I'm currently writing my first full length Sci-Fi novel 'The Steam Powered Anoraks', I've got two short Sci-fi novellas available as Ebooks on Amazon The Ashes Debacle and The Dystopian Quandary.
I thought I'd take a short break from writing 'Anoraks' to compile a Top Ten of my favourite Sci-Fi novels, some are a hundred years old, some are just a year or two and others are somewhere in between. I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum. If your favourite isn't on the list then either... I haven't read it or I didn't like it. You may notice most either involve a near future dystopian Earth and/or Time Travel as I'm not that keen on inter-planetary Sci-fi books, sorry if that's your thing, but mine is near future or time travel. So Pop Pickers here's my list
10 - The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde
Set in an alternative 1985 Thursday Next works a Litra-tec, a Government agent fighting crime within books, her nemesis Acheron Hades can lie in thought, deed and action. He also does not show up on C.C.T.V. It's a very odd book, the (original) Crimean War is still raging and Thursday gets sucked into a book. (It would help if you read or re-read Jane Eyre). Oh and it also involves cloned Dodos... It has (at present) six sequels... all of which are very weird.
9 – Slaughter House Five – Kurt Vonnaght
The Narrator tells the story of Billy Pilgrim and his experiences during the fire-bombing of Dresden from a prisoner of war's point of view and is said to semi-autobiographical in relation to Kurt Vonnaught's own war time experiences, all standard stuff until the aliens arrive and whip Billy off to be an exhibit in a zoo back on their home planet....
8 – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea – Jules Verne
I love reading Jules Verne, even his non Sci-Fi is great (his short novella The Begum's Fortune is a must read), a late nineteenth French novelist translated into English which is far more readable than his almost contemporary Charles Dickens (A Tale Of Two Cities..... I've tried to read it a dozen times and never got past the first chapter.)
Anyway with regard to 'Leagues' it follows a renegade captain around the seas with hostages Proffessot Aronnax, his valet Conseil and Ned, a Canadian whaler on board. At times the Stockholm syndrome kicks in and they feel at one with the Captain, in one particular chapter involving the submarine getting frozen in ice the suspense is breathtaking and you have to keep turning the page. It is also unusual in the fact that its sequel 'Mysterious Island' is also a sequel to another novel of Verne's, 'In Search Of The Castaways' but 'Leagues' and 'Castaways' aren't linked at all.... clever writing.
7 – Time and Again – Jack Finney
Simon Morley an army veteran is recruited into a top secret Government time travel program and succeeds in in going back to the eighteen hundreds, he witnesses an insurance scam involving an office fire and a letter that had been made aware to the team in 1970. It also references the famous Dakota building where John Lennon was shot, ten years after the book was written. The descriptions of life in the past are magnificently detailed. Good old fashioned Time Travel without a silicone chip or semi-conductor in sight.
6 – Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
In the future fireman don't put fires out, they light them... specifically setting fire to books (Fahrenheit 451 refers to the ignition temperature of paper.) ordered to do so by a dictatorship in a fascist/dystopian society, it is purposefully an allegory (in my opinion) of the book burnings by the Nazi party in nineteen thirties Germany and MacArthurism in nineteen fifties America .
Ironically the book itself has been censored many times over the years, even 'officially' by the publishers removing the words hell, damn and abortion which altered over seventy paragraphs Bradbury as soon as he realised what had happened insisted on republication of the original manuscript. I was tempted to put another Ray Bradbury book into the list in place of '451' called 'The Martian Chronicles' but I love Dystopian fiction over space travel so '451' it is.
5 – The Time Machine – H.G Wells
Told through the eyes of the narrator, he tells the story of his friend who is referred to only as 'The Time Traveller.' He travels into the future and witnesses the destruction of society and the separation of the human race into two separate species, the Eloi and Morlocks and falls in love with a girl called Weena. After 'an adventure' (spoiler avoided) he returns back to his own time to get some books to educate Weena and her friends before returning to the future. I watched the 1960's George Pal film version aged about six and kept having to hide behind the sofa, the Morlocks were really scary!
4 – Trouble with Lichen – John Wyndham
Diana Brackley whilst working as a research scientist for Francis Saxover discovers an anti ageing drug she calls antigerone, she leaves the company and founds Nefertiti a beauty clinic. Both Francis and Diana develop the drug for their own ends. It has parallels in real life and scientists are at present trying to develop such drugs as we speak.... and is as current today as when it was published in 1960.
3 – Time and Time Again – Ben Elton
Almost the same title as number 7 in this list, but this a recent book by Ben Elton. Hugh Stanton is told how to go back in time just once to a specific date only. It allows him to try and prevent The First World War, some clever twists right in the last couple of chapters, I've read a lot Ben Elton's books, but this is by far the best... (it has time travel in it so its got to be....) And who doesn't like Blackadder and Upstart Crow....
2 – 1984 – George Orwell
If you haven't read this one then why? A lot people compiling a similar list would have this as number one, it follows Winston Smith in his secret fight against fascism and his love affair with Julia. It brought two phrases in to use, Big brother and Room 101. C.C.T.V follows you everywhere, A giant wall mounted T.V dominates everyone's lounge and everyone writes on tablets that can be read by the Government, how about all that for prophecies
1 – The Day Of The Triffids – John Wyndham
The population of the planet are blinded by satellite weapons that burn out the retina and Triffids (a genetically modified plant, bred for its oil which stings you then eats you) get loose and attack the survivors.
This is the second John Wyndham novel in the list. I could have included a couple more, The Midwich Cuckoos or The Kraken Wakes, but 'Triffids' is by far his finest book, it prophesies genetic crops and is a perfect example of a science fiction sub genre Soft-Apocalypse, i.e some people die, some don't but the infrastructure of modern life is left largely intact so the survivors can get on with building a new better society. I love this book and to me deserves to number one in my list so it is!
Just don't mention a few of Wyndham's other books, the two published posthumously 'Web' and 'A Plan for Chaos were dreadful, almost unreadable... and whilst the 1980's T.V adaption of 'Triffids' was excellent don't bother watching the Howard Keel or Noughties T.V version.....
So there's my top 10 Sci-Fi books.. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley nearly made it, but it came in at number eleven, Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy probably would have been twelve. I Tried to read Phillip K Dicks 'Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep' but couldn't get into it and I've never tried to read Margaret Atwoods 'A Handmaids Tale' or Frank Herberts 'Dune' perhaps I'd better read them (and try reading Dick's 'Androids' again) then do the list again.
And if you feel I've missed out your favourite then why not post a comment below naming it and I might check it out.....
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