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Science Fiction
October 2026 |
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In this Issue:
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Open Minds, Open Worlds "I think zombies have always been an easy metaphor for hard times because they're this big, faceless, brainless group of evil things that will work tirelessly to destroy you and think of nothing else." - Seth Grahame-Smith
“Sometimes, the hardest habit to break is the habit of doing nothing beyond the necessary.” - Mira Grant, Feed
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.
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Under Story by Chloe BenjaminAfter a terrible loss and then a divorce, grieving Wisconsin scientist Laurel Salter takes a job washing dishes at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station. When a surreal light suddenly appears near the research base, it becomes known as the Arc and draws in more scientists, including Laurel’s ex, Eli. Believing the light is evidence of Eli’s theory of a second universe where time moves backward, Laurel tries to talk him into entering the Arc.
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Godfall by Van JensenWhen a massive asteroid hurtles toward Earth, humanity braces for annihilation--but the end doesn't come. In fact, it isn't an asteroid, but a three-mile-tall alien that drops down, seemingly dead, outside Little Springs, Nebraska. Dubbed "the giant," its arrival transforms the red-state farm town into a top-secret government research site and major metropolitan area, flooded with soldiers, scientists, bureaucrats, spies, criminals, conspiracy theorists--and a murderer.
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Valet by J. P. LacrampeCy wants nothing more than to be useful, raise his utility score, and receive the next update for his operating system, but that's easier said than done when he's tasked with helping his owner's 35-year-old son get out of his funk. Grayson is nothing like his go-getter, CEO sister Charlotte. He didn't inherit the family robotics company when their dad passed last year, he doesn't have a master's degree, and he just can't seem to figure out the San Francisco dating scene. When Grayson learns of Charlotte's plan to sell the company to a tech conglomerate, he panics. It's not just the family business at stake, it's all the technology--like Cy--their dad invented over the years.
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Celestial Lights by Cecile PinJanuary 28, 1986: Soon after launch, the Challenger shuttle falls out of the sky and into the sea. At the same time, Oliver Ines is born. Celestial Lights is his story. Ollie spends his childhood in an English village where his bedroom is covered in glow-in-the-dark wallpaper bearing the planets and stars. Decades later, he has become one of the most renowned astronauts of his time. When an enterprising billionaire taps him to lead a landmark mission to the distant moon Europa, Ollie makes a choice that will send his whole world spinning. As the mission advances deeper into unchartered territory, Ollie finds himself retreating into the past. But will the world he remembers still be waiting for him ten years later when he returns?
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Braaaaaiiinnnss (zombie fiction)
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Fabulous Bodies
by Chuck Tingle
Poppy Stringer was born to be a star. An aspiring fashion influencer by day, Poppy moonlights as a grave robber to make ends meet, wheeling and dealing dead bodies across Palm Springs. When her hero, the flamboyant, piano-slamming rockstar Eddie Michaels, unexpectedly dies, Poppy gets a call to retrieve his body from the medical examiner's office for a lucrative sum. It could be the last job she'll ever need--if everything goes to plan. But the night's delivery quickly veers off course when Eddie wakes up. Now Poppy must fight for her life if she hopes to survive this blood-soaked joyride of carnage and extravagant entertainment.
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The Z Wordby Lindsay King-MillerChaotic bisexual Wendy is trying to find her place in the queer community after a bad breakup--which is particularly difficult because her ex is hooking up with some of her friends. When the people around them start turning into violent, mindless husks, that makes things harder. Now, Wendy and her crew--drag queen Logan, silver fox Beau, sword lesbian Aurelia and her wife Sam, mysterious pizza delivery stoner Sunshine, and, oh yeah, Wendy’s ex-girlfriend Leah--have to team up to stay alive, save Pride, and track the zombie outbreak to its shocking source. Hopefully without killing each other first.
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The Girl With All the Giftsby M.R. CareyMelanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her “our little genius.” Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointed at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh. Still, her kindness and capacity for love will either save humanity--or wipe it out.
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Zomromcom
by Olivia Dade
When Edie Brandstrup attempts to save her sweet, seemingly harmless human neighbor from the first major zombie breach in two decades, she's stunned to be saved by him--and his ridiculously large sword--instead. As it turns out, he's actually a super-old, super-surly vampire who wants her to stay in his safety bunker until the breach is resolved. Edie can't risk more innocent people getting killed, though--and Max won't let her save them alone. As they unravel a sinister conspiracy to set zombies loose on the world (again), the duo meet a host of lovable allies and discover they're not the only ones willing to fight for the future of humanity.
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Love, Death + Robots: The Official Anthology: Volume One
by Amanda J. Spedding
Theses sixteen stories and two screenplays make up Volume One of the Emmy® Award-winning Netflix Original series Love, Death & Robots. Featuring bestselling authors and screenwriters from all over the globe, curated by filmmakers Tim Miller and David Fincher. Stories and screenplays by Alastair Reynolds, Alberto Mielgo, Claudine Griggs, David W. Amendola, Joe Lansdale, John Scalzi, Ken Liu, Kirsten Cross, Marko Kloos, Michael Swanwick, Peter F. Hamilton, Steven Lewis, and Vitaliy Shushko.
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Saltcrop by Yume KitaseiIn Earth's not-too-distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. Her eldest sister, Nora, left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to rescue Nora. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered. But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes.
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The Two Lies of Faven Sythe
by Megan E. O'Keefe
The Black Celeste is a ghost story. A once-legendary spaceship collecting dust in a cosmic graveyard known as the Clutch. Only famed pirate Bitter Amandine knows better, and she'll do anything to never go near it again. Faven Sythe is crystborn, a member of the near-human species tasked with charting starpaths from station to station. She's trained to be a navigator her entire life. But when her mentor disappears, leaving behind a mysterious starpath terminating in the Clutch, she is determined to find the truth. And only Amandine has the answers.
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Project Hanuman by Stewart HotstonThe Arcology, a pan-galactic utopia where trillions live online, forever, and in bliss, is missing. Praveenthi 'Prab' Saal, who tired of heaven and left for the real world, and pilot Kercher, printed into a physical body to serve time for sedition against the Arcology, must discover what is going on. If they fail, it could be the end of everyone and everything that calls the Arcology home. Their only resource is their living ship, carrying all the Arcology's knowledge and culture. But this nameless ship is dying--slowly being swallowed whole by the universe of information it's been asked to hold.
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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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