My Favourite Science Fiction Novels
After several weeks of uncharacteristic motivation, today I have once more slunk into the depths of procrastination. In an attempt to kick myself out of this self-dug pit, I’ve decided to take a few minutes and cogitate upon an ultimately pointless, but weirdly productive task. I’m going to rank my favourite science fiction books.
Now, as some of you know, I run a sci-fi review website called Skiffy, which I have largely been neglecting these past few years, mostly because endless hack attacks on my domains rendered that site unusable for many months. I’ve mostly reclaimed it, though. And, as some of you also know, I’ve struggled to fit pleasure reading into my life ever since I became a father four years ago.
So I see this project today as a baby step in rediscovering my connection with literature, and in particular that genre of literature that in many ways saved my life when I was a lonely, angst-filled teenager. I don’t have any overt criteria for this list, other than books that I like. But hopefully some common theme arises as I name them.
Without further delay…
5. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
How does one describe this book? It has everything: speculative physics, evolutionary biology, and computer science. It has a medieval setting, as well as trans-galactic space gods, and interstellar battles. There’s a small story involving the power struggles of a weasel-like species that is only sentient if they work in packs, set against a large story involving galactic apocalypse as a man-made godlike intelligence exterminates whole planets of civilizations. It is epic space opera that could not possibly be surpassed, except by its prequel…
4. A Deepness in The Sky, by Vernor Vinge
I was exhilirated to read this follow-up to Vinge’s epic masterpiece. Unlike other reviewers, I feel that this is actually the stronger book. Set in the same universe, but with a very different story, this book tells a centuries-long story of two competing space-faring trading organizations becoming stranded in orbit above a planet with low-technology spider beings. There is conflict, subjugation, and resistance, all told as the primitive society beneath the battle evolves into one sufficiently technologically advanced to assist the traders escape from their trap. Decades later, this is the Vinge story that lingers with me still. While the concepts in A Fire Upon the Deep were undeniably intellectually novel, the themes in A Deepness in the Sky tickle the imagination more.
3. The Mote in God’s Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Let me say bluntly, this book is very poorly written. It’s got misogynistic elements and laddish space opera tangents that are eye-rolling and frustratingly simplistic. As I wrote in my official review, “Niven and Pournelle are awful writers… if you hold your nose and tolerate the adolescent prose; if you forgive the basic errors in biological sciences; if you overlook some of the lazy plot elements, such as characters making assumptions that always end up being facts; then The Mote In God’s Eye is, as one reviewer aptly put it, a ripping good yarn.”
It is simply the very best “first contact” story you are likely to find. It’s so good (bad writing aside), in fact, that I’ve read it three times. And I adored it each time. It even has an excellent sequel, The Gripping Hand, which I’ve read twice.
The story, simply put, is that humans have spread across the galaxy but have never found any aliens. Until one day we discover that there’s a planet of them in a part of space that is difficult to get to. The book tells of the adventure of two human spaceships sent to make contact with this planet, and of the very strange species they encounter there. I was literally on the edge of my seat each time I read this book. The pacing is that excellent.
2. Songs of Distant Earth, by Arthur C. Clarke
I have long held deep affection for this book, its restrained prose and subtle emotional sheen. It is said that Clarke wrote it in defiant response to criticisms that his writing was too clinical and devoid of human content. It is so moving, in fact, that there is an entire instrumental album of music inspired by it. The novel’s story is straightforward. Humans send robots and biological samples out into the universe to create automated colony worlds. Some centuries later, as the Earth is about to die, we send one last ship of actual humans out into the cosmos. The book tells of the encounter between the humans in that last ship and one of the colonies we had created earlier.
In my official review, I called it, “a very moving and inspiring tale of optimism, heartache, loss, maturity, finality and love.” I like the NY Times reviewer’s take: “This is not a poetry that relies on fresh language or fresh insights; it is a poetry of perspective, of attitude; it invites us to forget our petty problems in the contemplation of a mortality so immense as to mimic immortality in scale.”
Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson
I had never heard of the author or the book when I first picked it up ten years ago. It opens with a flash-forward scene of a couple in a hotel room, one of whom is deathly ill, and has references to objects and events in the world that don’t really make any sense. I tend to dislike such openings. But this time it worked. The tone was set, one of morose dread that I never shook through the entire read.
This is the first book of a trilogy. Each book is quite different from the previous one. But together they tell one continuous story. Amazingly, unbelievably, I was rendered satisfied by its resolution, despite the stakes literally being unimaginably cosmic. To my mind, that is masterful storytelling.
Here is my spoiler-free premise summary from my official review:
“One fine summer evening, around present day, the sky disappears. Well, not exactly. It turns out that some kind of membrane has been wrapped around the Earth, blocking out the stars and filtering the sun such that it is a source of heat and light, but nothing more. All our satellites fall from orbit. For all intents and purposes, all of humanity is segregated from the universe. Who has done this? Why? How do we respond?”
It’s a story that has stuck with me for a decade. Nary a week goes by when I don’t think about it and its implications. If you like hard science fiction of the type that scratches existential philosophies, then this book is for you.
Honourable Mentions:
No, I will give you none. Everyone has a list of books they like. And that list changes every month, I bet. In fact, I made a similar list 16 years ago, and it ended up looking very different! If you have a title that you think belongs here, please add it in the comments below.
