Science Fiction/Fantasy

If you’ve ever driven Highway 5 late at night, you know there is something ethereal about the long stretch of road when it is blanketed with stars. Joseph Fink evokes the same feeling in his newest novel, Alice Isn’t Dead. After the supposed death of her wife, Keisha—certain Alice is still alive—abandons her life to become a trucker and search for the missing Alice, and runs afoul of a sinister and horrifying organization. Strange and glorious, this book will leave you changed. - Ivy

Don’t miss our event with Joseph Fink on November 15th.

A fun, fast-paced action thriller featuring a snarky math superhero who has some serious character flaws. Cas Russell is good at math, so good that she intuitively performs vector calculus at lightning speed, allowing her to dodge both incoming fists and bullets. She’s a mercenary “retrieval expert” with ambiguous morals, available for hire in Los Angeles, and her latest job is proving to be much more challenging and dangerous than she anticipated. - Trey

Given Robinson’s pedigree, there was little doubt I would like this book. If you enjoy intrigue and action in the low gravity of our closest neighbor, Red Moon will draw you in. Despite the lightness of the setting, it pulls its weight. Similar to last year’s Artemis. - Ian

A delightful sampling of Yolen’s work, including thoughts from the writer herself on how to fracture your own tales. I love the way Yolen picks the stories apart to find the meat, the heart of the thing, and then weaves something extraordinary around that. Perfect for folk and faerie tale enthusiasts or anyone wanting to look at things a bit differently. - Jax

Brilliant! Hank Green has written an engrossing debut novel with a fun, vibrant, emotionally powerful and completely non sequitur plot. In a New York crosswalk, protagonist April May’s discovery of giant, sentient, maybe even alien omnipotent robots completely upends her life, both professionally and romantically. Through the eyes of this young, queer antihero and her robots, we see humanity in its modern context: how people love, connect, and create belief in a media landscape that sometimes degrades humanity. - a.c.

One part coming-of-age parable, one part psychological horror, this book combines dark fantasy with contemporary magical realism. Beautifully translated from its original Russian, Vita Nostra brilliantly explores the period in early adulthood in which we consider the price we’re willing to pay to discover our full potential and learn how we make ourselves vulnerable when we strive for outside approval. - Ilana

Reading The Last Unicorn is like drinking a warm cup of cocoa on a rainy night, so it was lovely to read this wonderful first draft and see the origins of the book. So many things changed before the story became the book we know, but the writing in this early version is so entrancing it’s hard to believe this wasn’t the final adventure. There is so much to delight in, both in the familiar and the new. - Ivy

"These books, I include for the reader who has been stuck for awhile, because we have all had those days. These are the books that have burst me out of a reading funk, because they let me just get caught up in a story without effort or hesitation. Sorcerer to the Crown is light, warm, hopeful, a science fiction and fantasy romp, with a period-literature feel but a contemporary sense of right and wrong. If you like to see the underdog win and you want your protagonists headstrong and charming, read this! Great for the grownup Harry Potter reader. It will give you the joy of reading again." - a.c.

Full of poems for the bold feminist princess you never knew you were, Fierce Fairytales is the perfect collection for fans of Rupi Kuar and Amanda Lovelace. Nikita Gill turns fairytale tropes on their head and invites new readings of their protagonists, turning helpless maidens into warriors with agency. The women in these poems don’t wait for the prince to come and rescue them - they’ll do it themselves, thank you very much! - Jessica

Fast paced and hard hitting, this blend of history and fiction will grab you and refuse to let go. What is the difference between colonization and invasion? For the people of Terra Nullius, aka Australia, this question reverberates through the past and into the future. I found myself surprised and drawn ever deeper by the twists and turns of the plot, while engaging in its historical context. This book is speculative fiction at its absolute best! - Jax