Do you like fantasy and science fiction? Are you ready for some armchair exploration? For your reading pleasure, check out these three new books that are set in alternate futures and alternate realities!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
The Fourth World War has already come and gone, a deadly plague is spreading over the earth, and the lunar queen is waiting to make her next move. Cinder is one of the best mechanics in New Beijing, and one of the main reasons that she’s so good at working on machines is that she is actually a cyborg. She is also a teenage girl who cannot help but be charmed when the handsome prince brings her an android to repair. Cinder also has to worry about her evil stepmother, her stepsisters, and whether or not she’ll be able to get a dress and go to the ball where she just might be able to dance with that handsome prince.

Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston
Seven graduate students are recruited from Massachusetts to join a new microbiology company in Hawaii. But what they don’t know is that this company has pioneered some incredible new scientific developments, and are now able to shrink anything (including humans) down to a smaller size than anyone would have thought possible. The lush rain forest of Hawaii is a beautiful environment for most people, but incredibly dangerous to anyone who is micro-sized. This is a story filled with murder and mystery, where much of the action is set in a world that most of us will never see.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Imagine how Alice felt when she fell down the rabbit hole. Imagine how Dorothy felt when the tornado pulled her out of Kansas and deposited her in the land of Oz. Imagine how Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan felt when they went through the wardrobe and found themselves in Narnia. If you love fantasy stories like these, then you absolutely must read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. This is the story of a girl named September who is bored with her ordinary life in Nebraska and is invited by the Green Wind to visit Fairyland. She accepts the invitation, and soon she encounters a Wyvern named A through L, a dangerous Marquess, several witches, countless bicycles, and many more fascinating creatures. It’s a story filled with adventures, told by a narrator who knows more than he (or she) is letting on.