Science Fiction

Dreams and Visions
Helen S. Weiss, M. Jerry Weiss
Let your imagination soar and take flight with these fourteen original tales of fantasy and science fiction by a distinguished line-up of award-winning children's and young adult authors. Joan Bauer gives us Chloe, a fantasy writer trying to tell a new story--but her characters won't cooperate. Suzanne Fisher Staples introduces us to the powers of djinn in her magical tale set in Pakistan. Charles de Lint offers a romantic tale set during the Summer of Love in his mythical city of Newford. A witch's son seeks revenge in a chilling murder mystery by Michael O. Tunnell. Craig and Jessica, two high school runners, star in this story of transformation by Rich Wallace. Patrice Kindl's mysterious Mrs. Duck moves into the boring town of Refreshing Acres--and nothing is ever the same again. In S.L. Rottman's action-packed tale, the world is on fire, and it's a race to the water's edge. David Lubar thrills us with his story of Deborah, an aspiring magician. Mel Glenn shares a conversation between Ryan and an Angel in the afterlife. Jessie's encounter with a toad changes her life in this uplifting tale by Nancy Springer. A soldier meets the ghost of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, in John Ritter's thought-provoking story. An oracle makes an unsettling prediction in Sharon Dennis Wyeth's tale.Neal Shusterman introduces us to a young thief who holds the fate of the universe in his hands. Tamora Pierce's story takes us to the land of Hartunjar, where women are subservient to men--but not for long…
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To Light A Candle
James Mallory, Mercedes Lackey
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.
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Return to Quag Keep
Jean Rabe, Andre Norton
Many people might not know that Andre Norton wrote the first novel based in the Dungeons and Dragons Universe. That book was Quag Keep. Now Andre with role-playing icon Jean Rabe has returned to tell a new tale of those magically transported gamers in the fantasy realm that has become all too real for them.In The Return to Quag Keep these brave adventurers try to unlock the secrets of this magical world and maybe even return home to ours. Filled with classic dungeon crawls, mysterious wizards, and attacking dragons The Return to Quag Keep is a must for all role-playing fans as well as seminal Andre Norton fans.
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True Talents
David Lubar
It’s been over a year since fourteen-year-old Eddie “Trash” Thalmeyer and his friends from Edgeview Alternative School found out about their special hidden talents. Trash can move things with his mind, Torchie is a fire-starter, Cheater reads minds, Lucky finds lost objects, Flinch can predict the future, and Martin can see into people’s souls. Now back home with their families, all the boys want to do is get back to their normal lives, start attending high school, and keep in touch with their friends from Edgeview. When Trash tests his power in a bank and accidentally steals a fistful of cash, he is kidnapped by the ruthless leader of a shadowy company whose purpose is to gather information about psychic phenomena—and who is willing to do anything to get it…. Torchie, Cheater, Lucky, Flinch, and Martin join forces to rescue their friend using their hidden talents, and discover their true talents in the process.
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Farseed
Pamela Sargent
Centuries ago, the people of Earth sent Ship into space. Deep within its core, it carried the seed of humankind…More than twenty years have passed since Ship left its children, the seed of humanity, on an uninhabited, earthlike planet--a planet they named Home. Zoheret and her companions have started settlements and had children of their own. But, as on board Ship, there was conflict, and soon after their arrival, Zoheret's old nemesis, Ho, left the original settlement to establish his own settlement far away. When Ho's daughter, fifteen-year-old Nuy, spies three strangers headed toward their settlement, the hostility between the two groups of old shipmates begins anew and threatens to engulf the children of both settlements. Can the divided settlers face the challenges of adapting to their new environment in spite of their conflicts? And if they do, will they lose their humanity in the process?
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Maximum Ride: Schools Out Forever
James Patterson

In this eagerly awaited follow-up, brave bird-kid Max and her flock are discovered by an FBI agent and forced to go to "school." There is no such thing as an ordinary day as Max deciphers how and when she's supposed to save the world, and she faces her greatest enemy--a clone of herself. Little, Brown and Company
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The Last Universe
William Sleator
Sleator is at his sci-fi best with this quantum thriller, now available in paperbackIn this gothic, sci-fi thriller from a master storyteller, Susan and her wheelchair-bound brother, Gary, discover a mysterious maze in the vast gardens of their isolated home. Planted by a scientist uncle who disappeared long ago, the maze offers seemingly endless routes and choices. The teenagers discover that each turn they take alters their world in some way. Sickly Gary sees a chance to change his fate; Susan sees that they may both be lost forever. Sleator keeps readers guessing right up to the shocking ending. Praise for The Last Universe "Sleator is a master of suspenseful science fiction and that mastery is evident here...entirely shocking." - School Library Journal "Science fiction fans, science nerds, and random readers alike will appreciate this latest offering." - Voya "Sleator has fashioned a perfect 'what if' story." - Kliatt "Will keep readers turning the pages until the very end." - Kirkus
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The Skyborn
Paul Collins
After the crash of the ship Colony, 14-year-old Welkin was left for dead on the inhospitable landscape of a ravaged Earth. After being rescued by a gang of Earthborn, Welkin proves his value and becomes a trusted member of the Family. But existence is still hand to mouth. The nuclear ravaged landscape is hardly more than a vast wasteland. Dangers from bands of mutants threaten continually. As does the ominous presence of Colony itself. Inside the grounded starship Skyborn inhabitants feed on their hatred of the Earthborn. When on routine patrol a Colony scout is captured by the Family, he reveals a secret: authorities onboard Colony have regrouped and mean to launch a final assault-to rid the Earth of the "savage" Earthborn for ever. But even Welkin--armed with his knowledge of Skyborn ways and methods--could never have been prepared for what he finds.
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Peeps
Scott Westerfeld
Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected before they can create even more of their kind.
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Anthem
Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand
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