To nobody's surprise, when your stuck on a backwater planet, you can't afford to buy fuel when the only thing of value you have are some fancy geese. To be fair, Mal never intended to do a job in exchange for some supposedly rare geese, but that's how things worked out, and that's actually quite a problem. Serenity does not have enough fuel to leave the moon, which means they can't get to a location when they can cash out the unwanted geese, and the locals are not about to sell them fuel in exchange for the geese. The only way out of this predicament is, of course, to take another job. Luckily the owner of the fuel refinery is a former acquaintance of Shepherd Book, and he is willing to hire Mal and the crew to help him out of a labor dispute. But in typical Firefly fashion, this new job is not about to go to plan either, especially with Jayne out of commission due to a goose-related injury...

It's been a while since a Riyria book was published, five years in fact, and fans of the series have watched lots of others books be published in the world of Elan, but none in the timeline of the originals, until now. This is of course a prequel story because Michael J. Sullivan is happy with where he ended the original series, but any Riyria story is better than none. This story takes us back in time to a mission where Royce and Hadrian are contracted to go on a road trip to stop a disgruntled Dwarf from destroying an entire city. This ancient dwarf has spent his entire life keeping Drumindor operational, and since it sits on top of a volcano, that's a good thing for everyone. When he is fired from his job for cost cutting reasons, he decides to use his knowledge to turn Drumindor into a massive bomb that will surely destroy the resort city of Tur Del Fur. It's up to Riyria to stop him.

Although sad, there are occasionally small dragon eggs that fail to hatch, but Lord Jaxom of Ruatha Hold manages to save one after sneaking into the Hatching Grounds. He assists this small dragonet as it tries to break open the shell and Impression is made. Ruth is small and the only white dragon ever seen, but both Ruth and Jaxom are convinced they should be able to fight thread together. While they're sneaking around practicing flying and breathing fire, the situation with the Oldtimers finally hits the breaking point. They do the unthinkable in a desperate bid to regain power; they steal a queen egg. Can Jaxom and Ruth find and return the egg before the dragonriders go to war when everyone else has failed? They make some amazing discoveries along the way that will reveal Pern's past and change its future.

Each book in the Stormlight Archive is massive, and Wind and Truth clocks in as the biggest of the bunch. Despite its size, the book covers a time period of only 10 days, which is the amount of time left before the pending contest of champions between Dalinar Kholin and the god Odium. The outcome of this contest will determine the fate of Roshar and Dalinar knows in his heart that he can't win. This makes every different story line feel like a desperate race against time, and each main character has a role to play. In fact, there are so many different story lines and threads going on, not to mention flashbacks and travels through time in the spiritual realm, that it can be a bit overwhelming to follow it all. Even more so if it's been a while since you read the first four books in the series, but the real question is - does Wind and Truth properly end the first arc of the Stormlight Archive, or is this a new level of bloat coming from Sanderson, who seems to have no control over the scope of his own story telling?

You can always count on Nicholas Sansbury Smith to write a good apocalyptic tale, and he has quiet a variety of those to choose from: Hell Divers, Orbs, The Extinction Cycle, and Trackers to name a few. So I was excited to see a sci-fi series written by him, and The Last Steward is the first book in that series. This is a battle heavy series that follows a few different PoV characters, Axel Finn, the captain of a diverse crew of misfits that make a living running salvage missions, a young sergeant, Jax, who finds out quickly that doing the right thing in the military isn't always appreciated, and a paranoid bounty hunter, Rangnar, who collects ancient artifacts. This series has a rich universe inhabited by many different species, multiple factions vying for power, and a brewing war that puts the main characters right in the center of things. But, is it on par with the rest of Sansbury's work?

F'lar and Lessa were vindicated when the deadly Thread returned as the records predicted and Lessa used her discovery that dragons could move between time to go back four hundred years and persuade the dragonriders of the past to come to her time. F'lar was mostly relieved to have someone experienced at fighting Thread step forward and help with the crisis, but the solution came with a lot of new problems. A few months later and the disagreements between the "Oldtimer" dragonriders and civilian holders are growing, and F'lar himself is losing patience with their arrogance. This means that for the first time ever, dragonriders are threatening to use the dragons as weapons against civilians, and the Lords Holder of Pern are looking to F'lar for another miracle.

After the events of book one, Prince Josua finds himself on the run with his small band of supporters, while his brother, King Elias, expands his evil influence across more of Osten Ard. Simon, on the other hand, is swept up by his pursuit of ancient prophecy as he seeks out the Stone of Farewell, where he hopes to deliver the sword Thorn to Josua. And finally, the King's daughter Miriamele, also remains on the run and hidden from her father, but not from other parties who hope to prosper from her capture. These three PoV characters are all running from pursuit across the land of Osten Ard and they become the lens through which we get to experience the diverse locations that exist and the peoples that inhabit these lands. This book is more about world building than anything else, and it reveals how the current war was shaped not just by the characters we know, but also by many of the key figures from the history of Orsten Ard.

Pern was world poor in metals so the colonists were prepared to abandon most technology and focus on an agrarian society. What the survey probes failed to report was that a planet with an erratic elliptical orbit would pass close enough for the it's voracious "threads" to cross over to Pern where they would devour any organic life they fell on. The colonists were too far from Earth for a message to summon help in time and the ships that brought them to Pern lacked enough fuel to take them somewhere else so they had to improvise. They began carving out massive caves for shelter while their geneticists worked with the native flying fire-breathing lizards to enlarge them and enhance their telepathic ability. The dragonriders of Pern were born and their lives revolved around burning the threads from the sky before they could reach the ground and caring for the dragons they bonded with. Every few hundred years the planet they called the Red Star would be out of range for four hundred years. During one of these long breaks the people hoped the Red Star wouldn't return and they neglected the tithes of necessary goods that supported the dragonriders and Holds warred with each other. Where there had once been several volcanic weyrs of dragonriders there was only one and it's only queen dragon died after laying her last clutch of eggs. The only hope for those who remembered their duty was the golden egg of a queen and the hope that they could find a strong willed woman worthy of bonding that queen. Without a queen there would be no more dragons and the Red Star is growing brighter in the morning sky.

Simon is a kitchen scullion in castle Hayholt, where he spends most of his time trying to avoid doing any real work. Of course his foster mother, Rachel, doesn't approve, so he is delighted when he has the opportunity to become the apprentice of Doctor Morgenes, the castle's healer and wizard. Unfortunately for Simon, that just means more drudgery, sweeping the doctor's floor instead of the kitchen, and learning to read and write. It does, however, put Simon into a position to be involved in a series of events that will change the kingdom of Osten Ard forever. After the death of King John, his son Elias takes the throne and quickly falls under the spell of his advisor, Pyrates, who advises him to seek arcane power from questionable sources. Then, the new King's brother, Josua, mysteriously disappears, and that's when Simon discovers him imprisoned in the castle. Simon reports this to Morgenes, and the seeds of a rebellion are born

Mara of the Acoma is taking her final vows as a priestess when she learns that her father and brother have died in the Riftwar. As the only surviving member of the Acoma, she is now the Ruling Lady and must prepare to defend her estates and the people sworn to her service while dodging assassins. Honor also demands that she avenge her father and brother because they were betrayed on the battlefield by a commander belonging to the more powerful Minwanabi family. As a noble daughter, she wasn't educated to lead the house in politics and battle, but Mara quickly proves that she is intelligent, bold, and willing to bend tradition to her advantage. Only fools underestimate a woman determined to have her revenge.