Publisher: Tor
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/28/2012
ISBN-13: 9780765319210
ISBN-10: 0765319217

SF. Global warming has melted the Polar Ice Cap; now a massive corporate land-grab is on for the newly accessible, oil-rich ocean terrain. Environmentalists rejoice when Gaia Corporation builds a massive device capable of reversing the destruction -- but others aren't happy at all. Shot down while chasing smugglers in the area, tough-as-nails pilot Anika Duncan of the UN's Polar Guard discovers a cabal of military and corporate agencies that are determined to stop Gaia. Artic Rising explores plausible eco-science concerns at a thrill-a-minute pace; fans of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park will love this suspenseful, near-future SF adventure.

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Publisher: Orbit
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/05/2012
ISBN-13: 9780316093521
ISBN-10: 0316093521

Humorous SF. Jaded by his own sheer invincibility, the tiny squid-like intergalactic supervillain Emperor Mollusk retires. He's taken up hobbies: solving the world's energy crisis, ending an attack of radioactive dinosaurs (although, technically, he made that mess to start with), etc. Regardless, humans love him now -- and if he had a skull, he'd be bored out of it. But when a space-hopping psychotic pile of gray matter vows to kill him and cheekily steals his own super-science to do it, even Mollusk has to admit the new kid's good -- maybe fatally so. If you never miss a chance to watch MST3K and/or love the oddball SF humor of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, see who triumphs in Emperor Mollusk versus the Sinister Brain!

Publisher: Orbit
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/01/2012
ISBN-13: 9780316128155
ISBN-10: 0316128155

Near-future/Military SF. Like all her "sisters," Catherine looks like a very pretty teenaged girl. In reality, they're genetically engineered super-soldiers, bred in vats and indoctrinated to fight to the death for their creators' cause. They rapidly degrade in mind and body at 18, to prevent their capture and re-training by enemies (or so they are told); few survive so long. At nearly 17 years old, Catherine believes her strange new mental preoccupations (fear of death, impossible desires to escape and survive) merely signal brain decay. In reality, what she's becoming is more terrifying and beautiful than her creators ever dreamed. Exogene is 2nd in the Subterrene War trilogy begun by Germline.

Publisher: Ace Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/03/2012
ISBN-13: 9781937007164
ISBN-10: 1937007162

Near-future SF. Triggers opens in a near future where the U.S. is besieged by terrorist attacks. While delivering an address at the Lincoln Memorial, U.S. President Seth Jerrison is shot by an assassin and rushed to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries. In the same hospital, Dr. Ranjip Singh works on radical memory-replacement treatments for soldiers with post-traumatic stress. When a bomb blast magnifies the pulse of Singh's equipment, suddenly dozens of people share others' most intimate memories -- including the president's, whose classified knowledge of a secret military operation will tip the balance of global power. Set your sights on Triggers for a pulse-pounding SF thriller.

Publisher: Orbit
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/13/2012
ISBN-13: 9780316133395
ISBN-10: 0316133396

SF. Ex-child star Sean Makin narrates The Fourth Wall, 3rd in the Dagmar Shaw series. Although new-media developer Dagmar is primarily off-stage, the focus of this book remains on where technology and media will take us in the future -- for good or bad, but mainly for profit. It seems the woes of the formerly cute-and-well-paid aren't much different than now: a pedomorphic condition leaves Sean with an oversize skull, perpetual baby-face, and few adult acting gigs. He eagerly accepts a role in Dagmar's newest movie/interactive game project. But as bodies start dropping, Sean has to wonder -- how much of the game is real? Fans of quirky, techno-savvy reads like Ernest Cline's Ready Player One or Neal Stephenson's Reamde will love finding out.

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/25/2006
ISBN-13: 9780345487315
ISBN-10: 0345487311

Slipstream SF. Vellum (1st in the Book of All Hours series) twists like a Moebius strip to portray an epic battle of good versus evil across parallel human, alternative, and cyber-realities. The center of it all is the Vellum: a book written in a cipher of power -- like an eternal DNA, computer code, or incantation -- that connects all worlds; who (or what) ever controls the Vellum can make or unmake them at will. A war that begins between bio-engineered and non-enhanced humans may end as a conclave of Hindi gods in a sumptuous non-linear narrative that applies quantum mechanics as deftly as magical realism. Vellum will wow SF fans of erudite, genre-resistant, speculative writers like Philip K. Dick, China Miéville, and Thomas Pynchon.

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Publisher: Scribner
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/07/2006
ISBN-13: 9780743272896
ISBN-10: 0743272897

Near-future SF. A series of nuclear attacks by Israel forever changes the world's political landscape, splitting the former U.S. into the Islamic States of America and a Christian Bible Belt. Sarah, a liberal-minded Muslim researcher, uncovers a shocking conspiracy decades later: a fanatical Muslim billionaire actually master-minded the attacks for which Israel has been blamed so long; worse, he's planning a final attack that will destroy the Bible Belt. Sarah and her lover Rakkim make a desperate cross-country trek to reveal a truth that may save lives -- or shatter what little peace is left. Prayers for the Assassin launches a gritty trilogy, continued by Sins of the Assassins.

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Publisher: Pyr
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/22/2009
ISBN-13: 9781591027812
ISBN-10: 1591027810

Space Opera. On a 23rd-century Earth ravaged by sudden climate change, a few powerful families, the "Earthers," remain convinced they can restore the planet's pre-industrial ecology. Meanwhile, a younger generation of "Outers" believes that Earth's death is irreversible, and work to colonize as many other planets as possible. When resources for critical experimentation dwindle, the Earthers begin a deadly campaign of intrigue, assassination, and sabotage against the Outers. As war explodes across the galaxy, only one thing seems certain: humanity's days are numbered. For panoramic planetary drama that also delivers keen insights into human nature, The Quiet War delivers.

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