Science Fiction
A variety of recently published science fiction titles recommended by our librarians. Descriptions adapted from Kirkus Review of Books and NoveList, unless otherwise attributed. (Updated June 2020)
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The City in the Middle of the Night
Set on a tidally locked planet with two disparate human cities, Sophie takes the fall for the charismatic Biana, a transgression which casts her into the planet’s cold wasteland. Sophie connects with the native creatures, the Gelet, where she learns revelatory truths about humanity’s past and possible future.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Ancestral Night
While scavenging in the Milky Way Haimey Dz investigates an ancient alien vessel and picks up a parasite that allows her to see the very structure of the universe, an ability that immediately makes her a target.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Gamechanger
Rubi Whiting grows up with the Bounce-back generation, young people raised after the devastation of the late 21st century. As a public defender and virtual gamer, Rubi meets Luce, a controversial firebrand and hacker that threatens the status quo she is sworn to protect.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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To Be Taught, If Fortunate
Four astronauts explore Earth-like planets light-years away. Equipped with physiologies that can adapt to new environments, they find that adapting mentally and emotionally to alien realms is harder than a flip of the switch.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Waste Tide
A young girl from the lowest caste Waste People who process the world’s tech garbage on China’s Silicon Isle is caught up in a deadly power struggle as the island’s residents rebel after exposure to a lethal virus.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Exhalation
Each story breaths life and dimensionality into the themes of time travel, memory, technology, sentience, and free will. Find out why Chiang is considered one of the best living short fiction writers in the genre.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Finna
What if a wormhole opens at the Ikea-esque department store where you work, and you are sent to investigate a lost customer with your non-binary ex? Ava and Jules discover the multi-verse on an hourly wage in this delightful story exploring queer love, friendship, and capitalism.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Recursion
Neuroscientist Helena Smith creates a “memory chair” to help Alzheimer’s patients, yet her tech does more than surface lost memories--it also creates false memories. This techno thriller accelerates the stakes for those who would use altruistic tech for evil deeds.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Radicalized
Four novellas from technology activist and writer Doctorow explore questions about technology ownership, the heartlessness of a corrupt health care system and distributed communities, survivalists during a social collapse, and the easily warped nature of heroism.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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This Is How You Lose the Time War
An epistolary trip through dimensions, in which two entities known to one another only as Red and Blue leave beautiful and cryptic notes for each other in the aftermath of epic battles.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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