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Fantasy and Science Fiction October 2020
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| Piranesi by Susanna ClarkeThe only people in the world: "Piranesi," the narrator, and his mysterious mentor, known as "the Other," who dwell in the House, a surreal labyrinthine building full of impossible things.
Why you might like it: This long-awaited novel by the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell offers a puzzle box of a plot and metafictional magical realism wrapped up in lyrical prose.
Reviewers say: "a tenebrous study in solitude" (The Guardian). |
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Axiom's End by Lindsay EllisWhat it is: The co-creator of the It’s Lit! web series presents the alternate-history tale of a woman who becomes an interpreter for an unknown being when her estranged whistleblower father launches a media frenzy about a first-contact cover-up. Reviewers say: Communication and trust are matters of life and death in Ellis's thoughtful, fast-paced debut...the powerful connection that grows between Cora and Ampersand as they teach each other about their respective cultures is masterfully done. Lovers of character-focused sci-fi will find plenty to enjoy in this gripping alternate history. -- Publishers Weekly
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What it's about: This evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece. Reviewers say: Rich details and emotional prose captures readers from the first page of this imaginative and powerful novella. Spun through reflections of the past, in archived objects of love and hate, the tale of Rabbit and In-yo lights up the dark history of monarchy and turns it into a delightful feminist fantasy.-- Library Journal
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In the Kingdom of All Tomorrows by Steve LawheadWhat it is: Stephen R. Lawhead, the critically-acclaimed author of the Pendragon Cycle, concludes his Eirlandia Celtic fantasy series. What it's about: Struggling to provide for the victims of the barbarian Scálda, Darini clan chief Conor mac Ardan joins Eirlandia’s lords to defend against a Black Ship invasion, only to find their efforts sabotaged by an unknown traitor. Praise for the series: "Fierce companions, mighty foes, and fae magic all intertwine with multiple points of view in an exciting tale."-- Booklist on In the Region of the Summer Stars
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Chaos Rising by Timothy ZahnWhat it is: The first book in a new Star Wars trilogy is set before Thrawn traveled to the Empire and became a Grand Admiral. What it's about: The peace of the Ascendancy, a beacon of calm and stability, is shattered after a daring attack on the Chiss capital that leaves no trace of the enemy. Baffled, the Ascendancy dispatches one of its brightest young military officers to root out the unseen assaliants: a recruit born of no title, but adopted into the powerful family of the Mitth and given the name Thrawn. What happens: With the might of the Expansionary Fleet at his back, and the aid of his comrade Admiral Ar'alani, answers begin to fall into place. But as Thrawn's first command probes deeper into the vast stretch of space his people call the Chaos, he realizes that the mission he has been given is not what it seems.
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| The Memory of Souls by Jenn LyonsWhat it is: the 3rd installment of the Chorus of Dragons series, after The Ruin of Kings and The Name of All Things.
What's at stake: the wards that confine Vol Karoth, king of demons, are weakening and that's bad news.
Read it for: inventive world-building, an intricately plotted story that unfolds from multiple perspectives, and a genderfluid trio of leads whose will-they-won't-they relationship evolves throughout the series. |
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| Hench by Natalie Zina WalschotsIn a world... where supervillains rely on a thriving gig economy to supply them with cheap, expendable minions, freelance "hench" Anna Tromedlov survives an encounter with a superhero and decides to use her data analysis skills to reveal who the real bad guys are.
Reviewers say: "A fiendishly clever novel that fizzes with moxie and malice" (Kirkus Reviews).
For fans of: Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible, V.E. Schwab's Vicious, or the Amazon series The Boys. |
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| The Girl in Red by Christina HenryWhat it is: a post-apocalyptic retelling of Little Red Riding Hood that's more Walking Dead than Brothers Grimm.
Starring: Red, an axe-wielding biracial woman with a prosthetic leg who's determined to avoid the government's quarantine camps and seek sanctuary at her grandmother's off-the-grid house.
Is it for you? Parallel "Before" and "After" storylines explore the viral pandemic that destroyed Red's world as well as her present-day attempts to survive the wilderness and its "wolves." |
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| Lovecraft Country: A Novel by Matt RuffChicago, 1954: Black army veteran Atticus Turner sets out on a road trip across the segregated United States to find his missing father, encountering both racism and eldritch horrors along the way.
Media buzz: Lovecraft Country is now a critically acclaimed HBO series.
For fans of: dark fantasy that employs Lovecraftian themes to examine racism, such as Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic, or N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became. |
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| Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeerWhat happens: A biologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, and an anthropologist set out on a scientific expedition to Area X, a quarantined zone that defies all attempts to map its terrain. Eleven previous missions have failed; is the 12th time the charm?
Read it for: the palpable sense of menace that permeates the dreamlike narrative; embedded homages to works of classic SF (such as the Strugatsky Brothers' Roadside Picnic).
Series alert: This Nebula and Shirley Jackson Award winner kicks of the Southern Reach trilogy, followed by Authority and Acceptance. |
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Contact your library for more great books!
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