Category Archives: science fiction

River of Gods by Ian McDonald

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River of Gods by Ian McDonald is a huge sprawling book set in India in the near future (with near future meaning 40 years). And it is a slow moving book at first and requires much patience before the plot starts up in earnest. Anathem had a similar buildup, but was easier to follow due to a single main character, where River of Gods has several characters and we jump between them every chapter. The book itself is good, if you have the patience to make it to the plot.

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick is one of Dick’s best known novels. Unfortunately it’s mainly known for the movie it inspired, Blade Runner. The book does a lot more than the movie and ultimately does it better. We get a better sense of Deckard, the people he had to deal with and the civilization that he inhabited.

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Straczynski Unplugged by J. Michael Straczynski

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 Straczynski Unplugged by J. Michael Straczynski is a collection of short stories, some of which are unpublished. Most people know Straczynski from his TV series Babylon 5 or from his comic books. But this is a different side of of Straczynski’s writing and it’s an interesting view into some of his earlier stories.

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Contact by Carl Sagan

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Contact by Carl Sagan is an interesting view into the scientific mind. The book deals with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and the relationship between science and religion. Sagan was a well-known and popular scientist in the 1980s for his show Cosmos and his public appearances on TV shows. Sagan’s public celebrity probably made Contact one of the more read science-fiction novels by the general public.

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a classic science fiction novel from the early 1950s. I get the feeling nowadays that Bradbury is almost a forgotten legend. Twenty or thirty years ago, his name was always up with Asimov and Clarke, but you rarely hear about him anymore. And it’s a shame, since his novels are completely different than anything else written at the time (or even written now). And Fahrenheit 451 is probably his best known work.

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Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll

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Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll is one of the best books to introduce people to Jonathan Carroll. Carroll is a master of urban fantasy stories. His books are full of interesting people in great locations who happen to be involved with ghosts or reincarnated people or supernatural events. The books start off with normal people in real situations and the supernatural events slowly bring themselves into the book.  Outside the Dog Museum is a wonderful example of this genre and will be enjoyed by fans of Neil Gaiman.

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The Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi

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The Last Colonyand Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi are sequels to his first two books (Old Man’s Warand The Ghost Brigades). They are the same story from different points of view. The Last Colony is from John Perry and his wife’s POV and Zoe’s Tale is from their daughter Zoe’s POV. The setting and basic plot are the same, except for the sequence when Zoe goes off-planet. The other main difference is that Zoe’s Tale is a YA book.

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Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

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Old Man’s War by John Scalzi appears at first to be an updated version of Joe Haldeman’s Forever War, but the take on it is much different. Scalzi is an internet favorite due to his long running blog Whatever (if you’re not familiar with his blog, google bacon cat) and Old Man’s War was serialized on his blog before being picked up by a publisher. It’s a different look at intersteller war and the start of a series (that’s up to 4 books now).

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