National Sci-Fi Day Display @ Your WPL

Set your blasters to stun in honor of National Sci-Fi Day, celebrated annually on Jan. 2 (renowned sci-fi author Isaac Asimov’s birthday). WPL is poised and ready to fuel your sci-fi journey this month with our first level display devoted to the genre!

Think sci-fi is just outer space laser battles? It’s that and so much more! Science fiction blends science — everything we know to be fact — with fantastical elements that wonder what all it can, or even WILL be some day. Elements from classical sci-fi can be seen all over our modern world today. Not too long ago subjects like instantaneous global communication and artificial intelligence made the best sci-fi, and today it’s our reality.

Whether you’re looking for a classic or a modern day marvel, we’ve got everything from what many consider to be the original sci-fi novel — “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, to our newest simulacrum — “When We Were Real” by Daryl Gregory, and run the gamut with everything in between. Shelley’s well-known story, published in 1818, tells of Dr. Frankenstein, who pieces together a creature from spare parts and brings it to life, only for it to grow more out of control and monsterlike as it searches for a mate. This book questioned the morals and ethics of what we could and should do as human beings, which is a key component of many science fiction novels. When only our imagination limits what we can do, how far is it acceptable to take these actions? Gregory’s novel tells the story of two friends who embark on a cross-country journey shortly after a global announcement that revealed that the world they’re living in is a simulation. The bus they’re traveling on is full of quirky characters who are all having their own revelations in light of that information. Of course, if neither of those are quite what you’re looking for, we have plenty of books with outer space laser battles!

While science fiction may not seem quite so far-fetched in this day and age, you can still escape to another world with ease. If you can’t find quite the story to quench your palate here in the library, live your own sci-fi adventure and check out a book on Libby! And if you get a taste for sci-fi and want to dive in further, there is a SciFi Book club here at WPL that meets multiple times throughout the year.