T5W: Science Fiction and Horror Summer Reads

Top 5 Wednesday: You know, restricting yourself to science fiction and horror can be very rewarding and enjoyable. It can also be a right pain in the posterior, especially when you’re writing a post around a topic such as “books you’d associate with summer.”  I’m sure lots of book reviewers gasped in joy at the topic, and easily gathered their five. In the meantime, I’m over here in the corner going “Horror books set in summer?” “Horror books about summer?” “Horror books about heat? climate change?” “Science fiction books about climate change?” and attempting to not give myself a concussion by slamming my head against a wall multiple times. But, I did it! I came up with 5 Science Fiction and Horror Summer Reads! Hope you enjoy!

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme that was formerly hosted by the booktuber, Lainey aka gingereadslainey. She recently passed the torch on, but you can find the topics and the Goodreads page of the book meme here.

Top 5 Science Fiction and Horror Summer Reads

Memory of Water by Emmi Itaranta: Global warming has changed the world’s geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. Tea masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria’s father tends, which once provided water for her whole village.

But secrets do not stay hidden forever, and after her father’s death the army starts watching their town-and Noria. And as water becomes even scarcer, Noria must choose between safety and striking out, between knowledge and kinship.

Why I chose it? Because especially when summer hits, it’s obvious that something is going wrong with our climate. Have you noticed it’s getting hotter and hotter, on average? Can you even walk on asphalt barefoot anymore?

 

 

Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene -One day the rain just didn’t stop. As the flood waters slowly rose and coastal cities and towns disappeared, some people believed it was the end of the world. Maybe they were right. But the water wasn’t the worst part. Even more terrifying was what the soaking rains drove up from beneath the earth — unimaginable creatures, writhing, burrowing … and devouring all in their path. What hope does an already-devastated mankind have against … THE CONQUEROR WORMS?

 

Why I chose it? Those hot summer days when you’re just hoping for some rain to restore the grass, the flowers, your spirits. Well, be careful what you wish for. This is a book to make you appreciate the heat.

 

 

 

 

Jaws by Peter Benchley – The classic, blockbuster thriller of man-eating terror that inspired the Steven Spielberg movie and made millions of beach goers afraid to go into the water. Experience the thrill of helpless horror again — or for the first time!

Why I chose it? This should be obvious. If you haven’t read a book about a killer great white whilst sitting on a ocean-front beach, you simply haven’t lived your summer to its fullest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem – It’s an unusual and at times unbearable existence, but Chaos soon discovers that his post-nuclear reality may have no connection to the truth. So he takes to the road with a girl named Melinda in order to find answers. As the pair travels through the United States they find that, while each town has been affected differently by the mysterious source of the apocalypse, none of the people they meet can fill in their incomplete memories or answer their questions. Gradually, figures from Chaos’s past, including some who appear only under the influence of intravenously administered drugs, make Chaos remember some of his forgotten life as a man named Moon.

Why I chose it? Because summer passes in a haze, with certain points standing out, and one day blends into another. Because the weirdest things happen in summer when the heat starts getting to people, and sometimes you look back and wonder what the Hades you were smoking that day that made you do the Stupid Thing.

 

 

 

Moonfall by Jack McDevitt – It’s the 21st century, and all is right with the world. Or so it seems. Vice President Charlie Haskell, who will travel anywhere for a photo op, is about to cut the ribbon for the just-completed American Moonbase. The first Mars voyage is about to leave high orbit, with a woman at the helm. Below, the world is marveling at a rare solar eclipse.

But all that is right is about to go disastrously wrong when an amateur astronomer discovers a new comet. Named for its discover, Tomiko is a “sun-grazer,”an interstellar wanderer with a hundred times the mass and ten times the speed of other comets. And it is headed straight for our moon.

In less than five days, if scientists’ predictions are right, Tomikowill crash into the moon, shattering it into a cloud of superheated gas, dust, and huge chunks of rock that will rain down on the earth, causing chaos and killer storms, possibly tidal waves inundating entire cities…or worse: a single apocalyptic worldwide “extinction event.”

In the meantime, the population of Moonbase must be evacuated by a hastily assembled fleet of shuttle rockets. There isn’t room, or time enough, for everyone. And the vice president, who rashly promised to be last off (“I will lock the door and turn off the lights”), is trying to figure out how to get away without eating

Why I chose it? Summer blockbuster!…in book form. Seriously. Sometimes you just need a mind-blowingly good disaster-of-epic proportions book, and Moonfall by Jack McDevitt is that book.

Giveth unto me your links!! (or if you don’t blog, let me know what your Sci-Fi and Horror Summer Reads would be!)