Book Talk: Where did all these spaceships come from (and how can I make them leave)?
At BEA, it was clear that YA sci-fi was definitely an up-and-coming genre. Entangled by Amy Rose Capetta was featured in the YA Author focus panel, The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey was all the rage and ARCs of Rush by Eve Silver (review) and These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner were making the rounds. But taking a look at YA releases for 2014, I can’t help but notice an overwhelming amount of intergalactic travel.
And it makes me nervous.
Some 2013 Sci-Fi YA novels that got a lot of buzz at BEA.
See, while I’ve had great success reading apocalyptic YA, vampire YA, zombie YA, you-hadn’t-even-heard-of-this-monster YA… I haven’t had too much success with Sci-Fi YA. Let me clarify: it’s spaceship Sci-Fi YA is what I’ve had trouble with. I tried reading Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan and Across the Universe by Beth Revis and couldn’t stand either of them. Both seemed like bad action/romance novels that just happen to be set in space.
No, really. They sucked.
Upcoming 2014 Sci-fi YA releases.
On the other hand, I’ve got my overwhelming desire to love anything with a big ol’ spaceship in it. I’m a big trekkie and browncoat, and really really want to see what I love brought out in YA. But most of the time, the books turn out to be like Star Trek: Into Darkness: complete fiascos that miss the entire point of science fiction.
That said, maybe things are turning around? I recently completed The 5th Wave and Rush – and while I found neither to be absolutely spectacular, they were certainly enjoyable. I’m also a few dozen pages into the sci-fi YA novel, These Broken Stars, and while it is still too early to say for sure, I am really enjoying it. The writing is surprisingly solid and I have a feeling the characters will be too. So… maybe things are looking up?
Out of the 2014 books, there are a couple that look of interest (I’m talking about Salvage by Alexandra Duncan)… but I have to say that Alienated by Melissa Landers sounds like it will either be an epic fail or an epic win. That one will really depend on execution.
