Science Fiction

Recursion : a novel

Blake Crouch

New York City cop Barry Sutton investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome-- a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. Neuroscientist Helena Smith dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent. Together they face a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. Memory makes reality-- and the force is beginning to unmake the world as we know it. -- adapted from jacket

I devoured this book. The jacket copy doesn't do it justice, but I don't want to spoil the story! I'll say this: Blake Crouch writes AMAZING Sci-Fi thrillers. Think Michael Crichton but way better. If you like this, read "Dark Matter" afterwards. -Brian

The giver

Lois Lowry

YOUNG ADULT FICTION Lowry, Lois
Dystopian, Classics, Kids, Fiction, Science Fiction

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

A dystopian classic about a haunting world of total conformity, in which a 12-year-old boy begins slowly to uncover the secrets of the society with no discontent but also no choice or feelings. -Anne W

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.

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

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

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