Must have Books - Top Ten Most Popular Books in September

	1 In the Balance by Harry Turtledove From Pearl Harbor to panzers rolling through Paris to the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Midway, war seethed across the planet as the flames of destruction rose higher and hotter. And then, suddenly, the real enemy came. The invaders seemed unstoppable, their technology far beyond human reach. And never before had men been more divided. For Jew to unite with Nazi, American with Japanese, and Russian with German was unthinkable. But the alternative was even worse. As the fate of the world hung in the balance, slowly, painfully, humankind took up the shocking challenge . . . The rest of the Worldwar Series can be found here.
	2 Foreigner: A Novel of First Contact by C. J. Cherryh A large new novel from C. J. Cherryh is always a pleasure. When it marks her return to the anthropological sf in which she has made such a name for herself (most notably the Chanur novels), it is doubly so. Foreigner proceeds from the venerable premise of the lost starship whose crew had to land the ship wherever possible. It ended up on a planet whose native race, the atevi, practice--among other interesting habits--registered assassinations. Two centuries after the landing, only one human, the paidhi, is allowed out of the human enclave--and at the opening of the book, he is the object of an unregistered assassination attempt. The subsequent tale is one of those Cherryh novels that is longer on world building, exotic aliens, and characterization than on action, although it is not short on that. Well up to Cherryh's usual high standard. The rest of the Foreigner Series can be found here.
	3 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses -- and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet? The rest of the Ender Series can be found here.
	4 Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clark The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city--intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began. But at what cost? With the advent of peace, man ceases to strive for creative greatness, and a malaise settles over the human race. To those who resist, it becomes evident that the Overlords have an agenda of their own. As civilization approaches the crossroads, will the Overlords spell the end for humankind . . . or the beginning?
	5 Gateway by Frederik Pohl Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe...and on reaches of unimaginable horror. When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take! The rest of the Heechee Saga can be found here.
	6 The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien This is a single-volume edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which the hobbit Frodo and his elfish friends get swept up in a mighty conflict with the dark lord Sauron (who owes much to proud Satan in Paradise Lost), the monstrous Gollum, the Cracks of Doom, and the awful power of the magical Ring. The book's characters--good and evil--are recognizably human, and the realism is deepened by the magnificent detail of the vast parallel world Tolkien devised, inspired partly by his influential Anglo-Saxon scholarship and his Christian beliefs.
	7 Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh A legend among sci-fi readers, C.J. Cherryh's Union-Alliance novels, while separate and complete in themselves, are part of a much larger tapestry-a future history spanning 5,000 years of human civilization. Downbelow Station is the book that won Cherryh a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1982. A blockbuster space opera of the rebellion between Earth and its far-flung colonies, it is a classic science fiction masterwork.
	8 The Tenth Planet by Dean Wesley Smith After a deep-space satellite mysteriously stops transmitting, the Hubble III telescope picks up a startling image. Astronomers don't know what the strange object is--only that it orbits past Earth every two millennia. Meanwhile, archaeologist Leo Cross has discovered peculiar layers of black residue at dig sites around the globe. Stranger still, these thin bands occur like clockwork every 2,006 years, coinciding with some of the world's darkest moments in history. We have six months to prepare for the next arrival. This time we know something is coming. This time we have weapons to defend us. This time we'll be wrong . . . again. A science fiction saga set on near-future Earth, THE TENTH PLANET challenges our basic beliefs about the solar system and ultimately our place in the universe. With cutting-edge astronomy, blockbuster action, and high drama, the mystery is revealed in a trilogy of adventures. The rest of the Tenth Planet Series can be found here.
	9 The Hammer and the Cross by Harry Harrison Intriguing alternate-world yarn set in England during the turbulent ninth century, from the veteran author of the Stainless Steel Rat series, etc. King Ella, having deposed Osbert, now rules Northumbria--but his rule is swiftly challenged by invading Vikings, while the Christian Church absorbs all wealth and destroys any who dares oppose it. King Edmund of East Anglia is soon defeated and killed by Vikings led by the avenging sons of Ragnar (he was a mighty Viking jarl tortured to death by Ella), who have sworn to conquer all England. Fleeing from the battle is Shef, a young, despised smith, bearing a blade he has forged himself, and upon which Viking swords break. Seeing no future with the broken East Anglians, Shef joins the Viking encampment, where he discovers practitioners of the Way--a civilized version of the old Norse religion eager for new ideas and offering freedom of worship. Shef sides with the mighty warrior Brand, whose allies of the Way intend to dispute the leadership of the Vikings with the Ragnarssons. An inventive genius, Shef rediscovers ancient Roman war-machines and develops some new ones of his own. To supplement the Viking battle-fury, he invents new tactics based on stealth, misdirection, and cunning, and uses untrained but keen and biddable Saxons to man his machines. Finally, the Church appeals to Rome for help, and stirs up the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex to battle Shef. Shef maneuvers the Mercians, however, into fighting the Ragnarssons, while Alfred of Wessex sides with Shef. But then Rome sends a great force of Franks across the Channel to expunge Shef's hybrid armies and whip Alfred into line. Fascinating sinewy, brutal, and fine--and never mind the sometimes wobbly plot and rather thin characters: few historicals are as powerfully evocative of time and place as Harrison's tremendous saga. The rest of the Hammer and the Cross Saga can be found here.
	10 Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold So how is Shards? It's very, very good, especially for a first novel. Cordelia Naismith is on a survey mission for her home planet, Beta, when her landing party (to borrow a phrase from Star Trek) is ambushed and almost completely wiped out by a Barrayaran force that is using the planet as a supply depot. Cordelia is captured by Captain Aral Vorkosigan, the commander of the Barrayarans. However, things aren't quite what they seem, as Vorkosigan's crew seems to be divided between loyalty to him and mutineers. Vorkosigan was left for dead by the mutineers, and so he and Cordelia (along with an injured member of Cordelia's team, who's mind has been blown away by a Barrayaran weapon) have to make their way to the supply depot. The mutineers are the ones who wiped out Cordelia's crew, as Vorkosigan is too honourable a man to do something like that. She finds herself being drawn to him during the many days of their journey, and a bond develops between them. Cordelia ends up helping Aral in dealing with his crew. Once this section of the book is over, they separate, but events transpire to bring them together again, and their bond grows. The book details the story of how their relationship develops, deepening into a love that is a lot more mature than relationships are sometimes portrayed in science fiction. Usually, the heroes that get involved in romances are very young, where sex is the most important thing. The romances seem very physical. That doesn't happen in this relationship, though, as both parties are drawn to the mind of the other person, their honour and how they react to people. It was very refreshing. The rest of the Vorkosigan Series can be found here.