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Fantasy and Science Fiction October 2018
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| Temper by Nicky DraydenIn a world... where everybody has a twin, and virtues and vices are split unevenly between pairs, siblings Auben and Kasim Mtuze's symbiotic bond is strained to the breaking point by Kasim's higher social status and Auben's sudden possession by demons.
Read it for: detailed world-building that encompasses a South African setting in which European colonization never occurred, and a society underpinned by a non-binary conception of gender.
You might also like: Laura Lam's False Hearts, another genre-blending speculative tale about twins with a complex and unusual bond. |
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| Relic by Alan Dean FosterStarring: Ruslan, the last surviving human after a bioweapon wipes out his entire civilization.
The situation: The alien Myssari want to clone Ruslan and revive the human species. In exchange for his cooperation, they promise to help him locate his ancestral planet: Earth.
About the author: Alan Dean Foster is best known for his long-running series set in the Humanx Commonwealth, which begins with Midworld. |
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Alternate routes
by Tim Powers
"Something weird is happening to the Los Angeles freeways--phantom cars, lanes from nowhere, and sometimes unmarked offramps that give glimpses of a desolate desert highway--and Sebastian Vickery, disgraced ex-Secret Service agent, is a driver for a covert supernatural-evasion car service. But another government agency is using and perhaps causing the freeway anomalies, and their chief is determined to have Vickery killed because of something he learned years ago at a halted Presidential motorcade. Reluctantly aided by Ingrid Castine, a member of that agency, and a homeless Mexican boy, and a woman who makes her living costumed as Supergirl on the sidewalk in front of the Chinese Theater, Vickery learns what legendary hell it is that the desert highway leads to--and when Castine deliberately drives into it to save him from capture, he must enter it himself to get her out. Alternate Routes is a fast-paced supernatural adventure story that sweeps from the sun-blinded streets and labyrinthine freeways of Los Angeles to a horrifying other world out of Greek mythology, and Vickery and Castine must learn to abandon old loyalties and learn loyalty to each other in order to survive as the world goes mad around them"
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| Wild Hunger: An Heirs of Chicagoland Novel by Chloe NeillIntroducing: Elisa Sullivan, the first and only vampire to be born instead of made.
What happens: Following a period of self-imposed exile in Paris, Elisa must return to Chicago to broker peace talks among the different vampire factions.
Series alert: Wild Hunger kicks off the Heirs of Chicagoland series, a spin-off of the Chicagoland Vampires novels. |
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The Million
by Karl Schroeder
Every thirty years, ten billion visitors overrun Earth during one month of madness: partying, polluting, and brawling. In between, the world is ruled by the Million; the inheritors and custodians of all of humanity’s wealth and history, they lead unimaginable lives of privilege and wealth, and they see it as their due.
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| The Power by Naomi AldermanWhat if... women were in charge? Would they create a more just society...or would they electrocute men with their bare hands and establish a matriarchy?
What it is: Framed as historical fiction penned millennia after the balance of power shifts, this thought-provoking novel follows a diverse cast whose abilities transform them from victims to oppressors.
Book buzz: The Power won the 2017 Women's Prize for Fiction. |
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| The Waking Land by Callie BatesWhat it's about: Lady Elanna Valtai grew up as a hostage in the court of a king who took her to ensure her rebellious father's compliance. Now the prime suspect in the king's murder, Elanna has nowhere to go to but the homeland she's spent her life trying to forget and no one to turn to except the family she's been raised to hate.
Why you might like it: Elanna's transformation from sheltered girl to courageous leader may appeal to fans of Erika Johansen's The Queen of the Tearling. |
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| The Girl in the Road by Monica ByrneWhat happens: After university dropout Meena survives an assassination attempt in future Mumbai, she heads for her native Addis Ababa by way of the Trail, or Trans-Arabian Linear Generator, a high-tech bridge spanning the Arabian Sea. Ethiopia is also the destination of 10-year-old Mariama, an enslaved child in present-day Mauritania who sneaks aboard an oil truck crossing the Sahara.
Why you might like it: Despite differences in time and circumstance, the women's paths are destined to cross in ways neither one could predict. |
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| Star's End by Cassandra Rose ClarkeWhat it's about: Philip Coramina is dying. His final wish? To see his daughters one last time. Loyal Esme already serves as his second-in-command, but her three estranged half-sisters want nothing to do with the family's corporate empire.
Why you might like it: Although family drama is the beating heart of this character-driven novel, there's plenty of intrigue surrounding the Coramina Group and its various enterprises.
For fans of: the complex relationships in Nicola Griffith's Slow River. |
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| Uprooted by Naomi NovikBackstory: Once every ten years, a powerful wizard known as the Dragon chooses one young woman from Agnieszka's valley and spirits her away to his enchanted tower. Why? Nobody knows.
What happens: Unexpectedly chosen over more likely candidates, Agnieszka discovers untapped talents, challenges the Dragon's rules (and patience), and battles the malevolent influence of the nearby enchanted Wood in order to save her village.
Why you might like it: Based on Polish folklore, this stand-alone novel by Temeraire series author Naomi Novik is a fantastical coming-of-age tale combining magic, warfare, politics, and romance. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Rochester Hills Public Library 500 Olde Towne Rd Rochester, Michigan 48307 (248) 656-2900www.rhpl.org/ |
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