If your feed is consumed by the Artemis II mission and the blockbuster movie Project Hail Mary, you might be looking for books to take you into space as well. Though Andy Weir’s novels have a long wait right now, we’re happy to suggest some titles with similar themes of exploration, survival, ingenuity, and friendship to take you out of this world!
For more interspecies friendship like that of Grace and Rocky, check out The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei. Maya Hoshimoto has left her old life as an art thief behind to pursue a doctorate in comparative cultures. But her old friend Auncle, a member of the alien Frenro species, pulls her back in to find one last artifact that could save the Frenro from extinction. Though less humorous than Project Hail Mary, readers should enjoy the meditations on how the human experience shows up in alien worlds and the developments of cultures across planets, along with well-developed interspecies communication.
You might also want to place a hold on Mike Chen’s The Photonic Effect, which comes out later this month. In this far-future space opera, humankind has established contact with multiple extraterrestrial species, including the Lumersians, whose bodies are made of pink light. Starship Horizon captain Demora Kim was the first to meet the Lumersians, forming a close relationship with one she calls Chuck, and their relationship, a proxy for those between different species, forces each to decide what we owe one another.
If you want your banter-filled sci-fi with a side of romance, try The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton. In the year 2061, four friends and trained scientists break into an abandoned starship and accidentally turn on the engine, propelling them to a far-off planet and igniting a decades-old space mystery. Found family and a sweet romance give this space opera extra heart.
For a darker take on near-future space exploration, check out Surviva: A Future Ancestral Field Guide by multimedia artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. Set in a world where the wealthy and non-Indigenous have left the climate-decimated Earth to colonize space, Luger’s work adopts the style of an Army field guide and survival manual to show the difficult future for those left behind.
If your taste tends more towards refreshing the live feed of Artemis II and marveling at the forces that have made moon landings possible, try One Giant Leap by Charles Fishman, a history of the Apollo moon landings. Fishman highlights the scientists, engineers, politicians, and factory workers that built the technology needed to get to the moon, with a focus on little details that bring the missions to life.
You can also learn more about space exploration, possible colonization, and an astrophysicist’s view of how the moon fits into it all in Back to the Moon by Joseph Silk. Written in 2022, Silk discusses the future of lunar exploration and initiatives around the world, some of which we’re seeing today!
~posted by Jane S.