An Alien Heat

I love a book that makes me laugh. But if I immediately feel guilty or disturbed for laughing, if the story makes me re-examine my values page after page, that is a home run.

This – the first of the Dancers at the End of Time series of books and short stories – had me pondering the boundaries of scientific reality as well as right versus wrong while also being galactically entertained.

The (objectively awful) main characters are time- and space-hopping immortals. Virtually all-powerful, they can change their own appearance and environment at will. When one of them decides to… show more.

Moorcock is better known for his Elric books, and grand, splashy epic fantasy, while my pick is more intimate but (I think) just as grand.

An Alien Heat is the first book in Dancers At the End of Time, and I read as a teen and have loved it ever since (even if some of it was over my head.) It’s the story of Jherek, perhaps the last human to ever be born, and Amelia, a proper Victorian lady thrown out of her own time, in a fantastical city literally at the end of time—it's right there in the title.… show more.