New Haven Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is a 2020 comic book series that follows a lone, surviving turtle in a post-apocalyptic future. Created by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz, and Andy Coon, the five-issue series is a darker, more dramatic take on the TMNT universe. The story is being adapted into a live-action, R-rated movie for Paramount, with a script by Tyler Burton Smith.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a classic comic book storyline by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, first published in Uncanny X-Men #141 and #142 in 1981. The story is a dystopian tale where the X-Men must prevent a future where mutant-hunting Sentinels have taken over the United States. The plot involves Kitty Pryde's consciousness being sent back in time to prevent a key event that leads to this future.

Secret Wars (2015) is a nine-issue Marvel Comics crossover event that details the final incursion, or collision, of Earth-616 and the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610), which destroys the multiverse. Doctor Doom uses godlike powers to salvage pieces of these destroyed realities and create a single patchwork planet called Battleworld, which he rules as "God Emperor Doom". The story follows survivors from the original universes as they discover the truth and rally to overthrow Doom.

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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - 2019 - 849 pgs

The million-copy bestselling “rich and engaging high fantasy novel that puts women and their stories front and center . . . will pull you into its magical world from the first page.” (Bustle)
A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction--but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay - 2005 - 528 pages

Award-wining author Guy Gavriel’s sixth novel, hauntingly evocative of medieval Spain, is both a brilliant adventure and a moving story of love, divided loyalties, and what happens to men and women when hardening beliefs begin to remake -- or destroy -- a world.
The ruling Asharites have come from the desert sands, worshipping the stars, their warrior blood fierce and pure. But over centuries, seduced by the sensuous pleasures of their new land, that stern piety has eroded. The Asharies empire has splintered into decadent city-states lead by warring petty kinds.
King Almalik of Cartada is on the ascendancy, adding city after city to his realm, even though Cartada is threatened by forces both within and without. Almalik is aided by his friend and advisor, the notorious Ammar ibn Khairan -- poet, diplomat, soldier -- until a summer afternoon of savage brutality changes their relationship forever.
Meanwhile, in the north, the Jaddite’s most celebrated -- and feared -- military leader, Rodrigo Belmonte, is driven into exile in the wake of events following the death of the king he loved. Rodrigo leads his mercenary company south, to the dangerous lands of Al-Rassan.
In the exquisite lakeside city of Ragosa, Rodrigo Belmonte and Ammar ibn Kharian meet and serve -- for a time -- the same master. Sharing the interwoven fate of these two men from different worlds -- and increasingly torn in her feelings -- is Jehane, the beautiful, accomplished court physician, whose own skills play an increasing role as Al-Rassan is swept to the brink of holy war, and beyond.

Babel - 2023 - by R. F. Kuang 560 pages

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.
Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…
Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?