Fantasy and Science Fiction
November 2021
Recent Releases
Light From Uncommon Stars
by Ryka Aoki

Welcome to... El Monte, California, home of Starrgate Donuts, where current proprietor (and alien refugee) Lan Tran lives with her children.

Where you'll meet: Violin teacher Shizuka Satomi, "the Queen of Hell," whose Faustian bargain requires her to deliver seven musical souls to the devil; and transgender runaway Katrina Nguyen, a violin prodigy who makes Shizuka question her past decisions.

Also available in eAudiobook on CloudLibrary
The Free Bastards
by Jonathan French

Starring: "Thriceblood" Oats, part of a hog-mounted "hoof" (band) of half-orcs that defend the liminal Lot Lands separating the Tyrkanian Empire from Hispartha, rival nations that are now at war.

Series alert: The Free Bastards marks the conclusion of the Lot Lands trilogy, after The Grey Bastards and The True Bastards.


 
The Last Graduate
by Naomi Novik

What it is: The 2nd book in the Scholomance series, following A Deadly Education.

Starring: Dark sorceress Galadriel "El" Higgins, who's determined to get herself and her classmates to graduation day without getting killed by monsters.

Also available in eBook & eAudiobook on Libby
Also available in eAudiobook on CloudLibrary
SF Thrillers
Scorpion
by Christian Cantrell

What's going on? CIA analyst Quinn Mitchell tracks tech-savvy serial killer the Elite Assassin, who brands each victim with numeric codes, while physicist Henrietta Yi works on a top secret government project.

Why you might like it: Intensifying parallel narratives converge in this action-packed, intricately plotted near-future SF thriller full of twists.

 
The Space Between Worlds
by Micaiah Johnson

Introducing: Cara, a "traverser" at the Eldridge Institute of Earth Zero, which sends its employees, mostly poor people of color, on dangerous data-harvesting assignments in other dimensions.

What happens: As someone whose "dop" (counterpart) has died in 373 out of 380 known alternate Earths, Cara can travel almost anywhere in the multiverse, which is how she can discover a worlds-altering secret while keeping a few of her own.
Hummingbird Salamander
by Jeff VanderMeer

What happens: Security consultant "Jane Smith" recounts how receiving a key to a storage locker containing a preserved hummingbird (and a note from mysterious ecoterrorist Silvina) upended her life by sending her down a rabbit hole.

Reviewers say: This "enigmatic eco-thriller" (Guardian) by the author of the Southern Reach trilogy offers "cinematic set pieces, noirish interludes and horrifying bad guys" (Washington Post).
The Andromeda Evolution
by Daniel H. Wilson

What it is: A sequel to the late Michael Crichton's 1969 novel The Andromeda Strain, published 50 years after the original.

The situation: After a drone flying over the Amazon basin detects an anomaly with a familiar chemical signature, a team from Project Eternal Vigilance assembles to investigate.

Also available in eBook & eAudiobook on Libby
Also available in eAudiobook on Hoopla
Also available in eBook & eAudiobook on CloudLibrary
Contact your librarian for more great books!