Good Sci-Fi Reads

Try these books if you're looking for:

• science fiction, with perhaps an element of mystery
• read like Ender's Game and 2001: Space Odyssey

Ready Player One
By Ernest Cline
SCI-FI CLINE
In a bleak 2044, Wade Watts, an impoverished high school student lives primarily online alongside billions of others via a massive online game, OASIS, where players race to unravel the puzzles OASIS creator James Halliday built into the game before his death, with the winner taking control of the virtual world's parent company, as well as staggering wealth. When Wade stumbles on a clue taken from a 1980s video game, he's plunged into high-stakes conflict with a corporation dedicated to unraveling Halliday's riddles. Immersed in 80’s pop culture references, and written in the world of video games, this is the book every self-proclaimed geek dreams of finding on the shelves.

Neverwhere
By Neil Gaiman
SCI-FI GAIMAN
Richard Mayhew's life is forever changed after he rescues a young girl named Door and finds himself living in a city of monsters, saints, murderers, and angels, and he must help Door on her mission to save this strange underworld kingdom from destruction. With his classic dark sense of humor, Neil Gaiman creates a unique shadow world below the London underground.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
By Robert Heinlein
SCI-FI HEINLEIN
Winner of the 1972 Hugo award, this book laid down the path for future science fiction. In the year 2076, the residents of the moon rebel, with the help of the legendary supercomputer ‘mike.’

Old Man’s War 
By John Scalzi
SCI-FI SCALZI
In this imaginative and original novel, the military recruits only retirees with experience and nothing to lose. With a cast of octogenarians, this novel balances hard scientific reasoning with light humor. The detailed and accurate science make this book hard science fiction.

Character-Driven, Issue-Oriented Young Adult Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• teen fiction
• character-driven
• issue-oriented

Homeless Bird 
By Gloria Whelan
YA F WHELAN
Koly is just thirteen when her marriage is arranged with a young boy. Her path is not easy. She must endure many difficulties. Her mother-in-law abuses her verbally and emotionally and eventually abandons her. She meets her challenges with courage and her situation does slowly improve, and she ultimately achieves happiness.

Life as We Knew It 
By Susan Beth Pfeffer
YA F PFEFFER
Miranda is 16 years old living with her mother and brothers in rural Pennsylvania when catastrophe hits the earth. This is the story of how their lives change and how the must struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon pushing it just slightly closer to earth, but resulting tidal waves and a great increase in volcanic activity worldwide. The story is told through Miranda’s diary entries. Gripping.

Notes from the Midnight Driver 
By Jordan Sonnenblick
YA F SONNENBL
After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness.

It's Kind of a Funny Story 
By Ned Vizzini
YA F VIZZINI
A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital.

Award-Winning Historical Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• historical fiction
• award winners (especially Newbery Award Winners)

Rifles for Watie 
By Harold Keith
F Keith
With fighting erupting around his Kansas farm, 16-year-old Jefferson Davis Bussey can hardly wait to join the Union forces. When he infiltrates Colonel Watie's Confederate camp as a spy, he discovers the enemy is much like himself--only fighting for a different cause.

My Brother Sam Is Dead 
By James Lincoln Collier
YA F Collier
Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle 
By Avi
YA F Avi
Charlotte Doyle begins as a proper 19th century girl, but after being accused of murder and surviving a hurricane during a transatlantic voyage, ends up being anything but.

The King's Fifth 
By Scott O’Dell
YA F O’Dell
In 1541, 17 year old Esteban de Sandoval sets down his story while awaiting his trail for hoarding king’s share of treasure, or he king’s fifth’. Esteban is a mapmaker, not a treasure hunter, and only joined Mendoza's expedition to the famed Seven Cities of Cibola in order to draw the first maps of the region. So how is he accused of treason?

Try these books if you're looking for:

• sci-fi
• adventure

Game of Thrones
By George R. R. Martin
SCI-FI MARTIN Song of #1
The aristocratic Stark family faces its ultimate challenge in the onset of a generation-long winter, the poisonous plots of the rival Lannisters, the emergence of the Neverborn demons, and the arrival of barbarian hordes.

Wizard’s First Rule 
By Terry Goodkind
SCI-FI GOODKIND Sword of #1
An unearthly adversary descends on an idyllic fantasy world, corrupting magic against good and slaughtering innocents, and only a single man can stop him.

Eyes of the Dragon
By Stephen King
F KING
After Flagg, the evil court magician sees a mouse chance upon a grain of dragon sand behind Prince Peter's shelves and die--as did the king--in fire and smoke, he plots to imprison Peter in the Needle and sieze control of the kingdom.

The Name of the Wind 
By Patrick Rothfuss
SCI-FI ROTHFUSS Kingkill #1
A hero named Kvothe, now living under an assumed name as the humble proprietor of an inn, recounts his transformation from a magically gifted young man into the most notorious wizard, musician, thief, and assassin in his world.

Adventurous Paranormal Romance Books

Try these books if you're looking for:

• adventure
• paranormal
• romance

Vampire Academy 
By Richelle Mead
YA F Mead Vampire #1
Two years after a horrible incident made them run away, vampire princess Lissa and her guardian-in-training Rose are found and returned to St. Vladimir's Academy, where one focuses on mastering magic, the other on physical training, while both try to avoid the perils of gossip, cliques, gruesome pranks, and sinister plots.

Insignia 
By S. J. Kincaid
YA F Kincaid
Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet.

Etiquette & Espionage 
By Gail Carriger
YA F Carriger
In an alternate England of 1851, spirited fourteen-year-old Sophronia is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is surprised to learn, lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit, and espionage.

Catch Me If You Can: The Amazing True Story of the Most Extraordinary Liar in the History of Fun and Profit 
By Frank Abagnale
BIO Abagnale
Abagnale's first-person narrative of his misadventures as a conman, forger, imposter, and escape artist before the age of 21.

More Action/Thrillers

Try these books if you're looking for:

• action
• thriller

Don’t Turn Around 
By Michelle Gagnon
YA F GAGNON
After waking up on an operating table with no memory of how she got there, Noa must team up with computer hacker Peter to stop a corrupt corporation with a deadly secret.

Heist Society 
By Ally Carter
YA F CARTER Heist #1
A group of teenagers uses their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save fifteen-year-old Kat Bishop's father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector.

The Expats 
By Chris Pavone
F PAVONE
"An international spy thriller about a former CIA agent who moves with her family to Luxembourg where everything is suspicious and nothing is as it seems"-- Provided by publisher.

The Fear Index 
By Robert Harris
F HARRIS
A visionary scientist creates a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that predicts movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions. But after an intruder breaks into his home, he has to try to discover who is trying to destroy him.

Action and Thriller Novels

Try these books if you're looking for:

• action
• thriller

Spycatcher 
By Matthew Dunn
F Dunn Spycatch #1
Unpredictable agent Will Cochrane must catch the world's most wanted international terrorist mastermind, who was responsible for the death of his father in Iraq twenty-five years ago, and avert an attack the likes of which the world has never seen. This book is action packed and fast paced.

The Tourist 
By Olen Steinhauer
F Steinhau Mile Wea #1
Milo Weaver is drawn into a conspiracy that links riots in the Sudan, an assassin committing suicide and an old friend who's been accused of selling secrets to the Chinese. Once the CIA and Homeland Security are after him, the only way for him to survive is to return, headfirst, into Tourism.

The Kill Artist 
By Daniel Silva
F Silva Gabriel #1
The Israeli intelligence chief recalls two former agents to eliminate a top Palestinian terrorist. The former agents were once lovers and their pasts and their enemies come back to haunt them as the terrorist begins his campaign of murder. This spy fiction is a suspenseful adventure.