Staff Recommendations
Daryl M.
Pages
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Infomocracy
by Older, Malka, 1977-
April 3, 2017
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Imagine a world where the entire globe has agreed to a system of governance. World populations are broken down into groups of approximately 100,000 people, referred to as “centenals,” that are overseen by a specific type of government chosen by the residents. Some are democratic, some are not. If you live in a centenal, you agree to abide by the system of government in place. If you do not agree, you move to a centenal governed in the way you prefer. Or, you convince enough of your neighbors to change the type of government through an election held once a decade. The number of these “micro-... Read Full Review
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Crooked kingdom : a sequel to six of crows.
by Bardugo, Leigh.
March 15, 2017
Call Number: YA
In Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo took readers through the planning and execution of a nearly impossible heist. By the end of the novel readers know how much of the plan succeeds, and the double-cross that leaves the crew of street thieves worse off than before. It is the double-cross and loose threads that form the basis of the con that is at the center of Crooked Kingdom, the sequel to Six of Crows. Kaz Brekker and his crew, Inej, Jesper, Matthias, Nina and Wylan, have managed the impossible. They made it into and out of the Ice Court, the most secure... Read Full Review
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The collapsing empire.
by Scalzi, John, 1969-
March 6, 2017
Call Number: SF
Global warming. Climate change. For more than four decades scientists have investigated and warned that human technology and civilization would have dramatic effects on the ecology of our planet. While the science and results are indisputable, some still resist accepting the facts presented and argue for the status quo. In The Collapsing Empire, John Scalzi explores how a discovery about a different type of natural phenomenon could very well be the undoing of the human race once we move out into the stars, and how people respond when the scientists reveal the news.When the Flow was... Read Full Review
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All our wrong todays : a novel
by Mastai, Elan,
February 21, 2017
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Tom Barren lives in a science fiction dream of the future: flying cars, teleportation, moon colonies, and, as soon as his father completes his experiments, time travel. All of these things exist in 2016, not some far-flung 23rd or 24th century. On July 11, 1965, Lionel Goettreider activated an engine that provided the world with a clean, free energy source that made every sci-fi pulp writer’s visions of the future a reality. While this sounds like a utopian fantasy over sixty years in the making made real, for Tom it is every bit as unlivable as our world often is for us. Tom is aimless,... Read Full Review
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Time siege
by Chu, Wesley,
January 10, 2017
Call Number: SF
In Time Salvager, Wesley Chu introduced readers to a brutal, dystopian world where Earth is primarily a toxic wasteland, and most of humanity has fled to live on the moons of the gas giants. Mega-corporations exert influence on everything and everyone, with the exception of ChronoCom, the non-profit entity that manages time travel and enforces the time laws. Time travel is used to plunder the past for resources to keep the present functioning. It is into this world that chronman James Griffin-Mars brings Elise Kim. Elise is a 21st century scientist, and now a temporal anomaly, who... Read Full Review
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The winner's kiss.
by Rutkoski, Marie.
January 3, 2017
Call Number: YA
In The Winner’s Curse, the first book in The Winners Trilogy, author Marie Rutkoski introduces readers to Kestrel, daughter and only child of General Trajan of the Valorian army, and Arin, the Herrani slave Kestral impulsively purchased at auction. Theirs is a rocky relationship from the start, but one that challenges them to examine truths they each hold firmly. Between them, a dance begins, deliberate and accidental, controlled and controlling, with undercurrents of undeniable passion. Each alternates in leading the dance, sometimes in spite of their positions as slave and master,... Read Full Review
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The city of mirrors : a novel
by Cronin, Justin,
December 19, 2016
Call Number: CD
In The Passage, book one of The Passage Trilogy, Justin Cronin showed us how the world would end. A group of scientists begin working with a rare virus from South America and dream of solving all illnesses and possibly death. Their work is taken over by the military, who secure the test-subjects, and all but one are death-row inmates. The exception is an abandoned six-year-old girl known as Amy NLN (NLN=no last name). They become known as the virals, who have almost all of the classic characteristics of a vampire. They drain their prey of blood and others they infect with a disease.... Read Full Review
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Hex
by Olde Heuvelt, Thomas,
October 31, 2016
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Horror, true horror, is difficult to find these days. The genre has been overshadowed by images meant to shock rather than scare. With Hex, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, an established and successful author in Holland, unleashes a classic ghost story, with enough modern twists to keep all readers from having a good night's sleep. In 1664, Katherine van Wyler was accused of being a witch and then killed. Her unfair treatment immediately culminated in her cursing her home town and its residents in the following ways: If you are born there, you can never leave. If you settle there,... Read Full Review
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Conspiracy of ravens
by Bowen, Lila,
October 11, 2016
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At the end of Wake of Vultures, Nettie Lonesome, the half Native American, half African American, cross-dressing Texas Ranger, who is also The Shadow, took a leap of faith hoping to find some answers. She had just dispatched the Cannibal Owl, and narrowly escaped with her life, then Nettie suddenly walked to the edge of a cliff and jumped. Did she find what she was looking for? Perhaps. She also added to the long list of questions for which she had no... Read Full Review
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The long way to a small, angry planet
by Chambers, Becky,
September 12, 2016
Call Number: SF
Space Opera is the subgenre of Speculative Fiction that focuses on daring heroes and their adventures in outer space. Springing from the Science Fiction pulps in the 1930s, moving into novels, and novel series, by authors like E.E. “Doc” Smith, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and David Gerrold, Space Opera moved onto the big screen with Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers and then scattered into comics, comic books, television and graphic novels. For over 70 years, it has been a favorite with readers and viewers alike. Reading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky... Read Full Review
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The ballad of Black Tom
by LaValle, Victor D., 1972-
August 1, 2016
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In recent years, the writings of H.P. Lovecraft have become increasingly problematic. His personal views regarding race and class permeate his writing, resulting in works that are challenging at best and nearly impossible to enjoy for contemporary readers. While the subject of Lovecraft’s views on race have been the focus of many debates and disagreements, between fans and scholars, Victor Lavalle, an award winning author and instructor at Columbia University, started reading Lovecraft around the age of eleven. As he grew older, he began to recognize Lovecraft’s rampant racism, which left him... Read Full Review
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The water knife
by Bacigalupi, Paolo.
June 27, 2016
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California has been in a state of drought for approximately six consecutive years. The drought has also affected other states: Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas. Therefore it is hard to imagine a more timely novel than The water knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. In this novel the fluctuations of water have wreaked havoc on the eastern seaboard: New York and Miami have disappeared under the waves as ocean levels rise. In the southwest, the lack of water is destroying cities just as thorougly, and water has become one of the most valuable commodities in the area. The... Read Full Review