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Fantasy and Science Fiction December 2020 |
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| Machine by Elizabeth BearStarring: Doctor Llyn Jens of the Synarche Medical Vessel I Race to Seek the Living, who answers a distress call from an ancient Terran ship and stumbles upon a mystery.
Can you start here? Although this 2nd White Space novel stands on its own, it does contain some small spoilers for Ancestral Night.
For fans of: C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union series, James White's Sector General novels, or Murray Leinster's stories of the Interstellar Medical Service. |
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| The Midnight Bargain by C.L. PolkWhat it's about: Beatrice Clayborn dreams of becoming a Magus, but her family insists that she find a husband during the upcoming Bargaining Season. Will learning forbidden magic from an ancient grimoire empower her to determine her own fate?
Why you might like it: This series opener by the author of Witchmark boasts an evocative setting reminiscent of Regency England, an inventive magic system, and a gentle romance.
For fans of: Zen Cho's Sorcerer Royal books or Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamourist series. |
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| The Fires of Vengeance by Evan WinterWhat it is: the sequel to The Rage of Dragons, which follows warrior Tau and exiled queen Tsiora as they plot to reclaim what's rightfully theirs.
Why you might like it: This 2nd book in the Burning series boasts plenty of action, a growing cast of intriguing characters, and a vividly depicted, Africa-inspired setting.
For fans of: the inventive system of magic in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels, the gritty battles of Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, and the world-building of Pierce Brown's Red Rising trilogy. |
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The saints of salvation
by Peter F. Hamilton
The survivors of a human race under attack by hostile aliens who would claim the planet for an apocalyptic deity orchestrate a defensive strategy millennia in the making, in a conclusion to the trilogy that began with Salvation.
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The hollow places : a novel
by T. Kingfisher
A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle's house, leading to madness and terror. Pray they are hungry. Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she's discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle's house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area-only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts...and the more one fears them, the stronger they become. With her distinctive "delightfully fresh and subversive" (SF Bluestocking) prose and the strange, sinister wonder found in Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, The Hollow Places is another compelling and white-knuckled horror novel that you won't be able to put down.
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Books You May Have Missed
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Lovecraft Country: A Novel
by Matt Ruff
Chicago, 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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| A Beginning at the End by Mike ChenWhat it is: an introspective post-apocalyptic novel that follows four people as they attempt to put their lives back together in the aftermath of a pandemic.
For fans of: Yoko Tawada's The Emissary, Kimi Eisele's The Lightest Object in the Universe, or Lily Brooks-Dalton's Good Morning, Midnight.
About the author: Mike Chen is the author of Here and Now and Then, as well as the forthcoming We Could Be Heroes. |
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Ring shout : or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the end times
by P. Djèlí Clark
A dark-fantasy, historical novella from the award-winning author of The Black God’s Drums follows a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter as they fight a supernatural Ku Klux Klan in Macon, Georgia in the early 20th century.
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The mansion : a novel
by Ezekiel Boone
The rich and successful head of a multibillion-dollar tech company reconnects with an embittered ex-partner for help when a failed program they created together begins causing sinister accidents. By the best-selling author of Zero Day.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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