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Fantasy and Science Fiction April 2021
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| Machinehood by S.B. DivyaEarth, 2095: Humans rely on pills and body modifications to compete with weak artificial intelligence (WAI) in a cutthroat gig economy.
Starring: Welga Ramirez, a Shield for a private security firm who's determined to track down the terrorist group that killed her client; and Welga's sister-in-law, researcher Nithya, who aids Welga's investigation.
About the author: S.B. Divya is the author of Runtime as well as co-editor of the Escape Pod podcast magazine. |
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| The Conductors by Nicole GloverIntroducing: Henrietta "Hetty" Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, who use magic to investigate crimes against Black people in 1870s Philadelphia.
Read it for: well-drawn protagonists, their lovingly depicted Seventh Ward community, and a magic system based on the constellations.
For fans of: the alternate history of P. Djèli Clark's The Black God's Drums; the unique magic of Alaya Dawn Johnson's Trouble the Saints. |
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| A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady MartineWhat it is: the sequel to the Hugo Award-winning novel A Memory Called Empire.
What happens: Shortly after returning to Lsel Station, ambassador Mahit Dzmare reunites with asekreta Three Seagrass when both are dispatched by yaotlek Nine Hibiscus to negotiate with a hostile alien armada at the edges of Teixcalaanli space.
Read it for: extensive and detailed world-building, and an intricately layered plot rife with political intrigue. |
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Into the light
by David Weber
In a follow-up to Out of the Dark, the survivors of a conquered Earth rapidly rebuild using left-behind technology, including a powerful spaceship that vengeful blood drinkers commandeer with intent to destroy the Shongairi homeworld.
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The Russian cage
by Charlaine Harris
A latest entry in the best-selling series finds Lizbeth reluctantly teaming up with her sister and navigating growing Grigori powers to rescue her estranged partner, Prince Eli, from an alternate-world Holy Russian Empire.
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The forever sea
by Joshua Phillip Johnson
Kindred Greyreach, a hearthfire keeper, navigates ongoing conflict, unknown beasts and a mythic pirate city after her grandmother, The Marchess, disappears into the Forever Sea, a miles-high expanse of prairie grasses sailed by magical ships harvesting resources for human civilization.
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Focus on: Late Capitalism
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| FKA USA by Reed KingWhat it's about: Sixteen-year-old factory worker Truckee Wallace is on a top-secret mission to transport a talking goat named Barnaby across what's left of the United States.
Is it for you? Presented as Truckee's memoir, this satirical apocalyptic road novel contains abundant footnotes from a book called The Grifter's Guide To The Territories FKA USA.
Reviewers say: "a weird, loud, violent, funny, profane journey across the blasted ruin of our future" (NPR). |
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Crosshairs
by Catherine Hernandez
In a world... where environmental disaster presents a white supremacist regime of "True Canadians" with a useful pretext for sending "Others" to labor camps, Jamaican Filipino drag artist Kay becomes a fugitive before joining the resistance alongside newfound allies.
Is it for you? With its detailed depictions of state-sanctioned violence against Black, Indigenous, LGBTQIA, and disabled people, this dystopian novel presents a bleak and unflinching look at oppression.
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Strange Labour
by Robert G. Penner
"The majority of the global population have left the cities and towns to become diggers and work themselves to death in the construction of monumental earthworks. The adults unaffected by this mysterious obsession are part of a dwindling population that survives in the margins of a new society, struggling to construct a meaningful future for themselves. Miranda travels alone across what had once been the American West. After taking care of, and then abandoning a group of dementia patients, she meets Dave, who becomes her travelling companion. Dave recounts his many theories about how and why the apocalypse happened, as they search among the dispossessed for a place called Big Echo. A mesmerizing and uncanny meditation on the meaning of humanity in a universe indifferent to our extinction"
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Body of stars : a novel
by Laura Maylene Walter
A debut novel by an award-winning short-story writer imagines a dangerously psychic alternate-reality world where the birthmarks, freckles and moles on a woman’s body determine her future role and security. Illustrations.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Mary Riley Styles Public Library 601 S. Oak St. [Temporary Location] Falls Church, Virginia 22046 703-248-5030 (TTY 711)www.fallschurchva.gov/library |
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