Waking Romeo by Kathryn Barker

Waking Romeo by Kathryn Barker

Romeo and Juliet – but in space, with the addition of some Wuthering Heights thrown on top of the pile.  That’s the theme of Kathryn Barker’s Waking Romeo, which plays with and modernizes the play’s tropes.  It’s dizzying, it’s messy, but it’s nonetheless compelling because it’s fun and inventive.  Overall, the book will likely please…

Song of Scarabeus / Children of Scarabeus by Sara Creasy

Song of Scarabeus / Children of Scarabeus by Sara Creasy

Sara Creasy’s Song of Scarabaeus matches an intricately-built world with engaging characters and a fascinating plot. In the future, humanity terraforms planets by seeding them with biocyph (biology technology) pods called BRATs. This tech absorbs data from the existing ecosystem, then engineers and releases viruses which mutate the original life forms at the DNA level,…