SSF Stories with Middle Eastern Leads

This post is focuses on my favorite science fiction and fantasy stories with protagonists whose race and ethnicity is rooted in the Middle East.
Previous Posts: SFF Stories with Native American Leads, SFF Stories with Asian Leads and SFF Stories with Black Leads.

The Aggregate Stats

• Total number of works/series/authors on the list: 15/7/24
• Author with most works on the list: Frank Herbert, with 6 books on the list
• Most consistent pattern: Historical Fantasies.  Rather than take the ideas and culture and build their own world, about half the series on the list placed their stories in a serious historical context.
• Biggest overall surprise:  No fantasies with the magic based on ancient Egyptian mythology.  I would have assumed that would be more popular, but no.

and now for...

My Favorites

Review: Zero Factor by Stacy Gail

This sci-fi romance was not bad, but nothing to write home about either.  Although, I supposed I'm writing here about it, in any case.

Zero Factor, by Stacy Gail, is a dystopian action romance set in a militarized future with cyborg militia soldiers, radioactive pollution, and starving masses. The future is sharply divided between the haves and have nots.

The heroine has psychic powers, and is trying to keep a low profile to avoid conscription by the government which apparently rounds up psychics for nefarious purposes.  While delivering food, she has a vision of the group she's with being attacked and dying.  At a loss for how to prevent it, she shares it by kissing one of the soldiers who's watching over her group.  When he realizes that the attack is a plot by his commanding officer, he foils it and they go on the run together.

The story didn't have anything terribly wrong with it, but I just didn't respond to it for some reason.  The world building is a compilation of ideas that I've seen before.  I didn't feel the chemistry between the leads (death for a romance book).  And I didn't love the protagonist, although I didn't hate her or get annoyed with her either.  I don't know.  I just didn't respond to it.  It was literally a Zero Factor for me as well, I suppose - not important enough to matter.  YMMV.

SF/F Stories with Asian Leads

This post only covers from central, East and Southeast Asia. I'm covering the Middle East and north Africa in a separate post.
Related Posts: SFF Stories with Native American Leads, SFF Stories with Black Leads, and SFF Stories with Middle Easter Leads.

The Aggregate Stats

• Total number of works/series/authors on the list: 24/7/7
• Author with most works on the list: Eileen Wilks, with 8 books in her Lupi series
• Biggest overall surprise: No ninjas. Huh. With all the assassin stories out there, I would have assumed I had read something more explicitly ninja-esque.  I'm going to have to hunt one down.  Also, I was a little surprised at the diversity. After doing the list for Native Americans, I was expecting patterns to emerge, even among excellent writers.  But, they're a pretty diverse group of stories.

and now for...

My Favorites

SF/F Stories with Native American Leads

In an attempt to celebrate great examples of sci-fi and fantasy books with Native American protagonists, I'm writing down a list of my favorites.  It's part of a series of posts covering SFF stories with non-white protagonists. See also SFF stories with Asian Leads, SFF Stories with Black Leads, and SFF Stories with Middle Eastern Leads.

First...

The Aggregate Stats

• Total number of works/series/authors on the list: 17/5/6
• Author with most works on the list: Patricia Briggs by a landslide - 8 books and 1 short story.
• Most common trope: Coyote. A close second is the female half Native American/half white tomboy protagonist with grease under her fingernails from all her work as a mechanic or mechanical tinkerer. She can handle her own in an adventure and is prepared to defend herself if she has to, but would rather be left alone, especially since she has secrets to hide. Unfortunately, her secrets draw her into the preternatural world she's trying to avoid. Seriously, this describes half the protagonists!
• Biggest overall surprise: There's only one full-blood Native American, and there are no (non-urban) fantasies on the list. There are also no stories set within a Native American culture (or magical version thereof), the stories always have the protagonist living in a white world. 

and now for...

My Favorites

The Soul Linked Saga

If there were a literary equivalent of the walk of shame for book reading, then this review would be me doing it.  These books are the craziest wish-fulfillment excuse for a series I have ever read.  The premise for this science fiction romance series is farcical.  The writing is mediocre.  But somehow I couldn't keep myself from reading all three.  It's my crack!  Be warned.

OK, so, here goes.

The premise is that among the thousand worlds there is a mysterious race, called the Jasani, who are born as triplets (called male-sets) and that each male-set does everything together, including sex, because they share a soul.  The Jasani are also magic-wielding shape-shifters (the first book is about the dragon-ish triplets, the second is the wolf-ish, and the third is great cat-ish).

The Jasani home world is modeled after an old west theme except on a world of lavendar skies and blue grass.  It comes complete with a horse and cattle ranch owned by the first set of triplets, and a small local town for shopping when they need the change of scenery.  Oh, and the first heroes are also the ruling royalty of the Jasani.

The Storm That Is Sterling

A decent read.  If you liked the first Zodius novel, The Legend of Michael, you'll probably like the second one too.  In terms of tropes, you're looking at a special-ops/soul-mate/genetic experimentation romance thriller series.

The premise for the series is that a group of soldiers were inculcated with an alien virus (against their knowledge) that gave them special powers.  They're all called GTech.  They can all wind-walk and heal extremely fast, and some of them also get additional unique powers.  Each book features a new romantic pair as well as movement in the various plot lines.

In the first book, some of them turned evil and then the evil group split up and the government doesn't trust any of the turned super soldiers, so we're looking at a setting that includes at least four major factions: US government, Zodius (bad supernatural soldiers), Renegades (good supernatural soldiers), and General Powell's camp (he who started the mess in the first place).  It has a definite soap opera complexity to the story arcs.

Gods Tomorrow

Summary: A good read, and surprisingly good for the $.99 e-book price.  It's a near-future science fiction police procedural set in a big brother setting.  Very Minority-Report-ish.

Gods Tomorrow, by Aaron Pogue, is the type of book that makes me a Kindle convert.  Police procedurals aren't my favorite, I don't know the author, and the cover art is amateurish.  If it had shown up in my local bookstore, I probably wouldn't want to pay full price to take the chance that it might be good.  Since it's just a buck, I can experiment.  And it was a happily worthwhile experiment.

Alien Proliferation

Summary: I don't recommend it in general, but fans of the previous book in the serious, Aliens in the Family, should like this one too.

Alien Proliferation, by Gini Koch, is the fourth book in the Alien series.  I like the first one, Touched by an Alien, a lot.  It told the story of Kitty Katt, a marketing director who falls down a rabbit hole of gorgeous aliens, terrorist conspiracies, super-hero science, and witty banter.   For me, the first book was an enjoyable balancing act between the sublimely ridiculous world-building and plot twists, the cleverness of the dialog and characters, the comic-book action, and the warmth of the romance.  It's shallow and cheesy, but also sexy and fun.

Unfortunately, Koch lost the balance in the subsequent books.

Cyoburn

Summary: Not-bad story from a (generally) spectacularly talented writer.  Fans of the Vorkosigan Saga may want to read it to find out what happens next, but be warned that it won't live up to the earlier books.

Cryoburn, by Lois McMaster Bujold, is the latest entry in the Vorkosigan Saga.  Ignore the almost uninterrupted string of cheesy covers and space-opera descriptions.  The saga is about the best science fiction I've ever read.  It's got everything - great primary and secondary characters, great world building, great plot, great dialog, great prose, great everything.  Bujold has no weaknesses; she is the perennially under-appreciated force in sci-fi despite multiple Hugos and Nebulas.   Unfortunately, the latest couple of books in the series haven't been quite to the level of the best of the the saga, and this one in particular was getting mediocre reviews, so I started it with mixed feelings.

I liked it, although it's not my favorite of the Vorkosigan saga.  Here are a couple random thoughts that CONTAIN SPOILERS: