The Kraken Wakes (1953)

And all the stars a stage

James Blish

1971 · 206 pages · 1 review

Others: Mixed

From back cover of Avon paperback May 1974: WHEN THE SUN EXPLODES All life will end. No one will survive the blow-up; except the men and women who crowd into a few starships and fly away into space while there is still time, to look for a new home in the infinite void, a new planet on which to settle. Jorn, unskilled, unemployed, seemingly a reject from society, finds that he has what it takes to become one of the brave survivors, blasting off in hastily built ships that have never flown before. Jorn and his companions begin a long search, threatened by repeated disasters and despair, but ultimately leading through to an expected climax for which no one is prepared.

Plan For Chaos

John Wyndham

2009 · 256 pages · 1 review

Others: Mixed

Children of Time

Adrian Tchaikovsky

2015 · 624 pages · 17 reviews

Others: Mostly positive

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home. Following their ancestor's star maps, they discovered the greatest treasure of a past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New monsters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilisations are on a collision course and must fight to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

The Shape of Things to Come

H. G. Wells

1933 · 431 pages · 1 review

Others: Mixed

A futuristic novel in which Wells predicts, along with the Second World War, an eventual rise of a World State run by a benevolent dictatorship. This state promotes science over religion and enforces English as a global language and finally paves the way for a true Utopian State. The version below called "Things to Come" is not the book by Wells; it is a description of the film made much later.

Man Plus

Frederik Pohl

1976 · 215 pages · 2 reviews

Others: Positive

From back cover Orb Trade paperback May 2011: Earth is in crisis. There simply isn't enough water and arable land to support the burgeoning population. As the threat of nuclear war looms, the United States looks to Mars for the precious resources that could save humanity. But somebody must actually journey to the Red Planet to effect a solution, and it would be far too difficult and costly to change Mars to suit man; therefore man must be changed to suit Mars. Roger Torraway didn't plan to be Man Plus, the man who must undergo the surgeries and shaping necessary to enable someone to survive the hostile Martian environment. When he volunteered to serve as an understudy to astronaut Willy Hartnett, Roger never thought he'd actually be called upon. But when Willy dies in a freak accident, Roger becomes humanity's last hope. With every new step toward becoming Man Plus, Roger becomes less and less the man he was to those around him, and more and more something new, something strange and alien. Nothing about him is spared, not even his mind, which must adapt to being... different... if he is to survive. All the while, he is constantly reminded that he must succeed in surviving on Mars -- there's no time to start over before war breaks out -- because the fate of humanity rests on his increasingly nonhuman shoulders. Years after it won the Nebula Award, Man Plus is now, more than ever, a powerful, affecting novel about the worldwide environmental crisis that approaches, and the timeless questions of what makes us human.

Abaddon’s Gate

James S.A. Corey

2013 · 557 pages · 6 reviews

Others: Mostly positive

An alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark. Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core.