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In this Issue:
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Open Minds, Open Worlds “How wonderful it will be if the universe really contains other intelligences and other societies! Bystanders have the clearest view. Someone truly neutral will then be able to comment on whether
we're the heroes or villains of history.” – Liu Cixin, The Three-Body Problem
Welcome to the FCPL Science Fiction Newsletter. This bi-monthly newsletter provides reading suggestions for science fiction books both new and old. All titles will be available in print through the Forsyth County library system, and some are available for immediate download in e-book or audiobook format on your phone or tablet! Download the Libby and Hoopla apps or ask a librarian about our digital library for more information.
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The People's Library by Veronica G. HenryEcho London never wanted to be the curator of the People's Library, a digital collection of human consciousness. However, when she's assigned as its head librarian, Echo is entrusted with humanity's greatest minds and historical figures, all of whom have been recreated through controversial consciousness-capturing technology that lets visitors interact with the dead. But an anti-tech rebellion is stirring. When a rebel attack results in tragedy, a mysterious woman wearing an ancient death mask leaves behind cryptic final words for Echo: It all begins with nothing. Caught between the resistance and a potentially virtual evolution, Echo begins to fear that there's more to her job than meets the eye and the mind.
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Platform Decay
by Martha Wells
Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment of Martha Wells' bestselling and award-winning Murderbot Diaries series. Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.
After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know. Including human children. Ugh.
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The Republic of Memory
by Mahmud El Sayed
The Safina is a city ship halfway through its four-hundred-year voyage from the ruins of Earth to a new colony world. Its crew maintain the ship, generation after generation, while protecting their ancestors in cryostasis so that one day they will be able to enjoy a fresh start under clear blue skies. But when blackouts start, unrest follows. The ship can only continue running smoothly with the cooperation of the crew. And the crew has had enough. As coordinated acts of resistance coincide with a much more complex conspiracy, a chain of events is set into motion that will change life on the Safina forever. Inspired by the real-world events of the Arab Spring, The Republic of Memory is a bold interrogation of empire and an energizing portrait of revolution.
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God's Junk Drawer by Peter ClinesForty years ago, the Gather family--James, his daughter Beau, and his son Billy--vanished during a whitewater rafting trip and were presumed dead. Five years later, Billy reappeared on the far side of the world, telling an impossible tale of a primordial valley populated by dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. Now, a group of graduate astronomy students follow their professor, Noah Barnes, up a mountain for what they believe is a simple stargazing trip. But they're about to travel a lot farther than they planned... Noah--the now grown Billy Gather--has finally figured out how to get back to the valley. He's confident he can get everyone back home, safe and sound. But they'll need to solve the valley's puzzle first.
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UFOs and alien encounters
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The Road to Roswell
by Connie Willis
When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate's UFO-themed wedding -complete with a true-believer bridegroom- she can't help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don't exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.
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Key Lime Skyby Al HessDriving home from a tasting gone wrong, pie aficionado Denver Bryant witnesses a UFO explode into shards of light over their tiny town of Muddy Gap, Wyoming. Yet when they ask their neighbors about it, it appears that Denver’s the only one who cares. And everyone’s acting… strange. Frustrated, Denver documents the bizarre incidents on their pie blog, and their online popularity skyrockets. Their readers want the truth, spurring them to get to the bottom of things.
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Beings
by Ilana Masad
In 1961, an interracial couple drove through the dark mountains of New Hampshire when a mysterious light began to follow them. Years later, through hypnosis, they recalled an unbelievable brush with extraterrestrial life. Unintentionally, a genre was born: the alien abduction narrative. In Ilana Masad's Beings, the couple's experience serves as one part of a trio of intertwined threads: Known only by their roles as husband and wife, Masad explores the pair's trauma and its aftermath and questions what it means to accept the impossible.
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A History of What Comes Next
by Sylvain Neuvel
For generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars. The year is 1945 and now it is her turn. Her mission: to lure scientist Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, securing the future of the space race. But there is a threat and a ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes.
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Nocturnal by Scott SiglerHomicide detective Bryan Clauser is losing his mind. How else to explain the dreams he keeps having about gruesome serial murders taking place all over San Francisco? How else to explain the feelings these dreams provoke in him--not disgust, not horror, but excitement? As Bryan and his longtime partner investigate the murders, they learn that things are even stranger than they at first seem. The victims are all enemies of a seemingly ordinary young boy--a boy who is gripped by the same dreams that haunt Bryan. Doubting his own sanity and stripped of his badge, Bryan begins to suspect that he's stumbled into the crosshairs of a shadow war that has gripped his city for more than a century.
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Not One of Us: Stories of Aliens on Earth
by Neil Clarke (Ed.)
Science fiction writers have been using aliens as a metaphor for the Other for over one hundred years. Nearly thirty authors in this reprint anthology grapple with both the best and worst aspects of human nature, and they do so in utterly compelling and entertaining ways.
Not One of Us is a collection of stories that aren’t afraid to tackle thorny and often controversial issues of race, nationalism, religion, political ideology, and other ways in which humanity divides itself.
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The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit BasuShantiport was supposed to be a gateway to the stars. But the city is sinking, and its rulers aren't helping anyone but themselves. Lina, a daughter of failed revolutionaries, has no desire to escape Shantiport. She loves her city and would do anything to save its people. When Shantiport's resident tech billionaire coerces Lina into retrieving a powerful artifact rumored to be able to reshape reality, forces from before their time begin coalescing around the siblings.
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Your Virtual Library is Open 24/7 |
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Contact us for more great books! |
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Forsyth County Public Library
660 W. Fifth St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101
336-703-2665forsythlibrary.org |
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