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Gamadin: Gazz [Book IV]
Tom Kirkbride
Synopsis: Finally, the Boys have a series the Girls love to read! In this fourth installment, Harlowe is surfing in the South Pacific with his little brother, Dodger, when Riverstone calls in a panic from the Omini Prime quadrant. All life on the planet Gazz is about to be wiped out by a lethal gamma ray burst in 11 days. According to Wiz, saving the planet with Millawanda's force field is a slam dunk. The plan was going smoothly until hostile forces dropped out of hyperspace, moments before the deadly rays struck. Battling two forces at once, Millie still saves the planet, but at a cost: her power is sucked dry! Unable to maintain orbit, Millawanda plunges into the planet's ocean. Adding to their peril, Riverstone, Lu and Sizzle have vanished and a second gamma ray burst will hit the planet in 37 days! There is a source of thermo-grym to bring back Millie, but Gazz is a 16th century planet of wind-powered ships and slithering beasts called Traas. In a race against time, Harlowe must borrow and commandeer a pirate ship to find the yellow crystals that will power Millawanda back to life before the crew, his girl, the planet and his own life are lost...
Publication Date: 10/31/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Scored
Lauren McLaughlin
Synopsis: Set in the future when teenagers are monitored via camera and their recorded actions and confessions plugged into a computer program that determines their ability to succeed. All kids given a "score" that determines their future potential. This score has the ability to get kids into colleges, grant scholarships, or destroy all hope for the above. Scored's reluctant heroine is Imani, a girl whose high score is brought down when her best friend's score plummets. Where do you draw the line between doing what feels morally right and what can mean your future? Friendship, romance, loyalty, family, human connection and human value: all are questioned in this fresh and compelling dystopian novel set in the scarily forseeable future.
Publication Date: 10/25/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Zaftan Miscreants: Book 2 of the Zaftan Trilogy
Synopsis: Two very different cultures clash in outer space. One, the gundies, is composed of humans, dwarfs, elves and other fantasy creatures. The second, the zaftans, are huge, nasty and belligerent aliens. Against this backdrop, the two main characters, different from everyone around them, struggle to survive because their uniqueness causes their environments to become decidedly hostile. One, named Sam, is an android with an organic brain. She develops emotions like flesh-and-blood people and the strongest emotion is loneliness. The second main character is a zaftan named Klatze. She tries to advance using talent and ability in a navy that advocates assassination and treachery as the preferred methods for advancement. This novel features an android and a computer falling in love, a naval officer struggling to prove ability is better than murder, piracy on a galactic scale, a robotic zealot, humor and satire. What more could a reader ask for?
Publication Date: 10/15/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Juniper Crescent
Tony Graff
Synopsis: Oksanya has been given the gift of a lifetime in the miraculous Isis operation, which replaced defective genes in her body with the genes of a cheetah. She can run faster and see better than everyone else in the world. Everyone else, however, is split on what to do with Oksanya. Many believe she has sold her humanity for the cure. The rest think she has improved her life and her species.
Publication Date: 10/14/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Variant
Robison Wells
Synopsis:

Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.

Where breaking the rules equals death.

But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.

Publication Date: 10/04/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Open Minds (Mindjack, Book 1)
Synopsis: When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.
Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can't read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can't be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf's mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she's dragged deep into a hidden underworld of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

MINDJACK: KIRA
Open Minds (Book One)
Closed Hearts (Book Two)
Free Souls (Book Three)
Mind Games (Book Four) - novella
The Handler (Book Five) - novella
The Scribe (Book Six) - novella
Keeper (Book Seven) - novella

MINDJACK: ZEPH
Locked Tight (Book One)
Cracked Open (Book Two)
Broken Wide (Book Three)
The Locksmith (Book Four) - novella

FORMATS AND TRANSLATIONS
Mindjack available in ebook, print, audiobook, French and German

LIVE ACTION TRAILER
Voted Best Trailer at the 2014 Illinois International Film Festival and one of 50 Most Cinematic Trailers Ever Made - check it out at Susan's website.
Publication Date: 10/03/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
As I Wake
Elizabeth Scott
Synopsis: Ava is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only one problem: Ava can't remember any of them - and can't shake the eerie feeling that she's not who they say she is.

Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . . but only in exchange for her trust.
Publication Date: 09/15/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Tankborn
Karen Sandler
Synopsis: Best friends Kayla and Mishalla know they will be separated when the time comes for their Assignments. They are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. High-status trueborns and working-class lowborns, born naturally of a mother, are free to choose their own lives. But GENs are gestated in a tank, sequestered in slums, and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen.

When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds a host of secrets and surprises-not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul's great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night. With the help of an intriguing lowborn boy, Mishalla begins to suspect that something horrible is happening to them.

After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan with their new friends to save the children who are disappearing. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, one that may reveal secrets no one is ready to face.

Publication Date: 09/15/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Glow
Amy Kathleen Ryan
Synopsis:


One of School Library Journal's Best Fiction Books of 2011

If a violent battle destroyed the only world you've ever known, would you be brave enough to save who was left? Would love be strong enough to survive the fight? Either way, there's no turning back.

The Empyrean is the only home 15-year-old Waverly has ever known. Part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space, she and her boyfriend Kieran will be pioneers of New Earth. Waverly knows she must marry young in order to have children who can carry on the mission, and Kieran, the handsome captain-to-be, has everything Waverly could want in a husband. Everyone is sure he's the best choice. Still, there's a part of Waverly that wants more from life than marriage, and she is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

Suddenly, Waverly's dreams are interrupted by the inconceivable – a violent betrayal by the Empyrean's sister ship, the New Horizon. The New Horizon's leaders are desperate to populate the new planet first, and will do anything to get what they need: young girls. In one pivotal moment, Waverly and Kieran are separated, and find themselves at the helm of dangerous missions, where every move has potentially devastating consequences, and decisions of the heart may lead to disaster.

Pulse-pounding and addictive, Glow begins Amy Kathleen Ryan's Sky Chasers--the most riveting series since The Hunger Games.

Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Truth of Valor
Tanya Huff
Synopsis: The thrilling final installment in Tanya Huff's military sci-fi adventure Confederation series

Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr was the very model of a Confederation Marine. She’d survived more deadly encounters than anyone in the Corps. No one who’d ever served with her could imagine her walking away from the Corps. But that was before Torin had learned the truth about the war the Confederation was fighting…before she’d been declared dead and had spent time in a prison that shouldn’t exist....
 
It was Salvage Operator Craig Ryder who had refused to believe Torin was dead. Craig who found and rescued Torin. And so, when her mission was complete, Torin resigned from the Marines to start a new life with Craig aboard his tiny salvage ship, the Promise.
 
But civilian life was a lot rougher than Torin had imagined. The salvage operators were losing cargo and lives to pirates. Because salvagers were an independent lot unwilling to turn to the OutSector Wardens for help, no one in authority seemed to take their ever-increasing threat seriously.
 
Then, on their first real run together, pirates attacked the Promise, kidnapping Craig and leaving Torin to die. But leaving Torin behind to die was never a good strategy. Against all odds, she survived, and certain—despite no evidence to prove her correct—that Craig was still alive, she decided to mount a rescue mission. When Craig’s salvager friends refused to join her, Torin had no choice but to call in the Marines—some very special Marines.
 
Then she discovered why the pirates had been trying to kidnap salvagers. And suddenly Torin’s mission expanded from saving Craig to stopping the pirates from changing the balance of power in known space....
Publication Date: 09/06/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Ashes
Ilsa J. Bick
Synopsis: It could happen tomorrow . . .
 
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.

Gripped me from beginning to end – dark, creepy and suspenseful.  James Dashner,
New York Times Best-Selling author of The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials       
             
A haunting and epic story of survival in a shattered world, ASHES is a must read.  
Michael Grant, New York Times Best-Selling author of Gone
Publication Date: 09/06/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Ultraviolet
R. J. Anderson
Synopsis: "Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her."

Sixteen-year-old Alison wakes up in a mental institution. As she pieces her memory back together, she realizes she's confessed to murdering Tori Beaugrand, the most perfect girl at school. But the case is a mystery. Tori's body has not been found, and Alison can't explain what happened. One minute she was fighting with Tori. The next moment Tori disintegrated--into nothing.

But that's impossible. No one is capable of making someone vanish. Right? Alison must be losing her mind--like her mother always feared she would.

For years Alison has tried to keep her weird sensory abilities a secret. No one ever understood--until a mysterious visiting scientist takes an interest in Alison's case. Suddenly, Alison discovers that the world is wrong about her--and that she's capable of far more than anyone else would believe.
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Galaxy Games: The Challengers
Synopsis: Things are looking up for Tyler Sato (literally!) as he and his friends scan the night sky for a star named for him by his Tokyo cousins in honor of his eleventh birthday. Ordinary stars tend to stay in one place, but Ty's seems to be streaking directly toward Earth at an alarming rate. Soon the whole world is talking about TY SATO, the doomsday asteroid, and life is turned upside down for Ty Sato, the boy, who would rather be playing hoops in his best friend's driveway.

Meanwhile, aboard a silver spaceship heading for Earth, M'Frozza, a girl with three eyes and five nose holes, is on a secret mission. M'Frozza is the captain of planet Mrendaria's Galaxy Games team, and she is desperate to save her world from a dishonorable performance in the biggest sporting event in the universe.

What will happen when Ty meets M'Frozza? Get ready for the most important event in human history--it's off the backboard, around the rim, and out of this world!
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Fox Inheritance
Mary E. Pearson
Synopsis:

Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other―Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.

Two-hundred-and-sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.

Everyone except Jenna Fox.

Publication Date: 08/30/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Omnitopia Dawn
Diane Duane
Synopsis: Created by Dev Logan, Omnitopia is the most popular and successful massive multiplayer online game ever. But now as Dev is about to roll out a major new expansion to Omnitopia, there are people preparing to play a different game-one that is meant to strike at the heart of Omnitopia and bring the entire system crashing down.
Publication Date: 08/02/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
OUTSIDE - a post-apocalyptic novel (Outside Series)
Synopsis: A post-apocalyptic romance thriller. The future is divided by Perimeters: high-security gated communities where life goes on as normal. If you're inside you're lucky. If you're outside, life expectancy takes a nose dive.

Riley is fortunate to have been born on the right side of the fence. But her life of privilege comes crashing down when someone breaks through and murders her sister.

She forsakes her own safety to go in search of the killer. Luc decides to go with her otherwise she'll be dead before she's past the security gate. But what awaits her outside is more unbelievable than she ever imagined.
Publication Date: 07/21/11
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction

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