| Exhalation: Stories by Ted ChiangWhat it is: the long-awaited 2nd short story collection by the author of Stories of Your Life and Others.
Don't miss: "The Life Cycle of Software Objects," in which humans and machines form parent-child bonds; "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a time travel tale in the style of One Thousand and One Nights.
Reviewers say: "likely to linger in the memory the way riddles may linger -- teasing, tormenting, illuminating, thrilling" (The New Yorker). |
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The women's war
by Jenna Glass
When a world-altering spell gives women the ability to control their own fertility, a disinherited princess and a powerless queen trigger changes in their patriarchal kingdoms before a caravan of exiles stumbles on a new source of women's magic.
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| A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel KayWhat happens: Elderly courtier Guidanio Cerra recounts how his life changed forever after a fateful encounter with assassin Adria Ripoli. His story, and hers, intertwine with other people's perspectives on the event.
Read it for: an evocative setting inspired by Renaissance Italy, and a richly detailed tapestry of a narrative that explores the ripple effects of individual actions and choices.
Want a taste? "It was interesting, I suppose it still is, how vicious men can take power and be accepted, supported by those they govern, if they bring with them a measure of peace." |
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Moon Rising
by Ian McDonald
A hundred years in the future, a war wages between the Five Dragons; five families who control the Moon's leading industrial companies. Each clan does everything in their power to claw their way to the top of the food chain; marriages of convenience, corporate espionage, kidnapping, and mass assassinations. Through ingenious political manipulation and sheer force of will, Lucas Cortas rises from the ashes of corporate defeat and seizes control of the Moon. The only person who can stop him is a brilliant lunar lawyer, his sister, Ariel. Witness the Dragons' final battle for absolute sovereignty in Ian McDonald's heart-stopping finale to the Luna trilogy.
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| Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan; translated by Ken LiuWelcome to: "Silicon Isle," the e-waste recycling capital of southern China, which serves as the setting of this class-conscious, cyberpunk-inflected debut.
Featuring: "waste girl" Mimi, who sorts trash; Luo Jincheng, Mimi's boss and the scion of the family that controls the industry; American businessman Scott Brandle; and his translator, Chen Kaizong.
Try this next: Director Jiulang Wang's 2016 documentary Plastic China, which takes viewers behind the scenes of China's recycling industry and looks at the lives of the low-wage workers who make it possible. |
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| Middlegame by Seanan McGuireWhat it's about: Created by alchemists, twins Roger (linguistically talented) and Dodger (mathematically gifted) can communicate via quantum entanglement yet can't escape their fate.
Is it for you? This dark and stylistically complex novel by the author of the Wayward Children series opens with the line, "There is so much blood," giving readers some idea of how much violence to expect.
For fans of: the complex characters and exploration of moral gray areas in V.E. Schwab's Villains series. |
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| The Gordian Protocol by David Weber and Jacob HoloIntroducing: 21st-century history professor Benjamin Schröder, who has two sets of conflicting memories, and 30th-century time traveler Raibert Kaminski, who has an explanation for Schröder's plight that involves multiverse theory and temporal knots.
About the authors: David Weber is best known for his Honor Harrington series; Jacob Holo wrote the military SF novel The Dragons of Jupiter.
Reviewers say: "time travel enthusiasts will enjoy the moral dilemmas, nonstop action, and crisp writing" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Oak & Thorns It's A Mystery |
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Oak & Thorns
by Yasmine Galenorn
When Herne and Ember are approached by the matriarch of a group of water-horse shifters to help find her cousin's murderer, the Wild Hunt is drawn into a dark and shadowed world of the Ante-Fae. But as the team delves into the details of the grisly death, they uncover evidence of a string of murders that leads them directly into the court of Blackthorn. Caught in a mire of political intrigue and shadow magic, will Ember and Herne be able to bring the serial killer to light, or will the King of Thorns manage to silence them forever?
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The Kingfisher's Debt
by Kura Carpenter
Magic isn't real, right? Within the small coastal city of Dunedin, local translator, Tamsin Fairchild has a reputation she hates. People think she's psychic. Always hovering around and interfering in Tamsin's life, part father-figure, part thorn in her side, Detective Jackson, is an old-school cop. Childhood friend to her deceased mother, Tamsin wonders could her mother have let an outsider in on the truth? Newcomer, rookie cop Scott Gale is forced to team-up with Tamsin when they investigate the disappearance of a newborn baby and a bizarre crime scene--satanic ritual or hoax? More and more the blame starts to point towards Tamsin. Tamsin must uncover who's framing her, find the baby before it's too late, unravel the mystery behind her elder brother's disappearance, and stop Scott from entering a world not meant for human eyes. But Scott has family secrets of his own and Tamsin doesn't know who to trust. But can you trust Tamsin? What if the person who saved your life is about to frame you for murder?
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A man of shadows : a Nyquist mystery
by Jeff Noon
Below the neon skies of Dayzone - where the lights never go out, and night has been banished - lowly private eye John Nyquist takes on a teenage runaway case. His quest takes him from Dayzone into the permanent dark of Nocturna. As the vicious, seeminglyinvisible serial killer known only as Quicksilver haunts the streets, Nyquist starts to suspect that the runaway girl holds within her the key to the city's fate. In the end, there's only one place left to search: the shadow-choked zone known as Dusk
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| Rosewater by Tade ThompsonWelcome to: Rosewater, a doughnut-shaped Nigerian city that rings the mysterious alien biodome that has become an object of veneration since it first appeared back in 2055.
Meet: government agent Kaaro, who owes his psychic abilities to the biodome. When his fellow "sensitives" start dying, Kaaro investigates and makes some unsettling discoveries about his past -- and his future.
Book buzz: Rosewater, the 1st installment of the Wormwood trilogy, made the 2019 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist. |
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| Bannerless by Carrie VaughnIn a (post-apocalyptic) world... where giving birth is a privilege to be earned and murder is almost unheard of, Enid of Haven and her partner Tomas investigate a suspicious death.
Why you might like it: If there's such a thing as a post-apocalyptic cozy mystery, Bannerless is it.
Series alert: This Philip K. Dick Award-winner kicks off a series that continues with The Wild Dead. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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