New Science Fiction and Fantasy at the Larkspur Library Fall 2013

2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson One of the best “hard SF” novels to come out this year, this sequel to Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Mars” trilogy depicts a future in which humanity has terraformed the entire solar system, and is full of intriguing ideas: the city of Terminator on Mercury, which rolls forward on rails to keep ahead of the sun, windsurfing the rings of Saturn, quantum computing and androids. The book is heavy on exposition and the space opera style plot moves slowly, but the ideas are very engaging.

MaddAddam, by Margaret Atwood The conclusion to Atwood’s trilogy which began with Oryx and Crake and continued with The Year of the Flood. A waterless flood has wiped out most of humanity. Ren and Toby have returned to the MaddAddamite cob house, while Zeb, searching for God's Gardeners founder, Adam One, discov- ers his past. A wonderful dystopian novel from one of the writers who created the genre, and readable even if you have not read the first two books.

The Best of Connie Willis : Award-Winning Stories Connie Willis has won six Nebula Awards and ten Hugos—the most of any SF or Fantasy Author (although Robert Heinlein and Lois McMaster Bujold have won the Hugo for “Best Novel” more times than she has—Willis “only” won the Hugo for “Best Novel” three times). As the title states, every story in this book won an award, and it would be difficult to single one out to mention! This is an essential col- lection of Willis’ work. New Science Fiction and Fantasy at the Larkspur Library Fall 2013

River of Stars, by Guy Gavriel Kay

Based on the Song Dynasty of China, Kay’s alternate history, the sequel to Under Heaven, captures the nuances and subtleties of life in China during the Mongol invasions, following the story of Ren Daiyan, a boy who kills seven outlaws while helping guard an imperial magistrate, and flees into the forest to emerge many years later as a folk hero, and Lin Shan, raised by her scholar father to be a gifted poet, musician and calligrapher, who finds her unwom- anly skills valued by certain powerful people.

Lovestar, by Andri Snaer Magnason

Lovestar, which was chosen as “Novel of the Year” in Iceland, is set in a dystopi- an future in which LoveStar, the obsessively driven founder of the LoveStar cor- poration, has created a world in which consumerism and technology run ram- pant over all aspects of daily life. Indridi and Sigrid, two blissfully happy young lovers, are “calculated apart” and go to extreme lengths to prove their love. Their journey puts them on a collison course with LoveStar, who is on his own mission to find what might become the last idea in the world.

Tuf Voyaging, by George R. R. Martin Tuf Voyaging is a science fiction novel by George R. R. Martin, based on a number of short stories he wrote in the 80s. It chronicles the adventures of Haviland Tuf, an exceptionally tall, bald, pale, overweight, phlegmatic, vege- tarian, cat-loving but otherwise solitary space trader who inadvertently be- comes the master of Ark, an ancient, 30-kilometer-long “seedship”, a war- ship with advanced ecological engineering capabilities. Like Game of Thrones, the stories are fast-moving and action packed!

Other recent SF and Fantasy Purchases:

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall Kress, Nancy Babayaga Barlow, Toby The Man in the High Castle Dick, Philip K. A Memory of Light Jordan, Robert The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic Barker, Emily Croy Transcendental Gunn, James