Science Fiction

(33 books)

Want to try a science fiction read? Or looking for a science fiction author you haven't tried yet? See if there's anything for you in this stack of sci fi books.
Red Mars

Red Mars

Kim Stanley Robinson

3.861992Science Fiction Fantasy
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For centuries, the barren, desolate landscape of the red planet has beckoned to humankind. Now a group of one hundred colonists begins a mission whose ultimate goal is to transform Mars into a more Earthlike planet. They will place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light onto its surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels drilled into the mantle will create stupendous vents of hot gases. But despite these ambitious goals, there are some who would fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.Discover the novel that launched one of science fiction's most beloved, acclaimed, and awarded trilogies: Kim Stanley Robinson's masterly near-future chronicle of interplanetary colonization.EndorsementsWinner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel."A staggering book . . . the best novel on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written." — Arthur C. Clarke

Venomous Lumpsucker

Venomous Lumpsucker

Ned Beauman

3.832022Science Fiction
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A dark and witty story of environmental collapse and runaway capitalism from the Booker-listed author of The Teleportation Accident.The near future. Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt. For instance, the biobanks: secure archives of DNA samples, from which lost organisms might someday be resurrected... But then, one day, it’s all gone. A mysterious cyber-attack hits every biobank simultaneously, wiping out the last traces of the perished species. Now we’re never getting them back.Karin Resaint and Mark Halyard are concerned with one species in particular: the venomous lumpsucker, a small, ugly bottom-feeder that happens to be the most intelligent fish on the planet. Resaint is an animal cognition scientist consumed with existential grief over what humans have done to nature. Halyard is an exec from the extinction industry, complicit in the mining operation that destroyed the lumpsucker’s last-known habitat.Across the dystopian landscapes of the 2030s—a nature reserve full of toxic waste; a floating city on the ocean; the hinterlands of a totalitarian state—Resaint and Halyard hunt for a surviving lumpsucker. And the further they go, the deeper they’re drawn into the mystery of the attack on the biobanks. Who was really behind it? And why would anyone do such a thing?

The Red Scholar's Wake

The Red Scholar's Wake

Aliette de Bodard

3.232022Romance
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When tech scavenger Xích Si is captured and imprisoned by the infamous pirates of the Red Banner, she expects to be tortured or killed. Instead, their leader, Rice Fish, makes Xích Si an utterly incredible proposition: an offer of marriage.Both have their reasons for this arrangement: Xích Si needs protection; Rice Fish, a sentient spaceship, needs a technical expert to investigate the death of her first wife, the Red Scholar. That’s all there is to it.But as the interstellar war against piracy rages on and their own investigation reaches a dire conclusion, the two of them discover that their arrangement has evolved into something much less business-focused and more personal... and tender. And maybe the best thing that’s ever happened to either of them — but only if they can find a way to survive together.Endorsements“So romantic I may simply perish.” — Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne“Lesbian space pirates. Enough said.” — Katee Robert, NYT bestselling author of Neon Gods“The Red Scholar’s Wake is a fizzingly inventive space opera, quite unlike anything I’ve encountered before, and told with style, grace, and a big dose of heart. SF is lucky to have Aliette de Bodard.” — Alastair Reynolds, Sunday Times bestselling author“The Red Scholar’s Wake takes you on an exhilarating dive into space piracy with passion, politics, dazzling settings, and — even better — a profound core of love transcending hopelessness that rings throughout the story.” — Everina Maxwell, author of Winter’s Orbit

Plutoshine

Plutoshine

Lucy Kissick

3.912022Science Fiction
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Terraforming — the megascale engineering of a planet's surface to one more Earth-like — is now commonplace across the Solar System, and Pluto's is set to be the most ambitious transformation yet. Four billion miles from the Sun and two hundred degrees below zero, what this worldlet needs is light and heat. Through captured asteroids and solar mirrors, humanity's finest scientists and engineers are set to deliver them.What nobody factored in was a saboteur — but who, and why?From the start, terraformer Lucian is intrigued by nine-year-old Nou, traumatised to muteness after a horrifying incident that shook the base and upended her family into chaos. If he could reach her, perhaps he could understand what happened that day — and what she knows about the secrets of Pluto.For Nou possesses unspoken knowledge — something that could put a stop to the terraforming. But crippled by her fears, and unable to trust her family, there is no one she can talk to. Only through Lucian's gentle friendship does she start to rediscover her voice — and what she has to say will transform our sense of place in the Universe.

The Anomaly

The Anomaly

Hervé Le Tellier

3.822020Science Fiction
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What do you do if your life is no longer your own?When Flight Air France 006 enters a terrifying storm, the plane — inexplicably — duplicates. For every passenger on board that day, there are now two — a double with the same mind, body and memories.Just one thing sets them apart. One plane leaves the storm in March. The other doesn't land until June. For world leaders, the emergence of the June flight raises serious alarms. No science, faith, or protocol can explain this unprecedented event.But for the passengers, a bigger question is at stake. What happens to them, now that their life is shared? What happens to those who land in June, when their March doubles make decisions that will change their lives forever?And as the doubles prepare to meet, they have an extraordinary decision to make.If there are two of them, and just one life — who gets to live it?The Anomaly is a genre-defying, whip-smart novel that explores the very essence of who we are.EndorsementsWinner of the 2020 Prix Goncourt

The Coral Bones

The Coral Bones

E.J. Swift

4.152022Science Fiction Fantasy
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This is what it looks like when coral dies.Present day. Marine biologist Hana Ishikawa is racing against time to save the coral of the Great Barrier Reef, but struggles to fight for a future in a world where so much has already been lost.1839. Seventeen-year-old Judith Holliman escapes the monotony of Sydney Town when her naval captain father lets her accompany him on a voyage, unaware of the wonders and dangers she will soon encounter.The sun-scorched 22nd century. Telma Velasco is hunting for a miracle: a leafy seadragon, long believed extinct, has been sighted. But as Telma investigates, she finds hope in unexpected places.Three women: divided by time, connected by the ocean. Past, present and future collide in E. J. Swift’s The Coral Bones, a powerful elegy to a disappearing world — and a vision of a more hopeful future.

Metronome

Metronome

Tom Watson

3.692022Science Fiction
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For twelve years Aina and Whitney have been in exile on an island for a crime they committed together, tethered to a croft by pills they must take for survival every eight hours. They’ve kept busy – Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps – but something is not right.Shipwrecks have begun washing up, and their supply drops have stopped. And on the day they’re meant to be collected for parole, the Warden does not come. Instead there’s a sheep. But sheep can’t swim…As days pass, Aina begins to suspect that their prison is part of a peninsula, and that Whitney has been keeping secrets. And if he’s been keeping secrets, maybe she should too. Convinced they’ve been abandoned, she starts investigating ways she might escape. As she comes to grips with the decisions that haunt her past, she realises her biggest choice is yet to come.An eerie, striking debut by an award-winning author for fans of Emma Stonex, Francine Toon and Megan Hunter. Not all that is hidden is lost.

The Vanished Birds

The Vanished Birds

Simon Jimenez

4.072020Time Travel
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Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. Her friends and lovers have aged past her; all she has left is work. Alone and adrift, she lives only for the next paycheck, until the day she meets a mysterious boy, fallen from the sky.The scarred child does not speak; his only form of communication is the beautiful and haunting music he plays on an old wooden flute. Captured by his songs and their strange, immediate connection, Nia decides to take the boy in. Over years of starlit travel, these two outsiders discover in each other the things they lack: for him, a home, a place of love and safety; for her, an anchor to the world outside of herself.But Nia is not the only one who wants the boy. The past hungers for him, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time. "This is when your life begins." A boy, broken by his past. For both of them, a family.

A Fire Upon The Deep

A Fire Upon The Deep

Vernor Vinge

4.141992Science Fiction Fantasy
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In 1992, Vernor Vinge amazed the science fiction world with this epic novel of star-spanning adventure.EndorsementsA Fire Upon The Deep is the winner of the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

The Genesis of Misery

The Genesis of Misery

Neon Yang

3.472022Space Opera
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This is the story of Misery Nomaki (she/they) – a nobody from a nowhere mining planet who possesses the rare stone-working powers of a saint. Unfortunately, these saint-like abilities also manifest in those succumbing to voidmadness, like that which killed Misery’s mother. Knowing they aren’t a saint but praying they aren’t voidmad, Misery keeps quiet about their power for years, while dreaming and scheming up ways off their Forge-forsaken planet.But when the voice of an angel, or a very convincing delusion, leads Misery to the center of the Empire, they find themself trapped between two powerful and dangerous factions, each hoping to use Misery to win a terrible war.Still waiting to be convinced of their own divinity and secretly training with a crew of outlaws and outcasts, Misery grows close to a rebel royal, Lady Alodia Lightning, who may know something of saints and prophecy herself. The voice that guides Misery grows bolder by the day, and it seems the madness is catching…An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy from Neon Yang, author of The Black Tides of Heaven, full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs.

Leviathan Wakes

Leviathan Wakes

James S.A. Corey

4.132011Science Fiction Fantasy
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Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

The Dispossessed

The Dispossessed

Ursula K Le Guin

4.801974Science Fiction Fantasy
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The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific breakthrough which will revolutionize interstellar civilization by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres. But Shevek’s work is being stifled by jealous colleagues, so he travels to Anarres’s sister-planet Urras, hoping to find more liberty and tolerance there. But he soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.

Ancillary Justice

Ancillary Justice

Ann Leckie

3.992013Science Fiction Fantasy
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On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.Once, she was the Justice of Toren — a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

Lord of Light

Lord of Light

Roger Zelazny

4.061967Science Fiction Fantasy
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Earth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rule their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons, Lord of Light.

The Calculating Stars

The Calculating Stars

Mary Robinette Kowal

3.962018Science Fiction
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It’s 1952, and the world as we know it is gone. A meteorite has destroyed Washington, D.C., triggering extinction-level global warming. To save humanity, the world unites to form the International Aerospace Coalition, to colonize the Moon first, then Mars. Elma York, a World War II pilot and mathematician, dreams of becoming an astronaut — but prejudice has kept her grounded. Now nothing — and no man — will stop her from reaching for the stars.One woman. One mission. One chance to save the world.EndorsementsWinner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel (2019).Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel (2019).“Kowal masters both science and historical accuracy in this alternate history adventure.” — Andy Weir“In The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal imagines an alternate history of spaceflight that reminds me of everything I loved about Hidden Figures.” — Cady Coleman, Astronaut“This is what NASA never had: a heroine with attitude.” — The Wall Street Journal

Cibola Burn

Cibola Burn

James S.A. Corey

4.222014Science Fiction Fantasy
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"An empty apartment, a missing family, that's creepy. But this is like finding a military base with no one on it. Fighters and tanks idling on the runway with no drivers. This is bad juju. Something wrong happened here. What you should do is tell everyone to leave."The gates have opened the way to a thousand new worlds and the rush to colonize has begun. Settlers looking for a new life stream out from humanity's home planets. Ilus, the first human colony on this vast new frontier, is being born in blood and fire.Independent settlers stand against the overwhelming power of a corporate colony ship with only their determination, courage, and the skills learned in the long wars of home. Innocent scientists are slaughtered as they try to survey a new and alien world. The struggle on Ilus threatens to spread all the way back to Earth.James Holden and the crew of his one small ship are sent to make peace in the midst of war and sense in the midst of chaos. But the more he looks at it, the more Holden thinks the mission was meant to fail.And the whispers of a dead man remind him that the great galactic civilization that once stood on this land is gone, and that something killed it.Enter a new frontier.EndorsementsThe explosive fourth novel in James S.A. Corey's New York Times-bestselling Expanse series.Now a major television series on Syfy.

The Word for World Is Forest

The Word for World Is Forest

Ursula K Le Guin

4.041972Science Fiction Fantasy
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When the inhabitants of a peaceful world are conquered by the bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters. Desperation causes the Athsheans, led by Selver, to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. But in defending their lives, they have endangered the very foundations of their society. For every blow against the invaders is a blow to the humanity of the Athsheans. And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.

Station Eternity

Station Eternity

Mur Lafferty

3.712022Science Fiction
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Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her.From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet... and markedly devoid of homicide.But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime — and fast — or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board…A witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries.

Lock In

Lock In

John Scalzi

3.912014Science Fiction Fantasy
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Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.A quarter of a century later, in a world shaped by what's now known as "Haden's syndrome," rookie FBI agent Chris Shane is paired with veteran agent Leslie Vann. The two of them are assigned what appears to be a Haden-related murder at the Watergate Hotel, with a suspect who is an "integrator" - someone who can let the locked in borrow their bodies for a time. If the integrator was carrying a Haden client, naming the suspect for the murder becomes that much more complicated.But "complicated" doesn't begin to describe it. As Shane and Vann begin to unravel the threads of the murder, it becomes clear that the real mystery — and the real crime — is bigger than anyone could have imagined. The world of the locked in is changing, and with the change comes opportunities that the ambitious will seize at any cost. The investigation that began as a murder case takes Shane and Vann from the halls of corporate power to the virtual spaces of the locked in, and to the very heart of an emerging, surprising new human culture. It's nothing you could have expected.

The Space Between Worlds

The Space Between Worlds

Micaiah Johnson

3.952020Fantasy
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Cara is dead on three hundred and seventy-four worlds.The multiverse business is booming, but there's just one catch: no one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive.Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from diseases, from turf wars, from vendettas they couldn't outrun.But on this earth, Cara's survived. And she's reaping the benefits, thanks to the well-heeled Wiley City scientists who ID'd her as an outlier and plucked her from the dirt. Now she's got a new job collecting offworld data, a path to citizenship, and a near-perfect Wiley City accent. Now she can pretend she's always lived in the city she grew up staring at from the outside, even if she feels like a fraud on either side of its walls.But when one of her eight remaining doppelgangers dies under mysterious circumstances, Cara is plunged into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and future in ways she never could have imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.A multiverse-hopping outsider discovers a secret that threatens her home world and her fragile place in it—a stunning sci-fi debut that's both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.

A Memory Called Empire

A Memory Called Empire

Arkady Martine

4.132019Space Opera
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Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.A fascinating space opera debut novel, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure.

Solaris

Solaris

Stanisław Lem

3.991961Science Fiction Fantasy
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A classic work of science fiction by renowned Polish novelist and satirist Stanisław Lem.When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the living physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others examining the planet, Kelvin learns, are plagued with their own repressed and newly corporeal memories. The Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates these incarnate memories, though its purpose in doing so is unknown, forcing the scientists to shift the focus of their quest and wonder if they can truly understand the universe without first understanding what lies within their hearts.

Semiosis

Semiosis

Sue Burke

3.912018Science Fiction Fantasy
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Human survival hinges on a bizarre alliance in Semiosis, a character-driven science fiction novel of first contact by debut author Sue Burke.Colonists from Earth wanted the perfect home, but they'll have to survive on the one they found. They don't realize another life form watches... and waits...Only mutual communication can forge an alliance with the planet's sentient species and prove that humans are more than tools.

Embassytown

Embassytown

China Miéville

3.892011Science Fiction Fantasy
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In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak.Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties—to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her.

Dune

Dune

Frank Herbert

4.231965Science Fiction Fantasy
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Melange, or ‘spice’, is the most valuable – and rarest – element in the universe. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world Arrakis.Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.When stewardship of Arrakis is transferred to his house, Paul Atreides must travel to the planet’s dangerous surface to ensure the future of his family and his people. But as malevolent forces explode into conflict around him, Paul is thrust into a great destiny beyond his understanding.Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender’s Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written. And in this game of power, only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

The City & the City

The City & the City

China Miéville

3.902009Urban Fantasy
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When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma, and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

The Sparrow

The Sparrow

Mary Doria Russell

4.141996Science Fiction Fantasy
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Set in the 21st century — a number of decades from now — The Sparrow is the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and talented linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who — in response to a remarkable radio signal from the depths of space — leads a scientific mission to make first contact with an extraterrestrial culture.In the true tradition of Jesuit adventurers before him, Sandoz and his companions are prepared to endure isolation, suffering — even death — but nothing can prepare them for the civilisation they encounter. Or for the tragic misunderstanding that brings the mission to a devastating end. Once considered a living saint, Sandoz returns alone to Earth, horrifically maimed both physically and spiritually. He is the mission's sole survivor, only to be blamed for the mission's failure and accused of heinous crimes.

Circular Motion

Circular Motion

Alex Foster

3.362025Science Fiction
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The acceleration of Earth’s spin begins gradually. At first, days are just a few seconds shorter than normal. Awareness of the mysterious phenomenon hasn’t reached Tanner, a young man preoccupied with dreams of escaping his tiny Alaskan hometown. One night, desperate to make his mark on the world, he runs away. He lands an unlikely job at CWC, the global operator of a network of massive aircraft that orbit the Earth at 30,000 feet, revolutionizing global transportation. Now goods and people can travel anywhere in little more than an hour—you can visit Paris for an evening or order sushi from Japan. But a wave of social unrest presents challenges for CWC just as Tanner settles into his new lifestyle and develops surprising feelings for one of his colleagues.That unrest sweeps up Winnie. A high school outcast in an era of street protests, wild parties, and online savagery, Winnie falls in with a group of teen activists who blame CWC for the planet’s acceleration. As days on Earth quicken to twenty-three hours, then twenty, the sun rising and setting ever faster, causing violent storms and political meltdowns, Tanner and Winnie’s stories spiral closer together. They meet cynical executives toiling to forestall the crises they created and religious zealots for whom the apocalypse can’t come soon enough, lobbyists and lovers all coping in their own ways, and Victor Bickle—the self-aggrandizing TV scientist whose shameful secret will bind Tanner and Winnie’s fates . . . if they can uncover it before the Earth spins so fast that even gravity might lose its grip.Three-hour days. Two-hour days . . .A brilliantly imagined literary debut of love, despair, and two people’s search for belonging in a world literally spinning out of control A propulsive exploration of capitalism, technology, and our place within a system that dwarfs us, Circular Motion is one of the most ingenious debut novels of our time.

When There Are Wolves Again

When There Are Wolves Again

E.J. Swift

4.352025Science Fiction
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Decades from now, two women sit around a fire on Beltane, May Eve, and reflect on their life stories.Activist Lucy's earliest memories are of living with her grandparents during the 2020 pandemic, and discovering her grandmother's love of birds. Filmmaker Hester, born on the day of the Chornobyl explosion, visits the plant in 2021 to film its feral dog population, and encounters the wilded Exclusion Zone — and a wolf-dog.Over half a century, their journeys take them from London to Balmoral to Somerset, through protests, family rifts, and personal tragedy. Lucy's path leads to the fight to restore Britain's depleted natural habitats and bring back the species who once shared the island, whilst Hester strives to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. Both dream of a time when there are wolves again.A novel of life and of hope, When There Are Wolves Again is perfect for fans of Clade by James Bradley, The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall, and The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.EndorsementsThe extraordinary speculative novel of past, present and future, by the Clarke Award-shortlisted author of The Coral Bones.

Luminous

Luminous

Silvia Park

3.642026Science Fiction
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“I once had a family. At least, the earliest version of me had a family.”In a reunified Korea of the near future, the sun beats down on a junkyard filled with abandoned robots, broken down for parts. Eleven-year-old Ruijie sifts through the scraps, searching for a piece that might support her failing body. There among the piles of trash, something catches her eye: a robot boy—so lifelike and strange, unlike anything she’s ever seen before.Siblings Jun and Morgan haven’t spoken for years. When they were children, their brother Yoyo disappeared suddenly, leaving behind only distant memories of his laughter and near-human warmth. Yoyo—an early prototype of a humanoid robot designed by their father—was always bound for something darker and more complex. Now Morgan makes robots for a living and is on the verge of losing control of her most important creation. Jun is a detective with the Robot Crimes Unit whose investigation is digging up truths that want to stay buried. And whether they like it or not, Ruijie’s discovery will thrust their family back together in ways they could have never imagined.This sweeping debut novel set in a unified Korea tells the story of three estranged siblings—two human, one robot—as they collide against the backdrop of a murder investigation to settle old scores and make sense of their shattered childhood.EndorsementsAt once a thrilling work of speculative fiction and a “bold exploration of what it means to have a mind, a body, a self, and even a soul,” Luminous is a prescient yet timeless and unforgettably brilliant debut — Charles Yu, author of National Book Award winner Interior Chinatown.

Ice

Ice

Jacek Dukaj

4.162008Science Fiction
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14th July 1924: In a Warsaw buried under feet of snow and Russian rule, Benedykt Gieroslawski, a dissolute young Polish mathematician, is roused from his bed by two officials from the Ministry of Winter and dispatched to Siberia, on the Trans-Siberian Express, to track down his long-exiled father.The catalyst for this frosty metamorphosis of 20th-century history is the impact of the Tunguska asteroid, deep in Siberia, in 1908. From this Ground Zero, emerge the Gleissen, silent harbingers of an eternal winter that follows in their ponderous wake. As they spread across the continent, agriculture collapses and people flock to cities as they seek protection from the deadly cold. As the land freezes, so does history: the Tsar still rules Russia; the Belle Époque endures; and the First World War never happened.But out there, on the ice, a new world is being forged. The extreme, alien cold has transmuted elements into strange new forms, a 'black physics' that is the catalyst for a new industrial and scientific revolution. At the heart of it all lies Siberia – a 'Wild East', a magnet for all the political, religious and scientific fevers shaking the world at the dawn of the 20th century, the crucible where black physics, shamanic lore and the cold logic of winter combine.And Benedykt's final destination. Will he embrace the ice, or destroy it?A Trans-Siberian odyssey through political, criminal, scientific, philosophical and amorous intrigues, and into an endless winter to confront something utterly alien.

There Is No Antimemetics Division

There Is No Antimemetics Division

qntm

4.202020Science Fiction
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They’re all around us, hiding in plain sight.One could be in the room with you, now, just to your left. You could be seeing it right now—but from this second to the next, you’ll forget that you did. If you managed to jot down a note, the paper would look blank to you afterwards.These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you—and you’ll never even know anything changed. They can turn you into a living ghost—make it so that you’re standing next to your spouse, screaming in their ear, and they won’t know you’re there.They are the perfect predators, equipped with the ultimate camouflage—the ability to wipe out memories of their own existence.And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading.But how do you fight an enemy when you can never even know that you're at war? How do you contain something you can't record or remember?Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day.

Parable of the Talents

Parable of the Talents

Octavia E Butler

4.321998Science Fiction
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Originally published in 1998, this shockingly prescient novel's timely message of hope and resistance in the face of fanaticism is more relevant than ever.In 2032, Lauren Olamina has survived the destruction of her home and family, and realized her vision of a peaceful community in northern California based on her newly founded faith, Earthseed. The fledgling community provides refuge for outcasts facing persecution after the election of an ultra-conservative president who vows to "make America great again." In an increasingly divided and dangerous nation, Lauren's subversive colony—a minority religious faction led by a young black woman—becomes a target for President Jarret's reign of terror and oppression.Years later, Asha Vere reads the journals of a mother she never knew, Lauren Olamina. As she searches for answers about her own past, she also struggles to reconcile with the legacy of a mother caught between her duty to her chosen family and her calling to lead humankind into a better future.