Happy New Year! I’m starting out this year with a pair of books just out yesterday! Author Al Hess calls his genre “cozy dystopian”, meaning you’ll get those strange and gritty dystopian worlds, but you know you’ll get a happy ending when you’re finished. The series opener, Mazarin Blues, follows anxiety-ridden hero Reed and Mazarin, the AI who’s been stuck in his head. Throughout the story and the follow up, Sable Dark, Reed and Maz deal with dangerous enemies, forge friendships and romances, and carve out places for themselves. The world-building is unique, with a near-future sci-fi setting coupled with 1930s jazz club flavor. The Art Deco style formatting is so gorgeous I had to have these in paperback. Full of LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse rep, these books are fun, quirky, inclusive, and sure to leave you smiling.
Buy Mazarin Blues
Buy Sable Dark
(affiliate links)
Try these books if you like:
-near-future sci-fi with happy endings
-LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse rep
-quirky settings and characters
-a retro-futuristic aesthetic
