The best sci-fi books at generating emotion

Who can forget the Shrike? So treacherous. So invincible. I lost sleep waking up from nightmares about the Shrike. An absolutely unforgettable character, yet never even spoke a word of dialogue. And virtually all of the many other intriguing characters are tied to the Shrike in some fascinating way. I was particularly enamored with Martin Selinus, the poet of Hyperion, author of The Dying Earth, which sold over 2.5 billion copies. But I will never forget the Consul (far more than a government official), Brawne Lamia (the detective), Sol Weintrob (the scholar), Kassad (the soldier), Johnny Keats (the fusion cybrid), Father Hoyt (the priest), the mysterious Moneta, and more! Hyperion is built on the backs of its characters. A book that remains solidly placed in my mind.

Jim Holden, from Earth, touched my sense of morality. Detective Miller, from the Belt, touched my sense of courage. Naomi Nagata, from the Belt, touched my sense of love. Alex Kamal, from Mars, touched my sense of regret. Amos Burton, from the underworld of Earth, touched my sense of fear. Leviathan Wakes is nearly 600 pages long, and I was sad to see it end. But so happy that there were 8 more tomes in this sci-fi adventure series, each with new fascinating characters, taking me to the farthest reaches of the universe, and ever so poignantly teaching me that there is so much more for us to learn about realms we cannot see.  

I was moved from the opening lines of Old Man’s War. An ordinary man of 75 visits his wife’s grave, then joins the army. What? Oh yeah, now I understand. Mind uploading is integral to this book, first published in 2005, and it will soon be the rage in the real world of our near future. In Old Man’s War we experience mind uploading through the character, John Perry, and other new recruits. Then we fight. Perry becomes a war hero, and he crosses paths with his wife along the way. What? I thought she was dead? Oh yeah, now I understand. She was grown from Kathy Perry’s DNA, but she has no memory of John. Or does she? Military sci-fi adventure blooms into a love story? Wow, this could be a series. Oh, wait. It is! 

There is a slow build of emotion in this book. The use of cryogenic sleep allows the human characters to live for thousands of years. The passing of genetic memory from generation to generation allows the spider characters to do the same. But the spiders have one advantage. They’ve been infected by a human-designed nanovirus which causes them to evolve on an accelerated basis. And finally, AI allows the villain of the story, Avrana Kern, to live on, in spite of her human body wearing out. We ultimately feel the deep emotion of living things, struggling against one another to survive in a hostile universe—the humans, the spiders, and the AI ghost of Avrana Kern. By the time humans, spiders, and AI meet, the spiders may be the smartest of the three species. So who survives?

Full of fascinating sci-fi technology and characters, The Last Watch caused me to feel awe. The central concept surrounds the discovery of the edge of the universe. It’s called The Divide, and humans have used alien technology to reach it. And you definitely do not want to cross over The Divide. But what happens when the universe begins to collapse? The Sentinels—a rag-tag group of humans who’ve been banished for committing various crimes against humanity—are the guardians at The Divide. Led by an equally powerful and flawed protagonist, Adequin Rake, they square off against aliens and humans to try and save the universe. Action, love and death, and the emotions inherent in these things, are thoroughly enjoyed when you read this book.