The novel “Raven Stratagem” by Yoon Ha Lee was published for the first time in 2017. It’s the second book in The Machineries of Empire series and follows “Ninefox Gambit”.

General Shuos Jedao was revived to fight a rebellion but managed to take over Captain Kel Cheris’s body. The fleet commanded by General Kel Khiruev is supposed to prevent Jedao from escaping and doing more damage but the conditioning towards superior officers is so strong that Khiruev and almost all of her subordinates end up declaring their loyalty to Jedao.

Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan is among the very few who resist the conditioning exploited by Jedao but he can only hope to alert the Exarchate. The situation is made more serious by an attack by Hafn enemies against the Exarchate. Jedao declares he wants to fight the Hafn but what are his ultimate goals? The exarchs must agree on the strategy to set up to face the different threats.

The novel “Reunion” by Alan Dean Foster was published for the first time in 2001. It’s part of the Pip and Flinx series.

Flinx has come to Earth to find information about Meliorare, the corporation that conducted secret and illegal genetic experiments that also led to his birth. The information is stored in a well-guarded facility, and Flinx befriends one of the guards, influencing her using his mental powers.

Breaking into the facility is only the first stage of Flinx’s plan, and he must enter the computer system without setting off any alarms. To do this, he has to handle an artificial intelligence to which he has to ask the right questions. When he finally thinks he’s got the information he’s been looking for, Flinx sees it disappear before his eyes. He manages to trace the intervention in someone who’s hiding behind a company on a spaceship that is en route to the planet Pyrassis, within the Aann empire.

The novel “The Brave Free Men” by Jack Vance was published for the first time in 1972 serialized in “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction” and in 1973 as a book. It’s the second book in the Durdane trilogy and follows “The Anome”.

Gastel Etzwane gained huge power and intends to use it to eliminate the threat of the Roguskhoi, humanoids who are hitting the Shant harder and harder with their attacks. Together with a very few trusted people, he tries to set up a unified army but unifying the efforts of the many cantons of the Shant is a very complex undertaking.

The people of the Shant spent generations under the rule of the Anome, and even Roguskhoi attacks elicit limited responses. Creating an army and new weapons takes time and adequate organization, and Gastel Etzwane discovers that various cantons hide serious injustices.

The novel “Earth Abides” by George R. Stewart was published for the first time in 1949. It won the International Fantasy Award.

Isherwood “Ish” Williams is working on his graduate thesis in the mountains when he gets bitten by a rattlesnake. He manages to get rid of most of the poison but spends days unwell, even from what appears to be an illness unrelated to the poisoning. When he gets strong enough again, he travels to the nearest town and finds it deserted, only the first evidence of a mass death caused by an unknown disease.

Ish seeks out other survivors, who are few in number and not always friendly, sometimes in a severely altered state of mind. After touring the now almost completely depopulated USA, he returns to California and decides to settle in the area. He finds a woman, Emma, and the two of them decide to live together. Over time, they find a few other survivors with whom to form a small community but what can be the future of humanity?