The Best of Science Fiction For or About Young Adults
Explore the best science fiction books for or about young adults. Discover top adult sci-fi novels with thrilling adventures, futuristic worlds, and compelling stories perfect for YA readers.
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This Time of Darkness
by H. M. Hoover
Although both know it is forbidden, Amy and Axel hope that by following the countless ramps leading upward they can escape from their filthy subterranean world.
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The Sky So Big and Black
by John Barnes
Accompanying her eco-prospector father on a tour through the Martian wilderness, Terry finds herself having to guide the trip's young survivors back home after a terrible accident.
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Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
From New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game—adapted to film in 2013 starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford—is the classic Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction novel of a young boy's recruitment into the midst of an interstellar war. In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training. Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel. THE ENDER UNIVERSE Ender series Ender’s Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind Ender’s Shadow series Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight Children of the Fleet The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) The Swarm /The Hive Ender novellas A War of Gifts /First Meetings
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Ender's Shadow
by Orson Scott Card
Bean is a genius with a magician's ability to zero in on his enemy and exploit his weakness.
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Shadow of the Hegemon
by Orson Scott Card
The War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors. The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across the globe. The battle school is no more. But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more. The children of the Battle School are more than heroes; they are potential weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes; and he turns for help to Ender's brother Peter. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, has already been manipulating the politics of Earth from behind the scenes. With Bean's help, he will eventually rule the world. Shadow of the Hegemon is the second novel in Orson Scott Card's Shadow Series.
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Shadow Puppets
by Orson Scott Card
A Sequel to The New York Times Bestselling Ender's Shadow Bestselling author Orson Scott Card brings to life a new chapter in the saga of Ender's Earth and The Shadow Series. Earth and its society has been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender Wiggin's victory over the Formics--the unity enforced upon the warring nations by an alien enemy has shattered. Nations are rising again, seeking territory and influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the children from the Battle School. But one person has a better idea. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older, more ruthless, brother, sees that any hope for the future of Earth lies in restoring a sense of unity and purpose. And he has an irresistible call on the loyalty of Earth's young warriors. With Bean at his side, the two will reshape our future. Shadow Puppets is the continuing story of Bean and Petra, and the rest of Ender's Dragon Army, as they take their places in the new government of Earth.
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Obernewtyn
by Isobelle Carmody
Elspeth Gordie, living in orphanages in the aftermath of the holocaust known as the Great White, is desperate to get her certificate of normalcy, but her mental powers--a result of the radiation that ravished the land--persist in making themselves known despite her efforts to hide them.
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The Farseekers
by Isobelle Carmody
Elspeth leads a party of Misfits away from Obernewtyn to rescue a powerful telepath, infiltrate the leading council and the powerful Herder priests, and locate a legendary before times library.
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Ashling
by Isobelle Carmody
Attempting to negotiate an alliance between the Misfit community at Obernewtyn and rebels hiding in the capital, Elspeth must brave the dangers of the desert in order to completely understand the secrets revealed by the beforetimes library.
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The Keeping Place
by Isobelle Carmody
When a Misfit is kidnapped, Elspeth finds she has little choice but to join the growing rebellion against the Council. Her extraordinary mental powers could tip the scales of the struggle, but Elspeth feels torn between toppling the corrupt authoritarian regime and seeking clues vital to a more personal quest--her ambition to destroy what remains of the Beforetime weaponmachines. "From the Paperback edition."
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Feed
by M. T. Anderson
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
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Silver Eyes
by Nicole Luiken
In this thrilling sequel to "Violet Eyes, " 17-year-old Angel Eastland lives in a future where humans work on Mars and loyalty is determined by a chip implanted in the brain. Violet-eyed from the effects of a genetic experiment, she is hired as an investigator by a mining company. When she captures an 18-year-old fugitive named Michael Vallant, Angel senses a connection to him.
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Shade's Children (rack)
by Garth Nix
The Key to Survival Rests in the Hands of Shade's Children In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machinelike creature whose sole purpose is to kill. The mysterious Shade -- once a man, but now more like the machines he fights -- recruits the few children fortunate enough to escape. With luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power -- and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become ...
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The Giver
by Lois Lowry
In a future society, young Jonas is given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.