Science fiction and fantasy

Lim-Yeo Pin Pin, Central Library RIS Dept

I find science fiction fascinating for the possible scenarios that the future might take and fantasy is always enjoyable for the special worlds created by the authors, populated by characters with individual talents who have magical adventures. Highlighted here are some recent award-winners and nominated authors to entice you into other worlds. The NUS Library's collection of science fiction and fantasy novels mostly in Science Library and Central Library.

Hugo Award

Robinson, Kim Stanley.
Blue Mars. 1996. (1997 Award)
PS3568 R662B SC Main Shelves
Green Mars. 1994. (1994 Award)
PS3568 R662G SC Gen Reading
Red Mars. 1993. (First of the Mars trilogy)
PS3568 R662R CL Main Shelves

The story of the "First Hundred," a pioneering group of explorers who have overseen a terraforming project that has transformed Mars from a lifeless planet into a world habitable by humans. An anti-aging breakthrough has kept the First Hundred alive for three centuries and in that time, their motives, desires, and passions have evolved in ways that parallel the changes on Mars itself.

From Amazon.com

Stephenson, Neal. The diamond age, or, Young lady's illustrated primer. 1996.
PS3569 S936D CL Main Shelves

John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.

From Science Fiction and Fantasy Editor's Recommended Book

Vinge, Vernor. A fire upon the deep. 1992. (Hugo 1993)
PS3572 V7841F SC Gen Reading

Fleeing a menace of galactic proportions, a space ship crashes on an unfamiliar world, leaving the survivorsa pair of childrento the not-so-tender mercies of a medieval, lupine race. Responding to the crippled ship's distress signal, a rescue mission races against time to retrieve the children and recover the weapon they need to prevent the universe form being forever changed. Against a background depicting a space-time continuum stratified into 'zones of thought', the author has created a raritya unique blend of hard science, high drama, and superb storytelling.

From Library Journal

Nominated for Hugo Award

You might also be interested in the authors who were nominated for the award.

Sawyer, Robert J. Frameshift. 1997.
PR9299 S371F CL Main Shelves

There is a 50 percent chance that geneticist Pierre Tardivel is carrying the gene for Huntington's Disease, a fatal disorder. That knowledge drives Pierre in his work on the Human Genome Project, an attempt by scientists to map human genes. But a strange set of circumstancesincluding a knife attack, the in vitro fertilization of his wife, and an insurance company plot to use DNA samples to weed out clients predisposed to early deathsdraw Tardivel into a story that will ultimately involve the hunt for a Nazi death camp doctor.

From Science Fiction and Fantasy Editor's Recommended Book

Simmons, Dan. Song of Kali. 1998.
PS3569 S592S CL Main Shelves

The story concerns an American poet who travels with his Indian wife and their baby to Calcutta to pick up an epic poem cycle about the goddess Kali. The Bengali poet who wrote the poem cycle has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. World Fantasy Award winner.

From Amazon.com

Swanwick, Michael. Jack Faust.
PS3569 S972J CL Main Shelves

This story has elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, comedy, literature, and probably a few other genres. But don't let that stop you from reading this wonderful take-off on the famous story of Dr. Faust, who in this tale conjures up the Devil after a fit of book-burning. The Devil, it seems, can offer Faust the knowledge he seeks in the form of hard science (flight, electricity, etc.). But Faust is blind to the fact that this gift from Mephistopheles will lead not only to his destruction but that of humanity as well. Which, of course, is just what the Devil wants.

From Science Fiction and Fantasy Editor's Recommended Book

James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award

Russell, Mary Doria. The sparrow. 1996.
PS3568 R965S CL Main Shelves

In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterres trial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human." When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong ...

From Science Fiction and Fantasy Editor's Recommended Book

McHugh, Maureen F. China Mountain Zhang. 1992.
PS3563 M151C SC Gen Reading

Zhang Zhong Shan, an ordinary man with dangerous secrets in his past must forever flee from authority in a strange new world ruled by Marxist China, in a work that takes readers from decaying New York to Beijing to Mars.

From New York Times

Skylark Award

White, James. The galactic gourmet : a Sector General novel. 1996.
PR6073 W585G SC Gen Reading

Sector General. It's the massive hospital space station - 384 levels, with a staff of thousands - on the Galactic Rim, where human and alien medicine meet. The great Gurronsevas, a massive, six-legged alien of considerable dignity, who is the most renowned chef in all the galactic federation, wants to take on the greatest challenge of his professional life: making hospital food palatable.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award

Sherman, Delia. The porcelain dove. 1993.
PS3569 S5532P CL Main Shelves

Set in eighteenth-century France, the House of Malvoeux needs to find and possess a fabulous porcelain dove, else face madness and ruin.

Yolen, Jane. Briar rose. 1993.
PS3575 Y541Br CL Main Shelves

A blending of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty and the Holocaust.

Patricia A McKillip has been nominated often and is the winner of the 1995 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. With characteristic simplicity, she weaves a magical atmosphere in her stories. Location is CL Main Shelves unless otherwise stated.

McKillip, Patricia A.

The forgotten beasts of Eld. 1996. PS3563 M1582F

Almost destroyed because of a man's fear and greed, Sybel, a beautiful young sorceress, embarks on a quest for revenge that proves equally destructive. Winner of the World Fantasy award, this exquisitely written story has something for almost every reader: adventure, romance and a resonant mythology that reveals powerful truths about human nature.

From Young Adult Editor's Recommended Book

Winter rose. 1996. PS3563 M1582W

Winter Rose begins as the seemingly simple story of Rois and Laurel Melior and their understandable fascination with young Corbet Lynn, returned to rebuild his abandoned ancestral home, Lynn Hall. Laurel is drawn to Corbet's beauty, Rois to the mystery of his past. But the past holds more than one mystery, and as Rois fights her way into the wood around Lynn Hall, seeking answers for herself, Laurel, and Corbet, she risks losing everything, for all of them, forever.

From Amazon.com

Song for the Basilisk. 1998. PS3563 M1582S

A child, later known as Rook, survives the massacre of his house to be rescued by bards and raised on a distant island, where he marries and settles down to a contented life. His only ties to the past are faint dreams that he tries to forget. Then the dreams turn into nightmares and the nightmares into violence. Rook must eventually visit the city of his birth to confront the destroyer of his house.

From Booklist August 1998

McKinley, Robin. Rose daughter. 1997.
PS3563 M158R CL Main Shelves

A re-telling of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. Beauty has the gift to make anything grow. She is compelled to stay at Beast's castle after her father takes a rose from the castle. There she tries to make his garden bloom again and to break the curse on the Beast.

Lisle, Holly. Fire in the mist. 1995.
PS3562 L771F CL Main Shelves

Faia lived a simple life as a shepard. She unleashed her own wild magic when giving her village a mass burial which included her own family. The mages sensed her power and offered to train her to make full use of her magic. Though not award-winning, it is an enjoyable story with strong characterisation of the heroine Faia.