Summer reading list: Graham Bradley Recs

We said we wouldn’t be entirely away for the summer.

Let’s try some summer reading list recommendations!

Because, you know, we didn’t have enough recommendations by having Upstream Reviews itself.

Funny enough, we already donated some truncated reviews to another site recently. So this is content for you, without the effort for us.

First up is Graham Bradley’s short recommendation list for the summer.

1. Hell Spawn by Declan Finn

For the last couple of years, anyone who’s been in Declan Finn’s social media orbit has definitely seen his promo posts about his Saint Tommy NYPD series. I always summed up Declan’s series as “Catholic Dresden Files.” Now that I’ve finally gotten around to reading the first entry, I can confidently say that description fits.

An evil spirit is hopping around and inhabiting different hosts in Queens, New York. Tommy Nolan encounters this spirit, and as he interacts with it, certain new abilities manifest within him that help him meet the threat. Before he gets to the end, his wife and son face mortal danger, his house is haunted, and bodies start piling up. Once Tommy recognizes the killer’s M.O. matches that of an Old Testament demon, things get very hairy. Declan Finn definitely goes there, showing the work of demons in the real world.

Saint Tommy is an action hero that Christianity in general—and Catholicism in particular—can really sink its teeth into. I saw something I could admire in Detective Nolan’s ironclad adherence to his faith.

The world is definitely ours, with spiritual explanations for much of what happens around us. The day-to-day machinery of New York policework feels authentic.

Who’s it for? Catholics specifically, Christians generally, and fans of urban fantasy or police procedurals. If you liked the Netflix Daredevil run, this is up your alley.

Because it’s really good and it’ll make you want to get into book 2. Good news, there are 12 of them out…so far. So go buy the first one and start catching up.

2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

As Andy Weir continues to build his bibliography in the wake of THE MARTIAN, he makes an admirable effort with a new novel about a man stranded in space, trying to solve a world-ending problem.

A new solar phenomenon could spell disaster for the human race: a species of microscopic phage is eating our sun. Once humans convert the “astrophage” into a fuel source, they build the Hail Mary ship and send scientists on an interstellar voyage to find a cure.

Our protagonist is Rylan Grace, a PhD in biology and space sciences, who wakes up on the ship from a forced coma with retrograde amnesia. His other two crewmates died en route, so it’s just him out in space trying to remember why he’s there. We also have an alien that Rylan nicknames “Rocky,” who is a very interesting character.

This one skews more heavily toward the hard side of sci-fi. You can read it for the adventurous elements, but be prepared to drown in the hard science that Weir dished out in THE MARTIAN. Even the stuff he made up is heavily grounded in real science. Once Rocky shows up, it was hard to put it down.

The story is still exciting and the stakes are still high. This is the kind of book that entertains you while helping you to understand the forces that govern the cosmos.

3. Witchy Eye by D.J. Butler

Imagine an alternate America where arcane Appalachian magic and religious revivals grapple for converts. In the middle of it all, a teen girl learns the truth about her birth parents, that she’s the heir to an Eden-esque empire, and now she has to navigate treacherous political waters with new powers she doesn’t understand. Throw in a cast of varied and charismatic characters, and you have D.J. Butler’s Witchy War saga.

Sarah Calhoun is an Appalachee farmer who ends up pissing off the wrong guy, a New Light preacher who takes notice of her witchy eye. Soon she’s caught up in a struggle between factions, one that wants to control her and another that wants to restore her to her birthright on a throne in Eden.

Sarah sets off to find her siblings with the help of her nephew Calvin and Thalanes, a traveling monk. My personal favorite is the gentleman swordsman Sir William Johnston Lee, known as “Bad Bill.” The main baddie is the Right Reverend Father Ezekiel Angleton.

This is a North America that refers to familiar places by different names. Butler did his homework shaping it. The politics are in-world only. Nothing “Current Year.”

It’s an epic fantasy with the weight of biblical lore behind it. I’ve read WITCHY EYE three times. I think I’m ready for a fourth reading myself.

4. The Family Business by Mike Kupari

What happens in an alien invasion story after humanity wins, and we’re left to pick up the pieces of civilization? THE FAMILY BUSINESS puts us alongside a military veteran who makes his living hunting down pro-alien collaborators and bringing them to justice.

What made THE FAMILY BUSINESS cool was that it showed us the world a few years after the human victory, when our planet is trying to recover from population loss and damage to our infrastructure. Our protagonist, Nathan Foster, is a veteran of the war who believes in the system. When the Feds hire him to capture an escaped prisoner, he uses his wits and his contacts before he uses his guns.

Nathan’s business partner Stella keeps his paperwork in line, and his teen nephew Ben helps with tech. Then there’s Emmogene Anderson, a former collaborator experimented on by the Visitors, and Swiss super-commando Anthony Krieg, a diehard collaborator who wants to bring the Visitors back.

Kupari’s handling of a post-invasion Earth is utterly believable. A lot of developed countries are almost back up and running, they just need help from independent contractors. The action scenes were swift and the in-between stuff didn’t drag.

I was most impressed by how real it felt. This is my third foray into Kupari’s writing and his military experience always comes through strong.

5. All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

Remember that Tom Cruise movie where he puts on a mech suit and fights aliens like it’s a video game, respawning every time he dies? Well, Edge of Tomorrow/Live, Die, Repeat was based on ALL YOU NEED IS KILL by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

In the near future, Earth gets invaded by aliens called “mimics.” A new soldier named Keiji goes into his first battle only to die, wake up the next day in the past, and return to battle yet again. He is trapped in a time loop that sends him back 30 hours before the battle, dying painfully every time. It all changes when he meets Rita Vritaski, a legendary jacket jockey who has the exact same affliction.

Keiji is an everyman who becomes a hardened veteran determined to win. Rita is a fascinating enigma who stole an identity to fight back after mimics killed her family. Both characters are flawed yet heroic, relatable and aspirational.