Science Fiction
When you reach me
Rebecca Stead
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Stead, Rebecca
Kids, Fiction, Adventure, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Mystery
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.
Storm cursed
Patricia Briggs
SCIENCE FICTION Briggs Patricia
Science Fiction, Fantasy
Mercy Thompson has opened her garage again and is trying to get back to normal. Of course, now that the Tri-Cities are viewed as neutral ground, all kinds of supernatural beings are heading her way. With her mate Adam Hauptman's firm involved in providing security to a top-secret meeting with the US government and the fae, Mercy is tapped to handle everything else--including reports of a strange witch in town...
Added by Beth
Good omens : the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch
Neil Gaiman
SCIENCE FICTION Gaiman, Neil
Science Fiction, Fantasy
According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist .
Added by Beth
Star Wars. Alphabet Squadron
Alexander Freed
SCIENCE FICTION Star Wars
Science Fiction
The Emperor is dead. His final weapon has been destroyed. The Imperial Army is in disarray. In the aftermath, Yrica Quell is just one of thousands of defectors from her former cause living in a deserters' shantytown. Then she is selected to join Alphabet Squadron, cobbled together from an eclectic assortment of pilots and starfighters. The five members of Alphabet, each a talented pilot, have one mission: to track down and destroy the mysterious Shadow Wing, a lethal force of TIE fighters exacting bloody, reckless vengeance in the twilight of their reign. -- adapted from jacket
I read "Master and Apprentice" a couple months ago and was very impressed by it. So, I made it a point to check out more new Star Wars books. "Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron" was EXCELLENT. It reminded me of the Rogue Squadron books that I read in middle school (in a good way). It married one of my favorite parts of Star Wars--space ship battles--with spot-on character work. -Brian
Master & apprentice
Claudia Gray
SCIENCE FICTION Star Wars
Science Fiction
An unexpected offer threatens the bond between Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi as the two Jedi navigate a dangerous new planet and an uncertain future.
I haven't read a Star Wars book in over 10 years, but I've always loved Qui-Gon Jinn. This book did not disappoint, and I wonder how many other great Star Wars books I've been missing! -Brian
The dreamers : a novel
Karen Thompson Walker
FICTION Walker Karen
Fiction, Science Fiction
One night in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep, and doesn't wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. A young couple tries to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. Two sisters turn to each other for comfort as their survivalist father prepares for disaster. Those affected by the illness, doctors discover, are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams, but of what? Written in luminous prose, The Dreamers is a breathtaking and beautiful novel, startling and provocative, about the possibilities contained within a human life, if only we are awakened to them.
Every page of this book made me uncomfortable and anxious. What book on a contagion wouldn't? The loss of individual control, the breakdown of society, the baffled experts...this is not for pleasure-reading. But I've been thinking about the book a lot after finishing it, particularly the ethics and beliefs the characters subscribe to that are tested when the virus hits. It was worth the quickening pace of my heart. -Anne M
Artificial condition
Martha Wells
SCIENCE FICTION Wells Martha
Science Fiction
It has a dark past - one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself Murderbot. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. Teaming up with a research transport vessal named ART (you don't want to know what the A stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue. What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks ...
This series continues to entertain! It's an easy recommendation for fans of Sci-Fi. -Brian
All systems red
Martha Wells
SCIENCE FICTION Wells Martha
Science Fiction
A murderous android discovers itself in "All Systems Red", a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial intelligence. In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid -- a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
I'm going to be honest with you--most of the books I read come from recommendations by my favorite authors. Patrick Rothfuss was gushing about this title on Goodreads, so here we are. "All Systems Red" is a quick, Sci-Fi read. It introduces us to characters who I want to know more about. Good thing it's a series! -Brian
The consuming fire
John Scalzi
SCIENCE FICTION Scalzi John
Science Fiction
"The Interdependency, humanity's interstellar empire, is on the verge of collapse. The Flow, the extra-dimensional conduit that makes travel between the stars possible, is disappearing, leaving entire star systems stranded. When it goes, human civilization may go with it--unless desperate measures can be taken. Emperox Grayland II, the leader of the Interdependency, is ready to take those measures to help ensure the survival of billions. But nothing is ever that easy. Arrayed before her are those who believe the collapse of the Flow is a myth--or at the very least, an opportunity that can allow them to ascend to power. While Grayland prepares for disaster, others are preparing for a civil war, a war that will take place in the halls of power, the markets of business, and the altars of worship as much as it will take place between spaceships and battlefields. The Emperox and her allies are smart and resourceful, but so are her enemies. Nothing about this power struggle will be simple or easy... and all of humanity will be caught in its widening gyre" --
The Interdependency Sequence continues, and it's just as good as "The Collapsing Empire" Start there first--this is top shelf Sci-Fi!!! -Brian
Lock in
John Scalzi
SCIENCE FICTION Scalzi John
Science Fiction, Mystery
"Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. Four percent suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And one percent find themselves "locked in"--fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. One per cent doesn't seem like a lot. But in the United States, that's 1.7 million people "locked in"...including the President's wife and daughter. Spurred by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering, America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can restore the ability to control their own bodies to the locked in. But then two new technologies emerge. One is a virtual-reality environment, "The Agora," in which the locked-in can interact with other humans, both locked-in and not. The other is the discovery that a few rare individuals have brains that are receptive to being controlled by others, meaning that from time to time, those who are locked in can "ride" these people and use their bodies as if they were their own. This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse..."--
Part Sci-Fi, part Mystery--Lock In has something for lovers of both! -Brian
Mix of sci-fi, mystery, and historical fiction (set in the 1970s), a middle-school girl must investigate the source of mysterious notes that appear in her personal belongings and, she realizes, predict the future. Time travel! -Anne W