Yet another entry in the crowded genre of apocalyptic story telling, this series starts off with humanity being hit by a double whammy. First "the flare" occurs which brightens the night sky and wipes out most electronics. This causes the most developed nations to focus on restoring communication and travel first, and just as these start to come back online humanity finds itself hammered by a deadly plague that wipes out most of the population. Those lucky enough to be immune to the disease find themselves in a broken world that is mostly uninhabited, and they must now find a way to survive. This story is about three of those people and what they must do to survive. Jake, Billy, and Amanda all feel like real people, and their stories are definitely worth hearing.

Tomorrow War is another short book from J. L. Bourne, a military veteran with 22 years of service, but unlike Day by Day Armageddon there are no zombies this time around. In this story the zombies are replaced with something far scarier - other humans and a dysfunctional government. Keeping a similar journal format to the Day by Day series, the main character, Max [Redacted], writes down his experiences as a form of self therapy to help him cope with the things he decides that he must do to survive. Being a trained killer working for the US government before society goes to hell, Max conducts a covert mission that becomes the root cause of the financial collapse that ruins society. This guilt weighs heavily upon him after the fall as he struggles with both the threats of the new world and his own mental health.

The war has spread and it now consumes the entire solar system. Blood and violence are pervasive as the fledgling Republic tries to hang against those who oppose it. Many want to return to the old color based society while others view this conflict as an opportunity to rise to power, so there is no shortage of combatants available.  Like the last book, Iron Gold, this story is told from the perspectives of the same PoV characters (plus Mustang this time) and each of them experiences this conflict from a different location within the solar system. With such a complicated set of battles it will take you some time to get your bearings, especially if it has been a while since you read the last book, but once you get everything sorted out this is another wild ride in a series that remains surprisingly compelling.

I enjoy books that deal with the fall of civilization as we know it. Be it nuclear war, zombies, aliens, an EMP or a virus, each story provokes the same questions for me: What would I do? Could I survive in this new world? Would my morals be tossed aside when my survival hangs by a thread? That is what makes the genre so interesting to me. Earth abides approaches the fall of civilization in a very different and laid back way. Mankind is practically wiped out overnight and the world becomes a lonely place for the few survivors. There is no gigantic battle or war as a back drop for this tale, nor is there any real lingering threat from the contagion that practically eliminates the human race. Rather it is a theoretical tale of what would happen to the earth if you took humans out of the mix. Is that a worthy premise?

Something is not quite right in Wayward Pines, Idaho - that much is obvious from the start of this book. At first, things just seem a little off, but the story slowly reveals just how wrong things actually are. The little things start to add up to something that just doesn't make any sense. You experience the story from the perspective of Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke, and he is not the type to just let things go.  His need to understand what is going on drives him to poke his nose where it isn't wanted, and the more he peels back the onion the more bizarre things get.

Back in the 1850s when The Power arrived on Earth and started granting magical abilities to a handful of humans, it seemed like a potential boon for the human race. 80 years later tells us otherwise as the level of strife between those with abilities and those without has become a real issue, but it also pales in comparison to what lies ahead. It turns out that The Power has been fleeing from planet to planet for millennia in a vain attempt to escape a voracious predator, and Earth is just the latest stop. This predator has consumed countless worlds in pursuit of The Power and Earth is next up on the menu. Of course, Heavy Jake Sullivan is not going to go down without a fight, and while he is no match for this world eating entity, he is also not planning to fight alone...

The first book of the Grimnoir Chronicles focused a lot on Heavy Jake Sullivan, but it also offered up a number of teasers indicating that Faye Vierra was somehow different from other Actives. Well this book explores her differences in great detail while at the same time delving deep into the source of the magical abilities that give the Actives their power. Add in the new Office of the Coordinator of Information (OCI), a shady organization that is hell bent on rounding up Actives for the "safety of the people", and you have a story that is action packed from cover to cover.

Book 5 picks up immediately after the ending of Book 4, which is a good thing because that cliff hanger ending left fans of the series eager for more. What threat could possibly be worse then the mutated creatures that rule the Earth's radioactive surface? Of course, it is the humans that somehow managed to survive hidden in the ocean on the Metal Islands. The Cazadores are far more numerous and brutal than the inhabitants of The Hive could ever have imagined, and they won't be easily defeated. With key personnel now being held captive on the Metal Islands, the dream of returning to the surface of the Earth has officially turned into a nightmare. Is returning to the Earth's surface really a viable future for the residents of The Hive or will it lead them to their ultimate doom?

The Quantum Magician introduces the reader to an interesting future where we have engineered a few unique sub-species of humans that are very different and original. The main character, Belisarius, is one of those new species - a Homo Quantus. This means he has the ability to enter a fugue state called savant and see into the realm of quantum possibilities. For most Homo Quantus this means that they spend their lives in solitude exploring the mysteries of the universe and seeking to expand human knowledge. In the case of Belisarius, he has chosen to use his quantum abilities as a con man and when the biggest and most elaborate con of his life comes along, he just can't resist.

Haimey Dz is a salvage tug operator that gets involved with ancient alien technology, pirates, assorted aliens, and social ethics. She, her shipmate Connla, their AI Singer, and two cats head out to the edge of the Milky Way to check out a potential salvage claim. The first thing they find at the coordinates is a dead Ativahika, a large space going alien species that resembles a seahorse. The Ativahika are presumed to be sentient, although they don't seem to communicate in any obvious way. The ship they are hoping to salvage is of unknown alien manufacture and apparently has artificial gravity, a technology that could make Singer and his small crew a fortune. But the ship also contains a horrible secret that drags Haimey and her friends into a galaxy spanning adventure that will force her to reevaluate everything she thinks she knows about herself.