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Books
Every book guide we have written.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson: the funniest cyberpunk novel
The funniest and most quotable cyberpunk novel, with one genuine idea under the jokes.
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke: first contact as an inspection
First contact as an engineering problem, handled with total assurance, and with the courage to leave the big question open.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick: the novel behind Blade Runner
Messier and better than its reputation suggests, and very different from the film that made it famous.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin: an envoy on the ice
A cold, patient novel that carries more weight in its last hundred pages than most books manage in full.
Neuromancer by William Gibson: the novel that invented cyberspace
Still the founding document of cyberpunk, and still better than most of what it inspired.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin: an ambiguous utopia
One of the great novels of the genre, and one of the few that is genuinely about an idea and also genuinely moving. Short, clear and generous, and it refuses every easy answer it is offered. Read it for the politics and you will find a book about a homesick man who cannot go back.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky: the spiders who inherited a world
A hugely enjoyable and genuinely original novel that gets better as it goes. The spiders are why people remember it, but it works because Tchaikovsky is serious about the question underneath: what makes a civilisation worthy of the world it lives on.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: one man, one dying sun
One of the most purely enjoyable science fiction novels of its decade, and a rare example of hard science fiction that is also a pleasure to read. Not subtle, and not trying to be. Read it for the puzzles, stay for the friendship, and expect to finish it quickly.
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin: a message we should not have sent
A landmark novel and an unusual one: famous for its scale, but it earns that scale with a patient mystery and one very good physics idea. The prose is functional and the characters are thin, and it does not matter, because the questions are the point. Go in ready to be patient.
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks: the first Culture novel
A strange, dark, deliberately awkward first entry to a great series. Not the best Culture novel and the most interesting one to argue with. Read it for the outsider's view and the set pieces, and go on to the others for the Utopia itself.
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