|
|
Science Fiction
August 2026 |
|
|
|
|
In this Issue:
|
Open Minds, Open Worlds "Dreams are windows into the lives of our multiversal selves." - Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness
“Do there exist many worlds, or is there but a single world?
This is one of the most noble and exalted questions in the study of Nature.”
- Albertus Magnus
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 app or ask a librarian about our digital library for more information.
|
|
|
Green City Wars
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Philip Marlowe meets Redwall in this adult noir tale, where all the characters are animals, fighting for survival in the city underneath the humans. In the solar cities of the future, the humans relax in the sun while the genetically engineered "Little Helpers" serve humanity from the shadows. Meet Skotch, the raccoon PI just trying to make it in a difficult world. A mouse has gone missing. Normally this wouldn't raise any hackles, nor any alarms, but this mouse has something that everyone seems to want, though nobody appears particularly eager to say what that something is. The fee is good--perhaps too good. Certainly not something Skotch can easily turn down. If only Skotch can work out where the mouse is hiding, what he's hiding, and why his secrets are upsetting a lot of animals caught up in the Green City wars.
|
|
|
|
The Redemption Center Is Closed on Sundays
by Andrea Hairston
Every Sunday, Oona the St. Berdoodle and her current owner, Zsuzsu, make their way through the winding paths of the State Park to the enigmatic Redemption Center--a place often mistaken for a haunted mansion. When a local celebrity is found murdered, the unexpected brings Oona together with a rag-tag group of local misfits. Together they venture into the depths of the Center's mystery to untangle the threads of murder and deception. But Oona holds two secrets: she's a citizen of the multiverse, able to travel between dimensions at will, and more importantly, she knows the killer's identity. Unfortunately, the killer knows she knows, and he's determined to find her and silence her for good.
|
|
|
|
30seven: A Sci-Fi Thriller
by Jeremy Robinson
After a year of torment following the loss of his wife, Isabella, to a serial killer with an artistic flair, Marcus Lockwood retreats with his son, Elias, to Moose Hollow--a secluded campground in backwoods Maine--in search of healing. There, a close-knit band of lifelong campers immerses them in a warm, nostalgic experience filled with fishing, canoeing, crackling barbecues, and a taste of normalcy. When whispers of eerie UFO sightings ignite a vigil on the beach, Marcus and Elias eagerly join the hunt for the inexplicable. But when the sky erupts in otherworldly light, they'll get much more than they bargained for. A mysterious craft descends, and in one surreal moment, the group is abducted and transported into the unknown. Amid the chaos and disorientation, a gut-wrenching discovery terrifies Marcus: One of the group is Isabella's killer.
|
|
|
|
The Language of Liars by S. L. HuangIn his training as a spy, Ro was warned: you will always be living a lie. Jumping into a Star Eater's mind in the first place requires a moment of perfect psychic connection, and he has studied all his life to comprehend their species. Admires them, respects them, is reverent at the idea of being one of them--the only species physiologically capable of mining the element needed for lightyear-spanning space travel. The species all others crave to know more of, but who have notoriously shared so very little. The species Ro's own small civilization, with its dwindling resources and withering reach, needs to know more about. It never occurs to him that the mere act of understanding can destroy. |
|
|
A Multiverse of Possibility
|
|
Infiniteby Brian FreemanOne rainy night, the unthinkable happens: Dylan Moran's car plunges off the road into a raging river, his beautiful wife drowning as he struggles to shore. In the aftermath, through his grief, Dylan experiences sudden, strange visions: wherever he goes, he's haunted by glimpses of himself. Dylan initially chalks it up to trauma, but that changes when he runs into a psychiatrist who claims he's her patient. She says he has been undergoing a unique hypnotherapy treatment built on the idea that with every choice, he creates an infinite number of parallel universes. Now those parallel universes are unlocked--and Dylan's doppelganger has staked a claim to his world. Can Dylan use these alternate realities to get a second chance at the life that was stolen from him? Or will he lose himself... to himself?
|
|
|
The Other Valleyby Scott Alexander HowardSet in an unnamed valley - surrounded by other valleys, each twenty years apart in time - a masterful, moving literary speculative novel in which the Conseil determines if a bereaved resident can cross the border to the past or the future on a mourning tour. One sixteen-year-old Conseil candidate spots two visitors from the future, but is shocked when she recognizes them as the parents of the boy she loves.
|
|
|
Sublimation
by Isabel J. Kim
The border cuts you in two. When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home. Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral. She doesn't know that Soyoung soon plans to steal her body and her life.
|
|
|
Wild Massiveby Scotto MooreWelcome to the Building, an infinitely tall skyscraper in the center of the multiverse, where any floor could contain a sprawling desert oasis, a cyanide rain forest, or an entire world. Carissa loves her elevator. Up and Down she goes, content with the sometimes chewy food her reality fabricator spits out, as long as it means she doesn't have to speak to another living person. But when a mysterious shapeshifter from an ambiguous world lands on top of her elevator, intent on stopping a plot to annihilate hundreds of floors, Carissa flees into the Wild Massive network of theme parks in the Building, where technology, sorcery, and elaborate media tie-ins combine to form impossible ride experiences, where every guest is a VIP, the roller coasters are frequently safe, and if you don't have a valid day pass, the automated defense lasers will escort you from being alive.
|
|
|
|
|
Paradise-1
by David Wellington
Paradise-1 was earth's first deep space colony. For thousands of people, it was an opportunity for a new life. However, Paradise-1 has gone dark and no communication has been received from the colony for months. It falls to Firewatch inspector Alexandra Petrova and the crew of the Artemis to investigate. What they find is more horrifying than anything they could have imagined.
|
|
|
|
A Pale Light in the Black by K. B. WagersMaxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own—away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she’s going to succeed at her mission to retrieve a missing ship. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them. |
|
|
|
Mechanize My Hands to War
by Erin K. Wagner
Deep in the hills of Appalachia, anti-android sentiment is building. Charismatic demagogue Eli Whitaker has used anger toward new labor policies that replace factory workers with androids to build a militia--and now he is recruiting child soldiers. Part of a governmental task force, Adrian and Trey are determined to put a stop to Whitaker's efforts. Their mission is complicated by their own shared childhood experiences with Whitaker. After an automated soldier shoots a child during a raid to protect Trey, both grapple with the role of androids and their use in combat.
|
|
|
|
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
by Claire North
Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. I nearly missed you, Doctor August, she says. I need to send a message. This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.
|
|
Contact us for more great books! |
|
|
Forsyth County Public Library
660 W. Fifth St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101
336-703-2665forsythlibrary.org |
|
|
|
