Science Fiction with Style
Explore top science fiction books with style! Discover a curated list of stylish sci-fi novels that blend futuristic themes with impeccable storytelling.
Book
Life During Wartime
by Lucius Shepard
David Mingolla is one of many drug-pumped grunts slugging it out in the rotten jungles of Guatemala, an expendable pawn in an endless, amoral war. Then he meets Debora, an enigmatic young woman who may be working for the enemy, and stumbles into the deadly war zone of psychic conflict where the mind is the greatest woapon, and thoughts are used to kill.
Book
Riddley Walker, Expanded Edition
by Russell Hoban
This acclaimed story is set in an England that has suffered a nuclear holocaust. Society has regressed to an Iron Age, semi-literate state represented by the special language that the author created especially for this book.
Book
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
by Philip K. Dick
In this wildly disorienting funhouse of a novel, populated by God-like--or perhaps Satanic--takeover artists and corporate psychics, Philip K. Dick explores mysteries that were once the property of St. Paul and Aquinas. His wit, compassion, and knife-edged irony make The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch moving as well as genuinely visionary.
Book
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
by R. A. Lafferty
"Here at last are the finest of Lafferty's shorter works, stories about: a man who found one day that he knew absolutely everyone in the world; a race who kept their most ancient ancestors on shelves in the basements; a speeded-up world where a man could earn and lose a dozen fortunes a night; a friendly bearlike creature named Snuffles who said he was God ... In all, twenty-one immensely enjoyable stories that will continue to delight you long after you've finished reading them."--Page 1
Book
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
Book
Schismatrix plus : includes Schismatrix and selected stories from Crystal Express
by Bruce Sterling
Here is a definitive edition of one of the most beloved worlds in science fiction--fans will love it. In the last decade, Bruce Sterling has emerged a pioneer of crucial, cutting-edge science fiction. This book includes the classic full-length novel, Schismatrix, plus thousands of words of mind-bending short fiction. It's vintage Sterling.
Book
A Rendezvous in Averoigne
by Clark Ashton Smith
These 30 stories represent the nightmarish world of the master of horror.
Book
Nova Express
by William S. Burroughs
Nova Express takes William S. Burroughs's nightmarish future one step beyond The Soft Machine. The diabolical Nova criminals have gained control and plan on wreaking untold destruction. It's up to Inspector Lee of the Nova Police to attack and dismantle the word-and-imagery machine of these control addicts” before it's too late.
Book
The Stars My Destination
by Alfred Bester
In this pulse-quickening novel, Alfred Bester imagines a future in which people "jaunte" a thousand miles with a single thought, where the rich barricade themselves in labyrinths and protect themselves with radioactive hit men--and where an inarticulate outcast is the most valuable and dangerous man alive.
Book
Hyperion
by Dan Simmons
A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man. On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands. Praise for Dan Simmons and Hyperion “Dan Simmons has brilliantly conceptualized a future 700 years distant. In sheer scope and complexity it matches, and perhaps even surpasses, those of Isaac Asimov and James Blish.”—The Washington Post Book World “An unfailingly inventive narrative . . . generously conceived and stylistically sure-handed.”—The New York Times Book Review “Simmons’s own genius transforms space opera into a new kind of poetry.”—The Denver Post “An essential part of any science fiction collection.”—Booklist