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Science Fiction August 2016 |
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"Without words, we're history's orphans. Our lives and thoughts erased." ~ from Alena Graedon's The Word Exchange |
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| Company Town by Madeline AshbyDystopian Fiction. Built on an oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, the city of New Arcadia has just been purchased by the wealthy Lynch family. To money to purchase the cybernetic enhancements that her fellow residents take for granted, bodyguard Hwa accepts a job protecting 15-year-old Joel, heir to the Lynch corporate empire, who's been receiving death threats that appear to be coming from the future. Although less epic in scale than Peter Hamilton's Great North Road, this noir-tinged debut also centers around an intricate murder mystery that unfolds within a futuristic dystopian society in which powerful corporate interests control the lives of every day citizens. |
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| Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. ChenHumorous SF. More Maxwell Smart than James Bond, spy Kangaroo -- so named for the extra-dimensional pouch that allows him to retrieve objects from other universes -- has bungled yet another mission, prompting his superiors send him on a mandatory "vacation" to Mars aboard a luxury cruise ship. En route to the red planet, Kangaroo encounters two other spies, who may or may not be responsible for a series of murders that occurs on board the ship -- murders that may or may not be linked to a vast interplanetary conspiracy. And here Kangaroo was worried about what to do with his time off. With its snarky protagonist and futuristic spycraft, this debut novel may appeal to fans of Charles Stross' Laundry Files. |
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| False Hearts by Laura LamCyberpunk. Raised in Mana's Hearth, an anti-technology cult in California's Muir Woods, conjoined twins Taema and Tila are thrust into a brave new world when a medical emergency prompts surgical intervention, separating them from each other. Ten years later, scientist Taema learns that Tila, now a nightclub hostess, has been charged with murdering Vuk, leader of the crime syndicate Ratel. Impersonating Tila, Taema goes undercover to gather information about Ratel and clear her twin's name. Alternating between the sisters' perspectives, this novel vividly depicts both a futuristic totalitarian San Francisco rife with bio-hacking and mind-control and its virtual-reality underworld full of violence and terror. |
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| Too Like the Lightning by Ada PalmerFar-future SF. In the 25th century, human civilization is divided into philosophical sects based on technologically generated abundance and inspired by the 18th-century European Enlightenment. In this utopia, convicted felon Mycroft Canner serves his sentence by carrying out the orders of everyone he meets, while sensayer Carlyle Foster acts as a spiritual counselor in a world where organized religion has been outlawed. Their paths converge when they encounter Bridger, a young boy whose unusual abilities could destroy their hard-won world of peace and prosperity. Too Like the Lighting is the 1st book in the Terra Ignota series; readers who enjoy philosophical SF may also like Jo Walton's Just City novels, which imagine a world based on the principles of Plato's Republic. |
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| Underground Airlines by Ben H WintersAlternate History. In these particular United States, the Civil War never happened and slavery is still legal in four states. Sent to Indiana, where he's tasked with locating a fugitive slave, Victor, an African-American U.S. Marshal infiltrates abolitionist circles and risks blowing his cover when he decides to aid a struggling family he meets along the way. Don't miss this thought-provoking novel by the author of the apocalyptic Last Policeman trilogy, which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, describes as "Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man meets Blade Runner." |
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| The Word Exchange: A Novel by Alena GraedonDystopian Fiction. Anana Johnson and her father, Doug, are lexicographers at the North American Dictionary of the English Language (NADEL), a publication rendered obsolete by Memes, the technological implants that have largely replaced memory and spoken language. Though less of a Luddite than her conspiracy theorist dad, Anana begins to reconsider her position when Doug goes missing and a cybernetic "word flu" causes widespread aphasia among the population. If you enjoyed Max Barry's Lexicon, check out The Word Exchange, which features a similarly compelling linguistic thriller with philosophical overtones. |
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| Speak: A Novel by Louisa HallSocial SF. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. When children become too attached to their AI dolls, the "baby bots" are banned and their creator imprisoned. How did such a promising invention become a menace to society? Spanning some four centuries and unfolding from the perspectives of a large cast of characters, this sweeping science fiction saga employs letters, transcripts, and other primary source documents to explore the relationships between humans and machines. |
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| The Silent History by Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby, and Kevin MoffettSocial SF. At the center of this thought-provoking experimental novel (which originated as a smartphone app) is a generation of children born without language, nor, it seems, the ability or desire to acquire it. While their existence is recorded, debated, and analyzed in the testimonies of non-affected individuals, "the silents" themselves form clandestine communities that threaten to undermine the structure of human society. If you like suspenseful speculative tales about the power of language, such as Ben Marcus' The Flame Alphabet, you'll want to check out The Silent History. |
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| The Flame Alphabet by Ben MarcusSocial SF. Never again will parents instruct children to "use their words." When 14-year-old Esther becomes a vector for language toxicity, a virulent disease that gives her speech lethal power over listeners, it's only a matter of time before other children become carriers. The plague spreads rapidly as children discover that their parents have no immunity. But what will happen to the human race when the infected children grow up? Fans of Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby may enjoy this disturbing work of speculative fiction in which words not only hurt -- they kill. |
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| The Affinities by Robert Charles WilsonSocial SF. In the not-so-distant future, researcher Meir Klein creates an algorithm with an unprecedented success rate when it comes to grouping compatible people. Building upon this research, a corporation called InterAlia develops a test enabling individuals to determine their inclusion in one of 22 groups, or "Affinities." When Adam Fisk qualifies for Tau, the largest Affinity, he feels -- for the first time in his life -- a sense of belonging. But complications quickly arise. Klein intends, with the help of Tau, to release the now-proprietary testing code to the rest of humanity, the vast majority of which is unaffiliated with any Affinity. Meanwhile, Tau's main rival, Het, will do anything to stop the algorithm's distribution. Don't miss this suspenseful near-future SF story of social media on steroids. |
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