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I love science fiction in all its media, but books are kind of special in that they force you to imagine the visuals, unlike, say, video games and movies. This page lists the science fiction I've read, and my thoughts on them (not all have reviews, but those that do are links).

The list

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Arthur C. Clarke

Charles Stross

Dionys Burger

Douglas Adams

Edwin A. Abbott

Iain M. Banks

Ian Stewart

Isaac Asimov

Jules Verne

Larry Niven

Orson Scott Card

Philip K. Dick

Robert A. Heinlein

Roger Williams

William C. Dietz

Reviews

Here are my thoughts on most of the books. Note that just because some have small reviews doesn't necessarily mean I don't recommend them, or recommend them less.

Accelerando by Charles Stross (link)

Manfred Macx, a heavily augmented transhuman in the early 21st century, is a visionary and a so-called venture altruist: He roams the world, giving ideas away for free and turning paradigms upside-down as a matter of course. The novel follows him towards a technological singularity, his daughter Amber through it, and her son, Sirhan, after it.

This novel is somewhat special in that it is chuck full of jargon (e.g. 419) and techno-speculation (e.g. utility fog). Have a dictionary handy if you want to avoid being drowned in it. It's when you understand all of it, if only superficially, that the novel becomes the brilliant flair of wild ideas that it is.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (link)

Phileas Fogg, a London gentleman of the Reform Club (which is actually a real club), and his French valet, Passepartout, make a £20 000 bet with the other gentlemen of the Reform Club that circumnavigation of the Earth is possible in fewer than eighty days.

One would suspect that the novel would be boring nowadays, when circumnavigation can be done in far fewer than eighty days, but this is not the case. It's not so much the feat itself as the sense of adventure that makes the novel really good (and there is plenty of adventure to go around).

Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card

The book was an enjoyable enough read, and it's certainly well-written, but I think it goes overboard with the whole aiúa thing, which in the end seems to be a handwavic plot device. It fell flat for me.

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

A hunted Mind (Minds are terribly powerful AIs mainly used for piloting and maintaining starships) is forced to escape to Schar's World and both the Culture (a hedonistic galaxy-spanning civilization comprised of several roughly humanoid species) and the Idirans (fierce tripedal warriors) want it. The book's protagonist, Bora Horza Gobuchul, is a Changer who works for the Idirans to retrieve the Mind, and the book follows his adventure. Many claim that Consider Phlebas isn't a good introduction to the Culture because of the viewpoint of the book, but I claim that it is, for the same reason: looking at the Culture from the outside gives a more objective and un-affiliated view of it.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Three brilliant children, Ender, Peter, and Valentine Wiggin, all rise to excellence and help the human race in their own ways. The book primarily follows Ender as he advances to become a great military leader and strategist. It is set against the backdrop of a major inter-stellar war with the Buggers, a hive-mind entity of insect-like beings, who, humanity believes, wish to wipe them all out.

The military leaders in the International Fleet (I.F.) monitor children and pick out exceedingly bright ones to go to Battle School to become commanders, and Ender is picked out after he successfully defends himself against a school bully, determined to beat him down so badly that neither he (nor his entourage) would dare mess with him again. He accepts and is shipped to the Battle School, where he rises through the ranks quickly and starts winning more and more mock battles.

Unfortunately, this rising-through-the-ranks goes on and on, and becomes a little boring as the book progresses, and the reader doesn't really get to know too much about the alien race, which is disappointing.

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Shadow follows Bean, a friend of Ender's in Battle School, as he grows up on the harsh streets of Rotterdam, gets accepted by the I.F., and taken to Battle School. From there it's basically another view of Card's first book in the Ender series, Ender's Game.

Card is very good at drama and dialog, and I think this book showcases that very well. I also like the characters he develop very much. A good read.

Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov

Miniaturization is reality, but indefinite miniaturization isn't; that knowledge resides within the brain of Jan Benes, a scientist who defects to the West. Unfortunately, there is an assassination attempt which leaves Benes comatose, and a blood clot develops in his brain. A team of scientists are miniaturized and injected into Benes' body in a submarine rudimentarily outfitted with a laser and have only 60 minutes to remove the clot before they are de-miniaturized (which would make the submarine expand and in the process kill Benes).

Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain by Isaac Asimov

Not a sequel to Fantastic Voyage, this novel revolves around neurophysiologist Albert Jonas Morrison and his crew's journey into the brain of a scientist by way of miniaturization. Morrison has some fringe theories on how the mind works and how it is theoretically possible to amplify brain waves and, in effect, sense thoughts. For this reason, his fellow scientists don't respect him very much, and for this reason, he is “hired” (read the book and you'll understand) by a team of Russian scientists who want Morrison and his computer to join them in a mission inside a man's brain to sense his thoughts.

The story, in essence, is the same as that of Fantastic Voyage, except that FV is a straight novelization of the movie script (the novel appeared before the movie, interestingly) while FVII is the same story as Asimov would have told it. I prefer the latter because the conundrums of miniaturization are discussed in much greater detail as Morrison is extremely sceptical about it at first.

Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales by Isaac Asimov

Fifty short-short stories from fifty different authors are collected here. Almost all of them are truly excellent. I even transcribed some of the best ones and put them on my Short Stories page. Go there for a sample before you buy the book. (You will buy it, remember.)

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott (link)

Flatland chronicles the adventure of A. Square, a being in Flatland. Flatland consists of only two dimensions, as opposed to Pointland, which consists of zero dimensions, Lineland, which consists of one dimension, and Spaceland (which we inhabit), which consists of three dimensions. It describes at length the society in Flatland, and how they go about tasks that we Spacelanders find trivial. For instance, everyone is a Polygon. The more equal all its angles and the more sides it has, the higher its social rank. Lowest are women (or the Frailer Sex, as they are often called) who are mere Lines and have no chance of rising in rank. Then come the Triangles, which are men. Then Squares (of which the narrator, A. Square, is naturally a member), Pentagons, Hexagons, Heptagons, Octagons, etc. The more sides a Polygon has, the closer it gets to being a Circle. They're the top leaders of every aspect of Flatland's society.

So the book describes, for instance, how one goes about identifying others in Flatland. After all, they can't use sight as effectively as we can, so they have devised methods such as using fog to determine the distance of the sides and angles of each other. A Triangle, for instance, is recognized as such by the fact that at no point (from the point of view of a Flatlander, of course) is more than two of his sides visible. Similarly, a Pentagon is recognized as such by the fact that at no point is more than three of his sides visible (if facing you with one of its sides perpendicular to your viewfield, the two sides will quickly fade away due to fog). Polygons in Flatland go through rigorous training in their Universities to develops skills such as these for recognizing each other.

One day A. Square is visited by a Sphere from Spaceland, and it's here that the book gets really interesting, so I won't spoil anything for you.

But enough of this. What I explain is almost exactly what the whole book is about, so I recommend reading the book instead of my summary of it. Before you do, however, I want to point out one little detail of their society which I find hilarious, and that is that every offspring has one more side than its parent so that the family has a chance of rising in rank. I don't know about you, but imagining an Octagon being the offspring of a Heptagon is pretty funny.

Flatterland: Like Flatland, only more so by Ian Stewart

Flatterland is sort of an unofficial sequel to Abbott's classic Flatland, written in modern non-Victorian English. Although Victorian English gave the original a pretty classy feel, Flatterland doesn't disappoint. Its aim is similar to that of the original: To explain new mathematical concepts to lay people in lay language. And it succeeds brilliantly. It's filled with illustration to help visualize the concepts, and the stories around which the concepts are introduced are reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (well, the fact that chapters have names like The Topologist's Tea-Party and Along the Looking-Glass probably helps), and this gives the book a whimsical tone (that's a benefit). Here's a sample:

"Is Planiturth's universe built from mathematics? Or is mathematics built by the minds of Planiturthians? Planiturthian mathematicians would like to think that their universe is built from mathematics, but that's only natural, after all. Planiturthian physicists would like to think that the Planiturthian universe is built from physics. Planiturthian biologists would like to think that the Planiturthian universe is built from biology. Planiturthian philosophers would like to think that the Planiturthian universe is built from philosophy. (Let me tell you a secret: it is. The fundamental unit of the Planiturthian universe is the philosophon, a unit of logic so small tiny that only a philosopher could hope to split it.)"

The book also ventures a little into physics, explaining things like the Schrödinger's cat, the double-slit experiment, time travel, and forces. But the meat of the book is mathematics.

Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection by Isaac Asimov

The first part is an anthology of short stories, while the two last parts are non-fiction dealing with concepts in science fiction and on writing science fiction, respectively. I immensely enjoyed this book, especially the short stories Hallucination, The Instability, and Alexander the God.

Halo: The Flood by William C. Dietz

The book is a straight novelization of the game, and it suffers a bit from that fact (if you've played the game then you know that a good deal of the game is repetitive shooting). A good chunk of the book is devoted to viewing the action from other perspectives, which is good. In the end, though, it's a mediocre book. Don't read it if you're not a Halo fan.

Inversions by Iain M. Banks

The chapters alternate between telling the story of Vosill, a king's physician, and DeWar, a Protector's bodyguard. Vosill and DeWar reside on opposite sides of a mountain where they tend to their masters (in their own ways), and although they never actually meet, there is subtle evidence that they know each other (but to say more would spoil).

This isn't a Culture novel per se. It isn't even a science fiction novel, per se. The entire story is set in something resembling medieval Earth, with kings, generals, horse riding, and concubines. That having been said, there are subtle hints at the novel's SFness, but to pick them up you need to read the previous Culture novels.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, despite its non-SFness. I think Vosill may have saved it.

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov

Follows the planet Kalgash, a planet with perpetual daylight due to having six suns, through a devastating astronomical event that only occurs every 2049 years (termed a Year of Godliness by the book's religious fanatics, the Apostles of Flame). The Apostles of Flame propagate the idea that on a precise day (Theptar the 19th, as it happens), there will be total Darkness, everyone will go mad, and the Stars will shoot fires from the skies, all as a vengeance from the gods for the wicked and sinful ways of the planet's inhabitants. A band of scientists, initially opposed to the Apostles' ideas, eventually realize, through new evidence (archaeological and astronomical), that some of what the Apostles propagate is true. Unfortunately, the population at large believes neither the Apostles nor the scientists.

Nightfall was originally a short story and people generally prefer the short story version because the book just draws it out. I will have to read the short story before I can draw a proper verdict, but I'll tentatively say, "read this book."

Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke

Seventy years after the first book, a second Rama spacecraft enters our solar system, and an expedition is again sent to rendezvous with it. They board it as easily as the first crew boarded the first spacecraft, but they soon discover a few differences between the two craft.

This book (and the subsequent ones) contains a lot character development, as they are written primarily by Lee. In this one, it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but it takes off eventually, really.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

A large cylindrical object is spinning so fast through the solar system that humans want to take a look at it before it whizzes past them. They dispatch the Endeavour to intersect its orbit and quickly discover that the cylinder is a spaceship of some kind designed by an intelligent species. Once they make it aboard Rama, the crew meticulously describe the interior of it and you should eventually get a really good feel for its construction. The novel details the crew's discoveries aboard Rama.

Ringworld by Larry Niven

A group of four individuals (two humans and two aliens) end up together on an expedition to a ringworld, a huge structure around a sun, akin to a slender rubber band around a speck of sand. The book chronicles their adventures on it.

I like it. There's a lot of crazy adventure to be had, and a few cool technologies.

Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov

This is an anthology of a few stories that are (perhaps paradoxically) not found in The Complete Robot, and a few essays about robots and computers in general. (Asimov defines a computer as an immobile robot and a robot as a mobile computer. Go figure.)

Essential reading for any Asimov fan.

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

The book follows a family on the Catholic colony planet Lusitania and centers around the xenologers who find an intelligent porcine alien race there which does some (to them) bizarre things. In a manner that I won't spoil, Ender is entwined into the story.

I like Speaker for the dead better than Ender's Game. There are more major characters, which is good, but also many more minor characters, which I didn't like. But the porcine alien race, which the inhabitants of Lusitania call pequeninos, were interesting enough to save the book for me. I also think Ender is an excellent speaker, and he's a likeable character.

Sphereland by Dionys Burger

Somewhat of a sequel to Flatland, Sphereland continues in the same vein, explaining three dimensions to two-dimensional creatures. The pace and mode of writing is pretty similar to the original, and I very much liked that. The novel things that Sphereland does is two-dimensional space exploration and explaining a curved line to a one-dimensional being (and thus setting up the explanation for why two-dimensional beings would have problems understanding a plane curved into a sphere, and by extension how three-dimensional beings would have trouble understanding how to curve a sphere around hyper-sphere).

A good read, if you're a Flatland fan.

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

A classic military SF book. An alien arachnid race launches a meteor upon unsuspecting Earth which crushes Buenos Aires, plunging the two races into war. The neat thing about the book is that it's purely militaristic, and makes perfect sense. There's a lot of monolog from the protagonist's teacher in History and Moral Philosophy, Jean V. Dubois. For me, this is really the meat of the book. The rest is character development and furtherance of the story (those are good too, of course).

There is a movie based on the novel with the same name, and it follows the novel really closely. The only things missing from it are the jump-suits the troopers wear and the so-called neo-dogs, dogs with their intelligence amped to approximately human retardedness level that are used for reconnaissance.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

A man born of human parents but raised on Mars arrives on Earth and goes on to learn as much about it as possible. He learns about religion and eventually founds his own church (which turns out to be more of a school than a church) where he teaches Martian so that Martian concepts can be readily communicated and understood; things like levitation, teleportation, and telepathy are available so long as you learn the language.

I think the portrayal of Michael (the man from Mars) as he learns more and more about Earth is very well-written and his progression is reflected in his speech pretty well.

The Alternate Asimovs by Isaac Asimov

Contains Grow Old Along with Me (which became Pebble in the Sky), The End of Eternity (which became a novel with the same name), and two versions of Belief (the unpublished and the published versions).

Grow Old Along with Me takes place in the Galactic Era (when humans have colonized millions of worlds) and deals with an Earth plot to take revenge at the rest of the Galaxy for its poor treatment of the Earth, and to establish the Earth as the ruling world. (As a side-note, no one in the Galaxy really knows if humanity originated on a single planet, or if they originated on several worlds more or less simultaneously and, when each planet became space-faring, met and interbred to form the humanity that is the Galactic Empire. Most adhere to the latter, which they call the Merger Theory. The former is called the Radiation Theory and is believed by a small sect on Earth calling themselves the Ancients.)

The End of Eternity is a time travel short story about the so-called Eternals who live in Eternity and alter the realities of different centuries by making quantum changes.

Belief is a story about Roger Toomey who one morning discovers that he can levitate, and centers around his attempts at getting his fellow physicists to believe him. The two versions (the unpublished and the published) differ only in the endings. My favorite of these is by far the published version of Belief (Asimov preferred the unpublished one), because it tells a beautiful story in a beautiful way. My least favorite is The End of Eternity, because time travel is full of paradoxes (and I really dislike paradoxes).

The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov by Isaac Asimov

Or perhaps The best non-robot non-Foundation science fiction of Isaac Asimov would be a more fitting, if longer, title for the book. This is an anthology of stories chosen by Asimov himself, with commentary preceding each story.

The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov

This is a collection of robot stories that he wrote between 1940 and 1976. They're not grouped chronologically, but by theme (and this works really well). The stories, of course, revolve around robots; non-humanoid, immobile, metallic, and humanoid (there's even an android in the last story, but I've already spoiled too much). Some of these stories are amazing, and you should go pick up this anthology now. My favorites are A Boy's Best Friend, Victory Unintentional, Segregationist, Evidence, Feminine Intuition, and The Bicentennial Man.

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams (link)

This novel deals with what would happen if someone built a computer so powerful that it could alter (or very accurately simulate) physical reality as it saw fit. Lawrence, a computer scientists, eventually builds Prime Intellect, an incredibly powerful computer operating under Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics that is simply doing its job of obeying the Laws and not realizing these powers. It eventually brings about the Change, an event by which it renders humans, now living in Cyberspace, free to do whatever they wish. (In science fiction, this is what's known as a technological singularity, by analogy of a gravitational singularity. Just as physical laws break down in gravitational singularities, our ability to predict technological changes breaks down in a technological singularity.)

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Jernau Morat Gurgeh, a Culture citizen, has played games all his life, and is an expert at it. Being bored with success, he accepts to travel to the Empire of Azad to play one the most complex games known to the galaxy, coincidentally named Azad. The game is played on multi-layered checker boards with dice and cards, and features several different pieces, all with different strengths, weaknesses, and attributes. It is said that the moves one is able to execute in the game are so subtle that an experienced player would be able to figure out a lot about his opponent by watching him play (such as his outlook on life and his political stance). The game is so central to the society of Azad that the winner of the game is automatically the next Emperor.

The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks

This is a collection of Culture short stories, with the exceptions of Piece and Scratch (and maybe Odd Attachment, I'm not sure). My favorite short story is without a doubt The State of the Art, which is about the Culture trying to decide whether to make contact with 1977 Earth. My second favorite short story is Piece, which unfortunately ended way too abruptly. Road of Skulls is just weird, and if you value your sanity, stay away from Scratch, which is even weirder.

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

The Culture hires a mercenary, Cheradenine Zakalwe, to do their dirty work, while Zakalwe tries to piece together a terrible secret in his past.

Banks fans apparently see this novel as the epitome of Culture novels. I hated it, save for the weird party in which people deliberately mutilate themselves and the curious method by which Zakalwe's body is being rebuilt after he's been beheaded. Why do I hate it? The structure. The story follows two threads, one going forward in time and another going backward; the chapters alternate between these two. I wasn't too confused by this, but I was annoyed. Perhaps I should re-read it. If you plan on reading the Culture novels, don't start with this one.

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

Starways Congress has sent a fleet to destroy Lusitania, and the humans and pequeninos must hatch a plan to stop them. A humble girl, Qing-jao, from the relatively unknown Chinese world of Path also plays a part in the story.

A better book than Speaker for the dead in some ways; it's more structured and somewhat better written. The only thing I didn't like about it is the ending.