Sci Fi Masterworks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks
http://www.sfsite.com/lists/orion01.htm
SF Masterworks is a series of science fiction books started by Millennium and cu
rrently published by Gollancz (both being imprints of the UK based Orion Publish
ing Group).
It began in 1999 and comprises selected pieces of science-fiction literature fro
m 1950 onwards (with a few exceptions). The list was compiled by the managing di
rector of Orion Books, Malcolm Edwards, with the help of "leading SF writers and
editors" and the goal of bringing important books back into print.[1] The list
was described by science fiction author Iain M. Banks as "amazing" and "genuinel
y the best novels from sixty years of SF".[2]
It has a companion series in the Fantasy Masterworks line. A separate Future Cla
ssics[3] line has also started featuring eight science fiction novels from the l
ast few decades.
#1 The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Private William Mandella is a man about to embark on a journey that will travers
e space and time, war and uneasy peace. By the close of the book, the reluctant
soldier will have travelled over twelve centuries. That can be traumatic enough,
but it is the changes in society, mores, and norms that will be the most diffic
ult barriers facing him. No work before or since this novel has so successfully
portrayed the emotional toll of what is, essentially, time-travel.
#2 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
One of the most influential vampire novels of the 20th century, I Am Legend regu
larly appears on the "10 Best" lists of numerous critical studies of the horror
genre.
#3 Cities in Flight by James Blish
Cities in Flight is an omnibus volume of four novels, originally published betwe
en 1955 and 1962, two of which are fix-ups of pieces that first appeared in vari
ous magazines in the early '50s. Despite having been conceived more than 50 year
s ago, and produced in episodic fashion, they stand head and shoulders above mos
t SF available today.
#4 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins,bounty hunte
r Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicantswho were his prey. W
hen he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon,he dreamed of owning a live
animal - the ultimate status symbol in aworld all but bereft of animal life. The
n Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge re
ward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment q
uickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit - and the t
hreat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted . .
#5 The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
With its sly potshotting at corporate skullduggery, The Stars My Destination see
ms utterly contemporary, and has maintained its status as an underground classic
for fifty years.
#6 Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney
Babel-17, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, is a fascinatin
g tale of a famous poet bent on deciphering a secret language that is the key to
the enemy's deadly force, a task that requires she travel with a splendidly imp
robable crew to the site of the next attack.
#7 Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Lord of Light, is a science fantasy in which the intricate, colorful mechanisms
of Hindu religion, capricious gods, and repeated reincarnations are wittily unde
rpinned by technology. The gods are a starship crew who subdued a colony world;
developed godlike--though often machine-enhanced--powers during successive lifet
imes of mind transfer to new, cloned bodies; and now lord it over descendants of
the ship's mere passengers. Their tyranny is opposed by retired god Sam, who mo
cks the Celestial City, introduces Buddhism to subvert Hindu dogma, allies himse
lf with the planet's native "demons" against Heaven, fights pyrotechnic battles
with bizarre troops and weapons, plays dirty with politics and poison, and dies
horribly but won't stay dead.
#8 The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
A brothel keeper's sons discuss genocide and plot murder; a young alien wanderer
is pursued by his shadow double; and a political prisoner tries to prove his id
entity, not least to himself. Gene Wolfe's first novel consists of three linked
sections, all of them elegant broodings on identity, sameness, and strangeness,
and all of them set on the vividly evoked colony worlds of Ste. Croix and Ste. A
nne, twin planets delicately poised in mutual orbit.
#9 Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe...and on reaches of unimaginabl
e horror. When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee space
craft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fort
une. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead
has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as p
erilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstella
r void that he drove himself to take!
#10 The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith
An insterstellar empire ruled by the mysterious Lords of the Instrumentality, wh
ose access to the drug stroon from the planet Norstrilia confers on them virtual
immortality. A world in which wealthy and leisured humanity is served by the un
derpeople, genetically engineered animals turned into the semblance of people. A
world in which the great ships which sail between the stars are eventually supp
lanted by the mysterious, instantaneous technique of planoforming. A world of wo
nder and myth, and extraordinary imagination.
#11 Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
Last and First Men is a "future history" science fiction novel written in 1930 b
y the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale in the genre,
it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billio
n years and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first and m
ost primitive.
#12 Earth Abides by Richard Matheson
A disease of unparalleled destructive force has sprung up almost simultaneously
in every corner of the globe, all but destroying the human race. One survivor, s
trangely immune to the effects of the epidemic, ventures forward to experience a
world without man. What he ultimately discovers will prove far more astonishing
than anything he'd either dreaded or hoped for.
#13 Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
On the arid colony of Mars the only thing more precious than water may be a ten-
year-old schizophrenic boy named Manfred Steiner. For although the UN has slated
"anomalous" children for deportation and destruction, other people--especially
Supreme Goodmember Arnie Kott of the Water Worker's union--suspect that Manfred'
s disorder may be a window into the future.
#14 Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
In a world policed by telepaths, Ben Reich plans to commit a crime that hasn't b
een heard of in 70 years: murder. That's the only option left for Reich, whose c
ompany is losing a 10-year death struggle with rival D'Courtney Enterprises. Ter
rorized in his dreams by The Man With No Face and driven to the edge after D'Cou
rtney refuses a merger offer, Reich murders his rival and bribes a high-ranking
telepath to help him cover his tracks.
But while police prefect Lincoln Powell knows Reich is guilty, his telepath's kn
owledge is a far cry from admissible evidence.
#15 Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
A wake-up call to a world slumbering in the opium dream of consumerisum; in the
hazy certainty that we humans were in charge of nature. Science fiction is not a
bout predicting the future, it's about elucidating the present and the past. Bru
nner's 1968 nightmare is crystallizing around us, in ways he could not have fore
seen then. If the right people had read this book, and acted in accordance with
its precepts and spirit, our world would not be in such precarious shape today.
#16 The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. he will seek answers, que
stion the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have
isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To d
o this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shev
ek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Anarres, to
challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of ch
ange.
#17 The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
The Drowned World posits (presciently, as it turns out) that the world has been
overwhelmed by a catastrophic greenhouse effect. It differs from our own impendi
ng disaster in that it's natural rather than man-made. In Ballard's scenario, vi
olent solar storms have depleted the outer layers of Earth's ionosphere; as thes
e vanish, temperature and solar radiation begin to climb, melting the polar ice-
caps. This enormous outflow of water carries with it tons of topsoil, damming up
the oceans and entirely changing the contours of the continents, drowning some
parts of the world and landlocking others. At the same time, the increased radia
tion produces freak mutations in Earth's flora and fauna, initiating a new biolo
gical era reminiscent of the Triassic period, in which reptiles and giant tropic
al plants were the dominant forms of life.
#18 The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
When Winston Niles Rumfoord flies his spaceship into a chrono-synclastic infundi
bulum he is converted into pure energy and only materializes when his waveforms
intercept Earth or some other planet. As a result, he only gets home to Newport,
Rhode Island, once every fifty-nine days and then only for an hour.
#19 Emphyrio by Jack Vance
Far in the future, the craftsmen of the distant planet Halma create goods which
are the wonder of the galaxy. But they know little of this. Their society is har
shly regimented, its religion austere and unforgiving, and primitive -- to maint
ain standards, even the most basic use of automation is punishable by death. Whe
n Amiante, a wood-carver, is executed for processing old documents with a camera
, his son Ghyl rebels, and decides to bring down the system. To do so, he must f
irst interpret the story of Emphyrio, an ancient hero of Halman legend.
#20 A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
Mind- and reality-bending drugs factor again and again in Philip K. Dick's hugel
y influential SF stories. A Scanner Darkly cuts closest to the bone, drawing on
Dick's own experience with illicit chemicals and on his many friends who died fr
om drug abuse. Nevertheless, it's blackly farcical, full of comic-surreal conver
sations between people whose synapses are partly fried, sudden flights of parano
id logic, and bad trips like the one whose victim spends a subjective eternity h
aving all his sins read to him, in shifts, by compound-eyed aliens. (It takes 11
,000 years of this to reach the time when as a boy he discovered masturbation.)
The antihero Bob Arctor is forced by his double life into warring double persona
lities: as futuristic narcotics agent "Fred," face blurred by a high-tech scramb
ler, he must spy on and entrap suspected drug dealer Bob Arctor. His disintegrat
ion under the influence of the insidious Substance D is genuine tragicomedy. For
Arctor there's no way off the addict's downward escalator, but what awaits at t
he bottom is a kind of redemption--there are more wheels within wheels than we s
uspected, and his life is not entirely wasted.
#21 Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Widely regarded as one of the true classics of science fiction, Star Maker is a
poetic and deeply philosophical work. The story details the mental journey of an
unnamed narrator who is transported not only to other worlds but also other gal
axies and parallel universes, until he eventually becomes part of the "cosmic mi
nd." First published in 1937, Olaf Stapledon's descriptions of alien life are a
political commentary on human life in the turbulent inter-war years. The book ch
allenges preconceived notions of intelligence and awareness, and ultimately argu
es for a broadened perspective that would free us from culturally ingrained thou
ght and our inevitable anthropomorphism.
#22 Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
Moorcock is an acknowledged master of fantasy with social and psychological bite
, and this extremely controversial novella may well represent the best the fanta
sy field has to offer in terms of pure literary firepower. Karl Glogauer travels
back in time two thousand years, meets John the Baptist, and then seeks Jesus C
hrist himself.
#23 Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg
Following the cryptic manuscript which provides the title, four young men cross
America in search of a forgotten Shangri-La in the cactus-ridden desert north of
Phoenix, Arizona-a monastery whose adepts hold the keys of immortality and supp
osedly follow a tradition handed down since Atlantis.
#24 The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
HG Wells virtually defined modern science fiction with the two tales featured in
this double volume, a welcome addition to the SF Masterworks series. The Time M
achine is the classic tale of a time traveller's journey to the world of 802,701
AD where humanity is divided between the bad and the beautiful, a simplistic vi
sion at first glance but a prophetic take on a future that may not be so far rem
oved from a reality yet to take hold, simply lurking in the shadows and waiting
for the human race to bring it about by its own hand. The War of the Worlds: The
night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cyli
nder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. At first, nae locals approach th
e cylinder armed just with a white flag - only to be quickly killed by an all-de
stroying heat-ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of hu
man civilisation is under threat, as powerful Martians build gigantic killing ma
chines, destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays, and feast on
the warm blood of trapped, still-living human prey. The forces of the Earth, how
ever, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear.
#25 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Following his doctor's instructions, engaging simpleton Charlie Gordon tells his
own story in semi-literate "progris riports." He dimly wants to better himself,
but with an IQ of 68 can't even beat the laboratory mouse Algernon at maze-solv
ing. Algernon is extra-clever thanks to an experimental brain operation so far t
ried only on animals. Charlie eagerly volunteers as the first human subject. Aft
er frustrating delays and agonies of concentration, the effects begin to show an
d his IQ rise continues, taking him steadily past the human average to genius le
vel and beyond, until he's as intellectually alone as the old, foolish Charlie e
ver was-and now painfully aware of it. Then, ominously, the smart mouse Algernon
begins to deteriorate...
#26 Ubik by Philip K. Dick
Nobody but Philip K. Dick could so successfully combine SF comedy with the uneas
e of reality gone wrong, shifting underfoot like quicksand.
#27 Timescape by Gregory Benford
Suspense builds in this novel about scientists, physics, time travel, and saving
the Earth. It's 1998, and a physicist in Cambridge, England, attempts to send a
message backward in time. Earth is falling apart, and a government faction supp
orts the project in hopes of diverting or avoiding the environmental disasters b
eginning to tear at the edges of civilization. It's 1962, and a physicist in Cal
ifornia struggles with his new life on the West Coast, office politics, and the
irregularities of data that plague his experiments. The story's perspective togg
les between time lines, physicists, and their communities. Timescape presents th
e subculture and world of scientists in microcosm: the lab, the loves, the grapp
ling for grants, the pressures from university and government, the rewards and t
rials of relationships with spouses, the pressures of the scientific race, and t
he thrill of discovery.
#28 More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
There's Lone, the simpletion who can hear other people's thoughts and make a man
blow his brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things wit
hout touching them, and there are the teleporting twins, who can travel ten feet
or ten miles. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in t
he cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world except for a
conscience. Seperately, they are talented freaks.Together, they compose a single
organism that may represent the next step in evolution, and the final chapter i
n the history of the human race. In this genre-bending novel- among the first to
have launched sci fi into the arena of literature -one of the great imaginers o
f the twentieth century tells a story as mind-blowing as any controlled substanc
e and as affecting as a glimpse into a stranger's soul. For as the protagonists
of More Than Human struggle to find who they are and whether they are meant to h
elp humanity or destroy it. Theodore Sturgeon explores questions of power and mo
rality, individuality and belonging, with suspense, pathos, and a lyricism rarel
y seen in science fiction.
#29 Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
Ill luck made Roger Torraway the subject of the Man Plus Programme, but it was d
eliberate biological engineering which turned him into a monster -- a machine pe
rfectly adapted to survive on Mars. For according to computer predictions, Mars
is humankind's only alternative to extinction. But beneath his monstrous exterio
r, Torraway still carries a man's capacity for suffering.
#30 Case of Conscience by James Blish
The citizens of the planet Lithia are some of the most ethical sentient beings F
ather Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez has ever encountered. True, they have no literature, no
fine arts, and don't understand the concept of recreation, but neither do they
understand the concepts of greed, envy, lust, or any of the sins and vices that
plague humankind. Their world seems darned near perfect. And that is just what d
isturbs the good Father.
#31 Centauri Device by John H. Harrison
John Truck was to outward appearances just another lowlife spaceship captain. He
peddled drugs when they were available, carried cargo when they weren't. But he
was also the last of the Centaurans - or at least, half of him was - which mean
t that he was the only person who could operate the Centauri Device, a sentient
bomb which might hold the key to settling a vicious space war.
#32 Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick
The title character is a brilliant scientist who believes himself a godly incarn
ation of destruction, capable of bringing down atomic ruin simply by willing it.
As is typical with the author's handling of the issue of whether just because y
ou're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you, you can't be quite sur
e how crazy he really is. The author is masterful at "getting into the head" of
the paranoid, depicting how coincidence and happenstance serve to solidify delus
ions of grandeur and suspicion of others.
#33 Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss
Curiosity was discouraged in the Greene tribe. Its members lived out their lives
in cramped Quarters, hacking away at the encroaching ponics. As to where they w
ere - that was forgotten. Roy Complain decides to find out. With the renegade pr
iest Marapper, he moves into unmapped territory, where they make a series of dis
coveries which turn their universe upside-down...
#34 Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss
In the 22nd century visionary scientist Vannevar Morgan conceives the most grand
iose engineering project of all time, and one which will revolutionize the futur
e of humankind of space: a Space Elevator, 36,000 kilometres high, anchored to a
n equatorial island in the Indian Ocean.
#35 Pavane by Keith Roberts
First published in 1968, these intricately linked short stories (broken into six
measures and a coda) constitute a pioneering work of alternative history that h
as influenced many contemporary SF and fantasy writers.
#36 Now Wait for Last Year by Philip K. Dick
Dr. Eric Sweetscent has problems. His planet is enmeshed in an unwinnable war. H
is wife is lethally addicted to a drug that whips its users helplessly back and
forth across time - and is hell-bent on making Eric suffer along with her. And S
weetscent's newest patient is not only the most important man on the embattled p
lanet Earth but quite possibly the sickest.
#37 Nova by Samuel R. Delany
Given that the suns of Draco stretch almost sixteen light years from end to end,
it stands to reason that the cost of transportation is the most important facto
r of the 32nd century. And since Illyrion is the element most needed for space t
ravel, Lorq von Ray is plenty willing to fly through the core of a recently impl
oded sun in order to obtain seven tons of it.
#38 The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells
When penniless businessman Mr. Bedford retreats to the Kent coast to write a pla
y, he meets by chance the brilliant Dr. Cavor, an absentminded scientist on the
brink of developing a material that blocks gravity. Cavor soon succeeds in his e
xperiments, only to tell a stunned Bedford that the invention makes possible one
of the oldest dreams of humanity: a journey to the moon.
#39 The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
The City and the Stars: The 10-billion-year-old metropolis of Diaspar is humanit
y's last home. Alone among immortals, the only man born in 10 million years desp
erately wants to find what lies beyond the city.
#40 Blood Music by Greg Bear
The award winning tale of the inevitable takeover of our society by a benign, in
telligent scientific experiment gone awry. In the tradition of the greatest cybe
rpunk novels, Blood Music explores the imminent destruction of mankind and the f
ear of mass destruction by technological advancements.
#41 Jem by Frederik Pohl
The discovery of another habitable world might spell salvation to the 3 bitterly
competing power blocs of the resource-starved 21st century; but when their repr
esentatives arrive on Jem, with its multiple intelligent species, they discover
instead the perfect situation into which to export their rivalries.
#42 Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
The United States never recovered from The War for Southern Independence. While
the neighboring Confederacy enjoyed the prosperity of the victor, the U.S. strug
gled through poverty, violence, and a nationwide depression.
The Industrial Revolution never occurred here, and so, well into the 1950s, the
nation remained one of horse-drawn wagons, gaslight, highwaymen, and secret armi
es. This was home for Hodgins McCormick Backmaker, whose sole desire was the pur
suit of knowledge. This, he felt, would spirit him away from the squalor and vio
lence.
Disastrously, Hodgins became embroiled in the clandestine schemes of the outlaw
Grand Army, from which he fled in search of a haven. But he was to discover that
no place could fully protect him from the world and its dangerous realities. .
. .
#43 Valis by Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick writes an autobiographical parable about a crazy man who recovers
his identity and perhaps his sanity through a theological discovery, only to lo
se his sanity again upon a subsequent revelation of the deeper underpinnings of
the phenomenological world.
#44 The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. le Guin
George Orr has dreams that come true--dreams that change reality. He dreams that
the aunt who is sexually harassing him is killed in a car crash, and wakes to f
ind that she died in a wreck six weeks ago, in another part of the country. But
a far darker dream drives George into the care of a psychotherapist--a dream res
earcher who doesn't share George's ambivalence about altering reality.
#45 The Complete Roderick by John Sladek
#46 Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Keith Roberts
On October 11 the television star Jason Taverner is so famous that 30 million vi
ewers eagerly watch his prime-time show. On October 12 Jason Taverner is not a h
as-been but a never-was - a man who has lost not only his audience but all proof
of his existence.
#47 Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
Spine-tingling and entertaining, The Invisible Man is a science fiction classica
nd a penetrating, unflinching look into the heart of human nature. To its author
, H. G. Wells, the novel was as compelling as a good gripping dream. But to gene
rations of readers, the terrible and evil experiment of the demented scientist,
Griffin, has conveyed a chilling nightmare of believable horror. An atmosphere o
f ever-increasing suspense begins with the arrival of a mysterious stranger at a
n English village inn and builds relentlessly to the stark terror of a victim pu
rsued by a maniacal invisible man.
#48 Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
Generations in the future, when humanity has spread to other planets and Earth i
s ruled by Sanctity, a dour, coercive religion that looks to resurrection of the
body by storing cell samples of its communicants, a plague is threatening to wi
pe out mankind.
#49 A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
The cruiser Selene sets out on a routine jaunt across the dust-choked Sea of Thi
rst on the newly settled moon with a complement of rich tourists aboard.
#50 Eon by Greg Bear
In the year 2000, a huge potato-shaped asteroid, nicknamed the Stone by American
s, appears in orbit around the earth. Exploration shows that it is divided into
seven man-made, hollowed-out chambers, indicating that it had been inhabited.
#51 The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
Matheson's legendary 1956 sci-fi tale of Scott Carey, a family man who is slowly
shrinking into obscurity and into a terrifying new world inside his own house.
#52 The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
For the exiles from a blistering Earth, Mars is a lonely place, made bearable on
ly by drugs, specifically Can-D, which translates those who take in into a share
d hallucination of a Barbie-esque world. But the new drug Chew-Z promises more t
han that eternal life itself.
#53 Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock
Enter a decaying far, far future society, a time when anything and everything is
possible, where words like 'conscience' and 'morality' are meaningless, and whe
re heartfelt love blossoms mysteriously between Mrs Amelia Underwood, an unwilli
ng time traveller, and Jherek Carnelian, a bemused denizen of the End of Time.
#54 The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth
The ad man sets his sights on the gravy train that is Venus: unconquered and wai
ting to be populated by Earth's capitalist-driven consumers.
#55 Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
Time Out of Joint is Philip K. Dick's classic depiction of the disorienting disp
arity between the world as we think it is and the world as it actually is. The y
ear is 1998, although Ragle Gumm doesn't know that. He thinks it's 1959. He also
thinks that he served in World War II, that he lives in a quiet little communit
y, and that he really is the world's long-standing champion of newspaper puzzle
contests.
#56 Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg
One man must make a journey across a once colonised alien planet. Abandoned by m
an when it was discovered that the species there were actually sentient, the pla
net is now a place of mystery. A mystery that obsesses the lone traveller Gunder
sen and takes him on a long trek to attempt to share the religious rebirthing of
the aliens. A journey that offers redemption from guilt and sin. This is one of
Silverbergs most intense novels and draws heavily on Conrad's Heart of Darkness
. It puts the reader at the heart of the experience and forces them to ask what
they would do in the circumstances.
#57 The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick
Set in the middle of the twenty-first century, The Simulacra is the story of an
America where the whole government is a fraud and the President is an android. A
gainst this backdrop Dr. Superb, the sole remaining psychotherapist, is struggli
ng to practice in a world full of the maladjusted. Ian Duncan is desperately in
love with the first lady, Nicole Thibideaux, who he has never met. Richard Kongr
osian refuses to see anyone because he is convinced his body odor is lethal. And
the fascistic Bertold Goltz is trying to overthrow the government. With wonderf
ul aplomb, Philip K. Dick brings this story to a crashing conclusion and in clas
sic fashion shows there is always another layer of conspiracy beneath the one we
see.
#58 The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick
THE LONGEST LIE - World War III is raging - or so the millions of people crammed
in their underground tanks believe. For fiteen years, subterranean humanity has
been fed on daily broadcasts of a never-ending nuclear destruction, sustained b
y a belief in the all powerful Protector. But up on Earth's surface, a different
kind of reality reigns. East and West are at peace.
#59 Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
At 41, David Selig's telepathy is beginning to fade. The prospect of losing the
undetectable voyeurism that is the central theme of his life frightens him, but
as he acknowledges the diminution of his powers, he is forced to consider who he
really is, and what he will become, if the power disappears forever.
#60 Ringworld by Larry Niven
A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of
miles, stronger than any planet before it. There is gravity, and with high wall
s and its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet that is three million times
the area of the Earth can be formed. We can start again!
#61 The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman
In a future London, humans photosynthesize, organics have replaced electronics,
viruses educate people, and very few live past forty. But Milena is resistant to
the viruses. She's alone until she meets Rolfa, a huge, hirsute Genetically Eng
ineered Polar Woman, and Milena realizes she might, just might, be able to find
a place for herself after all.
#62 Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
In some ways the main character of Mission of Gravity, is not Charles Lackland,
the human explorer dispatched to the planet Mesklin to retrieve stranded scienti
fic equipment. Nor is it the small caterpillar-like creature named Barlennan, a
native of Mesklin who agrees to help Lackland find and recover the equipment. Ra
ther, the main character is the planet Mesklin itself, a place with utterly uniq
ue characteristics that make themselves felt during every interaction and calcul
ation the intrepid Lackland and his guide have to make.
#63 A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick
Fourteen strangers came to Delmak-O. Thirteen of them were transferred by the us
ual authorities. One got there by praying. But once they arrived on that planet
whose very atmosphere seemed to induce paranoia and psychosis, the newcomers fou
nd that even prayer was useless. For on Delmak-O, God is either absent or intent
on destroying His creations.
#64 Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
For the crew of the Leonora Christine, travelling close to the speed of light on
a 30-light-year journey, subjective time slows down. Then buffeting by an inter
stellar dust cloud damages the ship's deceleration system and it achieves light
speed, tau zero itself.
#65 Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomer
s dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling
through the solar system at inconceivable speed.
#66 Life During Wartime by Lucius Shepard
In the jungles of Guatemala, David Mingolla is struggling to survive amongst the
rotting vegetation and his despairing fellow foot soldiers. He knows he is noth
ing but an expendable pawn in an endless war. On R & R a few miles away from the
warzone he meets Debora - an enigmatic young woman who may be working for the e
nemy - and stumbles into a deadly psychic conflict where the mind is the greates
t weapon.
#67 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
The final war has come, nations are destroying each other and the world with nuc
lear and biological weapons, and one rich extended family has set up a refuge in
a defensible valley. Their goal is survival, but the results of the war have le
ft everyone sterile. In an attempt to find some way of keeping their family aliv
e, the survivors resort to cloning, hoping that the clones will be able to have
children. The clones, however, have ideas of their own.
#68 Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
Red Schuhart is a stalker, a young rebel who is compelled, despite extreme dange
r, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect mysterious alien artifacts. His
life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in alien products.
But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together, something goes ter
ribly wrong. The news Red receives from his girlfriend upon his return makes it
inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he fin
ds the answer to all his problems.
#69 Dark Benediction by Walter M. Miller
Walter M. Miller Jr is best remembered as the author of A Canticle for Leibowitz
, universally recognized as one of the greatest novels of modern SF. But as well
as writing that deeply felt and eloquent book, he produced many shorter works o
f fiction of stunning originality and power. His profound interest in religion a
nd his innate literary gifts combined perfectly in the production of such works
as 'The Darfstellar', for which he won a Hugo in 1955, 'Conditionally Human', 'I
, Dreamer' and 'The Big Hunger', all of which are included in this brilliant and
essential collection.
#70 Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
Mockingbird is a powerful novel of a future world where humans are dying. Those
that survive spend their days in a narcotic bliss or choose a quick suicide rath
er than slow extinction. Humanity's salvation rests with an android who has no d
esire to live, and a man and a woman who must discover love, hope, and dreams of
a world reborn.
#71 Dune by Frank Herbert
Dune tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an
intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole
source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar
travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields g
reat influence.
#72 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was the last of these Hugo-winning novels, and it i
s widely considered his finest work.It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion
of the former Lunar penal colony against the Lunar Authority that controls it f
rom Earth. It is the tale of the disparate people-a computer technician, a vigor
ous young female agitator, and an elderly academic-who become the rebel movement
's leaders. And it is the story of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is kn
own only to this inner circle, and who for reasons of his own is committed to th
e revolution's ultimate success.
#73 The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. the few Jews who still surviv
e hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yel
low Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war--and i
s now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.
#74 The Inverted World by Christopher Priest
The city is winched along tracks through a devastated land full of hostile tribe
s. Rails must be freshly laid ahead of the city and carefully removed in its wak
e. Rivers and mountains present nearly insurmountable challenges to the ingenuit
y of the citys engineers. But if the city does not move, it will fall farther an
d farther behind the optimum into the crushing gravitational field that has tran
sformed life on Earth. The only alternative to progress is death.
#75 Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Cat's Cradle, one of Vonnegut's most entertaining novels, is filled with scienti
sts and G-men and even ordinary folks caught up in the game. These assorted char
acters chase each other around in search of the world's most important and dange
rous substance, a new form of ice that freezes at room temperature.
#76 The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells
H.G. Wells's science fiction classic, The Island of Doctor Moreau, asks the read
er to consider the limits of natural science and the distinction between men and
beasts. A strange mix of science fiction, romance, and philosophical meandering
, it is one of the standards of early science fiction.
#77 Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
This novel tells the tale of the last generation of mankind on Earth. All man's
development in space and travel are stopped by alien "overlords" who take over E
arth, establishing a benevolent dictatorship which eliminates poverty, ignorance
and disease. This golden age ends abruptly as the overlords bend to the will of
a superior intelligence which demands Earth's destruction.
#78 The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
The classic time travel novella that remains one of the cornerstones of science
fiction literature.
#79 Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
A mysterious disaster has stricken the midwestern American city of Bellona, and
its aftereffects are disturbing: a city block burns down and is intact a week la
ter; clouds cover the sky for weeks, then part to reveal two moons; a week passe
s for one person when only a day passes for another. The catastrophe is confined
to Bellona, and most of the inhabitants have fled. But others are drawn to the
devastated city, among them the Kid, a white/American Indian man who can't remem
ber his own name. The Kid is emblematic of those who live in the new Bellona, wh
o are the young, the poor, the mad, the violent, the outcast-the marginalized.
#80 Helliconia by Brian Aldiss
Helliconia is a planet that, due to the massively eccentric orbit of its own sun
around another star, experiences seasons that lasts eons. Whole civilisations g
row in the Spring, flourish in the Summer and then die in the brutal winters. Th
e human-like inhabitants have been profoundly changed by their experience of thi
s harsh cycle.
#81 The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells
As a result of research into the growth curves of living matter, two scientists
invent a seemingly miraculous substance called Herakleophorbia IV, nicknamed "Th
e Food of the Gods." Its consumption causes accelerated uninterrupted growth in
all forms of life. Its creators' lack of forethought and ineptitude results in t
errifying consequences when the substance escapes the bounds of the experiment a
nd is ingested by unintended creatures.
#82 The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California,
Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, al
most imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of hi
s neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved the world as he knew it
.
#83 The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Four women living in parallel worlds, each with a different gender landscape. Wh
en they begin to travel to each other's worlds each woman's preconceptions on ge
nder and what it means to be a woman are challenged.
#84 Arslan by M. J. Engh
Arslan's goal is not merely to conquer the world, but to destroy it. Just by cha
nce, it seems, he has chosen a small Illinois town to be the capital of his all-
embracing empire. Yet this is not really the tale of great world events. It all
comes down to a handful of unforgettable men and women, whose pain and cruelty a
nd compassion shine a spotlight on human nature.
#85 The Difference Engine by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by stea
m-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine and
the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time.
#86 The Prestige by Christopher Priest
Two 19th century stage illusionists, the aristocratic Rupert Angier and the work
ing-class Alfred Borden, engage in a bitter and deadly feud; the effects are sti
ll being felt by their respective families a hundred years later.
#87 Greybeard by Brian Aldiss
#88 Sirius by Olaf Stapledon
Sirius is Thomas Trelone's great experiment - a huge, handsome dog with the brai
n and intelligence of a human being. Raised and educated in Trelone's own family
alongside Plaxy, his youngest daughter, Sirius is a truly remarkable and gifted
creature. But Sirius isn't human and the conflicts and inner turmoil that tortu
re him cannot be resolved.
#89 Hyperion by Dan Simmons
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits
the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those
who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it.
#90 City by Clifford D. Simak
On a far future Earth, mankind's achievements are immense: artificially intellig
ent robots, genetically uplifted animals, interplanetary travel, genetic modific
ation of the human form itself.
#91 Hellstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert
America is a police state, and it is about to be threatened by the most hellish
enemy in the world: insects. When the Agency discovered that Dr Hellstrom's Proj
ect 40 was a cover for a secret laboratory, a special team of agents was immedia
tely dispatched to discover its true purpose and its weaknesses - it could not b
e allowed to continue. What they discovered was a nightmare more horrific and hi
deous than even their paranoid government minds could devise.
#92 Of Men and Monsters by William Tenn
Giant, technologically superior aliens have conquered Earth, but humankind survi
ves - even flourishes in a way. Men and women live like mice in burrows in the m
assive walls of the huge homes of the aliens, scurrying about under their feet,
stealing from them.
#93 RUR and The War with the Newts by Karel A?apek
Two dystopian satires from one of the most distinguished writers of 20th-century
European science fiction. R.U.R. is the work that first introduced the word 'ro
bot' into popular usage whereas War With the Newts concerns the discovery in the
South Pacific of a sea-dwelling race, which is enslaved and exploited by mankin
d.
#94 The Affirmation by Christopher Priest
Peter Sinclair is tormented by bereavement and failure. In an attempt to conjure
some meaning from his life, he embarks on an autobiography, but he finds himsel
f writing the story of another man in another, imagined, world, whose insidious
attraction draws him even further in . . .
#95 Floating Worlds by Cecelia Holland
When the Styths, a powerful and aggressive race of mutants from Uranus and Satur
n, launch pirate raids on ships from Mars, Earth's Committee for the Revolution
sets out to negotiate peace. The task falls to the resourceful and unpredictable
Paula Mendoza. The initial meetings hold little hope for success--until Paula a
dopts a less conventional approach and appears to obtain her objective.
#96 Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
During all recorded history, the Moon has hovered above our heads, a timeless sy
mbol for lovers' ecstasy. Goddesses & Gibson Girls have tripped the light fantas
tic of her beams while sonneteers & scientists have scanned her changing phases.
Now humans had actually reached the Moon, & on it the explorers found a structu
re, a formation so terrible & incomprehensible that it couldn't even be describe
d in human terms. It was a thing that devoured people; that killed them again &
again in torturous, unfathomable ways. Earthbound are the only two men who could
probe the thing: Al Barker, a homicidal maniac, whose loving mistress was death
, & Dr. Edward Hawks, a scientific murderer, whose greatest mission was rebirth.
#97 Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
Anthologies seldom make history, but Dangerous Visions is a grand exception. Har
lan Ellison's 1967 collection of science fiction stories set an almost impossibl
y high standard, as more than a half dozen of its stories won major awards - not
surpising with a contributors list that reads like a who's who of 20th-century
SF:
#98 Odd John by Olaf Stapledon
John Wainwright is a freak, a human mutation with an extraordinary intelligence
which is both awesome and frightening to behold. Ordinary humans are mere playth
ings to him. And Odd John has a plan - to create a new order on Earth, a new sup
ernormal species. But the world is not ready for such a change ...
#99 The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
In the continuation of the epic adventure begun in Hyperion, the far future is r
esplendent with drama and invention. On the world of Hyperion, the mysterious Ti
me Tombs are opening. And the secrets they contain mean that nothing--nothing an
ywhere in the universe--will ever be the same.
#100 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelleys tragic story of a scientist who created a monster is perhaps even
more compelling and meaningful today than when it was written nearly two centuri
es ago. From the bits and pieces of dead bodies, and the power of electricity, t
he brilliant Victor Frankenstein fashions a new form of lifeonly to discover, to
o late, the irreparable damage he has caused.