Geetha Krishnan's Blog

Yes, it’s that day!! The day we announce our semifinalists! While we have attempted to read in full nearly every book allotted to us, sometimes it’s impossible. It becomes pretty obvious at around 10% to 20% mark if a book is for us or not, and since we had at least two people reading every book, we have tried to eliminate the bias as much as possible.

In the end, our team reached a consensus.

Withour further ado, our top pick and first semifinalist is

Our judges were unanimous in their praise of this book.

Daniel Ruffolo- Score: 9/10

Does all the things you want out of good sci-fi IMO, be something novel conceptually that still has a lot of relevance to contemporary issues, create a compelling world that you can understand without many big exposition dumps, and strike a balance between the plot and the internal lives of the characters

Devin (Bromantasy)- Score: 8/10

Chaudhury puts these two people together and the friction between them is what makes this book incredible… a rich girl who has never needed anyone, and the guy who has survived by not trusting a soul… But the ending…. that truly is what I wasn’t ready for and what made this my pick for our group.

Rari (Niranjan)- Score: 9/10

It captivated me from the start and refused to let go. Hania, Ayan, Nas, and Key, the four main characters are all well rounded, complex, and realistic. The prose flows easily and beautifully. The plot is intriguing and the payback satisfying. While one mystery was solved, there are enough things left unresolved that I can’t wait for the rest of the series.

Dan Roop- Score: 7.5/10

In FrostByte, I was reminded of Altered Carbon to some extent, as the mind in a new body investigates a murder. Plus, I love the morally gray characters.

Due to personal issues, Corey was unable to read any of the books

Average Score for Frostbyte is 8.375

Our Second Semi Finalist was a close race between two books, but in the end, one had a narrow advantage and is our second semifinalist with an average score of 8.125.

Dan Roop- Score: 8.5/10

A well-written scifi-horror novel that builds the tension among the crew in this first contact alien story as well as any thriller that I’ve read in several years.

Dan Ruffolo- Score: 8/10

First entry to also include some great horror elements. Some really eerie stuff. Some pretty fucked up stuff as well. A thing I especially appreciate about self published stuff is when it can lean into things that would make it harder to get tradpubbed and this was that for sure

Rari (Niranjan)- Score: 8.5/10

I’m not a fan of horror… So imagine my surprise when I found myself unable to put it down…The unnatural sounds from the entity, the outdated technology, and the crew’s fracturing bonds make for a truly gripping tale.

Devin (Bromantasy) is yet to review Cargo Hold 4 but he has scored it a solid 7.5/10

And now for our escape pod, the book that narrowly missed the semifinalists spot with an average score of 8/10

SPFBO Review: Taking Flight by Kelly Scriven

What do you fight for, when you lose yourself?  A high-profile murder, a life stolen and illegally returned, all tied to a mystery that threatens to upend multiple lives.

The night Hania Fatik was murdered in cold blood, she died believing her death to be a permanent one. However, fate had a different plan in mind when Hania wakes up in a body not her own, in a city also not her own. Now, faced with an uncertain future as an illegal resurrect, Hania must learn to navigate a life she didn’t want, while trying to investigate the abrupt ending of the one she did.

The night a strange woman passes out in his store, Ayan Shihab realizes his wish to protect his loved ones and stay under the watcher’s radar is over. Holding the secret of his illicit activities close to his chest, Ayan finds his life is thrown into chaos when he’s forced to care for his unwelcome guest, dredging up demons from his past he’d rather forget. Now, he must do everything in his power to avoid getting purged for harboring an illegal resurrect, help his houseguest figure out the mystery of her murder, all while trying not to get anyone else killed.

Can Ayan push himself beyond his limits and take unprecedented risks to protect the ones he loves? Will Hania learn to let go of her long-held prejudices and rely on people she considered beneath her?

FrostByte is the first book in The Frostieverse Trilogy which blends together the neon tech-heavy cyberpunk with the colorful culture and food of South Asia.

If you enjoy morally grey anti-heroes, unreliable narrators and uniquely crafted worlds, then you’ll love N.S. Chaudhury’s NA, Desi Cyberpunk epic.

I read this as part of the SPSFC and the opinions herein are my own and not my team’s.

I was intrigued by the description of this as a desi cyberpunk novel. As someone from India, characters, setting, cultures that are from the East have always been my favourite types of books.

FrostByte happens in a futuristic world where humans have triumphed over death. They have backups of their memories and details called souldata that can be uploaded into a new body or biological container/ Biocon when they die.

The downside? Only the very rich and those who hold up their power structures have access to the technology. FrostByte is the hacker version of the tech by which a person who isn’t officially allowed a rebirth can be brought back. The catch? Frostbitten are illegal with no rights and will be purged by the law with extreme prejudice.

Hania Fatik is a sacrosanct, the elite of the elite, daughter of the man who runs the company that owns the tech that can bring the elite back to life. The elite use the tech to stay young, to stay on top, but a mysterious illness called Tal’luf is affecting some of the reborn elite, causing dementia and death, and Hania’s father’s company is researching ways to counter it and to know what causes it. Hania is also the daughter of Haleema, who was instrumental in the laws that made Frostbitten illegal and who was killed by those against the law and her work.

Hania is killed in a home invasion that seemed planned to take her out permanently. The perpetrators made it seem like they deleted her souldata backup to make her death stick.

Except she wakes up in a strange place, in a body not her own, brought back by a technology that has made her illegal.

In an attempt to escape whoever brought her there, she runs into Ayan, who runs a grocery store, and who  has a double life as Khyaal, the cracker, one who can use FrostByte to bring someone back illegally and who can build impeccable backgrounds for them that can hold up under the strictest scrutiny.

Ayan, in his Khyaal guise had already turned down a lucrative offer to bring Hania back since he considered messing with a sacrosanct souldata wasn’t worth it. But when Hania ends up in his store, passed out, he needs to protect her while delving into the mystery of who killed her to protect himself and his family.

But the secrets they want do not reveal themselves lightly and their search for answers leads them into a labyrinth of lies, manipulation, and danger.

Ngl, I adored this book. It captivated me from the start and refused to let go. Hania, Ayan, Nas, and Key, the four main characters are all well rounded, complex, and realistic. The prose flows easily and beautifully. The plot is intriguing and the payback satisfying. While one mystery was solved, there are enough things left unresolved that I can’t wait for the rest of the series.

Honestly, I loved Ayan. There’s something so visceral about his struggle with guilt, grief, and his attempt to do the right thing. Hania was a good foil to him, and I liked that she regains some of her old self’s confidence in time. There are some plot points that were surprises that I more or less guessed, so the author’s foreshadowing was spot on.

This was an excellent book and if you love sci fi, cyberpunk, morally complex characters, and a well written plot, you should read this book.

You can find FrostByte at Bookbub, Goodreads, and Pagebound

Several years into a multi-decade deep space mission, a team of eight scientists—four women, four men—are exploring a dwarf planet near the Kuiper Belt, loading soil samples, rocks and artifacts onto their ship, when they inadvertently bring aboard a stowaway, an unseen entity which is trying desperately to escape from Cargo Hold 4.

I will start this with a disclaimer, shall I? I’m not a fan of horror, because a) I get scared far too easily b) I have a very vivid imagination as well as insomnia and horror stories stay with me well past the story’s end, and c) I’m an empathetic reader which means my mood and mindset is affected by the books I read as if it’s happening to me. (I remember one time when a character was being manipulated and got angry on realising it and my temper kept fraying irl for no reason)

And this is a horror story, even if it’s set in space and the horror is of the sciencey kind rather than the fantasy kind.

So imagine my surprise when I found myself unable to put it down.

Ngl, this did do a number on my head that left me messed up for a bit after I was done, but even so, I enjoyed it a lot!

Deep in Space, a scientific crew collecting samples comes across an entity that stowed away in one of their samples: and now it’s desperately trying to break out of Cargo Hold 4. The unnatural sounds from the entity, the outdated technology, and the crew’s fracturing bonds make for a truly gripping tale.

I read this as part of the SPSFC and the view herein are only mine and not the team’s.

If you love space operas, cosmic horror, queer characters, and complex relationships, this is the perfect book for you.

You can find Cargo Hold 4 on Bookbub, Pagebound and Goodreads

Dragonlance meets Pirates of the Caribbean in this swashbuckling pirate fantasy… a revenge-fueled tale of clashing cutlasses, monsters and magic, second-chance romance, and salty sea adventure.

A once-legendary pirate and his loyal crew out to retake the high seas.

Captain James R. Hawk, aka Trusty Jack, and his Salty Scoundrels are do-gooder buccaneers leaving a trail of merry mayhem in their wake. Their credo: ignore the corrupt laws of the Jewel Island’s greedy regent and sail the tropical seas in search of treasure, freedom, and adventure.

But when the royal navy teams up with a powerful mage, Trusty Jack’s sordid past catches up with him. Lost love, lost lives, and a lost ship haunt the legendary pirate, none more than Marian, his once-betrothed. That’s when a cunning gnome arrives from the mainland with a daring proposal. Will Jack muster his sea dog courage and sail through the illusion-filled mists to reach a forbidden island? The ghostly horrors and powerful curse at his destination will test more than his pirate mettle. He’ll have to weigh the price of gold against the risk of peril to himself, his crew, and those he loves… and face down a haunting past trailing in his wake.

I signed up for this ARC for two reasons. First, I liked the blurb, second, the author was like, leave a review sometime in this century.

That decided me. Because I can absolutely, totally, completely, leave a review this century. Not that it took that long, in the end.

To quote the book’s blurb, “Captain James R. Hawk, aka Trusty Jack, and his Salty Scoundrels are do-gooder buccaneers leaving a trail of merry mayhem in their wake. Their credo: ignore the corrupt laws of the Jewel Island’s greedy regent and sail the tropical seas in search of treasure, freedom, and adventure.”

When the story opens, we see Trusty Jack about to attack what looks like a merchant vessel, with the help of an Elven mage he picked up. Except nothing is as it appears, and Trusty Jack and his crew are captured by the royal navy who imprison his officers while condemning him to the sea.

More than a decade later, Trusty Jack is in an island, drowning in ale and self-pity when an intrepid Gnome finds him to help her get a treasure from a cursed Island. She offers him a chance to get back his ship and crew, and a chance to get back at the man who framed him and destroyed his life years ago. The same man who would be crowned as king if Jack did nothing, The catch? The man is also the father of Marian, Jack’s one true love, who he was forced to leave behind, letting her believe the worst of him.

Marian is a healer mage now, and is working to help the poorer people of the city. The beginning of a plague has her worried, but when news comes of someone from the past she believed dead, Marian doesn’t know whether to be glad or sad.

Marian holds the key to the compass Jack and his crew needs, but how can he make her trust him again?

This was a fun read, though it had its heart wrenching moments. The author’s notes say he was influenced by the legend of Robin Hood and that shows in the narration, where he has portrayed Jack as a pirate who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, and Mage Marian whose name is rather on the nose.

The bad guy is just as bad as the villain in the Robin Hood stories but dialled to the max and with more power. I hated him so much and not in the fun way.

This was a wholesome adventure with pirates, magic, dragons, curses, romance, and a host of characters you’ll love to cheer for. If that looks like something you’ll enjoy, grab it today. 

You can find it on Goodreads, Bookbub, and Pagebound.

You cannot change what has already happened, just as what will happen cannot be altered. Lies. Nothing but lies!

“Humankind is always doomed to fail. It has fallen many times before, and many times we have intervened to ensure it stays on the correct course. Earth is salvageable, but if you had continued along the path you were on, it would not have been. You have billions of years more to exist before your planet’s final destruction. We are only making certain it survives that long, and ensuring your survival until the ultimate end. At times you progress too fast, but such is humankind’s way. So we had to accelerate this current failure sooner in order to restart. As we have done before, a guide with a better objective and understanding of how to protect your world, will be inserted…”

But why did they care what humans did with their lives? They were aliens—beings from another dimension! Earth wasn’t their home.

Esme Serrano’s predestined encounter with the trans-dimensional anthropomorphic Aakehollats sends her on a multi-pathed journey spanning ten thousand years. A journey riddled with lies, manipulations and untold layers of deception. She guides Earth as the Sibyl, a powerful and mystical leader, and brings the dying world back from the brink of death. She helps the Aakehollats, and ensures that Earth survives until its ultimate destruction in the cosmos.

But her one true goal is, and always will be, to kill the Aakehollats

I read this book as part of SPSFC, and the views here are my own and not the team’s.

This is a book I have mixed feelings about. Technically, there’s nothing to complain about. the writing is good, the plot intriguing, and the pacing decent.

What I had issue with was the way it was structured, and the character of Esme and her feelings towards the aliens.

The story is told from three points of view. One is a character called Morrant who is a scientist attempting to find the remains of someone called the Sybil in the first chapter. Next is an actress called Sieran Farr who is shooting a movie, which in the future is shot virtually. It turns out the events in chapter 1 were from the movie.

The third pov is from Esme, the MC, and the Sybil from the future, the saviour of humanity. When the pov starts Esme is on a dying earth, and a blackout is happening to conserve energy. She keeps a journal which is the relic Morrant is searching for in chapter 1.

Most of the events of Morrant’s and Esme’s lives are spoiled by the alternating PoV with Sieran Farr and till the book passed halfway mark, we don’t even understand the relevance of her PoV. To me, Esme’s hatred of the aliens didn’t translate through the writing. Just because Esme keeps repeating it didn’t mean I could feel it.

I also didn’t understand her hatred for the aliens. She accepts without question they are responsible for the earth’s plight, though it’s never clearly stated how, but she refuses to accept it when they say they couldn’t have helped, or that what they needed was needful. In the end, her rhetoric just seems to be a way of abrogating humanity’s responsibility for earth’s situation, and I absolutely hated how she was like earth belongs to humans and we should be taking the decisions. Like no? That’s the kind of thinking that’s led us to destroy the environment and other species.

In any case, I found Esme very annoying and I didn’t care for her at all. But looking at other reviews on Goodreads, I seem to be in the minority. So my recommendation is to read the book yourself and choose for yourself.

You can find The Dark Without on Goodreads, Pagebound, and Bookbub

Ethics are pushed to the wayside when scientific advancement is on the line. HoloBionTech will send its field agents anywhere to investigate the new and unexpected developments of both the natural world and man’s hubris. Sometimes their projects advance society, sometimes quite the opposite. These seven accounts, recently liberated from HBT’s archives tell the stories of both the manipulators and the manipulated.

Get in line for the first fail-safe extra-corporeal family builder. Family. Without Compromise. —WOOM

Drone pilots stay behind, don’t they? —Heautonaut

Bee orchids are known for their sexually deceptive practices, luring male bees in to pollinate them. What if they set their sights on a somewhat larger pollinator… —Simorchis calypsii

As a Sci Fi reader and writer, I was immediately drawn into the stories in this collection. The short story is among the hardest thing to get right, mainly because of the constraints of telling a self-contained story within such a short frame.

The seven short stories in this collection range from genetic engineering to climate chance, with the common thread of HBT, a corporate who seems to be the driving force behind all kinds of innovations in the future.

These innovations include artificial wombs, and this is only the first of two books that I’ve read recently that had this and man, I want this to happen yesterday!

Naturally, there are protests against this and the children born from that, and we see a lot of hate and familiar rhetoric that’s used against anyone perceived to be different.

There are horror elements to some stories, and all of these stories are worth reading and re-reading.

If you love Sci fi, you should give this book a read. 

You can find Memento Moreau on Goodreads and Pagebound

What would you sacrifice to keep your kids healthy?

With the rollback of environmental regulations, clean drinking water has become a luxury for the rich.

A year after the death of her husband, single mother Reggie Stone is barely holding things together. Her nonprofit construction company has run out of funding, her son is being bullied at school, and with the rising cost of bottled water it’s becoming harder by the day to provide her kids with food, water, and a safe place to live. Fueled by desperation, she calls in the one advantage she swore she would never take and moves them to Serenity, the original Sanctuary City, an experimental town surrounded by a smart grid that filters out all pollutants. The only downside is the Sanctuary Cities are run by Reggie’s estranged parents whose love and approval has always been dependent on how well their children preform in the sciences.

Reggie assumes the blunt disapproval and passive aggressive comments from her parents are the worst she’ll have to deal with, but she soon realizes things aren’t what they seem in the city. Unexplained gaps in the residents’ memories sets Reggie off on a mission to discover what’s really going on inside the smart grid before her children lose all their memories of their father

This was an SPSFC read and the views reflect mine and not the team’s.

This was an interesting read set in a futuristic earth where environmental regulations no longer exist, and even clean drinking water is a privilege afforded to the rich. Reggie Stone runs a nonprofit construction company with a friend, struggling to make ends meet, and providing clean drinking water for her sons.

Reggie has been struggling ever since the death of her husband, and the private school run by his brother where her sons are enrolled is doing nothing to step in when her younger son is bullied by the governor’s son. Reggie threatens to make the bullying public which would also create funding problems for her nonprofit. In desperation, Reggie calls her brother whose revolutionary invention had led to the creation of the Sanctuary cities. admission to which are restricted and vetted strictly. But Reggie has a standing invitation because her family is behind the Sanctuaries.

Reggie had cut ties with her parents following their emotional abuse, but for the sake of her children, she agrees to move into Serenity, the first Sanctuary city. Working as part of the maintenance team, she soon discovers easily solvable problems recurring with the grid that keeps pollutants out which was her brother’s invention.

In addition, she notices weird memory problems with some residents including her sons, but she doesn’t know who to investigate yet. She’s determined her sons won’t forget their father, and ready to do anything to make that happen.

This book also depicts a bleak future if we let capitalism run unchecked. But the main story is about Reggie and her struggles with being a single parent while running a failing business. In the end, her decision to move to Serenity is actuated by her concern for her children and her wish to do what’s best for them. This is a book with a lot of heart and deals with Reggie’s struggle realistically. Reggie’s competence at her work shines through the narration, as do her love for her children and her deceased spouse, and her desire to help people.

If you love dystopian Sci Fi with family feels, and an underlying mystery, this is the book for you.

You can find Sacrificing Serenity on goodreads, pagebound, and bookbub

Magic is real, demons walk the earth, and Max’s brother is dead.

Max Asher, Jewish mystic and private-eye, never thought he’d be coming back to his home town to bury his twin brother, Solomon. He definitely never thought the funeral would turn into a case, but when Sol’s widow Gabby asks him to investigate the cause of death, “Uncle Max” is on the job.

When Max kicks the demon’s nest, he uncovers a conspiracy that forces him to reevaluate everything he thought he knew about his brother. Unfamiliar local politics blur the line between the supernatural and the mundane, and soon, fighting for justice becomes dangerously literal. If Max can uncover the murderer, he might just save his brother’s soul—but if he can’t, he’ll fall victim to the same deadly fate.

Putting the past to rest is going to take more than a shovel full of dirt.

This is another book I’ve been waiting for such a long time, and in this case, it is a long time. Full disclosure, Ben is a friend, and I’ve read almost all his books and loved them all, but I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE!

Why? Because he workshopped the blurb in our group once, and I’ve wanted to read it since. That was back in March 2025, and it’s nearly been a year, Ben!

Max Asher is at his twin brother’s funeral, having been estranged from him for a long time. Though he works as a private eye, Max is also a Jewish mystic, something he shared with his brother, their father having taught them both from childhood.

Though Sol’s death appears natural at first sight, his widow Gabby is convinced there’s foulplay involved, and Max agrees to investigate. But the deeper he delves into his brother’s past, the more secrets are revealed, and Max has to find a way to keep himself from the same fate while bringing Sol’s killer to justice.

I loved Max. What can I say, there’s something about him that I feel close in my heart. Adore him. Gabby, I was in two minds about, because it was clear she was keeping secrets, but there was no way to know what kinds they were.

The villains, on the other hand! Local politicians and literal demons, they are a representation of the kind of people you see on TV justifying murders and pretending to be patriotic while lining their own pockets. They’re in fact better than some of the real world politicians we see around us.

There’s a twist at the end that had me message Ben with “I hate you, how dare!”

The Jewish mystical elements were well done, and since it’s such an unexplored area, I was eager to learn more. It’s a lore that’s sorely under represented in fantasy, and Ben has done a good job of bringing it to life without getting bogged down in exposition.

Characterisation is a strong point with this book, with every character feeling real enough to exist next door. This is one of the best urban fantasy books I’ve read, and I hope there’s more to come from Ben and this series.

You can find My Brother’s Keeper on Pagebound and Goodreads

Cyan-Amber is a deserter from Spectra, a planet on the brink of destruction. As an alien scout on Earth in 1995, she inhabits the body of Jasmine Price – a unique, artsy, crafty musician living in Camden, London. While reporting back to her home planet’s intelligence agency, Cyan Intel, she uncovers the strange, wonderful, and wicked aspects of what it means to be human.

Charlie Cooper, a mid-twenties rockstar wannabe, is stuck selling records instead of making them. Trapped by a dead-end job with an irritable boss, his only escape lies in Camden Town’s annual Battle of the Bands. But with his rebellious, gaming-obsessed sister, and a bandmate that’s oddly interested in intergalactic wars, Charlie’s fight for the stage is anything but ordinary.

As Earth faces a looming alien threat, both Cyan-Amber and Charlie are about to discover just how intertwined their fates truly are. The battle for Camden – and maybe the world – is about to begin.

I read this for the SPSFC and all the views herein are my own and not the team’s.

This was a short read, and ngl, after Xanadu, I wanted a short read. Not because the other was bad, but because I can only hyperfocus so much. My big book of the month was done.

This one too has aliens in it, but they’re different. They’re involved in a galactic war and needs a new home just in case, and our MC, Cyan Amber, is a scout on earth. After sampling various bodies, she settles into the body of Jasmine Price or Jaz, a trans woman in Britain.

Cyan Amber learns Jaz is a talented musician but lacks any sort of financial discipline and can’t hold down a job. She also has a rather unrequited crush on a man working in a music shop. Within days of Cyan Amber taking over Jaz’s body, Jaz is evicted from her home, becoming homeless. Being unused to humans, Cyan Amber falls victim to thieves and scammers who take the last of her money and possessions.

Charlie Cooper, the man Jaz has a crush on, has a crush of his own. Aside from that, he has dreams of a musical career. His gaming obsessed sister comes up with a way to get a job at the same place he’s in, and being a good brother, Charlie is ready to sabotage everyone else, including Jaz so his sister can be hired.

But hearing Jaz sing one day makes him realise she’s the perfect vocalist for the band he wants to put together to participate in the Battle of the Bands. Aside from a musical career, he also wants to impress the girl he has a crush on, whose other friend is also in the Battle.

But when one of the other scouts lets Cyan Amber know she’s under suspicion from their superiors, she has to decide if she should save herself or her new bandmates.

This was basically a fun book, though not without its emotional moments. I know some people might take objection to a cis male author writing a trans woman character, but I’m of the opinion that such books are needed. Though Jaz’s transness is a part of her, the story is not about that. It’s Cyan Amber’s story as much as it is Jaz’s, and it’s not about the trans experience, but about the human experience.

Cis authors can absolutely write trans characters, but they shouldn’t write about the trans experience and this author doesn’t. The casual transphobia Jaz faces is not made a big deal out of, and Cyan Amber has ways to deal with bigots. I’m rather curious to see where this goes because Charlie has a case of transphobia, and though he thinks of Jaz as a friend by the end, I don’t see a romance there.

In any case, if you like a fun sci fi story about an alien who’s trying to fit in as a human, you’ll love this book. 

You can find Body Jacker Jaz on Pagebound, Bookbub, and Goodreads