|
Fantasy and Science Fiction April 2021 Explore other worlds and realities with our Fantasy and Science Fiction newsletter! These mind-expanding stories present endless opportunities for escape, fun, and new ideas. Try one today!
|
|
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
Caul Baby
by Morgan Jerkins
A fiction debut by the author of Wandering in Strange Lands finds a would-be mother rendered the unexpected caregiver of a niece’s unplanned baby, who a matriarch predicts will restore their family’s prosperity. Engrossing, unique, and page-turning, Caul Baby illuminates the search for familial connection, the enduring power of tradition, and the dark corners of the human heart.
|
|
|
Klara and the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro
From her place in the store that sells artificial friends, Klara--an artificial friend with outstanding observational qualities--watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, she is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In this luminous tale, Klara and the Sun, Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
|
|
|
Gold Diggers
by Sanjena Sathian
A satirical coming-of-age story follows the experiences of an Indian-American teen in the Bush-era Atlanta suburbs, who joins his crush’s plot to use an ancient alchemical potion to meet high parental expectations, triggering devastating consequences.
|
|
Focus on: Late Capitalism
|
|
| Docile by K.M. SzparaWhat it's about: To get his family out of debt, Elisha Wilder becomes a Docile, an indentured servant contractually bound to a Patron -- in Elisha's case, Alexander Bishop III, a wealthy CEO whose company manufactures the drug used to render Dociles compliant.
Is it for you? The power imbalance in Elisha and Alex's (primarily sexual) relationship permeates every aspect of this often disturbing debut novel, which graphically demonstrates the limits of consent in a hyper-capitalist society characterized by extreme inequality. |
|
|
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
A part-time hacker, information-scrounge, and delivery boy for Uncle Enzo's Cosa Nostra Pizzerias, and full-time Metaverse (virtual reality) samurai named Hiro Protagonist (one of the best names since Billy Pilgrim!), is slowly drawn into a mystery involving a virus program called Snow Crash, which is claiming not only the computers but the minds of hackers the world over, including Hiro's best friend. Who is behind all this, and what it has to do with Sumerian mythology and the hard-wiring of the human language centers is what Hiro must find out, while at the same time he attempts to prevent the further spread of the Snow Crash virus. Along the way he falls in with a skateboard punk named Y.T., who is more instrumental to the story than might first be suggested, and who is the novel's most intriguing character, if only because her investigations are almost more revealing than Hiro's are -- in fact, Hiro comes off as a bit of a cypher compared to her.
|
|
|
Finna
by Nino Cipri
What it's about: Ava and Jules used to date, but now just work together at LitenVärld, a retail superstore containing an interdimensional portal. When a customer disappears in the store, the ex-lovers are volunteered for the rescue mission.
Think: SCP-3008: Lone Survivor meets Mark Uwe-Kling's Qualityland.
Want a taste? "Here was the habitat for the Pan-Asian Appropriating White Yoga Instructor, complete with tatami mats and a statue of Shiva; next to it huddled the Edgelord Rockabilly Dorm Room, with black leather futon and Quentin Tarantino posters."
|
|
|
The Windup Girl
by Paolo Bacigalupi
Living in a future where food is scarce, Anderson Lake tries to find ways to exploit this need, as he comes into conflict with Jaidee, an official of the Environmental Ministry, and encounters Emiko, a engineered windup girl who has been discarded by her creator.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|