This review was first published by Booklist on February 1, 2025.

Life isn’t going so well when Dalton Greaves gets recruited by the alien Unity coalition to be a “ground pounder”—someone who makes first contact with newly discovered, sentient species. Competition for first contact comes from the Assembly, a different coalition of aliens. When Dalton makes contact with the minarchs—a tentacled, insectoid, predatory species—things don’t go at all to plan. He and his partner end up stranded on the minarch planet along with an Assembly “stickman” and get caught up in local political conflicts. Dalton becomes the fourth consort of the minarch queen, forms an unexpected truce with his Assembly enemy, and lands in a fight for his life. Ashton (Mal Goes to War, 2024) excels at creating compelling characters. Especially impressive is how believable his different alien races are: each has its own culture and motivations, and they all make sense. The conflicts that drive the action arise from the miscommunications between them. Speculative fiction is a lens for us to reflect upon ourselves in interesting ways, and this is ultimately a delightful examination of what it means to be human.

This review was first published by Booklist on November 1, 2024.

**STARRED REVIEW** Nieva’s debut expands his O’Henry award-winning short story into a full novel. The result is a dystopian fever dream that’s equal parts poetic and profane, beautiful and splattered with gore. In the year 2272, the polar ice caps have melted, Patagonia is a tropical archipelago, Antarctica is the new Caribbean, terraforming technology is used to create paradises only for the rich, and global corporations make fortunes off of pandemics. Dengue Boy is a mutant mosquito, born to a human mother, who is ostracized as child and grows up to wreak destruction. His foil is El Dulce, an entirely self-centered tween who helps smuggle contraband through Patagonia, whose only real interest is getting his hands on a prime video game console, and who comes face-to-face with a primordial force beyond reckoning. Furthermore, there’s a hallucinogenic video game that breaks the concept of time and causation. Dengue Boy is a trip. It’s a cry of rage against the inhumanity of corporate greed, a mourning for the destruction of our climate, a warning of the dangers we’re unlocking from the thawing ground, and a heartbreaking loss of hope for the future of mankind. It’s a pessimistic and transformative experience that is powerful, challenging, rewarding, and difficult to sit with.

This review was first published by Booklist on November 1, 2024.

The NeoG is set to hand control of the Mars Orbital Station to local Martians—a major step in granting Mars independence. Maxine Carmichael is on site to supervise when the station is hijacked by a group with unclear motives, sowing discord between the NeoG and the Free Mars activists. With Max, Sahib, and several civilians taken hostage, Nika leads a team on the ground to figure out what’s going on, avert disaster, and bring their people back alive. What ensues is a violent fight for survival amidst political intrigue. Wagers refers to this newest NeoG novel (after The Ghosts of Trappist, 2023) as “Die Hard in space.” This is accurate, though it sells the story short. There are deep themes explored here: the brutality of long-standing conflict where everyone is harmed and the psychological cost of violence. The novel is weightier and darker than its predecessors, notably more grim while retaining innate hopefulness. As always, the heart of the story is the emotional support and vulnerability the characters grant one another. It’s the only thing that can heal wounds this deep.

This review was first published by Booklist on October 1, 2024.

**STARRED REVIEW** After more than 50 years, it’s finally here: the concluding volume of Ellison’s groundbreaking speculative-fiction anthology (which began with 1967’s Dangerous Visions). While credited to Ellison, it was completed by J. Michael Straczynski, close friend and executor of the Ellison estate, based on Ellison’s wishes. Most of the stories were solicited and purchased by Ellison over the years, including works from such luminaries as Edward Bryant, A. E. Van Vogt, and Robert Sheckley, and a terrifyingly prescient story by Dan Simmons. Straczynski solicited the rest in order to bring contemporary voices into the mix, including Max Brooks, Cory Doctorow, Adrian Tchaikovsky, a remarkable entry from first-time author Kayo Hartenbaum, and a story from James S. A. Corey potentially so controversial Straczynski questioned whether to even include it. What’s most remarkable is how seamlessly the old and new fit together. It’s a testament to the universality of the themes, ideas, concerns, and experiences they explore. This is deep, daring, and inventive storytelling. Of particular value are Straczynski’s “Ellison Exegesis,” in which he shares his perspective on why Ellison never could finish this work, and “Tetelestai!” where he explains his process for selecting the stories he included. A worthy capstone to Ellison’s monumental legacy.

This review was first published by Booklist on September 15, 2024.

Nether Station is an experiment in genre mash-ups: space adventure meets cosmic horror. A wormhole is discovered in the Kuiper Belt, and an ultrarich tech mogul funds an expedition to explore it. After a series of eerie and unsettling experiences, the crew find themselves fighting for survival against an ancient and eldritch threat. In Anderson’s (Persephone, 2024, with Jeffrey Morris) experienced hands, this combination of genres is certainly fun. The book features a neurodivergent lead who brings a different perspective to a type of story so often dominated by neurotypical adventure heroes, adding a welcome new dynamic to the proceedings. The tech mogul is an obvious reference to Elon Musk, but Anderson doesn’t allow him to become an easy caricature; he’s fully fleshed out and multifaceted. The remaining cast is no less unique, and it’s satisfying to see how they all rise to the occasion. Anderson’s world building remains top-notch, and the pacing is propulsive. All in all, a successful experiment.