Station Eleven

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
333 Pages



The book opens as Arthur,  the main actor in a King Lear production collapses and dies on stage of a heart attack.  While this is happening the beginnings of a major epidemic are stirring in the city of Toronto, an epidemic that will kill the majority of the population. 

Yet this is not a disaster story in a dyfunctional future.  In fact the epidemic is only a minor part of the story. Instead the book is structured to bridge the past and the future by telling the stories of people who interacted with Arthur before he died and who continue to be affected by having known him. 

Lock In

Lock In by John Scalzi
336 Pages

In the future a flu epidemic known as Hayden's has killed over 40 million and left millions in a condition where they cannot move or communicate or a locked in state.  This caused the United States government to spend billions finding a way to alleviate or make life more bearable for these victims of Hayden's disease.  Now they can hold jobs and interact with society by using androids, (known as threeps) controlled by their human bodies.  
On the dawn of new legislation to curtail the amount of money being spent by the federal government on Haydens FBI agent Chris Shane, a Hayden sufferer himself himself investigating a series of crimes where integrators (people who were infected by Hayden's but not locked in but experience a brain remapping) are committing crimes.

Scalzi has created a world that is interesting and well thought out.  Definitely recommended.

Guardian

Guardian by Alex London, 340 pages

In the sequel to Proxy, the Rebooters have become the Reconciliation.  Since the revolution, the people who used to be Proxies and other marginally members of society have taken charge and their former patrons have been sent to work farms to be re-educated.  Certain words like debt and owe have been outlawed in an attempt to change society’s entire outlook.  There is only one problem with this new utopian society.  People have started to die from a frightening new illness that causes their blood to boil and their veins to burst open.  Syd, Liam, and Marie have seen this phenomenon firsthand, but their leaders don’t seem concerned so they set out to try to find a cure themselves.  Unfortunately, the cure may mean the end of everything they have worked to change.  An action packed science fiction adventure, teen fans of these genres will probably like this series.

Lock In

Lock In by John Scalzi, 336 pages

In a not-so-distant future, a highly contagious virus has struck the world.  Many contract the disease but are perfectly fine when they recover, although a few die.  Others, however, are changed.  Some people, suffering from what is called Haden’s syndrome, are locked inside themselves, fully aware of everything around them but unable to react to the world.  An even smaller amount, called Integrators, are changed in such a way that they can let the people who are locked in borrow their bodies for a time period.  Usually, these people use a sort of android type machine called a threep to interact with the world as others do.  The main character, Chris Shane, is one of these.  He is a rookie with the FBI, partnered with a former Integrator, Leslie Vann.  The two of them are immediately sucked into a Haden related murder case that is clearly much more complicated than it seems at first.  With the possible future of Haden society resting in the balance, Shane and Vann must work quickly to uncover the truths surrounding the murder and solve their case.  A really good science fiction story, that isn’t too heavy on the science aspect.  A fascinating premise and a well-told story, this book will appeal to a lot of readers.

Plague

Plague by Michael Grant 
492 pages

This is the fourth book in the Gone series.  In this book, the kids have been trapped inside the dome they call the FAYZ for eight months.  They have actually become somewhat organized but they are running out of food and fresh water and worried about where more will come from.  An illness has begun striking kids down and although Lana has the power to heal people, her powers have no effect on the disease.  To make matters worse, bugs appear to be hatching out of kids, killing the kids in the process, and growing to enormous proportions.  Some of the kids who have powers that are more destructive, like Sam, with his balls of light, have had no effect on the bugs.  Several of the kids are struggling with their own life philosophies and several are just struggling to survive another day.  I would recommend reading this series in order.  Teens that like supernatural dystopian survivalist type of stories would probably like this series.