Science Fiction & Fantasy

The next RART meeting will be on Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at the Irondale Library and the topic up for discussion will be “Cooking, Crafts, and Art.”  Go wild!  As I mentioned, as long as your cookbook is not a jellied salad/vintage gross out, you are cordially invited to prepare something from it to bring to the meeting!  J

A big thanks goes out to the fine folks at the Trussville Library for hosting RART’s Science Fiction & Fantasy discussion and providing the yummy snacks!

In attendance 6/10/15:

Holley, Emmet O’Neal Library
Samuel, Five Points West
Kelly, Springville Road
Mondretta, Leeds
Krysten, Hoover
Maura, Trussville
Laura, Trussville
Jon, Avondale
April, Pinson
Michelle, Irondale

The Martian by Andy Weir

This is adventure at its VERY best. Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a traumatic accident during a Mars landing.  His team leaves the surface without him and what ensues is one man’s struggle to survive against enormous odds.  Watney is snarky, persistent, absolutely brilliant, and profoundly foul-mouthed.  You’re going to love him. 
(Holley, Emmet O’Neal)

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

The Sadiri home planet is destroyed and the few members of the very stoic, Spock-like race have been taken in on the planet Cygnus Beta by the varied species of humans to which they are distantly related.  They are now on a search for members of the various races most closely aligned with the Sadiri to make good genetic matches for repopulating the Sadiri race.  Sadiri Commandant Dllenahkh is teamed up with Terran/Ntshune government worker Grace Delarua.  Over the course of their association, they become strongly fond of one another and a dance of flirtation ensues that I have not encountered since Anna met Mr. Bates on Downton Abbey.  The anthropology is a bit tedious, but I just couldn’t put down this sweet love story amongst the stars. 
(Holley, Emmet O’Neal)

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

(powells.com) Children of Dune brings the best-selling science-fiction series of all time to a breathtaking climax. This third installment finds the desert planet Arrakis in a state of unprecedented stability and prosperity. With the Herculean efforts of the Imperium, it has begun to grow green and lush. The life-giving spice is abundant, and the nine-year-old royal twins are coming into their own. Possessed of their father's supernormal powers, they are being groomed as Messiahs. But there are those who think the Imperium does not need omnipotent rulers. And they'll stop at nothing to make their point.
(Samuel, Five Points West)

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

(powells.com) Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.
(Samuel, Five Points West)

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

(powells.com) Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria — even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie — where nothing, not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.
(Samuel, Five Points West)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

(powells.com) Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife — between desire and danger.
(Samuel, Five Points West)

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

(powells.com) A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.  It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow — impossible though it seems — they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
(Samuel, Five Points West)

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

(powells.com) First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers — and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
(Samuel, Five Points West)

Midnight Guardian by Sarah Jane Stratford

(powells.com) It’s 1938, and Hitler's tentacles have commenced their stranglehold on Europe. The Nazi empire will soon be purged of all "tainted" bloodlines…including vampires. London’s ancient tribunal of vampires is aghast at the destruction taking place on the Continent and resolves to send its five most formidable vampires; immensely powerful "millennials" who have lived more than a thousand years; to infiltrate and destroy the Nazis. Brilliant and beautiful millennial Brigit is loath to go, for it means leaving behind her vampire lover Eamon, whom she made eight centuries ago. But go she must; her powers are needed if the mission is to have any chance of success. As the millennials attempt to penetrate and sabotage Hitler’s armies, they discover that the Nazis are more capable and more monstrous than they'd ever imagined. Forced to take bolder, more dangerous steps, they soon attract the attention of specially trained vampire hunters loyal to Hitler and his vision of a vampire-free world. Exposed, deep inside enemy territory, with vicious Nazi officers and hunters at her heels, Brigit must attempt a daring escape from the Continent, guarding precious cargo that marks the only hope of salvaging their mission.
(Samuel, Five Points West)

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice as A.N. Roquelaure

(powells.com) From bestselling author Anne Rice, writing as A.N. Roquleaure. In the traditional folktale of 'Sleeping Beauty, ' the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. It is an ancient story, one that originally emerged from and still deeply disturbs the mind's unconscious. Now Anne Rice's retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire. Here the Prince reawakens Beauty, not with a kiss, but with sexual initiation. His reward for ending the hundred years of enchantment is Beauty's complete and total enslavement to him...as Anne Rice explores the world of erotic yearning and fantasy in a classic that becomes, with her skillful pen, a compelling experience.
(Samuel, Five Points West)

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

(powells.com) On her nineteenth birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey back to the castle of her birth to ascend her rightful throne. Plain and serious, a girl who loves books and learning, Kelsea bears little resemblance to her mother, the vain and frivolous Queen Elyssa. But though she may be inexperienced and sheltered, Kelsea is not defenseless: Around her neck hangs the Tearling sapphire, a jewel of immense magical power; and accompanying her is the Queens Guard, a cadre of brave knights led by the enigmatic and dedicated Lazarus. Kelsea will need them all to survive a cabal of enemies who will use every weapon, from crimson-caped assassins to the darkest blood magic, to prevent her from wearing the crown.
(Maura, Trussville)

Inside a Silver Box by Walter Mosley

(powells.com) In Inside a Silver Box, two people brought together by a horrific act are united in a common cause by the powers of the Silver Box. The two join to protect humanity from destruction by an alien race, the Laz, hell-bent on regaining control over the Silver Box, the most destructive and powerful tool in the universe. The Silver Box will stop at nothing to prevent its former master from returning to being, even if it means finishing the earth itself.
(Mondretta, Leeds)

The Little Green Book of Chairman Rahma by Brian Herbert

(powells.com) A revolution has taken over the government of the United States and the environment has been saved. All pollution has been banned and reversed. It's a bright, green new world. But this new world comes with a great cost. The United States is ruled by a dictatorship and the corporations are fighting back. Joining them are an increasing number of rebels angered by the dictatorship of Chairman Rahma. The Chairman's power is absolute and appears strong, but in The Little Green Book of Chairman Rahma, cracks are beginning to show as new weapons are developed by the old corporate powers, foreign alliances begin to make inroads into America's influence . . . and strange reports of mutants filter through the government's censorship.
(Mondretta, Leeds)

Marsbound by Joe Haldeman

(powells.com) Wounded in combat and honorably discharged nine years ago, Jack Daley still suffers nightmares from when he served his country as a sniper, racking up sixteen confirmed kills. Now a struggling author, Jack accepts an offer to write a near-future novel about a serial killer, based on a Hollywood script outline. It’s an opportunity to build his writing career, and a future with his girlfriend, Kit Majors. But Jacks other talent is also in demand. A package arrives on his doorstep containing a sniper rifle, complete with silencer and ammunition—and the first installment of a $100,000 payment to kill a “bad man.” The twisted offer is genuine. The people behind it are dangerous. They prove that they have Jack under surveillance. He can’t run. He can’t hide. And if he doesn’t take the job, Kit will be in the crosshairs instead.
(Mondretta, Leeds)

Last Light by Terri Blackstock

(amazon.com) Birmingham, Alabama, has lost all power. Its streets are jammed with cars that won t start, its airport engulfed in flames from burning planes. All communications cell phones, computers, even radios are silent. Every home and business is dark. Is it a natural disaster . . . a terrorist attack . . . or something far worse? In the face of a crisis that sweeps an entire high-tech planet back to a time before electricity, the Branning family faces a choice. Will they hoard their possessions in order to survive or trust God to provide as they share their resources with those around them? Yesterday s world is gone. Family and community are all that remain. And the outage is revealing the worst in some. Desperation can be dangerous when a killer lives among them. Bestselling suspense author Terri Blackstock weaves a masterful what-if novel in which global catastrophe reveals the darkness in human hearts and lights the way to restoration for a self-centered world.
(Mondretta, Leeds)

The Blondes by Emily Schultz

(powells.com) A hilarious and whipsmart novel where an epidemic of a rabies-like disease is carried only by blonde women, who all must go to great lengths to conceal their blondness. Hazel Hayes is a grad student living in New York City. As the novel opens, she learns she is pregnant (from an affair with her married professor) at an apocalyptically bad time: random but deadly attacks on passers-by, all by blonde women, are terrorizing New Yorkers. Soon it becomes clear that the attacks are symptoms of a strange illness that is transforming blondes — whether CEOs, flight attendants, students or accountants — into rabid killers.
(Mondretta, Leeds)

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

(powells.com) What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . .Five thousand years later, their progeny — seven distinct races now three billion strong — embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown... to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.
(Mondretta, Leeds)

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

(powells.com) Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end. Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band's existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.
(Mondretta, Leeds & Michelle, Irondale)

The Pure trilogy by Juliana Baggott

Pure
Fuse
Burn

(powells.com) Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost — how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers... to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run. There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked: Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss — maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her. When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.
(Michelle, Irondale)

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

(powells.com) LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empires greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution. ELIAS is the academy's finest soldier — and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he's ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor. When Laia and Elias's paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.
(Laura, Trussville)

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

(powells.com) Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high. Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered — in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

(Laura, Trussville)

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

(powells.com) War between dragons comes to Goredd in the much-anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. As Seraphina travels the Southlands in search of the other half-breeds to help in the war effort, the dragon General Comonot and his Loyalists fight against the upstart Old Guard, with the fate of Goredd and the other human countries hanging in the balance.
(Laura, Trussville)

The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen Donaldson

(powells.com) The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled life—until the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land. Terisa is no champion. She wields neither magic nor power. And yet, much to her own surprise, when Geraden begs her to come back with him, she agrees. Now, in a culture where women are little more than the playthings of powerful men, in a castle honeycombed with secret passages and clever traps, in a kingdom threatened from without and within by enemies able to appear and vanish out of thin air, Terisa must become more than the pale reflection of a person. For the way back to Earth is closed to her. And the enemies of Mordant will stop at nothing to see her dead.
(Krysten, Hoover)

A Man Rides Through by Stephen Donaldson

(powells.com) Aided by the powerful magic of Vagel, the evil Arch-Imager, the merciless armies are marching against the kingdom of Mordant. In its hour of greatest need, two unlikely champions emerge. One is Geraden, whose inability to master the simplest skills of Imagery has made him a laughingstock. The other is Terisa Morgan, transferred to Mordant from a Manhattan apartment by Geradens faulty magic. Together, Geraden and Terisa discover undreamed-of talents within themselves, talents that make them more than a match for any Imager . . . including Vagel himself. Unfortunately, those talents also mark them for death. Branded as traitors, they are forced to flee the castle for their lives. Now, all but defenseless in a war-torn countryside ravaged by the vilest horrors Imagery can spawn, Geraden and Terisa must put aside past failures and find the courage to embrace their powers, and their love, before Vagel can spring his final trap.
(Krysten, Hoover)

Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory

"Gregory (Afterparty) delivers a thoroughly entertaining novel built on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. The titular Harrison Harrison lost the lower part of one leg in the same boating accident that killed his father. Now 16, he's moving with his research scientist mother to the Massachusetts town of Dunnsmouth. The other children in school are eerily quiet, the town has no cell phone coverage, and a fish-boy steals his comics. Things go from strange to tragic when his mother is lost in another boating accident two days after moving. Refusing to believe his mother is dead, Harrison investigates with the help of a girl named Lydia and the aforementioned fish-boy, Lub. They encounter enemies including a knife-wielding maniac known as the Scrimshander and a monstrous fish-woman intent on destroying the world. Gregory delivers an enthralling and exciting tale that should intrigue both readers unfamiliar with Lovecraft and longtime fans of the stories. The occasional in-jokes (buoys named after Lovecraft, Poe, King, and Straub, and of course Dunnsmouth itself) are subtle enough to not distract from the rich tale, and the YA vibe ensures a broad audience. Agent: Martha Millard, Martha Millard Literary Agency. (Mar.)" Publishers WeeklyCopyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(Jon, Avondale)

The Water Knife by Paulo Bacigalupi

(powells.com) In this near-future thriller portraying a severely drought-ridden Southwest, the fate of the region depends on three people — Angel, a Las Vegas water knife whose job it is to ensure his city stays flush; Lucy, a journalist; and Maria, a young refugee. Frighteningly bleak but a pleasure to read, The Water Knife is a riveting, all-too-timely tale.
Recommended by Tate, Powells.com
(Jon, Avondale)

Wayward Pines series by Blake Crouch

Pines

Wayward

The Last Town

(powells.com) Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels?off. As the days pass, Ethan's investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can?t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn?t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact ? he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive. Intense and gripping, Pines is another masterful thriller from the mind of bestselling novelist Blake Crouch.
(Jon, Avondale)

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

"Is The Bone Clocks the most ambitious novel ever written, or just the most Mitchell-esque? We begin in the punk years with a teenage Talking Heads — obsessed runaway from Gravesend, England, named Holly Sykes. She becomes a pawn in a spiritual war between the mysterious 'Radio People' and the benevolent Horologists, led by the body-shifting immortal Marinus. Many more characters and places soon find themselves worked into Marinus's 'Script' across the book's six sections: there's Hugo Lamb, a cunning, amoral Cambridge student spending Christmas 1991 in Switzerland, where he encounters an older Holly tending bar; then it's the height of the Bush/Blair years, and our narrator is Holly's husband, Edmund Brubeck, a war reporter dispatched to Baghdad. Another flash-forward lands us in the present day, where the middling novelist Crispin Hershey weathers a succession of literary feuds, becomes confidante of a New Agey Holly and her daughter, then has his own unsettling encounter with the Radio People. In the penultimate section, Marinus reveals the nature of the Script — the secret conflict lurking just beneath mortal affairs — and how Holly may be the key to a resolution whose repercussions won't be known until 2043, when the aged Holly rides out a curiously sedate end-time in rural Ireland. From gritty realism to far-out fantasy, each section has its own charm and surprises. With its wayward thoughts, chance meetings, and attention to detail, Mitchell's (The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet) novel is a thing of beauty. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(Jon, Avondale)

Strands of Sorrow by John Ringo

(powells.com) BOOK 4 AND CONCLUSION OF THE BLACK TIDE RISING SERIES FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR. Sequel to Islands of Rage and Hope, To Sail a Darkling Sea, and Under a Graveyard Sky. A hardened group of survivors fights back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization. With the world consumed by a devastating plague that drives humans violently insane, what was once a band of desperate survivors bobbing on a dark Atlantic ocean has now become Wolf Squadron, the only hope for the salvation of the human race. Banding together with what remains of the U.S. Navy, Wolf Squadron, and its leader Steve Smith, not only plans to survive—he plans to retake the mainland from the infected, starting with North America. Smith's teenage daughters have become zombie hunters of unparalleled skill, both at land and on the sea, and they may hold the key to the rebirth of civilization on a devastated planet.
(Jon, Avondale)

City of Savages by Lee Kelly

(amazon.com) After the Red Allies turn New York City into a POW camp, two sisters must decipher the past in order to protect the future in this action-packed thriller with a dual narrative.
It’s been nearly two decades since the Red Allies first attacked New York, and Manhattan is now a prisoner-of-war camp, ruled by Rolladin and her brutal, impulsive warlords. For Skyler Miller, Manhattan is a cage that keeps her from the world beyond the city’s borders. But for Sky’s younger sister, Phee, the POW camp is a dangerous playground of possibility, and the only home she’d ever want. When Sky and Phee discover their mom’s hidden journal from the war’s outbreak, they both realize there’s more to Manhattan—and their mother—than either of them had ever imagined. And after a group of strangers arrives at the annual POW census, the girls begin to uncover the island’s long-kept secrets. The strangers hail from England, a country supposedly destroyed by the Red Allies, and Rolladin’s lies about Manhattan’s captivity begin to unravel. Hungry for the truth, the sisters set a series of events in motion that end in the death of one of Rolladin’s guards. Now they’re outlaws, forced to join the strange Englishmen on an escape mission through Manhattan. Their flight takes them into subways haunted by cannibals, into the arms of a sadistic cult in the city’s Meatpacking District and, through the pages of their mom’s old journal, into the island’s dark and shocking past.
(Jon, Avondale)

The Remaining by D.J. Molles

(amazon.com) In a steel-and-lead encased bunker a Special Forces soldier waits on his final orders.
On the surface a bacterium has turned 90% of the population into hyper-aggressive predators.
Now Captain Lee Harden must leave the bunker and venture into the wasteland to rekindle a shattered America.
(Jon, Avondale)

The Peripheral by William Gibson

(powells.com) William Gibson returns with his first novel since 2010's New York Times–bestselling Zero History. Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there's a job hes supposed to do — a job Flynne didn't know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. The job seems to be simple: work a perimeter around the image of a tower building. Little buglike things turn up. He's supposed to get in their way, edge them back. That's all there is to it. He's offering Flynne a good price to take over for him. What she sees, though, isn't what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.
(Jon, Avondale)

The Patron Saint of Plagues by Barth Anderson

(powells.com) In this biological thriller of the near future, postinsurrection Mexico has undermined the superpower of the United States. But while the rivals battle over borders, a pestilence beyond politics threatens to explode into a worldwide epidemic. . . .Since the rise of the Holy Renaissance, Ascension, once known as Mexico City, has become the most populous city in the world, its citizens linked to a central government net through wetware implanted in their brains. But while their dictator grows fat with success, the masses are captivated by Sister Domenica, an insurgent nun whose weekly pirate broadcasts prophesy a wave of death. All too soon, Domenicas nightmarish prediction proves true, and Ascensions hospitals are overrun with victims of a deadly fever. As the rampant plague kills too quickly to be contained, Mexico smuggles its last hope over the violently contested border. . . .Henry David Stark is a crack virus hunter for the American Center for Disease Control and a veteran of global humanitarian efforts. But this disease is unlike any he’s seen before, and there seems to be no way to cure or control it. Racing against time, Stark battles corruption to uncover a horrifying truth: this is no ordinary outbreak but a deliberately unleashed man-made virus . . . and the killer is someone Stark knows.
(Jon, Avondale)

Coming Home by Jack McDevitt

(powells.com) Thousands of years ago, artifacts of the early space age were lost to rising oceans and widespread turmoil. Garnett Baylee devoted his life to finding them, only to give up hope. Then, in the wake of his death, one was found in his home, raising tantalizing questions. Had he succeeded after all? Why had he kept it a secret? And where is the rest of the Apollo cache?

Antiquities dealer Alex Benedict and his pilot, Chase Kolpath, have gone to Earth to learn the truth. But the trail seems to have gone cold, so they head back home to be present when the Capella, the interstellar transport that vanished eleven years earlier in a time/space warp, is expected to reappear. With a window of only a few hours, rescuing it is of the utmost importance. Twenty-six hundred passengers—including Alexs uncle, Gabriel Benedict, the man who raised him—are on board.

Alex now finds his attention divided between finding the artifacts and anticipating the rescue of the Capella. But time wont allow him to do both. As the deadline for the Capellas reappearance draws near, Alex fears that the puzzle of the artifacts will be lost yet again. But Alex Benedict never forgets and never gives up—and another day will soon come around...
(Jon, Avondale)

Devil’s Eye by Jack McDevitt

(powells.com) Interstellar antiquities dealer Alex Benedict receives a cryptic message asking for help from celebrated writer Vicki Greene, who has been mind-wiped. She has no memory of her past life, or of her plea for assistance. But she has transferred an enormous sum of money to Alex, also without explanation. The answers to this mystery lie on the most remote of human worlds, where Alex will uncover a secret connected to a decades-old political upheaval and a secret that somebody desperately wants hidden, though the price of that silence is unimaginable.
(Jon, Avondale)

Ashfall trilogy by Mike Mullin

Ashfall

Ashen Winter

Sunrise

"In this grim, postapocalyptic tale, the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, covering much of North America in volcanic ash and plunging the world into nuclear winter. Fifteen-year-old Alex Halprin refused a family trip to visit relatives in Illinois, so he's home alone in Iowa when the eruption occurs. After seeing a neighbor kill three looters, Alex heads east through falling ash, dropping temperatures, and torrential storms, hoping to find his family. Soon he's joined by another survivor, Darla Edmunds, with whom he falls in love. Debut novelist Mullin puts his characters through hell, depicting numerous deaths in detail ('Blam-Blam! His head pretty much burst, showering my legs with blood and bits of hair and skull and brain'). There's also cannibalism and a rape before the novel comes to a believable ending; 'happy' is perhaps too much to ask for, but Alex does find a measure of stability. The book is well written and its protagonists are well-drawn, particularly the nontraditional and mechanically inclined Darla. Although more appropriate for older teens due to its violence, this is a riveting tale of survival. Ages 14 — up." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(Jon, Avondale)

Ashes trilogy by Ilsa Bick

Ashes

Shadows

Monsters

(amazon.com) An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions. Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.  For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human. Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.
(Laura, Trussville)

Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

The earth’s rotation inexplicably begins to slow and how this plays out for 11-year-old Julia is compelling to watch.  Julia doesn’t particularly care about what has caused this problem and only really gets information about current events through the filter of her parents and neighbors as they all fight to decide whether to continue to follow a 24-hour schedule or try to keep up with the increasing length of the actual days.  This is much more a character study than strictly an apocalyptic adventure and I found the difference refreshing. 
(Holley, Emmet O’Neal)