The Drowned Cities
Description via The StoryGraph:
Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.
In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool--who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.
This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi's highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.
The House of the Scorpion
Description via The StoryGraph:
This modern classic takes on an iron-fisted drug lord, clones bred for their organs, and what it means to be human. Winner of the National Book Award as well as Newbery and Printz Honors.
Matteo Alacr n was not born; he was harvested. His DNA came from El Patr n, lord of a country called Opium--a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt's first cell split and divided inside a petri dish. Then he was placed in the womb of a cow, where he continued the miraculous journey from embryo to fetus to baby. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster--except for El Patr n. El Patr n loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself.
As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, including El Patr n's power-hungry family, and he is surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But escape from the Alacr n Estate is no guarantee of freedom, because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect.
Forbidden Empire
I don’t know what the fuck just happened but…
Ship Breaker
Description via The StoryGraph:
"A gritty, high-stakes adventure set in a futuristic world where oil is scarce, but loyalty is scarcer."
In America's Gulf Coast region, grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts by crews of young people. Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota-and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or by chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life....
In this powerful novel, Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future.
Kindred
Description via The StoryGraph:
The visionary time-travel classic whose Black female hero is pulled through time to face the horrors of American slavery and explores the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.
“I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.”
Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present.
Robots and Empire
Description via The StoryGraph:
Long after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Earthman Elijah Baley, Keldon Amadiro embarked on a plan to destroy planet Earth. But even after his death, Baley's vision continued to guide his robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, who had the wisdom of a great man behind him and an indestructible will to win....
![Sunday Night Craziness! July, 30th: Queens, Mothers, and a Spaghetti Death [Spoilers]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64112caef748cb0eb208c5b0/1679632321022-86JPN5UZ1FJ256B6PGND/Sunady+Night+Roundup.jpg)
Sunday Night Craziness! July, 30th: Queens, Mothers, and a Spaghetti Death [Spoilers]
I know a lot of people, old fans and newcomers alike, are feeling a bit frustrated with this show at times. I think part the misunderstanding lies in the belief that The Return was about us, as viewers, returning to Twin Peaks. I believe that, in reality, The Return refers to Cooper. This is about his return to the world. Twenty-five years trapped in the Black Lodge was not going to end by walking through a door.
War for the Planet of the Apes (Spoiler Free)
It's a bleak world, with some hard truths about where we've been and where we're going but it never becomes didactic and is not without hope. There are a lot of historical parallels drawn throughout, as well as current ones, and a few very endearing moments of levity that speak to the humorist that, hopefully, resides in all of us. It asks a lot of questions that it expects us to take on our way out because the answers aren't in the narrative. They're not for Caesar or The Colonel but for us.