Touched by an Alien

By Gini Koch

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: DAW Books, Inc. 2010

Genres: Science fiction, thriller, romance

Series: Alien; 1

Format: Paperback (mass market)

ISBN: 9780756406004

Audience: Adult

Number of pages: 389

Setting: Pueblo Caliente, AZ, Roswell, NM, & New York City

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: As marketing manager, Katherine “Kitty” Katt, is on her way back to work from jury duty, she witnesses a bizarre scene outside of Pueblo Caliente’s courthouse.  Before she has a chance to think twice, she has killed her first alien parasite/ superbeing with the only weapon she had on hand – her pen.  As a result, she now has several good looking Men in Grey trying to recruit her to their agency.  Kitty soon finds herself racing at hyperspeed to save her family (and the world), while discovering intimate secrets about her new colleagues.

Mockingjay

By Suzanne Collins

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Scholastic Press, 2010

Genres: Science fiction, adventure, dystopian, thriller

Series: The Hunger Games; 3

ISBN: 9780439023511

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 392

Setting: Panem – mainly District 13 & the Capitol, but also Districts 12, 8, and 2

Time period: Sometime in the future

Plot summary: Katniss must face the reality of her new situation.  She and her family are all alive and living underground in the rebel District 13.  Peeta has been captured by the Capitol.  The rebels of District 13 want Katniss to become the face of the revolution; they want her to become the “Mockingjay”, a role which has already been designed for her without her knowledge or acceptance.  The questions are: what does Katniss want?  And how will she go about getting it?

Who Fears Death

By Nnedi Okorafor

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Daw Books, Inc., 2010

Genres: Fantasy, dark fantasy, science fiction, magical realism

ISBN: 9780756406172

Audience: Adult

Number of pages: 387

Setting: Jwahir & Seven Rivers Kingdom, Africa

Time period: An unspecified time in the future

Plot summary: In a post-apocalyptic Africa, Onyesonwu is born to an Okeke mother.  As a child of rape with a biological father who is Nuru, Onyesonwu is considered an Ewu.  As such, she is despised and mistreated by most people whom she encounters.  As the Nuru continue their warfare and genocide against the Okeke, Onyesonwu struggles to learn about her own special abilities, while teaching others that she is not evil.  She is, in fact, the one who will lead both Nuru and Okeke to peace and healing.

Matched

By Ally Condie

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Dutton Books, 2010

Genres: Science fiction, dystopian, romance

Series: Matched; 1

ISBN: 9780525423645

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 369

Setting: The City & Mapletree Borough, Oria Province

Time period: An unspecified time in the future

Plot summary: Cassia Reyes lives in a perfect society.  Debilitating illnesses have been eliminated.  People die when they are old, surrounded by loved ones.  The Society makes all the decisions for everyone to ensure that everyone is contributing to The Society for the benefit of all.  This includes who people will love and to whom they will be Matched.

When Cassia learns that her Match is her best friend Xander, she is both happy and confused.  It is extremely rare for Matches to know one another from childhood.  Her confusion is magnified, however, when she looks up the information about her Match given to her by The Society at the Matching Banquet.  For a moment, she does not see Xander’s face on the screen; she sees another friend.  But how can this be?  The Society does not make mistakes.

Neuromancer

By William Gibson

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Ace Books, 1984

Genres: Science fiction, cyberpunk

Series: Sprawl Trilogy; 1

ISBN: 0441569595

Audience: Adult

Number of pages: 271

Settings: Chiba City, the Sprawl (Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis), Istanbul, & Freeside

Time period: An unspecified time in the future

Plot summary: Case, an ex-cowboy, is hanging out in Chiba awaiting his own demise.  With a crippled nervous system and not much to look forward to, Case fills his time with octagons and whatever else he can find in Night City to give him a rush.  That is until he is offered a deal he can’t refuse – a chance for his neural damage to be healed and a seat at a console where he can jack into cyberspace.

Catching Fire

By Suzanne Collins

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Scholastic Press, 2009

Genres: Science fiction, adventure, dystopian, thriller

Series: The Hunger Games; 2

ISBN: 9780439023498

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 391

Setting: Panem – mainly District 12 & the Capitol

Time period: Sometime in the future

Plot summary: When Katniss returns to District 12 after surviving the Capitol’s Hunger Games, all she wants is for her life to be as it was prior to the games.  Unfortunately, this can never be.  As victors, she and Peeta must live as such.  And while the Capitol’s audience was quite convinced by Katniss and Peeta’s undying love for one another throughout the games, President Snow was not.  He tells Katniss this personally just prior to her and Peeta’s Victory Tour through the districts.  He also mentions that some of the districts have had uprisings and threatens to harm Katniss’s family if she doesn’t comply with his wishes.

The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Scholastic Inc., c2008, 2009

Genres: Science fiction, adventure, dystopian, thriller

Series: The Hunger Games; 1

ISBN: 9780439023528

Intended audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 374

Setting: District 12 & the Capitol, Panem

Time period: Sometime in the future – after “the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol” (p. 18).

Plot summary: When Katniss Everdeen’s younger sister, Prim, is selected as a tribute for District 12 in the Capitol’s televised Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to go instead.  With her hunting skills, Katniss has a better chance of surviving the games than her twelve year old sister.  In spite of this, it will take all of Katniss’s wits and a good amount of luck, to make it through the games alive.

Little Brother

By Cory Doctorow

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Tor, c2008, 2010

Genres: Science fiction, general fiction

ISBN: 9780765323118

Intended audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 416 – includes 2 afterwards, a bibliography, acknowledgements, and excerpts from For the Win.  The story is 365 pages.

Setting: San Francisco, CA and the Bay area

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: When Marcus and his friends decide to ditch school for a rousing round of Harajuku Fun Madness, they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Bay Bridge is bombed by terrorists.  They are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and detained until they give all of the information which DHS requests, including passwords to their phones and emails.  When finally released, Marcus vows to get back at the DHS for using terrorist methods for obtaining information from American citizens.

Boneshaker

By Cherie Priest

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Tor, 2009

Genres: Fantasy, steampunk, horror, science fiction, adventure

ISBN: 9780765318411

Intended audience: Adult

Number of pages: 416

Setting: Seattle, WA

Time period: 1880

Plot summary: In an alternate history, the Klondike gold rush began a few decades earlier and brought huge numbers of people to Seattle.  Commissioned by the Russians, Leviticus Blue built a giant drill capable of penetrating the thick Klondike ice to reach the gold below.  However, when Levi takes his Incredible Bone Shaking Drill Engine for a test run in Seattle, it has dire consequences.  Not only does the Boneshaker cause massive structural damage to the city of Seattle, it also releases a poisonous gas, later named The Blight, which causes people who breathe it to turn into zombies, or rotters.

Sixteen years later, Levi’s widow, Briar Wilkes lives in the Outskirts of Seattle, which is now surrounded by a thick, massive wall to keep both the Blight and rotters inside.  When Briar’s teenage son, Zeke, decides that he wants to try and clear his father’s name for the history records, he ventures inside the walled city.  When Briar discovers where her missing son went, she also ventures inside the wall to try and find her son.

So This is How it Ends

By Tui T. Sutherland

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Eos, 2006

Genre: Fantasy, time travel fantasy, adventure, mythic fiction, science fiction

Series: Avatars; 1

ISBN: 9780060750299

Intended audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 480

Settings: Many various settings including: Los Angeles, NYC, Chile, Mexico

Time periods: 2003 – 2012, 2087

Plot summary: Five teenagers in various parts of the world find themselves alone in a post-apocalyptic world.  Most of them must travel great distances to meet at a gathering place in New York City, while avoiding mutant animals, crystal robot hunters, and a few deranged humans.  Once they reach their destination, they learn more details about what has become of the world they once knew.  They also learn that they will be participating in a battle – whether they want to or not.