i’m about to be on a plane for 18 hours to tokyo. the goal is to sleep through most of those, but at some point I’ll probably wake up at some point. as a result I’m hoping to get some recommendations for some easy, breezy reads that ramp up quickly to distract me from being in a sardine can in the air.
in particular fun sci-fi / fantasy stuff would be nice. minority characters would also be great. recent and old stuff i like:
- red rising
- redwall
- The Avatar F.C. Yee Books
- Cyber Shogun Revolution
- Iron Widow
- Children of Blood and Bone
i don’t care about particular tropes or “trope bundles” as I like to call them and are prevalent in sci-fi / fantasy and especially YA stuff. as long as it’s interesting I’ll read it.
i haven’t gotten to read much in grad school so i have lots to catch up on
How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin [goodreads link] is a collection of speculative sci-fi/fantasy short stories -a few of these were fleshed out into YA novels/series. There is a little bit of everything in there, and while not always breezy, you don’t have to commit a lot of time to get to the interesting bits.
They’re not YA, but I recently read The Poppy War trilogy by RF Kuang and The Jade Bone Saga by Fonda Lee (first book is called Jade City) and would definitely recommend them.
In YA, if you enjoyed Children of Blood and Bone you’ll probably also enjoy Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko. I’d also recommend Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.
these look awesome, thank you!
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grabbed it, thanks!
If you haven’t read Ready Player One then it’s a good sci-fi / young adult book.
There is also Ready Player Two after you finish that one.
Cory Doctorow also released a new sci-fi book recently, called Red Team Blues, which you may be interested in.
It is a quick read, but Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorite books. It really mirrors modern day society. The book really predicted what the world would become. Sadly the authors was right. I am not sure if it is the kind of book you are looking for.
