A Galaxy Fair, Fair Away (SweetBean 25 Adult)

Welcome to the third annual SweetBean Challenge! Just like last year we're dividing the challenge up into monthly mini challenges! Discover a new theme and win each month's challenge by reading as little as 10-15 minutes a day. Complete optional activities to earn more badges! If you win all 12 challenges, you'll receive a library branded blanket at the end of the year!

Updated August 27, 2025
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Cabarrus County Public Library
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Ancillary justice
Leckie, Ann.
Paper Book
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards: This record-breaking novel follows a warship trapped in a human body on a quest for revenge. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey.  On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as...
August Kitko and the mechas from space
White, Alex (Novelist)
Paper Book
When an army of giant robot AIs threatens to devastate Earth, a virtuoso pianist becomes humanity's last hope in this bold, lightning-paced, technicolor space opera series from the author of A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe. Jazz pianist Gus Kitko expected to spend his...
Bonds of brass
Skrutskie, Emily
Paper Book
A young pilot risks everything to save his best friend-the man he trusts most and might even love-only to learn that his friend is secretly the heir to a brutal galactic empire. "An exciting space opera full of action and adventure that explores the bonds of loyalty and love,...
The circus infinite
Wong, Khan
Paper Book
**FINALIST for the Lambda LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction Award2023** A circus takes down a crime-boss on the galaxy's infamous pleasure moon. Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species...
The first sister : a novel
Lewis, Linden A.
Paper Book
Combining the social commentary of The Handmaid's Tale with the white-knuckled thrills of Red Rising, this epic space opera follows a comfort woman as she claims her agency, a soldier questioning his allegiances, and a non-binary hero out to save the solar system. ...
Floating hotel
Curtis, Grace
Paper Book
Esquire Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024 UK bestseller Goodreads 58 Biggest Books of Spring Men's Health 30 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy books of 2024 Apple Books 2024's Most Anticipated Books LitHub March's Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy...
The genesis of misery
Yang, Neon
Paper Book
A Goodreads Best Science Fiction Choice Award Nominee A New York Public Library Top 10 Book of 2022 An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy, Neon Yang's debut novel The Genesis of Misery is full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a...
Gideon the ninth
Muir, Tamsyn
Paper Book
Gideon the Ninth is the first book in the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Locked Tomb Series, and one of the Best Books of 2019 according to NPR, the New York Public Library, Amazon, BookPage, Shelf Awareness, BookRiot, and Bustle!...
Goldilocks
Lam, Laura
Paper Book
A gripping science fiction thriller where five women task themselves with ensuring the survival of the human race--if you mixed ". . .The Martian and The Handmaid's Tale, this sci-fi novel would be the incredible result" (Book Riot). ...
The light brigade
Hurley, Kameron
Paper Book
NAMED BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AS A BEST BOOK OF 2019 From the Hugo Award­­-winning author of The Stars Are Legion comes a brand-new science fiction thriller about a futuristic war during which soldiers are broken down into light in order to get them to the front...
Some desperate glory
Tesh, Emily
Paper Book
Instant National Bestseller and International Bestseller! Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel! Arthur C. Clarke Award Finalist! Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction Finalist! A thrillingly told queer space opera about the...
Stars and bones : a continuance novel
Powell, Gareth
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the BSFA Award, a stunningly inventive action-packed science-fiction epic adventure for fans of Becky Chambers and Ann Leckie from the multi BSFA award-winner, Gareth L. Powell. Seventy-five years from today, the human race has been cast from a dying Earth to...
The stars are legion
Hurley, Kameron
Paper Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Selection of 2017 "[A] thought-provoking space opera." --Kirkus Reviews "One of the most unusual and powerfully disturbing space operas we're likely to see this year." --Chicago Tribune<...
Sweep of Stars
Broaddus, Maurice
Paper Book
Maurice Broaddus's Sweep of Stars is the first in a trilogy that explores the struggles of an empire. Epic in scope and intimate in voice, it follows members of the Muungano empire - a far-reaching coalition of city-states that stretches from O.E. (original earth) to Titan - as it faces...
Under fortunate stars
Hutchings, Ren
Paper Book
A modern, progressive homage to classic space opera stories, with flawed heroes and time travel Two Ships. One Chance To Save The Future. Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven's freighter the Jonah<...
Winter's orbit
Maxwell, Everina
Paper Book
A Sunday Times Bestseller! A 2022 Alex Award Winner! "Sparks fly" (NPR) in Everina Maxwell's gut-wrenching and romantic space opera debut. Prince Kiem, a famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild, has...
You Sexy Thing: No Peace for Old Soldiers
Rambo, Cat.
Paper Book
Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat Rambo. 2022 Dragon Award -- Nominee 2022 Locus Award -- Nominee Just when they thought they were out......

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