Classic but mindshattering SF
Explore a curated list of classic, mind-blowing science fiction books that redefine reality. Discover timeless SF masterpieces that challenge perceptions and expand imaginations.
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ID: 0738811513
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Dorsai
by Gordon R. Dickson
Throughout the Fourteen Worlds of humanity, no race is as feared and respected as the Dorsai. The ultimate warriors, they are known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art of war has made them the most valuable mercenaries in the known universe. Donal Graeme is Dorsai, taller and harder than any ordinary man. But he is different as well, with talents that amaze even his fellow Dorsai. And once he ventures out into the stars, the future will never be the same....
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The Demolished Man
by Alfred Bester
In 2301, a psychopathic business magnate comes up with the ultimate plan to eliminate his competition and destroy the order of society.
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ID: 0345280237
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The Shockwave Rider
by John Brunner
A Science Fiction Book Club Selection "When John Brunner first told me of his intention to write this book, I was fascinated -- but I wondered whether he, or anyone, could bring it off. Bring it off he has -- with cool brilliance. A hero with transient personalities, animals with souls, think tanks and survival communities fuse to form a future so plausibly alive it has twitched at me ever since." -- Alvin Toffler Author of Future Shock He Was The Most Dangerous Fugitive Alive, But He Didn't Exist! Nickie Haflinger had lived a score of lifetimes...but technically he didn't exist. He was a fugitive from Tarnover, the high-powered government think tank that had educated him. First he had broken his identity code -- then he escaped. Now he had to find a way to restore sanity and personal freedom to the computerized masses and to save a world tottering on the brink of disaster. He didn't care how he did it...but the government did. That's when his Tarnover teachers got him back in their labs...and Nickie Haflinger was set up for a whole new education!
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The Man in the High Castle
by Philip K. Dick
It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. the few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war--and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan. This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to awake.
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ID: 0312584660
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The Hammer & The Cross
by Harry Harrison
In an alternate history set in A.D. 865, Shef, son of a Norse raider and an English lady, tries to carve out a kingdom of his own in England, while Christian kings and Viking worshippers of Asgard battle for the country's dominion.
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It
by Stephen King
A group of teenagers stumbles upon an evil force that will eventually draw them all back to Derry, Maine, for a final showdown. Reissue.
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ID: 0671460897
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Solaris
by Stanisław Lem
The first of Lem’s novels to be published in americanca and still the best known. A scientist examining the ocean that covers the surface of the planet Solaris is forced to confront the incarnation of a painful, hitherto unconscious memory, inexplicably created by the ocean. An undisputed SF classic. Translated by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox.
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Gateway
by Frederik Pohl
Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe...and on reaches of unimaginable horror. When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take! THE HEECHEE SAGA Book One: GATEWAY Book Two: BEYOND THE BLUE EVENT HORIZON Book Three: HEECHEE RENDEZVOUS Book Four: THE ANNALS OF THE HEECHEE
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Last and First Men, & Star Maker
by Olaf Stapledon
Two science fiction novels, written during the nineteen thirties, chronicle the future of civilization, foretelling such events as the worldwide fuel shortage and man's exploration of space
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More Than Human
by Theodore Sturgeon
In this genre-bending novel—among the first to have launched sci-fi into the arena of literature—one of the great imaginers of the twentieth century tells a story as mind-blowing as any controlled substance and as affecting as a glimpse into a stranger's soul. There's Lone, the simpleton who can hear other people's thoughts and make a man blow his brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and there are the teleporting twins, who can travel ten feet or ten miles. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world except for a conscience. Separately, they are talented freaks. Together, they compose a single organism that may represent the next step in evolution, and the final chapter in the history of the human race. As the protagonists of More Than Human struggle to find out who they are and whether they are meant to help humanity or destroy it, Theodore Sturgeon explores questions of power and morality, individuality and belonging, with suspense, pathos, and a lyricism rarely seen in science fiction. Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and International Fantasy Awards
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Steel Beach
by John Varley
The moon colony, Luna, is a virtual paradise where every need is provided for: food, prolonged lifespans, digital memories, and instant sex-changes. But the pointlessness of this easy life is making the inhabitants suicidal--including the central computer that monitors their existence. As humanity teeters on the edge of self-destruction, newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson sets out to find a new frontier.
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A Fire Upon The Deep
by Vernor Vinge
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization. A Fire Upon The Deep is the winner of the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
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ID: 0812501802
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Seventh Son
by Orson Scott Card
American Library Association "Best Books for Young Adults" From the author of Ender's Game, an unforgettable story about young Alvin Maker: the seventh son of a seventh son. Born into an alternative frontier America where life is hard and folk magic is real, Alvin is gifted with the power. He must learn to use his gift wisely. But dark forces are arrayed against Alvin, and only a young girl with second sight can protect him. Includes an excerpt of Orson Scott Card's new novel, THE LOST GATE! The Tales of Alvin Maker series Seventh Son Red Prophet Prentice Alvin Alvin Journeyman Heartfire The Crystal City