Deadly Weight Loss, a POD World novella

It is purely fun and wacky. Relatively soft but with hard elements. It gives a glimpse into one of our many possible futures and problems we may face in the future. The characters are nicely fitted into stereotypes and work well together and the stories are outlandish enough to keep interest but they're not too much.

Deranged paranoia, mind-bending ideas and lots of humour. This last point is crucial as all the Hollywood adaptations of Dick have lack his wit and irony. Indeed, don't think any film version of Dick has really captured his tone properly. Gritty, satirical, thrilling, terrifying, mindblowing I could throw adjectives at this book for the rest of my life and make every one of them stick.

Schismatrix not only helped birth what we now think of as the "New Space Opera" e. Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds , but was arguably the first novel to imagine a plausible posthuman solar system, riven by ideologies and wild economics, teeming with conflict and graft, and packed with moments of pure sensawunda.

Best of all, apart from the handful of short stories set in the same fictional universe, Sterling never felt the need to cash in on the critical success of Schismatrix with sequels; the end result is a novel that still reads as fresh and powerful to this day, more than a quarter of a century after its initial publication. While not as evidently prescient as Huxley or Orwell, Zamyatin explores a potential extrapolation of the Soviet ideal. Some may call it a reductio ad absurdum but ultimately it highlights the dangers of the worship of technology, the establishment of systems and rules and progress - while it is full of allusions to the early Soviet state, it has a universal message which is certainly interesting - furthermore, its relatively inconclusive ending evades traditional dystopian SF tropes of the revolution or regime change per se.

While its plot can be considered a simple adventure or mystery, Banks' real strength is in realising a genuinely alien futuristic society which at the same time uses elements of the contemporary world, at times exaggerated, in unfamiliar or extreme ways. On a purely superficial level, the detail with which Banks describes the society depicted, and the impossibly complex alien games which form the core of the plot, ignite the imagination in a way only the best SF does.

Well the answer is yes sometimes and particularly in this book albeit some unknown space drug. Put very simply he recognises that when something or anything is looked at more closely reality and consciousness will change ultimately meaning that both are unstable. In Dicks books this manifests itself firstly in paranoia and then to transcendence. With Dick the journey to transcendence or new forms of understanding can be a very stressful one for his protagonists.

While some might consider this novel a pulp horror twist on Lord of the Flies, it is given a new dimension if read with knowledge of Japanese contemporary history and perceptions of young people. It plays on fears of juvenile delinquency and student violence, which is a common theme across popular culture youth gangs and violent schools feature prominently, another example being the recent film Confessions and then mixes it with ideas of how willing anyone is to kill for self defence or self-promotion. A challenging and interesting book best read with some understanding of the culture within which it was written although the film adaptation is also of high quality.

The cleverest Sci-Fi book i've ever read. A classicand the reason that Azimov deserves his moniker of the father of Science Fiction. This book features on every 'Best of' list at some time or other and there's a good reason: So much of science fiction focuses on heavy subject matter without a drip of humor. Adams wants us to laugh at it all, the pretentiousness and the craziness and never forget our towel.

War as a constant theme, messed up with embryonic sleeps through hyper speed jumps across the universe, to fight in a ship that is now 10 years out of date. Multi-platform emotional relationships and an unknown foe. What's not to like? The aliens will need to know what humanity was like even if only to recreate us as a digital slave race in their virtual reality matrix , and if any single author grasps the state of our technological society today it is William Gibson. I was 14 when I first read Neuromancer, one of the first generation to grow up hooked in to the computer-generated realities that Gibson so presciently explores.

The best science fiction books

For me and for millions of others who live in the modern reality of computers and the internet, William Gibson's imagined future is closer to the truth of now than any work of realist literature. If you liked Neiromancer, you'll probably like this. Good cyberpunk vibe to it and some literary pretentions , going with a wellpaced, nicely written, occasionally twisted little book. It has survived a damn sight longer than most 'real' scfi novels ever will. And it's a great yarn. It's got everything - essentially it's about Imperialism and Rhetoric, but it has many lessons and much wisdom for those interested in learning about Imperialism, especially the modern-day form of 'Aid' and 'helping the natives' - but then justifications for Imperialism have usually been wrapped up in fluffy-feel-good 'humanitarian' terms.

A good SF novel should be, above all things, a good novel. Sturgeon, a great short-story writer, uses the genre to explore what it is to be human, and how we can strive to be more. It is a novel of discovery, but also a novel of compassion and hope. It's also a cracking good read! One of the most accurate prediction novels I've ever read. This book is great sci-fi- offers a convincing portrayal of a science-led society where privacy and individualism are crushed with an exploration of love, conscience and desire.

Despite some dubious plot points Perdido Street Station features one of the most mesmerising and terrifying monsters I've ever come across. Described with a stunning, fluid, dreamlike intensity, in a wonderfully rendered world, the Slake Moths made Perdido Street Station the most memorable sf novel I've read. Banks novels are great because you have to think quite hard to understand them while you're reading them. I normally read pretty fast, but I have to slow down to read an Iain M. Which is appropriate for The Algebraist because he created a whole species of creatures, The Dwellers, that are 'slow'.

They live for aeons, on gas giants, and little things like having a conversation can go on for centuries for them. When I read this book I thought that was the most wonderful idea, that we can't communicate with some entities because we're simply on a different time scale. The fun of reading Iain M. Banks novels is that somehow he manages to think of these things, that once you've got your head round make perfect sense but you might never have thought of yourself.

The Laws of Robotics have been one of the guiding ethical codes of my life - and should be for any good person, I believe. I was very surprised that not a single person mentioned Asimov as their favourite, despite him having such a wide repertoire. This is a strange little novelette in the middle of Dickson's epic "Dorsai" series. It tells the tale of a pacifist Dorsai who like all Dorsai is in the military, but whose weapon is the bagpipes.

Surrounded in a fortress by hordes of clansmen on a Spanish speaking planet, he uses music to insult and infuriate the hordes and sacrifice himself to win the battle. His honour and courage and the creativity of the cultural values described make this story one my favorites of all time.

Ridley Scott is working up the film project now. Superb book, though if you have seen Starship Troopers the film it can spoil it a bit. Its scary, funny and unusually for PKD its got lots of heart. Gully Foyle is a refreshing bastard of a hero. He's agressive, selfish and mean and deserves everything he gets Very cool book goes a little freaky at the end. A beautifully simple idea a child with an invisible friend that as the book progresses becomes more intriguing and more dangerous at the same time.

Also - it's an easy read that can encourage youngsters to take up SF. Brilliant short story about the exploitation of a young gaming genius by the military, published originally in Unfortunately got expanded into a series of novels, but the original is a chillling political parable, which has gained resonance in the era of child soldiers and xbox. Not only does it have dinosaurs, humour, adventure and a loss of control of the environment in which the protagonists find themselves, but unlike the film version it examines the importance of chaos theory which is what makes it SF for me.

Two more choices in no order of priority: A pretty obvious one - Childhood's End is one of Arthur C. Clarke's best and is a science fiction classic. Any fan of the genre reading this book will instantly notice countless ways in which it has influenced subsequent work. For anyone new to the genre, this book is a good starting point.

The story itself is short, enthralling, and easy to read.

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Even reluctant readers could finish it in a day or so. Murakami is our greatest living writer, and whilst most of his books have flights of fancy that could loosely align them with SF, this is his full-blown masterpiece. Discovered it when I was 11 or 12, in the adult section of the local public library.

It opened me up to the world of "what if" that has remained to this day. I was hooked on Science Fiction since. Smith is human, only he was born on Mars, and raised there. That has caused him to think a bit differently, and use more of his brain than the rest of us do. When the full version of the book was finally released, I also bought a copy of it. Using it as a way to look at life, and how we can treat one another, as opposed to how we do responded to daily life, remains fascinating.

It does not cease to teach. I have given copies of it away, as gifts, to whomever asks "Why do you like to read that junk, anyway? Asimov's robot stories not only present a coherent, imaginative vision of the future, but also give us an insight into the ways in which he and others during his lifetime thought about and presented the future.

Not only that, but he writes excellent prose and the stories he conceived are always clever and illuminate the human condition. I wish very much that he was alive today to see the innovations that are happening now. It's an SF story that's really all about humanity, including man's inhumanity to man. It's really the history of philosophy disguised as SF but don't let that put you off. Its depth and language. It rung a chord at the time, the messiah will be crucified nor what time what century and what period.

Our political masters cannot handle popular uprising even if they are democratic institutions. The original world, within a world, within a world, later used frequently in the matrix inception and others. The thirteeth floor film adaptation doesn't do it justice. I would recomend this book because it deals with exactly what science fiction means to discuss: Lem's best novel is about epistemology, and the our absolute ignorance of what lies beyond the bounds of the earth, and how utterly unprepared we are to encounter it.

Very very difficult to describe - but it's simply brilliant. It's wildly imaginative, frightening - psychedelic, even. A great, simple story boy searches for lost sister set in a future Britain seemingly viewed through early 90s ecstasy-flavoured optimism. Gods and monsters, budhism v hinduism v christianity in a fight to the finish, the worst pun ever recorded, and a joy in humanity in all of its many aspects and attributes. And yes, it's SF, not fantasy. I used to re-read this book every couple of years; it's long, confusing at times, but has a wonderful circular narrative that invites further exploration.

It's also got a fabulous sense of place even though the city of Bellona is fictional. Like early McEwan stories, Delany brilliantly captures a sense of urban ennui and although there are elements of hard sci-fi in the book, they are kept in the background, so that the characters are allowed to come through - something quite rare is SF. I also concur with the support for Tiger, Tiger: Find it pretty remarkable that such a list would completely omit any of Dick's work.

Many of his books are of a high enough standard to be chosen, but 'Flow My Tears The Policeman Said' is one of his best. Not really SF, but a world where gods actually exist counts as imaginative fiction to me. A haunting modern mythic saga. The first and best of the epic series which ultimately became too convuluted. Characters innocent and undeveloped, I wish I could read this for the first time again. The book that kicked off the 'Foundation' saga. The dead hand of Hari Seldon and his new science, the mathematics of psycho-history unfold against a backdrop of the whole galaxy.

Asimov was just so full of ideas and happily his characters were full and real people I cared about - he was THE giant of Sci-Fi and 'Foundation' one of dozens I could have chosen. Morally ambiguous love-story combined with grounded, 'realistic' sci-fi - i cannot believe no has turned this into a film yet I read it as a child and it has never left me. I believe it leads a young mind to explore "the other" in a different way. Most science fiction, it has been said, is driven by violent conflict; Babel avoids that, having an idea - an untranslatable language - and unpacking it, unfolding out from there.

It packs in interesting and human characters, stylish writing, fascinating concepts and ideas, a manic outpouring of intelligent thought, and a great plot, managing to, even now, 45 years after its original publication, be thought-provoking and boundary-pushing. I love the language and the way the book draws you into an "alien" perspective by the assumption that this perspective is "normal".

Much like Jostein Gaarder's 'Sophie's World,' or indeed most of Stephenson's other writing, 'Anathem' is a lesson in science and philosophy wrapped in narrative. In this case, the narrative is sprawling, believable and dramatic, although the middle section feels like a lecture, the purpose of which only becomes apparent towards the end of this weighty novel. The world Stephenson creates is rich and believable, a parallel universe in which science and philosophy are restricted to an odd, codified monastic system - at least until a global crisis places the monks centre stage.

It was one of the first sf novels I read when I was a kid and it blew my mind. The basic idea of taking current trends, creatively extrapolating them into the future and weaving personal as well as social stories from them just stunned me. And my eldest son is called Isaac. The aliens are fascinating but it's all about the characters and getting inside the heads of flawed, damaged, normal human beings! Not really sci-fi, more fantasy, still a great book to read that gives the world a cracking character - Druss, the Legend of the title.

Displays some of the better gamut of human characteristics, without being overly poncy. Dark, satirical, laugh out loud funny, ridiculous and scathing. The book follows robot Tik Tok as he realises that he does not have to follow the Asimov laws when he kills a young innocent blind girl just for fun. He soon gets a taste for murder and gets very good at it. Farcical in places with a whole raft of ridiculous characters it draws parallels with the slave trade and the fight for equality.

His murderous exploits and cool, calm cunning takes him although way to the top at the White House, his aim: The novel also takes swipes at celebrity culture, religion, mob mentality and pretty much everything else. It's one of those goto books when a friend asks for a recommendation. A book that was way ahead of its time, predicting flying machines and total war.

Plus it is a great read and adventure story. You believe what you are reading really happended as Martians invide Surrey and London in the late Victorian era. It also created a sub genre of its own the "Alien Invasion" story. A classic novel that stands above all others. Read this, and it's sequels, 20 years ago. Could not put the book down. Finished it in 2 days. Still totally abosrbs me today. Great detailed story about a lonely, little boy. Also fascinating on the military life of Battle School and the Earth's attitude to alien races.

Not just this book but the whole series. Benchmark sci fi novel and whats important is the prose, the ideas expunded in the books and the fact that all my sci fi hating friends read the series on reccomendation and were completely converted. Lazurus Long - how I wish to be him! I was twelve when I read Ringworld, my first adult Science Fiction novel. It sparked a life long love of SF.

The central concept of the Ringworld a constructed habitat that is a ring around a star is vividly brought to life. The story moves at a pace and the aliens very well imagined - especially the Pearson's Puppeteer. This book is a prime example of why SF will always be a literary form with TV and film being very much the poor relations. I still have that battered second hand copy I read first over thirty years ago and have reread several times since.

Becasue it's a collection of haunting short stories about what would happen when humans got to Mars, each filled with twists, turns and pathos. Like the Martians who defend themselves by changing their appearance to look like humans, to the last human left on the planet after the rest have gone back to Earth. Plus, like all good Sci Fi, it's not really about space, but about humanity. As a young boy this book fed my imagination for sci-fi. Having been originally written in the 30s the vivid pictures he paints of far away worlds with bizarre creatures in a swashbuckling story were far ahead of its time.

As you say if current human civilization was unexpectedly destroyed, I'd like this to survive as a warning of how it could all happen again. An ambassador given permission to roam. The discovery that the society is not really primitive and pre-industrial. The gradual realization that the society is post-atomic and that the re-discovery of machinery and science has been banned post the disaster Mary Gentle's book is in itself a voyage of discovery in which the reader starts as a comfortable alien observer and ends as a very uncomfortable but involved critic of a world that wobbles between utopia and dystopia.

Very handy for hitchhikers and the best read. Introduces millions of people to to British humour and the SF genre every year. Great advert for SF and also very funny. A fantastic book that should be read by anyone planning to join the secret service as a subversive officer! It's easy to read, a great story that keeps you hooked. The characters are great and you really root for the hero. A man wakes up naked to find he has been resurrected along with every other human who ever lived during the history of earth. Their new home is a riverplanet, they are all 25, they don't age, they can't die, and it is all a big social and spiritual project, created by an alien race.

This book and the ones that follow are staggering conceptually. They mix history, politics, pyschology, religion, and everyday life in a sublime cocktail. One of the few Sci-Fi books that you read in which that you know you are also a character. For those that go the distance with the whole Riverworld series, the final installment 'Gods of the Riverworld' cranks up the hypothetical social situations to mind boggling levels. Computers that play your whole life back to you, so you can come to terms with your wasted time, evil deeds, poor posture.

A super computer that can build rooms a hundred miles wide, and produce anything from human history at request. A cornerstone of the sci-fy genre. Read how Paul Atriedes uncovers the secrets of Arrakis and the Fremen people. Follow Paul's journey into a dangerous world where unlocking the power of the spice melange and it's keepers transforms him into the most powerful being in the galaxy.

Set in an epic universe filled with wierd and wonderul creatures, monsters and alien races. A must read for any sci-fy nut. Despite not having the easiest of openings you really have to force yourself to get past the first few pages , this really is a superb opening to a wonderful Sci-Fi trilogy. There are some great ideas, some excellent characters and some wonderful speculation on humanities future, but most of all it's a cracking story, and the main plot sideswipes you from left-field when you get to it as it was for me, at least totally unexpected. Cannot recommend this enough.

I really like the way the author describes a data world, and interweaves this with a broader narrative, which includes a comparison between the plight of a Jewish community in Prague during the 16th-century and the futuristic community of the future. So much SciFi work is seen as being written by people whose only talent was a good imagination. Alfred Bester was one a new age of writers who wrote engaging stories that happened to be along a SciFi theme. Gully Foyle is reborn on the Nomad, but is alive to revenge only, in a plot which takes us through a world where instantaneous travel with the power of the human mind is possible.

His journey to discover who he is can only be compared to the greats of SciFi writing. A definite must read. It challenges the concept of self and individuality. It is unremittingly, violently captivating throughout and it introduces the coolest hotel ever imagined. Its simply sublime, beautiful written, and would be an epic if it was on screen. Simply the best series of SCi Fi books ever written. How was it missed out? Asimov changed our understanding of robots with his formulation of the laws governing the behavior of robots.

The stories combine science fact and fiction in such a way that you almost believe the robots are humans. Well written interesting stories that really make the reader ponder the future of robots. It's just a feckin brilliant story apart from the end which was a bit naff imo. This fantasy doesn't include any aliens, space ships, or magic, but it's in its' own weird universe.

A very Dickensian gothic tale. I agree about William Gibson. The tale is a great romp of the imagination with an insight into some physics. It is a completely worked out version of a believable future. It does not require the 'suspension of disbelief' normal to SF. And it is a great adventure story! Old school Silverberg before he went over to the dark side of fantasy , details human feelings of loss like no other SF tale. Very human story of the more-than-humans living amongst us.

The enormous scale and technical details of the science fiction element of the story are breath taking whilst the story still holds the reader close to the characters of the core individuals in the story. As with all Dick's books, it explores his twin fascinations: The human side is handled with his usual tender melancholy, while the metaphysical investigations are ramped up and up as the protaganist, teleported to a colony planet where all is not as it seems, dissolves, with the aid of an LSD tipped dart, into a nightmare where reality itself seems to deconstruct.

Wonderful language and weird world building. The protagonist - Adam Reith - a stranded earthman has many adventures, encountering the various inhabitants of Tschai, a much fought over planet. Not quite a picaresque as Reith is too honest but some of his associates are less so. Charming and lovely books and, let us not forget, anyone who can title one of them vol 2 Servants of the Wankh is worthy of deep respect even if he didn't know what it means to english ears haha.

Do yoursel a favour: The Player of Games does more than tell an exciting and engaging tale. In the empire of Azad, where the books action takes place, Iain M Banks creates a civilization which reflects the worst excesses of our own, despite its alien nature. Using the empire of Azad themes of one cultures interference in another are explored as the benign, peaceful Culture displays the lengths it will go to push a cruel empire closer to its own philosophy.

The story revolves around a man playing a board game. Admittedly it's a vast, complex board game central to the lives of those who play it, but it's essentially just a big, complicated chess set. This sounds like rather dull stuff to relate to the reader, but the authors descriptions of the game are never less than completely involving and genuinely exciting. There is a popular misconception that Douglas Adams was responsible for bringing humour into Sci-Fi.

But before him there was already the brilliant Stanislaw Lem, whose humour can be often anarchic and deeply satirical. This is a good example of his satirical humour at its most razor sharp. If the idea of Sci-Fi combined with Swiftean satire sounds appealing then this book is definitely for you. Supremely imaginative, and enjoyable at some level at almost any age. Written in the 50s, it creates a remarkably believable portrayal of modern life, before continuing an escape into an equally believable future.

It asks all the important questions about human beings and society. I'm using UoW as my choice but really any of Banks' culture novels fit the bill. Banks' stands astride 21st century science fiction as a giant. He not only manages to excel in world building, The Culture has to be one of the greatest realised sci-fi universes in print, but also manages something that virtually all other sci-fi authors fail at; the evolution of psychology over time.

The inhabitants of Banks' worlds are existentially flawed and carry with them a melancholy created by pitting emotional psychology against the vast backdrop and advanced science they have foisted upon them. The scale of his stories could leave the protagonists dwarfed by the spectacle but they end up dovetailing perfectly into the situations thought up by Banks by allowing us to connect to the madness of existance, whether they're human or alien.

Each of his new novels are events in the genre and allow their readers to conduct thought experiments of what it would be like to exist in such a reality surely the goal of any sci-fi?

I read it as a teenager and the sheer scale of the technological achievement of building the Ring has stayed with me - even though I cant remember much of the details of the story today! Totally influenced and encouraged me to pursue my dream of working in the building industry which I don't regret, even today. Atmospheric blend of fantasy and s decadence, with a consumptive, sexually ambiguous heroine whom I'd love to see Tilda Swinton play!

It realistically sets out an anarchist society from an anthropological background; it's a hard life but it actually works! AND it also provides the alien's perspective on humanity! Not just the best SF. But best novel Ive ever read. Impossible to explain its importance so briefly. Orwell lays it out. It is appropriated by literary fiction like most great SF. It's a thousand pages of wonder and awe at how mindboggling complex the universe is and the joy and fascination there is in trying to understand it with just the human brain. This is how physics and philosophy should be taught - at the same time and with multi-dimensional spaceships.

An Epic Story, with a dark plot. Donaldson creates a very beleiveable universe. As Soon as I finished the 1st book, I was online ordering the remaining 4 stories. This is the third book in C. Lewis's science fiction trilogy. It combines themes of mythology, allegory and religion with some great characters and moments of true horror. It's a great story that keeps you gripped all the way through. This book is about the simple acts of kindness that can make immense and profound differences to the future. The main character is Shevik: He makes a difficult decision to travel to the neighbouring planet of Urras to try and use their expertise to piece it together.

The novel weaves around in time: Shevik's present and past are explored: Back on Urras, Shevik begins to realise he is becoming a small pawn in a powerful government's game and has to reconcile himself with the fact that he may never have been able to go home in the first place and may never go home now. At its centre is Shevik: It remains one of the best characters I can remember in any book - at the end the final twist of the twin narratives meets into one of the best endings I have read in any book. It's a different kind of science fiction that allows the reader to be an active creator of the "other timely" world introduced by Koontz.

It's not about zombies or aliens or space but it does represent something maybe even more bone-chilling: The epic scope of the book, showing the terrifying yet exciting possibilities of the human race as an multi planetary starship faring bunch of brilliently flawed individuals, and organsiations. A really rare find these days as I think it is out of print. Witty and engaging, it draws parralels with life on earth in a profound and imaginative alien galaxy. First published in , the book documents the many highs and lows of man's struggle for survival.

The book contains the first mention of genetic engineering in a sci fi novel, a compelling and truly eye-opening read. So maybe it is the outer fringes of SF where myth and fantasy meets "steam punk" but it does have futuristic dimensions albeit in a retro kinda way. It is the way the characters seem unbelievable yet real which gets me in all of his books by the way and sucks me in to a reading time vortex - as all good books should. Bradbury's Mars keeps shifting its identity, becoming a symbol of the dreams and fears of America itself.

No attempt is made at scientific accuracy this Mars is hot, for example , and the stories reflect the Cold War era in which they were written. Bradbury could overwrite, but he keeps this tendency under control here, and the book has a haunting resonance. It has the fastest start I can recollect any book having, The Affront are hilarious and the Culture ships superb. I also appreciate that the nature of the excession is never defined. Hard sci-fi at its best. The attention to detail and depth of knowledge of the author make this a compelling and inspirational book to read.

This is a strange, compelling and beautifully written story. I'd defy anyone from the most hard-nosed SF aficionado on up not to enjoy reading it. If can get into the language, you'll enter a plausible yet mythical world where you'll get your first knowin from the eyes of a dog and learn the secrets of the master chaynjis.

Can't believe that none of these magnificent books were chosen. Some better than others, but all full of wonderful prose, deep imagination, gripping stories and interesting characters. One of the few books I've read in one sitting. Set in a wonderfully imagined dystopic America, it's very bleak but also savagely funny, always brilliant, and ultimately heartbreaking.

This book is a positive, hopeful contemplation of mankind's possible next step. How we might evolve into something better than we are now. The first hint of this next evolutionary step is not evidenced by those we conventionally think of as brighter, stronger or more beautiful, but by the supposed freaks and invalids that just might come together in some way to become, collectively, something Ringworld is SF on a grand scale in many respects.

Set far into the future, it is scientifically well researched and utterly believable, with "alien" characters that are lifelike and convincing: A fantastic novel, one of many well-written books by Larry Niven. Excellent book using Sci-fi construct of time dilation to show futility of war. Written after he server in Vietnam. The sheer scope of the imagination: The gradual unfolding of the driving force of the novel: My son and I discussed it for days.

Farmer is woefully under-rated, and really only known for his Riverworld series, but the World of Tiers is, I think, his masterwork. It contains so much of why I read SF - it has terrific characters, it's overflowing with ideas, it has marvellous set pieces and it engenders a sense of awe and wonder at the possibilities of our universe or, rather, the multiverse. If I had the money I'd personally bankroll a film of the books, now that we have the technology to do justice to them.

It has a breadth, wit and complexity that ensnared me from the first line. Banks has the ability to create fullt formed world's that are totally believable. An utterly wonderful read. Reads like an allegorical account of the Chernobyl disaster, fifteen years before it happened. The love affair between Lazarus Long and Dora Brandon - but much more. Although not usually classified as Science Fiction, Carter's early novel certainly echoes the themes and styles of the genre.

After all, what could be more sci-fi than a plot in which our hero must struggle against a mad scientist, in order to restore a world of order and 'reality'? And yet it's also sweet, and tragic, and there's room for romance that isn't insta-love, and a nuanced anti-villain, and strong female characters, and even a total badass named Anna Fang: And Captain Khora, briefly as we see him, is an awesome captain from one of the African cities.

For being published in , there's a bright touch of diversity in the novel. Themes of pseudo-capitalist consumption and environmental devastation and non-sustainability abound, too. Basically it's one of my favourite things, and I'm so glad that it held up. Philip Reeve might wreck my gender reading ratio this year, damnit.

I am so excited. Favourite quotes below, spoilery: Not something big and amazing that you knew about straight away, like in a story, but a slow thing that crept over you in waves until you woke up one day and found that you were head-over-heels with someone quite unexpected, like an Apprentice Engineer? The old curator of ceramics lay near the door, looking indignant, as if death was a silly modern fad that he rather disapproved of. View all 9 comments. Mal posso esperar para ver o filme porque tenho a certeza que foi visualizar tudo muito melhor.

Sep 29, Joanne rated it really liked it. I quite enjoyed this book. It has everything that YA genre enjoy - adventure, love mystery. The suspense kinda builds throughout the story until,the final climax and that was done well. I might consider reading the rest of the series. Za knjigu sam cuo i ranije ali kada sam saznao da ce Piter Dzekson da producira film plus trejler koji sam video me je odma zainteresovalo za ovaj serijal tako da sam morao da bacim pogled na nju: Prica ima stvarno unikatni setting; daleka buducnost, posle nuklearnog rata ljudi su presli da zive na pokretnim gradovima di veci jedu manje radi prezivljavanja.

Uvrnuto ali interesantno i zabavno. Jedino sto nikada nije tacno objasnjenjo kako je krenulo sa tim i kako im se isplati. Pratimo dva lika, Za knjigu sam cuo i ranije ali kada sam saznao da ce Piter Dzekson da producira film plus trejler koji sam video me je odma zainteresovalo za ovaj serijal tako da sam morao da bacim pogled na nju: Pratimo dva lika, jedan iz grada, druga iz pustara koji moraju da se udruze da prezive.

Fino su prikazani, sa prednostima i manama. Donose pametne odluke, glupe odluke i sve izmedju u dovoljno realnom prikazu da ih prihvatimo kao prave ljude i to je po meni najvaznije kada neko pise karaktere. Naravno srecemo i druge likove al oni su vec mnogo vise dvodimenzionalni. Kada sam kreno sa citanjem priznajem da nisam ocekivao da svet u kom se desava bude tolko surov, plus da knjiga ne preza od prikazivanja losih stvari.

Jedan od glavnih likova je bila unakazena kao dete view spoiler [dok je gledala kako joj ubijaju roditelje hide spoiler ] , srecemo se robovima, zloupotrebom itd. Za deciju knjigu ima teskih tema tako da treba povesti racuna. Samo pisanje je OK, dovoljno dobro da fino prikaze ovaj svet ia da drzi paznju kroz ceo tekst al ne ocekujte neku preteranu prozu ili recenice koje ce vas naterati na razmisljanje. Sve u svemu zabavno iskustvo i uskoro se bacam na nastavke. PS Nadajmo se da ce film biti dobar. Insgesamt war es aber spannend aufgebaut und vor allem die Ideen sind sehr originell!

Eine ziemlich coole Idee, die manchmal in den Einzelheiten zwar nicht so ganz stimmig war, mir aber trotzdem richtig gut gefallen hat. Die Kapitel sind relativ kurz und wechseln zwischen den beiden Protagonisten. Tom ist 15 und arbeitet als Historiker Gehilfe in London. Er hat es als Waise nicht leicht, versucht aber, das beste aus seinem Leben zu machen. Ich kann gar nicht genau festmachen woran es lag, wahrscheinlich weil mir das meiste, was passieren wird, schon klar war. Dabei bleibt es aber auf dem Niveau eines Jugendbuches und der Autor schafft hier eine gute Balance, die sinnlose Gewalt zu zeigen ohne zu explizit darauf einzugehen.

Insgesamt gibt es viel Abwechslung, interessante Kulissen, einen spannenden Hintergrund und eine treffende Entwicklung der Charaktere, aber alles nicht ganz so ausgereift, wie ich es erwartet hatte. Seit dem Sechzig-Minuten-Krieg ist jede Stadt und einfach jeder, auf sich selber angewiesen. Wer will da schon leben? Die Stadt ist eingeteilt in Klassen und sie sind sehr strikt in ihrer Art und Denken. Tom ist ein netter Typ. So auf den ersten Blick scheint nichts an ihm sonderlich besonders zu sein, aber er hat einen versteckten Tatendrang in sich und den Wunsch sich zu beweisen.

Zwischen Steampunk und Fantasy hat sich der Autor so einige unglaubliche Dinge einfallen lassen, sodass man sich nicht leicht losreisen kann von Mortal Engines. In nur knapp Seiten, in einem kleinen Taschenbuchformat, kriegen wir eine geballte Ladung an Abenteuern und Action geliefert mit wenig Verschnaufpausen. Feb 06, The Book Queen rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Recommended to The Book Queen by: One of my favourite books and series of all time.

I've rated less than 10 books five stars, ever. These are the books I absolutely love; I'm completely blind to their flaws and will sit there and worship them. Mortal Engines is one such book. Reeve writes an astonishing story with a brilliant and engaging plot. The world-building is fantastic: It's very fast-paced and never disappoints.

I was on tenterhooks throughout the entire thing and got so attached to the characters. The characters themselves are works of art, particularly the female ones. Excuse me while I fangirl. So first of all there's Katherine Valentine. She's strong and intelligent, and she won't let herself be pushed around. She's loyal, and she doesn't fall to pieces and lose all common sense at the sight of the love interest. Yes, there is a love interest, and he's adorable. She is one of the very few strong female characters in YA literature. Then, there's Hester Shaw.

She's the most badass character you will ever meet. She is scarred physically and metaphorically and she's developed this hard, cold-blooded exterior to cope with it. No, she isn't one of those sad, 'broken' heroines you see often. Her character development is totally fascinating. She has no scruples and doesn't care about anyone else, and to be honest she's totally horrible.

But she's wonderful, absolutely wonderful. And did I mention badass? And her romance is really sweet. Go read this book. Go see why I rated it five stars. Go fall in love like I did. Al principio rezuman odio el uno por el otro, pero cuando Tom descubre la verdad sobre Hester y su pasado, sus pensamientos empiezan a cambiar. Ich fand die Welt super spannend und bei der rasanten Handlung ist auch reichlich Action dabei.

And so on to the last of books I need to catch up upon and one I must add which was so much fun to read. Anyway this is my first edition I have been putting off and off for no apparent reason - till now. Any boy was a I missing out - the story will soon be told in And so on to the last of books I need to catch up upon and one I must add which was so much fun to read. Any boy was a I missing out - the story will soon be told in the next film by Peter jackson also I suspect there will be considerable alterations from the appearance of Hester to how the story pans out after all this is Peter Jackson who made a trilogy from the Hobbit.

The story takes place in a world both surprisingly family but also utterly alien with many hints and references to so much that has gone on between our now and their then. I suspect a lot of that will be told in the Fever Crumb series but that is a review for another day. Now I will admit that for a book apparently aimed at 11 year olds and up the story is both devious and past paced but at the same time never sacrificing the stories quality.

Its hard to explain without giving so much away and to be honest considering how ingenious and inventive Mr Reeve has been would be such a shame to spoil the fun. Considering the awards and praise that has been heaped on this book nothing would be a surprise so I will amid I am looking forward to seeing what the next instalment will bring. I picked this book back up a few times to try to just finish it but I'm finding my brain just can't handle the sheer amount of implausibility. I mean, I have a pretty strong ability to suspend disbelief but there is something about the ridiculous mechanics in this that make me unable to finish.

I think this is going to make a good movie, just based on the trailer and reading the source material. Anna Fang is easily my favorite character - and she's probably the coolest of the entire cast. I will definitely need to continue on with this book series. I haven't caught up on the books because I totally want to be surprised by the tv series. Then I'll catch up on the rest of the books. Con ganas de ver que ocurre en el siguiente. Mar 02, Fiona rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

James Cameron needn't wait another decade to make his next blockbuster. I have it next to me; or Peter Jackson could make it. I'd rather Tarantino didn't, but you never know. I have the book. The one that children will dress up for, the one that will see as many adult fans as children, the one with three more books to follow, a potential goldmine. Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines is so visually gorgeous that kites flutter from the snowy mountains as you glide above in your airship, oblivious entire James Cameron needn't wait another decade to make his next blockbuster.

Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines is so visually gorgeous that kites flutter from the snowy mountains as you glide above in your airship, oblivious entirely to the reading of words, the turning of pages. A grimy jewel of steampunk artistry, airships and cities floating in the air meet the intensely creepy Guild of Engineers, with their chemically hairless skulls and long white rubber coats.

Luckily for such a fantastic, imaginative book, Reeve's narrative voice is so coherent and so subtle that you are allowed to tumble straight into the action of the book. The entirely familiar we are in the Natural History Museum when the book begins meets the astonishingly strange — huge rebel civilizations holed up in the Himalayas. Reeve is certainly an artist. This means you're never allowed to slip out of contact with the narrative. Cleverly interplaying the reader's reactions with those of the characters, Reeve ensures we read just as he would like, anticipating our responses and buffering them with his witty, scared, hearty characters.

The book has one of the best opening lines in children's literature: From that very first line, you are dragged, exhilarated and gasping, across the world. The narrative never slows, even for a moment, pitching the reader into new and dangerous places. Mortal Engines also has the most fantastic concept on its side. The world's cities are scattered and voracious, mounted on huge tracks to cross the wastelands made by the Sixty Minute War millennia before.

Remnants from the previous civilisation are greedily hoarded, from CDs Tom, the almost dislikeable protagonist, gives his 'seedy' away and bitterly regrets it , to mechanical soldiers made from the corpses of men, and, worst of all, atomic weapons. If there is a term I despise, it is 'unputdownable'. No one glued Mortal Engines to my fingers, and I put it down several times, sometimes for whole minutes.

There were even hours where I didn't read it, though that was, admittedly, because I was sleeping. In truth this is perhaps the most successfully realised book I have read in a long time. The sensitive, frank narrative voice combines with two superb central characters, Tom and Hester. Tom is a London boy, an apprentice to the Guild of Historians, fiercely loyal to his insatiable city. Hester has lived her life on the ground stripped bare by municipal Darwinism and if that phrase didn't make you shiver with glee, then you and I must never meet.

Hester is ugly, bearing huge facial and emotional scars, an unapproachable, bitter, angry girl, who steadfastly refuses to be a romantic heroine. The two weave their way warily round each other, tentatively finding common ground, awkwardly negotiating. It's engrossing, uncomfortable, exquisite writing. Did I mention that this book has to be adapted to film? Reeve has elbowed his way into the competitive world of children's literature by being extraordinarily skilled. The book is hugely visual, and leaves you with a sensation of having witnessed something spectacular.

He never falters, his sure, bold voice unrolling the world before us. I believe it's this 'steampunk' styling that entices so many adult readers. A combination of Victorian technology — steam power, brass rivets, goggles and a slightly Frankenstein obsession with death and reanimation — and ridiculous, fantastic invention, steampunk takes over where sci-fi fails. When horrible apocalyptic disasters seem suddenly far more likely is anyone else playing race the raindrops with climate change versus rogue state?

It proffers technology, made sexy with some cogs and exciting with steam and a bit gothic with some rivets and fire, and says, soothingly, 'here, look, we will survive anything with this and a good dirigible or two'. And it makes it clear we will survive in sexy riding boots, corsets and tan leather coats, which is ideal as far as I'm concerned.

For this reason and many others, Mortal Engines is one of very few books I would issue with an adult cover. I liked it so much that I feel a little pitying towards those who haven't already read it. I want to say it's a romp. I find the phrase 'if you only read one book I want to say that children will love it, which is surely a death knell for all but the best children's books.

It really isn't clear whether Reeve was expecting adults to read the book. It is a children's book: There are other predictable elements: They are scheming, unreliable and often stupid. There are so many references, though, that I am unsure children will even notice.

At one point, the children find themselves on the 'pirate suburb' of Tunbridge Wheels; London's moment comes when it faces the huge conurbation of Panzerstadt-Bayreuth. English is known as 'Anglish', which seems perfectly reasonable when you consider it. The whole conceit of municipal Darwinism, with cities hunting each other down, stripping their victims of their resources, desperately recycling everything even bodies between catches, seems a very adult, threatening world. Luckily the magnificence of the whole thing saves it from unrelenting darkness.

Reeve lifts the story up, in hot air balloons and airships, letting us see the greater, terrifying, brilliant whole. Perhaps this is where Reeve really slips into brilliance; the book's extraordinary humanity. He teeters over a grim, desperate post-apocalyptic world, and makes it marvellous by peopling it with beautiful, fallible, credible civilisations. Like Pandora in Cameron's realisation of Avatar, it's a world so radiant it leaves you a little sad that it is so far out of reach.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to don my flying goggles. Fiona Well that IS exciting news! The whole series is brilliant and it deserves a faithful treatment Oct 26, Since she had arrived, she had known at least two dozen people who had slimmed down, left, and then returned to the Caribbean Weight Control facility. And those returning patients represented only one of the many CWeCo mysteries that ate at her.

During her four months at the facility, she had seen dozens of patients abused, beaten, restrained, and occasionally dragged away, not to be heard from again; but who were they going to tell? Given that the Honduran government barely survived the pod riots that had swept the world a year ago, it seemed unlikely it would give a second thought to complaints from a few unhappy, fat westerners on some island off its coast. But to have Carol march right back in, ready for more CWeCo abuse—it did not make sense, not after she had experienced what this place was like.

Thinking back on it, it was amazing that she had not done something even more stupid. What…like volunteering to test granite parachutes? She forced herself to relax as the warm shower water washed the sweat away. Normally, another spinning or aerobics class before dinner would have been required, having reached ninety percent of her weight loss goal, the last few hours of the day were hers to do with as she chose.

She rubbed her still-throbbing temples.

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An early dinner and some extra sleep sounded good. By the time she finished toweling off and brushing her hair, several newcomers had congregated at one end of the locker room. Weighing well over three hundred pounds, she wore a tiny pink bikini that should have been a crime even in a place like CWeCo. Folds of her corpulent skin hung over the narrow strips of floral material, both top and bottom, making it look almost as if she wore nothing at all. A few months earlier, Samantha had looked nearly as bad—minus the ridiculous bikini. One thing was for absolute certain, when she left this place she would never again pack on the weight; good food and lots of exercise to the day she died; that was the way it would be.

Her CWeCo sweat suit was stretched tight and soaked with perspiration. The trainer claimed she got dizzy and fell, but I saw it. That petite, little thing looked straight down at the concrete and swan dived, face first. Samantha retreated out the back locker room door. She had no desire to get dragged into newbie questions that she could not answer. The truth was thinner people—coincidentally those who had spent more time at CWeCo —did seem less stable than the newcomers.

Maybe it was because they had observed the same CWeCo inconsistencies that nagged at Samantha. For one thing, where were the miracle drugs? For all the pills and goop that they were forced to ingest, weight loss at the clinic still came down to the age-old, simple formula: Rubbing the Taser burn on her elbow, Samantha knew she should have kept her eyes down when she passed a tall, dark-skinned nurse. But she was sick of being treated like a criminal. She glared at the fit woman who then began to follow her.

In no mood for another lecture, Samantha hurried toward the dining room, but as the corridor curved to the right she darted into a smaller hallway to the left, which led toward the esplanade and ultimately to Dr. Only twenty feet down that corridor, she ducked out a service exit onto the beautifully landscaped courtyard between the exercise arena, the esplanade and C-wing.

She dropped behind a cluster of ferns and waited. A slight ocean breeze carried the scent of salt in the air. She stopped and leaned into the tall cyclone fence that faced a brilliant expanse of blue. Evening sunlight sparkled across the Caribbean, giving the momentary impression of a huge crystal ball. Rage erupted like a geyser. She and Jack had lived good, responsible lives, both pursuing educations—hers in counseling, his in aeronautics engineering—and then taking up stable career paths. They had been perfect citizens, so why had this happened?!

She gripped the wire fence and glared at the distant alien cylinder standing sentinel a few hundred feet out over the water. Everything had changed the day those confounded pods had appeared. Without them, the worldwide panic would never have happened, and Jack would not have felt an obligation to uncover the technology behind the eerie, coffin-like machines. At the same time, all the world governments had moved to calm their citizenry, and the United States had gone so far as to say that it had thoroughly investigated the cylinders and found them to be completely inert—safe.

No one had been able to pull one of the damn things apart to see what was actually be inside—weapons or otherwise—and it seemed almost certain that they were not manmade. So Jack committed himself to doing what the government could not. He built staging up to the alien pod and began investigating it with all manner of testing sensors from his lab at Northeast Aeronautics. Jack ignored the warning. The pressure in her head had grown unbearable. She fell to the ground and struggled to hold onto the memories that seemed to roll away like spilled marbles.

The image of Jack ripping up his third FBI notice slipped away until all she could see was the stern set of his unshaven jaw. Soon that image, too, was gone. But how had she remembered so much? Anger , came the instant answer. Though she hated returning to the hazy state of mind this place caused, she took solace that she now knew how to recreate that moment of clarity. If anger was the key, Lord knew she had more than enough of that. Getting to her feet, she took one last glance at the pod. Maybe a quarter mile offshore, it hovered above the ocean like an upright bullet—.

A bullet that may one day puncture the heart of the entire human race! Late-day sunlight glinted off its shiny finish. It had been months since Samantha had given the otherworld harbingers any serious thought, but staring at the eerie coffin shape made her wish Jack had been allowed to finish what he started. She returned to the paved walkway and gazed at the deadly coil of razor wire that topped the security fence. If CWeCo was nothing more than a weight loss company, why did it feel the need to keep them locked in like hardened criminals?

The sound of multiple footfalls came from behind her. Spinning, fists up and knees bent in what she hoped would be a convincing fighting crouch, she was embarrassed to see two large men in CWeCo sweat pants and T-shirts wheezing as they jogged to the dining room. The shorter of the two smiled and nodded on his way past. Without the second chin, he might have been cute. Lord forbid we actually see how fat we are. She gave the woman the finger and followed the two men through the double entry doors into the cafeteria.

Bright and clean, the large room consisted of eight rows of painted gray steel stables and matching benches that stretched several hundred feet to the right. Though the hall was mostly full, its patrons were even more subdued and library-quiet than usual. At first, Samantha thought it might have been a difficult workout day or smaller-than-usual dinner portions that caused the hush, but one glance toward the walls explained everything.

Black-garbed security guards stood every few feet around the dining hall. Samantha was sick of them. She moved toward the food line, each station staffed by a stern kitchen worker dressed in light blue. She grabbed a plate and smiled at a tall, dark man known for being especially somber. He responded with a small scoop of smashed orange that might have been squash or sweet potato. She had pissed off that nurse, but…. The tall man moved away. Peas, spinach, and a small cube of what might have been chicken loaf one of the many mysterious foodstuffs in the place joined her clump of orange paste.

Oddly, no one ever complained about the mostly vegetable choices on the menu. Equally strange was that nearly every CWeCo patient claimed to prefer healthy food. She had never met anyone who admitted to having been a junk food junkie or a binge eater. Samantha, a vegetarian since high school, had weighed nearly two hundred and thirty pounds when she first stepped onto a CWeCo scale.

Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles, #1) by Philip Reeve

Obviously she had put on the pounds, but when? By the end of the serving line, her plate was still only half full. She spun and scanned the tables until she saw an empty seat near several teammates from her morning basketball game. As she drew near, one of the new players, a man who everyone called Snake, waved her over.

Though he was still thirty or so pounds overweight, he had a solid jawline and a full head of dark hair. She guessed him to be in his mid-forties but it was hard to be sure. Handsome, he had a broad smile that reminded her of Jack. Jack, please be okay! She struggled to keep his image in her thoughts, but it melted away as quickly as it had come. She fought the haze and focused on holding his memory.

Mortal Engines

His face reappeared through TV-like static. Her head instantly began to throb. Her knees trembled from the effort. She took a deep breath and settled onto the stool across from Snake, giving him a weak smile. Though she was not yet ready to give up on Jack, it felt good to be noticed for her returning fitness. He had a great jump shot, but what had made her notice him was how he always offered her the water bottle first.

His eyes also had a way of following her, much the way her dad had always watched her mom. It was a look that portrayed both approval and pleasure, all mixed into one, and it made her feel good about her appearance. If only her mind felt as healthy as her body. For the dozenth time, she wondered if t he various nightstick and Taser incidents of the past few weeks might have had something to do with her increasing incidents of confusion.

So far, the nurses had not broken any of her bones, but their cruel reprimands for being late or not exercising hard enough would haunt her dreams for many years to come. Someday, they would all, especially Doctor Hanson, pay for what they had done to her. Though her attorneys had been unable to retrieve Jack from whichever deep, dark hole the U. Department of Homeland Security had shoved him in, Samantha suspected they would have more success with a straightforward corporate lawsuit. Who knew, she might actually get enough CWeCo money to get Jack out the next time.

She knew that was wishful thinking, but it gave her strength to keep moving forward each day. Samantha turned to see the sleek form of Kerra approaching. As Kerra placed her orange plastic tray on the table and settled down beside her, Samantha smiled. Her lower lip trembled as she settled stiffly into the open seat. Samantha felt a pang of empathy for her olive-complected friend.

Suddenly she remembered the locker room conversation about the woman who had dived to her death. Knowing how depressed and confused she herself had been feeling lately, Samantha was suddenly worried for Kerra. It makes no sense. Maybe they do it because they need more money. Kerra turned to face her. Her black hair was parted slightly off center and shined with good health. The dark rings beneath her eyes, however, clearly illustrated that not everything was well. Her voice trembled with her next words. The answer came to Samantha's mind immediately because it was the same answer they had been given when they first arrived: My memories and this place—nothing is adding up.

Samantha thought for a moment but could think of no one other than Kerra. For the briefest of seconds, she wondered if Kerra had been sent by the staff to investigate what she knew or suspected, but she immediately discounted the idea. Obviously, they had begun to sense the same problems with CWeCo. The only good thing about this place was that soon they would have met their contractual weight loss goals and would finally be free of this godforsaken place forever. But trust me when I say you should not discuss any of this with the nurses.

Kerra motioned furtively with one finger for her friend to lean closer. Then she cupped her hands over her mouth so only Samantha could hear. But a worker woke me out of a sound sleep when he wacked me with a crowbar twice before he used it to rip up the tile. She pulled up her sleeve to show Samantha two huge black and blue splotches on her forearm. She always seemed meaner than the others. She pushed her untouched tray away and glanced up. Snake and her other basketball teammates were already gone—. Almost as if something frightened them away.

Her eyes wandered the dining hall and found that most of the security guards were openly staring at her and Kerra. She tapped her friend surreptitiously on the thigh. The two friends fell silent and Kerra picked at her meal.