Rot & ruin, by Jonathan Maberry

In a future post-zombie apocalypse United States, Ben Imura has lived his entire 15 years in the isolated community of Mountainside, where at 15 everyone must begin working or face their food ration cut in half. After losing half a dozen jobs, Benny reluctantly agrees to join the "family business" of his older 1/2 brother Tom who is a zombie killer. When the brothers venture out into the Rot & Ruin outside Mountainside, Benny discovers how wrong he has been about many things - from the "coolness" of more flamboyant bounty hunters to the inhuman nature of "zoms", and especially the real nature of the family business. Then Benny's potential girlfriend is kidnapped by Charlie Mathias - a cruel bounty hunter, and the Imura brothers have to work together to try and rescue her before it is too late.

There is lots of adventure, violence, and action balanced with thought provoking questions about bravery and honor and about survivors and victims. And who would have guessed that I would love a zombie book, anyway?

Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi

Set in a not too distant future where the depletion of fossil fuels and climate change have made the Gulf Coast an impoverished, storm wracked region. On the lawless beaches, dirt-poor workers struggle with cut-throat competition for the hellish jobs that mean survival. Here, teenage Nailer works as a light crew member, crawling the ductwork of old rusty oil tankers to salvage copper wire, aluminum staples, anything to make his quota and keep his job. His job is dangerous, but not as dangerous as the level 6 hurricanes which blow from the Gulf regularly nor his vicious father, who with rat-like cunning is willing to sacrifice anything to stay alive. Then one day a hurricane beaches a clipper ship and one occupant is still alive - a wealthy shipping family heiress. Nailer joins forces with her and together they struggle to stay alive long enough to return her to her people.

The story moves along quickly as Nailer and Nita move through an eire swamp of a submerged New Orleans and out onto the gulf waters where a new breed of clipper ship houses the international shipping magnates that are the new wealthy elite of this society.

This is fresh, fast-paced, and leaves the reader with something to think about concerning the choices being made today in regard to fossil fuels, allocation of resources, and distribution of wealth.

Ender's game & Ender's shadow, by Orson Scott Card

I read Ender's shadow several years ago when it was on the Abe list, and enjoyed it a lot. It's taken a while, but I finally got back to the series, and this time read Ender's game, which is the 1st book in the series. These books essentially tell the same story from the perspectives of two different characters, and both are excellent.

Earth has been under alien attack for almost a hundred years, and the next attack is imminent. On earth, humans have genetically engineered children with military genius, and these children are sent to a space station battle school, where they are taught military strategy. Ender Wiggins is the world's best hope to survive, but he is young (six, at the story's opening) and has a lot to learn in a short time. His teachers manipulate behind the scenes, and the older students resent Ender's advancement as Ender struggles to survive the war games that take up most of the battle school curriculum.

Ender's shadow concerns Ender's right hand child commander, Bean.

These are science fiction at it's best - but don't take my word for it. They are on every core collection list I've ever seen and have won numerous awards for Science fiction. Great stuff!

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

This is book 2 of the Hunger Games Trilogy, and it is just as good as the 1st book, Hunger Games. I hated the cliffhanger ending, only because it is going to be August 24th before book 3 is out, and I hate waiting so long to know how this is going to get wrapped up.

Candor, by Pam Bachorz

Everything is perfect in the planned community of Candor, Florida. People are happy and upbeat, children are obedient and clean cut - and subliminal messages are beamed to the residents 24/7 to keep residents brainwashed and under mind control.

Oscar Banks is the son of the town's founder(and the head brainwasher), and his model student perfection is a calculated act. He's the only teen in town who knows about the messages, and Oscar fights the messages with his own counterprogramming. For a price, he will help the troubled teens whose parents have moved them to town escape brainwashing long enough to get out of Candor. It's a risky game, and sooner or later there is bound to be trouble. Trouble arrives in the person of Nia. When Nia moves to town, Oscar is attracted to her intelligence and attitude. And Nia sees right through Oscar's good-boy image. But if he helps her escape, he'll lose her forever; and if he lets her stay she will be brainwashed into a "perfect child", and he'll lose what he loves about her forever too.

The author wrote this while living in a "model" Florida town - it's creepy and suspenseful and keeps the reader guessing as Oscar and Nia get further and further into trouble.

Hunger games, by Suzanne Collins

In an ultimate game of Survivor, 24 young people are chosen annually to compete in the Hunger Games. And the residents of Panem (formerly the U.S.) are forced to watch as their children are pitted against one another in a contest that ends with only one contestant still alive.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen watches in horror as her little sister's name is drawn to compete and steps in to take her place in the games. The other contestant from their district is Peeta, a boy she barely knows. Now Peeta is professing that he has loved her secretly since grade school, and Katniss doesn't know if he's being truthful or playing a clever game to win sympathy with the audience and survive the games. But joining forces with Peeta will give them an edge in the contest if Peeta is on the level. And as the games advance, Katniss needs all the advantage she can get to stay alive.

This is an original and well written suspense story. Readers are telling me that the sequel, Catching fire, is as good or better than this one. And the third book of the trilogy is due out next year. A great futuristic, dystopian vision of our country gone horribly wrong.

Feed, by M.T. Anderson

This story is set in the future, where large corporations have taken advertising and consumerism to extremes. Humans have "feeds" implanted in their brains almost from birth, feeds that are part Internet, part advertising. The ability to read and write and even to think for ones self has been almost completely obliterated. Titus, who narrates the story in his frighteningly simple voice, is leading a contented life of partying and shopping until he meets Violet. Violet didn't get her feed until she was in grade school, thus her brain retains developed thought processes independent of the feed. Violet is doing the unheard of - she is fighting the feed. Through Violet, Titus begins, dimly, to realize that his thoughts are not his own but are implanted for commercial purposes.

This is scary reading, especially in the light of current brain research that is working on identifying a person's thoughts through brain scans. If your thoughts can be scanned, is it a big leap till can they be altered? Today Channel One (brought to you by Coca Cola) - tomorrow, who knows.

Life as we knew it, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda is a typical sophmore in high school - anxious for her driver's liscence, hanging out with her friends, arguing with Mom, and looking forward to Prom. An interesting astrological event has her neighbors in lawn chairs viewing the moon on the evening an meteor is predicted to hit the moon. The meteor hits, and life on earth is changed forever as the collision shifts the moon closer to the earth causing violent earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, huge tsunamis, and millions of deaths. All that Miranda has taken for granted suddenly begins to disappear. Food and gasoline are in short supply, and winter is coming on without heat or electricity. This is hard to put down, and hard to forget.

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

Marcus is computer wise, and outwitting school security is his ticket to a day off to play the real world component of his favorite online game. But Marcus and his friends pick the wrong day to escape school when they find themselves near ground 0 of a terrorist attack similar to 9/11. Picked up by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison (think Guantonimo), they are subjected to merciless interrogation for days. When finally released, Marcus discovers that San Francisco has been turned into a police state with every action watched, every move monitored by a DHS gone mad. His computer is bugged, he's under police surveilance, and he's on a mission - bringing down the DHS.
The author of Little Brother is a tech guru in his own right, and the story has implications that should make us all stop and think about where technology can lead us in the not that distant future.