain families. But as I said, I’m mad at Disney for their sloppy handling of the sequel trilogy and if I can avoid giving them money I will. But I don’t want to punish the author’s who work for Disney, it’s not their fault. So I will get Star Wars books at the library and buy those authors' independent books at my local bookstore. Anyone was the one book they had by Charles Soule. 

I’ve read "Oracle Year" too, but I enjoyed "Anyone" a lot more.

"Anyone" is a great book. I enjoyed it a lot. The characters were relatable, likable, and well rendered. The pacing is fast. I read through this book at a casual pace but still finished it in less than a week. There are two timelines which makes it a little confusing toward the end for reasons I will not give away. But it wasn’t enough to stop me from reading and I trusted the story enough to keep going. Whatever confusion I experienced did not impact my overall understanding of the outcome of the story. 

The future timeline is very cool. It’s different from our current reality but still familiar. Because of the body swapping premise, I was reminded of "Altered Carbon". "Altered Carbon" is set in the far future with lots of colonies on several other planets. It would be easy to believe that these two stories exist in the same universe. The flash tech in Anyone could be the precursor tech used in Altered Carbon. 

Charles Soule is a fantastic writer. As a writer, I aspire to his ability to weave in characters descriptions and locations into the text without slowing the flow of the story. The only time I was bored was when they were talking about the science of the flash but those paragraphs are easy to skip. I was bummed when the book was over. While the story concluded exactly as it needed to, I enjoyed myself too much to leave so soon. It would be a lot of fun to see the world of Anyone expanded on either in more books or a TV show. “The possibilities are endless.”