The apocalypse of Elena Mendoza (2018)

A Beginning at the End

Mike Chen

2020 · 392 pages · 1 review

Others: Mixed

Silver mirrors

A.A. Aguirre

2014 · 352 pages · 1 review

Others: Negative

The Seep

Chana Porter

2020 · 203 pages · 2 reviews

Others: Leaning positive

Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle—but nonetheless world-changing—invasion by an alien entity calling itself The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible. Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep’s utopian influence—until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life. Using Seep-tech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a new existence, leaving Trina devastated. Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina chases after a young boy she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest. In her attempt to save him from The Seep, she will confront not only one of its most avid devotees, but the terrifying void that Deeba has left behind.

Girlfriend in a coma

Douglas Coupland

1998 · 284 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

A New Age novel on a Vancouver woman who falls into a coma which lasts nearly two decades. The novel traces the impact on her family, especially on her boyfriend and a daughter she gave birth to just before the coma. By the author of Life after God.

Songmaster

Orson Scott Card

1980 · 338 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

Kidnapped at an early age, Ansset has been raised in isolation at a mystical retreat called the Songhouse. His life is filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a voice that is unlike any other. But Ansset's voice is both a blessing and a curse--for it reflects all the hopes and fears of his audience, and, by magnifying their emotions, can be used either to heal or to destroy. When it is discovered that his is the voice that the Emperor has waited decades for, Ansset is summoned to the Imperial Palace on Old Earth. Many fates rest in Anssett's hands, and his songs will soon be put to the test: either to salve the troubled conscience of a conqueror or drive him, and the universe, into mad chaos.

Look to windward

Iain M. Banks

2000 · 369 pages · 4 reviews

Others: Positive

It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war. It led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported. Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those ancient mistakes has reached the Culture Orbital, Masaq. The light from the second may not.