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Fantasy and Science Fiction June 2019
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| Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan; translated by Ken LiuWelcome to: "Silicon Isle," the e-waste recycling capital of southern China, which serves as the setting of this class-conscious, cyberpunk-inflected debut.
Featuring: "waste girl" Mimi, who sorts trash; Luo Jincheng, Mimi's boss and the scion of the family that controls the industry; American businessman Scott Brandle; and his translator, Chen Kaizong.
Try this next: Director Jiulang Wang's 2016 documentary Plastic China, which takes viewers behind the scenes of China's recycling industry and looks at the lives of the low-wage workers who make it possible. |
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| A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel KayWhat happens: Elderly courtier Guidanio Cerra recounts how his life changed forever after a fateful encounter with assassin Adria Ripoli. His story, and hers, intertwine with other people's perspectives on the event.
Read it for: an evocative setting inspired by Renaissance Italy, and a richly detailed tapestry of a narrative that explores the ripple effects of individual actions and choices.
Want a taste? "It was interesting, I suppose it still is, how vicious men can take power and be accepted, supported by those they govern, if they bring with them a measure of peace." |
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| The Gordian Protocol by David Weber and Jacob HoloIntroducing: 21st-century history professor Benjamin Schröder, who has two sets of conflicting memories, and 30th-century time traveler Raibert Kaminski, who has an explanation for Schröder's plight that involves multiverse theory and temporal knots.
About the authors: David Weber is best known for his Honor Harrington series; Jacob Holo wrote the military SF novel The Dragons of Jupiter.
Reviewers say: "time travel enthusiasts will enjoy the moral dilemmas, nonstop action, and crisp writing" (Publishers Weekly). |
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An Illusion of Thieves
by Cate Glass
A ragtag crew with forbidden magic must pull off an elaborate heist and stop a civil war and in Cantagna, being a sorcerer is a death sentence.
Banished from the court of the Shadow Lord in order to save her brother from certain death, courtesan Romy must now rely on her wits and her own long-hidden sorcery to survive as she gathers together a ragtag crew to stop a plot to overthrow the Shadow Lord.
Similar Reads: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender, and Uprooted by Naomi Novik
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| Rosewater by Tade ThompsonWelcome to: Rosewater, a doughnut-shaped Nigerian city that rings the mysterious alien biodome that has become an object of veneration since it first appeared back in 2055.
Meet: government agent Kaaro, who owes his psychic abilities to the biodome. When his fellow "sensitives" start dying, Kaaro investigates and makes some unsettling discoveries about his past -- and his future.
Book buzz: Rosewater, the 1st installment of the Wormwood trilogy, made the 2019 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist. Rosewater Insurrection is the second in the series. |
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Emily Eternal
by Mark Wheaton
She can solve advanced mathematical problems, unlock the mind's deepest secrets, but unfortunately, even she can't restart the sun. Designed in a lab to help humans process trauma when the Earth's sun begins to die prematurely, an artificial consciousness discovers a possible way to save humanity, only to be attacked by individuals who would control her technology.
As the sun's death draws near, Emily and her friends must race against time to save humanity. Soon it becomes clear not just the species is at stake, but also that which makes us most human.
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| Bannerless by Carrie VaughnIn a (post-apocalyptic) world... where giving birth is a privilege to be earned and murder is almost unheard of, Enid of Haven and her partner Tomas investigate a suspicious death.
Why you might like it: If there's such a thing as a post-apocalyptic cozy mystery, Bannerless is it.
Series alert: This Philip K. Dick Award-winner kicks off a series that continues with The Wild Dead. |
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Fall
by Neal Stephenson
When a routine procedure gone wrong renders a gaming billionaire brain dead, his stunned family and friends cryopreserve and digitally transfer his consciousness into an immortal tech-driven existence.
In the coming years, technology allows Dodge’s brain to be turned back on. It is an achievement that is nothing less than the disruption of death itself. An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls.
But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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