2022 Best Science Stories So Far. We’re only five weeks into 2022 and here are some great science stories. Plus, I’ve been piling up reviews I want to share with you.
Let’s begin now!
2022 Best Science Stories – Military SciFi
The first military scifi story with automatic aiming was by Heinlein. He used it on a battleship with all of its cannons and guns controlled by computer.
Speaking of Heinlein, here’s a review of his book, Starship Troopers:
Starship Troopers
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…Thinking he was safer if he moved out of Los Angeles (because at the time it was considered a nuclear target), he moves to Colorado only to find out years later that the military had built NORAD only 7 miles from his home.
So angered by the events around him, he wrote his most controversial novel to date: ‘Starship Troopers’. Heinlein was very concerned the US would not survive the Cold War and pens the story as an ode to the military. It was based on the premise that citizenship should be earned and that “freedom is founded on each individual taking responsibility for something greater than himself.” Critics argued that the novel glorified military conflict.
In ‘Starship Troopers,’ Heinlein’s military fought the aliens wearing power suits with high tech robotic exoskeletons that granted humans extraordinary strength and ability. Although it was just fantasy when Heinlein wrote about it, the US military is actually developing a version of Heinlein’s suit. Using robotic and Nano technology, they are working on a suit that will allow the soldier to be a “superman” on the battlefield.
I started by reading this author’s book about the Turkey Apocalypse. I had so much fun (yes, fun, even though the turkeys were out killing everyone and thing in their path!) Then I read about the Undead Mother in law. Even better! Each book gets more accomplished than the next.
This one was a surprise! I thought I had purchased the same book twice (I’ve been known to do that!) However, this is just a group of short stories that are prequels or sequels to the others that fill in some questions I didn’t know I had or start me on a new train of thought. Fun to read! Just make sure you check all wildlife around you for metal caps before you settle in! They’re watching you!
Jeremy Gentle fell flat on his face at therapy. That was normal since he had cerebral palsy. But his new superpower wasn’t normal. Then, things got weirder when his best friend Dan Elanga got a different superpower. But Dan was still blind.
Kayla Verdera and Aubrey Wilcosky, two girls in their middle-school special ed class, discovered they too had new superpowers. Kayla was mute and needed a walker. Aubrey lost two legs and used crutches. But they were as powerful as the boys. What should the four friends do?
Jeremy knew if the word got out, it’d be a media circus. Then, they started fighting crime as the Secret Supers. Who knew a disability could be a perfect disguise? No one would ever think of disabled kids as superheroes. But they ran into problems they never expected.
Disabled Middle School Superheroes for You – Find out what my imagination has unleashed: this powerful Secret Supers team go from their special ed class to lives of fighting crime.
In this blog post, you’ll read what Audiobook listeners think in their reviews.
Click to listen to free sample of Secret Supers.
Don’t like audiobooks? You can get the ebooks by clicking here. Kindle will also let you read the first chapter.
And now, the disabled middle school superheroes reviews.
Everyone can be brave and heroic
Overall 4 out of 5 stars
Performance 4 out of 5 stars
Story 4 out of 5 stars
03-07-20
Secret Supers Chapter 1 icon
I love that someone is writing fun superstories in which disabled and differently abled kids can see themselves as potentially brave and heroic. The story doesn’t just show them doing impossible things that fully abled people can’t even do; it shows them using their heads to solve problems and cooperating together to use their different gifts to change the world for the better. And it’s well told, with a youthful sounding narrator that highlights the 12-13 years of the characters.
I received this free audiobook and voluntarily left this honest review.
Let me just say I love this narrator. His voice went perfectly with the story. This book is about disabled people getting super powers and I thought it was awesome. This is a great book for those with disabilities and older children without disabilities. I think we all imagine what it would be like to have superpowers and then this book will find out what these kids do with their super powers.
Mr Andy Zach has crafted a fun story of different-able kids becoming superheroes.
I don’t read much MG fiction, but it was a nice light read. It did feel at times that everything was too easily overcome and the kids only wear super suits once.
It was also interesting to hear what sounded like a middle grade student as the narrator. This had pros and cons for me. It worked for the kids, but some of his adult voices…
Overall, worth a listen, fun story, and likable characters.
In a straightforward plot/storyline that won’t be confused with SciFi, 4 disabled kids become “enabled,” even Super! They are good kids with good intentions and they do the right thing. The parents are all involved, and the community is a middle-class ideal. A sweet read/listen for the suggested reader age range of 10-15.
We have a break from our superheroes to bring you:
A super middle school xylophonist
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This was a good book.In it anyone can be a super hero! Luke Castle was a fine narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.’
There’s so much awesome stuff happening in this book! I really enjoyed the story, especially the backbone of it. Each of these kids (Jeremy, Dan, Kayla, and Aubrey) has their own disability and when Jeremy stumbles upon a way to give each of them a super power, they still have to deal with real life. The super power doesn’t take away or negate their disability but it does give them an edge. Plus, they learn to work together as team, using their individual powers to boost each other. Just a fantastic premise for a story.
The story is definitely geared towards kids, as the plot is pretty straight forward and there’s little conflict among the characters. Our heroes already have a fight on their hands – just being accepted in regular society. In fact, the big hurdle in the book deals with that at their public school. I really liked how they pulled together to tackle the problem and how their efforts pulled in their friends, family, and community.
The end leaves us on a triumphant note as well as hinting as more to come. I hope this is just the start of a series. Jeremy needs to keep a close eye on his pet hamster. I kinda hope that hamster becomes the master mind. Ha! 5/5 stars.
The Narration – Disabled Middle School Superheroes
Luke Castle gets an A for effort but a C for product. Castle had a perfect voice for Jeremy, capturing the character’s young earnest voice. Castle’s female character voices need more femininity. Many of them sounded very cartoony. I appreciate Castle’s attempts at regional and foreign accents, but they were hit and miss or way over done (like the Georgia peach and the California valley girl). The pacing was a bit off too, often with long pauses in between chapters (at first, I thought my player had stalled). Castle does a good job capturing the various emotions of the characters. Other than the long pauses in between the chapters, there were no technical issues with the recording. 2.5/5 stars.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andy Zach. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
This is a story filled with joy an overcoming obstacles. in these dark times an uplifting tale is needed with the the human spirit meeting the challenges of life with positive mind set and a bit of hard work. The fact that these children are “supers” in this story does not diminish the lesson it teaches. A must listen for young folks and their parents.
A cool middle grade story about handicapped superheroes
Secret Supers Chapter 7 icon
Overall 4 out of 5 stars
Performance 3 out of 5 stars
Story 4 out of 5 stars
05-29-20
Secret Supers is a really cool middle grade story about a bunch of handicapped kids that gain superpowers. The story is written for a younger audience, so it might not appeal to older readers, but I bet kids will really enjoy it, and it is wonderful to see the kids in the story empowered.
The narrator takes a bit of getting used to. He uses a rather nasally voice for one of the main characters that can be hard to listen to. But he is pretty good at character voices, and he grew on me as the book progressed. Unfortunately there is a bit of background noise in the recording which can be distracting.
I received this audiobook at no-cost from Audiobookworm Promotions. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
Disabled Middle School Superheroes Intermission Number 2
Here we have a superhero pilot. Note that he’s landing during Hurricane Dennis.
Now I return you to your normal disabled middle school superheroes reviews.
Uplifting
Secret Supers Chapter 10 icon
Overall 4 out of 5 stars
Performance 3 out of 5 stars
Story 4 out of 5 stars
05-07-20
Secret Supers is such a fun story, and it has a great message. I listened with my mid-grade kiddos, one boy and one girl, and they both enjoyed the story. The target audience may be mid-grade kids, but this is the type of story that is entertaining for both kids and adults.
This book is fast-paced and just loads of fun from start to finish, and it has such a positive vibe. The kids each have a different disability, and those disabilities are handled honestly while still keeping an upbeat vibe. I love how their individual super powers gave them what they needed, and the four together complimented each other so well. The kids are all lovable and quirky, and you can’t help but root for their successes and smile when they do succeed.
Narration Comments – Disabled Middle School Superheroes
It’s interesting that the story is narrated by a teenager. In fact, my kiddos noticed it right away and commented about it. It gave them a whole new appreciation for audiobooks, and they’ll both be looking for more stories narrated by Luke Castle. This young man really seems to enjoy himself as he narrates this book, and that certainly comes through. For me, some of the voices were maybe a little over the top, but my tweens had no complaints, and since this is a mid-grade story, I would say that’s the most important thing. They were thoroughly entertained by both Andy Zach’s story and Luke Castle’s performance, and I have to say that the two do go well together.
All in all, Andy Zach has done a terrific job with this book. The story and its characters are a positive force in a world that is all too often focused on the negative, and it all comes together for one entertaining and uplifting listen for kids of all ages.
This book is fantastic. It has a fantastic story line, great character development, but most of all, the narration was on point. Luke Castle deserves a Grammy, nay, an Emmy, for this reading. Everything from his impressions to his transitions, and everything in between. Truly an amazing book with top-tier narration. A+
Yes this is an audiobook for kids but I found it very interesting due to that is a good lesson for both children and adults handicapped or not. And that lesson if you want something so bad enough you are willing to work hard to get it or achieve a goal that everyone thinks you can not do.
You have the following characters a above average boy, a black blind boy, a young girl who has lost her legs and finally a young girl who has lost the ability to speak or sing. I believe kids would really like this audible because the story is based both on their abilities and disabilities and how they learn from the disabilities but grow and learn as a person and the friendship between the four.
When you have a battle to fight or someone is causing your problems when you have friends you can overcome the problem here was raising $100,000 to cover the shortage on the school year budget or all handicapped children would be bused to another school and maybe not be together. They raised the money by doing the impossible and proving everyone in the city that even though they are handicapped they gave a lots to offer and did not need to be separated from family and friends.
There is a lots more to this book and personally believe you would enjoy the book it brings a smile, a chuckle and a laugh as the story is told and you live the lives of four amazing and awesome handicapped kids.
Four differently-abled kids suddenly gain superpowers and use them to fight crime. How cool is that? Any kid would love to have powers. They used teamwork and demonstrated compassion for others. They also had a lot of fun.
The narration was a bit weird. All the voices sound really nasal. At first I laughed, then for about five minutes I thought they were cute, then I just found the voices annoying. Kids will probably not care about that. I imagine they’ll just enjoy thinking about what they would do with superpowers.
Good storyline and fair plot. The narrator’s voice wasn’t the right one for the book. For me his voice was distracting as he tried to do the different characters.
So what do readers say? Here’s a review coming up for you.
Editorial Reviews
“You’d think after three oddball novels, Zombie Turkeys (How an Unknown Blogger Fought Unkillable Turkeys), My Undead Mother-In-Law (The Family Zombie with Anger Management Issues), and Paranormal Privateers, that Andy Zach would have exhausted all the comic possibilities in his world of killer zombie turkeys and superhero zombie humans.
You’d be wrong. How about flying zombie pickles? Zombie zucchini? Zombie caterpillars? (How can you tell a zombie caterpillar from a normal one? Andy Zach can tell you.)
How about being injected with zombie blood which can cure any ill, regrow any lost limb, and be quickly cured with a widely available antidote? Who needs insurance with that sort of help? How about organizing a zombie worker union at Amazon when zombies can outperform robots? And suggest the story is based on two real people, Anthony and Ravan Jones who contribute the foreword to the book? Or zombie residents of a nursing home taking over the place?
–Dr. Wesley Britton at BookPleasures.com on Sept. 15, 2020:
Review continued
But all this silliness is just part of what Andy Zach has collected in Oops. He has included other short stories by other authors like “The Story of Sound” by Olivia Smith and his own “A Phoenix Tale” before diving into his zombie world. Then he offers a batch of stories based on his other book series featuring disabled middle-schoolers who become superheroes, the Secret Supers. Oh yea, there are the aliens who first appeared in Paranormal Privateers who are defeated by zombies working for the U.S. Government. The aliens can provide you legal assistance in the form of a sexy avatar who looks exactly like Marilyn Monroe.
If you’re getting the impression that one Mr. Andy Zach has a wide and wild imagination, you are on the right track. One obvious audience for his quirky tales is the YA readership, especially for all the contemporary references like video gaming and computer lingo. But even grumpy old sixty-somethings like me can have a lot of fun with Andy’s characters, scenarios, and plots. I’m still laughing at the image of migrating flying zombie pickles. Hard to get more original, unique, or surprising than Zach’s “Life After Life” series. Have some fun with Andy Zach in 2020!”
–Dr. Wesley Britton at BookPleasures.com on Sept. 15, 2020:
As I expected, story time at Andy’s house must include a recorder to grasp the many directions and characters he delevolopes in each book. This set of several stories are exciting in a novel manner of disbelief overlaid with a tinge of possibility.
How many people have tasted a hummingbird zombie zuccini, a superpowered set of disabled kids with a intelligent hamster as co-partner, a phoenix genetic research specialist, all these under one cover? Well, step right up and open page one!
Each story includes an ideas from his zombie turkey series and as always a hint of something new to come!This was a free book and I am not connected to anyone involved. I laughed and soaked up the words wanting more.
Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse by Andy Zach is a collection of short stories and as the clue is in the title, the theme is zombies. And boy do they come in a variety of different shapes and sizes.
The book starts with three stories that are a starter and not in the zombie genre. Firstly, you are introduced to a world where nothing is heard. Then we move on to finding an elusive phoenix and trying to use its DNA for breeding. Lastly, we have a story about a time-travelling wheelchair.
Then we jump straight into zombies. From zombie pickles, to zombie service dog corgis, to zombie models and even zombies in a nursing home. There is a timeline thread running through the stories where characters that create something or meet someone bring them into a later story. And all of this in a world where becoming a zombie is as easy as ordering blood online!
After each story, the author explains where he got his ideas from, and since in his bio he claims both his parents were zombies, he must be an expert on all things undead. The author has a very quick mind and some of the quips and plays on words were very clever.
In some of the stories, however, I would have preferred a definite ending—one where the story doesn’t just finish and you think there is more coming. It was almost as though they were ideas taken from diary extracts with sporadic glimpses into a world of zombies.
After the zombie stories came tales from some of his other books about teenage superheroes. I think the one I enjoyed the most was of the hamster that one of the kids had experimented on and had developed some superpowers. He taught himself to read and was eventually able to communicate with others by typing on a computer. The author very cleverly integrated himself into that story by being the author in the story and the one that the hamster contacted. And of course, we had to have a story about aliens to end it off.
This is a great book to start with if you haven’t tried any Andy Zach book before. It contains stories from both his Life After Life zombie comedy series and his superhero story Super Secrets. It also shows you Zach’s sense of humor (plus there’s one little horror story that isn’t overly gruesome). This book is great for both kids and adults and works just fine on it’s own.
I loved the silly story of the flying zombie cucumbers. Ha! Very fanciful. And they have migratory routes, like butterflies! Very silly and had me chuckling. I also loved the story with the hamster (who does play a role in Secret Supers). Perhaps rodents will truly save the world some day.
The stories also help fill in some of the blanks of the zombie comedy series, including one about Diane (the beloved zombie mother-in-law). But what I really liked was the stuff about genetic engineering and the aliens. Book 3 of the Life After Life Chronicles had a lot of stuff tossed into the story and some of these short stories really help fill those parts out.
All around, it’s a fun collection of tales. 5/5 stars.
The Narration: Michael Stafford was a good pick for narrating this anthology. While the Life After Life series and the Secret Supers use different narrators, Stafford was a good inbetween voice. He had unique voices for all the characters and his female voices sounded feminine. I also liked his kid voices for the Secret Supers kids. The pacing was good and there were no tech issues with the recording. 5/5 stars.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andy Zach. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
