Hello! Today I have a post spotlighting some of my favourite characters that are ‘out of this world,’ All the below characters are from some of my favourite Sci-Fi novels and are a mix of AI and alien species. They all bring a little levity, humour, heartwarming scenes and in some cases even a little murder, but they are all brilliantly written and unique in their own ways. Though they may not be the MC of the book, they all stole the scene in some way to ensure they stood out to me and became some of my all time favourite characters.

U-Me – The Ones We’re Meant to Find

The Ones We’re Meant to Find wasn’t what I would call a fun book, but U-Me the robot who is stuck on the Island with Cee certainly adds a little levity to the plot. I loved the little narrative scenes between the two, she acted almost as Cee’s protector, warning her when things were amiss, or if she was going to do something stupid (which was a lot of the time.)

Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay, and it’s up to Cee to cross the ocean and find her.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara lives in an eco-city built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But nevertheless, she decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

Rocky – Project Hail Mary

Rocky! I can’t tell you how much I loved him and how hard it was not to mention him in my review. For those who still haven’t read this book look away now if you don’t want to be spoiled! He’s the alien that Ryland Grace ends up stuck with in space and they become at first wary allies and eventually the best of friends. His scenes added levity as well as left me with such a heart warming feeling as we see their relationship progress. He’s crazy smart, hilarious and sarcastic to boot.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission–and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that’s been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Finnian – Aurora Rising

I won’t lie when I say I love most of the cast of Squad 312 but Finnian is definitely a favourite of mine. I love everything from his snark, to his overwhelming need to prove himself and I especially love his scenes with Scar. He’s the ‘comic’ member of the Squad ( and as I say this i’m sensing a theme in my characters..) and never fails to throw in some out there, sarcastic or just funny comment at the most tense of moments.

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

M-Bot – Skyward

M Bot is possibly my favourite AI ever. I love when authors give AI’s a personality and M Bots is one of the funniest I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Between his obsession with Mushrooms and his unwillingness to break orders given to him nearly 200 years ago, he makes for a sometimes infuriating but ultimately hilarious and loyal sub-character who I love.

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul. 

Sissix – A Long Way to a Small Angry Plant

 An Aandrisk and pilot of the Wayfarer. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of her species such a her hatch family, feather family, and house family. Sissix not only beautifully gives us a polyamorous story line, but is also part of a brilliantly written f/f romance that I loved. She’s badass and not afraid of a fight, but the scenes I enjoyed the most were the quiet one where she and Rosemary got to learn about each other.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

 Scheherazade – The Stars Now Unclaimed

Another AI for the list, and another space ship with a brilliantly written personality. A little prone to swearing first asking questions later, the unique thing about this book is seeing her interact with a separate AI, they engage in some in depth and interesting debate and became almost secondary characters in the book. She’s also pretty handy in a fight which is always helpful.

Jane Kamali is an agent for the Justified. Her mission: to recruit children with miraculous gifts in the hope that they might prevent the Pulse from once again sending countless worlds back to the dark ages.

Hot on her trail is the Pax–a collection of fascist zealots who believe they are the rightful rulers of the galaxy and who remain untouched by the Pulse.

Now Jane, a handful of comrades from her past, and a telekinetic girl called Esa must fight their way through a galaxy full of dangerous conflicts, remnants of ancient technology, and other hidden dangers.

And that’s just the beginning . . .

Iko – The Lunar Chronicles

Who doesn’t love Iko?!? I loved her growth as a character in the book and seeing the differing relationship’s she has with all the different characters. She’s one of those characters I wish had more page time and I did find it hilarious at times when she ‘forgot’ she wasn’t human. She’s the glue that holds the crew together and is just hilarious to read.

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless Lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg.

She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Anima – In the Watchful City

Anima is one of those characters who we just didn’t get enough time with, but I loved them all the same. They live in a sheltered world, never interacting with the outside except when they ‘merge’ with animals to prevent crimes from happening. They are naive in a lot of ways, but their story is unique and wondrous and I desperately wanted them to get the life they dreamed of.

The city of Ora uses a complex living network called the Gleaming to surveil its inhabitants and maintain harmony. Anima is one of the cloistered extrasensory humans tasked with watching over Ora’s citizens. Although ær world is restricted to what æ can see and experience through the Gleaming, Anima takes pride and comfort in keeping Ora safe from all harm.

All that changes when a mysterious visitor enters the city carrying a cabinet of curiosities from around the world, with a story attached to each item. As Anima’s world expands beyond the borders of Ora to places—and possibilities—æ never before imagined to exist, æ finds ærself asking a question that throws into doubt ær entire purpose: What good is a city if it can’t protect its people?

Eris/Discordia – Seven Devils

I loved every single of the Seven Devils, but Eris’ story line was one that stood out to me. She puts on a brave face, and certainly isn’t afraid of a little light murder, but she is also living under the weight of who she previously was, the crimes she and her family committed, and a small part of her still feels like she’s trapped in that palace. She’s stabby, witty and I can only assume has the best resting bitch face, but she’s also a little damaged which makes her exactly my kind of character.

When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy’s most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire’s voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray.

Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated.

When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire’s inner workings.

Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire’s continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can’t, millions may die.