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Books
Every book guide we have written.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons: seven pilgrims, one monster
One of the great ambitious novels of the genre, and a book that trusts its readers through a lot of different kinds of storytelling. Not tidy and not self-contained, but the tales at its centre are extraordinary. Read it with the sequel waiting and it is as good as space opera gets.
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein: service, citizenship and war
An influential, readable, deliberately provocative novel. A good war story wrapped around a political argument that has not stopped being interesting. Read it knowing the book is making a case, agree or disagree, and you will get what it has to offer.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: the child they built a fleet around
A sharp, efficient, genuinely unsettling novel that most readers finish in a weekend and keep thinking about for years. Read it for the plot, and notice that under the plot it is a book about adults deciding what a child is for.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman: the war that outlives you
A short, furious, humane novel, and one of the very few war novels in the genre written by someone who had been there. The science fiction is simple and the argument is not. Read it for the time dilation and stay for what it says about leaving and coming home.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi: old soldiers, new bodies
A confident debut with a premise strong enough to carry a series and a narrator good enough to carry the book. Funny for as long as it can be and serious when it has to be. Read it for the hook and stay for how honestly Scalzi takes the consequences of his own idea.
The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel: the last man on Earth
A genuinely strange and genuinely influential book. The apocalypse is only the setup; the novel is about what one person becomes when nobody is left to answer to, and it goes places a modern disaster novel avoids. Uneven and dated in parts, and one of the most original novels of its era.
The House at the End of the World by Dean Koontz: an island under siege
A contained, fast suspense novel that uses a science-fictional threat to do what Koontz does best: put a decent person under enormous pressure and watch her refuse to give up. Not his deepest book, and not pretending to be. Read it for the pace and the relationship at the centre.
Duty Before Honor by Gus Cadle: a short, sharp war story
A short, sincere military story with one idea and one turn, and it lands both. Fifty-one pages is not enough room for the setting the author is reaching for, and he seems to know it. Read it in a sitting and expect a twist rather than a campaign.
Solaris by Stanisław Lem: the alien we cannot understand
A cold, brilliant novel about how little of the universe we can actually understand. Read it for the questions, not for a resolution, and do not expect it to leave you quickly.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi: the monsters are the easy part
A short, funny, generous novel that plays a ridiculous premise absolutely straight. Read it when you want science fiction that is kind rather than bleak.
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