Great Works of Science Fiction
(From right to left on the shelf)
Iain M. Banks - Culture Series
Iain is without a doubt my favourite author in any genre, in particular the Science Fiction and most especially the Culture Series (remember what I was saying about comfort reads?) If I have to pick an absolute favourite it would probably be “Look to Windward”.
Over the years I’ve owned various editions but now the pride of my collection is the 13 volume paperback series you can see here. Not only do they nicely coloured covers, if you line them up correctly there is a nice swirly pattern across the spines! Kudos to Orbitbooks for bringing out the complete matching set and doing such a good job of it.
William Gibson - The Neuromancer Series
Ground breaking and deeply immersive. I really like the world building through the use of jargon and language that is explained later (if at all), it is just assumed that we are familiar with that world which brings us right into it. Great stories and iconic characters too.
Three novels, Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive and Count Zero with matching cover designs.
Robert Heinlein - A Selection
Robert Heinlein was another of the “big three” (along with Clarke and Asimov) whose works I devoured endlessly in my teenage years. I’ve represented his work here with what are widely regarded as his best works, although at the time I probably preferred the juvenile stories like Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Tunnel in the Sky and Time for the Stars (although I also had a soft spot for The Door Into Summer).
Works included so far, Starship Trooper, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, with matching covers.
Neal Stephenson - A Selection
These were readings from somewhat later life, after university (and still reading SF!). I’ve chosen Snow Crash and The Diamond Age as I really enjoyed both of those, as always with me, it is the world building that I really enjoy and the immersion in the sub-creation. I did also enjoy Cryptonomicon although it is more alt-history than straight Science Fiction.
Two paperbacks, vaguely matching covers.
Kim Stanley Robinson - The Mars Trilogy
I enjoyed these soon after they first came out, although I thought they were a bit “conversation” heavy and, especially the later ones, lacked a bit of action. However, a recent re-read has re-confirmed to me what a great achievement they are. Kim demonstrates a knowledge of huge range of subjects and weaves them brilliantly into a detailed future history. Yes, there is a lot of talking, and no, apart froma few big set pieces, there sometimes isn’t a lot happening but there’s still something compelling about these when you are reading them. I also have The Martians in my to-be-read pile…
Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars paperback with matching covers.
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
OK, so this isn’t great literature, I include it here for personal reasons as it brings back some great memories and there are just so many great scenes that up-turn all the best SF tropes. Copies of the radio shows circulated among my contemporaries on much copied cassette tapes, and around age 17 I recall taking a day-trip to London with a friend and both buying copies of one of the newly released sequel and reading bits out to the each other on the train on the way home.
The Complete Trilogy of Five, paperback with bonus material and a small “Don’t Panic” on the cover.
Dan Simmons - The Hyperion Cantos
A hugely ambitious masterwork of great depth and emotional power. Brilliantly plotted and excitingly written, always worth a re-read (or a re-listen as I enjoyed the audiobooks too.) Also ultimately quite uplifting once you get to the end.
Four paperbacks, Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The rise of Endymion, not even matching sizes, let alone have related covers. Deeply annoying and very much in need of a sympathetic re-issue, perhaps with an introduction by Adam Roberts…
Alasdair Reynolds - The Revelation Space Series
The Revelation Space series is a major achievement - a carefully constructed and detailed future history strongly rooted in conventional physics (no warp drives or wormholes here!) and with some well rounded and realised characters representing the various factions that populate humanty’s future.
I wouldn’t say it is an easy read - the plots are complex and future that is portrayed can be a bit bleak (and scary!) but that doesn’t take anything away from the great science fiction that this represents.
My actual favourite is ironically outside the Revelation Space universe, I have a real soft-spot for House of Suns and its epic scope and scale but I don’t currently have that in physical form.
What I do have to represent this series is actually a mistaken purchase! Sometime ago I bought an eBook from Google Books titled “The Revelation Space Collection” and containing five novels and a bunch of short stories (absolute bargain if I recall…) Anyway, when I saw on Waterstones that something called “The Revelation Space Collection” was coming out in a two volume hardback set I pre-ordered it thinking it was the same thing. Sadly, on arrival it turns out to be just the short stories… Oh well, they have nice covers at least.
Frank Herbert - Dune Series
This was another one of my early teenage reads and it blew me away at the time, I had the thick paperback with the image of Fremen and an ornithopter on the front and a sand harvester on the back. I also recall going to see the David Lynch movie in the Leicester Square Odeon and explaining the plot to my girlfriend at the time and all those around us leaning in to understand what was going on too.
As that youngster I read Children of Dune and God Emporer but then moved on to other things. For my recent re-read I finally completed the second trilogy and have started to read some of the further works written by his son (which, it has to be said, are not quite as good).
Another triumph of both world building and story in great depth.
They are represented here by the lovely pair of trilogies that were recently released by Gollanc and look great.
(SF Logo by demco.com)