Mockingbird

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Octavia E. Butler

Environmental devastation and economic chaos have turned America into a land of depravity. Taking advantage of the situation, a zealous bigot wins his way into the White House. Lauren Olamina leads a new faith group directly opposed to the new government. This is the story of the group's struggle to preserve its vision. As the government turns a blind eye to the violent bigots who consider a black female leader a threat, Lauren Olamina must either sacrifice her child and her followers or forsake her religion. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations and violence,

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Bruce Sterling

In the far future, in a solar system colonized by a strange aggregation of human cultures, Abelard Lindsay, a rogue diplomat from the Mare Serenitatis Circumlunar Corporate Republic, struggles for survival amidst powerful, advanced societies warring to control the shape of human destiny. In the complex hi tech environment known as Schismatrix, cybernetic humans (Mechanists) contend for domination against the psychologically and genetically altered Shapers, and as today's high technologies take bizarre new forms, and explosive advances in science shatter mankind into warring camps. Schismatrix is a modern science fiction epic. Vast in scope, with dozens of characters, it covers 170 years of far future history in settings that span the solar system. In this world Sterling has built the grand tradition of SF adventure flowers again as Abelard Lindsay, exiled revolutionary, travels from world to world building and rebuilding an empire, always on the cutting edge of technological change and social ferment. He uses the Mech vs. Shaper conflict for his own ends, to rise to a unique position of power and authority in the Schismatrix. Shifting, changing, fast paced, and fascinating, Lindsay's adventures redefine classic idea of space adventure for our generation.

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Robert J. Sawyer

Dr. Peter Hobson invents a machine that detects a brain pattern that leaves the body after death, a pattern many believe is a soul. In order to test their theories on immortality and life after death, Hobson and his friend Sarkar Muhammed create three electronic simulations of Hobson's own personality. When people Hobson had a grudge against begin to die, he and Sarkar must try to find out which is responsible. But all three simulations – two modified, one a "control" – escape Sarkar's computer, into the Internet and the World Wide Web. The book won the 1995 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1996. Sawyer received a writer's reserve grant from the Ontario Arts Council in 1993 in support of his writing the novel. <a href="

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Stanislaw Lem

Mortal Engines is a celebrated work by Stanislaw Lem (Grand Master of European SF), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.