Here are 100 books that Composite Creatures fans have personally recommended if you like
Composite Creatures.
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I’ve long been fascinated with the dark side of science and human behavior, and grew up on a combination of dystopian classics and horror fiction. When I started writing for publication, apocalyptic themes quickly emerged. As the world around us grows more fraught by the day, I find a strange sort of comfort in reading and writing fiction that doesn’t shy away from depicting the negative aspects of social media, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, or any other technology that has the capacity to create manmade disasters beyond our understanding. And as a small-press author myself, I’m always on the lookout for books that didn’t get enough love.
The nanotechnological apocalypse at the background of Anthropocene Rag has turned the United States into a mythological vision. A mysterious construct known as Prospector Ed (who sometimes adopts the persona of Mark Twain) delivers six magical tickets to various scattered Americans, all of whom have lost something in the “Boom.” While the post-nanoboom landscape is deadly (one of the main characters was orphaned when an intelligence-imbued stadium containing her parents simply decided to become something else), there’s also a lot of wonder, and the book is a loving homage to American mythology and lore.
Anthropocene Rag is "a rare distillation of nanotech, apocalypse, and mythic Americana into a heady psychedelic brew."—Nebula and World Fantasy award-winning author Jeffrey Ford
In the future United States, our own history has faded into myth and traveling across the country means navigating wastelands and ever-changing landscapes.
The country teems with monsters and artificial intelligences try to unpack their own becoming by recreating myths and legends of their human creators. Prospector Ed, an emergent AI who wants to understand the people who made him, assembles a ragtag team to reach the mythical Monument City.
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I’ve long been fascinated with the dark side of science and human behavior, and grew up on a combination of dystopian classics and horror fiction. When I started writing for publication, apocalyptic themes quickly emerged. As the world around us grows more fraught by the day, I find a strange sort of comfort in reading and writing fiction that doesn’t shy away from depicting the negative aspects of social media, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, or any other technology that has the capacity to create manmade disasters beyond our understanding. And as a small-press author myself, I’m always on the lookout for books that didn’t get enough love.
Told as a series of movie reviews, A Short Film About Disappointment unfurls its dystopia gradually. A hacker attack kicks off a global multi-decade economic depression, and to prevent this from ever happening again the Internet is abolished and replaced with the “Betternet,” a neutered and highly censored version of the Internet. Personal screens are also banned in this nanny state, leading to a robust cinema culture that the unread reviewer wants to contribute to with a dense art film of his own. The hilarious capsule descriptions of eighty (fictional) films serve as an oblique way of introducing the world, while the numerous tangents of the writer “Noah Body” tell a personal story of love, filmmaking, and a literal haunting by an ex-friend.
An ingenious novel about art and revenge, insisting on your dreams and hitting on your doctor, told in the form of 80 movie reviews
In near-future America, film critic Noah Body uploads his reviews to an underread content aggregator. His job is dreary routine: watch, seethe, pan. He dreams of making his own film, free of the hackery of commercial cinema. Faced with writing on lousy movies for a website that no one reads, Noah smuggles into his reviews depictions of his troubled life on the margins.
Amid his movie reviews, we learn that his apartment in the vintage slum…
I’ve long been fascinated with the dark side of science and human behavior, and grew up on a combination of dystopian classics and horror fiction. When I started writing for publication, apocalyptic themes quickly emerged. As the world around us grows more fraught by the day, I find a strange sort of comfort in reading and writing fiction that doesn’t shy away from depicting the negative aspects of social media, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, or any other technology that has the capacity to create manmade disasters beyond our understanding. And as a small-press author myself, I’m always on the lookout for books that didn’t get enough love.
Unlike some of the others on my list, the apocalypse(s) at the center of The Crooked God Machineare in no way quiet. The narrator, Charles, has been born into a world in a constant state of collapse. Taking the form of a bildungsroman, the novel recounts the medical advancement of slip implants, “hot wire spiders” that live in one’s brain and turn its user into a brainless zombie. There are also buses that take you to hell, oracles with laser eyes in the back of their heads, and a family-killing murderess who’s considered a hero by the denizens of this demented world. Every page brings fresh horrors, and without giving away the ending I can say that the conclusion doesn’t provide any hope of improvement.
The Black Planet is an oppressive world terrorized by a masked god. Charles is a young idealist struggling to keep his family from falling apart amidst daily violence and chaos. When Charles falls in love with the enigmatic Leda, she gives him hope for an existence outside of the masked god's regime. After Leda disappears one night, Charles leaves his small town to search for her. Along the way he uncovers the origin of the Black Planet, and confronts the god that would destroy all life in pursuit of a perfect and unchanging paradise.
The problem is not with the actions young women take but with the toxic, sexist conditions they are responding to.
Tanenbaum found, based on six years of interviews with young people ages 14-30, that young women are navigating a culture littered with gendered dress codes, revenge porn, and sexually explicit…
I’ve long been fascinated with the dark side of science and human behavior, and grew up on a combination of dystopian classics and horror fiction. When I started writing for publication, apocalyptic themes quickly emerged. As the world around us grows more fraught by the day, I find a strange sort of comfort in reading and writing fiction that doesn’t shy away from depicting the negative aspects of social media, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, or any other technology that has the capacity to create manmade disasters beyond our understanding. And as a small-press author myself, I’m always on the lookout for books that didn’t get enough love.
The dystopia inBash Bash Revolution is a bit closer to reality than the others on this list: it’s set specifically in 2017, but in a world pushed far closer to the brink of nuclear war than ours, with a much more psychotic version of Donald Trump in charge. Main character Matthew Munson’s mad programmer of a father creates an AI that might save the world from its own destruction, but only by locking every person into a solipsistic nightmare run on video game technology. In a way this book is about choosing between an apocalypse and a dystopia, which is something you don’t see very often.
*SELECTED FOR GAME INFORMER'S FALL 2018 READING LIST*
A compelling coming-of-age artificial intelligence novel from Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author Douglas Lain.
Seventeen-year-old Matthew Munson is ranked thirteenth in the state in Bash Bash Revolution, an outdated video game from 2002 that, in 2017, is still getting tournament play. He's a high school dropout who still lives at home with his mom, doing little but gaming and moping. That is, until Matthew's dad turns up again.
Jeffrey Munson is a computer geek who'd left home eight years earlier to work on a top secret military project. Jeff has been a…
From a girl who defied death to set nearly every aviation record in a rickety bi-plane, to a team of young women who literally invented computer coding with no guidance and very little credit, to a boy who revolutionized chemistry when he used the scientific method to create the color purple from coal tar, I write books about young people who followed their dreams to accomplish amazing things. There’s no reason to wait until you grow up to become a scientist. The books I’ve chosen will inspire your young scientist to explore and invent - right now!
Your kiddo is excited about science… now what? Science experiments at home don’t have to be hard or hazardous. Chrystal Chatterton’s Awesome Science Experiments uses ordinary household products or items that are very easy to find. The instructions are step by step and simple to follow. Best of all the concepts are, well, real science. Chatterton explains the ideas in understandable but authentic scientific language—no dumbing things down here. Best of all these projects are a lot of fun!
Hands-on projects to get kids ages 5 to 10 excited about science.
As kids grow older, they become more curious about the world around them, often asking, “How does this work?” Awesome Science Experiments for Kids teaches young brains the nuts and bolts of the scientific method using fun, hands-on experiments designed to show kids how to hypothesize, experiment, and then record their findings.
With awesome projects like a Fizzy Rocket, Magnet-Powered Car, and Pencil Sundial, kids will have a blast learning to build, design, and think critically―while getting inspired to interact with the world around them and make their…
Not long ago, while rummaging through old storage containers in our garage, I came across a board game I had invented during elementary school. But I hadn’t made it for a school project or because anyone had asked me to make it. I had made it simply because I was passionate about creating…and I still am. As a children’s author, science editor, and dancer, I am fascinated by the creative process. I chose these books because they depict many of the ups, downs, and often unexpected outcomes of the creative process, all within the context of inventions for kids!
This book has so many qualities that will engage curious kids. Most of the story takes place when Frank Epperson was a child—a child who loved experimenting and actually invented the popsicle while experimenting with flavored soda water on his porch! The book also encourages scientific thinking by including experiments kids can try independently to learn more about liquids and the science behind freezing.
And then there’s the art. The orange, lime green, and other bright colors perfectly mimic those of real popsicles. Just seeing them brought back my own childhood memories of reaching into the freezer to grab a popsicle or two on a hot summer day!
Frank William Epperson is a curious boy who wants to be an inventor when he grows up. Since inventing begins with experimenting, Frank spends a lot of time in his “laboratory” (i.e. his back porch) trying out his ideas, such as building a double-handled handcar that whizzes past the single-handled cars in his neighborhood. What Frank loves most, though, is experimenting with liquids. When he invents his own yummy flavored soda water drink, his friends love it! And this gets him to thinking: “I wonder what this drink would taste like frozen?” Though he doesn't yet realize it, his curiosity…
Crossing is a vividly human re-imagining of the love, sacrifices, and accomplishments that two Chinese brothers - American Immigrants - experience as they travel to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
I have always been fascinated by how the world works. What gives gravity so much power? Why is it easier to lift things with levers and pulleys? Why do we have electricity inside of our own bodies?! The world is amazing. My job editing nonfiction books for kids puts me on the front lines of some of the smartest science writing out there. While I had no hand in the making of the following five picture books about physics, they are still some of my favorites because of the way they peel back the mysterious layers of the world to show us the science hidden in our daily lives.
What’s the best way to learn science? Experiments! Hands-on learning is a great way for kids to figure out how things work. This collection of science projects allows kids to follow their curiosity and gain foundational learning while having a blast! Many can be done independently, some need a bit of adult supervision.
Get kids excited about physics with fun and easy experiments for ages 10 to 13
Turn living rooms into STEAM laboratories and watch as children have an awesome time learning about physics. This book contains 40 highly entertaining, hands-on experiments that can be completed using simple, household materials.
What sets this physics for kids book apart:
Excellent explanations―Brief explainers address the hows and whys of each experiment, providing children with a clear understanding of the fundamental concepts surrounding force, flight, and much more. Step-by-step instructions―Full-color photos and easy-to-follow instructions allow kids to confidently conduct experiments on their own, with only…
I baked my first loaf of bread when I was eight. It was shaped like a brick and weighed about the same. With my grandma’s help, I tweaked the recipe, learned the importance of precise measurements, practiced my kneading, and ultimately won a blue ribbon for my efforts at the 4-H county fair. In the years since, my passion for food has grown. I love to learn how various crops are grown and harvested, I nearly cried when I tasted cheese I made myself, and I’ve been known to arrange travel around specific culinary adventures. For me, learning about food is nearly as enjoyable as eating it!
For generations, this book has been helping young readers turn their kitchens into laboratories. After introducing basic scientific concepts, kid chefs/scientists get to test scientific principles with edible results: beef jerky, cottage cheese, pudding, and more. Along the way, they learn that making a meringue is about denaturing protein and that mayonnaise is a simple emulsion. I love the way in which the text and illustrations pair to clearly allow readers to conclude that good cooks truly are good chemists.
Kids take the reins in the kitchen with this hands-on book of edible science experiments! With revised and updated material, a brand-new look, and hours of innovative, educational experiments, this science classic by award-winning author Vicki Cobb will be devoured by a whole new generation of readers.
Combine with such books as Awesome Science Experiments for Kids to help junior scientists continue their learning, whether at home or in a classroom.
With contemporary information that reflects changes in the world of processing and preserving foods, this cookbook demonstrates the scientific principles that underpin the chemical reactions we witness every day—just…
I take joy in the simple delights of life, such as eating chocolate, enjoying the sights of flowers in full bloom, and soaking in the sun on warm, sunny days. Those are the times I like to get out and explore, be inspired, and write. I like to write about all of the light we can discover in our world—the light from within and all around us—because it is easy for people to get sucked into focusing on the dim realities of our world or what’s not right. My goal is always to entertain, inspire, and spark wonder in my readers.
I just adored reading about all the adventures of the curious little girl, Ada Marie Twist, in this book. A late bloomer, Ada Marie’s first word, “Why?” comes at the age of three. From that moment, her language takes off, filled mostly with questions about how things work. I can relate to Ada Marie because I used to ask a lot of questions as a kid, too. It drove my mother crazy.
My mom eventually bought me a book of questions, hoping it would refocus my energy, but the joke was on her because the book had no answers! Luckily, I had understanding teachers in school who allowed me to explore my curiosity about the world. Similarly, in the book, Ada Marie’s curiosity tests the patience of her parents. But they eventually come to recognize her potential as a budding scientist.
A #1 New York Times Bestseller
A Wall Street Journal Bestseller
A USA Today Bestseller
Inspired by real-life makers Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie, this beloved #1 bestseller champions STEM, girl power and women scientists in a rollicking celebration of curiosity, the power perseverance, and the importance of asking "Why?"
Don't miss Ada's further adventures-with her friends Iggy Peck and Rosie Revere-in the instant New York Times bestseller Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters, the first all-new chapter book starring The Questioneers!
Ada Twist's head is full of questions. Like her classmates Iggy and Rosie-stars of their…
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a…
When I was eight years old, I walked into a movie theater to see Spider-Man and walked out forever obsessed with superheroes. Specifically, I saw him kiss Mary-Jane with his mask on while hanging upside down and my tastes never changed in 20 years. Now, when not writing, I cosplay from my favorite comics, video games, and anime with my husband, who I met at a comic-con while dressed as Gwenpool (he was Symbiote Spider-Man—see, I told you my tastes never changed).
A little bit dark academia, a little bit supervillain, it covers dual POVs with two friends in college developing superpowers after near-death experiences and grappling with the after-effects well into their adulthood.
Victor is a lovable anti-hero, and Eli’s flaws are so believable they gave me chills.
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates-brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in one another. A shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death-experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. They become EOs, ExtraOrdinaries, leaving a body in their wake and turning on each other.
Ten years later Victor has escaped from prison and is determined to get his revenge on the man who put him there, aided by…
