Searching for great writing, timely topics, and clever commentary? Try the latest sci-fi.

Not only is science fiction alive and well—it’s flourishing. From the big screen (howdy, Wall-E) to the big books (like Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, which has attracted loads of prepublication praise), 2008 has been a great year for sci-fi. My friend Diana Tixier Herald, author of Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (Libraries Unlimited, 2005), saw it coming. She’s spent the past few years saying that once fantasy peaked, sci-fi would become the Next Big Thing—and it looks like she’s right. Publishers have released truckloads of new sci-fi titles this year, but what’s particularly impressive isn’t their combined tonnage—it’s the high-quality writing, thoughtfulness, and timeliness of much of the content. From Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (Tor), a searing examination of the perils of sacrificing personal freedom for national security, to David Klass’s “Caretaker” trilogy (Farrar), which describes Earth on the verge of an ecological disaster, sci-fi has a lot to say to today’s world and its young readers. The latest crop of offerings runs the gamut from dystopias (featuring very bleak futures) to tales of close encounters of the third kind to that perennial sci-fi staple: time travel. If you’re already a fan of the genre, strap yourself in and enjoy the ride—there are lots of fabulous titles to choose from. On the other hand, if the thought of reading sci-fi leaves you cold, take the plunge for your students’ sake. Remember, the best way to provide kids with superb reading recommendations is to read widely. So vow to tackle at least five of the following titles. Even if you don’t become a sci-fi lover, you’ll have a much better idea of why kids are crazy about it. Either way, welcome to the wild world of the great “what if.”

Alien encounters

Science fiction used to be all about B.E.M.’s (Bug-Eyed Monsters). And if you take a look at the following titles, you’ll see that strange creatures are still thriving. A case in point is 12-year-old Johnny Turnbull’s encounter with aliens. In his latest service rotation, The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2, the star of P. J. Haarsma’s The Softwire: Virus on Orbis I (2006, both Candlewick) uses his ability as a human softwire to try to rescue enslaved Samirans. Selkies are the stuff of fantasies and legends. But in the hands of the incredible writing duo of Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough, they become the heroes of the Twins of Petaybee trilogy. Petaybee is the sentient planet first introduced by these authors in the Petaybee trilogy, which includes Powers That Be (1993), Power Lines (1995), and Power Play (1996). Major Yanaba Maddock is sent to Petaybee to spy for the diabolical Intergal corporation. But she winds up falling in love, not only with the planet but also with Sean Shongili, who has the shapeshifting abilities of a selkie. Their children are the twins of the second Petaybee trilogy: Changelings (2005), Maelstrom (2006), and this year’s Deluge (all Del Rey). Like their parents, the twins try to keep scientists from discovering the secrets of their home world and the fact that they’ve inherited their father’s unusual talents. Dragons get the sci-fi treatment from the talented Timothy Zahn in his Dragonback Adventures series. In Dragon and Thief (Tor, 2003), book one of this series, teen Jack Morgan winds up with a dragon on his back—literally. The dragon is Draycos, a K’da warrior who loses his symbiont humanoid host in a crash. Fortunately, Jack comes along just in time to take the host’s place. He soon learns that there are worse things in life than having a tattoo on your back that turns into a skilled warrior when you need him, like when a crime lord comes calling. After working their way through Dragon and Soldier (2004), Dragon and Slave (2005), Dragon and Herdsman (2006), and Dragon and Judge (2007), Jack helps Draycos protect his species from a genocidal ambush in the latest episode, Dragon and Liberator (all Starscape).

Dark skies

Indeed, the future depicted in these books is dark… and very bleak. Cherry Heaven takes us back to the troubled, war-torn world introduced in L. J. Adlington’s The Diary of Pelly D (2005, both HarperTeen). But when the youthful protagonists move to the utopian New Frontier, they encounter the same race and class issues in Cherry Heaven, which means their new home is not what they thought it would be. The teens in Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go (Candlewick, Sept. 2008) are trying to find a way to warn a ship bringing settlers to their colony that New World is under the control of power-hungry leaders. Charlotte Agell’s Shift (Holt, Sept. 2008), on the other hand, introduces us to a world on the brink of apocalypse, thanks to HomeState rule and enforced religious education. War has brought a new Dark Age to Earth in Simon Morden’s The Lost Art (Random/David Fickling Bks.), a time in which technology is forbidden by the rulers of the powerful, antitechnology church. And Chris Lynch’s Cyberia (Scholastic) features a world of electronic surveillance and computer chips used to control animals—until the creatures find a teen champion to rescue them. What could be more dystopian than Earth trying to recover from a devastating asteroid strike? That’s the subject of Susan Beth Pfeffer’s riveting Life as We Knew It (2006). Now there’s a companion novel, The Dead and the Gone (both Harcourt), which follows the travails of 17-year-old Alex Morales as he attempts to look after his younger sisters in a chaotic, post-strike New York City. With waters threatening her island home, 15-year-old Mara, of Julie Bertagna’s Exodus (Walker), has to convince her community to leave its homes for the safety of some newly discovered sky cities. Last year, Brian Keaney’s The Promises of Dr. Sigmundus: The Hollow People (2007) introduced us to the island of Tarnegar, the home of a mysterious doctor who uses drugs to keep everyone over 14 from committing the crime of dreaming. The protagonists of book one escape and live to dream and fight another day in The Cracked Mirror (Dec. 2008, both Knopf), the second volume of a projected trilogy. A year ago Suzanne Collins concluded her fascinating fantasy series, Gregor the Overlander, with the fifth installment of Gregor’s adventures, Gregor and the Code of Claw (2007). The good news is she’s written a thrilling sci-fi story: The Hunger Games (Sept. 2008, both Scholastic) stars 16-year-old Katniss, who takes her younger sister’s place in the annual televised survival competition for young people held in North America. Last year, in Epic (2007), Conor Kostick introduced New Earth, a world based on the video game Epic, where players are competing for the quality of their lives. The sequel, Saga (both Viking), introduces another world based on a video role-playing game—this time under the control of a Dark Queen who sets her sights on controlling both Saga and Epic, unless teens from both worlds can manage to stop her. The monsters encountered by Stopmouth and his family in Peadar Ó Guilín’s debut novel, The Inferior (Random/David Fickling Bks.), can be prey as well as predators. This is a world in which the rule of eat or be eaten is carried to an extreme. All is not as it seems when this primitive society encounters a woman who falls from the sky. When is an amusement park no longer an amusement park? When it’s the survival site for a group of teens after a biological attack has wiped out every adult on Earth in Bonnie Dobkin’s Neptune’s Children (Walker). A terrorist attack is also the subject of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (Tor). But in this case, 17-year-old Marcus and his pals run up against a police-state version of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The “missing adults” theme gets a different twist in Michael Grant’s Gone (HarperTeen). After everyone over the age of 13 suddenly disappears, the young people in a small California town must contend with survivors from a local private school—as well as the terrifying new powers that some of them have developed. Warning: the story does not end here. In Jeanne DuPrau’s 2003 The City of Ember (book one of the Books of Ember series), the city is the only light in a dark, subterranean world—the result of a survival experiment that went horribly wrong. But 12-year-olds Doon and Lina manage to find their way out. What happens next is the subject of The People of Sparks (2004). Book three, The Prophet of Yonwood (2006), is actually a prequel, explaining why the townspeople went underground in the first place. The fourth book in the series, The Diamond of Darkhold (Random), completes the adventures of Lina and Doon as they return to Ember one last time. Instead of an underground city hidden away for generations, a domed city is the setting for a 16-year-old’s search for his missing father in Oisin McGann’s Daylight Runner (Eos, Sept. 2008). One of the most popular dystopian series for young teens is Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Shadow Children. Set in an overpopulated future in which it’s illegal to have more than two children, this series, which began with Among the Hidden (1998) and ended with the seventh entry, Among the Free (2006, all S & S), follows an illegal child’s struggles to stay out of the hands of the population police and certain death. Debut novelist Gemma Malley takes Haddix’s compelling scenario one step further in The Declaration (2007). In 2140 England, drugs have brought the “blessing” of longevity to a population as well as the “curse” of imposed childlessness. This is a riveting look at the plight of a “Surplus,” an illegal teen who is given a chance at a new life. The struggle between this restrictive society and the Underground opposed to it continues in The Resistance (both Bloomsbury). How about a future in which biotechnology has made synthetic brains and bodies possible—but illegal? That’s the subject of Mary Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Holt). Secret scientific research is being conducted in Nicky Singer’s GemX (Holiday). But Maxo Strang only finds that out after a crack appears in his previously flawless face. How about David Stahler’s novels, where being blind is the norm? You’ll find out what happens to Jacob and his life on planet Harmony when he discovers that he can see in Truesight (2004), The Seer (2007), and now Otherspace (all Eos).

The quest

There’s nothing like a grand quest to give one’s life a sense of purpose. And what’s more important than a mission to save the world? That’s what Max discovers is in store for her in James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series. This unusual young adult series actually has its origins in two adult novels, When the Wind Blows (1998) and The Lake House (2003), in which the author first introduced the “birdkids.” As a result, the following titles are as popular with adults as they are with teens: Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment (2005), Maximum Ride: School’s Out—Forever (2006), Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (2007), and The Final Warning: A Maximum Ride Novel (all Little, Brown). In addition to struggling to stay out of the claws of the wolflike “Erasers,” Patterson’s latest installment contains an ecological message, as Max and her companions are called upon to investigate global warming. There couldn’t be a greater change of pace than the delightful “penny dreadful” brand of sci-fi depicted in Philip Reeve’s Victorian series, beginning with Larklight (2006). Larklight is the Victorian house that Art Mumby and his older sister, Myrtle, live and fly through space in—until it’s attacked by white spiders. Fortunately, the two are rescued by Jack, a young pirate captain, who falls for Myrtle (of course) and who joins the siblings in their future adventures. In the next installment, Starcross (2007), Art and Myrtle go on holiday with their mother to an asteroid-belt resort, only to wind up in the middle of another zany adventure involving spies and time travel. In the latest entry, Mothstorm: The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus! (Oct. 2008, all Bloomsbury), the entire Mumby family and their friends try to prevent giant moths from invading the solar system. Don’t miss the inspired lunacy and sheer joy of this series. Twelve-year-old Violynne Vivant—the heroine of first-time novelist Susan Maupin Schmid’s Lost Time (Philomel)—is on a mission to find her missing parents, who vanished on an archaeological dig. The young girl’s quest becomes increasingly dangerous when the Arbiter of the planet gets involved. Michael Simmons turns his hand to sci-fi in Alien Feast (Roaring Brook), book one of the Chronicles of the First Invasion. In 2017, 12-year-old William searches for two scientists kidnapped by human-eating aliens. The creatures want the scientists to cure a disease that’s attacking them. But William, his elderly uncle, and the scientists’ daughter are determined to rescue the pair.

School days, school days

It’s impossible to imagine Harry Potter without Hogwarts—and school settings work equally well in sci-fi. Last year, in Evil Genius (2007), Catherine Jinks kicked off the “anti-Harry” adventures of Cadel Piggott, an antisocial computer hacker who’s enrolled at an advanced crime academy. Cadel’s high-tech escapades continue in the sequel, Genius Squad (both Harcourt). The unfortunately named Ignatius McFarland, on the other hand, would do anything to get away from his tormentors at school, who have dubbed him “Piggy McFartland.” But his dream of living among aliens in outer space turns into a scary trip in Paul Feig’s Ignatius McFarland: Frequenaught! (Little, Brown, Sept. 2008). The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007) by Trenton Lee Stewart introduces four children who must pass a series of mind-bending tests before they go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. The fab four return in The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (both Little, Brown/Megan Tingley Bks.), where their mission is to take part in a scavenger hunt while searching for the missing Mr. Benedict.

It’s a matter of time

When it comes to time travel, the options are endless, including the possibility of communicating with a younger version of one’s self. That’s what happens to two New Zealand teens in Brian Falkner’s The Tomorrow Code (Random, Oct. 2008). Their goal? Oh, only to stave off an ecological disaster that could wipe out humanity. In Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Found (S & S), two adopted 13-year-olds uncover a mystery involving time travel when they learn they were discovered on a plane full of babies that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Another interesting treatment of this theme can be found in Ben Jeapes’s Time’s Chariot (Random/David Fickling Bks., Sept. 2008), where the problem of overcrowding is solved by sending the surplus population back in time. Only now there’s a problem with the transporter and consequences that are potentially deadly. In David Klass’s Firestorm (2006), volume one of The Caretaker Trilogy, 17-year-old Jack discovers that he’s actually a prince, as well as the key to Earth’s only hope to avert a massive ecological disaster. In the follow-up, Whirlwind (both Farrar), Jack returns home after spending six months on his quest to save the Earth’s oceans, only to find that his girlfriend, P. J., is missing and that he’s being blamed not only for her disappearance, but also for the death of his parents. To save P. J. and defeat the Dark Lord from the future who is bent on destroying Earth, Jack heads for the Amazonian rain forest to find the missing time-traveling wizard he needs as his ally in the upcoming battle. There you have it. If you’d like to learn more about the latest sci-fi (as well as how fantasy is doing these days), check out “What’s New in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Supernatural Fiction for Children and Teens 2008” (www.encounteringenchantment.com), a 49-page annotated list that I created with my colleague Susan Fichtelberg.

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Bonnie Kunzel is crazy about sci-fi and fantasy. Her most recent book is Fluent in Fantasy: The Next Generation (Libraries Unlimited, 2007), written with Diana Tixier Herald.