Blog Posts by Subject: Science Fiction and Fantasy

Lately, I’ve noticed some interest in crossover titles for video game players who are looking for good fiction reads. I know I’m not the first person to think of this. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a good, if somewhat obvious, example. Here’s a list of some other titles that may not immediately spring to mind.

If you missed the big news, The New York Public Library now offers free ebooks for your Kindle! To celebrate, I've put together a somewhat exhaustive list of science fiction ebook titles to make it easy to browse them at a glance.

Click to go directly to any author: Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, China Miéville, Kim Stanley Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Vladimir Sorokin, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Need help? Check out this useful step-by-step guide to downloading Kindle ebooks. Many of these titles are also available for the Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony E-reader as well.

When The Hunger Games came out a few years ago, author Suzanne Collins had no idea she was popularizing a whole sub-genre of fantasy — the dystopian romance. With all the sub-par Hunger Games copycats out there, it’s hard not to be cynical. However, I am here to tell you that there is HOPE. Blood Red Road by Moira Young has it all! A fast moving, edge-of-your-seat story, a super kick-ass heroine, amazing action, and an epic romance that just might have you saying, “Peeta who?”

Anya Balanchine lives in a world where chocolate is illegal, water is scarce and New York City is a ghost of what it once was. Central Park is no longer a park. The Metropolitan Museum is a night club.

When Brynn was four years old, her life changed forever when a rogue werewolf killed her parents. Rescued by the Stone River Pack and Marked by the pack’s alpha, Callum, Brynn’s safety is a matter of pack law.

Happy September! As the fall season begins, we must bid farewell to Sci-Fi Summer and all the television we've watched together. I was extremely happy to get the chance to blog about 10 of my favorite science fiction shows. And just in case you missed any of the blog posts, I've put them in a "Top 10" list below with my absoulte favorite series appearing first. Remember — it's all part of Summer Reading 2011.

Do you love Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy? Are you REALLY hoping that the new Hunger Games movie is going to do justice to the book? Do you want to read more books in which the world as we know it has ended... and a dark and dangerous world has taken its place? Where a dark and dangerous guy (or, for that matter, a blonde and dangerous guy) will look deeply into your eyes and inspire you to fight against the society you've known your entire life? Whether you're on Team Gale or Team Peeta, here are some titles that will inspire you.

The summer is almost over! It's sad but true. As we look ahead to the leaves changing colors in Central Park and kids going back to school, let's spend the last fleeting moments of the season talking about the oldest show on our list, Quantum Leap.

Quick. What's the first thing that pops to mind if someone asks you about fantasy books? Harry Potter? The Lord of the Rings? Or perhaps nothing at all if you're not familiar with the genre. A few of you might think of the Dungeons and Dragons game tie-ins. If you're like me, you'll think of plain old swords, sorcery, dragons, and ultimate battles between good and evil. The river of fantasy literature runs much deeper and wider than those titles and tropes, however. The upcoming release of Conan the Barbarian on August 19th is a chance to dive deep into those waters.

There is no discussion about science fiction television without talking about Firefly. This was the brainchild of Joss Whedon, the man who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, spinoff Angel, and more recently Dollhouse. Following nine people on a small spaceship on the outskirts of civilization, it was essentially what Star Trek was originally intended to be: "cowboys in space." Firefly arguably did a much better job. Their captain actually rode horses and transported cattle on a regular basis.

Lily Carter’s future is at Princeton University. Her grandfather went to Princeton. Going to Princeton would allow Lily to move away from home without feeling guilt about not taking care of her mother. It’s the perfect school. Most importantly, Lily desperately wants to follow in Grandpa’s footsteps to make him and her mother proud.

"September 23rd. Journal entry one. I'm Liz Parker, and five days ago, I died. After that, things got really weird..." 

Here's a typical boy-meets-girl story. The girl is Liz Parker, a high school waitress from Roswell, New Mexico. The boy is the mysterious Max Evans, a high school loner who redefines "tall, dark, and handsome." Liz works at her parents' diner, the Crashdown Café, which plays up the town's touristy alien kitsch mentality. One afternoon while Max is eating and Liz is working, two guys get into an argument. One pulls out a gun. There's a struggle. The gun goes off... and Liz is shot. Without thinking, Max rushes to her side. 

Elodie comes to the town of Two Castles with one goal: to become a mansioner. Her greatest hope, her only actual plan upon arriving in town, is to apprentice herself to a mansioner that she might become an accomplished performer in her own right.

When Elodie’s hope is dashed she is forced to look for another plan or starve in Two Castles with none of her family at home even knowing about her plight.

Help comes in the unusual form of a dragon named Meenore.

Oh Japan, where would modern sci-fi be without you? With your vivid and thought-provoking visions of what the world could be, robots and all, you've given us countless rich and spectacular new arenas for our imaginations to run around in. From the philosophical man-and-machine melds of Ghost in the Shell to the adventurous natural majesty of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, science fiction is a genre well-covered by our friends in the Land of the Rising Sun. Just like anime as a whole, their sci-fi selection has a little something for everyone. Whether your love futures or alternate worlds peppered with robots, romance, grit, speculation, or just plain fun, 

The dance is done and I've come through the dragon fire unscathed. George R.R. Martin's latest, A Dance with Dragons, was six years in the writing. Six painful years of anticipation. It was worth every moment once I got ahold of it, got comfortable, and blew through all 1,016 pages in entirely too short a time. Go ahead and check that again: 1,016 pages. Better lift some weights before settling in for a read. There WILL be spoilers about previous books in the series behind the break, so if you are still reading prior installments, do NOT click through. Consider yourself warned.

Any child growing up knows that change is a difficult thing, but what if those changes included evacuating your dying city and the only home you've ever known? Or taking refuge in a struggling town that gets by on the artifacts of a long-lost world? Or even radical groups taking away your rights to sing or keep a dog? These are but a few of the challenges faced by the young protagonists of Jeanne DuPrau's tetralogy, the Books of Ember. In these four books, children and young adults alike will be engaged and enthralled by the adventures and mysteries of Lina Mayfleet, her best friend Doon Harrow, and their efforts to save their people.

"What if you found a portal to a parallel universe? What if you could slide into a thousand different worlds? Where it's the same year and you're the same person... but everything else is different. And what if you can't find your way home?"

The phrase "lost episode" can evoke a number of different emotions in TV viewers. To some, it can evoke the excitement of lost treasure; to others, the sadness of an adventure they may never see. In the early 1970s, tapes for storing old television programs were very expensive in the United Kingdom, and the advent of home video was still a few years off. Figuring that most of the old black-and-white Doctor Who serials from the 60s (along with numerous other shows) had officially been milked for all their commercial value, the old tapes were wiped to make room for new shows.

Teleportation. Precognition. Suspended Animation. Dark Matter. Fringe.