Reading the future: an update

Science fiction author Ann Leckie in her Publisers Weekly article 10 Best Science Fiction Books writes, “Any attempt to list the ten best science fiction novels is doomed to failure.”

Given that I have read only two of the ten on her list, I would expect that most readers will disagree with any list I post as well. Fine with me.

As I described in an old blog post, I like science fiction that predicts a future society impacted by science - a logical extension of current trends. So while the first half dozen or so of these are from my original 2005 list, I've added a few...

1. Neuromancer by William Gibson was my first look at a cyberworld that felt as real as the physical world.
2. Enders Game by Orson Scott Card demonstrates learning through gaming, as well as predicting the Internet as a tool for political discourse. One of my all-time favorite books on lots of levels.
3. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson explores the possibilities of real e-book on a child’s life. And the $100 laptop project.
4. The Handmaiden’s Tale and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood are the worthy successors to George Orwell's 1984 in describing dystopias - made by either religious fervor or science gone awry.
5. Futureland by Walter Mosely (of Easy Rawlings mystery fame) is a series of linked short stories exploring corporate power taken to the extreme.What happens when every thing is leased from companies not owned by individuals - are we really buying our Kindle e-books?
6. Hyperion/Endymion and Illium/Olympus by Dan Simmons. I love these two-book series, having read them all twice now, but mostly for the fine writing, action, and imagination. I suppose the social commentary is there, but it’s not at the forefront. He is worried about AI gone bad,
7. The Circle by Dave Eggers is one of the very best near future scare stories I've read for some time. You will never answer a customer satisfaction survey or see a security camera again without thinking of the book.
8. Prey by Michael Crichton. Nanotechnology gone wild is the topic of this novel. Perhaps not his best, but typical of taking an emerging technology and developing it to a possible future. Very readable. I miss Crichton.
9. The Martian by Andy Weir is a great example of "hard" science fiction. No magic here, but a great tale of ingenuity, grit, and getting things done despite organization politics. The antithesis of one of my other favorite books set on Mars, Burroughs's A Princess of Mars. Weir's dry humor gave the book five stars for me.
10. Daemon and Freedom by Daniel Suarez are a great take on GoogleGlass and rating systems (especially Freedom). Imagine looking at person and seeing a visual scale over their heads indicating their integrity based on the ratings of others. We also get a "worse case scenario" of computer security gone bonkers.
11. Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a re-write of the lessons learned in Vietnam but set in space. Great book that I need to re-read soon.
12. Hiero’s Journey by Sterling Lanier tells of a far-distant post-apocalyptic future. Re-read this recently and the language feels a little stilted, but still an enjoyable read.
13. This Perfect Day by Ira Levin presents a dystopian world of conformity and ease. More Brave New World than 1984, authoritarianism can take different forms.
14. Old Man's War Jon Scalzi is the first of a series of humanity vs aliens. Good space opera, to me reminiscent of the best of Heinlein's Starship Trooper-like books I loved as a kid.
15. Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson just goes to show what happens when Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are ignored. And there is a sequel to it on my to-read list, since this first was great fun.
16. 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks. All too probable future in which cancer is cured causing overpopulation in the U.S. I don't want to be there when this happens. Maybe renegade robots are the solution?
17. World War Z by Max Brooks is proof you should never judge the book by the movie. This is an intelligent set of interconnected zombie stories. Wait is intelligent and zombie OK to use in the same sentence? Anyway...
18. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was a fun, fast read, probably best loved by those who grew up playing '80s computer games.
19. Little Brother by Cory Doctrow. Authored by a former director for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, the book is a cautionary/action/YA novel about a young San Franciso hacker pursued by the Department of Homeland Security after the Bay Bridge suffers a 9/11-type attack. My blog review of it actually got a comment from the author himself. Very cool.
20. Wall-E. OK, it's a movie not a book. But it still one of my favorite pieces of science fiction.

What must-reads should go next on my list? Do you have a link to some of your favorite science fiction books? And what are the qualities of a great science fiction novel?

Image sources 1, 2

Comments

[Kathy Fredrick]

Wonderful list - with many titles I'll add to my "must reads," as I did with Ann Leckie's list. I have two titles to addd. One of my all-time favorites is the classic A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller. Miller posits a post-nuclear-attack world where monks try to preserve remnants of society and make sense of those artifacts. I have to believe that David Macauley's Motel of the Mysteries is a nod to Canticle. A more recent fav is Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. She follows survivors of a world-wide plague, as a group that performs Shakespeare and classical music travel from settlement to settlement. Come to think of it, there's a man in this book who establishes a museum in an airport terminal that mirrors the monks in Canticle.

[Debra Gottsleben]

Not one of my favorite genres but I will certainly check out some of these books. I've at least read 3 of the books on your list.Thanks for sharing.

[Kenn Gorman]

The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)

[Heidi Hammond]

Nice list, Doug. Thank you.

This Canadian blogger defines, provides evaluation criteria, and discusses themes and issues within the fantasy, science fiction, and horror genres. She draws much of her material from children's and YA literature textbooks. I think it's worth a peek.

http://livinginthelibraryworld.blogspot.com/2012/07/evaluating-fantasy-science-fiction-and.html

[Doug Johnson]

Thank you for the link, Heidi.

Thoughtfully written analysis. I am not sure that I wouldn't make dystopian literature its own category. There is often very little science or fantasy in the work, just imaginative speculation.​

Doug