John J. Vinacci

Before coming into this year as the Year I Read Only Sci-Fi books, 'fun' is not a word I would have used to describe any sci-fi book I've read before. But this year I did have some fun reads, first with The Kaiju Preservation Society and now with Drunk On All Your Strange New Worlds . Drunk On All Your Strange New Worlds begins as a seemingly straight-forward murder mystery in which an alien cultural attaché's murder casts suspicion on his translator, Lydia, who sets out to prove her innocence by finding the real killer(s). Driven by dry wit and a clever finger on the pulse of the intersection between technology and conspiracy theories, this book was a joy to read. Moreover, we're given a realistic, relatable protagonist in Lydia who not only has to deal with the fact that translating for the aliens makes her drunk but has to deal with recognizing her other limitations and the mistakes she has and does make. While she takes on more than many of us might in her sit...

It was back the classics for my next read, or at least what was reported to be sci-fi classic by many reviewers... The Left Hand of Darkness is the story of The Envoy, Genly Ai, a representative of a confederation of planets seeking to bring a new world, Gethen (aka Winter per its near perpetual frozen state) into the confederation. The Envoy is stymied by cultures he struggles to understand, cultures which are based around the fact that its otherwise human inhabitants can be male of female once a moth depending on their hormones; the inhabitants are ambisexual . Strangely, this book is reportedly not only a sci-fi classic but a feminist classic, though not only did I struggle to find the (modern) feminist message, the fact that Gethen's inhabitants are ambisexual really doesn't figure into the plot beyond The Envoy failing to understand the nuances of behavior of the people he's dealing with (which you would think any alien ambassador would be better at).  Eventually, bec...