I started reading science fiction with the classics, and now I’d like to explore other authors and different types of science fiction—which is why I thought of William Gibson. However, due to time constraints, I’d like to start with short stories.

Book number two of a ten book young adult science fiction series. There is also a two book sequel series and a seven book sequel series, nineteen books in all. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2017 that I bought on Amazon in 2026. I own book #3 and have ordered books #4, #5, and #6 in the series.

Jiden Armstrong is the older child of two archaeologists on the dry, dusty planet named Century. Jiden is fourteen planet years old which is equivalent to sixteen Earth years and was forced by her parents to attend and graduate from the five month military prep school that her grandmother runs. She then interned at a logistics and supply company which blew up in her face when she notified the planetary authorities that people in the company were selling stored military spare parts off planet. Now she is attending the Century Military Academy as a plebe.

This is a great story about making mistakes and overcoming difficult situations to make something of yourself. Somebody online recommended this book to me and I really enjoyed the book. If you are a fan of Heinlein juveniles then you will probably love this book also.

The author has a website at
https://kalspriggs.com/

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (398 reviews)

https://www.amazon.com/Valors-Calling-Children-Valor-2/dp/1985733498/

Lynn

Just wanted to give me 2 cents on this novel. Short version is simple: If you love Becky Chambers, get this one. If you love the idea of slice of life scifi, get this one.

To be perfectly honest, I had a very rocky start with this novel because:

1. I do not care for one of the narrators of the audiobook version (confused teenager in community theater is my impression)
2. this book is not written in a way so that you can turn it into an audiobook just like that. This is because
3. the first 15% of the novel is jumping around like a scared mouse on a pogo stick; I am talking about POV chapters (with chapter titles and everything) with maybe 3 sentences before switching to another timeline with 5 sentences before switching to ... Even as a written book this was very rough

Thankfully, the book eventually calmed down and it became a much more pleasant read (yes, I ditched the audiobook and switched to the ebook instead). Granted, you still had some wild jumps but the book finally decided to insert them as a paragraph, not as a chapter with chapter title. This way you could read them as a kind of flashback without breaking the flow of the read.

There were also other ... creative ... decisions, like having several long conversations face to face between two characters written like a conversation in a messenger app but without date and timestamps. What that means is that suddenly you have character A's speech on the left side and character B's speech on the right side of a page. I don't know what the author wanted to achieve but at least I can say that this didn't break my reading flow at all because this style was only used sparingly and not for every conversation. So there is that.

As for the story, it's Becky Chambers at her best. You have two character getting to know each other, you have life happening around them with its ups and downs and then you have the setting you as the reader explore in the course of the novel. And the setting is an absolute banger.

I really, really love the way Becky Chambers makes the world so tangible, with little, inconsequential details like the Kiddie Katapult or brands of oatmeal powder. And how dystopian aspects of the world are, even though everyone in this fledgling colony world is sensible, practical and minding their own business. As always, her novels always make me feel like a backpacking tourist, learning about new countries and its awesome.

So yeah, curious to see how others feel about it.

I am currently working on a personal project, regarding a cosmic being overseeing the life of a particular human. I was thinking that it would be interesting to write from the perspective of a being beyond our comprehension, except that the point of a higher being is our inability to comprehend it and its scale of the world. The most effective way to convey that sense of alienation is from an outsider's perspective and their lack of comprehension, but I'm thinking of pushing my own personal boundaries a bit. Are there any novels/short stories that explores this idea? Thank you, I'm currently extremely mentally stuck :')

I am looking for the title of a short science fiction story. Humans on an alien planet. New colony or scientific mission. Thing is being outside they must be silent because the native fauna are vocal mimics. Anything overheard will be incorporated into their vocalizations and calls. At the end, one of the characters breaks the rule out of frustration and finds satisfaction what they say will be 'immortalized'.

I believe this was from the late nineties or the aughts and it was in a Dozois Year's Best anthology. Rather enquire of meat, not a clanker.