Science fiction and Fantasy have always been about exploring new ideas in novel ways—right from the beginning, Mary Shelley saw the story of Frankenstein as a chance to explore ideas of liberation and equality that, at the time, were too uncomfortable for mainstream stories. Since then many writers have found success by mashing up sf with other literary genres to discover the boundaries—and the gray areas—between them. In my latest book I explore the deep connection between horror (the fear of the unknown) and sf (the drive toward wonder). Some of my most cherished books have similarly charted these murky borderlands.
As early as 1954, Asimov was already playing with the limits of genre.
He specifically wanted to prove that SF wasn’t just a limited set of tropes, but that it could tell any kind of story, so he set out to invade the murder mystery, long considered the most elevated branch of the genre family tree. The result is a fun adventure story about robots… and murder.
Though it can feel a little dated now this genre mashup paved the way for some incredible books to follow. Asimov returned to this idea, and these characters, many times in his career and those books proved to be some of his best.
Isaac Asimov's Robot series - from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels - contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day.
In the vast, domed cities of Earth, artificial intelligence is strictly controlled; in the distant Outer Worlds, colonists and robots live side by side.
A Spacer ambassador is found dead and detective Elijah Baley is assigned to find the killer. But with relations between the two cultures in the…
This science fiction and mystery story is about an astronaut from a world without men crashes on Earth and blows all our minds… except we’re also reading a story about a woman living in our 1970s, and a parallel Earth where WWII never happened… it gets a little confusing, in a really fun way.
Russ uses this engaging, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic multiverse story to explore topics of sex essentialism and gender fluidity in a way that still feels bracing and mind-expanding today.
You could say this is as much a philosophical treatise as a novel but that makes it sound like it isn’t any fun, when in fact it’s a blast. If you’re open to a far-out read you will not be disappointed.
A landmark book in the fields of science fiction and feminism.
Four women living in parallel worlds, each with a different gender landscape. When they begin to travel to each other's worlds each woman's preconceptions on gender and what it means to be a woman are challenged.
Acclaimed as one of the essential works of science fiction and an influence on William Gibson, THE FEMALE MAN takes a look at gender roles in society and remains a work of great power.
Ophelia, a professor of Dante, is stricken when she discovers that her husband Andy has been cheating on her with a winsome colleague. What follows is Ophelia’s figurative descent into hell as she obsessively tracks her subjects, performs surveillance in her beat-up Volvo, and moves into the property next door…
This book is a mix of science fiction and polemic. Simmons’ best known work other than The Terror (which would also fit on my list) is the story of a group of pilgrims on a world that promises actual immortality—or an excruciating death at the hands of a truly memorable and horrifying robot.
It takes its form from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, with each pilgrim relating their life story through a different genre lens. The best of the lot is the hardboiled noir detective, but they’re all compelling.
Some people find the ending of the story frustrating, but the road to get there puts this book consistently on lists of the greatest SF book of all time.
I absolutely cannot spoil what might be the greatest twist in genre lit, so you’re just going to have to take my word on this one.
Lee was a master of character-driven plots and this one starts with an oldie but goodie trope: the character who wakes up with amnesia and has to explore a whole world to find herself. Our heroine has no name and no face—she always wears a mask—but the mystery of whyshe does so will keep your turning page after page.
If the title alone doesn’t make you want to read this book, you need to ask what happened to your sense of wonder. Don’t worry, though, because this novel will bring it back from the dead.
A mysterious woman awakens in the heart of a dormant volcano. She comes forth into a brutal ancient world transformed by genocidal pestilence, fierce beauty, and cultural devastation. She has no memory of herself, and she could be anyone-mortal woman, demoness lover, last living heir to a long-gone race, or a goddess of destruction. Compelled by the terrifying Karrakaz to search for the mysterious Jade that is the answer to her secret self, she embarks on a journey of timeless wonder.
Rediscover this realm of brilliant cruel beauty and seductive immortal ruins, of savage war and grand conquest, of falling…
In this book set against the backdrop of a changing America, Sarah must find the courage to confront the ghosts of her past and come to terms with her future. Sarah, a young woman from the rural town of Tolerance, Arkansas, has endured an impoverished and painful childhood.
I love this book for its science fiction and magical realism. This generational saga of a small town on a recently terraformed Mars is both a love letter to and an evolution on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’sOne Hundred Years of Solitude.
McDonald wanted to capture the frontier magic of a whole new world in a way that wasn’t just moving the American West to space, and in the end he breathes new life into one of the oldest tropes of SF, the colony story.
Charming, fantastical, and witty, it shares its source material’s deep humanism even in the face of cynical realism. It may very well be my favorite novel of all time, and luckily for all of us, there’s an equally great sort of sequel, Ares Express.
It all started thirty years ago on Mars. By the time it was finished, the town of Desolation Road had been witness to every abnormality yet seen on the Red Planet. From Adam Black's Wonderful Travelling Chautauqua and Educational 'Stravaganza, to the Astounding Tatterdemalion Air Bazaar, nowhere else boasts such sights for the wandering lucky traveller.
Its inhabitants are just as storied. From Dr. Alimantando -- founder and resident genius -- to the Babooshka, a barren grandmother with a child grown in a fruit jar; from Rajendra Das, mechanical hobo whose way with machines bordered on the mystic, to the…
For ten thousand colonists, the planet Paradise-1 was supposed to be a chance at a new life. Fourteen months ago, however, the colonists cut off contact with Earth. Now Lieutenant Alexandra Petrova, her cocky pilot Sam Parker, the deeply broken Doctor Zhang Lei, and their irascible robot Rapscallion will journey to the colony to see what went wrong. They aren’t ready for what they’ll find. None of us are.
Combining horror with high-action science fiction, Paradise-1 is a thrill ride from cover to cover. Full of what Library Journal described as “intensely creepy world-building” and deep character drama, I guarantee you will not see where this one is going…
This is a steamy tale of vulnerability and betrayal. Struggling in her marriage, her new life in England, and her work in a hospice, Canadian-born Lindsey is drawn to her best friend's attractive husband, David.
Guilt about her fascination with David is complicated by her admiration for his wife, Grace,…
To hide a corporation’s failure to properly service a space ship, Captain Jonas Stryker is prosecuted but saved from imprisonment by a dying man, who hires Stryker to collect asteroids for their mineral content. Stryker soon finds he must stop a shadowy corporate group called The Board, who employ space…
