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Arm of the Sphinx
by Josiah Bancroft
"The Tower of Babel is proving to be as difficult to reenter as it was to break out of. Forced into a life of piracy, Senlin and his eclectic crew are struggling to survive aboard their stolen airship as the hunt to rescue Senlin's lost wife continues. Hopeless and desolate, they turn to a legend of the Tower, the mysterious Sphinx. But help from the Sphinx never comes cheaply, and as Senlin knows, debts aren't always what they seem in the Tower of Babel"
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Impostor Syndrome
by Mishell Baker
The Tower of Babel is proving to be as difficult to reenter as it was to break out of. Forced into a life of piracy, Senlin and his eclectic crew are struggling to survive aboard their stolen airship as the hunt to rescue Senlin's lost wife continues. Hopeless and desolate, they turn to a legend of the Tower, the mysterious Sphinx. But help from the Sphinx never comes cheaply, and as Senlin knows, debts aren't always what they seem in the Tower of Babel. Time is running out, and now Senlin must choose between his friends, his freedom, and his wife. Does anyone truly escape the Tower?
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Dreadful young ladies and other stories
by Kelly Regan Barnhill
A first collection of short stories by the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon includes the World Fantasy Award-winning novella, The Unlicensed Magician, in which an invisible girl once left for dead pursues a secret, magical life.
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| Only Human by Sylvain NeuvelWhat it’s about: Ten years after alien robot invaders kidnapped scientist Rose Franklin, she has returned to Earth to find a startlingly different landscape than the one she left behind. Now, Rose must uncover a way to hold the planet together before it's too late.
Series alert: Only Human is the 3rd entry in the Themis Files science fiction trilogy after Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods.
Reviewers say: “an addictive blend of science fiction, apocalyptic thriller, and chillingly timely cautionary tale” (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Embers of War
by Gareth L. Powell
The sentient warship Trouble Dog was built for violence, yet following a brutal war, she is disgusted by her role in a genocide. Stripped of her weaponry and seeking to atone, she joins the House of Reclamation, an organisation dedicated to rescuing ships in distress. When a civilian ship goes missing in a disputed system, Trouble Dog and her new crew of loners, captained by Sal Konstanz, are sent on a rescue mission. Meanwhile, light years away, intelligence officer Ashton Childe is tasked with locating the poet, Ona Sudak, who was aboard the missing spaceship. What Childe doesn't know is that Sudak is not the person she appears to be. A straightforward rescue turns into something far more dangerous, as Trouble Dog, Konstanz and Childe find themselves at the centre of a conflict that could engulf the entire galaxy. If she is to save her crew, Trouble Dog is going to have to remember how to fight.
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I Still Dream by Smythe, J. P.17-year-old Laura Bow has invented a rudimentary artificial intelligence, and named it Organon. At first it's intended to be a sounding-board for her teenage frustrations, a surrogate best friend; but as she grows older, Organon grows with her. As the world becomes a very different place, technology changes the way we live, love and die; massive corporations develop rival intelligences to Laura's, ones without safety barriers or morals; and Laura is forced to decide whether to share her creation with the world. If it falls into the wrong hands, she knows, its power could be abused. But what if Organon is the only thing that can stop humanity from hurting itself irreparably?
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| Space Opera by Catherynne M. ValenteWhat it's about: “Glamrock messiah” Danesh Jalo is fighting for mankind’s continued existence -- by taking center stage in an intergalactic talent show bursting with glitter, lipstick, and rock and roll.
Reviewers say: An “endearing, razzle-dazzle love song about destiny, finding one’s true voice, and rockin’ the house down” (Publishers Weekly).
Is it for you? If you like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, David Bowie, or the Eurovision Song Contest, you'll like this humorous science fiction extravaganza too. |
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| The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik PohlWhat it is: a collaboration between science fiction giants Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl, in which Sri Lankan mathematician Ranjit Subramanian writes a proof for the “Last Theorem,” bringing him much acclaim. But an impending alien invasion will test him like never before.
Who it’s for: Readers who enjoy adventure, hard science, and mathematical puzzles.
You might also like: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, also featuring an impending alien invasion and hard science reminiscent of Clarke. |
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| The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel KayWhat it's about: In an alternate 9th-century Britain, conflicts between the Viking-esque Erlings of Vinmark, the Saxon-like Anglcyn, and the Celtic-inspired Cyngael escalate through a series of seemingly unconnected events that eventually converge to devastating effect.
Is it for you? If you like multi-layered narratives, you'll enjoy this sweeping historical fantasy.
Related books: The Last Light of the Sun is set in the same world (but a different time period) as The Lions of Al-Rassan and The Sarantine Mosaic. |
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| The Last Days of New Paris: A Novella by China MiévilleWhat it’s about: In 1941, a surrealist bomb explodes in Nazi-occupied Paris. A year later, Parisians and Nazis are fighting for control of the city, now known as New Paris, while “manifs” -- physical realizations of surrealist paintings -- are loose on the streets, creating their own bizarre chaos.
Read it for: an imaginative coupling of art history and speculative fiction.
You might also like: The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy, which also features warfare, art, and surrealism. |
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| Last Year by Robert Charles WilsonWhat it's about: Jesse Cullen lives in 1870s Ohio; the woman he loves is from the 21st century. Both are involved with the City of Futurity, a metropolis built by time travelers to give 19th-century tourists a (selective) glimpse of the future. However, the word on the street is that the portal connecting Futurity and the world of the time travelers is about to close forever.
You might also like: the time-travel classic Time and Again by Jack Finney. |
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| The Last Policeman by Ben H. WintersWhat it’s about: In just six months, Earth will be destroyed by an unavoidable asteroid. Although some people see little point in doing much of anything anymore, New Hampshire homicide detective Hank Palace doggedly keeps at it, hoping to bring a killer to justice.
Is it for you? For anyone looking for something a bit different, this police procedural science fiction story fits the bill perfectly.
Series alert: This is the intricately plotted 1st book in a trilogy, followed by Countdown City and World of Trouble. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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