3 Nov, 2020
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
2004’s Marque and Reprisal is the second book in the Elizabeth Moon series Vatta’s War.
Having successfully rebuilt her shattered career and defied mutineers, Ky Vatta’s troubles should be over. She should be able to look forward to the carefree life of a successful interstellar trader.
Aside from the whole interstellar war thing, that is.
1 Nov, 2020
1976’s Lady of the Bees is the third book in Thomas Burnett Swann’s Latium trilogy. It is a mythological fantasy about the founding of Rome.
In this age supernatural beings are increasingly rare, pushed aside by mundane humans. Mellonia, former queen of the dryads, avoids humans and lives in solitude deep in the forest. She has had human lovers in the past — Aeneas and later his son Ascanius — but now she avoids concerning herself with human affairs.
She breaks this policy when, on a whim, she rescues infant brothers, human twins. Her choice shapes human history for millennia to come.