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Book Display - January 2022

Science Fiction Book Display

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An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon "Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war"
Call Number: PS3619 .O4373 U54 2017
Exhalation by Ted Chiang This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and the temptation of second chances. In the epistolary "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his own people, but for all of reality. And in "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over twenty years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living being.
Call Number: PS3603.H53 A6 2019
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer From the author of the Southern Reach Trilogy comes a story about two humans, and two creatures. The humans are Rachel and Wick - a scavenger and a drug dealer - both with too many secrets and fears, ready with traps to be set and sprung. The creatures are Mord and Borne - animal, perhaps plant, maybe company discard, biotech, cruel experiment, dinner, deity, or source of spare parts
Call Number: PS3572 .A4284 B67 2017
Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin Betrayals -- Forgiveness day -- A man of the people -- A woman's liberation
Call Number: PS3562 .E42 F68 1996
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich A tale set in a world of reversing evolution and a growing police state follows pregnant thirty-two-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, who investigates her biological family while awaiting the birth of a child who may emerge as a member of a primitive human species.
Call Number: PS3555 .R42 F88 2017
Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin; Leni Zumas (Foreword by) In 2205, the Nineteenth Amendment has been repealed and men hold absolute power. The Earth's economy relies on an insular group of linguists who "breed" women to become interstellar translators until they are sent to the Barren House to await death. But instead, these women are secretly creating a language of their own to reclaim their autonomy and make resistance possible for all.
Call Number: PS3555.L42 N38 2019
Blood Colony by Tananarive Due There's a new drug on the street: Glow. Said to heal almost any illness, its main ingredient is blood--the blood of immortals. A small but powerful underground railroad of immortals is distributing the blood, slowly wiping out the AIDS epidemic. But the Glow peddlers are being murdered by a violent, hundred-year-old sect with ties to the Vatican. And the only immortal born with the Living Blood is being hunted to fulfill an ancient blood prophecy that could lead to countless deaths.
Call Number: PS3554 .U3413 B58 2009
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Call Number: PS3554 .I3 D6 1996
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
Call Number: PS3554 .E437 D48 2001
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
Call Number: PS3552 .U827 W54 1999b
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete. Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov's trademark.
Call Number: PS3501 .S56 I75 2008
Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel n her childhood, Rose Franklin accidentally discovered a giant metal hand buried beneath the ground outside Deadwood, South Dakota. As an adult, Dr. Rose Franklin led the team that uncovered the rest of the body parts which together form Themis: a powerful robot of mysterious alien origin. She, along with linguist Vincent, pilot Kara, and the unnamed Interviewer, protected the Earth from geopolitical conflict and alien invasion alike. Now, after nearly ten years on another world, Rose returns to find her old alliances forfeit and the planet in shambles. And she must pick up the pieces of the Earth Defense Corps as her own friends turn against each other.
Call Number: PR9199.4 .N476 O55 2018
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson A fantasy novel of urban decay whose heroine turns to Afro-Caribbean magic to help a boyfriend escape gangs. The gangs are enforcing a contract to produce a human heart for transplant, even if the boyfriend has to kill for it. The setting is a futuristic Toronto.
Call Number: PR9199.3 .H5927 B76 1998
Rosewater by Tade Thompson Between meeting a boy who bursts into flames, alien floaters that want to devour him, and a butterfly woman who he has sex with when he enters the xenosphere, Kaaro's life is far from the simple one he wants. But he left simple behind a long time ago when he was caught stealing and nearly killed by an angry mob. Now he works for a government agency called Section 45, and they want him to find a women known as Bicycle Girl. And that's just the beginning.
Call Number: PR6120 .H6654 R67 2016
Power by Naomi Alderman
Call Number: PR6101 .L43 P69 2017
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson Lake Geneva, 1816. Nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley is inspired to write a story about a scientist who creates a new life-form. In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI and carrying out some experiments of his own in a vast underground network of tunnels. Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with his mom again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere. Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryogenics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead ... but waiting to return to life. What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet?
Call Number: PR6073.I558 F73 2019
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro "From her place in the store that sells artificial friends, Klara--an artificial friend with outstanding observational qualities--watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara she is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In this luminous tale, Klara and the Sun, Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?"-- Provided by publisher.
Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, is designed to be a playmate for real children. From her place in the store she watches the behavior of those who come in to browse, and those who pass on the street outside. In conversations with the other AI and the Manager, she remains hopeful she will be chosen. When a possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
Call Number: PR6059.S5 K57 2021
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu; Ken Liu (Translator) Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
Call Number: PL2947 .C59 S3613 2014