Thought-provoking Science Fiction and Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Clean reads
• Science fiction or fantasy

The City of Ember
By Jeanne DuPrau
YA F DUPRAU
It is always night in the city of Ember located underneath the planet’s surface. Beyond the city are the Unknown Regions, which are forbidden to explore. It is the year 241 and young Lina’s greatest desire is to be assigned as a Messenger on Assignment Day. Doon Harrow has been assigned as a Pipeworker. Lina and Doon discover a mystery about the city that is connected to the dwindling food supplies and flickering light sources. They use their jobs and each other to puzzle out their new dangerous situation.

The House of the Scorpion
By Nancy Farmer
YA F FARMER
In the empire of Matteo Alacran there are fields of poppies harvested to make opium. Matteo is a feudal drug lord in the country of Opium located south of the United States. All menial labor is done by humans with computer chip brains. El Patron, has lived 140 years with the help of transplants from a series of clones, a common practice among elite rich. Matt, the latest of Alacran's doubles, has been spared because he belongs to El Patron. Matt enjoys special status but eventually he realizes the fate in store for him and tries to escape.

The Hero and the Crown
By Robin McKinley
YA F MCKINLEY
From childhood, Aerin had been tortured by the infamy of her mother. Supposedly her mother bewitched the Damarian king and married him, only to die in childbirth leaving behind a newborn daughter and an heirless land. Largely left alone by others Aerin grew up wild. But little did the young princess know the long-dormant powers of her mother appear. With the guidance of the wizard Luthe and help of the blue sword Aerin would accept her own destiny.

Elantris
By Brandon Sanderson
SCIFI SANDERSO
The godlike inhabitants of Elantris, once the capital of the land of Arelon, have degenerated into powerless, tortured souls, unable to die, because the city's magic broke 10 years earlier without explanation. The curse strikes Prince Raoden of Arelon and he's imprisoned in Elantris but he refuses to surrender to his dark fate and instead strives to create a society out of the fallen and to unlock the secret that will restore the city's glory. Meanwhile, Princess Sarene of Kae (Arelon's new capital), who was betrothed to Raoden , believes her intended has died. Officially declared his widow, she must use her political savvy and wit to protect Kae from malevolent forces without and within the city, chiefly Hrathen, a leader of the creepy Shu-Dereth faith, who aims to either convert Kae or destroy it within three months.

The Time Machine
By H.G. Wells
SCIFI WELLS
When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year A.D. 802,701, he is at first happy to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realizes they hold a dark secret. In deep tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race descended from humanity—the sinister Morlocks. And when the scientist’s time machine disappears, it becomes clear he must search these tunnels if he is ever to return to his own era.