literally literary

After reading Andy Weir’s ‘The Martian’ a few months ago I was as excited for the film as the next nerd. The problem was, much like the tail end of a binge-watch on Netflix, I needed more. I needed it now. Luckily for me, there were two books coming out weeks apart that fit the genre. I’d expect the sci-fi space adventure to be even more prevalent than it is nowadays because of the success of GRAVITY a few years ago. I expect it even more now that THE MARTIAN film adaptation has kicked all sorts of ass since it premiered. The fact is, these two novels came out at the perfect time (one more than the other – more on that later) and is proven even more by the fact that ‘The Fall’ has already started development for a television show. What are they all about? Relax, we’re getting there.

THE FALL by R.J. Pineiro

From the Author’s Website: “A man jumps from the upper-most reaches of the atmosphere and vanishes, ending up on an alternate Earth where he died five years earlier.”

There’s a lot more action here than in ‘The Martian’ or ‘Saturn Run’ and that’s a good thing. Jack Taylor is a badass, adrenaline seeking, government contractor that decides he wants to test a new suit for the military that would allow soldiers to drop into specific locations from orbit, undetected. So he does. He lands in an alternate universe very much like the one we live in except for the fact that he’s been dead for five years, good guys are sometimes bad guys, and his best friend is banging his wife. Jack is more Bruce Willis than Sandra Bullock so when the shit hits the fan, it’s time to strap up and start whooping assholes in order to get back to his reality. I love the mix of science fiction and action in this story. Jack’s black ops background allows him the skills to fight, spy, sneak, kill, and use his head in order to get the job done. That said, if this is being picked up by a network television station, it will suck when translated to the small screen. Too much will change. We’ve been here before. And before that. And before that.

Rating: 8/10

SATURN RUN by John Sanford and Ctein

 After the discovery of a starship docking at Saturn, America and China race to make first contact with an alien species.

I love this book. It’s heavy on the science and finds the perfect mix of humor and likable characters to allow you to stop feeling stupid long enough to appreciate the story. What we have here is a solid political drama, a space epic, a sci-fi adventure, and an engaging ensemble all rolled into one fantastic read. America is trying to pull a fast one on China. China is pissed and tries to shove the alien technology up the American buttholes. Nobody knows what to expect to find when (if) they ever get there but both nations are risking everything to get there first. I listened to a 17 hour audiobook version of this story and it felt like I blasted through it in one work shift. I didn’t of course, but there’s no way to describe how fast it made those 500 minivans fly by every night. I was obsessed. The timing isn’t too bad either with the recent speculation of a strange space anomaly that some have considered the possibility of being an alien structure. Who knows whatever the hell that is but the publishers of ‘Saturn Run’ should be all over that shit like face-huggers on word-holes. This is the book of the year for me as it doesn’t disappoint in any aspect. The science is as legit as possible, as told by the author himself in an afterword (not that I would know otherwise), the ending delivers on all the right notes, and it’s as fun and intense as you’d hope.

Rating: 9/10