| The Berlin Project: A Novel by Gregory BenfordAlternate History. What if the atomic bomb had been ready in 1944 and deployed against the Germans instead of the Japanese? This well-researched, World War II-themed alternate history explores this intriguing scenario as it focuses on the Manhattan project. Less panoramic in scope than Harry Turtledove's Days of Infamy series, The Berlin Project's blend of human drama, geopolitics, and scientific discovery may appeal to readers who enjoyed Kim Stanley Robinson's The Lucky Strike. |
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Cold welcome by Elizabeth MoonSummoned to the home planet of her family's business empire, space-fleet commander Kylara Vatta is told to expect a hero's welcome. But instead, she is thrown into danger unlike any other she has faced and finds herself isolated, unable to communicate with the outside world, commanding a motley group of unfamiliar troops, and struggling day by day to survive in a deadly environment with sabotaged gear. Only her undeniable talent for command can give her ragtag band a fighting chance. Yet even as Ky leads her team from one crisis to another, her family and friends refuse to give up hope, endeavoring to mount a rescue from halfway around the planet--a task that is complicated as Ky and her supporters find secrets others will kill to protect: a conspiracy infecting both government and military that threatens not only her own group's survival but her entire home planet.
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Brimstone
by Cherie Priest
"WAR IS HELL. AND ITS FIRES HAVE FOLLOWED TOMAS CORDERO HOME.... In the trenches of Europe during the Great War, Tomas Cordero operated a weapon more devastating than any gun: a flame projector that doused the enemy in liquid fire. Having left the battlefield a shattered man, he comes home to find yet more tragedy--for in his absence, his wife has died of the flu. Haunted by memories of the woman he loved and the atrocities he perpetrated, Tomas dreams of fire and finds himself setting match to flame when awake.... Alice Dartle is a talented clairvoyant living among others who share her gifts in the community of Cassadaga, Florida. She too dreams of fire, knowing her nightmares are connected to the shell-shocked war veteran and widower. And she believes she can bring peace to him and his wife's spirit. But the inferno that threatens to consume Tomas and Alice was set ablaze centuries ago by someone whose hatred transcended death itself..."
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Lotus Blue by Cat Sparks"Powerful war machines of the far-future collide across a barren desert world in this post-apocalyptic debut novel from award-winning Australian author Cat Sparks. Seventeen-year-old Star and her sister Nene are orphans, part of a thirteen-wagon caravanof nomadic traders living hard lives travelling the Sand Road. Their route cuts through a particularly dangerous and unforgiving section of the Dead Red Heart, a war-ravaged desert landscape plagued by rogue semi-sentient machinery and other monsters from a bygone age. But when the caravan witnesses a relic-Angel satellite unexpectedly crash to Earth, a chain of events begins that sends Star on a journey far away from the life she once knew.
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| All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha WellsSF. "As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure," confesses the AI narrator of this fast-paced SF adventure. After hacking its own governor module and overriding its programming, security droid "Murderbot" ends up saving lives instead of ending them -- but only because letting all the humans die would interfere with its favorite activity: binge-watching some 35,000 hours' worth of entertainment media. All Systems Red's snarky protagonist and suspenseful, action-packed plot should have readers eagerly anticipating future installments of the Murderbot Diaries. |
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| Starship Troopers by Robert A. HeinleinClassic SF. During a far-future war between humanity and the extraterrestrial Pseudo-Arachnids known as "the Bugs," young Juan "Johnnie" Rico serves in the Mobile Infantry, a unit in which soldiers wear powered full-body armor that not only protects them but gives them super-human strength and speed. While this novel boasts plenty of action, its meditations on war, civic responsibility, and sacrifice have ensured its inclusion on the U.S. Marine Corps' official reading list since its original publication in 1959. (More recent SF additions to this list include Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline). |
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| Perdido Street Station by China MiévilleSteampunk Fantasy. In the sprawling Dickensian city of New Crobuzon, eccentric scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin and his insectoid lover Lin are hard at work trying to restore the flight of Yagharek, a bird-like "garuda" whose wings have been amputated. But a promising scientific breakthrough backfires when Isaac's experiments awake the deadly slake-moth and unleash it upon the unsuspecting city. Blending fantasy, horror, and science fiction, Perdido Street Station will captivate fans of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books and the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. |
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| The Bees: A Novel by Laline PaullDystopian Fiction. The rules are simple: "Accept, Obey, and Serve." But worker bee Flora 717 is destined to put that motto to the test. As she rises through the colony's ranks -- from sanitation worker to nurse, from forager to Queen's handmaid -- Flora observes, questions, and challenges the hive's strict laws, and neither the brainwashing effects of honey nor the all-consuming pheromonal power of Queen's Love can stop her. But honeybee colonies are super-organisms whose survival depends on the suppression of individual desires in service of the common good. Will Flora prove to be the savior of her hive, or the agent of its destruction? |
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Mort(e): A Novel
by Robert Repino
Dystopian SF. Transformed by the Change, a pheromone-based biological attack by ant queen Hymenoptera, former house cat Sebastian becomes the bipedal, English-speaking, but still unmistakably feline warrior Mort(e), fighting to exterminate all humans. Between missions, he searches for Sheba, the dog who was his best friend before his metamorphosis. Fans of George Orwell's Animal Farm or Richard Adams' The Plague Dogs should appreciate this allegorical tale of love and war.
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| Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian TchaikovskyEpic Fantasy. This opening volume of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series depicts a unique world in which humans have developed insect-like powers and organized themselves into tribes, or Kinden, that reflect these abilities. Now one group, the Wasp Empire, threatens to conquer and enslave the others. Only Stenwald Maker, an artisan of the Beetle Kinden, perceives the danger and recruits a band of resistance fighters. Will it be enough? Fans of role-playing games will enjoy the depiction of the various Kinden, while readers who enjoy sprawling fantasy sagas can look forward to the rest of this ten-volume series. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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