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Fantasy and Science Fiction November 2022 |
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| The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. ChakrabortyWhat it is: a collection of 15 short stories set in the world of S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad trilogy.
Contains: five prequel stories, eight pieces from the perspectives of supporting characters, a scene that takes place after conclusion of the trilogy, and an alternate epilogue to the series.
Can you start here? Since this volume contains many spoilers for the main series, newcomers should start at the beginning with The City of Brass, followed by The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold. |
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| One Dark Window by Rachel GilligWelcome to: Blunder, a mist-shrouded realm where magic is treated like an incurable disease -- meaning that those infected must be killed.
Where you'll meet: Elspeth Spindle, who joins highwayman Rayvn on a quest to gather fabled Providence Cards, which have the power to lift the mist that's slowly killing Blunder's inhabitants as well as banish the Nightmare, a monster trapped in Elspeth's mind.
For fans of: the possessed heroine of Margaret Rogerson's young adult novel Vespertine or the dark fairy tale atmosophere of Hannah Whitten's For the Wolf. |
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| The Immortality Thief by Taran HuntGiven the choice... between life in prison or undertaking a dangerous mission, refugee and linguist Sean Wren agrees to locate a derelict space station and retrieve a trove of data in a long-dead language.
What could go wrong? Just about everything in this fast-paced opening installment of the Kystrom Chronicles, which features a quirky heist crew, creepy space monsters, political intrigue, and a cliffhanger ending.
For fans of: Karen Osborne's Memory War novels, Alex White's Salvagers series, or Suzanne Palmer's Finders books. |
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| The Spare Man by Mary Robinette KowalStarring: heiress and inventor Tesla Crane; her service dog, Gimlet; and her new spouse, Shalmenesar Steward, a retired detective who becomes the prime suspect in a murder case.
Wait, what? Yes, Tesla's and Shal's honeymoon cruise to Mars will be spent solving an old-fashioned mystery, complete with red herrings and twists and turns aplenty.
Why you might like it: With its breezy style and retrofuturistic atmosphere, this "vibrant space mystery" (Publishers Weekly) by the award-winning author of the Lady Astronaut series pays affectionate homage to The Thin Man. |
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| Station Eternity by Mur LaffertyThe problem: Where Mallory Viridian goes, murder follows. And NOT because she's the killer.
The solution? Murder magnet Mallory enters self-imposed exile aboard Space Station Eternity, where she hopes that a relative lack of humans will be enough to prevent yet another death. (No such luck.)
Series alert: Station Eternity kicks off the Midsolar Murders series, which boasts the in-depth characterization and twisty plot of author Mur Lafferty's previous SF mystery, Six Wakes, but is lighter in tone. |
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| Illuminations: Stories by Alan MooreContains: eight prose stories, most never-before-published, by renowned comics writer and novelist Alan Moore.
Don't miss: "Location, Location, Location," about a post-apocalyptic realtor; "What We Can Know About Thunderman," a novella-length alternate history of comics.
Reviewers say: "An assemblage of eerie sublimities with more pyrotechnics than Guy Fawkes Day" (The New York Times). |
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| The Mountain in the Sea by Ray NaylerWhat happens: Recruited for a top-secret research project, marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, an expert on cephalopods, travels to the Con Dao Archipelago, off the coast of Vietnam, to study a consortium of highly intelligent octopuses.
But what's the catch? Multinational corporation DIANIMA, which is funding the project, has a vested interest in Dr. Nguyen's findings.
For fans of: first contact stories such as Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life," Sue Burke's Semiosis, or James L. Cambias' A Darkling Sea. |
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| The Golden Enclaves by Naomi NovikWhat it is: the conclusion to the Scholomance series, after A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate, which follows El's post-school life...such as it is.
For fans of: magic-infused tales of dark academia, such as Marina and Sergey Dyachenko's Vita Nostra, Lev Grossman's The Magicians, or Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House.
Want a taste? "The last thing Orion said to me, the absolute bastard, was El, I love you so much." |
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| Self-Portrait With Nothing by Aimee PokwatkaBaby's got a secret: forensic anthropologist Pepper Rafferty has known since her teens that her birth mother is eccentric painter Ula Frost, whose models claim her portraits have the power to summon their alternate-dimension doppelgangers.
What happens: After Ula unexpectedly disappears, Pepper goes on a search for answers about her birth mother and herself, following a series of clues and finding more than she bargained for.
For fans of: Matt Haig's The Midnight Library or Blake Crouch's Dark Matter. |
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| The Genesis of Misery by Neon YangIntroducing: Misery Nomaki (she/they), an otherwise unremarkable young person from a backwater mining planet who possesses rare holystone-working abilities that are either the mark of a saint -- or of the dreaded "voidmadness."
What happens: Hailed as the Ninth Messiah, Misery becomes embroiled in the holy war between the Empire of the Faithful and the Heretics.
Series alert: Inspired by the story of Joan of Arc, this epic space fantasy by the author of the Tensorate series is the 1st book in a planned trilogy. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Atlantic County Library System | 40 Farragut Avenue, Mays Landing, NJ 08330
Phone: (609) 625-2776 | www.atlanticlibrary.org
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|  | Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson
Atlantic County Board of Commissioners, Maureen Kern, Chairwoman |
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