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Fantasy and Science Fiction February 2018
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| Iron Gold: A Red Rising Novel by Pierce BrownStarring: slave-turned-statesman Darrow, a lowly Red whose uprising against Mars' Gold elite led to the establishment of the Solar Republic -- and an endless war.
Series alert: This spinoff of the Red Rising trilogy takes place ten years after the events of Morning Star. However, newcomers should start at the beginning with Red Rising.
Read it for: a dystopian outer space setting, a unique color-coded caste system, and an action-packed plot rife with warfare and political intrigue. |
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Red Clocks
by Leni Zumas
What it's about: In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom.
If you enjoyed: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale you're sure to enjoy this story of resilience, transformation, and hope in tumultuous-even frightening-times.
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| The Night Market by Jonathan MooreWhat it's about: Responding to a late-night call, San Francisco homicide detectives arrive at the scene of the crime to find it crawling with FBI agents in hazmat suits. Then things get really weird.
Is it for you? Equal parts dystopian SF, noir, and conspiracy thriller, this genre-bending novel boasts a menacing atmosphere and a twisty plot. Think Philip K. Dick meets the X Files.
Should you start here? You can! The 3rd installment of a loose trilogy, The Night Market stands on its own. |
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| The Will to Battle by Ada PalmerWhat it's about: Ex-convict Mycroft Canner discovers the high cost of peace as his world -- a 25th-century utopian society in which philosophical Hives have replaced nation-states -- begins to collapse.
Series alert: Due to the complexity of this 3rd Terra Ignota novel, readers should begin at the beginning with Too Like the Lightning.
Try this next: For another thought-provoking blend of Western philosophy and science fiction, try Jo Walton's Just City novels, which envision a society based on the principles of Plato's Republic. |
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| The Sky Is Yours by Chandler Klang SmithIn a world... where dragons soar above the burned-out ruins of Empire Island (think New York in the year 301970), a reality-TV star, a baroness, and a feral girl must survive the mean streets of their own city.
Want a taste? "This is the story of what it is to be young in a very old world."
For fans of: the inventive and freewheeling apocalyptic fiction of Nick Harkaway. |
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It's Complicated (Romantic Relationships)
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On such a full sea
by Chang-rae Lee
What it's about: A tale set in a class-divided future America where urban neighborhoods function as labor colonies for elite charter villages, Fan, a female fish-tank diver, embarks on what becomes a legendary quest to find the man she loves in a region overcome by anarchic forces.
Is it for you? Fans of character-driven dystopian fiction will enjoy this poetic, philosophical, even mystical speculative odyssey.
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| The Heart Goes Last: A Novel by Margaret AtwoodWhat it's about: In exchange for a secure middle-class existence, downwardly mobile couple Charmaine and Stan become subjects in an unusual social experiment that will put their relationship to the test.
Why you might like it: No one does chilling yet slyly satirical literary dystopia like Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood.
For fans of: sardonic, keenly observed novels of formerly middle-class individuals adjusting to the harsh realities of late capitalism, such as Karl Taro Greenfeld's The Subprimes or Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles |
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| The Cold Between: A Central Corps Novel by Elizabeth BonesteelIntroducing: Commander Elena Shaw, chief engineer of the Central Corps ship Galileo, and retired starship captain Treiko "Trey" Zajec, whose hookup on the colony planet of Volhynia gets complicated when Trey is accused of murdering one of Elena's crewmates.
You might also like: Blending mystery, political intrigue, action, and romance, this opening installment of the Central Corps novels may appeal to fans of Ann Aguirre's Sirantha Jax novels. |
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Kushiel's scion
by Jacqueline Carey
What it's about: Terre d'Ange prince Imriel de la Courcel draws on his abilities to inflict pain on others and works against his enemies in his determination to obey Blessed Elua's preception of love.
Should I start here? This is the first installment of a trilogy set in the same world as the best-selling Kushiel's Avatar.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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