Loved ita chillingly plausible vision of climate collapse and social divide set in what used to be Melbourne, Australia, and which employs a clever framing device, and not the last one of those that we'll see in this list.
Review 1 of 2
The Sea and Summer (SF Masterworks) (2013)
Others: Overwhelmingly positive - ISBN:
- 9780575118690
- Length:
- 384 pages
Genres: science fiction
Lists: …
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1 of 6
Ammonite
Nicola Griffith
1993 · 397 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveChange or die. These are the only options available on planet Jeep. Centuries earlier, a deadly virus shattered the original colony, killing the men and forever altering the few surviving women. Now, generations after the colony lost touch with the rest of humanity, a company arrives to exploit Jeep—and its forces find themselves fighting for their lives. Terrified of spreading the virus, the company abandons its employees, leaving them afraid and isolated from the natives. In the face of this crisis, anthropologist Marghe Taishan arrives to test a new vaccine. As she risks death to uncover the women’s biological secret, she finds that she too is changing—and realizes that not only has she found a home on Jeep, but that she alone carries the seeds of its destruction. . . . Ammonite is an unforgettable novel that questions the very meanings of gender and humanity. As readers share in Marghe’s journey through an alien world, they too embark on a parallel journey of fascinating self-exploration.
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What made the match, strongest first
Also science fiction79%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations21%Babel-17
Samuel R. Delany
1966 · 192 pages · 6 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveDuring an interstellar war one side develops a language, Babel-17, that can be used as a weapon. Learning it turns one into an unwilling traitor as it alters perception and thought. This is discovered by the starship captain Rydra Wong. She is recruited to discover how the enemy are infiltrating and sabotaging strategic sites.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also science fiction79%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations21%Blue Mars
Kim Stanley Robinson
1996 · 761 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveThe red planet is red no longer, as Mars has become a perfectly inhabitable world. But while Mars flourishes, Earth is threatened by overpopulation and ecological disaster. Soon people look to Mars as a refuge, initiating a possible interplanetary conflict, as well as political strife between the Reds, who wish to preserve the planet in its desert state, and the Green "terraformers". The ultimate fate of Earth, as well as the possibility of new explorations into the solar system, stand in the balance.From the Paperback edition.
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What made the match, strongest first
Also science fiction79%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations21%Children of Time
Adrian Tchaikovsky
2015 · 624 pages · 17 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveThe 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?
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also science fiction79%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations21%China Mountain Zhang
Maureen F. McHugh
1751 · 320 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveWinner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee. With this groundbreaking novel, Maureen F. McHugh established herself as one of the decade's best science fiction writers. In its pages, we enter a postrevolution America, moving from the hyperurbanized eastern seaboard to the Arctic bleakness of Baffin Island; from the new Imperial City to an agricultural commune on Mars. The overlapping lives of cyberkite fliers, lonely colonists, illicit neural-pressball players, and organic engineers blend into a powerful, taut story of a young man's journey of discovery. This is a macroscopic world of microscopic intensity, one of the most brilliant visions of modern SF.
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Also science fiction79%2 creators loved bothPersonalize your recommendations21%Embassytown
China Miéville
2011 · 350 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveEmbassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, Humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes. Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts. And that is impossible.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
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Loved it
Loved itBut I think it says a lot that this is one of those rare books that, at the end of the year, I had to upgrade to a five-star book because I just kept thinking about it and how great it was.