Sunday, August 31, 2014

The Best Sci Fi Novels

By Mattie MacDonald


Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is considered a classic piece of literature and one of the first and best sci fi novels ever written. The story is set in a dystopian future where people are psychologically manipulated and conditioned for the benefit of the powers that be.

Another Dystopian science fiction classic is Ray Bradbury;s Fahrenheit 451. The title refers to the temperature that paper will ignite spontaneously. The story revolves around a group of people called "Fireman", who instead of putting out fires, burn books. One such Fireman is Guy Montag who lives a lonely existence. He discovers the value of literature and sets about saving books from being burned, while saving his own existence.

Dune by Frank Herbert is set on a fictional planet far far away called Arrakis, Arrakis is the sole source of a drug called melange, that provides immortality to anyone that takes it. The planet is also the stage for an epic power feud between the two ruling families and the quest of the young Duke Paul Atreides to gain his rightful place on the throne.

Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep? Was make into a cult movie called Bladerunner. Another dystopia the plot is set in a post apocalyptic Earth where the majority of animals and plants are extinct and most humans have colonized Mars. The humans on Mars have Android slaves but many of them have fled to Earth. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter on Earth with a task of finding eight androids that murdered their masters back on Mars.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson is another great sci fi read. The story is set in the near future when humans begin to colonise Mars. Arguments erupt back on Earth as to whether the planet should be terraformed or left as it was.

Contact by the renowned astro-physicist, Carl Sagan blends hard sci fi with a fantastic story line. It is the story of a woman who works for SETI who discovers noise coming from an earth like planet via a radio telescope.

The Foundation trilogy by Issac Asimov is considered classic literature. Set in the far future, humans have spread throughout the galaxy and established an empire that is about to collapse due to corruption, bureaucracy and political infighting. The historian Hari Seldon sets out to preserve all knowledge in a vast encyclopedia. He brings many eminent scientists and scholars together on a planet to bring a new era of humanity.

War of the Worlds by HG Wells is another early sci fi novel that is well known all over the world. Jealous Martians that covet the Earth resources lead an attack on Earth by using total war to subdue humans. The first chapter in the story was read by Orson Wells on the radio in 1938, causing a large number of listeners to panic thinking that the events were actually taking place.




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