Tales from the Circle

The Prism Effect by J. Wint is set in a future post-apocalyptic Earth (or, rather, on some belt structures orbiting the now almost uninhabitable Earth) and it follows the main character Jet through the beginning of his university career. He's not a normal university student, though, he has a rare condition that makes his eyes glow and renders him an outcast - a condition about which not much is known, except that there is no cure. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the first 2/3 of it when it focused on the mystery of the condition and Jet dealing with it and making connections with others on campus. The slow pursuit of more information about this condition and the way that's woven in with his university life (which is mostly sport-focused) is well done. I'm not the biggest sports fan or anything, but I found the way that was done realistic and I never felt it overwhelmed the story. It allowed us to see some aspects of Jet's day to day without having to go too d...

Pallas Lost by Jake Morrison is a space-heist sci-fi story with excellent world-building. The first few chapters introduce several characters that eventually come together around the mystery of a mythical lost spaceship - Pallas. The way their stories came together was excellent and made for some great, entertaining reading. The author also did a wonderful job at slowly revealing the history, myths, and current politics of the human colonies on the various planets. Everything was revealed smoothly at the right time and it made the world (galaxy, I guess!) seem very real while maintaining the fast pace of the storytelling.  I want to know more about Pallas and the AI that started it all and the politics of the corporations that rule these planets so the book definitely did the job of the first in series quite well, while still telling a complete enough story of this part of the adventure.  I only had a couple of very minor issues with the book. First of all, Eliot's intro scene...