Do you like to read Science Fiction? Want to know what everyone else is reading? Check out this book list...
1) "Cinder" by Marissa Meyer
Although it packs in more genres than comfortably fit, this series opener and debut offers a high coolness factor by rewriting Cinderella as a kickass mechanic in a plague-ridden future.
Long after World War IV, with a plague called letumosis ravaging all six Earthen countries, teenage Cinder spends her days in New Beijing doing mechanical repairs to earn money for her selfish adoptive mother. Her two sisters will attend Prince Kai’s ball wearing elegant gowns; Cinder, hated because she’s a cyborg, won’t be going. But then the heart-thumpingly cute prince approaches Cinder’s business booth as a customer, starting a chain of events that links her inextricably with the prince and with a palace doctor who’s researching letumosis vaccines. This doctor drafts cyborgs as expendable test subjects; none survive. Cinder’s personal tenacity and skill, as well as Meyer’s deft application of "Cinderella" nuggets—Cinder’s ill-fitting prosthetic foot (loseable on palace steps); a rusting, obsolete car colored pumpkin-orange—are riveting. Diluting them is a space-fantasy theme about mind-controlling Lunars from the moon, which unfortunately becomes the central plot. A connection between Cinder’s forgotten childhood and wicked Lunar Queen Levana is predictable from early on.
Despite the simplistic and incongruous-feeling telepathic-enslaver theme, readers will return for the next installment in this sharp, futuristic "Cinderella" tale. (Science fiction/fairy tale. 12-15)
2) "Across the Universe" by Beth Revis
An unforgettable opening scene, in which Amy watches her parents climb into glass boxes to be agonizingly frozen alive and then submits to being frozen herself, launches this riveting thriller about space travel, secrets, murder and Realpolitik. Amy’s family chooses cryogenics so they can be defrosted when the spaceship
Godspeed completes its 300-year journey to a new planet. But en route, in space, Amy’s cryo-wires are unplugged early—almost lethally. She wakes to meet Elder, another teen, named for his leader-in-training position. Iron handed commander Eldest refuses to teach Elder the critical details for running
Godspeed, and in scrutinizing the deadly mystery of who’s unplugging the frozens, Elder and Amy uncover generations of devastating lies underpinning
Godspeed’s on-board society. From the ship’s windowless metal walls and recycled-air full-farming ecosystem to the people’s carnal and oddly synchronized breeding Season, Revis’ extraordinary setting is credible and palpably claustrophobic. The two teens’ alternating viewpoints, both in first person, divulge information to readers bit by tension-filled bit. Wherever the series goes from here, this opener leaves an indelible imprint. (Science fiction. 14 & up)
3) "These Broken Stars" by Amie Kaufman
Overdone characterizations threaten to overwhelm an exciting outer-space adventure.
When the richest girl in the galaxy and a burned-out war hero from lowly beginnings are the only survivors of a spaceship crash that kills 50,000 people, they grudgingly cooperate to survive. Their escape pod lands far from the ship, so Lilac and Tarver trek through cold and rain to reach the main crash site. This unknown planet has been terraformed, but frighteningly, there are no colonists—or anyone else. When they reach it, the ship’s a hazardous tomb of rotting bodies. The jam-packed plot incorporates telepathy, energy-matter conversion, an unknown life form, an explosion, two cave-ins and a temporary death. Lilac and Tarver alternate first-person narration; ratcheting up the suspense are single-page chapters in which an unknown authority interrogates Tarver. Less successful is the seemingly endless (and textually forced) clashing between the protagonists. He’s bitter and occasionally rough (in the throes of a fever, he hits her); she’s an entitled heiress whose pale, white skin warrants mention no matter who’s narrating. It’s a thin, annoying line between love and hate (guess which wins) that makes the adventure elements vie for attention.
Tipping between science fiction and fantasy, this series opener will catch readers who enjoy melodramatic sparring and those who can look past it; for outer-space thrills with moral complexity, see Beth Revis’
Across the Universe series. (Science fiction. 13 & up)
4) "I Am Number Four" by Pittacus Lore
If it were a Golden Age comic, this tale of ridiculous science, space dogs and humanoid aliens with flashlights in their hands might not be bad. Alas... Number Four is a fugitive from the planet Lorien, which is sloppily described as both "hundreds of lightyears away" and "billions of miles away." Along with eight other children and their caretakers, Number Four escaped from the Mogadorian invasion of Lorien ten years ago. Now the nine children are scattered on Earth, hiding. Luckily and fairly nonsensically, the planet's Elders cast a charm on them so they could only be killed in numerical order, but children one through three are dead, and Number Four is next. Too bad he's finally gained a friend and a girlfriend and doesn't want to run. At least his newly developing alien powers means there will be screen-ready combat and explosions. Perhaps most idiotic, "author" Pittacus Lore is a character in this fiction--but the first-person narrator is someone else entirely. Maybe this is a natural extension of lightly hidden actual author James Frey's drive to fictionalize his life, but literature it ain't. (Science fiction. 11-13)
5) "Matched" by Ally Condie
In a tranquil future with clean streets and no illness, Cassia excitedly anticipates learning who will be her government-dictated marriage Match. Shockingly, it’s her friend Xander. But when Cassia slides Xander’s microcard into her port to learn his data (a system designed for the more typical Match to a stranger), Xander’s face on the portscreen dissolves—and another face appears. It’s Ky, their friend who’s an Aberration, prohibited from Matching. This unheard-of glitch, along with an outlawed gift from her grandfather, sows doubt in Cassia’s mind. She begins to want the forbidden: to run outdoors, to write words with her fingers instead of manipulating them on a screen, to read poetry beyond the sanctioned Hundred Poems—and she wants Ky, who feels the same. Condie peels back layer after dystopic layer at breakneck speed, Dylan Thomas reverberating throughout. If the Society’s at war, who’s the enemy? Of the three tablets carried by everyone, what does the red one do? Detractors will legitimately cite less-than-subtle morality and similarities to
The Giver, but this one’s a fierce, unforgettable page-turner in its own right. (Science fiction/romance. YA)
6) "Legend" by Marie Lu
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes. (Science fiction. 12-14)
7) "Unwind" by Neal Shusterman
Shusterman’s
Everlost (2006) dealt with death and children with a sense of innocence, redemption and even humor. None of that is present here. In a time not far distant, life is deemed to be sacrosanct from the instant of conception until the age of 13. From 13 to 18, however, parents and guardians have the opportunity to have children “unwound.” Technically, life doesn’t end, but every part of the child is “harvested” to be parceled out and passed on to the highest bidder. In this gruesome age of organ harvest, readers meet Connor (doomed to be unwound by his parents), Risa (doomed as a ward of the state due to overcrowding) and Lev, a tithe, conceived for the express purpose of being unwound and “donated” to society. Their story of escape and struggle to survive in a society that lauds itself on the protection of life, but which has reduced human body parts to market commodities, unrolls against a bleak background of indifference, avarice, guilt, regret, loss, pain and rebellion. Well-written, this draws the reader into a world that is both familiar and strangely foreign, and generates feelings of horror, disturbance, disgust and fear. As with classics such as
1984 and
Fahrenheit 451, one can only hope that this vision of the future never becomes reality. (Science fiction. YA)
8) "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
Todd Hewitt has never known quiet. Growing up on an alien planet where thoughts are broadcast and animals speak, 12-year-old Todd is the last boy in a town of men. He quickly goes from outcast to target after finding two surprises in Prentisstown’s swamp: a wrecked colony spaceship and Viola, the first girl he has ever seen. In fleeing Prentisstown, Todd and Viola discover its ugly history and terrifying plans. Uneven pacing and an unbelievable premise hobble this work, Ness’s first attempt at YA fiction. Events pile up and then freeze while Todd addresses an emotional crisis. Viola’s page presence is so weak as to be forgettable, though Manchee, Todd’s loyal dog, will grow on readers as the narrative progresses. Ness’s attempt to develop Todd’s character by including colloquialisms in nearly every aspect of the narrative only succeeds in driving readers out of the tale. Attempting to address adolescent angst, information overload and war, Ness ends up delivering merely noise. (Science fiction. YA)
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