This debut novel by Elly Bangs rockets out of the starting gate with the high-powered energy of such
nth-gen cyberpunk as Richard Morgan’s
Altered Carbon, before settling down towards its climax into a (comparatively) meditative ramble on identity, kinship, communication, and individual responsibility for the survival of the species. Along the way, there’s seldom a dull moment although the success or failure of one certain authorial maneuver (a particular tactic I’ve often employed myself in my own fiction) could be the subject of aesthetic debate.
We open in the year 2159, at a time when the surface of the Earth has been ravaged by climate change and is an unstable wasteland, subject to super-storms and other phenomena. Most of the flourishing remnants of civilization are found in underwater arcologies of a sort. One such is Bloom City, run by a clan named the Medusas. Here live the three folks who will become central to our tale: a woman named Danae, who features a myste
There s plenty to keep you busy at the Kewanee Public Library District
Star Courier
Fireside Author Chat – Thursday, May 6 at 7 p.m.
Join us on Zoom for a fireside chat with Alex Kotlowitz, author of An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, The Interrupters, and There Are No Children Here. The chat will be moderated by Pulitzer Prize winning, Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. Alex and Mary will have a 45-minute discussion followed by about fifteen minutes to answer questions. Limited spots are available, so registration is required. Simply call our Reference Desk at 852-4505 or stop by to sign up!
Wed Feb 3, 2021 2:00pm
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After World War III nearly wiped out all of human existence, the remaining civilizations united together under the banner of the Planetary Alliance Commission (PAC). People were divided into sealed provinces rather than nations and left generally to their own devices with one big caveat: financial backing comes from PAC. To earn it, a province must demonstrate its value to PAC, prove its worth through feats of scientific discovery or social engineering. How they achieve that is left up to the provinces.
Ashiva grew up in the slums of the South Asian Province. With the development of a powerful AI called Solace, citizens of the SAP were separated, the genetically desirable moving up into the elite towers and the rest condemned to a slow death by governmental neglect in the Narrows. With her cybernetic arm courtesy of a scientifically gifted Narrows dweller she scrounges and steals and scrapes by. Secretly, she works for a group of freedom fighte
Issue #38, January/February 2021
$3.99 digital only, bi-monthly.
Science fiction and fantasy magazine with original and reprint fiction, non-fiction essays, interviews, and poetry. This issue includes fiction by Sam J. Miller, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Paul Cornell, Christopher Caldwell, and Marissa Lingen; a reprint from Del Sandeen; essays from John Wiswell, Octavia Cade, Katherine Cross, and Aidan Moher; interviews with Miyuki Jane Pinckard and Paul Cornell; and poetry. Cover art by Nilah Magruder. E-book subscribers receive the complete ebook on the first Tuesday of the month. Online readers will receive the first half of the magazine on the first Tuesday of the month. The second half will be available the first Tuesday of the following month. Also available free on the
by Hafsah Faizal (Sands of Arawiya #2) January 19, 2021; Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Nasir and Zafira may have defeated the shadow forest, but victory is not yet guaranteed. Altair has been taken captive. Nasir is busy learning to control the powerful magic flowing through his veins. Soon he will have to use his magic against the Lion of the Night and his own father, who is being puppeted by the Lion. To restore magic to Arawiya, Zafira must return the five hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets in each caliphate. Zafira is pulled into the Lion’s orbit and it may cost her everything to break free.