Michael’s Top Books Read in 2021, #’s 14 & 15

#15 – The Odd Sea by Frederick Reiken (1998) – Reiken is a New Jersey-born author who now teaches at Emerson College. He has published three novels, the most recent of which, Day for Night (2010) was my #1 book read in 2012. Going back to his first novel, The Odd Sea, was an odd, and serendipitous choice to read this past year, because it was unplanned, and I just happened to see the book at the library, and the name was familiar (I had forgotten that the other book of his that I read had ranked so highly with me). Published in 1988, The Odd Sea was selected for best debut novel lists in both “Library Journal” and “Booklist,” and charts the territory of a family dealing with the unfathomable, when Ethan, one of their teenaged children disappear, never to return. Focusing mainly on Ethan’s younger brother, Philip, it is an exploration of how a family must cope with a tragedy that cannot be explained, and how it informs the path of Philip’s life and coming-of-age.

#14 – Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne (2020) – Maryland-based author, Karen Osborne released her debut novel, Architects of Memory in 2020, part one of the proposed The Memory War Trilogy. Ash lost everything during the intergalactic war with the alien Vai. Now struggling with a terminal illness, the salvage pilot encounters something that could change the course of humanity, and must do everything she can first to understand it, then to keep it out of the hands of those whose best interests are perhaps not shared by many. Deft, gritty, hard sci fi, Architects of Memory does an imaginative job at creating a life form so alien to humanity that actions and motivations are nearly impossible to discern. I look forward to reading volume two, Engines of Oblivion, soon.