Science Fiction & Fantasy
From Octavia E. Butler to J.R.R. Tolkien, discover otherworldly and dystopian tales that inspire fascination and reflection. If you’ve got a taste for fiction based on planets both wondrous and eerily familiar, you’ll love our science fiction and fantasy selection. Treat your inner sci-fi buff to a Scribd subscription.
From Octavia E. Butler to J.R.R. Tolkien, discover otherworldly and dystopian tales that inspire fascination and reflection. If you’ve got a taste for fiction based on planets both wondrous and eerily familiar, you’ll love our science fiction and fantasy selection. Treat your inner sci-fi buff to a Scribd subscription.
Spotlight
A deluxe, expanded edition of an out-of-print early novel from Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor, with a brand-new introduction from the author. Niger, West Africa, 2074 It is an era of tainted technology and mysterious mysticism. A great change has happened all over the planet, and the laws of physics aren't what they used to be. Within all this, I introduce you to Ejii Ugabe, a child of the worst type of politician. Back when she was nine years old, she was there as her father met his end. Don't waste your tears on him: this girl's father would throw anyone under a bus to gain power. He was a cruel, cruel man, but even so, Ejii did not rejoice at his departure from the world. Children are still learning that some people don't deserve their love. Now fifteen years old and manifesting the abilities given to her by the strange Earth, Ejii decides to go after the killer of her father. Is it for revenge or something else? You will have to find out in this book. I am the Desert Magician, and this is a novel I have conjured for you, so I'm certainly not going to just tell you here.
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Do You Remember Being Born?: A Novel Marian Ffarmer is a world-renowned poet and a legend in the making—but only now, at seventy-five years old, is she beginning to believe in the security of her successes. Unfortunately, a poet's accomplishments don't necessarily translate to capital, and as her adult son struggles to buy his first home, her confidence in her choices begins to fray. Marian's pristine life of mind—for which she's sacrificed nearly all personal relationships, from romance to friendship to motherhood—has come at a cost. Then comes a cryptic invitation from the Tech Company. Come to California, the invitation beckons, and write with a machine. The Company's lucrative offer—for Marian to coauthor a poem in a 'historic partnership' with their cutting-edge poetry bot, named Charlotte—chafes at everything she believes about artmaking as an individual pursuit . . . yet, it's a second chance she can't resist. And so to California she goes, a sell-out and a skeptic, for an encounter that will unsettle her life, her work, and even her understanding of kinship. Both a love letter to and interrogation of the nature of language, art, labor, capital, family, and community, Do You Remember Being Born? is Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Sean Michaels's empathetic response to some of the most disquieting questions of our time.
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pomegranate Gate The first adventure in the Mirror Realm Cycle, a Spanish Inquisition-era fantasy trilogy inspired by Jewish folklore, with echoes of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden. Toba Peres can speak, but not shout; sleep, but not dream. She can write with both hands at once, in different languages, but she keeps her talents hidden at her grandparents’ behest. Naftaly Cresques sees things that aren’t real, and dreams things that are. Always the family disappointment, Naftaly would still risk his life to honor his father’s last wishes. After the Queen demands every Jew convert or face banishment, Toba and Naftaly are among thousands of Jews who flee their homes. Defying royal orders to abandon all possessions, Toba keeps an amulet she must never take off; Naftaly smuggles a centuries-old book he’s forbidden to read. But the Inquisition is hunting these particular treasures–and they’re not hunting alone. Toba stumbles through a pomegranate grove into the mirror realm of the Mazik: mythical, terrible immortals with an Inquisition of their own, equally cruel and even more powerful. With the Mazik kingdoms in political turmoil, this Inquisition readies its bid to control both realms. In each world, Toba and Naftaly must evade both Inquisitions long enough to unravel the connection between their family heirlooms and the realm of the Mazik. Their fates are tied to this strange place, and it’s up to them to save it. Brimming with folkloric wonder, The Pomegranate Gate weaves history and magic into a spellbindingly intricate tale suffused with humor and heart.
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDesire Bridget Carter unknowingly tempts me with her chocolate-colored eyes, long red hair, and bold attitude. She’s awfully bossy for a sub. Which only makes the sadist inside me rumble with the need to come out and play. I bury my feelings deep, because I refuse to become a monster. But life has a way of laughing in my face. When Bridget shows up at my office begging for help, all I can do is agree. I’ll do anything for this woman. When danger arrives at her doorstep, the rules change, and I will do anything to protect her. Even unleash the beast.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World Wasn't Ready for You: Stories Black Mirror meets Get Out in this gripping story collection reminiscent of the work of Octavia E. Butler, which deftly blends science fiction, horror, and fantasy to examine issues of race, class, and prejudice—an electrifying, oftentimes heartbreaking debut from an extraordinary new voice. Justin C. Key has long been obsessed with monsters. Reading R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps as a kid, he imagined himself battling monsters and mayhem to a triumphant end. But when watching Scream 2, in which the movie’s only Black couple is promptly killed off, he realized that the Black and Brown characters in his favorite genre were almost always the victim or villain—if they were portrayed at all. In The World Wasn’t Ready for You, Key expands and subverts the horror genre to expertly explore issues of race, class, prejudice, love, exclusion, loneliness, and what it means to be a person in the world, while revealing the horrifying nature inherent in all of us. In the opening story, “The Perfection of Theresa Watkins,” a sci-fi love story turned nightmare, a husband uses new technology to download the consciousness of his recently deceased Black wife into the body of a white woman. In “Spider King,” an inmate agrees to participate in an experimental medical study offered to Black prisoners in exchange for early release, only to find his body reacting with disturbing symptoms. And in the title story, a father tries to protect his son, teaching him how to navigate a prejudiced world that does not understand him and sees him as a threat. The World Wasn’t Ready for You is a gripping, provocative, and distinctly original collection that demonstrates Key’s remarkable literary gifts—a skill at crafting science fiction stories equaled by an ability to sculpt characters and narrative—as well as his utterly fresh take on how genre can be used to delight, awe, frighten, and ultimately challenge our perceptions. Wildly imaginative and powerfully resonant, it introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDragon My Heart She's finally free, but now she's playing century catch up. Freedom isn't what Eleria thought it was. Not only does she have to deal with the invention of the motor car, but what the hell is a tok-tik? She has to relearn the world, which is not helped by a green dragon who thinks they're joined at the hip and won't leave her be. Unsure what to do with a dragon who has puppy tendancies, she does the only thing she can think of... and leashes him. When her hard-won freedom is threatened, Eleria must make a choice. Roll over to her former master... or fight. She'll fight to the last to protect herself, her new friends, and for the right to choose
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Godkiller USA Today Bestseller! "A richly rendered world . . . Kaner writes action that's both fun and intelligible . . . If "The Last of Us" didn't slake your thirst for stories of a grizzled fighter taking a tough kid on the road, then Godkiller should be your jam.”— The Washington Post “Godkiller will have you in its grasp from the first pages. . . An extraordinary journey.” — Samantha Shannon, New York Times bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree Enter a land of gods and monsters, soldiers and mercenaries, secrets and wishes—the explosive #1 internationally bestselling fantasy debut in a new trilogy for fans of The Witcher and Gideon the Ninth Gods are forbidden in the kingdom of Middren. Formed by human desires and fed by their worship, there are countless gods in the world—but after a great war, the new king outlawed them and now pays “godkillers” to destroy any who try to rise from the shadows. As a child, Kissen saw her family murdered by a fire god. Now, she makes a living killing them and enjoys it. But all this changes when Kissen is tasked with helping a young noble girl with a god problem. The child’s soul is bonded to a tiny god of white lies, and Kissen can’t kill it without ending the girl’s life too. Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, the unlikely group must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favor. Pursued by assassins and demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning. Something is rotting at the heart of their world, and they are the only ones who can stop it. “An epic fantasy odyssey begins . . . Kaner's debut is incredibly inclusive . . . It delivers high action while centering on characters that are not often depicted this fully.”— Entertainment Weekly "Beautifully imagined and intensely felt . . . Godkiller is a bone-rattling fantasy thriller that flies by in a breathtaking rush." — Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Locke & Key "Epic and intimate, tender and sharp, Godkiller is a triumph of storytelling." — Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Death I Gave Him A Twenty-First Century Hamlet. Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself. Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me … With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people—his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul—one of whom must be the killer. His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence, Horatio, who has been his dear friend and companion since its creation. With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets, uncover his father’s lies, and push the boundaries of sanity in the pursuit of revenge.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Free People's Village In an alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. Green infrastructure projects have transformed U.S. cities into lush paradises (for wealthy, white neighborhoods, at least), and the Bureau of Carbon Regulation levies carbon taxes on every financial transaction. Maddie Ryan is a 24-year-old English teacher at a predominantly Black high school in Houston. Teaching is just a job for her; it pays the bills, and she lives for band practices with her queer punk band, Bunny Bloodlust. When Maddie learns that the neighborhood where she teaches and her band plays is to be sacrificed for a new electromagnetic hyperway out to the suburbs, she joins a Black-led organizing movement fighting for the neighborhood. At first, she’s only focused on keeping her band together and getting closer to the band’s guitarist (and her crush) Red. But working with Save the Eighth forces Maddie to reckon with the harm she has already done to the neighborhood—both as a resident of the gentrifying Lab and as a white teacher in a predominantly Black school. When police respond to their protests with violence, the Lab becomes the epicenter of “The Free People’s Village”—an occupation that promises to be the birthplace of an anti-capitalist revolution. In The Free People’s Village, Sim Kern dares to ask the question that many socialjustice-minded individuals have long grappled with: When justice comes knocking, will you be brave enough to answer?
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnding Forever Axel Rivers can’t get his head above water. Throughout his life, he’s worn many hats — orphan, musician, veteran, husband, father—but a year ago, a horrific event he now calls The Bad Day tore down everything he’d built. Grief-stricken, unemployed, and drowning in debt, Axel needs cash, however he can find it. Enter Kindred Eternal Solutions. Founded by the world’s six wealthiest trillionaires and billionaires, Kindred promises to create eternal life through mastering the science of human resurrection. With the technology still being developed, Kindred seeks paid volunteers to undergo tests that will kill and resurrect their body—again and again—in exchange for a check. Axel signs up willingly, but when he undergoes the procedure—and comes back, over and over—what will he find on the other side of death?
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sky Vault The third book in Percy’s innovative and acclaimed Comet Cycle, The Sky Vault, follows an investigation of a mysterious weather phenomena in Fairbanks, Alaska, and a government secret buried since WWII. The comet, Cain, came from beyond our solar system, its debris containing elements unknown. Now, in the isolated region of Fairbanks, Alaska, the skies shift and stretch as an interstellar dust cloud seeds the atmosphere. When a plane shudders its way through pulpy, swirling, bruise-shaped clouds, lit with sudden cracks of lightning, the sky opens and the aircraft vanishes…but only for a minute. When the flight lands, everyone on board and in the community will be changed forever. Chuck Bridges, a local DJ and conspiracy theorist, was on board and later reported dead to his family, but not before proclaiming that something inside the clouds was speaking to him. Now his son, Theo, must chase down answers to the mystery his father unlocked. He’ll find himself at odds with Sophie Chen, an agent with a shadowy employer desperate to secure the black box from the airplane, as well as Rolf Wagner, a widowed sheriff investigating a series of increasingly strange and unsettling reports. And then there is Joanna Straub, a contractor reconstructing a top-secret government lab active during WWII and shuttered deep within the nearby White Mountains. The answer to the comet’s origin is about to be unveiled, and its impact on Earth is more treacherous and sublime than humanity could imagine.
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThornhedge From USA Today bestselling author T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways. There's a princess trapped in a tower. This isn't her story. Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right? But nothing with fairies is ever simple. Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold… "The way Thornhedge turns all the fairy tales inside out is a sharp-edged delight." —Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Vampire Betrayed A fated mates, virgin heroine, vampire witch romance. (This book was previously published with a different cover and the title "Blood Betrayal".) Vampire Christian Moore has spent his entire life, both human and immortal, fighting for the respect of his peers. He has codes he lives by. Strict moral codes, both in his personal life and his work. And he doesn't break them. Ever. Until he finds himself at the carnal mercy of a woman with eyes like the midday sky and hair the colors of a summer sunset. His craving for her is unnatural, and watching her dance makes his blood burn like acid in his veins. But he can't not watch her. When she was fifteen, Ryan Moss lost her mind. Or, at least that's what the voices in her head would have her believe. On the streets of Tijuana, she finds something that makes the voices go away. To get it, she's ashamed to admit, she'll do just about anything, even strip for a man she can't see or hear. However, she can sense his raging need for her through the haze of her high, and her body responds with a voracious hunger of its own. Christian can make the voices go away, and he wants Ryan to be his. But first, he will have to learn to trust her, and she him. Both of their lives depend on it. WARNING: This novel contains content that may be a trigger for some, including, but not limited to, drug addiction and scenes of violence.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Transition: A Novel For fans of Station Eleven and The Last Thing He Told Me, this richly imaginative, immersive, and “profound” (Alice Elliott Dark, author of Fellowship Point) novel is the electrifying story of a family in crisis that unfolds against the backdrop of our near future. Emi Vargas, whose parents helped save the world, is tired of being told how lucky she is to have been born after the climate crisis. But following the public assassination of a dozen climate criminals, Emi’s mother, Kristina, disappears as a possible suspect, and Emi’s illusions of utopia are shattered. A determined Emi and her father, Larch, journey from their home in Nuuk, Greenland to New York City, now a lightly populated storm-surge outpost built from the ruins of the former metropolis. But they aren’t the only ones looking for Kristina. Thirty years earlier, Larch first came to New York with a team of volunteers to save the city from rising waters and torrential storms. Kristina was on the frontlines of a different battle, fighting massive wildfires that ravaged the western United States. They became part of a movement that changed the world—The Great Transition—forging a new society and finding each other in process. Alternating between Emi’s desperate search for her mother and a meticulously rendered, heart-stopping account of her parents’ experiences during The Great Transition, this novel beautifully shows how our actions today determine our fate tomorrow. A triumphant debut, The Great Transition is a breathtaking rendering of our near future, told through the story of one family trying to protect each other and the place we all call home.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sedona Sacrifice: Southwestern Paranormal Romance with Shifters, Psychics, and Secrets For Gage Woods, being a single dad means making sacrifices, and being a werewolf on top of it all makes secrets a must. As his pack brothers find their true mates, he yearns for his own, but dating is almost as perilous as fighting the rogue jaguar shifters who attack his pack. The moment he decides to give up and focus on his boys, fate steps in, but what if Becca is actually working with the enemy?
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whalefall: A Novel A USA TODAY BESTSELLER The Martian meets 127 Hours in this “powerfully humane” (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) and scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year. The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale. Suspenseful and cinematic, Whalefall is an “astoundingly great” (Gillian Flynn, New York Times bestselling author) thriller about a young man who has given up on life…only to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Detained by the Alien Enforcer Persephone I’ve stayed hidden for years on this unstable alien planet. Humans are being abducted left and right, forced into breeding, and kept in cages like pets. I didn’t survive a career as a paramedic in violent downtown Chicago to be stuffed into a cage, thanks. I’ve already been abducted once, and I’ll die before it happens again. I’m a masked healer now, with the only apothecary on Tevron. I’ve got a bigger secret than being human… and it’s one every skin trader in the universe would kill to find out. I have to keep my secret safe… and I was doing fine until the alien cop detained me. Tempted me. And discovered who I truly am and what I’m up to. X-n My job is to collect humans and deposit them into safety at the human colony on Enlaan. I’m recovering from unfathomable trauma and working as a S.W.A.T. Enforcer. Nothing deters me from a mission. The moment I removed the human female’s mask, I knew I was in trouble. I've renounced my name. Locked my emotions deep inside. She makes me want to feel something besides rage. To belong to someone. These desires shame me. And when I realize what she's done... I know I can never have what I think I want. She fights me at every turn. So, I must take drastic measures. I have no choice. I need her to save the Orin Empire, and possibly my soul. No matter if she's willing or not. Detained by the Alien Enforcer is the third book in the Cosmic S.W.A.T. series. It is helpful if you read the books in order for the best reading experience, but not necessary.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragon's Knight Out Lady Penelope has never forgotten the story of Saint George defeating the dragon Saint her a*** But it's just that... a story. It was a damn good PR job. She should know. She was there Only a blast from her past brings back long-forgotten feelings and a reminder that dragons do, in fact, hold grudges. Can she let go of her anger long enough to let love back into her life? Or will the darkness of betrayal win?
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Immortal Longings A NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER #1 New York Times bestselling author Chloe Gong’s adult epic fantasy debut. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Immortal Longings is a fiery collision of power plays, spilled blood, and romance amidst a set of deadly games. Every year, thousands in the kingdom of Talin will flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace hosts a set of games. For those confident enough in their ability to jump between bodies, competitors across San-Er fight to the death to win unimaginable riches. Princess Calla Tuoleimi lurks in hiding. Five years ago, a massacre killed her parents and left the palace of Er empty…and she was the one who did it. Before King Kasa’s forces in San can catch her, she plans to finish the job and bring down the monarchy. Her reclusive uncle always greets the victor of the games, so if she wins, she gets her opportunity at last to kill him. Enter Anton Makusa, an exiled aristocrat. His childhood love has lain in a coma since they were both ousted from the palace, and he’s deep in debt trying to keep her alive. Thankfully, he’s one of the best jumpers in the kingdom, flitting from body to body at will. His last chance at saving her is entering the games and winning. Calla finds both an unexpected alliance with Anton and help from King Kasa’s adopted son, August, who wants to mend Talin’s ills. But the three of them have very different goals, even as Calla and Anton’s partnership spirals into something all-consuming. Before the games close, Calla must decide what she’s playing for—her lover or her kingdom.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet From the extraordinary minds of award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author of H Is for Hawk Helen Macdonald and first time author Sin Blaché, Prophet is their electric debut, a tantalizing adventure fusing noir, sci-fi and a slow burn queer romance—set in a universe just one perilous step from our own. Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer and Rao is an ex-MI6 agent, an addict and rudderless pleasure hound, with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things—about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the UK after a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate, setting into motion the most dangerous and otherworldly mission of their lives. In a surreal, action-packed quest that takes Adam and Rao from secret laboratories in Colorado, to a luxury lodge in Aspen, to the remote Nevada desert, the pair begins to uncover how and why people’s fondest memories are being weaponized against them by a spooky, ever-shifting substance called Prophet. As the unlikely twosome battles this strange new reality, Prophet’s victims’ memories are materializing in increasingly bizarre forms: favorite games, beloved pets, fairground rides, each more malevolent than the next. Prophet is like no enemy Adam and Rao - or the world - have ever come up against. A tension-shot odd-couple romance, an unflinching send-up of corporate corruption, and a genre-bending tour de force, Prophet is a triumph of storytelling by a new writing duo with a thrilling future.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shark Heart: A Love Story New York Times Editor’s Choice Newlyweds face the unimaginable in this epic tale about marriage, motherhood, and enduring love. “Surprising and pleasurably uncategorizable. Shark Heart is wild, in every sense of the word” (The New York Times Book Review). For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams. At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with a college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds. Woven throughout this bold novel is the story of Wren’s mother, Angela, who becomes pregnant with Wren at fifteen in an abusive relationship amidst her parents’ crumbling marriage. In the present, all of Wren’s grief eventually collides, and she is forced to make an impossible choice. A sweeping love story that is at once lyrical and funny, airy and visceral, Shark Heart is an unforgettable, gorgeous novel about life’s perennial questions, the fragility of memories, finding joy amidst grief, and creating a meaningful life. This daring debut marks the arrival of a wildly talented new writer abounding with originality, humor, and heart.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forged by Blood: A Novel A brilliant new voice brings a brilliant new novel: debut author Ehigbor Okosun’s first book in an action-packed, poignant duology inspired by Nigerian mythology—full of magic and emotion and set in a highly atmospheric, complex world in which a young woman fights to survive a tyrannical society, having everything stripped away from her, and seeks vengeance for her mother’s murder and the spilled blood of her people. In the midst of a tyrannical regime and political invasion, Dèmi just wants to survive: to avoid the suspicion of the nonmagical Ajes who occupy her ancestral homeland of Ife; to escape the King’s brutal genocide of her people—the darker skinned, magic wielding Oluso; and to live peacefully with her secretive mother while learning to control the terrifying blood magic that is her birthright. But when Dèmi’s misplaced trust costs her mother’s life, survival gives way to vengeance. She bides her time until the devious Lord Ekwensi grants her the perfect opportunity—kidnap the Aje prince, Jonas, and bargain with his life to save the remaining Oluso. With the help of her reckless childhood friend Colin, Dèmi succeeds, but discovers that she and Jonas share more than deadly secrets; every moment tangles them further into a forbidden, unmistakable attraction, much to Colin’s—and Dèmi’s—distress. The kidnapping is now a joint mission: to return to the King, help get Lord Ekwensi on the council, and bolster the voice of the Oluso in a system designed to silence them. But the way is dangerous, Dèmi’s magic is growing yet uncertain, and it’s not clear if she can trust the two men at her side. A tale of rebellion and redemption, race and class, love and trust and betrayal, Forged by Blood is epic fantasy at its finest, from an enthusiastic, emerging voice. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So This Is the End: A Love Story How Would You Spend Your Last Few Hours on Earth? Early readers called So This Is the End "a breath of fresh air,” "moving and beautiful," and something with which you’ll "fall in love the instant you start reading.” #1 New Release in Science Fiction & Fantasy In Nora Hamilton’s world, doctors have found a cure for death, with just one caveat—it only lasts for 24 hours. This beautifully-written novel poses a thoughtful question: how would you spend your last 24 hours before death? One more day. One more chance to tell family you love them, feel the grass beneath your feet, or finally speak your mind. So This Is The End follows Nora Hamilton as she navigates her last 24 hours before death, and she is determined to do something meaningful with her last moments. While looking for unique bucket list ideas, a friend suggests going on one last first date. What happens next is like a love story. Of course Nora would fall in love in her last 24 hours before death. Enter: Renzo. Ren, for short. Their connection is immediate. Nora wants love, no lies. Should she tell Ren the truth about her condition—that she has less than 24 hours left before her second death? How will he react? Is it unethical to fall in love with someone if you only have one day left on earth? Or is love a gift, even when it's found on the final day a person has left? Inside So This Is The End, you’ll find: A love novel about taking chances, making your own rules, and how love does prevail How to treat all days like your final days—escape mundane living A moving romantic drama about finding love in your last 24 hours before death If you liked The Midnight Library, Me Before You, or The Light We Lost, you’ll love So This Is The End.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time's Mouth Ursa possesses a very special gift. She can travel through memory and revisit her past. After she flees her hometown for the counterculture glory of 1950s California, the intoxicating potential of her unique ability eventually draws a group of women into her orbit and into a ramshackle Victorian mansion in the woods outside Santa Cruz. Yet Ursa’s powers come with a cost. Soon this cultish community of sisterhood takes an ominous turn, prompting her son, Ray, and his pregnant lover, Cherry, to flee their home for Los Angeles and reinvent themselves far from Ursa’s insidious influence. But escaping their past won’t be so easy. A series of mysterious events forces Cherry to abandon their baby, leaving Ray to raise Opal alone. Now a teenager and still heartbroken over the abandonment by the mother she never knew, Opal must journey into her own past to reveal the generations of secrets that gave rise to the shimmering source of her family’s painful legacy. From the forests of Santa Cruz to the 1980s glam of Melrose Avenue to a solitary mansion among the oil derricks off La Cienega Boulevard, and brimming with the double-edged capacity of memory to both heal and harm, Time’s Mouth is a poignant and evocative excavation of the bonds that bind families together.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Name Is Iris: A Novel Brando Skyhorse, the PEN/Hemingway Award–winning author of The Madonnas of Echo Park, returns with a riveting literary dystopian novel set in a near-future America where mandatory identification wristbands make second-generation immigrants into second-class citizens—a powerful family saga for readers of Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West and Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind. Iris Prince is starting over. After years of drifting apart, she and her husband are going through a surprisingly drama-free divorce. She's moved to a new house in a new neighborhood, and has plans for gardening, coffee clubs, and spending more time with her nine-year-old daughter Melanie. It feels like her life is finally exactly what she wants it to be. Then, one beautiful morning, she looks outside her kitchen window—and sees that a wall has appeared in her front yard overnight. Where did it come from? What does it mean? And why does it seem to keep growing? Meanwhile, a Silicon Valley startup has launched a high-tech wrist wearable called "the Band." Pitched as a convenient, eco-friendly tool to help track local utilities and replace driver's licenses and IDs, the Band is available only to those who can prove parental citizenship. Suddenly, Iris, a proud second-generation Mexican American, is now of "unverifiable origin," unable to prove who she is, or where she, and her undocumented loved ones, belong. Amid a climate of fear and hate-fueled violence, Iris must confront how far she'll go to protect what matters to her most. My Name Is Iris is an all-too-possible story about family, intolerance, and hope, offering a brilliant and timely look at one woman’s journey to discover who she can’t—and can—be.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Witches: An Anthology With a breathtaking array of original stories from around the world, P. Djèlí Clark, Amal El Mohtar, Garth Nix, Darcie Little Badger, Sheree Renée Thomas, and two dozen other fantasy and science fiction geniuses bring a new and exciting twist to one of the most beloved figures in fiction, witches, in never-before-seen works written exclusively for The Book of Witches, compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan. Witches! Whether you know them from Shakespeare or from Wicked, there is no staple more beloved in folklore, fairy tale, or fantasy than these magical beings. Witches are everywhere, and at the heart of stories that resonate with many people around the world. This dazzling, otherworldly collection gathers new stories of witches from all walks of life, ensuring a Halloween readers will never forget. Whether they be maiden, mother, crone, or other; funny, fierce, light and airy, or dark and disturbing; witches are a vital part of some of the greatest stories we have, and new ones start here! Bringing together twenty-nine stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today, including three tales from a BIPOC-only open submission period, The Book of Witches features Linda Addison, C.L. Clark, P Djeli Clark, Indrapramit Das, Amal El Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Millie Ho, Saad Hossain, Kathleen Jennings, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger, Ken Liu, Usman T. Malik, Maureen F. McHugh, Premee Mohamed, Garth Nix, Tobi Ogundiran, Tochi Onyebuchi, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Kelly Robson, Angela Slatter, Andrea Stewart, Emily Teng, Sheree Renée Thomas, Tade Thompson, and E. Lily Yu. This extraordinary anthology vividly breathes life into one of the most captivating and feared magical sorceresses and will become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales everywhere.
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Ascension LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023 Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as a refuge from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the marine world of her childhood, she excels in postgraduate research on ancient algae. When an unfathomable vent appears in the mid-Atlantic floor, Leigh joins the investigating team; what she finds there will change her life forever. Around the same time, a trio of engineers, unknown to each other, make a seismic breakthrough in rocket propulsion, announcing an almost limitless era of space exploration. Billions of dollars is poured into projects, and Leigh's classified research on the ocean vent sees her recruited to develop an experimental food source for off-world travel. From her base in the Mojave desert, she's drawn further into the space agency's work, where she learns of a series of anomalies suggesting a beacon sent from the far side of the solar system. In responding to this beacon, Leigh embarks on a journey that will take her across the breadth of the cosmos and the fullness of a single human life.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Light Bringer: A Red Rising Novel Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age. “Brown’s plots are like a depth charge of nitromethane dropped in a bucket of gasoline. His pacing is 100% him standing over it all with a lit match and a smile, waiting for us to dare him to drop it.”—NPR, on Dark Age “The measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends.”—Virginia au Augustus The Reaper is a legend, more myth than man: the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains. But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of Mars: a husband, a father, a friend. The worlds once needed the Reaper. But now they need Darrow. Because after the dark age will come a new age: of light, of victory, of hope. Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga: RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alien Enforcer’s Target: A Sci Fi Alien Romance Ava That crazy television show Naked and Afraid? It's a cakewalk compared to the sick game my alien abductors have planned for me--one that humans apparently never survive. I spent so much time hiking after my mom and sister disappeared from Earth that I became a wilderness survival expert. I know how to keep myself alive in any situation… except on this hostile planet, everything, even the water, is trying to eat me. My captors gave me a coach to help me prepare. He’s huge, scary, and sexy as hell. Turns out he’s an undercover alien cop with a mission. One that includes his crazy idea that I’m the key to solving a crime…that involves my missing family. Khryz My human target doesn’t know what’s coming for her, but I do. As an elite Cosmic S.W.A.T member, I took an unbreakable oath to protect human life. Human females are precious. The one I’m undercover to protect is worth more than the riches of all the wealthy slime who come to watch the game she needs to survive.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic From Shirley Jackson award-nominated author Tobi Ogundiran, comes a highly anticipated debut collection of stories full of magic and wonder and breathtaking imagination! In "The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library" -- featured in Levar Burton Reads -- a hapless salesman flees the otherworldly librarian hell-bent on retrieving her lost library book. "The Tale of Jaja and Canti" sees Ogundiran riffing off of Pinocchio. But this wooden boy doesn't seek to become real. Wanting to be loved, he journeys the world in search of his mother-an ancient and powerful entity who is best not sought out. "The Goatkeeper's Harvest" contains echoes of Lovecraft, where a young mother living on a farm finds that goats have broken into her barn and are devouring all her tubers. As she chases them off with a rake, a woman appears claiming the goats are her children, and that the young woman has killed one of them and must pay the price: a goat for a goat. These and other tales of the dark and fantastic await. "Superb weird-fantasy fictions... an unfailing capacity for surprise." -Publishers Weekly, Top 10 Summer Read "These stories will captivate readers with their haunting atmosphere, confident voice, and immersive settings." -Becky Spratford, Booklist "Jackal, Jackal is a great showcase of Ogundiran's consistency and strengths of a storyteller and dark fabulist. Forget logic. These are stories you are meant to feel. Think Grimm by way of Amos Tutuola. Stephen King meets Cyprian Ekwensi." -Wole Talabi, Locus magazine "Ogundiran's tales revel in small moments that create big ripples. Jackal, Jackal is a collection of such stories, characters grasping at a wish in their own unique, earnest way. An exciting yet intimate collection from a writer who continues to surprise and delight." -Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Author of The Nameless Republic trilogy "Jackal, Jackal is an astonishing debut collection with real teeth." -Priya Sharma, Author of Pomegranates
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ripe: A Novel NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A Roxane Gay Audacious Book Club Selection * A Marie Claire Book Club Pick A surreal novel with “a dark, delicious edge” (Time) about a woman in Silicon Valley who must decide how much she’s willing to give up for success—from an award-winning writer whose work Roxane Gay calls “utterly unique and remarkable.” A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley start-up, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she also struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty and suffering. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Start-up burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men literally set themselves on fire in the streets. Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, growing or shrinking in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever closer as the world around her unravels. When she ends up unexpectedly pregnant at the same time her CEO’s demands cross into illegal territory, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. Sharp but vulnerable, unsettling yet darkly comic, Ripeportrays one millennial woman’s journey through our late-capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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