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Every guide we have published, across books, films, TV and concepts, newest first. Short, spoiler-light and written to help you decide what is worth your time.
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.
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.
What is artificial intelligence? Machines that learn, explained
A broad name for a family of narrow tools. The systems in use today are extraordinarily good at finding patterns in data and hopeless at knowing when they are wrong. Treat the phrase as a label for techniques rather than a mind, and both the hype and the fear get easier to place.
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