The Scifi-punk Bookfeed

 A tornado of emotion, and you can't look away! Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots, Published May 2026 by  William Morrow An exploration of grief, trust, loyalty, and agency. To continue the story of the author's previous novel Hench, which I felt was a true original, we had to take a dive deeper into the repercussions of the ending of the last book. New adversaries arise that challenge our Hench at her own game. Several twists subverted my expectations, and I was riveted the whole time. Our protagonist continues to work hard to be an antagonist to those she feels are bringing more harm than good into the world. I really appreciated the time and care that was taken in explaining and moving through the grief and pain that our characters experience.  What does it mean to follow the path you have set for yourself? To what lengths are you willing to be changed by the pursuit of your goal? What does trust really mean? Can you truly give trust to someone without the freedom to c...

Flips The Superhero Story on it's head!  Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots If you need to run a criminal organization, or a heroic organization, you need, simply put, people to do the work. The everyday folks, who keep the lights on, buy, stock, and fix all your stuff, brainiacs to crunch the numbers, balance the sheets, HR and accounting to pay these folks and allow them to have basic healthcare.  And let's face it, who's CEO boss isn't a little bit evil? This is the story of one such small cog in the giant wheels of a supervillains empire who uses the power of data, the stories that unfurl from statistics to fight against evil, or at least against those who are hurting people, lots of innocent bystanders, including herself. I had a blast reading this book; taking this journey along with our heroine from no one of consequence to someone to be reckoned with. Sadly, it doesn't matter if you are a woman with mighty and awesome powers or not, you still have a fight on yo...