|
|
|
|
Fantasy and Science Fiction April 2026 |
|
|
|
|
|
The Astral Library
by Kate Quinn
From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures. Beautifully performed by award winning narrator, Saskia Maarleveld.Alexandria Alix Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books.The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy--Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself? Includes a bonus conversation with Kate Quinn, Saskia Maarleveld, and Tessa Woodward (editor of The Astral Library).
|
|
|
|
Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter
by Heather Fawcett
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montr al turns to a grouchy but charming magician to help save her shelter in this heartwarming cozy fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series. Absolutely magnificent Full of cats and magic, this is the kind of book you want to instantly reread. I loved every character, every cat, and every moment with all my heart --Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life, and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for stray cats. Now it's the shelter that needs a new home. And the only landlord who will rent a space to a cat rescue is a mysterious man called Havelock--who also happens to be the world's most infamous magician, running an illegal magic shop out of his basement. Havelock is cantankerous and eccentric, but not not handsome, and no, Agnes absolutely does not feel anything but disdain for him. After all, rumors swirl about his shadowy past--including whispers that his dark magic once almost brought about the apocalypse. Then one day a glamorous magician comes looking for Havelock, putting the magic shop--and the cat shelter--in jeopardy. To save the shelter, Agnes will have to team up with the magician who nearly ended the world . . . and may now be trying to steal her heart. Havelock is everything Agnes thinks she doesn't need in her life: chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers that he's more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue--and romance--in her life. After all, second chances aren't just for rescue cats. . . .
|
|
|
|
The Midnight Bookshop
by Amanda James
You don't choose the book. The book chooses you... 'A book I was sorry to finish.' 'A timeless story that emphasizes the healing and transformative power of books.' -
|
|
|
Subgenre Spotlight: Comedic Sci-Fi
|
|
|
|
The hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy
by Douglas Adams
This is the story of Arthur Dent, who, seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, is plucked off the planet by his friend, Ford Prefect, who has been posing as an out-of-work actor for the last fifteen years but is really a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Together they begin a journey through the galaxy aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with the words don't panic written on the front. ("A towel is about themost massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."). In their travels they meet: Zaphod Beeblebrox-the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch President of the Galaxy; Trillian-Zaphod's girl friend, formerly Tricia McMillan, whom Arthur once tried to pick up at a cocktail party; Marvin-a paranoid android, a brilliant but chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig-former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years. To find the answers to these burning questions: Why are we born? Why do we die? And why do we spend so much time in between wearing digital watches? read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But remember -- don't panic, and don't forget to bring a towel. The story of a British earthling plucked from his planet, and his subsequent adventures elsewhere in the universe
|
|
|
|
Redshirts
by John Scalzi
Humorous SF. Thrilled to be aboard the Universal Union starship Intrepid, Ensign Andrew Dahl can't understand why his shipmates aren't as excited as he is about away missions. That is, until he realizes that crew members who are chosen to go planetside don't live long or prosper. This affectionately wry, pitch-perfect homage to TV's original Star Trek series will please avid Trek fans and readers who enjoy author John Scalzi's lighter SF, such as Fuzzy Nation.
|
|
|
|
Snow crash : a novel
by Neal Stephenson
"Hiro lives in a Los Angeles where franchises line the freeway as far as the eye can see. The only relief from the sea of logos is within the autonomous city-states, where law-abiding citizens don't dare leave their mansions. Hiro delivers pizza to the mansions for a living, defending his pies from marauders when necessary with a matched set of samurai swords. His home is a shared 20 X 30 U-Stor-It. He spends most of his time goggled in to the Metaverse, where his avatar is legendary. But in the club known as The Black Sun, his fellow hackers are being felled by a weird new drug called Snow Crash that reduces them to nothing more than a jittering cloud of bad digital karma (and IRL, a vegetative state). Investigating the Infocalypse leads Hiro all the way back to the beginning of language itself, with roots in an ancient Sumerian priesthood. He'll be joined by Y.T., a fearless teenaged skateboard courier. Together, they must race to stop a shadowy virtual villain hell-bent on world domination"--Book jacket flap
|
|
|
|
John Dies at the End
by Jason Pargin
This may be the story of John and David, a drug called soy sauce, and other-worldly beings invading the planet. Or, it may be the story of two beer-drinking friends who live in an unnamed Midwestern town and only think something horrific is going on. But the important thing is, according to the narrator, None of this is my fault.
|
|
|
|
The Humans
by Matt Haig
Regarding humans unfavorably upon arriving on Earth, a reluctant extraterrestrial assumes the identity of a Cambridge mathematician before realizing that there's more to the human race than he suspected.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|