Do Not Resuscitate is a story told by the aging Jim Frost, who’s being harassed by a daughter with control issues to get his brain downloaded and backed up. As he considers what this means about the impermanence of death, and how much he doesn’t agree with it, he tells the story of his life. He’s seen a lot of the world go to pot while transporting red coolers for a mysterious boss.
All posts by Dan
Review: His Master’s Voice by Stanislaw Lem
His Master’s Voice is a smarter book than I am a reviewer, so my vantage point is of a slow runner presuming to give a complete 3D perspective of a faster runner, when all I can see is his back.
Earth has received a mysterious message from space, and several thousand scientists are tasked with decoding it. They fail (this isn’t a spoiler—it’s revealed early in the book).
15 Best Science Fiction Western Books
“Science fiction western” sounds like an oxymoron, but space travelers and cowboys have plenty of similarities: they’re often portrayed as hardy individuals traveling through hostile landscapes, visiting isolated colonies of civilization where things are rarely as they seem, and the natives often have their own agendas.
There aren’t a ton of sci-fi western novels out there, so this list includes several short story collections.
21 Best Immortality Science Fiction Books
Concept art from the movie The Fountain
If there’s anything that people want more than love and money, it’s long life. However, true immortality (or even super-long life) would undoubtedly present a host of unexpected consequences, and no good story can be summarized They Got Everything They Wanted And It All Turned Out Fine.
25 Best Science Fiction Books for Kids
There’s nothing quite like corrupting the innocent minds of kids, and science fiction is the best gateway storytelling out there. Yes, better than fantasy (and I’ve got my own well-read copy of The Silmarillion, so any haters can chill).
Review: Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
Cosmicomics is a wild imagination’s love letter to science. It’s a series of tales told by a creature named Qfwfq, who’s been around since before the universe began.
19 Best Biopunk Books
Biopunk is a flavor of science fiction that focuses on intended (and unintended) consequences of biotechnology.
As a lapsed marine zoologist, I have special love for biopunk. While I think cyberpunk has done a great job in predicting the near future (computers and screens everywhere, mass surveillance, rule by corporation), my money’s on biopunk for the long haul.
Review: The Ware Tetralogy by Rudy Rucker
After finishing most books, I’ll put them down and think something like, “That was a good book,” or “The ending was terrible,” or “I’m hungry.”
But with The Ware Tetralogy, I put the big book down and wondered what the hell just happened to me.
Review: Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
It’s easy to be a hero when you’re saving the entire world or galaxy or species. Which is why the hard-boiled detectives are the most heroic characters out there. They’re not out to ram the bad guy’s spaceship. More likely, they’re trying to find justice for a murdered little nobody, or get an intensely offensive (but innocent) man out of jail.
This dogged deathgrip on principle directs the actions of private detective Conrad Metcalfe in a bizarre future world populated by talking animals, drugs for all, and the most authoritative state I’ve ever come across. It’s dark, funny, fast-paced, clever, and chilling.
Recommendation: Buy it new and place it in a prominent place. I’ve got it on a shelf right over my desk.
23 Best Science Fiction Mystery Books
We like mystery because life is mysterious, and story-telling exists to help us figure out how to live. Mysteries help us figure out how to deal with the unending avalanche of unknowns in our own lives (probably not directly, unless you deal with dead bodies a lot).