The Peter White Public Library’s book club, Klava Klub, meets the third Wednesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at Contrast Coffee at 600 N. Third St. All are invited to grab a cuppa and discuss sci-fi novels, old and new. In between meetings, try one of these new selections.

“In Artemis: A Novel” by Andy Weir, smart, resourceful, and talented, Jazz Bashara has one goal in life — to become rich — but working part time as a porter and smuggler isn’t going to get her there. When Trond, a billionaire, offers her a million slugs to sabotage a competitor for him, she agrees, ignoring her better instincts. Only two-thirds successful, her actions set into motion events that threaten not only herself, her family and her friends, but also the city she loves.

In Nnedi Okaorafor’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning trilogy, Binti becomes the first Himba to leave Earth for Oomza Uni as narrated in Binti. “In Binti: Home,” the second novella, Binti finds herself being declared a hero for negotiating a truce between the Meduse and Khoush and becoming part Meduse. While she longs to go home to return to her roots and go on a cleansing pilgrimage, she wonders if they will be able to accept her for who she is especially with her Meduse companion Okwu. In the trilogy’s conclusion, “Binti:The Night Masquerade,” Binti must learn how to adjust to the zinariya and use her harmonizing skills to try to bring peace.

Shen fever has virtually wiped out humanity leaving just a handful of survivors in Ling Ma’s debut novel, “Severance.” Candace Chen is one of those survivors. A millennial who thrives on monotonous routine, the end of the world has definitely taken her out of her comfort zone. Alternating between flashbacks of Candace’s pre-Shen fever life and her post-apocalyptic journey to the Facility with a handful of other survivors, Ling Ma portrays not only a disturbing picture of the future, but also of the past.

Sci-Fi meets Harlequin Romance in Catherine Cerveny’s “The Rule of Luck.” The year is 2950 and the world has survived the rising waters of climate change as well as four world wars. Genetic modification is the norm, and people live for hundreds of years thanks to renew technology. All is controlled by OneGov, who keeps tabs on humans through CN-net. One citizen of this new order, Felicia Sevigny, makes her living reading tarot cards, part of her Romani heritage. When Alexei Petrov, heir to the Russian Consortium, comes to her shop looking for a reading, her life is turned upside down leading her to a future that not even her cards could predict.

When Melisande Stokes first bumps into (literally) Tristan Lyons, she has no idea how her life is going to change. After talking over coffee, he convinces her to leave her university position and work for a secret government agency, D.O.D.O, as a linguist. Intrigued by both the work and Tristan, she agrees to work for him, diving head first into a job full of witches, government intrigue and time travel which eventually leaves her stranded in London 1851, all chronicled in Neal Stephenson’s novel, “The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.”

By Carolyn McManis

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