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Written by Russ Crandall
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Thursday, 04 February 2010 05:11 |
As we transition from our old site to this new one, we've decided to bring along some of our favorite posts as well. Enjoy our trip down memory lane.
Since this is a blog by nerds for nerds, I thought I would have our first "My Faves" post concerning books (without pictures) to be about sci-fi books. I'm not a very big sci-fi fan, so my collection falls more under the mainstream, social-commentary sort of novels:
6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
This novel is set in a hedonistic future where "firemen" actually burn books, and it follows one fireman as he learns more about the society around him. Of Bradbury's canon (which has been adapted all over the place), I find this novel to be the deepest and most relevant of his works. Although The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit was a short story I enjoyed as a teenager. A film adaptation has been in pre-production for years, with both Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks coming onboard and jumping ship shortly thereafter.
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Another dystopian novel, this one draws many parallels to Orwell's 1984 and is often outshined by its "big brother", although Brave New World came out a good 10-15 years earlier. Set in a world where recreational sex and hallucinogenic drugs keep the population at bay, someone discovers a man who had been raised in the "wild", away from their society. He is introduced to this "brave new world", and the rest is history. Rumors of a film starring Leonardo DiCapprio (and directed by Ridley Scott) have been flying around for a while.
4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Probably the favorite sci-fi novel among twenty-somethings, Ender's Game is 25+ years old but still very similar to many modern sci-fi premises. Like Star Wars, it has many underlying story elements that have led to its universal acceptance, like a boy genius/savior and an unseen but always present threat from an unfamiliar enemy. It's a short but potent novel, and definitely worth the read (unlike its five sequels, which were a little too heady). An XBLA game, Ender's Game: Battle Room is being developed by the makers of Undertow as we speak. A film adaptation has been rumored for years as well, with Wolfgang Peterson at the helm.
3. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse Five is all about the fusion of fiction and reality. The main character is held prisoner by the Germans in a slaughterhouse in Dresden. During his capture he becomes "unstuck in time" and is held captive by an alien race that sees in fourth dimensions. Vonnegut himself actually witnessed the fire bombing of Dresden as a prisoner held in, you guessed it, a place called Slaughterhouse Five. Although it deals with time travel, the novel is mostly about predestination; and like all of Vonnegut's work, gets better with every read.
2. A Planet Called Treason by Orson Scott Card
My one trump card - A Planet Called Treason is Card's second novel (Ender's Game being his first) and it's a fairly rare read. It was republished as Treason in 1988, but with some stylistic editing, and I've only read the original. It tells the tale of political traitors banished to a planet, aptly called Treason, and each of their descendants make up the nation-states that comprise this story. A traveler named Lanik roams the planet and the adventure he has is one that only a young novelist or a ten-year-old could come up with; and reading it makes me feel like a ten-year-old, all over again. It's not the finest novel ever written, but it oozes creativity and adventure, and is a perfect rainy-day read.
1. 1984 by George Orwell
When someone writes a novel that is so relevant that future dystopian societies are referred to as "Orwellian", it pretty much deserves a #1 spot. But 1984 is even more than the sum of its aftereffects; it's that one affecting novel that actually scares you without being scary. The novel makes you consider the ideas behind censorship, freedom, security, sexual repression and nationalism, and it should be required reading for anyone in public service.
Runners up:
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
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