Afraid of the cold weather shrinking your world? Explore others through KFPL's science-fiction collection!
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
This is a truly original work of post-apocalyptic fiction. Russell Hoban writes from the perspective of Riddley Walker, a boy who walks the damp, grey landscape of Inland (England) 2200 years after nuclear war. Everything is shattered, including the language that reads partly like slang, and partially like a direct offshoot of English that is phonetically written. There are the themes of progress, regression, science and religion, but each of these ideas are in their infancy, waiting to be developed and sorted by the curious minds of those such as Riddley. A good challenge for adventurous readers!
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
In an alternate New York City that contains six souls, a man enters the city disrupting the normal, spiritual state of affairs. The man knows little about his own past, but knows the city’s spirits are in danger, and must work alongside these forces to save the great metropolis.
Take Us To Your Chief and Other Stories by Drew Hayden Taylor
Take Us To Your Chief features stories where a Haudenosaunee song serves as a conduit between earth and the cosmos, humans making first contact, time travel and the implications these events have on Indigenous cultures. Readers will be treated to diverse elements of Indigenous cultures and parallels between the world of the book and world history.
Trouble On Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia by Samuel R. Delany
This character-driven story focuses exploration of fluid sexual orientations and the shattering of gender roles against the backdrop of a war between Triton and Earth. The narrative focuses on Bron, who immigrates to Triton and sees becoming a woman as best path towards assimilation. Written ahead of its time (1996), this title is ever more relevant in the present.
At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson
This title is about our place within the universe and how we keep people close amongst the chaos. Tommy and Ozzie have been intimate since middle-school, then one day, Tommy is nowhere to be found. He is not only gone in body, but in the minds/memories of all who knew him. But Ozzie remembers, and he will go to the lengths of a shrinking universe to find him.
A Man Lies Dreaming by Levie Tidhar
Shomer lies in his bunk at Auschwitz dreaming of another world, a better world of what could have been, a world where Hitler was a hapless, anti-Semitic gumshoe detective forced to work with the world rather than destroy it. This book explores the idea of the multi-verse and alternative history in the style of a noir mystery, a true mash-up for readers who want something different.
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Maurice Carlos Ruffin Writes of a world where a medical procedure reportedly saves lives by turning people white. The narrator seeks to “save” his son by having him undergo this procedure at a heavy financial cost. This title explores raw and bureaucratic racism as a father tries to desperately to conform to societal expectations that he fears can never be met.
Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, Edited by Grace L. Dillon
Editor Grace Dillon brings together stories from Indigenous peoples of Canada, Australia, the United States, Australia and New Zealand for a diverse collection of short stories. Entries span the topics of time travel, post-apocalypse and alternate realities and explores how they mesh with traditional knowledge. This is a valuable collection for those interested in Indigenous literatures and science-fiction.
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Anders
All the Birds in the Sky tells a tale about a society of witches at war with a tech. startup. The conflict is complicated by the budding romance between members from opposing factions. This title depicts a rich world of science-fiction- fantasy through the eyes of asexual and non-binary characters.
We by Evgenii Ivanovich Zamiatin
Mathematician D-503 lives in a glass city under the benevolent rule of the all-seeing Benefactor. While building a spacecraft capable of exporting his world’s efficient civilization, D-503 discovers something that logic and numbers cannot account for, a soul. We is unique as it predates and inspires titles such as 1984, and depicts a protagonist ashamed of his emotional compulsions and supports the system that made him.
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Zone One is set in a world ravaged by a pandemic. The novel follows Mark, a former tradesman, over a few days where he’s tasked with removing stragglers (those trapped in a zombie-like state) from the streets of Buffalo. This earlier work by Colson White fuses science-fiction with horror that come with fighting a medical catastrophe.
The Man In the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
This unique title blends futurism with history and philosophy. The Man In the High Castle focuses on several lives in America after losing WWII. Characters carry on with their lives under Japanese occupation until books appear that describe an allied victory in 1945. This provides hope, inspiration, but also resentment among occupying forces. Both exciting and mind-twisting!
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Rice's title is set in a remote Anishinaabe community that experiences a mysterious blackout. Outsiders from afar enter the community as resources are rationed and people suffer. As the situation becomes desperate, power struggles between outsiders and the band council intensify.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Sparrow is an emotional, character-driven tale of exploration and faith. A crew of Vatican clergy and scientists make first contact then visit an alien planet. In their first encounters with extraterrestrials, questions of faith, conversion, morality and colonization are revisited despite humanity's efforts to “get it right” this time around.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Exhalation is collection of stories from a science-fiction master. In What’s Expected of Us the mental health fallout from a proven lack of free will is explored, in The Life-cycle of Software Objects, the human-AI relationship is explored, and what happens when technology expires, and in Exhalation, readers witness an oxygen-powered robot dissecting its own brain to discover why his society’s bodies are failing. Something for everyone!
How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
Jemisin's short story collection depicts futures where beings look upon our present to avoid making similar mistakes, a teen struggles to give birth to the soul of a city, and dragons traverse the landscape of post-Katrina New Orleans.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr
A Canticle for Liebowitz depicts a history of a monastery in three eras following a nuclear apocalypse. In the first era, the reader is shown a world similar to the dark ages where relics of the past such as grocery lists are worshipped as evidence of powerful deities. The second era shows a growing knowledge of science returning to a dark world, and the third era looks much like ours, with humanity on the brink of nuclear disaster once again. Is history cyclical? Find out for yourself with this classic.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut’s sci-fi semi-autobiographical hybrid depicts Billy Pilgram, a man transported from the hellscape of wartime Dresden to an alien society and back again. Vonnegut’s classic discusses the themes of choice and fate, and how traveling through space and time challenges each concept.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
In an alternate North America shaped by the magic and monsters of its inhabitants, anything seems possible. Darcie, a member of the Lipan Apache, can raise animals from the dead and struggles with the recent death of her cousin. How can she use her abilities to solve the mystery of who committed this gruesome act?
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Stories of Your Life and Others is a short-story collection of tremendous depth and variety. Stories of Your Life has been adapted to film as Arrival, and shows how language with other beings can transcend time and space. In Understand, an injured man is injected with a drug that has the side effect of exponentially increasing his intelligence, and Tower of Babylon follows a man’s seemingly endless journey up a cylindrical tower that exposes the dimensions of the earth.
The Warehouse by Rob Hart
The Warehouse follows two characters who work in a compound evocative of Amazon, Apple and Google. One is there out of desperation and the other for espionage. This book is a critique and satire of mega corporations with a compelling plot.
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, Edited by John Joseph Adams
This collection of short stories features authors such as Stephen King, George R.R. Martin and Orson Scott Card. Stories feature a far-future mining operation so detached from nature that canines seem alien, humanity’s gradual exodus from earth, and a story about a grand vehicle that serves a moving paradise in a dying land. These works are profound, prolific, terrifying and hopeful.
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
World War Z is written in the form of interviews with survivors of the zombie war. Interview subjects include the vice-president of America, a girl and her family’s escape to a crowded camp in Canada, a medical officer who witnesses the first outbreak in China, and military officials who eventually subdued the zombie threat. Frightening and conversational in tone, this book is for fans of current events, horror, politics and speculative fiction.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
In a plague-ravaged world, Oryx and Crake follows the Snowman, who recounts his past life as Jimmy alongside his friend Glenn. Jimmy discusses the consequences of his friend’s involvement with genetic engineering and the following pandemic. This book discusses the limits of loyalty, and how scientific advances often outpace moral development.
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
Set in 2032, Lauren Olamina aims to colonize the stars. These plans are thwarted by a societal collapse that sees her people enslaved and her daughter taken away. How will she fight back and carry on her grand endeavors?
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
As a galactic empire recedes from greatness, Hari Seldon gathers the greatest scholarly minds on a fringe planet to ensure the survival of knowledge and civilization. This initiative is threatened by imperialists and warlords grasping for the last vestiges of true power.
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
As a reluctant time traveler, Tom finds himself in our version of 2016 which he sees as a bleak alternate version of his 2016. However, our version gives Tom the family and potential soulmate he never had. Will he choose to stay in our imperfect time, or will he use his time traveling ability to manipulate the world to his liking?
