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Whether you like hard science fiction or light fantasy, sometimes it’s nice to get away from the real world for a while. The following books are some of our top choices for stories that center on different worlds and alternative realities.
Amanda’s Science Fiction/Fantasy Suggestions
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
4.0 out of 5.0
I liked the premise of this book. Between life and death exists the Midnight Library. There you can see the infinite number of outcomes life could have been had a different decision been made.
Nora finds herself at the Midnight Library, given the chance to see her life and what could have been had she made different choices. Some of these alternative lives are good, some bad. She’s able to see different versions of herself, but they’re all based on her root life. Nora goes on a soul searching exercise of sorts as she picks different books from the library in order to see alternate lives she could have lived had she “fixed” some of her regrets while she was living.
This book sort of felt like having a fairy godmother in death rather than life. Countless choices of how life could have been and you have the opportunity to see what life might have been like. When given the chance, do you find you’d rather change the life you lived?
A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers
4.0 out of 5.0
Helen is set up on a blind date. Luke seems strangely familiar but she can’t figure out why. Until she starts having dreams about being someone else. These dreams are intense. She feels like she was actually these people.
Throughout the book, you learn about Helen, Juliet, Nora, and Sandra. How and why are they connected? There are scenes of rape, abortion, murder, and other potential triggers for some. There’s a witch and a curse. And a demon. Can Helen figure out why she is reliving a similar story in the body of four different women? Can she (and should she) break the cycle? Can Helen figure out why Luke is so familiar to her?
Maryalene’s Science Fiction/Fantasy Suggestions
The Martian by Andy Weir
5 out of 5 stars
I feel like I need to qualify this by saying that I listened to The Martian on audiobook, since I know the format can change the experience of a novel sometimes. Also, just a heads up that I couldn’t listen to this around my kids because of the amount of swearing in it.
So with that out of the way, let me say that I really enjoyed this book. It’s about an astronaut, Mark Whatney, who is part of an early expedition to Mars. When a storm rolls through, he gets left behind as the crew makes an emergency departure. It looks bleak at the start, but Whatney manages to MacGyver solutions to practically every problem he encounters. We, the readers, are mainly following along as Whatney chronicles his activities in a series of log entries. I don’t know how accurate the science is, but the book felt relatively believable.
One thing I liked about this book is that while there were challenges and setbacks along the way, Whatney was a competent guy. I really hate it when characters are inept, or everything goes wrong in a book. I like my characters to have some wins and that happens here.
Dune by Frank Herbert
3 out of 5 stars
I’m including this one mainly as a nod to my late husband who loved the Dune saga more than anything else he read. I think his favorite title in the series might have been God Emperor of Dune, but since I haven’t read that one, we’ll stick to the original book for now.
Dune centers on Paul Atreides, a boy whose family is responsible for the planet Arrakis where a valuable spice is harvested. House Atreides has enemies, though, and eventually Paul and his mother Jessica find themselves banished to the desert. There, they meet the Freman, who have adapted to life in the planet’s harsh climate. Among other things, they wear stilsuits to preserve water and ride on giant sandworms across the desert. The story follows Paul as he integrates into the Fremen tribe and discovers his destiny.
This is a dense book and not one for light reading. There are also A LOT of characters, many with unusual names. I really enjoyed the start of the book which focuses on the politics (for lack of a better word) of House Atreides while my husband liked the book better when Paul made it to the Fremen in the desert. Overall, Dune was a good read that took me out of my comfort zone, but it wasn’t engaging enough for me to want to read the rest of the series.
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