Join us for the Lair of Secrets’ annual summer reading list! We run down a few of the books on our respective lists, but we’re always looking for more!
Featured in this episode are:
- Red Sonja Consumed by Gail Simone
- When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
- Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes
- Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
- Infinite Archive (The Midsolar Murders #3) by Mur Lafferty
- Vicious by V.E. Schwab
As well as side quests to talk about Iain Banks’ The Culture series, Terry Prachett’s Discworld, and Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves.
Suggest your own book ideas in the comments!
Chapters
0:00 Intro & Rocket Misfires
0:40 Red Sonja: Sword & Sorcery Revival1:45 Moon Cheese Madness: Scalzi’s Absurd Apocalypse
3:10 Seveneves vs. Moon Made of Cheese
4:20 Ghosts in Cryo: Cold Eternity Breakdown
5:35 Space Opera and the Glam-paign Idea
6:50 Infinite Archive: Murder, She Wrote in Space
8:00 Vicious by V.E. Schwab: Superpowered Rivalry
9:10 The Overflowing To-Read Pile
10:20 Pratchett’s Final Discworld Reflections
11:20 Saying Goodbye to The Culture Series
12:00 More Books, More Time: Summer Reading Goals
13:10 Share Your Book Picks!
14:00 Outro & Call to Action
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Show Notes
Red Sonja Consumed by Gail Simone (Ken) – I got this as a Christmas present, and I’m looking forward to Gail’s take on Red Sonja in novel form (I already read the comic book series she wrote; it was great).
From the book blurb:
The gutsy, wild, tortured free spirit, forged in pain yet unafraid of life or death, Red Sonja, the famous, fiery She-Devil and barbarian of Hyrkania has never concerned herself with the consequences of her actions. She’s taken what she wanted, from treasure to drink to the companionship of bedfellows. She’s fought who deserved it (and sometimes those who didn’t). And she’s never looked back. But when rumors start bubbling up from her homeland—rumors of unknown horrors emerging from the ground and pulling their unsuspecting victims to their deaths—and a strange voice begins whispering to her in her sleep, she realizes she may have to return to the country that abandoned her. And finally do the only thing that has ever scared her: confront her past.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi (David) – I’ve been a fan of most of Scalzi’s books. This is one of his more humorous books like Starter Villain and Kaiju Preservation Society. I’m looking forward to it. It’s also going to hold me over until the next Old Man’s War book comes out.
The moon has turned into cheese.
Now humanity has to deal with it.
For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now… something absolutely impossible.
Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives — over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.
It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket.
Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes (Ken) – Barnes’ third sci-fi/horror/ghost story novel is out. I loved the creepy atmosphere of the first two, which makes this one an easy pick.
Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth’s most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago…
The cryo program, created by trillionaire tech genius Zale Winfeld, is long defunct, and the AI hologram “hosts,” ghoulishly created in the likeness of Winfeld’s three adult children, are glitchy. The ship feels like a crypt, and the isolation gets to Halley almost immediately. She starts to see figures crawling in the hallways, and there’s a constant scraping, slithering, and rattling echoing in the vents.
It’s not long before Halley realizes she may have gotten herself trapped in an even more dangerous situation than the one she was running from….
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente – This one has been on my Kindle for way too long. It’s about time I ready what is described as “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets the joy and glamour of Eurovision”. It may also feed into my vision of creating a Glampaign game.
A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented—something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding.
Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Species far and wide compete in feats of song, dance and/or whatever facsimile of these can be performed by various creatures who may or may not possess, in the traditional sense, feet, mouths, larynxes, or faces. And if a new species should wish to be counted among the high and the mighty, if a new planet has produced some savage group of animals, machines, or algae that claim to be, against all odds, sentient? Well, then they will have to compete. And if they fail? Sudden extermination for their entire species.
This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick, and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny—they must sing.
Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes have been chosen to represent their planet on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of Earth lies in their ability to rock.
Infinite Archive (The Midsolar Murders #3) by Mur Laffery (Ken) – The third book in Mur’s space murder whodunnit series comes out July 1st, 2025, which means it’s definitely going to be on my vacation reading list. Who doesn’t want to take a cozy sci fi murder mystery book to the beach?
Amateur sleuth Mallory Viridian has just about got her bearings aboard the space station she calls home, but now the physical embodiment of the Internet is on its way, and it’s bringing murder with it.
Mallory Viridian has had a quiet few months. Even with the increased influx of humans visiting Station Eternity, she hasn’t seen so much as a bar brawl. Used to people dying left and right around her, the lack of murders to solve has left her unexpectedly . . . bored.
But humanity’s favorite way to waste time is on its way to her sector of the galaxy. A giant, one-of-a-kind data ship called Metis is bringing the entire Internet from Earth—as well as a mystery fan convention. On top of that, Mallory’s literary agent is aboard, and he tells Mallory that she’s the keynote speaker.
It’s almost a relief when a killer decides to strike at the convention. When Mallory finds her agent dead, she knows she has to work fast to find the murderer. With a strange new alien with unknown motives, a ship with impossible abilities, a lonely living, comprehensive Internet, and a deadly crime to solve, Mallory has her work cut out for her ….
Vicious by V.E. Schwab – Erin gave this to me as a gift longer than I would like to think about. It’s time to read it.
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.
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Seven President’s Beach in Long Branch, NJ. Photo by Ken.