Science Fiction and Fantasy, June 7, 2012
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Science Fiction and Fantasy |
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Thursday, June 7, 2012
View more Science Fiction and Fantasy: Blog View | Archived Newsletter View | Insider Questions? Email madtech @ scls.lib.wi.us
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 Unpossible
The short stories in this first collection by critically acclaimed writer Gregory run the gamut from science fiction to contemporary fantasy, with a few stories that defy easy classification. His characters may be neuroscientists, superhero sidekicks, middle-aged heroes of children's stories, or fanatics spreading a virus-borne religion, but they are all convincingly human.
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 War Maid's Choice
In Wind Rider's Oath, Bahzell became a wind rider--the first hradani wind rider in history. And, even if Bahzell is the War God's champion, because the wind riders are the elite of the elite among the Sothoii, Bahzell's ascension is as likely to stir resentment as respect. What's more, Baron Tellian's daughter, the heir to the realm, seems to be thinking that he is the only man--or hradani--for her. Now, War Maid's Choice continues the story--and things really get complicated.
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 Terminal Point
Fans of Charles Stross and Hannu Rajaniemi will lose themselves in this adventure as Threnody Corwin and her team of rogue Strykers contend the unlocking of a new kind of psion power. They're on the run with Lucas Serca, who is closer than ever to destroying the World Court and his father's grip on the planet. Targeting the hidden cache of the planet's food supply meant to transform Mars into a paradise for the chosen few, Lucas triggers an escalating fight with the ruling government as worldwide chaos ensues. It's up to Threnody to save society before it destroys itself, but the cost is high and in the end, there is no such thing as compromise. There is only survival.
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 The Spirit War
Eli Monpress is vain. He's cocky. And he's a thief. But he's a thief who has just seen his bounty topped and he's not happy about it. The bounty topper, as it turns out, is his best friend, bodyguard, and master swordsman, Josef, who has been keeping secrets from Eli. Apparently, he's the only prince of a rather feisty country and his mother (a formidable queen who's every bit as driven and stubborn as he is) wants him to come home and do his duty, which means throwing over personal ambitions like proving he's the greatest swordsman who ever lived. Family drama aside, Eli and Josef have their hands full. The Spirit Court has been usurped by the Council of Thrones and someone calling herself the Immortal Empress is staging a massive invasion. But it's not just politics --- the Immortal Empress has a specific target in mind: Eli Monpress, the greatest thief in the world
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 The Woman Who Died A Lot
The Bookworld's leading enforcement officer, Thursday Next, has been forced into a semiretirement following an assassination attempt, returning home to Swindon and her family to recuperate. But Thursday's children have problems that demand she become a mother of invention: Friday's career struggles in the Chronoguard, where he is relegated to a might-have-been; Tuesday's trouble perfecting the Anti-Smote shield, needed in time to thwart an angry Deity's promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth; and the issue of Thursday's third child, Jenny, who doesn't exist except as a confusing and disturbing memory. With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, and a call from the Bookworld to hunt down Pagerunners who have jumped into the Realworld, Thursday's convalescence is going to be anything but restful as the week ahead promises to be one of the Next family's oddest.
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 Dragon Ship
First Class courier pilot Theo Waitley was already known as a nexus of violence – and then she inherited the precarious captaincy of a mysterious self-aware ship designed to serve a long dead trader. Now she has a trade route to run for Clan Korval while she convinces the near mythic ghost ship Bechimo – and herself – that she wants to commit herself as the human side to their immensely powerful symbiosis.
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 Nebula Awards Showcase 2012
The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published annually since 1966, reprinting the winning and nominated stories in the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
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 Railsea
On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one's death & the other's glory. But no matter how spectacular it is, Sham can't shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling the endless rails of the railsea--even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-colored mole she's been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train, at first it's a welcome distraction. But what Sham finds in the derelict--a kind of treasure map indicating a mythical place untouched by iron rails--leads to considerably more than he'd bargained for.
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 The Mammoth Book of Steampunk
An anthology that looks to the future through the lens of the past, these 30 mash-ups of past and future push the boundaries of steampunk. This is steampunk with a modern, post-colonial sensibility. Contributors include: Jeff VanderMeer, Caitlín Kiernan, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jay Lake, Cherie Priest, Cat Rambo, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine, and many more.
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 Caliban's War
A Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from re-igniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes.
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 Elfhome
Elfhome. A world of powerful magic, beautiful elves, man-eating trees, frost-breathing wargs, and god-like dragons. Pittsburgh. A city that has been stranded deep in virgin elfin forest to stave off an invasion by the merciless oni. Its population of sixty thousand humans and a handful of elves are pitted in war that will only end in genocide. Winter is coming. Supplies are running low. All political ties are fraying. Hidden somewhere in Pittsburgh's crumbling neighborhoods, a vanguard of oni are growing in number and attacking from the shadows. And children are disappearing. Girl genius Tinker was once a human orphan, growing up on the Pittsburgh streets - now she's an elf princess with all the bells and whistles who must figure out how to meld the two sides of her nature and her worlds.
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 Lost Everything
In the not-distant-enough future, a man takes a boat trip up the Susquehanna River with his most trusted friend, intent on reuniting with his son. But the man is pursued by an army, and his own harrowing past; and the familiar American landscape has been savaged by war and climate change until it is nearly unrecognizable. |
