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Book Lists

Book Lists for Adults

Book Lists for Adults

So you think you hate Science Fiction? Let me change your mind

Some monsters, some witches, time travel (past and future), genetics, and lets not forget lasers. But there is also family and found families; slavery and freedom; dying worlds and saving worlds; mysteries and truths.

Onyebuchi, Tochi, author.
SCIENCE FICTION ONY
"'Onyebuchi sets fire to the boundary between fiction and reality, and brings a crumbling city and an all too plausible future to vibrant life. Riveting, disturbing, and rendered in masterful detail.'-Leigh Bardugo In his adult novel debut, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award finalist and ALA Alex and New England Book Award winner Tochi Onyebuchi delivers a sweeping science fiction epic in the vein of Samuel R. Delany and Station Eleven In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighborhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked. A primal biblical epic flung into the future, Goliath weaves together disparate narratives-a space-dweller looking at New Haven, Connecticut as a chance to reconnect with his spiraling lover; a group of laborers attempting to renew the promises of Earth's crumbling cities; a journalist attempting to capture the violence of the streets; a marshal trying to solve a kidnapping-into a richly urgent mosaic about race, class, gentrification, and who is allowed to be the hero of any history"-- Provided by publisher.

Miles, Terry, author.
SCIENCE FICTION MIL
"Conspiracies abound in this surreal and yet all-too-real technothriller, detailing an underground alternate reality game, set in the same world as the popular Rabbits podcast. Rabbits is a secret, dangerous, and occasionally fatal underground alternate reality game, where the prizes are unclear but may involve vast sums of money, NSA or CIA recruitment, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. Since the game first started in 1959, ten iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. No one knows the true identity of these winners--just their now-famous user names. And everyone is waiting for the eleventh round to begin. K is an expert on the game, although he's never played it himself. He runs information sessions for amateurs at an historic, grungy arcade. But when he is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio--the alleged winner of the sixth iteration--his world is turned upside down. Because Scarpio wants his help fixing the game, which he claims has become corrupted. And if the eleventh iteration begins before the game is repaired, he claims, all hell will break loose. Soon K is in way over his head, chasing down a myserious rabbit hole that is getting stranger and twistier and more perilous by the day. Because, as it happens, he blows the deadline, Eleven begins ... and suddenly there is far more than just his own life at risk ..."-- Provided by publisher.

Scalzi, John, 1969- author.
SCIENCE FICTION SCA
"The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi's first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy. When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls "an animal rights organization." Tom's team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble. It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society whose found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die"-- Provided by publisher.

Córdova, Zoraida, author.
SCIENCE FICTION COR
"Perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Isabel Allende, and Sarah Addison Allen, this is a gorgeously written novel about a family searching for the truth hidden in their past and the power they've inherited, from the author of the acclaimed and "giddily exciting" (The New York Times Book Review) Brooklyn Brujas series"-- Provided by publisher.

Glover, Nicole, author.
SCIENCE FICTION GLO
"Hetty Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, were Conductors on the Underground Railroad, ferrying dozens of slaves to freedom with daring, cunning, and magic that draws its power from the constellations. With the war over, those skills find new purpose as they solve mysteries and murders that white authorities would otherwise ignore. In the heart of Philadelphia's Seventh Ward, everyone knows that when there's a strange death or magical curses causing trouble, Hetty and Benjy are the only ones that can solve the case. But when an old friend is murdered, their investigation stirs up a wasp nest of intrigue, lies, and long-buried secrets - and a mystery unlike anything they handled before. With a clever, cold-blooded killer on the prowl testing their magic and placing their lives at risk, Hetty and Benjy will discover how little they really know about their neighbors...and themselves."-- Publisher.

Johnson, Mark S., author.
SCIENCE FICTION JOH
In a not-so-distant future, a climate refugee named Elon who has been traveling alone, finds the Kenneally Center, an abandoned property where a mysterious older man offers him shelter. Over the next few days, two pairs and another man find their way to the Center, and the group decides to trust one another, collecting and sharing food and providing companionship to one another. The group decides to tell each other stories, and each person's contribution helps the group to understand one another and themselves. However, a new arrival threatens upheaval to the new way of life they have established.

Chambers, Becky, author.
SCIENCE FICTION CHA
"In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk & Robot series gives us hope for the future. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They're going to need to ask it a lot. Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?"-- Provided by publisher.

Leicht, Stina, author.
SCIENCE FICTION LEI
"On the backwater planet of Brynner, at Persephone Station, a community of android refugees, all female, are hiding since they were able to awaken their AI and escape servitude. But the Serrao-Orlov Corporation is nothing if not tenacious, especially about its proprietary AIs, and it wants their property back. However, Persephone is run by Rosie, and they are in charge of an organized group of beneficent criminals and assassins, along with a bunch of worn mercenaries who have a thing for doing the honorable thing, despite the odds. And in a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation, the odds are not going to be good, but it would be a glorious fight. Award-nominated author Stina Leicht has created a viciously feminist take on The Magnificent Seven by the way of Blade Runner and Westworld"-- Provided by publisher

DVD 791.43 EVERYTHING
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.

Vara, Vauhini, 1982- author.
SCIENCE FICTION VAR
"Will you, dear Shareholder, set Athena free? Athena Rao must reckon with the memory of her father, King Rao--literally. Through biotechnological innovation, he has given her his memories. His Dalit childhood on an Indian coconut plantation in the 1950s is as alive to her as her own existence in a prison cell, accused of her father's murder. Egocentric, brilliant, a little damaged, King Rao had a visionary idea: the personal computer known as the Coconut. His wife, Margie, was an artist with a marketing genius. Together they created a new world order, led by a corporate-run government. Athena's future is now in the hands of its Shareholders--unless she can rejoin the Exes, a resistance group sustaining tech-free lifestyles on low-lying islands. Lyrical, satirical, and profound, The Immortal King Rao obliterates genre to confront the digital age. This gripping, brilliant debut poses an urgent question: can anyone--peasant laborers, convention-destroying entrepreneurs, radical anarchists, social-media followers--ever get free?"-- Provided by publisher.

Dixon, Ruby, 1976- author.
SCIENCE FICTION DIX
"The international publishing phenomenon Ice Planet Barbarians, now in a special print edition! Fall in love with the out-of-this-world romance between Georgie Carruthers, a human woman, and Vektal, an alien from another planet, in this expanded edition with bonus materials and an exclusive epilogue-in print only! You'd think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that could happen to me. And you'd be wrong. Because now the aliens are having ship trouble, and they've left their cargo of human women-including me-on an ice planet. We're not equipped for life in this desolate winter wasteland. Since I'm the unofficial leader, I head out into the snow to look for help. I find help all right. A big blue horned alien introduces himself in a rather ... startling way. Vektal says that I'm his mate, his chosen female-and that the reason his chest is purring is because of my presence. He'll help me and my people survive, but this poses a new problem. If Vektal helps us survive, I'm not sure he's going to want to let me go"-- Provided by publisher

Dawson, Juno, author.
SCIENCE FICTION DAW
"If you look hard enough at old photographs, we're there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple. At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls--Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle--took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right. Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven"-- Provided by publisher.