I'd like to nominate Omega Rising (book 1 of Omega Force) by Joshua Dalzelle. It's a fun and very enjoyable read that opens the door to one of my favorite series of sci-fi novels about a group of unlikely shipmates thrown together from unusual circumstances as they overcome the traffickers who forced them together. It also manages to feel like a hopeful but still dark enough future without being a Star Trek clone.

I would like to nominate A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.

It's a fantastic entry into the genre. Interesting future human cultures. The world feels very fleshed out and unlike anything I have read before. It plays with the concept of what an "alien" even is.

Hi all! I'm new here, so lmk if this is out of line, but what if we did a short story since December is generally busy for folks? Maybe a selection from "Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang, or "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster?

This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone. It's short, weird, so good, widely available in libraries. I first read this as part of a 'big library book club ' thing where they make infinite copies available on the e-book platforms. Then my penultimate child read it on advice of a friend and also loved it.

I'm sure most folks here have already read it, but I just started I Robot (Asimov) and would love to book club it.