Best Science Fiction Books
Dune
Dune
Frank Herbert
FictionSet on the desert planet arrakis, dune is the story of the boy paul atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for...when house atreides is betrayed, the destruction of paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. and as he evolves into the mysterious
Foundation
Foundation
Isaac Asimov
FictionSoon to be an apple tv+ series, coming 9/24/21 - nominated as one of america's best-loved novels by pbs's the great american readfor twelve thousand years the galactic empire has ruled supreme. now it is dying. but only hari seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. to preserve knowledge and save humankind, seldon gathers the best minds in the empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at
The Blazing World and Other Writings
The Blazing World and Other Writings
Kate Lilley,Margaret Cavendish
Flamboyant, theatrical and ambitious, margaret cavendish was one of the seventeenth century's most striking figures: a woman who ventured into the male spheres of politics, science, philosophy and literature. the blazing world is a highly original work: part utopian fiction, part feminist text, it tells of a lady shipwrecked on the blazing world where she is made empress and uses her power to ensure that it is free of war, religious division and unfair sexual discrimination. this volume also includes the contract, a romance in which love and law work
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park
Michael Crichton
FictionAn astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur dna has been discovered. now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. creatures extinct for eons roam jurassic park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price. until something goes wrong. . . . in jurassic park, michael crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller.
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds
Arthur C. Clarke,H.G. Wells
When an army of invading martians lands in england, panic and terror seize the population. as the aliens traverse the country in huge three-legged machines, incinerating all in their path with a heat ray and spreading noxious toxic gases, the people of the earth must come to terms with the prospect of the end of human civilization and the beginning of martian rule.inspiring films, radio dramas, comic-book adaptations, television series and sequels,the war of the worlds is a prototypical work of science fiction which has influenced every alien story that
Ammonite
Ammonite
Nicola Griffith
Change or die. these are the only options available on the planet jeep. centuries earlier, a deadly virus shattered the original colony, killing the men and forever altering the few surviving women. now, generations after the colony has lost touch with the rest of humanity, a company arrives to exploit jeep–and its forces find themselves fighting for their lives. terrified of spreading the virus, the company abandons its employees, leaving them afraid and isolated from the natives. in the face of this crisis, anthropologist marghe taishan arrives to test a
The Martian
The Martian
Andy Weir
Young Adult FictionSix days ago, astronaut mark watney became one of the first people to walk on mars. now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.after a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. the
Station Eleven
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel
FictionNATIONAL BESTSELLER • An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. Soon to be a Max Original Limited Series on HBO Max. A National Book Award Finalist • A PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end. Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.
The City & the City
The City & the City
China Miéville
When a murdered woman is found in the city of beszel, somewhere at the edge of europe, it looks to be a routine case for inspector tyador borlú of the extreme crime squad. but as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.borlú must travel from the decaying beszel to the only metropolis on earth as strange as his own. this is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception,
The Anubis Gates
The Anubis Gates
Tim Powers
Business & EconomicsBrendan doyle, a specialist in the work of the early-nineteenth century poet william ashbless, reluctantly accepts an invitation from a millionaire to act as a guide to time-travelling tourists. but while attending a lecture given by samuel taylor coleridge in 1810, he becomes marooned in regency london, where dark and dangerous forces know about the gates in time.caught up in the intrigue between rival bands of beggars, pursued by egyptian sorcerers, and befriended by coleridge, doyle somehow survives and learns more about the mysterious ashbless than he could ever have
Romantic Outlaws
Romantic Outlaws
Charlotte Gordon
Although mother and daughter, these two brilliant women never knew one another – wollstonecraft died of an infection in 1797 at the age of thirty-eight, a week after giving birth. nevertheless their lives were so closely intertwined, their choices, dreams and tragedies so eerily similar, it seems impossible to consider one without the other.both women became famous writers; fell in love with brilliant but impossible men; and were single mothers who had children out of wedlock; both lived in exile; fought for their position in society; and thought deeply about
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Robert A. Heinlein
FictionIt is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of a former penal colony on the moon against its masters on the earth. it is a tale of a culture whose family structures are based on the presence of two men for every woman, leading to novel forms of marriage and family. it is the story of the disparate people, a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic who become the movement's leaders, and of mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to the revolt's
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
Is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. snowman, known as jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, crake, and the beautiful and elusive oryx whom they both loved. in search of answers, snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed children of crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind
