Three on a Theme | Sarcastic Sci-Fi

Hello, my lovely lemons! 🍋 If there’s two things I love, it’s space and sarcasm. So when you combine the two into an epic space-faring adventure with deadpan commentary, I’m very much on board. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these Three on a Theme posts, but they’re quick and fun and I was short on ideas so I thought I’d bust one out!

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Oh, Murderbot. If you like sci-fi and sarcasm, The Murderbot Diaries series is an absolute must. It follows a SecUnit who hacked its own governor module, but is still doing its job, just while being annoyed at the stupid humans it has to keep saving from certain death, and secretly binging TV shows. This is a series of novellas, and each one is packed full of action, humour, and a hell of a lot of sarcasm, in just under 200 pages. I highly recommend the audiobooks – they’re just 4 hours each and Kevin R Free’s deadpan delivery hits every time.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

This was one of the first books I read after joining the book community, and it truly made me laugh harder than anything else had in a while. Kady is a very appropriately moody teenage lead, and this story told through messages, emails, data files, and security tapes conveys that perfectly. The fact that every swear word is blacked out across the files just makes it so much funnier. And since I mentioned it for Murderbot, this is another incredible audiobook that you should definitely listen to if you get the chance.

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

Frazzled ship captain Eva Innocente is your ideal sassy space-faring protagonist. And when absolutely nothing ever goes her way, it creates plenty of opportunity for that sarcastic spirit to shine through. From a cargo hold full of psychic cats, to a horny alien emperor following her across the galaxy, Eva manages to get into plenty of scrapes as she takes on increasingly dangerous and terrible jobs in an attempt to pay her kidnapped sister’s ransom. This was a really cheerful, funny, and refreshing read.

I should definitely do these posts more often, they’re really fun! Because I only have to find 3 books, I can get pretty creative with the themes and I’m sure I could do plenty more. Have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments!