Publisher: Weinstein Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/04/2010
ISBN-13: 9781602861220
ISBN-10: 1602861226

Social SF. By the year 2071, nearly everyone in the United States has a clone for medical purposes; millions of them are kept imprisoned in a high-security area out west. The U.S. is the only nation that sanctions cloning--it's a lynchpin of the country's health care system--but there are American citizens who want the practice abolished. Anna, a member of the underground resistance, helps to rescue a clone and recognizes him as a copy of her former college boyfriend. Tracking down her one-time beau, Anna convinces him to meet his clone and write (under the pseudonym Ray Bradbury) a report of the experience. This "sometimes chilling, sometimes heartbreaking" (Booklist) novel is an absorbing exploration of biomedical ethics.

Publisher: Roc
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/2010
ISBN-13: 9780451463333
ISBN-10: 0451463331

Alternate History. Ever since the WWII destroyer USS Walker was yanked from one dimension to another during a squall at sea, the ship's crew have led the peaceful, cat-like Lemurians in a war against the vicious, raptor-descended Grik. This 4th Destroyermen book carries the Industrial Revolution of the Lemurians several steps further than any of the previous volumes have, which is great fun (wooden airplanes!), but it's the fabulous world-building and dynamite action that keeps readers coming back to this thrilling series. If you're new to the Destroyermen universe, start at the beginning with Into the Storm.

Publisher: Tor
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/13/2010
ISBN-13: 9780765322845
ISBN-10: 0765322846

Space Opera. When League operative Bridget ban disappears during a mission, her daughter Mearana enlists Donovan, a man whose mind was fractured into multiple personalities by a scientific experiment, to help search for her. Ranging from the raw worlds of the frontier to the uncivilized planets of the Wild, the pair's suspenseful journey takes place in the same far-future universe as author Michael Flynn's previous novel The January Dancer. Fans of intricate world-building--especially cleverly incorporated "ancient" history--will be dazzled by Flynn's "colorful universe" (Library Journal).

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Publisher: Orbit
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/18/2010
ISBN-13: 9780316086998
ISBN-10: 0316086991

Humorous SF. The "toxic aural garbage" that Earth pumps into the atmosphere is driving the canine populace of the planet Ostar insane, so the Ostarians bomb the bejeezus out of the purveyors of pop music--or at least, they mean to. After the first bomb fails, Ostar sends a second that's equipped with artificial intelligence...but it's smart enough to get distracted from its task. Incorporating drunk bankers, teleporting fortunes, a unicorn, and a gorgeous CEO with no memory of her childhood, this "wickedly funny" (Publishers Weekly) romp will be fun for fans of Douglas Adams or of Michael Rubens' similarly wacky The Sheriff of Yrnameer.

Publisher: Baen
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/22/2010
ISBN-13: 9781439133613
ISBN-10: 1439133611

Military SF. As Admiral Honor Harrington attempts to cement a diplomatic resolution to the war between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven, an unknown enemy lurks in the fringes. This long-awaited 12th novel in author David Weber's immensely popular series (following At All Costs) will especially delight devotees of military strategy and political intrigue--but every Honor Harrington fan will "rejoice to see [her] back in action" (Publishers Weekly).

Publisher: ROC
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/31/2005
ISBN-13: 9780451452733
ISBN-10: 0451452739

Classic SF. If you loved the visual and symbolic "wow" factor of the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey but always wanted a bit more of the story's how and why, read Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same title (which Clarke wrote while developing the film version with Stanley Kubrick). It elaborates on the enigmatic monolith, among other things, and fills in some parts of the story that moviegoers were left to imagine or interpret themselves...and the HAL 9000 comes across almost as creepy in print ("What are you doing, Dave?") as it did voiced by Douglas Rain in the film. If you aren't familiar with either the book or the movie, check out both--this is seminal science fiction.

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/1996
ISBN-13: 9780345404473
ISBN-10: 0345404475

Classic SF. This 1968 novel by SF giant Philip K. Dick inspired the 1982 action movie Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. In both versions of this post-apocalyptic story, Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who tracks down and "retires" advanced androids (called "replicants" in the film) that are attempting to pass as human. While there are significant differences between the book and the film--the novel is more contemplative, for one--Dick himself complimented the way that the movie captured the world he'd envisioned. Pondering questions of empathy, morality, and the essence of humanity, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a moody precursor to cyberpunk that will keep philosophical types enthralled.

Publisher: Ace Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/30/2006
ISBN-13: 9780441014101
ISBN-10: 0441014100

Classic Military SF. Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel Starship Troopers is set during a far-future war between Earth and the alien Arachnids known to most as "The Bugs." Young Juan "Johnnie" Rico is a member of the Mobile Infantry, a unit in which the soldiers wear advanced, powered full-body armor that not only protects them but gives them super-human strength and speed. The movie may be all about the special effects, high-powered action, and gore, but Heinlein's controversial novel is a much more meditative look at war, civic responsibility, and rights that are earned through sacrifice. Reading the novel may give you an understanding of why it remains on the U.S. Marine Corps' official reading list more than 50 years after its original publication.

Publisher: Vintage Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/16/2006
ISBN-13: 9780307275431
ISBN-10: 0307275434

Dystopian SF. Turning from mystery novels to a dark and chilling future, author P.D. James spins a story about the end of humanity. It's 2021, the last human birth occurred in 1995, and England's despotic ruler has taken to enslaving immigrants and encouraging mass suicides. No one knows why people have lost the ability to reproduce, but they have, and humankind's demise seems not only certain but close at hand...until one woman, desperate to hide her condition from the ruling council, turns up pregnant and asking historian Theodore Faron for help. This "brilliantly conceived" (pun intended, Kirkus Reviews?) book was the basis for the 2006 movie Children of Men; forgive its slow start and you'll be richly rewarded. For more fertility-focused sf, check out Kit Reed's similarly frightening The Baby Merchant.

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Publisher: Pocket Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/1997
ISBN-13: 9780671004101
ISBN-10: 0671004107

First Contact SF. Ellie Arroway, a brilliant astrophysicist who oversees a worldwide system of radio telescopes, has finally discovered what she has spent years searching for--a sign of extraterrestrial life. She intercepts a message sent from space and decodes it, revealing blueprints for a machine that, when built, can travel through space. Through Ellie's tenacity, the machine is built, and she and a team of scientists bravely board it and launch into space. Will they encounter aliens? And if they do, will anyone on Earth believe them? Written by famed astronomer Carl Sagan and made into a 1997 movie starring Jodie Foster, Contact has the makings of a modern sf classic.

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Publisher: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/01/1994
ISBN-13: 9780385312080
ISBN-10: 0385312083

SF. Like author Kurt Vonnegut, Billy Pilgrim (this novel's protagonist) was a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany when the Allies firebombed the city during World War II. Later, Pilgrim becomes "unstuck in time" and haphazardly bounces to different moments in his past, present, and future, including his years in Nazi Germany, his strange existence as a zoo exhibit on the distant planet Tralfamadore, and, ultimately, his own death. Written during the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's modern classic reflects the chaos, absurdity, and madness of war; it was made into a 1972 film that Vonnegut himself declared "a flawless translation" of his novel.

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