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Science FictionOctober 2015 |
"I have thirty seconds to end this story." ~ from Monica Byrne's The Girl in the Road |
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| Zero World by Jason M. HoughSF. Over the course of his brilliant career, Peter Caswell has drunk 206 bottles of Sapporo -- one for each person he's killed. However, it's not the booze that keeps the cybernetically enhanced assassin from recalling past missions, but rather a neural implant that resets his memory after each job. Sent on assignment to a planet with eerie similarities to Earth, Caswell encounters undercover operative Melni Tavan, an enemy agent who causes him to question everything about his existence. This fast-paced, action-packed science fiction thriller by the author of The Darwin Elevator may interest fans of futuristic spy novels such as Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker or Thomas Mullen's The Revisionists. |
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| The Dark Forest by Cixin LiuHard SF. In this 2nd installment of the trilogy that began with The Three-Body Problem, the Trisolarans, a telepathic alien race undertaking a centuries' long interstellar journey in search of a new home, have determined that Earth will be a suitable replacement for their doomed planet. But what does that mean for humanity? Following a large cast of characters as they respond in different ways to the impending invasion, this inventive, intricately plotted, and stylistically complex novel delivers big ideas as well as action on a cosmic scale, making this a good bet for fans of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. |
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| The End of All Things by John ScalziSpace Opera. Tensions between the human-established Colonial Union and the alien Conclave come to a head in this fast-paced, dramatic conclusion to the Old Man's War series. As these longtime adversaries square off, a group known as Equilibrium plots to destroy both factions. Like its predecessor, The Human Division, which wove its multi-layered narrative from 13 interlinked short stories, The End of All Things is comprised of four novellas, each from the perspective of a different character. |
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| Chasing the Phoenix by Michael SwanwickPost-Apocalyptic SF. Adopting false identities, confidence tricksters Darger (a human) and Surplus (a genetically engineered canine) arrive in post-apocalyptic China. There, they quickly ingratiate themselves with a local warlord, the self-styled Hidden King, who harbors ambitions of uniting the fragmented nation under his rule. Key to achieving this goal is locating the Phoenix Bride, a weapon of mass destruction lost in the aftermath of the long-ago AI War. Fans of the witty repartee, elaborate capers, and dirty double-crosses of Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series should enjoy this roguish duo's second outing, after Dancing with Bears. |
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| Zer0es by Chuck WendigCyberpunk. Aleena, the Syrian-American political activist. Chance, the lone vigilante. DeAndre, the scammer. Wade, the old-school cypherpunk and conspiracy theorist. Reagan, the Internet troll. What these five have in common, besides their illegal online activities, is that they've been offered a deal by the U.S. government in lieu of a lengthy prison sentence: spend the next year confined to "the Lodge" while working as cyberspies. It soon becomes clear to the group, dubbed "the Zer0es," that their captors have a hidden agenda. Fortunately, so do they. |
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| The Shining Girls by Lauren BeukesTime Travel SF. At the height of the Great Depression, drifter Harper Curtis acquires the keys to a Chicago bungalow with some unusual features, including the ability to visit other time periods. Harper takes advantage of this odd windfall by becoming a serial killer and embarking on a multi-decade murder spree. Targeting so-called Shining Girls, "bright young women burning with potential," he locates each victim, gives her a trinket, and later returns to kill her. With no obvious connections between the victims, the cops are baffled and Harper believes himself invincible. However, he doesn't count on college student Kirby Mazrachi surviving his attack, nor on her determination to find her would-be killer. |
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| The Girl in the Road by Monica ByrneSocial SF. After surviving an assassination attempt, university dropout Meena escapes from Mumbai and heads for her native Addis Ababa by way of the Trail, or Trans-Arabian Linear Generator, a high-tech bridge spanning the Arabian Sea. Ethiopia is also the destination of 10-year-old Mariama, a child slave in Mauritania who sneaks aboard an oil truck crossing the Sahara. Despite differences in time and circumstance, the two young women's paths are destined to cross, but in ways neither one could ever predict. In addition to its compelling parallel narratives, The Girl in the Road also offers an insightful exploration of gender roles. |
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| The Peripheral: A Novel by William GibsonNear-Future SF. Whenever she can, gamer Flynne Fisher tries to help her brother Burton, a disabled veteran. So when Burton asks her to beta-test a virtual reality game as part of his lucrative but illegal part-time job, Flynne agrees to sub in. During her shift, Flynne witnesses a murder and soon realizes that she's not playing a game, she's seeing the future. But how? Cutting-edge technology and crossed time lines create an intricately plotted and thought-provoking science fiction story that slowly builds suspense through parallel, yet intersecting, narratives. |
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| The Cusanus Game by Wolfgang JeschkeTime Travel SF. The solution to a global economic and political meltdown precipitated by nuclear disaster and environmental devastation? Well, that's easy: just use time travel to exploit the resources of the past in order to protect the future. In 2052, biologist Domenica Ligrina is recruited for the Rinascita Project, a top-secret research program sponsored by the Vatican. Her assignment is to study 15th-century Europe, from which she'll be gathering specimens of extinct plants. Meanwhile, Renaissance man Nicolaus Cusanus, a German philosopher, theologian, and astronomer, hears strange reports of a learned witch who claims to have seen the future and an angel who has invented a means of traveling through time. Past, present, and future collide in unpredictable, mind-bending fashion in this suspenseful, complex novel. |
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| Blackout by Connie WillisTime Travel SF. Something's gone wrong in 2060 Oxford, where historians conduct their research via time-travel. Thus, with their access to the 21st century inexplicably barred, scholars Michael, Merope, and Polly find themselves stranded in World War II-era Britain, facing air raids, blackouts, unexploded bombs, dive-bombing Stukas, rationing, shrapnel, V-1s, and two of the most incorrigible children in all of history -- to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control. If you enjoy Blackout, be sure to read its companion novel, All Clear. If you'd like to start at the beginning of Connie Willis' acclaimed Oxford Time Travel series, pick up Doomsday Book. |
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