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SJPL Picks: AI in Science Fiction

Science fiction writers have long imagined a future in which AI cohabitates with and drives human ingenuity. As AI becomes increasingly ever present in our daily lives, these stories becomes blueprints to define our perspectives of the changing technological present. From AI powered starships to terraforming moose, these stories call into question how we define sentience.

San José Public Library

25 items

  • Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home laboratory, has achieved the discovery of his career-he has created artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William. No one knows about…
    BookNew York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, [2024] — FICTION Coile
  • To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their…
    BookNew York : Tor Dot Com, Tor Publishing Group, 2024. — SF/FAN Tchaikov
  • Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're…
    BookNew York : Tor Publishing Group, 2023. — SF/FAN Newitz
  • 43-year-old Dolores O'Shea is logical, organized, and prepared to handle whatever comes her way. She keeps up with her job and housework, takes care of her mentally declining mother, and remains close with her old friends and her younger…
    BookNew York : Little, Brown and Company, 2024. — FICTION Crossan
  • What does it mean to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology? In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer: The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or…
    BookNew York, NY : Harper Via, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2024] — FICTION Hur
  • In the distant future, when mortals mingle with the gods in deep space, an out-of-date automaton, a recovering addict, and an angel race to solve the Pope's murder in an abandoned corner of the galaxy." -- Publisher's website. "Scribe IV…
    BookLondon: Titan Books, 2024. — SF/FAN Wise
  • The humans are fighting again. Go figure. As a free A.I., Mal finds the war between the modded and augmented Federals and the puritanical Humanists about as interesting as a battle between rival anthills. He's not above scouting the…
    BookNew York : St. Martin's Press, 2024. — SF/FAN Ashton
  • In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called "hums," May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family's debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes…
    BookNew York : Marysue Rucci Books, 2024. — FICTION Phillips
  • When an AI dies, its city dies with it. When a city falls, it leaves a corpse behind. When that corpse funs off, only devotion can bring it back. When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed…
    BookNew York : Tor Publishing Group, 2023. — SF/FAN Candon
  • Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido…
    BookNew York : Mariner Books, [2024] — SF/FAN Greer
  • There are only three real powers in the Spiral: the corporate power of the Trust versus the Union's labor's leverage. Between them the Guild tries to keep everyone's hands above the table. It ain't easy. Branded a Guild deserter, Jal…
    BookNew York : Tor, 2024. — SF/FAN Sagas
  • Following a mysterious murder on an island off the coast of Vietnam, a research team convenes to study an octopus community that seems to be developing its own language and culture. Humans, AIs, and animals are swept up in the machinations…
    BookNew York : MCD Picador, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023. — SF/FAN Nayler
  • Humanity has established a SETI library on the moon to decipher and interpret the many messages from alien societies we have discovered. The most intriguing messages are from complete artificial intelligences. Ruth, a beginner Librarian,…
    BookNew York : Saga Press, 2021. — SF/FAN Benford
  • Psychologist Dr. Grace Park is on the Deucalion, a survey ship headed to an icy planet in an unexplored galaxy. She is to observe the thirteen human crew members aboard the ship as they assess the colonization potential of the planet, Eos.…
    BookNew York, NY : DAW Books, Inc., [2021] — SF/FAN Nguyen
  • When Ri, the AI she trained from inception, is trapped in the depths of Loki's Ring, an artificial alien-made solar system where everyone has been infected and killed by a mysterious contagion, Captain Gita Chithra must save Ri and her…
    BookNew York : Saga Press, 2023. — SF/FAN Leicht
  • A powerful A.I. reporter investigating on the moon comes back online to discover they have no memory of the past ten days nor any idea what leads they were following and tries to uncover the truth.
    BookNew York : Tor.com, 2023. — SF/FAN Ogden
  • Sergeant Adrienne Valero wants to die. She can't. After enduring a traumatic resurrection for the ninety-sixth time, Valero is reassigned to a special forces unit and outfitted with a cutting-edge virtual intelligence aid. They could turn…
    BookNew York : Tor, a Tom Doherty Associates Book 2023. — SF/FAN Dewes
  • Autonomous features a rakish female pharmaceutical pirate named Jack who traverses the world in her own submarine. A notorious anti-patent scientist who has styled herself as a Robin Hood heroine fighting to bring cheap drugs to the poor,…
    BookNew York : Tor, 2017. — SF/FAN Newitz
  • Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It's 2095 and people don't usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help…
    BookNew York : Saga Press, 2021. — SF/FAN Divya
  • t's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One…
    BookNew York : Tordotcom, 2021. — SF/FAN Chambers