Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions

These are books and media new to the library and cataloged by the Inyo County Free Library.

Additional information about each title can be found in the catalog (click on the title). For older acquisition lists choose from Select another list. To request any of these titles please contact your local library branch.

1 to 9 of 9

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Dawnthief

By Barclay, James

Publishing Date: 2009

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

The Wytch Lords have escaped and The Raven find themselves fighting for the Dark College of magic, searching for the location of the Dawnthief. It is a spell created to end the world, and it must be cast if any of them are to survive.

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NEW RELEASE

Exhalation

By Chiang, Ted

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and the temptation of second chances. In the epistolary "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his own people, but for all of reality. And in "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over twenty years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living being. Also included are two brand-new stories: "Omphalos" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom." In this fantastical and elegant collection, Ted Chiang wrestles with the oldest questions on earth--What is the nature of the universe? What does it mean to be human?--and ones that no one else has even imagined. And, each in its own way, the stories prove that complex and thoughtful science fiction can rise to new heights of beauty, meaning, and compassion.

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Four novels of the 1960s

By Dick, Philip K.

Publishing Date: c2007

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

This Library of America volume brings together four of Dick's most original novels. The Man in the High Castle (1962), which won the Hugo Award, describes an alternate world in which Japan and Germany have won World War II and America is divided into separate occupation zones. The dizzying The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) posits a future in which competing hallucinogens proffer different brands of virtual reality, and an interplanetary drug tycoon can transform himself into a godlike figure transcending even physical death.

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Lies, Inc

By Dick, Philip K.

Publishing Date: 2004

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

When catastrophic overpopulation threatens Earth, one company offers to teleport citizens to the Whale's Mouth, an allegly pristine new home for happy and industrious emigres. But there is one problem: the teleportation machine works only in one direction. When Rachmael ben Applebaum discovers that some of the footage of happy settlers may have been faked, he sets out on an eighteen-year-old journey to see if anyone wants to come back.

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Better angels

By Hendrix, Howard V.

Publishing Date: c1999

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

Set during the first decades of the 21st century, this novel that meshes virtual reality, deep-space exploration, and human nature, revolves around the discovery of an ancient, alien artifact resembling an angel's shoulder blade, unearthed from California's La Brea Tar Pits, and the transcendental effect it has on five people.

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The cyberiad: fables for the cybernetic age

By Lem, Stanislaw

Publishing Date: 2014

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. They travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their employers.

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NEW RELEASE

Sixteen ways to defend a walled city

By Parker, K. J.

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

"This is the story of Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarrissimus, and his history of the Great Siege, written down so that the deeds and sufferings of great men may never be forgotten. A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all. To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge-building than battles, is a cheat and a liar, and has a serious problem with authority. He is, in other words, perfect for the job."--Back cover.

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The way of the witch

By Siegel, Jan

Publishing Date: 2002

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

Rejuvenated and reincarnated through sorcery, the witch-queen Morgus returns after years of exile, stalking modern England as she concocts a devious scheme to rule present-day Britain and seek revenge on her nemesis Fern Capel.

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The Chrysalids

By Wyndham, John

Publishing Date: ©1955

Classification: SF

Call Number: SF

Genetic mutation has devastated the world and a bleak, primitive society has emerged from its ruins ; a society which punishes any deviation from rigid norms. Ten-year-old David is having strange dreams about a mysterious city. But in his ultra-religious village of Waknut, all abnormality is abhorred, and he soon realizes that differences can be very dangerous indeed.

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