Five top sci-fi books like "Project Hail Mary"

At Book Riot Megan Mabee tagged five sci-fi titles like Project Hail Mary, including:

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Andy Weir excels at interweaving humor within sci-fi, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a more humorous option as well. Like Project Hail Mary, there’s also a bit of an endearing Rocky-Grace dynamic found between the crew of this book and Murderbot, a company-issued droid who secretly hacked its own system. As a team of scientists tests the surface of a distant planet, Murderbot must begrudgingly keep them alive. Before long, though, they’ll instead begin investigating what happened to another nearby mission.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Liberty Hardy's five books for fans of Project Hail Mary.

All Systems Red also appears among Justin C. Key's nine top depictions of AI in fiction, Debbie Urbanski's nine books that center asexuality, Lorna Wallace's ten best novels about Artificial Intelligence, Deana Whitney's five amusing AI characters who should all definitely hang out, Andrew Skinner's five top stories about the lives of artificial objects, Annalee Newitz's list of seven books about remaking the world, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Rivqa Rafael's five top books that give voice to artificial intelligence, T.W. O'Brien's five recent books that explore the secret lives of robots, Sam Reader's top six science fiction novels for fans of Westworld, and Nicole Hill's six robots too smart for their own good.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six mysteries featuring mother-daughter sleuth duos

Stacy Hackney lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and four sons. She graduated from Wake Forest University and University of Virginia School of Law—after her legal briefs started bordering on a little too dramatic, she started writing fiction and never stopped. When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her out on the water, watching romantic comedies, online shopping for beautiful shoes, or making an enormous mess in the kitchen.

Hackney has published two children’s books, Forever Glimmer Creek and The Sisters of Luna Island. The Primrose Murder Society is her first book for adults.

At CrimeReads Hackney tagged six top mystery novels with mother-daughter sleuths. One title on the list:

Karin Slaughter, Pieces of Her

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter is an expertly plotted mystery-thriller where daughter, Andrea, discovers the secret past of her mother, Laura, after her mother kills a gunman in a diner. Andrea is forced to go on the run and unravel her mother’s secrets to protect them both.

This book explores the themes of how well we know the people in our lives and the lengths a mother will go to in order to protect her daughter.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Pieces of Her is among Kimberly McCreight's five thrillers about charged mother-daughter relationships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six fairy tale retellings

Bar Fridman-Tell has a BA in art history and an MA in English literature. (She gleefully wrote her thesis about Victorian vampires.) She has worked as a bartender, a bookseller, a translator, and a library assistant. She is currently studying for a master's in library and information sciences, hoping to stay in a library for good. She lives in Toronto with her professor husband and two very fluffy cats. Honeysuckle is her debut novel.

At Lit Hub Fridman-Tell tagged six books that "take a fairy tale and pull one thread loose, to see what happens next, or tip the story on its side and see what new shape emerges." One title on the list:

S. M. Hallow, How To Survive This Fairytale

In How To Survive This Fairy Tale, a novella tiptoeing on the border between fantasy and horror, S. M. Hallow at turns unravels fairy tales and stitches them together. Hallow starts with a question: what happens after the fairy tale ends? After Hansel escaped the forest witch, after the hunter let Snow White go, after the six swans turned back into humans (mostly), and their sister proves her innocence. And what would happen if one character, Hans, tripped through all three of these stories, plus a few more?

From this starting point, Hallow tackles subjects such as the line between villain and victim, the possibility of redemption, living in a body that no longer fits who you are, and what a happy ending really looks like in these circumstances. Tears (the good kind) guaranteed.

Read about the other titles on the list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten crime novels featuring female duos

Elle Cosimano is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, an International Thriller Writers Award winner, and an Edgar Award nominee. Cosimano’s debut novel for adults, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, kicked off a witty, fast-paced contemporary mystery series, which was a People magazine pick and was named one of New York Public Library's Best Books of 2021. The third book in the series, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, was an instant New York Times bestseller. A TV show based on the series is now in development by Tina Fey and Lang Fisher for Peacock. In addition to writing novels for teens and adults, her essays have appeared in HuffPost and Time. Cosimano lives with her husband and two sons in Virginia.

[Q&A with Elle Cosimano; My Book, The Movie: Seasons of the Storm]

Her new novel is Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line.

At CrimeReads Cosimano tagged ten favorite crime novels featuring captivating partners in crime. One title on the list:

Colleen Oakley, The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise

A surly octogenarian and a disillusioned college dropout take an unforgettable road trip when they find themselves on the lam from the law. Perfect for fans of the TV series Hacks.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine novels about women in the wild

Laura Hulthen Thomas’s deeply human, emotional storytelling explores blue and white collars, lovers and spouses, mothers and children, and the unique Michigan places that shape these relationships. Her novels, stories, and essays reveal the complexities of home, work, and the Midwestern landscape. Thomas is a Teaching Professor in the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan’s Residential College. Her first book, States of Motion, was a finalist for a Foreword Reviews Indie Award.

Thomas's new novel is The Meaning of Fear.

At Electric Lit she tagged "nine novels [that] tell the stories of women who find themselves battling their own wilds." One title on the list:

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

The Vaster Wilds pits woman against the wilds from its first lines. Set in 1609, young Lamentations flees from Virginia’s Jamestown colony into the “great and terrible wilderness” to escape starvation and a crime that deprivation drove her to commit. More Lot’s wife than Robinson Crusoe, the girl flees north through the dense forest without looking back. As she fights the cold, malnutrition, and the toll of past trauma, Lamentations chops fish from the ice and shelters in fallen logs. At first, survival means outrunning the men who pursue her. Later, as her health and stamina slip, true survival means learning when to flee and when to shelter in “one of the quiet good places of this new land.” Throughout the novel, Groff cuts to the nearby Powhatan gathering food and building communities as a reminder that this world is only wild to the woman not born to it.

Read about the other novels on the list at Electric Lit.

The Vaster Wilds is among Peggy Townsend's five notable wilderness thrillers featuring fearless women and Daniel Schreiber's top ten books about solitary living.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four great sci-fi novels with ragtag crews

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged four "fun sci-fi escapades featuring motley crews." One entry on the list:

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

Last but not least is this action-filled story of a ragtag crew of two. They’re both outcasts: a former treasure hunter and a champion racer who are no longer relevant. They’re searching for a legendary warship they heard about, which was supposedly lost or destroyed many moons ago, but if found, could turn their fortunes around. And it could also give them the ability to destroy anyone and anything that dares to cross them, if they desire, nbd.

Read about the other titles on the list.

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe is among Liberty Hardy's five great sci-fi titles about competitions.

My Book, The Movie: A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe.

The Page 69 Test: A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles with astronaut protagonists

Cecile Pin is a writer living in London. Her debut novel Wandering Souls was published in twelve languages. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Prix Femina Etranger, and shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. She has won the Fragonard Prize for Foreign Literature, a Somerset Maugham Award, and a London Writers' Award. In 2025, she was selected as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe. Her new novel is Celestial Lights.

At Lit Hub Pin tagged seven novels with astronaut protagonists, including:

Andy Weir, The Martian

Again, this isn’t the only one of Weir’s book that could have made it onto this list – and many readers might be familiar with Ridley Scott’s Oscar-nominated adaptation of it. Mark Watney, a NASA astronaut, gets stranded on Mars after a

dust storm sweeps through the planet. How will he survive against all odds? I particularly admire how well-researched the novel is. Weir, who has a background in computer programming, checked a lot of the maths and science himself, and initially published chapters on his blog, crowdsourcing readers to correct any inaccuracies.

Read about the other titles on the list at Lit Hub.

The Martian is among Paulette Jiles's seven top post-apocalyptic sci-fi escapist titles, Joel Cunningham's five favorite invented locations that don’t plan to let you leave, Tim Peake's five top books to take to space, Jeffrey Kluger's five favorite books that make epic drama out of space-faring history, Elisabeth Delp's seven classic science fiction space odysseys, Alexandra Oliva's five novels that get important aspects of survival right, Jeff Somers's seven works of speculative fiction that don’t feel all that speculative and  five top sci-fi novels with plausible futuristic technology, Ernest Cline’s ten favorite SF novels, and James Mustich's five top books on visiting Mars.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that explore whiteness in intimate relationships

Lisa Low is the author of Crown for the Girl Inside, winner of the Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest from YesYes Books. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize, and her poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Ecotone, The Massachusetts Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Chicago.

Low's full-length poetry collection is Replica.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven "cross-genre books explore interracial relationships by inverting the white gaze." One title on the list:

Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine

Rankine challenges herself to ask white men what they think of their privilege early on in Just Us, a hybrid text containing essays, poems, images, and research, in the lineage of her 2014 collection Citizen. Several airport/airplane interactions later, Rankine recounts her findings to her white husband, who “believes he understands and recognizes his own privilege. Certainly he knows the right terminology to use, even when these agreed-upon terms prevent us from stumbling into moments of real recognition.” This white husband is a minor character in a book that advocates for messiness, that probes the intimacy of conversations on whiteness with strangers and friends alike. But “lemonade,” a small section on their relationship and a session with a marriage counselor, deepens previous and subsequent conversations in the book and adds meaning to the title “just us.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six medieval horror books

Lyndsie Manusos’s fiction has appeared in PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, and other publications. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has worked in web production and content management. When she’s not nesting among her books and rough drafts, she’s chasing the baby while the dog watches in confused amusement. She lives with her family in a suburb of Indianapolis.

At Book Riot she tagged six medieval horror books to take you back in time, including:

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

You can’t talk about Medieval horror without mentioning Between Two Fires, which seems to be everywhere I look lately. What began as a BookTok sensation was recently rereleased with the renowned horror publisher Tor NightFire.

Between Two Fires begins in the year 1348, and the knight, Thomas, finds an orphaned girl of the plague in a dead Norman village. The girl believes the Black Plague is part of a larger religious cataclysm, and her visions convince Thomas to escort her to Avignon. But Thomas soon realizes that the girl is more than just promises of salvation for himself and the world. This is a medieval horror-adventure that plays on the religious intensity and upheaval of the Middle Ages.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top titles about running

At PopSugar Helen Carefoot tagged ten books "that tackle running as both a recreational pursuit and a necessity... stories that include running as the catalyst for finding love, building community, finding purpose and oneself, and carrying oneself to safety." One title on the list:

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

You may think of spies as glamorous, skilled professionals, but the spies that populate Mick Herron's "Slough House" series are the opposite: a motley crew of disgraced, dysfunctional agents who've been demoted and suffered some mess up or humiliation that placed them on the outs. But under the guidance of brilliant but curmudgeonly spy Jackson Lamb, they do somehow manage to save the UK repeatedly, despite committing bungling missteps along the way.

River Cartwright, a promising young agent, is constantly trying to prove himself. This means placing himself physically in harm's way, which includes him running all the time: through crowded public spaces to (try) to catch suspects, away when he breaks into high security spaces to gain intel, and even on jogs to clear his head.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Slow Horses is among Mike Lawson's political thrillers where the good guys don’t always win and Bernard Cornwell's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight memoirs about the childhood loss of a mother

Jacque Gorelick is a California native who has moved too many times to count. She’s lived all over the West Coast from Santa Barbara to Alaska. Now firmly rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area, she lives beside a creek under redwood trees with her husband, two boys, and a mélange of rescues.

Before freelance writing, Gorelick spent two decades as an elementary school teacher helping students turn ideas into stories. Her debut memoir, Map of a Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Finding the Way Home, is about hearts (medical and metaphorical) and discovering—through a traumatic medical event and motherhood—the meaning of family.

At Electric Lit Gorelick tagged eight memoirs that "explore the ripple effects of early mother loss on womanhood, motherhood, identity, and belonging. A loss that shapes daughters for a lifetime." One title on the list:

Living Proof by Tiffany Graham Charkosky

Tiffany Graham Charkosky’s girlhood unfolded against the backdrop of her mother’s cancer diagnosis and declining health. Eighteen years later, as a woman finding her footing in marriage and motherhood, Charkosky’s grief and fear resurface when she discovers her mother’s illness was a result of a specific and rare genetic mutation. What follows is a familial excavation, genetic reckoning, and heartrending reminiscence of what is lost when a mother dies, leaving her young children with unanswerable questions that cannot be quieted, no matter the years that pass. Charkosky faces genetic testing and uncertainty as she unravels the mystery of her family’s legacy through her own DNA. Living Proof is a profound story of what we inherit through genetics, memory, and time.

Read about the other titles on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five crime novels where objects and houses remember

C. L. Miller is the internationally bestselling author of the Antique Hunter Series. She started working life as an editorial assistant for her mother, Judith Miller, on The Miller’s Antique Price Guide and other antiquing guides. She lives in a medieval cottage in Dedham Vale, Suffolk, with her family.

The author's newest novel is The Antique Hunter's Murder at the Castle.

At CrimeReads Miller tagged five crime novels "where houses act as witnesses, objects function as evidence, and history is not background texture but an active participant in the mystery." One title on the list:

S.A. Cosby, All the Sinners Bleed

S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed is one of my favorite crime reads–although I would argue that it’s not a traditional historical mystery, but it brilliantly uses the legacies of the Southern landscape—its racial fault lines, its layered memory of violence and resistance to anchor its powerful narrative.

The small Virginia town isn’t just a backdrop; its history amplifies the tension and moral conflict faced by a sheriff hunting a serial killer whose crimes feel rooted in long-standing community wounds.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

All The Sinners Bleed is among Amber and Danielle Brown's five top thrillers with social commentary and Publishers Weekly's best mysteries and thrillers of 2023.

--Marshal Zeringue