Science Fiction
A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 Years Stories of Your Life and Others delivers dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar, often presenting characters who must confront sudden change--the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens--with some sense of normalcy. With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty, but also by beauty and wonder. An award-winning collection from one of today's most lauded writers, Stories of Your Life and Others is a contemporary classic. Includes "Story of Your Life"--the basis for the major motion picture Arrival
"[A] riveting, and original, achievement."--WIRED
From award-winning Spanish author Ray Loriga comes a dystopian novel about authority, manipulation, and the disappearance of privacy that "calls to mind The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood [and] Blindness by José Saramago" (Alfaguara Prize Winner Citation). Ten long years have passed since war first broke out, and one couple still does not know the whereabouts of their children, or what their country is even fighting for. They follow orders and their lives go by simply, routinely, until--one day--a mute boy walks onto their property. When the authorities announce that the area needs to be evacuated and that everyone must relocate to "the transparent city," the three leave together. At first, the city proves to be a paradise: a stunning glass dome of endless highways, buildings, trains, and markets. Everything its inhabitants need is provided to them--food, protection, shelter--and the family quickly, unquestioningly, settles into their new life. But, soon, a sinister underlay begins to emerge. Neither secrets nor walls are permitted here, and strict order, authoritarian calm, and transparency must always reign supreme. In a society in which everything private is public, the most chilling portent of our future emerges. Surrender is an urgent novel about dignity and rebellion and the lengths we go to preserve love, hope, and humanity. "Loriga envisions in this gripping tale an unsettling dystopia in which all secrets are forbidden...This memorable page-turner will appeal to fans of Brave New World."--Publishers Weekly"Like the radioactivity of its world, Termush crackles with an invisible, deadly energy." --Ray Naylor, author of Mountain in the Sea
With an introduction by Jeff VanderMeer that makes an ardent case for its relevance to today's world, this rediscovered classic of Scandinavian fiction is still shockingly relevant more than fifty years after it was first published. Sven Holm's Termush is a searing and prophetic study of humanity forced into a moral bind through its own doing. Termush caters to every need of its wealthy patrons--first among them, a coveted spot at this exclusive seaside getaway, a resort designed for the end of the world. Everyone within its walls has been promised full protection from the aftereffects of "the disaster." The staff work behind the scenes to create a calming and frictionless mood; they pipe soothing music into the halls and quickly remove the dead birds that fall out of the sky. But the specter of death remains. Recon teams come and go in protective gear. Fear of contamination spreads as the hotel cautiously welcomes survivors only to then censor news of their arrival. As the days pass, the veneer of control begins to crack, and it becomes clear that the residents of Termush can insulate themselves from neither the physical effects of the cataclysm nor the moral fallout of using their wealth to separate themselves from the fate of those trapped outside.Upon an immense stretch of flat ground at the mouth of a river bathed in sunlight rises Hyperpolis. It stands there, surrounded by its four asphalt car-parks, to condemn us - a huge enveloping supermarket. Each of us will see ourselves reflected in the characters who move mindlessly about Hyperpolis, but The Giants is a call to rebellion. This bold and inventive novel is the work of a tremendously talented writer and both an intoxicating and exhilarating read.
New York: Atheneum, 1975. First American edition. Ex-library with minimal library markings; dust jacket in protective cover; scotch tape repair on rear flap; inside edges of flaps tanned; blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine; binding good; text clean. G/G
Blake, a respectable family man who works as a contract killer.
Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star who uses his womanizing image to hide that he's gay.
Joanna, a Black American lawyer pressured to play the good old boys' game to succeed with her Big Pharma client.
Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet largely obscure writer suddenly on the precipice of global fame.
About to start their descent to JFK, they hit a shockingly violent patch of turbulence, emerging on the other side to a reality both perfectly familiar and utterly strange. As it charts the fallout of this logic-defying event, The Anomaly takes us on a journey from Lagos and Mumbai to the White House and a top-secret hangar.
In Hervé Le Tellier's most ambitious work yet, high literature follows the lead of a bingeable Netflix series, drawing on the best of genre fiction from "chick lit" to mystery, while also playfully critiquing their hallmarks. An ingenious, timely variation on the doppelgänger theme, it taps into the parts of ourselves that elude us most.
A LOCUS AWARD FINALIST!
Charlie Jane Anders, the nationally bestselling author of All the Birds in the Sky delivers a brilliant new novel set in a hauntingly strange future with #10 LA Times bestseller The City in the Middle of the Night. WOULD YOU GIVE UP EVERYTHING TO CHANGE THE WORLD? Humanity clings to life on January--a colonized planet divided between permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Two cities, built long ago in the meager temperate zone, serve as the last bastions of civilization--but life inside them is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside. Sophie, a young student from the wrong side of Xiosphant city, is exiled into the dark after being part of a failed revolution. But she survives--with the help of a mysterious savior from beneath the ice. Burdened with a dangerous, painful secret, Sophie and her ragtag group of exiles face the ultimate challenge--and they are running out of time. WELCOME TO THE CITY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT "Like a classic from another timeline... this book has notes of Ursula K. Le Guin and Phillip Pullman." --Robin Sloan, author of Sourdough