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Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
Synopsis:
Publication Date: 07/17/25
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume Two A
Synopsis: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, honored the best of science fiction's early short stories. This volume is the definitive collection of the best science fiction novellas written between 1929 to 1964 and contains eleven great classics. There is no better anthology that captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field.

Published in 1973 to honor novellas that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country.

This volume contains the following:

Introduction by Ben Bova
"Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson
"Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr.
"Nerves" by Lester del Rey
"Universe" by Robert A. Heinlein
"The Marching Morons" by C. M. Kornbluth
"Vintage Season" by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
". . . And Then There Were None" by Eric Frank Russell
"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" by Cordwainer Smith
"Baby Is Three" by Theodore Sturgeon
"The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells
"With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson
Publication Date: 12/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Big Empty
J.B. Stephens
Synopsis: One year ago, a devastating plague called Strain 7 killed three quarters of the human race. Around the world, power systems failed and supply chains screeched to a halt. The surviving population of the United States has been relocated to the coasts; the heartland is now a wasteland called The Big Empty. But seven teens trying to put their lives back together will learn that the abandoned zone holds danger, secrets, and above all, hope.

Publication Date: 10/12/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
To Light A Candle
James Mallory, Mercedes Lackey
Synopsis: In The Outstretched Shadow, which was named by VOYA as Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror book for 2003, Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory introduced readers to a complex new fantasy world populated by humans, centaurs, elves, talking unicorns, and demons. The Golden City of the Bells, where only humans live, is ruled by the Mage Council, practitioners of High Magic---a powerful magic that is stable and reliable, though rigidly controlled and performed only by men. Outside the City's walls, humans and magical beings mix freely and call upon Wild Magic---a system sometimes erratic, always driven by desire and need, and performed by both men and women.

Now, in To Light a Candle, the Demon Queen sends her forces against her human and elven enemies, sowing distraction and death. In the human City, the Queen's agents work to divide the Council and foment rebellion among the City's citizens. In the countryside, they target the most vulnerable and valuable---the young Elf Prince and the Wild Mages who might be the Demons' most dangerous enemies.

To his own surprise, young Kellen, once the disappointing son of the great Mage who leads the City's Mage Council, has become a powerful Knight-Mage. Valued for his bravery and his skills as both wizard and warrior, Kellen joins the Elves' war councils. Yet he cannot convince the City of his birth that it is in terrible danger.

Kellen's sister Idalia, a Wild Mage with great healing ability, has pledged her heart to Jermayan, a proud Elven warrior. Someday Idalia will pay a tragic Price for a world-saving work of Wild Magic, but until then, she will claim any joy life can offer her. Jermayan, who has learned much while fighting at Kellen's side and loving the human Idalia, finds that everything changes when he Bonds with a dragon while rescuing the Elf Prince and becomes the first Elven Mage in a thousand years.

Furious at her enemies' success with the dragon, the Demon Queen attacks in force. Light struggles against Dark, like flickering candleflames buried deep in the shadow of Obsidian f0 Mountain.
Publication Date: 10/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Into The Abyss
David Marsh
Synopsis: When a being from an undersea civilization telepathically reaches into the mind of fourteen-year-old Ashlyn Miller, pleading for help, the boy finds himself embarking on a deep-sea journey that could change the world as we know it. A first novel.
Publication Date: 10/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Secret Shelter
Sandi LeFaucheur
Synopsis: Excavating a World War II air-raid shelter by their school leads to a trip back in time for Sophie Pinkerton and her friends, Marina and Quigs, and having to face the London Blitz.
Publication Date: 09/30/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
A Crack in the Line
Michael Lawrence
Synopsis: The mystery has begun

Alaric

It's been two years since his mother died in a terrible train crash, and Alaric's life continues to unravel. He and his father are barely on speaking terms, and Withern Rise, their Victorian mansion, is in shambles. Trapped at home during a blizzard, Alaric stumbles into a parallel world; a reality in which his mother is still alive. There's only one problem ... someone else is living his life.

Naia

Naia tries not to dwell on the horrible accident two years ago that nearly took her mother away. Now that life with her parents in Withern Rise has returned to normal, Naia thinks the worst is behind her. But during a freak snowstorm she's confronted by a stranger. Why does this boy look like her? Why does he have the same thoughts? The same memories? Who is he?

Alaric's and Naia's discovery of each other sets off an electrifying chain of events. And as their lives - and lifelines - entwine, the two teenagers uncover a truth with the power to rearrange, or even erase, their very existence.

Publication Date: 08/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Airborn
Kenneth Oppel
Synopsis:

Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow's nest, being the ship's eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there'd been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.

In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

Publication Date: 05/11/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The House on Falling Star Hill
Synopsis: The break-out literary novel from Michael Molloy, who has achieved great commercial success with his WITCH TRADE and TIME WITCHES books.

When Tim moves to his grandparent's village, everything seems mysterious. Why are there no flowers anywhere? Who is the weeping woman wandering through midnight streets? And what is the secret of the empty house on Falling Star Hill? The mystery deepens when Tim meets Sarre, a girl from another world. She leads Tim to the place she comes from--a magical, old-fashioned land connected to our own by falling stars, where flowers are guarded like treasures. It is there that all secrets will be revealed. And it is there that Tim will find his destiny.
Publication Date: 04/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Midnighters: The Secret Hour
Scott Westerfeld
Synopsis:

This is the first book in New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld’s Midnighters series.

A few nights after Jessica Day arrives in Bixby, Oklahoma, she wakes up at midnight to find the entire world frozen. For one secret hour each night, the town belongs to the dark creatures that haunt the shadows. And only a small group of people—Jessica included—is free to move about then. They are The Midnighters.  

The Secret Hour is the first book in the Midnighters trilogy, from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of the Uglies series.

Publication Date: 03/02/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Truesight
David, Jr. Stahler
Synopsis:

On a frontier world is a colony called Harmony.

Like everyone who lives there, Jacob is blind.

In his debut novel, David Stahler Jr. vividly imagines a future where genetic engineering has taken a startling turn. On a distant planet, in a utopian community of the blind, one remarkable young man will discover just how much there is to see -- if only he is willing to look.

Publication Date: 02/17/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Saddest Little Robot
Brian Gage, Kathryn Otoshi
Synopsis: Snoot is a Drudgebot, and a confused one at that. He can’t figure out why the Halobots, who run Dome City, get some much extra light (all robots need light to survive). He thinks so much about this he gets easily distracted and is consequently the least productive of all robots. He is also oddly shaped and the others make fun of him. Curious about what exists in the awful darkness outside the Dome, he ventures forth and discovers that all it not as it seems. Snoot vows to restore equality to Dome City. With guile, cunning, and good old-fashioned courage, Snoot, aided by some special friends, returns to Dome City to free the Drudgebots.
In both story and illustration, The Saddest Little Robot evokes and utilizes the styles of sci-fi books and films, manga, movie posters, comics and animated films. It encourages readers to look beyond what lies on the surface, to discover for themselves that things are not always as they seem; most important of all it shows them that they are strong enough to decide to do something about it. As Snoot does. And the saddest little robot becomes very happy indeed.
Publication Date: 02/06/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Zambinos of Blue Hill: The Proving
Synopsis: By the mid twenty-first century civilization will be colonizing the near reaches of the solar system. Honor and honesty will be highly valued. People may choose to receive a brain implant, called a grain, which imparts great knowledge. It is customary to perform a proving-a feat of intellect that proves that the grain is working.In the year 2063, you will find the Zambino family residing at 125 Puffin Rock Road in Blue Hill, Maine. Even for these remarkable times the Zambinos are not your average family. Chookanoo Zambino and his genetically engineered, adopted brother Scoom can't wait to get their grains and then, build a spacecraft for their proving.They can count on help from family, friends and the household robot, Zimbit.But, ancient spirits from beyond have a different proving for the Zambino boys. What do they have in common with a Civil War solder, a Nez Pierce warrior, a Roman centurion and the crew of a schooner that disappeared in 1891? Discover the secret reason Scoom was genetically engineered by a renegade scientist.So, liquefy some electricity and fire up the hyperbaric engines-it's time to go for a ride with the Zambinos of Blue Hill.
Publication Date: 11/16/03
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Forever War
Joe Haldeman
Synopsis:

Private William Mandella is a hero in spite of himself -- a reluctant conscript drafted into an elite military unit, and propelled through space and time to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand -- despite the fact that their fierce alien enemy is unknowable, unconquerable, and very far away. So Mandella will perform his duties without rancor and even rise up through the military's ranks . . . if he survives. But the true test of his mettle will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the time dilation caused by space travel the loyal soldier is aging months, while his home planet is aging centuries -- and the difference will prove the saying: you never can go home. . .

Publication Date: 09/02/03
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Anthem
Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand
Synopsis: Ayn Rand’s classic tale of a dystopian future of the great “We”—a world that deprives individuals of a name or independence—that anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

They existed only to serve the state. They were conceived in controlled Palaces of Mating. They died in the Home of the Useless. From cradle to grave, the crowd was one—the great WE.

In all that was left of humanity there was only one man who dared to think, seek, and love. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world, he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization, he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: He had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone. He had rediscovered the lost and holy word—I.

“I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.”—Ayn Rand
Publication Date: 03/01/96
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
Synopsis: Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses -- and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet?
Publication Date: 07/15/94
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction

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