News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Space travel, genetic engineering, telepathy and time travel mixed with plenty of magic are the themes selected for this month. Highly recommended is the new Ben Bova novel, titled Orion and King Arthur.

Orion and King Arthur / Ben Bova. Orion and King Arthur
“A servant of Aten, one of the Creators, Orion has lived many lives traveling through time and space and carrying out his master’s wishes. Sent to Britain after the departure of the Roman armies, Orion befriends a young warrior named Arthur, whom Aten wishes to bring stability, but not much more, to the island. Orion, however, sees what Arthur can become and sets out to aid him in becoming a king and a hero.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Sea of ghosts / Alan Campbell.
“Thrown out of the Graveyard corps by a corrupt and weak emperor, Granger has to turn to running his own prison. It’s not a lucrative business but if he keeps his head down, doesn’t succumb to pity or morals then he may just survive. But when two unexpected prisoners enter his life then his world is turned upside down. Ianthe is young, blind and deaf, she can only see or hear through other people’s senses. This makes her unique in a world held to ransom by the powerful Haurstaf, a sisterhood of telepaths who consider the young girl a threat to their power. She’s also Granger’s daughter.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Life, liberty and the pursuit of sausages : a comedy of transdimensional tomfoolery / Tom Holt.
“Polly is a real estate solicitor. She is also losing her mind. Someone keeps drinking her coffee and talking to her clients and doing her job. When she goes to the dry cleaners to pick up her dress, it’s not there. Not the dress, the dry cleaners.”(adapted from book cover)

Sky dragons / Anne McCaffrey.Sky Dragons
“After a vicious plague swept through the world of Pern, there are no longer enough dragons to fight off the current onslaught of Thread, the deadly spore that falls like rain from the skies and devours everything organic in its path. Pern’s last best chance to rebuild the decimated dragon population lies with a group of young dragonriders and their dragons left stranded on an unexplored island. Leadership of these dragons and riders falls to Xhinna, female rider of a blue dragon, who, as the most experienced dragonrider in the new Weyr, must earn the respect of all who follow her, as not everyone is ready to accept a female wingleader.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Germline / T.C. McCarthy.
“While covering a subterranean war under Kazakhstan, reporter Oscar Wendell discovers that the germline soldiers, genetically engineered super-soldiers, are more than weapons, and that playing with the human genome has deadly consequences.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The long earth / Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.
“A revolutionary process known as Stepping has allowed humanity access to an unlimited number of parallel Earths, all devoid of human life. The further one travels, the stranger the variant worlds become. Joshua Valiente, one of a rare breed who can Step without external help, is hired by the transEarth Institute to travel by airship across the Long Earth, exploring as far as possible. Accompanied by Lobsang, a Tibetan reincarnated as an artificial intelligence, he journeys across millions of Earths, discovering just what sort of bizarre secrets lurk in the farthest reaches.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The river of shadows / Robert V.S. Redick.
“From the mysterious River of Shadows to the Infernal Forest, to the Island Wilderness, Pazel and his companions face a phantasmagoric journey through altered realities, a nightmare journey which offers glimpses of what might have been while taking them into the terror of what is to come.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Troubled waters / Sharon Shinn.Troubled Waters
“Zoe Ardelay, chosen to become the king’s fifth wife, is a coru prime ruled by the elemental sign of water. She must return to the palace, not as an unwilling bride for the king, but a woman with power in her own right. But as Zoe unlocks more of the mysteries of her blood and the secrets of the royal family, she must decide how to use her great power to rise above the deceptions and intrigue of the royal court.” (adapted from book cover)

Bitter seeds / Ian Tregillis.
“Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him. When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities, a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present, Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price.” (adapted from Amazon.com)

War maid’s choice / David Weber.
“In a world populated by many intelligent species, including human, dwarf, and the warrior hradani, the gods use avatars and others sworn to their service to fight out the eternal war between light and dark. Among the latter is Bahzell, the first ever hradani Wind Rider. As the first hradani wind rider in history, Bahzell stirs resentment over his elevation to the War God’s elite champion, a situation that is further complicated by the romantic advances of Baron Tellian’s heiress daughter.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)