Staff Recommendations
Daryl M.
Pages
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Year zero : a novel
by Reid, Robert
August 6, 2012
Call Number: SF
What if humans were unimaginably horrible at every form of art in the universe but one: music? And what if our music was so good, compared to the efforts of our galactic neighbors, that its discovery resulted in a type of galactic reckoning where dates were revised, cultures were altered and some races were completely wiped out due to ecstatic brain hemorrhaging? And what if the collective universe’s love of our music resulted in so much unintended piracy (according to our laws) that if an attempt were made to pay the fines, the universe, and everyone in it, would be bankrupted? This is... Read Full Review
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Redshirts
by Scalzi, John
July 23, 2012
Call Number: SF
What if your coworkers were regularly being killed off, and in spectacularly implausible ways, while your superiors were always left unfazed and untouched? Wouldn’t you try to figure out why and make sure whatever was happening to them didn’t happen to you? This is the premise John Scalzi boldly explores in Redshirts.Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union. But once he reports for his new posting, he can’t help but notice that things on the Intrepid are far from normal. His crewmates in the Xenobiology lab mysteriously... Read Full Review
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The night circus : a novel
by Morgenstern, Erin.
July 9, 2012
Call Number:
“The circus arrives without warning."No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not."The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from... Read Full Review
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All men of genius
by Rosen, Lev AC
April 30, 2012
Call Number: F
What if you were a young and gifted scientist/inventor who dreamed of attending the best college for sciences in the world, but you knew that your application would never be accepted? What would you do to make your dream a reality? These are the questions explored by Lev AC Rosen in All Men of Genius, a wonderful steampunk-infused comedy of manners.Violet Adams spends her days tinkering in her laboratory instead of learning those things expected of a proper young lady in Victorian England. What Violet desires more than anything else is to attend Illyria College, a school dedicated to the... Read Full Review
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Empire state
by Christopher, Adam
March 26, 2012
Call Number: SF
What if there was another New York City, a copy of New York from the 1920s, that was trapped in a parallel dimension and known to its citizens, who have never heard of New York, as the The Empire State? There are boot-leggers, private detectives in overcoats, dames and femmes fatales, rain-drenched streets, and a seemingly never-ending night. There are also police blimps, super heroes, super villains and secrets. When Rad Bradley, a low-end detective, is hired to investigate a murder, he uncovers a series of secrets that will change the lives of everyone that lives in The Empire State.In this... Read Full Review
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Cinder
by Meyer, Marissa
March 12, 2012
Call Number: YA
What if Cinderella was a cyborg? A girl that was part human and part machine, with a mechanical foot? And what if her story was not set in a once-upon-a-time European setting, but in a brutal, war-ravaged, plague-infested Earth on the brink of war with an estranged Lunar colony? These are the questions Marissa Meyer tackles in Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles.Linh Cinder spends her days working as a mechanic in her stall at the market. She repairs malfunctioning, broken machines of all types and sizes to provide money for her stepmother and two stepsisters. Her skills have garnered... Read Full Review
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Night of the living Trekkies
by Anderson, Kevin David
March 5, 2012
Call Number: SF
What if zombies overran a Star Trek convention? Would the attendees’ devotion to the franchise, and possible familiarity with the science fiction genre, give them an advantage over non-fans in surviving a zombie attack? This humorous and enjoyable question is answered in Kevin David Anderson's and Sam Stall’s Night of the Living Trekkies.Jim Pike (yes, this pun should give you an idea of the tone of the book), was a life-long, devoted Star Trek fan, until a skirmish during his second tour of duty in Iraq had deadly repercussions for his team. That deadly encounter has shaken... Read Full Review
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Ghosts of Manhattan : a tale of the Ghost
by Mann, George
February 27, 2012
Call Number: M
What if the usual trappings of the Steampunk sub-genre were extended beyond the Victorian era and beyond the United Kingdom? What would an alternate New York in the 1920s look like? This is the jumping-off point for George Mann’s Steampunk-tinged, noir and pulp influenced novel.The year is 1926 in an alternate New York from our own. The streets are choked with coal-powered cars and there are bi-plane launches off the roofs of most buildings. America is caught in a Cold War with the British Empire which has kept Queen Victoria alive, through artificial means, until the age of 107, and... Read Full Review
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The map of time : a novel
by Palma, Felix J.
December 5, 2011
Call Number: F
What if someone published a novel that changed the way an entire culture thought about a concept? How would that new way of thinking affect people and the way they live their lives? And how might the long-term ramifications of those changes manifest themselves? This intriguing idea is explored in Felix Palma'a novel The Map of Time.This tale is set in the late 1800's during the scientific revolution that swept Victorian London--and the rest of the world--with the promise that science could, and would, open new doorways for humanity and solve all of our problems. During this... Read Full Review