Alif

I finished reading Alif the Unseen Friday morning, most likely the last book I will read in 2012. I have exam coming so will most probably not start another book till into the new year.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it. Alif the Unseen is the first novel by G Willow Wilson. The book reads like a cross between Cory Doctorow (Little Brother) and Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere), which translates to awesome!

The setting is a fictional Arab emirate. Our hero, Alif, is a half-Arab half-Indian hacker who has just got dumped by his pure-blood aristocrat girlfriend. When she tells him that she doesn’t want to see him anymore, he writes a program that makes him invisible to her online. As sort of a parting gift, the ex-girlfriend passes him a mysterious old book. What follows is an adventure that takes Alif and his friends to the world on the unseen, the jinn, as they are pursued by State security agents.

Of note too is the Islamic setting. Islam plays a big role in the book, which makes it refreshing as well. We definitely don’t see too many of that.

Reading Again

Having bought more books in September to add to my existing pile of unread books, I finally got around to reading them. So, over the last three weeks I have managed to finish three books compared to only two books before that through 2012.

The release of Midst Toil and Tribulation by David Weber was the trigger for that last book order, so I started on the book practically as soon as I received it. At over 600 pages, the book was a brick, and took me almost two weeks to finish. This is book #6 of the epic Safehold series, and as soon as I finished reading it I couldn’t wait for book #7. Unfortunately, that will have to wait till next September. :P

Next, I read Redshirts, John Scalzi’s latest yarn. As always, he never failed to entertain. Scalzi served as creative consultant for the short-lived Stargate Universe television show. Not that it matters far as the book is concerned—not directly at least—but the book, which takes a jab at popular science fiction shows like Star Trek, reads very much like an episode of Stargate SG-1. Oh, I also love the book cover art, especially the spine.

Finally, there was Invincible or in full Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Invincible by Jack Campbell/John G Hemry. The only softback of the lot, this is book #2 of the Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier series, which in turn is a follow-on series to the original six-book Lost Fleet series. After eight books I still don’t have enough space battles. Mind you though, the battles are nothing like those in Star Wars or Star Trek. Physics actually apply, and formations play a huge part in the massive fleet-on-fleet actions.

I am currently reading Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson.

Read: Bringing Up Bébé

Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman was the first book on parenting I have ever read cover to cover.

When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn’t aspire to become a ”French parent.” French parenting isn’t a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren’t doing anything special.

Yet, the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two or three months old while those of her American friends take a year or more. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play.

The book gave me a fresh, different perspective to parenting. While the somewhat confused English-speaking world moves from one parenting philosophy-of-the-season to the next, it seems that the French has a singular universal parenting culture inspired by Rousseau and deeply rooted in science.

It also helps that the French state also provides generous support to families and women, from subsidized state-run healthcare, crèches (daycare centers) and maternelles (nursery schools) to ”perineal re-education”.

Since Afi is super busy with her thesis, I read the book first and then narrated her all the interesting points. I enjoyed the book very much, and would really recommend it to any parents of young children.

To Read

It is already July and I have only managed to read only one book this year! I do not want to make any excuse. Hopefully I will be able to catch up by the year’s end. These are books-to-read currently on my shelf:

Perangai Bergantung Pada Diri Sendiri by Za’ba. It has been referred to as a book “every Malay should read.” I had been looking for this one book for a long time before I finally found it online at KKUM’s Pekanbuku Online. As a DBP publication it is also available from Dawama.

Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman. We read about the book in a magazine and thought that it is cool. An American journalist in Paris writes about her observation of French parenting. Afi bought it at Borders The Curve.

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey. A space opera. To be honest I was first drawn by the cover art which reminded me of Macross. Though a 2011 publication, the book was already out of stock by the time I wanted to buy it last year so it remained on my wishlist until recently. And there is already a sequel out. Bought from The Book Depository (TBD).

Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson. Institutions, institutions, institutions. The authors are economics professors at MIT and Harvard. Following the footsteps of Freakonomics, there is now a companion website too. Bought from TBD.

Papa, PhD. This book is one of the things Afi brought home for me from her recent US trip. It is a collection of essays on parenting, particularly fatherhood, by men in academia. Afi also bought herself its companion book Mama, PhD.

In the Footsteps of the Prophet by Tariq Ramadan. This biography of the Prophet is an updated version of the earlier The Messenger. Afi asked to buy this book, which we saw at the Oxford University Press (OUP) shop. However, we eventually got it from TBD.

The Qur’an by M. A. Abdel Haleem. This is another book I first saw at the OUP shop. It is a new translation of the holy Qur’an. I had never owned a Qur’an translation before but found this one particularly interesting in its use of modern English. Again, I eventually got it from TBD.

The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow
I also still have not read these two books we picked up at Blackwell’s in November. The Spirit Level is about how the world would be a much better place if our society is more equal, i.e. the gap between the rich and the poor is closer.

Keynes: A Very Short Introduction by Robert Skidelsky
Marx: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Singer
Economics: A Very Short Introduction by Partha Dasgupta
These three books are part of the Very Short Introductions series published by OUP. And yes, we bought it at the OUP shop in Oxford. How I wish we could have the whole series in our library.

Habibi by Craig Thompson.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson.

Finally, Habibi and Anathem, and to think Anathem has been in my possession since 2009! I really need to get around to finally reading the book.

There, fourteen books (for now) to last me till the end of the year.

Read

When I first started on this post I was somewhere just past halfway through Inheritance. I finished the book last week on Thursday, finally. It took me a long time to finish Inheritance, though at 860 pages it was a brick.

Inheritance was supposed to be my twelfth book for 2011 but now it is my first for 2012. I was quite upset to miss my twelve books target, which means that I have to make up for it with thirteen books this year. Afi said that eleven books was all right because I have Omar to look after. True, between Omar, cooking and other housework I could usually manage only a few pages each day before bedtime.

Back to Inheritance, it was three long years since Brisingr so I was worried that I had forgotten about the most of the characters and events in the previous books. However, thankfully, they all came back as soon as I started reading the book. As usual, I couldn’t wait to find out how the story ends and didn’t mind spoilers so I read it up on Wikipedia. :P

Overall, I liked the book and think Paolini did manage to tie up all lose ends that matter. I really liked the character Roran, our dragon-rider hero Eragon’s ordinary (as in not a magician or having any special powers) cousin. The way Eragon defeats Galbatorix was cool. The romance between Eragon and Arya ends just the way it should be. However, I would love to read more about the mysterious herbalist Angela. Hopefully Paolini will write more about her.

I guess now I can finally read Harry Potter. :D

All my books are now somewhere between here and home so I will not be doing much reading till I finally get them. It’s not that I have a lot of time to read in the first place. Still, in the mean time, I have Evolution.

Knuffle Bunny

We read that it is good to read to Omar from early on so we try to read to him everyday.

My favourite book to read to him so far is Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems.

Willems is an award-winning author and illustrator who used to work on Sesame Street.

Knuffle Bunny is about a girl who lost her favourite toy bunny while on a trip to the laundromat with her father. The story is engaging, funny and highly relatable. I also love the book’s illustrations, which feature cartoon characters drawn on photographs of an actual Brooklyn, NY neighbourhood.

There are two follow up titles to the book so far, both of which are on my wishlist.

Read: The Clone Redemption

The Clone Redemption may be the last of the Clone series, and after seven books it has been quite a ride.

In the future, humanity has spread across the galaxy, occupying exactly 180 planets. To protect the peace, or rather to preserve its power, the Unified Authority (UA) government relies on clones as soldiers. Officers in the military are natural-borns while the enlisted men are all clones.

Protagonist Wayson Harris is a clone in the UA Marines. He is however not a standard-issue clone. He is the last of a special class of clones called Liberators deemed so dangerous they are outlawed. At the beginning of the series, Harris starts out assigned on a special mission to flush out a rebellion. Soon, he realizes that clones are really being used as pawns in various power struggles between personalities in both the government and the military. So though he retains an innate loyalty to the government he grows to hate the UA at the same time.

The turning point of the series is when a virtually unstoppable alien race invades. The Avatari manages to capture 178 out of 180 UA planets before the clones turn the tide around. Down to just two planets, the UA blames the clones for failing to defend the empire and decides that they are redundant. The clones are to used one last time as live targets.

Harris leads the clones to fight back. In The Clone Redemption, while holding off the UA on one side, the clones of the newly established Enlisted Men Empire have to race to evacuate whole planets as the Avatari returns. Now instead of capturing a planet, the Avatari raises the atmospheric temperature to 9,000 degrees killing and burning everyone and everything. As the situation grows desperate, Harris decides to invade Earth.

I really enjoyed the series from the beginning. Author Steven L Kent developed the characters in the books well, even secondary ones. Apart from our hero, I particularly love the SEAL clones, both feared and misunderstood by others, quietly ever ready to serve. I definitely look forward to any follow up to the series.

Read: Neverwhere

Between Omar and the still unfinished 100-page photobook, I finally finished reading Neverwhere yesterday. It was by far my favourite Gaiman novel yet. The book is fully of delightful weirdness set in a hidden underground world below the city of London. Gaiman is the king of weird. In a way, Neverwhere was like Stardust in being an adventure, except that our accidental hero Richard Mayhew didn’t set out looking for one like Tristran Thorn did.

Highly recommended.

Read: Safehold #5

I finished reading How Firm A Foundation (HFAF) last Monday, all 564 pages of it, excluding appendices. Wow, I cannot wait for the next book!

[SPOILER ALERT]

Unlike in previous books, there weren’t as many sea battles in HFAF. Having established its dominance at sea following the Battle of the Markovian Sea in A Mighty Fortress (AMF), there aren’t any fleet left on Safehold to challenge the Imperial Charisian Navy. Still, newly-appointed High Admiral Sir Domynyk Staynair, Baron of Rock Point, sends Admiral Dunkyn Yairley to destroy major Desnairian naval and shipbuilding facilities in the port city of Iythria.

That operation marks the introduction of another Charisian innovation, the high-angle gun or howitzer, used to pound the port’s heavily fortified fortresses. The evolution of weapons and technology in general is one element of the Safehold series I am very excited about. Apart from the high angle guns, other new technologies introduced in HFAF include the revolver and the upcoming steam engine. It remains to be seen how long the Empire of Charis can rely on technological superior to offset the Church of God Awaiting’s superior numbers, while the rest of Safehold will undoubtedly catch up.

When it has been handed humiliating defeat after humiliating defeat in open warfare against Charis it is perhaps not surprising to find the Church, particularly the Inquisition and Grand Inquisitor Zhaspahr Clyntahn, resorting to terrorism to hit back at the heretics. The death of Prince Nahrmahn and Earl of Gray Harbor deal a severe blow to the court of Emperor Cayleb and Empress Sharleyan Ahrmark, but the Inner Circle continues to grow. The most significant new addition is Father Paityr Wylsynn, the Intendant of Charis, who brings with him disturbing new clues about the defences of the Temple of God and the promised return of the Archangels.

Perhaps my favourite character in the series is now-Lieutenant Hektor Aplyn-Ahrmark, Duke of Darcos. The emperor’s adopted son has quite a few adventures in HFAF, including leading a covert mission behind enemy lines to extract Prince Daivyn and Princess Irys Daykyn of Corisande out of Delferahk.

As the title suggests, HFAF has both sides of the war consolidating their positions in preparation for the next stage (or book). Perhaps next the Empire of Charis will finally take the war to the mainland. Perhaps not. Again, I cannot wait to find out.

Delivery

My copy of How Firm a Foundation (HFAF) arrived today, finally, after a bit of a twist last week.

I received this email from Amazon last Wednesday:

...
We regret to inform you that the following items have been delayed as we are still awaiting stock from our suppliers :

David Weber "How Firm a Foundation (Safehold)"
Estimated arrival date: October 07 2011 - October 15 2011

...
Please consider the following similar items, which may be available sooner:

- You can purchase a different version of the original item:

"How Firm a Foundation (Safehold)" [audioCD]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1427212392/ref=fxm_em_sub_o

Differences between your original item and our recommendations are typically minor but some things, such as the item's cost, may be different.

I had had HFAF on pre-order since 31 August. The book was released on 13 September. Amazon had originally quoted 20 September as the dispatch date so I had fully expected to receive it last week. Then, on 21 September, came the above-quoted email.

I was shocked. How could they? A quick check on Amazon's website that day saw the book sold for £14.94, available for dispatch in one to two weeks! Interestingly, HFAF was on sale, with 48-hour dispatch, on TBD for the very same price. As Izzatina pointed out, Amazon has since 4 July agreed to buy* The Book Depository (TBD). I pre-ordered HFAF on 31 August for £12.72.

So I had the choice of either waiting for potentially two to three more weeks for my copy, or cancel the Amazon order and buy from TBD instead for £2.22 extra to get the book sooner. I chose to wait. There was no rush.

Two days later on 23 September, Amazon emailed me that the book has been dispatched.

:-/

Today, HFAF is sold for £14.78 on Amazon, and £15.41 on TBD.

__________
*The deal has yet to be approved by the UK Office of Fair Trading.

Pre-Order

I am in between books at the moment. I have two books on pre-order from Amazon. The first book is How Firm A Foundation (HFAF) by David Weber, the fifth book in the Safehold science fiction series. The second is Christopher Paolini’s long awaited Inheritence. HFAF has already been released in the US, and according to Amazon’s estimate I should receive my copy in the next week, YAY! Inheritence, however, will only be released in November.

While I have bought my books almost exclusively from The Book Depository (TBD) over the past year, I am buying these two books from Amazon because of its pre-order price guarantee. Basically, it means that if the price they charge drops between the date of my order till the release date, I will pay the lower price. I am not aware if TBD offers a similar deal.

Amazon used to also offer a so-called 30-day price guarantee, whereby they will refund you the difference if the price drops within 30 days after you bought a product. Not anymore. Generally, TBD offers a lower price than Amazon for released books, even if the difference is only 1p, but I want to get these two books as soon as I can.

Outside of the UK and USA however, where Amazon also offers free shipping, TBD’s worldwide free delivery is really hard to beat.

Magazines

There is one magazine I have been reading regularly for years: UK-based military aviation magazine Air Forces Monthly (AFM). I cannot remember where or when I saw it the first time. I held it in reserve at a bookstore in KL, which for the last few years actually became the only reason I had to dreadfully drive into the city centre every month.

AFM sells for RM31.50 in KL, adding up to RM378 for the twelve issues in one year. It is expensive, especially considering the magazine sells for £4.30 in the UK. When I came here I took up a one-year subscription for £41, which translates roughly to only RM205 with a RM5/£ exchange rate. I have decided that I will continue with the subscription when we return home to Malaysia. At the moment that costs £51 or RM255, which is still RM123 cheaper to the RM378 I paid previously.

I know, I should have made a direct subscription ages ago or at least when I started working. It would had saved me a lot of money. I might had also been able to enjoy the magazine earlier every month. In Malaysia, the September issue for example will only be seen at the newsstands during the third week of the month at the earliest. I was told that the magazine is shipped first to Singapore before being distributed to Malaysia. Here in the UK, subscribers receive the October issue on the first week of September.

Afi, on the other hand, is hooked on pregnancy and parenting magazine Mother & Baby. I cannot deny that I find the magazine really interesting and useful as well. We are thinking of continuing to subscribe to the magazine when we return to Malaysia too.

Read: Stardust

I loved the movie; I saw it when it came out at the cinema and many times more on television. It was cute and funny, with Robert De Niro in drag. The movie didn’t win an Oscar, a BAFTA, or any of the big mainstream awards but it did win a Hugo.

The book is quite something else. Neil Gaiman wrote Stardust as a “fairy tale for adults”. So the book is decidedly darker and, well, more adult. As always, the book is more complicated than the movie. Tristan of the movie is really Tristran in the book, and there is no Captain Shakespeare. The book also ends differently than the movie. Overall, the book is much richer, and requires quite an imagination to visualize. I love it. I love them both. Thinking back, I don’t think I would have enjoyed the movie as much had they tried to make it closer to the book.

Read: Fuzzy Nation

I had been excited about Fuzzy Nation (FN) ever since author John Scalzi first blurbed about it on his blog. He is one of the most funny authors around. Who else writes about aliens passing gas?

Anyway, FN is a remake of an earlier novel I had never even heard of before called Little Fuzzy (LF) by H Beam Piper. Movies get remade all the time, but not novels. I suppose it helped that LF has fallen into public domain, so there wasn’t much legal hoops to jump over the rights issue. According the Scalzi, he only wrote FN for fun before showing it to his agent. The rest, as they say, is history.

The book, or rather both books, are about a mining prospector named Jack Halloway who discovers a super-cute intelligent species—the Fuzzies—right after stumbling into a huge deposit of a highly valuable mineral on a faraway planet. Thus a moral dilemma. The mineral find means Halloway stands to become so rich that he and his descendants will never have to work again. Discovering the Fuzzies, however, if proven sentient means the planet cannot be mined.

At the outset it is a gone conclusion that the Fuzzies will win in the end. The smart thing about FN, however is that Halloway, a disbarred lawyer, doesn’t just suddenly grow a conscience and do the right thing. The bad guy in the novel is ZaraCorp, a mega mining corporation which, sans Fuzzies, practically owns the planet. The climax of the story is a courtroom drama, which is rare in science fiction.

The original Little Fuzzy is available as a free download, among others at Project Gutenberg. I have downloaded it, hoping to get around to reading it later.

__________
LINKS:
Review of Fuzzy Nation at SF Reviews.net
Cory Doctorow’s review of Fuzzy Nation at Boing Boing

Read: Dreadnaught

Dreadnaught is a follow-up to six-book The Lost Fleet (TLF) series that ended with Victorious last year.

TLF is set against the backdrop of a war between two space-faring human civilizations—the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds that has lasted for a hundred years. Captain John Geary succeeds in bringing home the battered Alliance fleet from deep inside Syndic space, leaving behind the Syndic fleet effectively decimated. The return of the fleet, however, is not wholly welcomed by the Alliance government. Now that the Syndic threat is behind them, the powerful fleet is viewed with suspicion by the civilian authority, especially with Geary’s immense popularity. In Dreadnaught, the fleet is ordered to go to the other side of Syndic space to gather further information about an enigmatic alien race it encountered earlier.

What I like best about TLF is the detailed battle scenes, which no doubt benefited from author John G Hemry’s experience as a US Navy officer. They are also very realistic: Logistics and energy management is always a factor. A message from a ship two light minutes away takes two minutes to arrive. In short, the battle scenes are nothing like what you see in Star Wars or Star Trek. Throughout the series, the characters spend a lot of time discussing their problems and options. A common complain about TLF, however, is the author’s tendency to recapitulate, which he explains as to help new readers of the series.

The next book in the new The Lost Fleet - Beyond the Frontier series has already been announced for a May, 2012 release and I am definitely looking forward to it.

Read: American Gods

I discovered Neil Gaiman quite late a few years ago. American Gods (AG) was only my second book by him. The first was The Graveyard Book (TGB) back in 2009. Unlike TGB, which was written, or at least marketed, for children AG was definitely meant for adult consumption. Both, however, are fantasy works with a rather dark theme that qualifies them as horror. And for that AG won the 2001 Bram Stoker Award, among others.

A man called Shadow was released from prison two days early when his wife died in a car accident. Nowhere to go, he accepted an offer to work as a bodyguard to a strange con-man called Wednesday.

It turned out that Wednesday was really Odin, or rather an incarnation of the Norse god of old in America. The premise of AG was that people’s beliefs and superstitions manifest into beings supernatural powers. As people migrated to America from all over the world, they brought along their beliefs, and hence their gods. However, as their believers dwindled in number, so to the power of the gods.

Wednesday was working on a big plan rallying the ancient gods to prepare for a war against the gods of new. Along the way, Shadow met Wednesday's unusual friends—tired old gods and other mythical beings—while at the same time pursued by the other side. He was also visited from time to time by his wife Laura, who was neither quite dead nor alive.

The copy that I bought was labelled “author’s preferred text”. It was published as Gaiman originally wrote it, which was 12,000 words longer than the “original” multiple award-winning 2001 release. I enjoyed every word of the book. It was claimed somewhere that AG was Gaiman’s best novel yet. I haven’t read enough of his work to say anything to that effect, but I could definitely believe it is so.

Read: Yukikaze

I chanced upon Yukikaze by Chohei Kambayashi when browsing the Haikasoru website after reading The Lord of the Sands of Time. It’s supposed to be a classic, Yukikaze, and most importantly has a cool cover art. I was sold.

Some decades ago an alien force invaded Earth through a portal over Antarctica. Earth fought the aliens back and secured a foothold on the other side.

Thirty years on the war against the JAM, as the aliens are called, is at a stalemate. The Faery Air Force (FAF) is technologically far more advanced than any military forces on Earth. However, it has never been able to maintain any clear advantage over the JAM.

Strangely, after all the years no one knows who the JAM really are and even how they look like. There’s speculation that the JAM are really machines, and when fighting the FAF they are really fighting against the machines of the FAF. Hence the question of whether humans are really necessary, at least in the war agains the JAM.

Yukikaze is the nickname given to the mount of Lt Rei Fukai, the main character. It is a highly advanced tactical reconnaissance fighter known as the Super Sylph. Yukikaze is the only thing that Rei cares for and trusts. However, as its AI matures, it becomes evident that the plane has a mind of its own.

Afi bought me Yukikaze as a birthday present. She asked me to pick a book. I couldn’t think of any in particular that I wanted, so picked Yukikaze which was the next in my wishlist. I also didn’t know that there is an anime made out of the novel. The clips I see of it looks awesome, particularly the flight sequences. I’ll definitely go look for it when I get home.

I’m now reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

Read: 1984

I cannot remember when I first heard about 1984. It must be about the same time I first heard about George Orwell. For a long time, the book had been on my to-read list but I never got around to reading it. There’s always a new release that I’d read instead. So some time ago I thought that I should at least try to alternate my reading between new and old releases, hence 1984.

At the very least, 1984 gives us the term Big Brother. The government rules on fear and propaganda, in this case complete control of information, using a perpetual war as a tool. Whether there is actually a war going on, and against whom, does not matter except that the government says so. Every aspect of our lives is controlled by the government, even our thoughts. No one can be trusted. Parents cannot even trust their children.

It is, in a fashion, a really scary novel. At every word I cannot help wondering whether Big Brother already exists, now, in real life. I also wonder if governments and politicians around the world, whatever the label they wear, actually learn from Orwell as much as Machiavelli.

Turning Japanese

The Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa was in my Amazon wishlist for almost two years before I finally bought it from, er, The Book Depository in late February.

It is about an android soldier from the future sent to the past to help prepare and fight an alien invasion. The story is set mainly in third century Japan, where he joined forces with a pagan shaman queen for a final stand against the aliens. The book is awesome, though at 260 pages a bit short. The original work is in Japanese, translated into English.

Another thing I really like about the book is the cover design, which took me to Haikasoru and more (English-translated) Japanese SFF with awesome covers! Afi said that it’s shallow to buy a book based on its cover, but it’s worked well for me so far. I strongly believe that there’s a strong correlation between a good book and good cover design. Here are some titles I now have on my wishlist, along with their synopses I copy-pasted from the Haikasoru website:

The Next Continent by Issui Ogawa

The year is 2025 and Gotoba General Construction—a firm that has built structures to survive the Antarctic and the Sahara—has received its most daunting challenge yet. Sennosuke Touenji, the chairman of one of the world's largest leisure conglomerates, wants a moon base fit for civilian use, and he wants his granddaughter Taé to be his eyes and ears on the harsh lunar surface. Taé and Gotoba engineer Aomine head to the moon where adventure, trouble, and perhaps romance await.

Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara

The God of Light and the Goddess of Darkness have waged a ruthless war across the land of Toyoashihara for generations. But for fifteen-year-old Saya, the war is far away—until the day she discovers that she is the reincarnation of the Water Maiden and a princess of the Children of the Dark.

Raised to love the Light and detest the Dark, Saya must come to terms with her heritage even as the Light and Dark both seek to claim her, for she is the only mortal who an awaken the legendary Dragon Sword, the weapon destined to bring an end to he war. Can Saya make the choice between the Light and Dark, or is she doomed—like all the Water Maidens who came before her...?

Yukikaze by Chohei Kambayashi

More than thirty years ago a hyper-dimensional passageway suddenly appeared... the first stage of an attempted invasion by an enigmatic alien host. Humanity managed to push the invaders back through the passageway to the strange planet nicknamed "Faery." Now, Second Lieutenant Rei Fukai carries out his missions in the skies over Faery. His only constant companion in this lonely task is his fighter plane, the sentient FFR-31 Super Sylph, call sign: YUKIKAZE.

Usurper of the Sun by Housuke Nojiri

Aki Shiraishi is a high school student working in the astronomy club and one of the few witnesses to an amazing event--someone is building a tower on the planet Mercury. Soon, the enigmatic Builders have constructed a ring around the sun, and the ecology of Earth is threatened by its immense shadow. Aki is inspired to pursue a career in science, and the truth. She must determine the purpose of the ring and the plans of its creators, as the survival of both species—humanity and the alien Builders—hangs in the balance.

I am looking forward to reading each of them!

Spoilers

I’ve finished reading Out of the Dark (more than a week ago, actually)!

An alien race called the Shongairi invades Earth. Their initial strike alone totally eliminates all of our aircraft carriers and military bases, as well as many major cities. Instead of surrendering to the technologically superior Shongairi, the surviving humans stubbornly fight back. Eventually, the Shongairi decides to finish off all humans altogether by engineering a targeted bioweapon.