For the Wizards and Witches
Barbara Hambly is all about magic, from her hobbies (costumes, tarot, World of Warcraft) to her acclaimed writing. The Rainbow Abyss tells the story of an aging wizard and his apprentice who venture into a world where magic has died, hoping to save it before the same fate befalls their own.
The first in an eight-book series, Alan Dean Foster’sSpellsinger is about a young musician who ventures through a portal into a land of magic where he must use a mysterious multistring instrument called a duar to rescue the world into which he has fallen, a place where animals can talk and magic reigns.
Shadow Magic is part of Patricia C. Wrede’s Lyra novels—five books about an alternate universe of witches, wizards, and enchanted forests. Shadow Magic takes place in the magical woods of Lyra, where a nobelwoman struggles to escape from a man of shadows who threatens to destroy her kingdom.
For the Comic Book Geek
A GI Joe fan favorite, Tales from the Cobra Warsis edited by Zombie geek Max Brooks. Accompanied by powerful illustrations, this anthology contains short stories and novellas written by top comic-book and thriller writers, starring the whole gang, including Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Hawk, Dial Tone, and more.
Brak the Barbarian is an iconic figure in the sword and sorcery genre, along with his inspiration, Conan the Barbarian. John Jakes’s fast-paced stories of a lone brave, manly warrior searching for his El Dorado are classics. Try Brak the Barbarian and Mark of the Demons.
After the overnight success of Go the F*ck to Sleep, Adam Mansbach created Nature of the Beast, a graphic novel that finds the world threatened by an alien force; a Florida gator wrestler is all that stands between survival and total annihilation.
William Shatner’s (aka Captain Kirk’s) TekWar is about a private detective in twenty-second-century Los Angeles who fights to destroy the powerful new synthetic drug that nearly ruined him.
For the Intergalactic Warrior
Spinneret is by Star Wars author Timothy Zahn. Taking place in the future, a newly colonized planet holds many secrets in its seemingly barren depths. But will it lead to humanity’s salvation—or its destruction?
Midshipman’s Hope by David Feintuch is military science fiction at its best. Feintuch’s acclaimed Seafort Saga begins as Nicholas Seafort sets off on an interstellar naval adventure he will never forget.
Fool’s War by Sarah Zettel takes place on the starship Pasadena. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, the story is about a strange new life form that threatens all of humanity—and the fool that would stand in its way.
For the Literary Geek
Robert Silverberg’s iconic Nightwings is about one man’s journey to find salvation for a planet on the brink of destruction, where mankind has lived under the threat of an alien invasion for thousands of years. Silverberg has won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards five times each.
Edited by award-winner Ellen Datlow, Alien Sex: 19 Tales by the Masters of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy is a compelling psychological exploration of the many shades of love by some of the best science fiction writers around, including Harlan Ellison and Richard Christian Matheson.
Known as the “godfather of contemporary science fiction,” grand master Theodore Sturgeon’sVenus Plus X is a visionary tale about a man who is sent into a utopian future where perfection has been achieved, but at a shocking cost—especially for our ideas about gender and sexuality.