Science
fiction and fantasy are both popular genres with many readers, but if you
don’t read from these categories, you may have trouble finding a book you
enjoy.
Science
fiction books usually apply real science to contemporary situations in
an unusual or exaggerated way, or they apply real science to space or to the
future, or they deal with the supernatural in some way. They tend to be about
events that could happen, according to the laws of science, but haven’t
happened.
Fantasy
books
generally involve fantastic worlds, beings, or magical elements. They are about
events that cannot happen according to the laws of science.
Adams,
Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (F ADA)
Seconds before Earth is demolished
to make room for a galactic freeway, an earthman is saved by his friend. Together they journey through the galaxy.
Almond,
David. Kit’s Wilderness.
(F ALM)
Eerie supernatural events play a
role in the friendship between Kit and his new friend John Askew when Kit’s
family moves into an old coal-mining town to care for his elderly grandmother.
Almond, David.
Skellig. (F ALM)
Unhappy about his baby
sister's illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house, Michael
retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is something like a
bird and something like an angel.
Anson, Jay. The
Amityville Horror. (F ANS)
Scary events haunt a family
who moves into a house where a mass murder occurred years earlier.
Applegate, K.A.
Everworld (series). (F APP)
In a series of novels, teens from contemporary American are transported to Everworld to search for their friend, who has been taken there against her will.
Asimov, Isaac. Fantastic
Voyage. ( ASI)
A scientist locked in a coma
possesses information crucial to mankind, so an experiment is conducted:
other humans are miniaturized and sent into his bloodstream to explore
his brain.
Atwood, Margaret.
The Handmaid’s Tale. (F
ATW).
Set in the near future,
America has become a puritanical theocracy and Offred tells her story as a
Handmaid under the new social order.
Avi
(editor.) Second Sight: Stories for a New Millenium. (F AVI)
Stories
by various young adult writers address the question of what the world has
in store for humans, and what humans have in store for the world in the next
thousand years.
Bakis, Kirsten.
The Lives of the Monster Dogs. (F BAK)
A group of wealthy and
glamorous monster dogs are befriended by human Cleo Pira when they arrive in New
York in 2008, and though the elegant canines appear to lead charmed lives, Cleo
soon realizes that a strange, incurable illness threatens them all with
extinction.
Block, Francesca Lia. I
Was a Teenage Fairy. ( F BLO)
A feisty fairy helps a young
woman heal from the problems in her past.
Butler, Susan. The
Hermit Thrush Sings. (F BUT)
After a natural disaster has
all but destroyed the earth, the orphaned and "defective" Leora, while
searching for her sister, defies the oppressive laws of the land and joins a
band of rebels trying to overthrow the government.
Cart, Michael (editor). Tomorrowland
(stories). (F CAR)
Contains the following
stories: Homo-- sapiens? / Jon Scieszka -- The last book in the
universe / Rodman Philbrick -- What's the point? / Tor Seidler -- His brother's
keeper / Gloria Skurzynski -- A robot doesn't have a curve ball / Ron Koertge --
Rage / Lois Lowry -- The last dog / Katherine Paterson -- The other half of me /
Jacqueline Woodson -- Night of the plague / James Cross Giblin -- Starry, starry
night / Michael Cart
Clement-Davies, Fire
Bringer. (F CLE)
Young buck Rannoch was born
on the night his father was murdered and into a herd of deer where hunger for
power has gradually whittled away at all that is true and good. He knows he must
escape to survive. Chased by stags, with their fearsome antlers sharpened for
the kill, he begins a treacherous journey into the unknown, and ahead of him
lies a shocking and formidable search for truth and goodwill in the shadow of
the Great Mountain. One day he will have to return to his home and face his
destiny among the deer to fulfill the prophecy that has persistently given them
hope: that one day a fawn will be born with the mark of an oak leaf on his
forehead and that fawn's courage will lead all the deer to freedom. Filled with
passion and a darkness that gradually, through Rannoch's courage in the face of
adversity, lifts to reveal an overwhelming feeling of light. (Summary from www.amazon.com).
Colfer,
Eoin. Artemis Fowl. (F COL)
Artemis Fowl is a genius, a
criminal mastermind, a millionaire, and he is only twelve years old.
Yet as crafty as he is, Arteis may have met his match in Captain Holly
Short, an elf from the LEPrecon Special Forces, when he plots to steal the
richest treasure the world has every known-the timeless treasure of the fairies!
Cormier, Robert. Fade.
(F COR)
Paul Moreaux, the
thirteen-year-old son of French-Canadian immigrants, inherits the ability to
become invisible, but this power soon leads to death and destruction.
Crichton, Michael. Timeline.
(F CRI)
Characters step through a
wormhole and are transported back to the middle ages in this adventure story
Dickinson, Peter. Eva.
(F DIC)
After a terrible accident, a
young girl wakes up to discover that she has been given the body of a
chimpanzee.
Duncan, Lois. Locked in
Time. (F DUN)
Nore arrives at her
stepmother's Louisiana plantation to find her new family odd and an aura of evil
and mystery about the place.
Duncan, Lois. The Third
Eye. (F DUN)
High school senior Karen, who
worries that her psychic powers will make her seem different from other people,
is frightened at first when a young policeman asks her to use her gift to help
the police locate missing children.
Dunn, Mark.
Ella Minnow Pea. (F DUN)
Residents of a small utopian
society off the coast of South Carolina have long revered the written word. But
when letters begin falling off the lipogrammatic statue in town, they panic and
think that the missing letters are no long to be used in writing or speech.
Ewing, Lynn. Daughters
of the Moon (series).
Goddess of the night:
Daughters of the Moon #1 (F EWI)
Vanessa, who has always had the special power to become invisible, discovers that she and her best friend Catty, a time-traveler, are goddesses of the moon who must fight together to overcome the evil Atrox.
Into the cold fire:
Daughters of the Moon #2 (F EWI)
Serena, a moon goddess who has the special gift of reading minds, is torn between joining the dark force of the evil Atrox and staying with her friends, the Daughters of the Moon.
Night Shade: Daughters
of the Moon #3 (F EW)
Jimena, who has the gift of seeing the future, must call on the skills she developed as a gang member when Cassandra, a Follower of the evil Atrox, hatches a plot that may destroy the moon goddesses and those they love.
The Secret Scroll:
Daughters of the Moon #4 (F EWI)
A girl with the power to travel back in time inherits a secret scroll that will help her defeat the evil Atrox.
The Sacrifice:
Daughters of the Moon #5 (F EWI)
A follower of the ancient evil called the Atrox is torn between his love for Serena, one of the moon goddesses, and his urge to destroy her by turning her to the dark forces.
The Lost One: Daughters
of the Moon #6 (F EWI)
After awakening with amnesia
and an overwhelming sense of danger, a teenager discovers that she has the gift
of telekinesis and a long-standing war with the evil Followers of Atrox.
Farmer, Nancy. The Eye,
the Ear, and the Arm. (F FAR)
In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General
Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine while
three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them.
Furlong, Marcia. Wise
Child. (F FUR)
Abandoned by both her
parents, nine-year-old Wise Child goes to live with the witch woman Juniper, who
begins to train her in the ways of herbs and magic.
Gaiman, Neil. American
Gods. (F GAI)
Shadow gets out of prison
early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a
mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In
fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming
America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle
against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all
that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a
psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations.
(Amazon).
Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere.
(F GAI)
Richard Mayhew stops to help
a bleeding girl on a London street and in doing so finds that he has fallen
through the cracks of reality.
Gaiman, Neil. Stardust.
(F GAI)
When Tristran Thorn travels
to find the star that fell out of the sky to give to his beloved, he discovers
that what he belives about the world is not always so.
Gerritson, Tess. Gravity.
(F GER)
Emma Watson, a research
physician, has been training to study living beings in space on the
International Space Station. Once onboard, however, the organism to be studied
begins to mutate and infect the crew.
Gilmore, Kate. Enter
Three Witches. (F GIL)
Bren is fearful of having the
girl of his dreams meet his family of witches, but after a school production of
Macbeth which is attended by his family who cause startling effects, he realizes
a meeting has already taken place.
Gilmore, Kate. The
Exchange Student. (F GIL)
When her mother arranges to
host one of the young people coming to Earth from Chela, Daria is both pleased
and intrigued by the keen interest shown by the Chelan in her work breeding
endangered species.
Gowdy, Barbara. The
White Bone. (F GOW)
When a drought scorches the land in sub-Saharan Africa, Mud, a young African elephant, attempts to find a way to feed herself and her family.
Haddix, Margaret. Among
the Hidden. (F HAD)
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family's farm, until another "third" convinces him that the government is wrong.
Hoffman, Alice. Practical
Magic. (F HOF)
The tale of Gillian and Sally
Owens, two sisters brought up by elderly aunts in a world of magic spells and
exotica.
Kerner, Charlotte.
Blueprint. (F KER)
Siri Sellin, one of the first
human clones, writes a bitter memoir of her childhood as the daughter of a
famous and self-absorbed composer.
Kindl, Patrice.
Goose Chase. (F KIN)
Rather than marry a cruel
king or a seemingly dim-witted prince, an enchanted goose girl endures
imprisonment, capture by several ogresses, and other dangers.
King, Stephen. Eyes of
the Dragon. (F KIN)
In the kingdom of Delain, a
young prince must struggle against powerful forces to gain his rightful
inheritance.
Lally, Soinbhe. A Hive
for the Honeybee. (F LAL)
When Thora, a young worker
bee, befriends some drones, she wonders if they really are lords of the hive or
if their pompous posturing merely conceals an appalling fate.
Lawrence, Louis. Dream-Weaver.
(F LAW)
Using her psychic talents, an apprentice dream-weaver learns that human colonists aboard a spaceship plan to settle on her peaceful planet.
Lowry, Lois.
Gathering Blue. (F LOW)
Kira, a newly orphaned girl
who has been lame since birth, lives in a futuristic society where people with
physical handicaps are shunned and often left to die. She has inherited an
amazing talent, however, and when leaders in her community discocer it, they
seem willing to overlook her disability and rescue. What first seems like
salvation, however, soon revels itself as a sinister plot to steal from her.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver.
(F LOW)
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. Winner of the Newbery Award in 1994.
McHugh, Maureen. Mission
Child. (F MCH)
The story of an exemplary young woman's awakening on a world hauntingly similar to, yet far distant in space and time from our own.
Metz, Melinda. Fingerprints
(series). (F MET)
Teenagers with ESP and other
supernatural powers are featured in this series.
Nix, Garth. Lirael:
Daughter of the Clayr. (sequel to Sabriel). (F NIX)
When a dangerous necromancer
threatens to unleash a long buried evil, Lirael and Prince Sameth are drawn into
a battle to save the Old Kingdom, and reveal their true destinies.
Nix, Garth. Sabriel.
(F NIX)
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.
Nix, Garth.
Shade’s Children. (F NIX)
In a savage postnuclear
world, four young fugitives attempt to overthrow the bloodthirsty rule of the
Overlords with the help of Shade, their mysterious mentor.
Noon, Jeff. Automated
Alice. (F NOO)
A clever updating of Alice in Wonderland, a classic work of urban fantasy that is by turns funny and serious, in which Alice is transported to the modern world, where she is mystified by modern inventions.
O’Brien, Robert C.
Z for Zachariah. (F OBR)
Seemingly the only person
left alive after the holocaust of a war, a young girl is relieved to see a man
arrive into her valley until she realizes that he is a tyrant and she must
somehow escape.
Philbrick, Rodman. The
Last Book in the Universe. (F PHI)
After an earthquake has
destroyed much of the planet, an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz begins the
heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the Earth of a distant future.
Russell, Mary Doria.
Children of God. (F RUS)
Father Emilio Sandoz is
called upon by the Society of Jesus for help in preparing for another mission to
Alpha Centauri
Russell, Mary Doria. The
Sparrow. (F RUS)
Linguist Emilio Sandoz, a
Jesuit priest who leads a twenty-first century scientific mission to an
extraterrestrial culture, is involved in a tragic misunderstanding with the
alien civilization that leaves him physically and spiritually maimed.
Sleator, William. Singularity.
(F SLE)
Sixteen-year-old twins Harry
and Barry stumble across a gateway to another universe, where a distortion in
time and space causes a dramatic change in their competitive relationship.
Strasser, Todd. How I
Spent My Last Night on Earth. (F STR)
When a rumor appears on the
Internet that a giant asteroid is about to destroy Earth, Legs Hanover scrambles
to meet the boy of her dreams, elusive Andros Bliss.
Thesman, Jean. The
Other Ones. (F THE)
High school sophomore Bridget
Raynes has to decide whether or not to accept her powers of witchcraft, or
abandon them and try to fit in as an ordinary teenager.
Thomas, Rob.
Green Thumb. (F THO)
Science whiz Grady is
selected to participate in a research project by a famous scientist, only to
make a startling discovery about the professor and his project.
Decribes
the Middle-Earth world of Bilbo Baggins and other Hobbits.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat’s
Cradle. (F VON)
In the year 2000, a young man
discovers ice-nine, which can set off a chain reaction more deadly than a
nuclear bomb, and discovers a new prophet whose teachings sweep the world.
Vonnegut,
Kurt. God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian. (F VON)
In
this fictional adventure, Vonnegut poses as a reporter for public radio and
slips back and forth between the living world and the Afterlife, interviewing
various well known dead people, including Sir Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare,
Clarence Darrow, James Earl Ray, Eugene Debs, John Brown, Adolf Hitler, Mary
Shelley, Kilgore Trout, and numerous others
Werner,
Bernard. Empire of the Ants. (F WER)
The story of an ordinary
family who accidentally threaten the security of a hidden civilization as
intelligent as our own.
Wieler,
Diana. Ranvan: The Defender. (F WIE)
Fifteen-year-old
Rhan Van finds himself torn between two worlds, the game world of Stormers where
justice is done and reality with his grandmother in a shabby six-plex.
Wieler, Diana. Ranvan: Worthy Opponent. (F
WIE)
Rhan
moves to Thunder Bay and retreats to the video arcade where he is drawn into a
new game and a fierce opponent.
Wieler, Diana. Ranvan: Magic Nation. (F WIE)
RanVan
moves to Calgary to begin a media program to become a television cameraman and
finds that his extraordinary knight's powers haven't diminished in the adult
world.
Willis,
Connie. To Say Nothing of the Dog. (F WIL)
Time-travel
researcher Ned Henry shuttles back and forth between the 21st century and the
1940s in order to correct an incongruity brought forward from the past.
Zindel,
Paul. Loch. (F ZIN)
Fifteen-year-old
Loch and his younger sister join their father on a scientific expedition
searching for enormous prehistoric creatures sighted in a Vermont lake, but it
soon becomes obvious that the expedition's leaders aren't interested in
preserving the creatures.