-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
by Veronica G. Henry
From critically acclaimed author Veronica G. Henry comes a thought-provoking science fiction fantasy set in near-future Cleveland that follows a reluctant curator of digital human consciousness who must uncover twisted secrets and navigate ethical quandaries and dangers when anti-technology rebels attack the futuristic library.
Echo London never wanted to be the curator of the People's Library, a digital collection of human consciousness. But when she's assigned as its head librarian, Echo is entrusted with humanity's greatest minds and historical figures, all of whom have been recreated through controversial consciousness-capturing technology that lets visitors interact with the dead.
But an anti-tech rebellion is stirring. When a rebel attack results in tragedy, a mysterious woman wearing an ancient death mask leaves behind cryptic final words for Echo: It all begins with nothing. Caught between the resistance and a potentially virtual evolution, Echo begins to fear that there's more to her job than meets the eye and the mind. There are secrets here. And the People's Library may be less of a promise of things to come than a warning of the danger that lurks beneath the surface. Now the fate of humanity lies in uncovering the truth.
"Henry folds prescient points about AI and censorship into a gripping and twisty mystery. It's smart, exhilarating sci-fi." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The People's Library by Veronica Henry is a dazzling extrapolation, a brilliant riff on who we've been and who we mean to be. In a post-AI future with Universal Basic Income and marvelous tech, all should be well. Yet book libraries are being abandoned, and there's an undertow of discontent, resistance to the official narrative. Indeed, even murder afoot! Who doesn't love a hero librarian risking her life to save books, and also humanity, of course. The People's Library is a book for right now and tomorrow!" ―Andrea Hairston, award winning author of Archangels of Funk
This information about The People's Library was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Veronica G. Henry is the author of Bacchanal, The Quarter Storm and The Foreign Exchange in the Mambo Reina series, and The Canopy Keeper―a Silver Falchion Award finalist―and A Breathless Sky in the Scorched Earth series. Her work has debuted at #1 on multiple Amazon bestseller charts and was chosen as an editors' pick for Best African American Fantasy. She is a Viable Paradise alum and a member of SFWA and Crime Writers of Color (CWoC). Her stories have appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Many Worlds, and FIYAH literary magazine. For more information, visit www.veronicahenry.net.
If you liked The People's Library, try these:
by Laura Sims
Published 2024
From the author of Looker comes this "compulsive and unforgettable novel" (Mona Awad) of razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined.
by Elaine Castillo
Published 2022
An exploration and polemic that redefines the power and potential for reading by a novelist whose "prose is as good as it gets" (NPR) and who has "a real voice: vernacular and fluid, with a take-no-prisoners edge" (Kirkus).
by Jon Mooallem
Published 2022
From the discovery of the author's face in a century-old photograph to a triple-amputee hospice director working at the border of life and death, here are thirteen hopeful, heartbreaking, and profound essays from "one of the most intelligent, compassionate, and curious authors working today" (Elizabeth Gilbert).
There is no worse robber than a bad book.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
