Six Wakes is a good old-fashioned murder mystery in space that starts with everyone on the ship being murdered. Everyone’s backup clones then wake up to the bloody massacre and have to figure out who killed everybody and why. Any one of them could be the killer, and not even know it. As the clones appear to work together to piece together clues, secrets and ulterior motives slowly come to light.
7 Best Terraforming Books
The word “terraforming” was first coined by Jack Williamson in a science-fiction short story (“Collision Orbit”) published during 1942 in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. Deliberately altering an entire planet’s atmosphere and environment would be, of course, the largest engineering achievement in the history of humankind, but science fiction excels at looking at such impossibly bold ambitions.
14 Books Like Dune
Sometimes, you’re just in a Dune mood, whether that means palace intrigue, epic quests, scheming villains, hostile planets, tough native populations, or wild aliens.
Review: Recursion by Blake Couch
Recursion is a fun page-turner, but it’s a little too similar to the author’s previous (and excellent) book, Dark Matter. (My review here) Author Blake Couch seems particularly interested in the problem of experiencing alternate lives.
25 Best Science Fiction Book Movie Adaptations
There’s a special, deep satisfaction when a great science fiction book becomes a great movie.
24 Best Artificial Intelligence Science Fiction Books
Most artificial intelligence in books is very similar to human intelligence, but with perfect memory and incredibly fast speed of thought. My guess is that, in reality, true artificial intelligence will feel completely alien to us. If that happens, then the first contact with an alien intelligence will happen with an alien we’ve created.
23 Best Modern Dystopia Books
Dystopian art by Alex Andreev
Dystopian fiction is making us scared. Stop writing it!
Or, we’re writing it because we’re already scared, so we should probably write more.
The future, like the present, can be both wonderful and terrifying.
If you find yourself drawn to dystopian stories, ask yourself, “Why?” Is it because the future looks bleak? Or does a truly fresh start sound pretty good?
It’s okay if the answer is both. Feeling strongly about two or more completely contradictory things is deeply human (annoying, but human).
Review: Steel Beach by John Varley
A lot of people love John Varley’s books, and he’s a Hugo- and Nebula-award winner, so I decided to give him another try (I didn’t particularly like one of his other books, Titan).
Review: Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Childhood’s End is considered Arthur C. Clarke’s greatest work. Better than 2001, better than Rendezvous With Rama, better then The Songs of Distant Earth.
19 Best Star Wars Books
I’m a big fan of the Star Wars universe, but I haven’t been drawn in by many of the latest movies or TV shows (except The Mandalorian, of course. Wow, that’s fun). But books give another entry into that universe.
There are almost four hundred Star Wars books out there, covering a wide range of quality, from exceptional, to just embarrassing. There are also two timelines: the Canon books are the ones Disney has decided “really” happened in the Star Wars universe, and the Legends books, which are the majority of the older stories, written before Disney bought Lucasfilm.
I suggest you ignore whether something is Canon or Legends or not and just enjoy a good story in a great universe.