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Fantasy and Science Fiction April 2021
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| Machinehood by S.B. DivyaEarth, 2095: Humans rely on pills and body modifications to compete with weak artificial intelligence (WAI) in a cutthroat gig economy.
Starring: Welga Ramirez, a Shield for a private security firm who's determined to track down the terrorist group that killed her client; and Welga's sister-in-law, researcher Nithya, who aids Welga's investigation.
About the author: S.B. Divya is the author of Runtime as well as co-editor of the Escape Pod podcast magazine. |
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In The Quick: a novel
by Kate Hope Day
What's it about: June is a brilliant but difficult girl with a gift for mechanical invention who leaves home to begin a grueling astronaut training program. Six years later, she has gained a coveted post as an engineer on a space station, but is haunted by the mystery of Inquiry, a revolutionary spacecraft powered by her beloved late uncle's fuel cells. The spacecraft went missing when June was twelve years old, and while the rest of the world has forgotten them, June alone has evidence that makes her believe the crew is still alive. She seeks out James, her uncle's former protégée, also brilliant, also difficult, who has been trying to discover why Inquiry's fuel cells failed. James and June forge an intense intellectual bond that becomes an electric attraction. But the love that develops between them as they work to solve the fuel cell's fatal flaw threatens to destroy everything they've worked so hard to create--and any chance of bringing the Inquiry crew home alive. |
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| The Conductors by Nicole GloverIntroducing: Henrietta "Hetty" Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, who use magic to investigate crimes against Black people in 1870s Philadelphia.
Read it for: well-drawn protagonists, their lovingly depicted Seventh Ward community, and a magic system based on the constellations.
For fans of: the alternate history of P. Djèli Clark's The Black God's Drums; the unique magic of Alaya Dawn Johnson's Trouble the Saints. |
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| A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady MartineWhat it is: the sequel to the Hugo Award-winning novel A Memory Called Empire.
What happens: Shortly after returning to Lsel Station, ambassador Mahit Dzmare reunites with asekreta Three Seagrass when both are dispatched by yaotlek Nine Hibiscus to negotiate with a hostile alien armada at the edges of Teixcalaanli space.
Read it for: extensive and detailed world-building, and an intricately layered plot rife with political intrigue. |
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A Court of Silver Flames
by Sarah J. Maas
What's it about: Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance-and healing-in each other's arms.
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The ladies of the secret circus
by Constance Sayers
What's it about: Paris, 1925: To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder--a world where women weave illusions of magnificent beasts, carousels take you back in time, and trapeze artists float across the sky. Bound to her family's circus, it's the only world Cecile Cabot knows until she meets a charismatic young painter and embarks on a passionate affair that could cost her everything. Virginia, 2004: Lara Barnes is on top of the world, but when her fiancé disappears on their wedding day every plan she has for the future comes crashing down. Desperate, Lara's search for answers unexpectedly lead to her great-grandmother's journals. Swept into a story of a dark circus and ill-fated love, secrets about Lara's family history come to light and reveal a curse that has been claiming payment from the women in her family for generations. A curse that might be tied to her fiancé's mysterious fate. |
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Focus on: Late Capitalism
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| FKA USA by Reed KingWhat it's about: Sixteen-year-old factory worker Truckee Wallace is on a top-secret mission to transport a talking goat named Barnaby across what's left of the United States.
Is it for you? Presented as Truckee's memoir, this satirical apocalyptic road novel contains abundant footnotes from a book called The Grifter's Guide To The Territories FKA USA.
Reviewers say: "a weird, loud, violent, funny, profane journey across the blasted ruin of our future" (NPR). |
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| QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling; translated by Jamie Lee SearleWelcome to... QualityLand, the greatest country in the world, where proprietary algorithms dictate every single aspect of human life.
Where you'll meet: Peter Jobless, dumped by his girlfriend, unfriended by everyone else, and determined to return (against seemingly insurmountable odds) an item that he didn't order to the all-seeing e-commerce behemoth that delivered it to him.
For fans of: the darkly humorous explorations of surveillance capitalism found in Rob Hart's The Warehouse, Joanna Kavenna's Zed, or Nick Harkaway's Gnomon. |
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| Severance by Ling MaWhat it is: a mixture of apocalyptic world-building (a plague has ravaged New York and the rest of the world), anti-capitalist satire, and...the coming-of-age of a millennial blogger?
What happens: When a strange virus turns people into routine-driven automatons, professionally unfulfilled Candace initially doesn't notice. However, once she's one of a handful of survivors, she joins an odd little band headed west.
Read if for: an engaging and entertaining story that illuminates the hypocrisy and flaws of capitalism. |
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| Docile by K.M. SzparaWhat it's about: To get his family out of debt, Elisha Wilder becomes a Docile, an indentured servant contractually bound to a Patron -- in Elisha's case, Alexander Bishop III, a wealthy CEO whose company manufactures the drug used to render Dociles compliant.
Is it for you? The power imbalance in Elisha and Alex's (primarily sexual) relationship permeates every aspect of this often disturbing debut novel, which graphically demonstrates the limits of consent in a hyper-capitalist society characterized by extreme inequality. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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