The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

 

The first of the Maximum Ride books, the Angel Experiment follows Maximum Ride and the rest of the “flock”, genetically engineered children with bird DNA. The Flock is pursued by the Erasers, human/wolf hybrids, who want to bring them back to “The School” so that further experiments can be performed. When the Erasers capture Angel, the youngest of The Flock, the others leave to try to find her. 

Tomes and Talismans (1986)

 In the 22nd century a malevolent alien race known as the Wipers come to earth and systematically start to destroy all information. A group of librarians set out to create an underground library before evacuating preserving human knowledge. Before she can evacuate a Ms. Bookhart is placed into a deep sleep by “The Universal Being.” 100 years later, Bookhart is found by another group of aliens trying to defeat the Wipers known as the Users. After waking Bookhart teaches the Users how to use the library to defeat the Wipers. This was an educational show on how to use the library. 

Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntire

 

A borderline scifi/fantasy novel, Snake is a healer that uses the venom of snakes to heal. When her dreamsnake is killed by ignorant people, she needs to look for the rare snake so she can resume her career. A great book from a great author. 

The Martian (2015)

 Based on the Andy Weir novel, in this movie we have to once again save Matt Damon. Damon stars as Mark Watney, part of a crew sent to try to colonize Mars. When a sandstorm kicks up, his group leaves him behind, believing him to be dead. It is then a rush to attempt to get him home. One of the greatest moments in the movie is when Sean Bean, who plays Mitch Henderson, has to explain what the Council of Elrond is. This is so funny is that Bean also played Borimor in the Lord of the Rings and was at the Council of Elrond! He got to be on the Council twice!

The Fantastic Voyage (1966)

 

When a Russian scientist gets wounded when the Americans try to bring him over to our side a crew and their ship is miniaturized to enter the body and heal the brain trauma. Actually has great special effects for this day and age as they navigate the body. 

Jedi: Fallen Order

 

Ok, let’s be honest here. I’ve never actually played this game. I don’t own a playstation and really don’t intend to get one any time soon. I have seen a friend play a few minutes though and this game is gorgeous! And I liked the main character Cal Kestis. If I were to get a playstation I would totally buy this game just so I can run around and be a Jedi. As far as I understand, you are a former Jedi Padwan named Cal who gets outed to the Empire when you use the Force to save your friend Prauf. You are then recruited by a former Jedi Knight Cere Junda who is attempting to rebuild the Order. I also liked that it was an original story and not just rehashing the movies. I remember when the sequel came out (and yes there is a sequel called Jedi: Survivor) I got really excited that there might be new Star Wars movie about characters I wasn’t familiar with. When I figured out it was a game, I was so bummed. 

User Unfriendly by Vivian Vande Velde

 

This book takes place in the same universe as Heir Apparent but is about a completely new cast of characters. Like in the other book Arvin and his friends are playing in a fantastical virtual reality game where they are the characters they invented. But when Arvin’s mother, who is also playing, starts to get deathly ill, they will need all their wits to beat the game and return to the real world to save her. This I would say straddles the line between fantasy and science fiction. On the one hand, our characters are playing a extremely advanced virtual reality game. On the other hand they are playing a fantasy game. Vande Velde always does a great job.