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Hello, contestants! With all the competitions being thrown at our eyeballs around this time of year—the Super Bowl, the Oscars, the Winter Olympics, the Grammys, the NBA All-Star Game, etc—it seemed like a great time to visit a few books centered around competitions.
It’s not that hard to find them. It seems like every other book being released lately involves a game or some kind of tournament or matchup. My most recent favorite is The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, an exciting fantasy novel with a competition held to choose the next ruler of Orrun. (I highly recommend this on audio!)
There are sooooo many famous books about games, like The Hunger Games, Battle Royale, and The Long Walk. For this post, I thought I’d shout out a few sci-fi books that I haven’t mentioned before (or at least, often) to put some more on your radar.
Remember, it’s all fun and games until someone tries to get you to put down your book.
Runtime by S. B. Divya
Marmeg Guinto wants a better life for her brothers, and she knows the best way to get it is to win the Minerva Sierra Challenge, the “cyborg’s Tour de France.” Using the money she had squirreled away for nursing school and exoskeleton gear she improvised from rich people’s trash, Marmeg enters the race, determined to win or die trying.
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The Blood Trials by N. E. Davenport
When Ikenna’s grandfather, the former Legatus, is murdered, she knows that someone on the Tribunal must be responsible. But the only way to get answers is to get close, and she decides to do that by joining the Praetorian Trials of Mareen. They’re a grueling challenge that only one-quarter of the contestants survive, and subjecting herself to not only the danger but also Mareen’s racist and sexist society, Ikenna fights to get her revenge.
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
This is one of the funniest books about the threat of world annihilation you’ll ever read! In this hilarious book, the galactic civilizations are holding a Metagalactic Grand Prix. It’s like a Miss America competition for the universe, where all kinds of different talents are judged, and the losers are, well, exterminated. (Can you imagine Ryan Seacrest hosting this competition?) This time, the humans have been invited, and they’ll have to sing like never before for the fate of humanity.
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White
It’s a space race against time in this exciting series starter about a salvage crew’s attempt to find a legendary warship. Boots, a once-famous treasure hunter, and Nilah, a driver from the Pan Galactic Racing Federation, team up to find the Harrow, which may or may not be real. But if it is real, it would be terrible if it fell into the hands of the wrong people, so they have to try. Making their efforts more difficult is the fact that there’s a killer hot on their ship’s heels!
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Can you believe I just got around to reading this a few months ago? It’s been out since 2014, and is about a future where classes are assigned colors. Red is for the lowest caste, the people who toil away all day, trying to make Mars habitable for all humanity. But when the Reds learn they have been tricked, one Red, Darrow, secretly invades the Gold caste’s academy, whose war games churn out future rulers, to help destroy those in power.
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the BR podcast All the Books! and on Instagram.