As You Wake, Break the Shell: A Novel – A Heartfelt Science Fiction Romance of Found Family and Stubborn Survival

Author: Becky Chambers

Explore a universe of stubborn survival and found family, of persistent danger and quiet wonder in the first installment of a heartfelt new duology from Hugo Award–winning author Becky Chambers. Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it’s home. For two of them, Signy and Cora, this home might no longer be enough.

Signy is a brilliant but reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine from her small plant shop, often bending the rules to help those the system leaves behind. Her life is filled with the green of her store, the warmth of her one elderly friend, and the quiet determination to help others without putting herself in danger.

Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system. Her bond with her rorqual, Colibri, is profound—a connection that is both her greatest gift and a threat to her career.

It is that threat—the "mindbleed," a dangerous side effect of her piloting—that brings her to Signy’s shop, and her appearance puts Signy in the danger she so fears. But it’s soon apparent it’s not just about losing her license—this delicate balance between risk and trust has the potential to change everything for them.

Told in an alternating timeline of their initial coming together and a not-so-distant future where they have found domestic bliss, this is a story harrowing and haunting, heartfelt and hopeful. Through a love story centered around survival, we are given a glimpse into the very best of what Becky Chambers does in her writing: explore what it means to be human, and what it means to come together.

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Shawn Berry — May 10

Sometimes as a book reviewer, your eyes get a little bigger than your metaphorical book-digesting stomach, and you sign yourself up for an unwieldy amount of ARCs. Sometimes that person is me. I have signed up to read too many books. ALAS! I will prevail, but it does mean that my reading schedule for the next six months or so is fairly set.

Some of those books I need to get to are published by the lovely people who run this website, and I am very excited for those, but it also means that there are many a book on my physical shelf that need to be on the back burner for a while. I will try to sprinkle them in between these review copies, but I imagine the big-boy fantasy books on my list are going to be late 2026 projects at best. (With that said, my wife and I are trying to figure out how we can go to Dragonsteel Nexus this year, and I would like to finish up The Stormlight Archive before/if we go).

Anyway, here are some books I would love to get to sometime soon, and some that I will definitely get to before the end of the year:

• Speaking Bones by Ken Liu: I have been slowly making my way through the Dandelion Dynasty for the past four years or so, and frankly, the only reason I haven't finished it yet is because I don't want it to end. I maintain that Ken Liu is operating at a level so much higher than other authors that reading him feels like eating caviar or some other food that y0u only bring out for special occasions. As much as I love Sanderson and the like, Liu's world that he has built with these books is so infinitely fascinating and detailed that it's hard for me to really see anything else in the same light.
• Children of Dune by Frank Herbert: In an effort to get up to speed before Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 3 comes out later this year, I have been making my way through the novels that have inspired the films.
• The Dog Stars by Peter Heller: I know almost nothing about this book, BUT, the guy who wrote it lives in my general vicinity and one of my coworkers has raved about it so I have it on a suspended hold at the library. I'm a massive fan of Station Eleven, so if this book is even remotely like S11, I know I'm in for a treat.

There are MANY more books I would love to get into sometime soon, but these ARCs are standing in the way (for now):

• A Compliment of Scoundrels by S.V. Lockwood
• Buzzard by Inez Ray
• Tales from the Territory by Travis Baldree
• As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers

I am also trying like hell to get my hands on the new Ken Liu short story collection, The Passing of the Dragon, as well as book three in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, A Trade of Blood.

Books I will get to after I tackle this car crash of ARCs...

9 books

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