Collection: Science Fiction

New York Times bestselling author Wendy Mass's action-packed early chapter book series is perfect for newly independent readers!

Pick a book. Grow a Reader!This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line, Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!Chase and Ava find an old suitcase filled with strange objects. One of the objects looks like a dragon-headed doorknob... Suddenly Chase and Ava find themselves jumping back in time to King Arthur's castle! They meet the king's wizard Merlin and soon discover what the dragon-headed doorknob really is. It turns out they have an important job to do: They must save the king! But a bad guy is after them... How will Chase and Ava get back home? They will need to act fast to find out! Oriol Vidal's engaging illustrations appear on every page. Newly independent readers will eat up this time-travel series from New York Times bestselling author Wendy Mass!

INCLUDES A NEW AFTERWORD

New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin takes readers to a whole new level with his darkly comic sci-fi thriller, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits.

An Alex Award Winner

Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements.

An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move.

Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes.

A young woman from the trailer park.

And her very smelly cat.

Together, they will decide the future of mankind.

Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star, in which human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. A world in which at least one cat smells like a seafood shop's dumpster on a hot summer day.

This is the world in which Zoey Ashe finds herself, navigating a futuristic city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish and ridiculous on any street corner. Her only trusted advisor is the aforementioned cat, but even in the future, cats cannot give advice. At least not any that you'd want to follow.

Will Zoey figure it all out in time? Or maybe the better question is, will you? After all, the future is coming sooner than you think.

From Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Borne and Annihilation, comes the paperback reissue of his cult classic City of Saints and Madmen. In this reinvention of the literature of the fantastic, you hold in your hands an invitation to a place unlike any you've ever visited--an invitation delivered by one of our most audacious and astonishing literary magicians.

City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin. In Ambergris, a would-be suitor discovers that a sunlit street can become a killing ground in the blink of an eye. An artist receives an invitation to a beheading--and finds himself enchanted. And a patient in a mental institution is convinced that he's made up a city called Ambergris, imagined its every last detail, and that he's really from a place called Chicago . . .

By turns sensuous and terrifying, filled with exotica and eroticism, this interwoven collection of stories, histories, and "eyewitness" reports invokes a universe within a puzzle box where you can lose--and find--yourself again.

Winner of the Munhakdongne Novel Award, South Korea's most prestigious literary prize.

Cabinet 13 looks exactly like any normal filing cabinet...Except this cabinet is filled with files on the 'symptomers', humans whose strange abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species.

But to Mr Kong, the harried office worker whose job it is to look after the cabinet, the symptomers are a headache; especially the one who won't stop calling every day, asking to be turned into a cat.

A richly funny and fantastical novel about the strangeness at the heart of even the most everyday lives, from one of South Korea's most acclaimed novelists.

Translated by Sean Lin Halbert

File Under Fiction [ 12,000 Cans of Beer Memory Mosaicers Will Execution Inc. Monkey of All Bombs ]

With Something Is Killing the Children and The Department of Truth, James Tynion IV has changed the face of horror in modern comics--now get ready for his most ambitious story yet, alongside his Detective Comics partner Álvaro Martínez Bueno!

Eisner Award Winner 2022 - Best New Series
Eisner Award Winner 2023 - Best Writer, James Tynion IV
Eisner Award Winner 2023 - Best Coloring, Jordie Bellaire
Eisner Award Nominee 2023 - Best Continuing Series
Eisner Award Nominee 2023 - Best Penciller/Inker, Alvaro Martínez Bueno

Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter--well, they know him a little, anyway. Some met him in childhood; some met him months ago. And Walter's always been a little...off.

But after the hardest year of their lives, nobody was going to turn down Walter's invitation to an astonishingly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking an enormous sylvan lake. It's beautiful, it's opulent, it's private--so a week of putting up with Walter's weird little schemes and nicknames in exchange for the vacation of a lifetime? Why not?

All of them were at that moment in their lives when they could feel themselves pulling away from their other friends; wouldn't a chance to reconnect be...nice? In The Nice House on the Lake, the overriding anxieties of the 21st century get a terrifying new face--and it might just be the face of the person you once trusted most.

Collects The Nice House on the Lake #1-12.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The #1 New York Times bestselling author of World War Z is back with "the Bigfoot thriller you didn't know you needed in your life, and one of the greatest horror novels I've ever read" (Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter and Recursion).

FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD

As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier's eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now. The journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town's bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing--and too earth-shattering in its implications--to be forgotten. In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate's extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it. Kate's is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity's defiance in the face of a terrible predator's gaze, and, inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us--and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it--and like none you've ever read before.

Praise for Devolution

"Delightful . . . [A] tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The story is told in such a compelling manner that horror fans will want to believe and, perhaps, take the warning to heart."--Booklist (starred review)

The next adventure in the High Republic begins expanding the new era of Star Wars, with a story set generations before Light of the Jedi.

It is an age of exploration. Jedi travel the galaxy, expanding their understanding of the Force and all the worlds and beings connected by it. Meanwhile, the Republic, led by its two chancellors, works to unite worlds in an ever-growing community among near and distant stars.

On the close-orbiting planets of Eiram and E'ronoh, the growing pains of a galaxy with limited resources but unlimited ambition are felt keenly. The two worlds' hatred for each other has fueled half a decade of escalating conflict and now threatens to consume surrounding systems. The last hope for peace emerges when heirs from the planets' royal families plan to marry.

Before lasting peace can be established, an assassination attempt targeting the couple tilts Eiram and E'ronoh back into all-out war. To save both worlds, Jedi Knight Gella Nattai volunteers to uncover the culprit, while Chancellor Kyong appoints her own son, Axel Greylark, to represent the Republic's interests in the investigation.

But Axel's deep distrust of the Jedi sparks against Gella's faith in the Force. She's never met such a puffed-up, privileged party boy, and he's never met a more self-serious, relentless do-gooder. The harder they work to untangle the shadowy web of the investigation, the more complicated the conspiracy appears to be. With accusations flying and potential enemies in every shadow, the pair will have to work together to have any hope of bringing the truth to light and saving both worlds.

In the ruins of civilization, a young girl's kindness and capacity for love will either save humanity -- or wipe it out in this USA Today bestselling thriller Joss Whedon calls "heartfelt, remorseless, and painfully human."

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointed at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Destiny Grimoire Anthology, Volume V: Legions Adrift is a curated look at the history of one of humanity's greatest enemies, and now perhaps, potential allies: the Cabal. These stories follow an ancient empire through a time of great change--from the hedonism of Emperor Calus to the ambition of Dominus Ghaul to the vision of Empress Caiatl. What does it mean to be Cabal--to eat the mountains and drink the seas? And with their homeworld lost, what will the Cabal become?

Includes download code printed on card for exclusive Destiny 2 in-game emblem.

Ranger, the time-traveling golden retriever with search-and-rescue training, finds himself in 1912... on board the Titanic!

Everyone says the Titanic is unsinkable, and Patrick Murphy believes this most of all. He grew up near the shipyard where the magnificent ship was built and officially started working there when he turned thirteen. He's even been chosen to be part of the crew during the Titanic's maiden voyage! Ranger meets Patrick before the ship sets sail, and once on board, they befriend Maryam and Hamad. But one night, the ship hits an iceberg and starts to take on water. It's a race against time for Ranger and his friends to help get as many passengers -- including themselves -- off the ship before it's too late.

The Hunger Games meets Station Eleven in a gripping near-future dystopian: love triangles, betrayals and fights for freedom in a world turned upside-down...

Welcome to the Arcadia.

Once a luxurious cruise ship, it became a refugee camp after being driven from Europe by an apocalyptic war. Now it floats near the coastline of the Federated States--a leftover piece of a fractured USA.

For forty years, residents of the Arcadia have been prohibited from making landfall. It is a world of extreme haves and have nots, gangs and make-shift shelters.

Esther is a loyal citizen, working flat-out to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land. Nik is a rebel, planning something big to liberate the Arcadia once and for all.

When events throw them both together, their lives, and the lives of everyone on the ship, will change forever...

Shahar and the godling Sieh must face off against the terrible magic threatening to consume their world in the incredible conclusion to the Inheritance Trilogy, from Hugo award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

For two thousand years the Arameri family has ruled the world by enslaving the very gods that created mortalkind. Now the gods are free, and the Arameri's ruthless grip is slipping. Yet they are all that stands between peace and world-spanning, unending war.

Shahar, last scion of the family, must choose her loyalties. She yearns to trust Sieh, the godling she loves. Yet her duty as Arameri heir is to uphold the family's interests, even if that means using and destroying everyone she cares for.

As long-suppressed rage and terrible new magics consume the world, the Maelstrom -- which even gods fear -- is summoned forth. Shahar and Sieh: mortal and god, lovers and enemies. Can they stand together against the chaos that threatens?

Includes a never before seen story set in the world of the Inheritance Trilogy.

Whenever we envision a world without war, prisons, or capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision, and try to create, such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought 20 of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. These visionary tales span genres--sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism--but all are united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be. Also features essays by Tananarive Due and Mumia Abu-Jamal, and a preface by Sheree Renée Thomas.

"Those concerned with justice and liberation must always persuade the mass of people that a better world is possible. Our job begins with speculative fictions that fire society's imagination and its desire for change. In adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha's visionary conception, and by its activist-artists' often stunning acts of creative inception, Octavia's Brood makes for great thinking and damn good reading. The rest will be up to us." --Jeff Chang, Who We Be: The Colorization of America

"Conventional exclamatory phrases don't come close to capturing the essence of what we have here in Octavia's Brood. One part sacred text, one part social movement manual, one part diary of our future selves telling us, 'It's going to be okay, keep working, keep loving.' Our radical imaginations are under siege and this text is the rescue mission. It is the new cornerstone of every class I teach on inequality, justice, and social change....This is the text we've been waiting for." --Ruha Benjamin, professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier

"Octavia once told me that two things worried her about the future of humanity: The tendency to think hierarchically, and the tendency to place ourselves higher on the hierarchy than others. I think she would be humbled beyond words that the fine, thoughtful writers in this volume have honored her with their hearts and minds. And that in calling for us to consider that hierarchical structure, they are not walking in her shadow, nor standing on her shoulders, but marching at her side." --Steven Barnes, Lion's Blood

"Never has one book so thoroughly realized the dream of its namesake. Octavia's Brood is the progeny of two lovers of Octavia Butler and their belief in her dream that science fiction is for everybody.... Butler could not wish for better evidence of her touch changing our literary and living landscapes. Play with these children, read these works, and find the children in you waiting to take root under the stars!" --Moya Bailey and Ayana Jamieson, Octavia E. Butler Legacy

"Like [Octavia] Butler's fiction, this collection is cartography, a map to freedom." --dream hampton, filmmaker and Visiting Artist at Stanford University's Institute for Diversity in the Arts

Walidah Imarisha is a writer, organizer, educator, and spoken word artist. She is the author of the poetry collectionScars/Stars and facilitates writing workshops at schools, community centers, youth detention facilities, and women's prisons.

adrienne maree brown is a 2013 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow writing science fiction in Detroit, Michigan. She received a 2013 Detroit Knight Arts Challenge Award to run a series of Octavia Butler-based writing workshops.

"Full of twists, this middle grade story is a heartwarming mix of food and family."--Kirkus Reviews

When You Reach Me meets Love Sugar Magic in this unforgettable middle grade novel where time travel, family recipes, and family secrets collide.

Maya's grandmother, Halmunee, may be losing her memory, but she hasn't lost her magic touch in the kitchen. Whether she serves salty miyeok-guk or sweet songpyeon, her stories about Korea come to life for Maya.

Then one day, something extraordinary happens: one delicious bite transports Maya and Halmunee into one of Halmunee's memories. Suddenly they're in Seoul, and Halmunee is young.

This is just the first of many secrets Maya will uncover: that she and her grandmother can travel through time. As Maya eats her way through the past, her questions multiply--until a shocking discovery transforms everything she thought she knew about family, friendship, loss, and time itself.

Brimming with heart and interspersed with seven family recipes that readers can make themselves, this is a story to savor by rising Korean American author Flora Ahn.

Zeke's just trying to fit in, but classmate Harris is onto him! Will Harris discover that Zeke is truly out of this world?-Read Book 1 in the bestselling Alien Next Door series.

Zeke the alien is on his way to his first day of school, feeling down because he has to start over again on a new planet, as his scientist parents constantly move to wherever their research takes them. When he gets to school, no one seems to notice anything strange or different about him except Harris, a kid obsessed with science fiction and aliens. Harris sees Zeke doing extraordinary things but can't convince anyone, least of all his best friend, Roxy, that Zeke might be an alien. Roxy just thinks Harris is jealous that she's becoming friends with Zeke. But when Roxy invites Zeke over to Harris's house, will Harris find a way to prove that he's right?

Marvel's top merc is back is business and better than ever! We all know Wade Wilson is one of the leading guns-for-hire in the Marvel Universe (even if he is simultaneously the most annoying one), but now he's pushing to make that recognition official. Deadpool is auditioning for the elite group of assassins known as the Atelier, and he has 48 hours to kill one of the world's most famous super villains: Doctor Octopus! Only problem? He's been kidnapped, and something...strange...is growing inside him! Things are going to get gross as writer Alyssa Wong (STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA, IRON FIST) and artist Martin Coccolo (HULK VS. THOR: BANNER OF WAR) take out their pent-up aggression on everyone's pizza-faced, jabber-mouthed, misguided, hate-to-love, love-to-hate fave! Collecting DEADPOOL (2022) #1-5 and material from NEW MUTANTS (2019) #30.