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Science FictionAugust 2015 |
"The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason." ~ from Neal Stephenson's Seveneves |
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| The Water Knife by Paolo BacigalupiNear-Future SF. Severe water shortages across the American Southwest fuel cutthroat competition between independent city-states for scarce resources. On one end of the spectrum is Las Vegas, a lush, high-tech "arcology" of fountains and gardens; on the other is Phoenix, devastated by drought yet inundated with refugees from bone-dry Texas. Against this vividly rendered backdrop, a diverse cast of characters do what they must to survive. Fans of near-future dystopian science fiction in which climate change exacerbates disparities between the haves and the have-nots might also want to check out Lev AC Rosen's Depths. |
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| Mother of Eden: A Novel by Chris BeckettSocial SF. In Dark Eden, the descendants of astronauts stranded on a distant, sunless planet found themselves confronted with a choice: cling to the mythic past or embrace an uncertain future. Its sequel, Mother of Eden takes place 150 years later and shows how the planet's society has split into factions that never interact...until adventurous Starlight Brooking goes exploring and meets Greenstone Johnson, a member of the New Earth settlement located on the other side of the planet's Worldpool. With its strong patriarchal culture and rigid social stratification, New Earth is very different from Starlight's tribal community, and her arrival sets the stage for a clash of cultures that will forever change Eden and its people. |
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| The Fold: A Novel by Peter ClinesSF Mystery. With his genius-level IQ and eidetic memory, Leland "Mike" Eriksen is wasting his time and talent teaching high school. At any rate, that's the opinion of Mike's friend Reggie, who holds a prominent position at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Mike disagrees with Reggie's assessment, but can't deny his curiosity when Reggie mentions a top-secret project called the Albuquerque Door. Although the project appears to have successfully delivered on its promise of teleportation, questions remain. Sent to investigate both Albuquerque Door and its secretive research team, Mike gets a glimpse of the inner workings of the project and discovers aspects of the technology that have world-altering implications. |
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| The Liminal War by Ayize Jama-EverettSocial SF. Taggert can "read" bodies and manipulate them at the molecular level, which allows him to hurt people or to heal them. Having once made a career of the former, Taggart has recently come to embrace the latter approach, which results in a falling out with his ruthless former mentor, Nordeen. To protect his daughters, Tamara (biological) and Prentis (adopted), Taggart attempts to fly under the radar, but in a world populated by psychically gifted individuals known as "liminals," his task proves more difficult than he anticipated. If you enjoy this follow-up to The Liminal People, you might like Marcus Sakey's Brilliance, which also examines the workings of a society in which a small percentage of the population possesses extraordinary abilities. |
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| The Red: First Light by Linda NagataMilitary SF. "If robots were cheaper, we wouldn't have to be here," explains Lt. James Shelley, who leads a five-member linked combat squad (LCS). "Here" is a ravaged region of sub-Saharan Africa, where defense contractors have engineered a ground war to enrich their shareholders. Once an anti-war protester, Shelley joined the army to avoid a lengthy prison sentence and now wonders if he made the right choice. Set in a world where war is ongoing and soldiers' brains are wirelessly connected to military intelligence, this violent, action-packed novel, with its cynical narrator and cutting-edge technology, may appeal to fans of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War or T.C. McCarthy's Subterrene War trilogy. |
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| Slow Bullets by Alastair ReynoldsHard SF. In the aftermath of an interstellar war, Scur is captured and tortured by a war criminal, who injects her with a lethal "slow bullet" before leaving her for dead. When Scur awakens, she's a prisoner aboard a transport vessel, her shipmates are former combatants from different sides of the conflict, and they've all been in deep hibernation for 1,000 years. However, the cause of Scur's situation proves less important than her immediate dilemma: she and her fellow passengers have been released from cryo-suspension ahead of schedule and the ship's systems are failing. Fans of Slow Bullets may also enjoy Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three, another suspenseful SF story in which characters confined to a spaceship must survive in a hostile enclosed environment. |
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| Aurora by Kim Stanley RobinsonHard SF. The starship is headed for Tau Ceti, approximately 12 light years away. Launched from Earth in the 26th century, the vessel is nearing its destination after nearly 160 years. Charged with creating a comprehensive narrative of the voyage by chief engineer Devi, the ship's AI narrates this moving, thought-provoking novel, seamlessly blending the technical aspects of the spacecraft with the more personal stories of its passengers -- particularly Devi's daughter, Freya, who's expected to succeed her mother as chief engineer just as they reach their new home. |
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| Seveneves: A Novel by Neal StephensonHard SF. The Moon explodes, leaving the inhabitants of Earth to come up with a survival strategy before meteorite bombardments cause mass extinction. With a limited window of opportunity to execute their next move, humanity sets to work launching people into space, where they must survive for the 5,000 years it will take for the planet to once again become habitable. For other epic science fiction stories in which humans must rise to apocalyptic challenges, check out Robert Charles Wilson's Spin trilogy. And if you enjoy intricately plotted, thought-provoking spacefaring sagas, try Vernor Vinge's Queng Ho novels. |
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