Science Fiction

Tayshas Reading List 2006-2007
A BookPage Notable Title
This provocative first novel challenges readers to think about ethics, personal freedom, the role of government, genetic engineering, bigotry, and race in this story of rich and popular Pelly D, whose diary is found among the rubble of a ruined city.

The first title in this exciting trilogy is now available in mass market. When all the grown-ups die in an apocalypse, a handful of young survivors make the trek to Washington, D.C., and discover the dark secret at the heart of the Fire-us.

The stunning National Book Award finalist that follows in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.--a smart, savage satire of an imagined future--is now in paperback.

This fast-paced space adventure story about growing up centers around Jack, who knows who belongs out in the Black and who doesn't--until Kit walks into the pub and challenges everything Jack believes.

This ALA Best Book for Young Adults features a highly original and detailed world full of action-packed science fiction mystery, suspenseful covert action, and an intriguing conclusion.

To most people around him, Matt is not a boy, but a beast. As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by sinister characters in this National Book Award winner.

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.

It's the end of the 21st century where technocrats rule and robots take care of humans' every need. Your house watches you, knows your secrets, and talks to you. And your closest friend can be--a machine?
Gavin Bell and his teenage sister Fleur come from a middle-class family. Their much-loved, old-fashioned robot, Grumps, is running down and can't be repaired, so a scientist friend loans them EGR3, an experimental new robot to help Grumps. EGR3, known as Eager, learns from his experiences, as a child would. He feels emotions--wonder, excitement, and loss. When the ultra high-tech, eerily human BDC4 robots begin to behave suspiciously, Eager and the Bells are drawn into a great adventure that is sometimes dark and often humorous. As Eager's extraordinary abilities are tested to the limit, he will try to find the answer to this questio

Two elderly women living in a nursing home try an experimental drug that reverses the aging process. It works, but the follow-up shot to stop the process has killed everyone who's taken it. They leave the program and take care of themselves for 85 years. But who will take care of them now?

When a scientific experiment goes haywire, a hidden military base is thrown into chaos and its up to a small group of genius teens that lives there to find a way out of certain destruction.

BookPage Notable Title
An engrossing thriller with darkness and humor, freaks and geeks, Evil Genius explores the fine line between good and evil in a strange world of manipulations and subterfuge where nothing is as it seems.

""Firestorm" is a gripping tale of the relentless and unnecessary harm we humans have done to our earth, and a reminder that there is still hope for our planet if each person stands up and acts in its defense before it is too late. This is a book every environmentally conscious school science program should make required reading." --Gerd Leipold, Executive Director, Greenpeace International
""Firestorm" combines heart-pounding action, dark fantasy, and a timely environmental message. David Klass knows how to keep the pages turning. Once you've spent time with his high-school-aged hero, Jack Danielson, you'll be waiting anxiously for the rest of the trilogy."
--Rick Riordan, author of "The Lightning Thief"
" "
"Fearless and clever, this book boasts full-throttle action from the first page to the last."
--David Marusek, au

Miranda is pretty unconcerned when she first hears about the meteor that’s supposed to hit the moon. But when it happens, the moon gets knocked out of orbit, causing massive tsunamis, the total disappearance of coastal cities, loss of electricity and phone service, and other horrors. As the months stretch on, things get worse and worse until finally her family is simply struggling to survive. The story, told in Miranda’s increasingly desperate diary entries, is riveting.

In a world where most people are plugged into brain-drain entertainment systems, epileptic teenager Spaz is a rare human who can see life for what it really is. When he meets an old man named Ryder, he begins to learn about Earth and its past. With Ryder as his companion, Spaz sets off to save his dying sister--and, in the process, perhaps the world. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

In a post-apocalyptic world, Bradley, Victor, and Floris live with wild dogs on the dark, forgotten edge of a devastated city. They have learned to survive on their own. But when Floris is kidnapped the others must venture into the unknown to save their friend.

In this stunning literary debut, Reeve creates an unforgettable adventure story set in a dark and utterly original world. "A brilliant construction that offers new wonders at every turn."--"Publishers Weekly." A "School Library Journal" Best Book.

One by one, five sixteen-year-old orphans are brought to a strange building. It is not a prison, not a hospital; it has no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Nothing but endless flights of stairs leading nowhere except back to a strange red machine. The five must learn to love the machine and let it rule their lives. But will they let it kill their souls? This chilling, suspenseful indictment of mind control is a classic of science fiction and will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.

An intensely suspenseful page-turner. School Library Journal
A riveting suspense novel with an anti-behaviorist message that works . . . because it emerges only slowly from the chilling events. Kirkus Reviews

From the author of "The Boy Who Couldn't Die" comes his most diabolical novel in a decade. Two siblings venture daily into the tangled, sprawling garden planted by their late uncle, which holds at its heart a hedge maze that hides a quantum secret.

One year after a plague has wiped out three quarters of the human race, the surviving population of the United States has been relocated to the coasts; the heartland is now a wasteland called The Big Empty. But seven teens learn that the abandoned zone holds danger, secrets, and hope. First in a four-part series.

In the virtual reality game "Heir Apparent," there are too many ways to get killed--and Giannine is finding them all. Unless she can get the magic ring, locate the stolen treasure, and defeat the dragon, she'll never win. And she has to, because losing means she'll die--for real.

This wacky, irreverent novel stars an uncouth, smart, nerdy, but sympathetic antihero. His dilemma is how to make himself attractive and sincere to the object of his affections.

Now in paperback--the first volume in a mesmerizing new trilogy which introduces a group of teens, who call themselves Midnighters, living in a world that is frozen in time and inhabited by dark creatures that lurk in the shadows.

The bar code tattoo. Everybody's getting it. It will make your life easier, they say. It will hook you in. It will become your identity.But what if you say no? What if you don't want to become a code? For Kayla, this one choice changes everything. She becomes an outcast in her high school. Dangerous things happen to her family. There's no option but to run . . . for her life.Indivuality vs. conformity.. Identity vs. access. Freedom vs. control.The bar code tattoo.