Mini-Confessions – Part 2- Science Fiction – Confessions of a Serial Reader

Here are two science fiction books that I read or listened to recently. They both had one of my least favorite science fiction tropes in them, which unfortunately biased my opinion of them a bit. But I would still recommend Feral Creatures if you want an interesting twist on the apocolypse.

Rebelwing by Andrea Tang

Publication Date: February 25, 2020

Confession:

I think I might have understood this book a bit more if I had read it as opposed to listening to it. There were a lot of things about this world that I felt very confused about, and I think reading might have helped it be less confusing maybe? I don’t know. The thing that was really hard to figure out were the two warring factions, their names were just too similar. I was all sorts of confused about that and about which group was the better one? They both sounded horrible. Also Pru, the main character was a total wuss who whined just way too much. And don’t even get me started on the lack of a sentient AI dragon. I saw no sentience from that dragon at all, it was just a mech, with maybe a tiny drop of sense to it.

There were a few things I did like though. The friendships and banter between the core group was well done and I did like the action scenes, I thought they were well done. The reader, Emily Woo Zeller, did a fantastic job. That was one of the reasons I finished the book, otherwise I might have DNF’d it. But I really liked listening to her voice and would choose to listen to her again.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be picking up the next book anytime soon, or possibly ever. I just never felt invested in the story or the characters. I did like the writing for the most part and would be willing to try another book by this author, as I understand this was her debut. I do see potential there.

Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton

Publication Date: August 24, 2021

I liked this book, but not as much as the first one. I think this one was a bit too serious and not as funny. Then there is my personal issue of humans turning into some other hideous creature only because of a virus is something I just can’t get into.

The strength of both this book and the first one, is how well the author develops her animal characters, and in this book her one human character. I constantly found myself thinking that the animals were very astute and philosophical about their lives and the world around them. Dee, the human that S.T. and the other animals raise, also had an interesting perspective on the world. Dee has a connection to nature that is amazing and was well done in the narrative. S. T. is a crow who wants to be human, but comes to accept his limitations in this book. His love for Dee is huge and he will do anything to protect her, even though he is just a crow.

This duology is a really interesting twist on what happens to the animals when all of the humans are gone, but then come back as something horrible and even worse than they were. If you like quirky science fiction this is one you might want to give a chance.