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Science Fiction and Fantasy at #PDXBookFest 2020

Mark your calendar for these events featuring exciting new science fiction and fantasy stories!

Be sure to register at PDXBookFest.org to catch these FREE live-streamed events, and RSVP at the event pages below.

Naomi Novik and Fonda Lee

A DEADLY EDUCATION: NAOMI NOVIK & FONDA LEE

With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a school bursting with magic like you’ve never seen before, and a heroine for the ages—a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come. In conversation with Fonda Lee.

Hilarious and wild! Take any fictional magic school, make it as over-the-top dangerous as possible, and populate it with a bunch of snarky teenagers; the result is pure batshit fun.

N. K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The City We Became
Marie Lu and Emily Suvada

SKYHUNTER: MARIE LU & EMILY SUVADA

#1 New York Times-bestselling author Marie Lu is back with Skyhunter, an adrenaline-laced novel about the lengths one warrior will go to fight for freedom and those she loves. Marie Lu will be in conversation with Emily Suvada, author of the This Mortal Coil trilogy.

It has been a month since the Federation launched a full-scale attack against us, which we barely survived with a temporary cease-fire. But compromise is difficult when what they want is our nation itself. So the next siege could come today. Tomorrow. A month from now. There is no telling.

When you’re fighting a losing war, you are always on edge.

Skyhunter, Marie Lu

BOOK OF REVELATIONS: RUMAAN ALAM & JONATHAN LETHEM

Nowhere is safe in these novels of post-collapse contemporary dread and family tension. In Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind, a blackout on the Eastern seaboard forces two families together in an isolated rural house, cut off from the outside world. And in Jonathan Lethem’s The Arrest, two siblings in a world where most of what we take for granted—cars, guns, computers, airplanes—have quit working find their lives upended by a man with a nuclear-powered super car.

Lethem cleverly builds on and subverts the tropes of postapocalyptic dystopias, mixes in a metafictional element, and expertly mines the nature of storytelling and its power to enchant. An inventive and intelligent speculative tale.

Booklist
Bethany C. Morrow and Tehlor Kay Mejia or Anna-Marie McLemore

MAGIC & POWER: TEHLOR KAY MEJIA, ANNA-MARIE MCLEMORE, & BETHANY C. MORROW

Teen heroines find their voices and their power—thanks to strong female friendships, and at least a little bit of magic. Co-authors Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore (Miss Meteor) and Bethany C. Morrow (A Song Below Water) will be in conversation with Emilly Prado (Funeral for Flaca).

A watery and melodic crossroads of the real and the mythic, A Song Below Water lures readers with its seductive and beautifully black siren song. An enthralling tale of black girl magic and searing social commentary ready to rattle the bones.

Dhonielle Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Belles series
Nnedi Okorafor and David A. Robertson

MIDDLE GRADE MYTHOLOGY: NNEDI OKORAFOR & DAVID A. ROBERTSON

Mythology infuses these middle-grade fantasy stories, the beginnings of exciting new series from acclaimed writers. In Nnedi Okorafor’s acclaimed first novel for middle grade readers, Ikenga, introduces a boy who can access super powers with the help of the magical Ikenga. Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in The Barren Grounds, the beginning of an epic middle grade fantasy series from award-winning author David A. Robertson. Moderated by Kate Ristau.

Reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia stories, this fantasy is very much its own tale of ruptured Indigenous culture, of environmental reciprocity and care.

The Toronto Star on The Barren Grounds
Veronica Roth and Charlie Jane Anders

CHOSEN ONES: VERONICA ROTH & CHARLIE JANE ANDERS

Fifteen years ago, five ordinary teenagers were singled out by a prophecy to take down an impossibly powerful entity wreaking havoc across North America. He was known as the Dark One, and his weapon of choice—catastrophic events known as Drains—leveled cities and claimed thousands of lives. Chosen Ones, as the teens were known, gave everything they had to defeat him… What do you do when you’re the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth is the cure for all those humdrum ‘one true savior’ narratives. This dark, complex novel rocked my heart and left me with a renewed sense that saving the world is a job that never ends. Roth’s version of magic is as flawed and fascinating as her characters, and her story keeps you guessing until the wild conclusion. You’ll never look at fantasy heroes the same way again.

Charlie Jane Anders, Hugo & Nebula Award winning author of The City in the Middle of the Night  

ALL BOOKS PURCHASED THROUGH FESTIVAL EVENTS, FROM ANNIE BLOOM’S BOOKSBROADWAY BOOKSGREEN BEAN BOOKS, OR POWELL’S BOOKS SUPPORT THE AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS WHO SHARE THEIR WORK AT THE FESTIVAL AND THE BOOKSELLERS WHO HAVE WORKED HARD TO KEEP THEIR BUSINESSES OPEN DURING THESE DIFFICULT TIMES. BY PURCHASING BOOKS FROM THESE BOOKSTORES YOU ARE SUPPORTING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE FESTIVAL.

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