I thought I’d do something a bit different today, and share with you six Sci Fi and Fantasy authors you may not have heard of but whom you should definitely be reading. These are drawn from my own personal book reviews over the last 12 months. Here we go:
Colin Alexander
Colin Alexander is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. Actually, Colin Alexander is the pseudonym for Alton Kremer, maybe his alter ego, or who he would have been if he hadn’t been a physician and biochemist and had a career as a medical researcher. He’s been reading science fiction since he was ten and has published nine novels so far. His most recent, The Lucky Starman was published in February 2023. This is the third book in the Leif the Lucky series. He’s an active member of both the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, and the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Away from writing fiction, his idea of relaxation is martial arts (taekwondo and minna jiu jitsu). He lives in Maine with his wife.
My Take: I love Colin’s Leif the Lucky novels – he’s taken a bunch of sci-fi tropes and strung them together in a brilliant way in a series about a “starman” who journeys out to new worlds and then comes back to find an Earth he no longer recognizes.
My Reviews: Starman’s Saga | Murder Under Another Sun | The Lucky Starman | A Planet of Wrath and Tears
Author Website: https://www.afictionado.com
R J Theodore
R J Theodore (she/they) was an author, graphic designer, and all-around collector of creative endeavors and hobbies. She enjoyed writing about magic-infused technologies, first contact events, and bioluminescing landscapes. Her love of SFF storytelling developed through grabbing for anything-and-everything “unicorn” as a child, but she was subverted by tales of distant solar systems when her brother introduced her to Star Trek: The Next Generation at age seven. A few years later, Sailor Moon taught her stories can have both. Her short fiction has appeared in MetaStellar and Fireside Magazines as well as the Glitter + Ashes and Unfettered Hexes anthologies from Neon Hemlock Press. She lived in New England, haunted by her childhood cat.
My Take: Rekka was an amazing person. She passed away in 2023 after a long battle with cancer, but she left behind some fantastic works full of diverse characters, chief among them the Peridot Shift trilogy, a wonderfully unique sci-fantasy series. Well worth your time to read.
My Reviews: Flotsam | Salvage | Cast Off | The Bantam
Author Website: https://rjtheodore.com
Christie Meierz
Award-winning author Christie Meierz writes space opera and science fiction romance set on a world of empaths at the edge of a dystopic Earth empire. Her published works include her PRISM award-winning debut novel, The Marann, and three more novels set in Tolari space. She is a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), spent 10 years raising sheep in Broome County, New York, and has been declared capable of learning Yup’ik.
My Take: Christie writes tales in Tolari space – a wonderful blend of sci-fi with some fantasy aspects. Her works blend family dynasty dynamics with whiz-bang sci-fi and great heart. Rembrandt’s Station is a queer love story for the ages.
My Review: Rembrandt’s Station
Author Website: http://christiemeierz.com
Ryan Southwick
Ryan Southwick decided to dabble at writing late in life, and quickly became obsessed with the craft. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children. His technical skills as a software developer, healthcare experience, and lifelong fascination for science fiction became the ingredients for his first series, The Z-Tech Chronicles, which combines these elements into a fantastic contemporary tale of super-science, fantasy, and adventure, based in his Bay Area stomping grounds.
My Take: I met Ryan at BayCon last year, and as intrigued by the cover of his book Holtondome. It’s a post apocalyptic tale that veers off in very unexpected directions in the first two books… can’t wait to see where it goes.
My Reviews: Holtondome |New Denver
Author Website: https://www.ryansouthwickauthor.com
William C. Tracy
William C. Tracy writes and publishes queer science fiction and fantasy through his indie press Space Wizard Science Fantasy, which is open to submissions (spacewizardsciencefantasy.com). His largest work is the Dissolutionverse: a space opera with music-based magic, including ten books and an RPG. He also has a standalone epic fantasy with seasonal fruit-based magic through a LGBTQ+ small press. He is currently working on a hard sci-fi trilogy with a generational colony ship and a planet covered by a fungal entity. William is an NC native and a lifelong fan of science fiction and fantasy. He has a master’s in mechanical engineering, and has both designed and operated heavy construction machinery. He has also trained in Wado-Ryu karate since 2003 and runs his own dojo in Raleigh NC. He is an avid video and board gamer, a beekeeper, a reader, and of course, a writer.
My Take: I picked up the first book of Tracy’s Biomass Confulux last year, and was immediately hooked. Generation ships? Colonization? A planet-wide fungus? What’s not to like? But seriously, these novels are fast paced, epic in scope, extremely well written, and the worldbuilding is stellar. They’re also full of diversity. Although it’s not out yet, I got to beta read the final book in the series, out later this year,mand it’s phenomenal.
My Reviews: Of Mycelium and Men | To a Fungus Unknown
Author Website: http://williamctracy.com
Marie Andreas
Marie is a multi-award winning fantasy and science fiction writer with a serious reading addiction. If she wasn’t writing about all the people in her head, she’d be lurking about coffee shops annoying total strangers with her stories. So really, writing is a way of saving the masses. Her first fantasy series, The Lost Ancients, starts with The Glass Gargoyle. The rest of the series is complete at six books total. A continuing series follows another adventure and started with The Seeker’s Chest. When not saving the masses from coffee shop shenanigans, Marie likes to visit the UK and keeps hoping someone will give her a nice summer home in the Forest of Dean or in northern Wales. Marie is also a member of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association) and NINC (Novelists, INC).
My Take: I met Marie through SFW, and picked up The Glass Gargoyle. It’s a crazy mash-up of hapless treasure seekers, drunken pixies and ultimate evil that threatens to crush everyone in its path (or at least really screw up Taryn’s week) which kept me laughing all the way through.
My Review: The Glass Gargoyle
Author Website: https://www.marieandreas.com