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Fantasy and Science Fiction May 2018 “There was something familiar in that alien figure, something in the eyes, in the way it stood looking out at Saturn. Intelligent beings were few in a wide universe that didn’t give a damn for their welfare.” ~from Jack McDevitt's The Long Sunset
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| The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan CampIntroducing: New Orleans street magician Jude Dubuisson, whose magical talent for finding lost things was disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. Can he recover his abilities in time to solve the murder of a god?
Series alert: The City of Lost Fortunes is the 1st of the Crescent City novels.
You might also like: Suzanne Johnson's Sentinels of New Orleans, another intricately plotted urban fantasy series set in the Big Easy. |
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The Long Sunset
by Jack McDevitt
"Hutch has been the Academy's best pilot for decades. She's had numerous first contact encounters and even became a minor celebrity. But world politics have shifted from exploration to a growing fear that the program will run into an extraterrestrial race more advanced than humanity and war. Despite taking part in the recent scientific breakthrough that rejuvenates the human body and expands one's lifespan, Hutch finds herself as a famous interstellar pilot with little to do, until a message from an alien race arrives. The message is a piece of music from an unexplored area. Despite the fact that this alien race could pose a great danger and that this message could have taken several thousand years to travel, the program prepares the last interstellar ship for the journey. As the paranoia grows, Hutch and her crew make an early escape--but what they find at the other end of the galaxy is completely unexpected"
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The Queens of Innis Lear
by Tessa Gratton
What it is: An epic fantasy novel inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, starring three princesses who vie for control of their father's island kingdom as he succumbs to obsession.
Featuring: a trio of complex heroines: bellicose Gaela, sly Regan, and star priestess Elia.
Author alert: Best known for her YA United States of Asgard series, author Tessa Gratton makes her adult debut with this character-driven story of politics and family ties.
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Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel Brilliant scientist Rose Franklin has devoted her adult life to solving the mystery she accidentally stumbled upon as a child: a huge metal hand buried beneath the ground outside Deadwood, South Dakota. The discovery set in motion a cataclysmic chain of events with geopolitical ramifications. Rose and the Earth Defense Corps raced to master the enigmatic technology, as giant robots suddenly descended on Earth’s most populous cities, killing one hundred million people in the process. Though Rose and her team were able to fend off the attack, their victory was short-lived. The mysterious invaders retreated, disappearing from the shattered planet . . . but they took the scientist and her crew with them. Now, after nearly ten years on another world, Rose returns to find a devastating new war—this time between humans. America and Russia are locked in combat, fighting to fill the power vacuum left behind after the invasion. Families are torn apart, friends become bitter enemies, and countries collapse in the wake of the battling superpowers. It appears the aliens left behind their titanic death machines so humankind will obliterate itself. Rose is determined to find a solution, whatever it takes. But will she become a pawn in a doomsday game no one can win?
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Head On: A Novel of the Near Future
by John Scalzi
In a world... where the incurable Haden's Syndrome causes paralysis of the voluntary nervous system, so-called "locked in" patients navigate the world in sophisticated robot bodies known as "threeps."
Series alert: This sequel to Lock In reunites FBI agents Chris Shane and Leslie Vann as they investigate a seemingly impossible crime.
Read it for: an intricately plotted SF mystery involving a futuristic sports franchise that's as corrupt as it is lucrative.
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| The Wolf by Leo CarewWhat it's about: Shattering a centuries-old peace between their peoples, the Sutherners of Albion invade the Black Kingdom of the Anakim.
Why you might like it: This opening installment of the Under the Northern Sky series stages an epic clash of civilizations in a setting reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon Britain.
For fans of: David Gemmell's Rigante novels; Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns series. |
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| The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa GrattonWhat it is: An epic fantasy novel inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, starring three princesses who vie for control of their father's island kingdom as he succumbs to obsession.
Featuring: a trio of complex heroines: bellicose Gaela, sly Regan, and star priestess Elia.
Author alert: Best known for her YA United States of Asgard series, author Tessa Gratton makes her adult debut with this character-driven story of politics and family ties. |
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| Head On: A Novel of the Near Future by John ScalziIn a world... where the incurable Haden's Syndrome causes paralysis of the voluntary nervous system, so-called "locked in" patients navigate the world in sophisticated robot bodies known as "threeps."
Series alert: This sequel to Lock In reunites FBI agents Chris Shane and Leslie Vann as they investigate a seemingly impossible crime.
Read it for: an intricately plotted SF mystery involving a futuristic sports franchise that's as corrupt as it is lucrative. |
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| Guardian Angels & Other Monsters: Stories by Daniel H. WilsonWhat it is: a short story collection about artificial intelligence by the author of the bestselling Robopocalypse series.
Don't miss: the pre-apocalyptic "The Blue Afternoon that Lasted Forever," a heart-wrenching tale about a physicist and his young child.
You might also like: the AI-focused anthology More Human Than Human, edited by Clarkesworld founder Neil Clarke; the near-future society of Alexander Weinstein's Children of the New World. |
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| Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil GaimanWhat it is: A short story collection by Neil Gaiman in the vein of previous compilations Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors.
Contains: a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, a Doctor Who homage, and a story set in the world of the author's own American Gods.
Reviewers say: Trigger Warning is "full of small and perfect jewel-like tales," according to Publishers Weekly. |
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| The Paper Menagerie by Ken LiuAbout the author: Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winner Ken Liu is the author of the Dandelion Dynasty historical fantasy series as well as the translator of Cixin Liu's SF epic The Three-Body Problem and its sequels.
Don't miss: "The Paper Menagerie," which explores the complicated relationship between a Chinese-American boy and his immigrant mother; "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary," about wartime atrocities. |
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| Rogues by George R.R. Martin (editor) and Gardner Dozois (editor)What it's about: Rogues! Who, according to anthology editor George R.R. Martin, "go by many names, and...turn up in stories of all sorts, in every genre under the sun."
Contains: 21 original stories by a powerhouse roster of writers, including both genre stalwarts (such as Patrick Rothfuss and Connie Willis) and authors best known for their work in other areas (including Gillian Flynn and Steven Saylor). |
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| The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. ValenteWhat it is: a collection of interlinked short stories narrated by the wives and girlfriends of superheroes.
Why "refrigerator"? Comics writer Gail Simone coined the term "Women in Refrigerators" to refer to plotlines in which female characters suffer horrific fates for the sake of male character development.
Want a taste? "Origin stories are like birthday parties: very exciting and colorful and noisy, but in the end, they're all the same." |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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