Book Reviews

By Lily Brooks-Dalton
12/6/22
336 pages
$28
Grand Central Publishing

‘The Light Pirate’

Change is an incredible, inevitable, potent beast, and I don’t think I’ve ever read a piece of fiction that more aptly illustrates that point. This is an incredibly sad story that somehow manages to feel timeless and almost fairy-tale-like in its melancholy. 

Wanda is named in the midst of a monstrous tragedy, and a fitting name it is — the hurricane that changed everything for her family and the entire state of Florida. Bombarded by storms and an apocalyptic change in landscape, Florida is now nearly empty and almost unlivable. Still, Wanda stays, using her lifelong skills to survive along with a rich and unique community of people determined to find life in a time of extreme chaos.

Filled with unforgettable characters, terrifying nature and a startlingly prescient message, “The Light Pirate” is a phenomenal book for anyone looking for a deep story of resilience and humanity at the extremes. ♦  

— Review by Julie Goodrich

By Annalee Newitz
1/31/23
352 pages
$28.99
Tor Books

‘The Terraformers’

I love sprawling epics and interconnected stories. I love character-driven sci-fi even more. To top it off, I adore everything Annalee Newitz writes. Lo and behold, I absolutely loved their newest effort, “The Terraformers,” a sci-fi epic presented as three interwoven novellas that managed to feel both huge and impactful while still clearly being an intimate character study across generations. 

Meet the Rangers, a group that works to protect the environment of a planet set for development by corporations that want to sell that planet as a vacation property for only the wealthiest people. It’s a dirty job, literally, and creates a number of scenarios and situations that offer an eerie parallel to our current times, despite being far in the future. The ramifications of the Rangers’ actions over time form the plot of the story, but there are enough wild, silly and hilarious situations and characters to carry the heavy plot with a lot of joy. By the end, I had fallen in love with Newitz’s inventive, poignant writing all over again. ♦ 

— Review by Julie Goodrich