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Science Fiction April 2017
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| Three Years With the Rat by Jay HoskingScience Fiction. Grace is gone. The brilliant and obsessive graduate student has been missing for eight months, along with her boyfriend, John, who also studies psychophysics (the study of temporal subjectivity). When Grace's younger brother goes to the couple's apartment, he discovers a strange contraption and embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of his sister's disappearance. Thought-provoking and stylistically complex, this debut by Canadian author and neuroscientist Jay Hosking slowly reveals its secrets through a nonlinear story divided into three interlinked sections. For similarly mind-bending books about the nature of time, try Dexter Palmer's Version Control or John Irvings's Avenue of Mysteries. |
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| Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav KalfarScience Fiction. Chosen for his country's first space mission, Czech astrophysicist Jakub Procházka views the opportunity as a chance to redeem his family's reputation (his father tortured dissidents as part of the previous Communist regime). Jakub boards the JanHus1 and, en route to his destination (a cosmic dust cloud known as Chopra), begins to question his life choices. At once erudite and emotionally intense, this introspective novel may appeal to fans of other character-driven stories about astronauts, such as Meg Howrey's The Wanderers. |
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| Six Wakes by Mur LaffertySF Mystery. The crew of the spaceship Dormire wakes up in cloning vats, covered in blood and surrounded by the corpses of their previous bodies. In this world, the "mindmaps" of the deceased can be downloaded into new clone bodies. But that doesn't mean homicide isn't a serious crime. Now the six must catch a killer (who could be any of them!) as they contend with a malfunctioning ship, an offline AI navigational system, and their own missing memories. Readers who enjoy suspenseful locked room mysteries set in outer space may also like Adam Roberts' Jack Glass. |
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| Seven Surrenders by Ada PalmerFar-future SF. In this sequel to Too Like the Lightning, set in a 25th-century utopian society founded upon the ideals of the European Enlightenment, convict Mycroft Canner continues to carry out his sentence: wandering the world and serving others. Meanwhile, the philosophical Hives that have replaced the world's political states are in flux, thanks in part to Bridger, a young boy whose unusual abilities could tip the balance towards chaos. If you enjoy the blend of Western philosophy and science fiction found in this 2nd installment of the Terra Ignota series, check out Jo Walton's Just City novels, which imagine a world based on the principles of Plato's Republic. |
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| Revenger by Alastair ReynoldsSpace Opera. In a departure from his usual brand of hard SF, author Alastair Reynolds presents an action-packed adventure featuring space pirates, high-tech heists, and bloody revenge. To save their family from bankruptcy, siblings Adrana and Fura Ness join the crew of the notorious Captain Rackamore, who searches the galaxy for "baubles," hidden worlds shielded by force fields and containing treasure in the form of alien artifacts. Although it can be a lucrative gig, it's also dangerous -- as Fura finds out when her sister is captured in a raid. For more stories about space-faring treasure-hunters, try Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving Universe series, which begins with Diving into the Wreck. |
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| Eifelheim by Michael FlynnAlternate History SF. Eifelheim should have been resettled. Although plague decimated the tiny German town in 1349, modern-day historian Tom, who uses mathematical models to predict settlement patterns, can find no reason why Eifelheim, ideally situated in all respects, shouldn't have bounced back after the Black Death. As Tom and his partner, Sharon, a theoretical physicist, puzzle over this anomaly, readers learn how 14th-century village priest Father Deitrich welcomed extraterrestrials to Eifelheim, setting the stage for a confrontation between the otherworldly visitors and the Church. Readers who enjoy intricately plotted speculative fiction that delves deeply into history, science, and religion may also enjoy Wolfgang Jeschke's The Cusanus Game. |
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Dominion : a novel
by C. J Sansom
1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany. The global economy strains against the weight of the long German war against Russia still raging in the east. The British people find themselves under increasingly authoritarian rule -- the press, radio, and television are tightly controlled and British Jews face ever-greater constraints. But Churchill's Resistance soldiers on. As defiance grows, whispers circulate of a secret that could forever alter the balance of the global struggle. The keeper of that secret? Scientist Frank Muncaster, who languishes in a Birmingham mental hospital. Civil servant David Fitzgerald, a spy for the Resistance and university friend of Frank's, is given the mission to rescue Frank and get him out of the country. Hard on his heels is Gestapo agent Gunther Hoth, a brilliant, implacable hunter of men, who soon has Frank as well as David's innocent wife, Sarah, directly in his sights.
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The secret daughter of the tsar
by Jennifer Laam
This alternate history of the Romanov family interweaves the stories of three women - Veronica, an aspiring historian living in present-day Los Angeles who is searching for the true heir to the Russian throne; Lena, a servant in the imperial Russian court of 1902; and Charlotte, a former ballerina living in World War II.
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| Radiance by Catherynne M. ValenteAlternate History SF. The daughter of one of Earth's most acclaimed movie directors, Severin Unck blazes her own artistic trail by making documentaries about obscure and overlooked cultures within the solar system. However, her latest project, a film about a lost colony on Venus, becomes her controversial final work when she disappears during the shoot. In a "found footage" narrative style that compiles transcripts, news items, eyewitness accounts, and more, Radiance -- described by its author as a "decopunk alt-history Hollywood space opera mystery thriller with space whales" -- is a must-read for SF fans seeking a lush, lyrical outer space adventure. |
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| Burning Paradise by Robert Charles WilsonAlternate History SF. In 2014, 19-year-old Cassie Klyne's world has been at peace since the Armistice of...1914? (That's right: in this timeline, World War I ended almost as soon as it began, while the Great Depression and the Second World War never happened.) Of course, this peaceful and prosperous society has some steep hidden costs: it's controlled by extraterrestrials, who strategically intervene to create their desired outcomes. They also deploy lethal "sims" to dispatch anyone who tries to reveal the truth. Cassie's parents died as a result of their attempts to expose their alien overlords; now Cassie's about to meet the same fate, unless she can escape and locate her deceased parents' former allies. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Anne Arundel County Public Library 5 Harry S. Truman Pkwy. Annapolis, Maryland 21401 410-222-7371www.aacpl.net |
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