David's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 05 Oct 2025 04:28:51 -0700 60 David's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Neuromancer (Sprawl #1) 22328 wrong people…]]> 271 William Gibson David 5 3.87 1984 Neuromancer (Sprawl #1)
author: William Gibson
name: David
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1984
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/10/05
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]]> Blindsight (Firefall, #1) 48484 Two months since the stars fell...

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune’s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever’s out there isn’t talking to us. It’s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn’t want to meet?

You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees X-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won’t be needed, and a fainter hope she’ll do any good if she is needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called “vampire,” recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist – an informational topologist with half his mind gone – as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.

You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find.

But you’d give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them…]]> 384 Peter Watts 0765312182 David 4 4.00 2006 Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
author: Peter Watts
name: David
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2)]]> 226004 A Fire Upon The Deep, this is the story of Pham Nuwen, a small cog in the interstellar trading fleet of the Queng Ho. The Queng Ho and the Emergents are orbiting the dormant planet Arachna, which is about to wake up to technology, but the Emergents' plans are sinister.]]> 775 Vernor Vinge 0812536355 David 5 4.31 1999 A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2)
author: Vernor Vinge
name: David
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/11/01
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]]> Untouched by Human Hands 1038586
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.]]> 170 Robert Sheckley 1345004370 David 4 4.16 1954 Untouched by Human Hands
author: Robert Sheckley
name: David
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1954
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/07/27
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]]> All the Things You Are 50098308 Robert Sheckley David 0 to-read 3.78 All the Things You Are
author: Robert Sheckley
name: David
average rating: 3.78
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Melody of Memory 57765074
Aya Voss is perennially unlucky. Caught as a child on the wrong side of the border, she grows up separated from homeland and family, always the outsider, isolated and tormented. Drafted out of school to help manufacture weapons for use against her own people, Aya struggles to survive and to rejoin those she left behind, as devastating war and plague and madness tear away all she knows.

Amid the tragic cycles on this world, people retained one consistent technology—tying unpleasant memories to a melody, then stashing them safely away in a box. At times a blessing, memory boxes long ago became tools of repression, hobbling humanity’s ability to learn from mistakes.

Might Aya’s new generation be the one to break this cycle at last and forge destiny anew?

The Melody of Memory is a coming-of-age story, as Aya manages to join—and then help lead—a revolution. A revolution of courage and purpose, to see past her own pain and Tyra’s. To help heal a wounded world.]]> 319 Cheryl Brin David 5 5.00 The Melody of Memory
author: Cheryl Brin
name: David
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/04/19
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The Melody of Memory is a deeply moving SF coming-of-age novel about growing up amid war, plague and trauma... and ultimately prevailing... even over forces of oppression and obstinate history.
]]> <![CDATA[Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor]]> 35167743

In Losing the Nobel Prize, cosmologist and inventor of the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) experiment Brian Keating tells the inside story of BICEP2’s mesmerizing discovery and the scientific drama that ensued. In an adventure story that spans the globe from Rhode Island to the South Pole, from California to Chile, Keating takes us on a personal journey of revelation and discovery, bringing to vivid life the highly competitive, take-no-prisoners, publish-or-perish world of modern science. Along the way, he provocatively argues that the Nobel Prize, instead of advancing scientific progress, may actually hamper it, encouraging speed and greed while punishing collaboration and bold innovation. In a thoughtful reappraisal of the wishes of Alfred Nobel, Keating offers practical solutions for reforming the prize, providing a vision of a scientific future in which cosmologists may, finally, be able to see all the way back to the very beginning.]]> 352 Brian Keating 1324000910 David 5 4.11 2018 Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor
author: Brian Keating
name: David
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2018/02/14
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An extraordinary work of intellectual honesty. Astrophysicist Brian Keating explores the fascinating history and mixed effects of the Nobel Prize, especially on the field of physics. For a few years, Keating felt these effects, as people chattered about his own possible candidacy, before the chances and mischances of science changed course. That experience informs "Losing the Nobel." An amazing journey.
]]> Brave New World 5485 Brave New World is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist.]]> 288 Aldous Huxley 0060850523 David 4 3.86 1932 Brave New World
author: Aldous Huxley
name: David
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1932
rating: 4
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date added: 2017/03/26
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]]> 三体 (三体, #1) 9574008
四光年外，“三体文明”正苦苦挣扎——三颗无规则运行的太阳主导下的百余次毁灭与重生逼迫他们逃离母星。而恰在此时。他们接收到了地球发来的信息。在运用超技术锁死地球人的基础科学之后。三体人庞大的宇宙舰队开始向地球进发……

人类的末日悄然来临。]]> 302 Liu Cixin 7536692935 David 5 4.37 2006 三体 (三体, #1)
author: Liu Cixin
name: David
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2006
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/03/21
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]]> The Yiddish Policemen's Union 1833801
Homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where Landsman has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under his nose. When he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, and Landsman finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, evil, and salvation that are his heritage.

At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.
(inside cover)]]> 418 Michael Chabon David 5 3.70 2007 The Yiddish Policemen's Union
author: Michael Chabon
name: David
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/03/06
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]]> A Darkling Sea 17934480
But when Henri Kerlerec, media personality and reckless adventurer, ends up sliced open by curious Ilmatarans, tensions between Terran and Sholen erupt, leading to a diplomatic disaster that threatens to escalate to war.

Against the backdrop of deep-sea guerrilla conflict, a new age of human exploration begins as alien cultures collide. Both sides seek the aid of the newly enlightened Ilmatarans. But what this struggle means for the natives—and the future of human exploration—is anything but certain, in A Darkling Sea by James Cambias.]]> 352 James L. Cambias 0765336278 David 4 3.72 2014 A Darkling Sea
author: James L. Cambias
name: David
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2014
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/09/30
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]]> New Moon (Luna, #1) 23848027 The scions of a falling house must navigate a world of corporate warfare to maintain their family's status in the Moon's vicious political atmosphere.

The Moon wants to kill you.

Maybe it will kill you when the per diem for your allotted food, water, and air runs out, just before you hit pay dirt. Maybe it will kill you when you are trapped between the reigning corporations—the Five Dragons—in a foolish gamble against a futuristic feudal society. On the Moon, you must fight for every inch you want to gain. And that is just what Adriana Corta did.

As the leader of the Moon's newest "dragon," Adriana has wrested control of the Moon's Helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family's new status. Now, in the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation—Corta Helio—confronted by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana's five children must defend their mother's empire from her many enemies... and each other.]]> 398 Ian McDonald 0765375516 David 0 currently-reading 3.74 2015 New Moon (Luna, #1)
author: Ian McDonald
name: David
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/09/11
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Blindness 2526 No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order.

Discover a chillingly powerful and prescient dystopian vision from one of Europe's greatest writers.

A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An ophthalmologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbooks.
It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum, the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped.

This is not anarchy, this is blindness.

‘Saramago repeatedly undertakes to unite the pressing demands of the present with an unfolding vision of the future. This is his most apocalyptic, and most optimistic, version of that project yet’ Independent]]> 326 José Saramago David 4 4.04 1995 Blindness
author: José Saramago
name: David
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/11
date added: 2016/09/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Transcendental (Transcendental Trilogy, #1)]]> 17332279 Transcendental, an epic, high-concept space opera, is a Canterbury Tales of the far future in which beings from many planets hurtle across the universe to uncover the secrets of the legend of Transcendentalism. Riley, a veteran of interstellar war,  however, is not journeying to achieve transcendence, a vague mystical concept that has drawn everyone else on the ship to this journey into the unknown at the far edge of the galaxy. His mission is to find and kill the prophet who is reputed to help others transcend. As the ship speeds through space, the voyage is marred by violence and betrayal, making it clear that Riley is not the only one of the ship’s passengers who is not the spiritual seeker they all claim to be.
As tensions rise, Riley realizes that the ship’s journey is less like the Canterbury Tales and more like a harrowing, deadly voyage on a ship of fools. Looking for allies, he becomes friendly with a mysterious passenger named Asha, who, like so many others on the ship, is more than she appears. But while she professes to be just another pilgrim, he comes to realize that like him, she is keeping secrets could be the key to Riley’s assignment, or might make him question everything he thought he knew about Transcendentalism and his mission to stop it.


This long-awaited novel is a grand space adventure of exploration, intrigue, redemption, and the universal spirit that unites all beings.  This is a real departure for Gunn, a novel of grand scope and high concept, a capstone to the career of this Grand Master of science fiction.]]> 304 James E. Gunn 0765335018 David 0 currently-reading 3.29 2013 Transcendental (Transcendental Trilogy, #1)
author: James E. Gunn
name: David
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/09/11
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Evolution of God 6340873
Nearly a decade in the making, The Evolution of God is a breathtaking re-examination of the past, and a visionary look forward.]]> 567 Robert Wright 0316734918 David 4 3.93 2009 The Evolution of God
author: Robert Wright
name: David
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/11
date added: 2016/09/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Brick Moon and Other Stories]]> 6120477 242 Edward Everett Hale David 4 4.00 1870 The Brick Moon and Other Stories
author: Edward Everett Hale
name: David
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1870
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/01/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)]]> 23168817 A floresta sombria, segundo volume da premiada trilogia de ficção científica chinesa, é um livro incrivelmente forte e original.

Depois de O problema dos três corpos, a humanidade se prepara para a iminente invasão alienígena. A Organização Terra-Trissolaris — formada por habitantes da Terra que traíram seus iguais para se associar aos alienígenas — pode ter sido derrotada, mas a presença de partículas subatômicas, os sófons, revela todo o conhecimento da humanidade para os invasores, e as defesas terráqueas são um livro aberto para os trissolarianos.
Nesse contexto, em que só a mente humana é segura, é montado o Projeto Barreiras: quatro pessoas serão encarregadas de pensar em uma estratégia para a salvação do mundo. A Barreira está completamente isolada, protegendo seus pensamentos do restante da humanidade, mas até que ponto é possível guardar um segredo?]]> 512 Liu Cixin David 5 4.39 2008 The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)
author: Liu Cixin
name: David
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2016/01/15
date added: 2016/01/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)]]> 20518872 472 Liu Cixin David 5
The series explores the world of the Trisolarans, a race that is forced to adapt to life in a triple star system, on a planet whose gravity, heat, and orbit are in constant flux. Facing extinction, the Trisolarans plan to evacuate and conquer the nearest habitable planet, and finally chooses a candidate/victim when it intercepts a message—from Earth. The Three-Body Problem has been translated into English by award-winning writer, Ken Liu (author of books such as The Grace of Kings). Take a look at Stephan Martiniere's way-cool cover for the coming Tor Books edition!)

Special note… The Three Body Problem deals very closely with the issue of SETI and the Fermi Paradox and whether we should shout "yoo-hoo!" into the cosmos -- a quandary about which I've also written, from time to time.


But the biggest news is this proof of the maturation of Chinese science fiction into the top ranks of thorough and fascinating thought experimentation. I’ve long maintained that the health of an enlightened and progressive society is measured by how vibrant is its science fiction, since that is where true self-critique and appraisal and hope lie. If so, the good news stretches beyond China!
]]> 4.07 2006 The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)
author: Liu Cixin
name: David
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/11/17
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The Three-Body Problem is part one of an award-winning trilogy by Liu Cixin — and is arguably the best Chinese science fiction novel ever translated into English. Liu uses the “three-body problem” of classical mechanics to ask some terrifying questions about human nature and what lies at the core of civilization.

The series explores the world of the Trisolarans, a race that is forced to adapt to life in a triple star system, on a planet whose gravity, heat, and orbit are in constant flux. Facing extinction, the Trisolarans plan to evacuate and conquer the nearest habitable planet, and finally chooses a candidate/victim when it intercepts a message—from Earth. The Three-Body Problem has been translated into English by award-winning writer, Ken Liu (author of books such as The Grace of Kings). Take a look at Stephan Martiniere's way-cool cover for the coming Tor Books edition!)

Special note… The Three Body Problem deals very closely with the issue of SETI and the Fermi Paradox and whether we should shout "yoo-hoo!" into the cosmos -- a quandary about which I've also written, from time to time.


But the biggest news is this proof of the maturation of Chinese science fiction into the top ranks of thorough and fascinating thought experimentation. I’ve long maintained that the health of an enlightened and progressive society is measured by how vibrant is its science fiction, since that is where true self-critique and appraisal and hope lie. If so, the good news stretches beyond China!

]]> <![CDATA[Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future]]> 19367093 Contents:
Foreword (Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future) • essay by Lawrence M. Krauss
Preface: Innovation Starvation (Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future) • essay by Neal Stephenson
Introduction: A Blueprint for Better Dreams • essay by Kathryn Cramer and Ed Finn
Atmosphaera Incognita (2013) / novelette by Neal Stephenson
Girl in Wave: Wave in Girl (2014) / novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan
By the Time We Get to Arizona (2014) / novelette by Madeline Ashby
The Man Who Sold the Moon (2014) / novella by Cory Doctorow
Johnny Appledrone vs. the FAA (2014) / novelette by Lee Konstantinou
Degrees of Freedom (2014) / novelette by Karl Schroeder
Two Scenarios for the Future of Solar Energy (2014) / short story by Annalee Newitz
A Hotel in Antarctica (2014) / novelette by Geoffrey A. Landis
Periapsis (2014) / novelette by James L. Cambias
The Man Who Sold the Stars (2013) / novelette by Gregory Benford
Entanglement (2014) / novella by Vandana Singh
Elephant Angels (2014) / novelette by Brenda Cooper
Covenant (2014) / short story by Elizabeth Bear
Quantum Telepathy (2014) / novelette by Rudy Rucker
Transition Generation (2014) / short story by David Brin
The Day It All Ended (2014) / short story by Charlie Jane Anders
Tall Tower (2014) / novelette by Bruce Sterling
Science and Science Fiction: An Interview with Paul Davies • interview of Paul Davies (1946-) • interview by uncredited
.]]> 560 Ed Finn 006220470X David 5 3.58 2014 Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future
author: Ed Finn
name: David
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2014
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/09/12
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]]> The Forever Watch 17934479
As a City Planner on the Noah, Hana Dempsey is a gifted psychic, economist, hacker and bureaucrat and is considered "mission critical." She is non-replaceable, important, essential, but after serving her mandatory Breeding Duty, the impregnation and birthing that all women are obligated to undergo, her life loses purpose as she privately mourns the child she will never be permitted to know.

When Policeman Leonard Barrens enlists her and her hacking skills in the unofficial investigation of his mentor's violent death, Dempsey finds herself increasingly captivated by both the case and Barrens himself. According to Information Security, the missing man has simply "Retired," nothing unusual. Together they follow the trail left by the mutilated remains. Their investigation takes them through lost dataspaces and deep into the uninhabited regions of the ship, where they discover that the answer may not be as simple as a serial killer after all.
What they do with that answer will determine the fate of all humanity in David Ramirez's thrilling page turner.]]> 336 David B. Ramirez 1250033810 David 4 3.54 2014 The Forever Watch
author: David B. Ramirez
name: David
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/07/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]> 24580
Take a lighthearted, nostalgic trip to a simpler time, seen through the eyes of a very special boy named Tom Sawyer. It is a dreamlike summertime world of hooky and adventure, pranks and punishment, villains and first love, filled with memorable characters. Adults and young readers alike continue to enjoy this delightful classic of the promise and dreams of youth from one of America’s most beloved authors.

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

He has no mother, his father is a brutal drunkard, and he sleeps in a barrel. He’s Huck Finn—liar, sometime thief, and rebel against respectability. But when Huck meets a runaway slave named Jim, his life changes forever. On their exciting flight down the Mississippi aboard a raft, the boy nobody wanted matures into a young man of courage and conviction. As Ernest Hemingway said of this glorious novel, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.”
--back cover]]> 520 Mark Twain 0451528646 David 5 4.10 1884 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
author: Mark Twain
name: David
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1884
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/03/25
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]]> Lockstep 17910135
Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here cold sleeps can last decades and waking moments mere weeks. Its citizens survive for millennia, traveling asleep on long voyages between worlds. Not only is Lockstep the new center of the galaxy, but Toby is shocked to learn that the Empire is still ruled by its founding family: his own.

Toby’s brother Peter has become a terrible tyrant. Suspicious of the return of his long-lost brother, whose rightful inheritance also controls the lockstep hibernation cycles, Peter sees Toby as a threat to his regime. Now, with the help of a lockstep girl named Corva, Toby must survive the forces of this new Empire, outwit his siblings, and save human civilization.

Karl Schroeder's Lockstep is a grand innovation in hard SF space opera.]]> 352 Karl Schroeder 0765337266 David 4 3.68 2014 Lockstep
author: Karl Schroeder
name: David
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/22
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]]> Dark Eden 12875162 404 Chris Beckett 1848874634 David 5 3.88 2012 Dark Eden
author: Chris Beckett
name: David
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/10/23
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]]> Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1) 13453029
The first Wool story was released as a standalone short in July of 2011. Due to reviewer demand, the rest of the story was released over the next six months.

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

Alternate cover for B0071XO8RA]]> 509 Hugh Howey David 5 4.22 2012 Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: David
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/10/23
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]]> Rule 34 (Halting State, #2) 8853299
Anwar: As an ex-con, you'd like to think your identity fraud days are over. Especially as you've landed a legit job (through a shady mate). Although now that you're Consul for a shiny new Eastern European Republic, you've no idea what comes next.

The Toymaker: Your meds are wearing off and people are stalking you through Edinburgh's undergrowth. But that's ok, because as a distraction, you're project manager of a sophisticated criminal operation. But who's killing off potential recruits?

So how do bizarre domestic fatalities, dodgy downloads and a European spamming network fit together? The more DI Kavanaugh learns, the less she wants to find out.]]> 358 Charles Stross 1841497738 David 4 3.77 2011 Rule 34 (Halting State, #2)
author: Charles Stross
name: David
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/05/14
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]]> 2312 11830394
The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen. For Swan Er Hong, it is an event that will change her life. Swan was once a woman who designed worlds. Now she will be led into a plot to destroy them.]]> 561 Kim Stanley Robinson 0316098124 David 5 3.51 2012 2312
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: David
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/10/24
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]]> The City & the City 7576123
"When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Beszal, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks like a routine case for Inspector Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he probes, the evidence begins to point conspiracies far stranger, and more deadly, than anything he could have imagined. Soon his work puts him and those he cares for in danger. Borlu must travel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own, across a border like no other."]]> 372 China Miéville 0330513516 David 4 3.79 2009 The City & the City
author: China Miéville
name: David
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Leviathan (Leviathan, #1) 6050678
Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.]]> 440 Scott Westerfeld 1416971734 David 5 3.92 2009 Leviathan (Leviathan, #1)
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: David
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)]]> 954674
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, his injured best friend Darryl does not come out. The city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: "M1k3y" will take down the DHS himself.]]> 382 Cory Doctorow 0765319853 David 4 3.92 2008 Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)
author: Cory Doctorow
name: David
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pilgrimage: The Book of the People (The People)]]> 491889 255 Zenna Henderson 0380015072 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.30 1961 Pilgrimage: The Book of the People (The People)
author: Zenna Henderson
name: David
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1961
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/01/21
shelves: favorite-science-fiction
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ship Who Sang (Brainship, #1)]]> 203288 256 Anne McCaffrey 0345334310 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.03 1969 The Ship Who Sang (Brainship, #1)
author: Anne McCaffrey
name: David
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1969
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pride of Chanur (Chanur, #1)]]> 1197129 223 C.J. Cherryh 0886772923 David 4 3.92 1982 The Pride of Chanur (Chanur, #1)
author: C.J. Cherryh
name: David
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1982
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Orbital Resonance (Century Next Door, #1)]]> 1494940
What they never realized is that Melpomene might have plans of her own...]]> 245 John Barnes 0812532384 David 4 3.82 1991 Orbital Resonance (Century Next Door, #1)
author: John Barnes
name: David
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth, #1)]]> 76664
For Bink of North Village, however, Xanth was no fairy tale. He alone had no magic. And unless he got some - and got some fast! - he would be exiled. Forever!

But the Good Magician Humfrey was convinced that Bink did indeed have magic. In fact, both Beauregard the genie and the magic wall chart insisted that Bink had magic. Magic as powerful as any possessed by the King or by Good Magician Humfrey - or even by the Evil Magician Trent

Be that as it may, no one could fathom the nature of Bink's very special magic. Bink was in despair. This was even worse than having no magic at all..and he would still be exiled!]]> 344 Piers Anthony 034525855X David 4 3.91 1977 A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth, #1)
author: Piers Anthony
name: David
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1977
rating: 4
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]]> The High Crusade 338325 192 Poul Anderson 0743475283 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.89 1960 The High Crusade
author: Poul Anderson
name: David
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1960
rating: 5
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]]> Rite of Passage 229021 260 Alexei Panshin 0978907825 David 4 3.84 1968 Rite of Passage
author: Alexei Panshin
name: David
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1968
rating: 4
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]]> The Age of the Pussyfoot 1171506 158 Frederik Pohl 0552088048 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.63 1969 The Age of the Pussyfoot
author: Frederik Pohl
name: David
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1969
rating: 5
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[When Worlds Collide (When Worlds Collide, #1)]]> 670572
A crackling plot and sizzling, cataclysmic vision have made When Worlds Collide one of the most popular and influential end-of-the-world novels of all time. This Bison Frontiers of Imagination edition features the original story and its sequel, After Worlds Collide.]]> 382 Philip Wylie 0803298145 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.91 1932 When Worlds Collide (When Worlds Collide, #1)
author: Philip Wylie
name: David
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1932
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[After Many a Summer Dies the Swan]]> 5136 368 Aldous Huxley 1566630185 David 4 3.74 1939 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan
author: Aldous Huxley
name: David
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1939
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Herland (The Herland Trilogy, #2)]]> 531509
When three American men discover a community of women, living in perfect isolation in the Amazon, they decide there simply must be men somewhere. How could these women survive without man's knowledge, experience and strength, not to mention reproductive power? In fact, what they have found is a civilisation free from disease, poverty and the weight of tradition. All alone, the women have created a society of calm and prosperity, a feminist utopia that dares to threaten the very concept of male superiority.]]> 147 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0394736656 David 4 3.46 1915 Herland (The Herland Trilogy, #2)
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: David
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1915
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]> 33507 269 Jules Verne 076072850X David 5 3.92 1869 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
author: Jules Verne
name: David
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1869
rating: 5
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]]> The Time Machine 2493
So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him his reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth.  There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.  Published in 1895, this masterpiece of invention captivated readers on the threshold of a new century. Thanks to Wells’s expert storytelling and provocative insight, The Time Machine will continue to enthrall readers for generations to come.

 ]]> 118 H.G. Wells David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.90 1895 The Time Machine
author: H.G. Wells
name: David
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1895
rating: 5
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]]> More Than Human 541024
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.]]> 186 Theodore Sturgeon 0375703713 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.95 1953 More Than Human
author: Theodore Sturgeon
name: David
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1953
rating: 5
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]]> The Book of the New Sun 968868 950 Gene Wolfe 1568658079 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.25 1983 The Book of the New Sun
author: Gene Wolfe
name: David
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at:
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]]> <![CDATA[Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)]]> 77566 500 Dan Simmons 0553283685 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.27 1989 Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)
author: Dan Simmons
name: David
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1989
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Colour of Magic (Discworld, #1)]]> 601238 Alternate Cover Editions can be found here, and here

On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE on the planet...]]> 287 Terry Pratchett 0552124753 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.79 1983 The Colour of Magic (Discworld, #1)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: David
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1983
rating: 5
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]]> Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! 315621
Contents:
Prologue
"The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch"
Interlude I
"Don Jones"
Interlude II
"In Hoka Signo Vinces"
Interlude III
"The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound"
Interlude IV
"Yo Ho Hoka!"
Interlude V
"The Tiddlywink Warriors"
Interlude VI
"Joy in Mudville"
"Undiplomatic Immunity"
Mysterious Message]]> 320 Poul Anderson 0671577743 David 5 3.81 1983 Hoka! Hoka! Hoka!
author: Poul Anderson
name: David
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1983
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)]]> 11 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox—the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!]]> 216 Douglas Adams David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.21 1979 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
author: Douglas Adams
name: David
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1979
rating: 5
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]]> The Technicolor Time Machine 28803 Viking Columbus as they journey back in time to capture history in the making.

The story first appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine, where it was serialized in three parts in the March–May 1967 issues, under the title "The Time Machined Saga".]]> 256 Harry Harrison 0812516079 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.89 1967 The Technicolor Time Machine
author: Harry Harrison
name: David
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1967
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1)]]> 24983
But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin--barely of age herself--finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history's darkest hours.

Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering, and the indomitable will of the human spirit.]]> 578 Connie Willis David 5 4.02 1992 Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1)
author: Connie Willis
name: David
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1992
rating: 5
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]]> The Big Time 102281
It's been going on for a billion years and it will last another billion or so. Up and down the timeline, the two sides--"Spiders" and "Snakes"--battle endlessly to change the future and the past. Our lives, our memories, are their battleground. And in the midst of the war is the Place, outside space and time, where Greta Forzane and the other Entertainers provide solace and r-&-r for tired time warriors.]]> 128 Fritz Leiber 0312890788 David 4 3.30 1958 The Big Time
author: Fritz Leiber
name: David
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1958
rating: 4
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]]> Run, Come See Jerusalem 552913
Centuries before, New Jerusalem had been Chicago. Now it was ruled by the World Ecumenical Church...a repressive theocracy founded by one Allen Howard Dover and governed by fear.

Eugene Stillman didn't like his world. But he was a law-abiding government time traveler, not a radical—at least not until he met Melanie. She introduced him to the delights of proscribed sex, brought him into the underground, and presented him with a plan to prevent the birth of Allen Howard Dover. All it involved was murder...and a little trip.

BECAUSE OF MELANIE, STILLMAN AGREED.

BECAUSE OF MELANIE, THE CHURCH MADE STILLMAN A HUNTED CRIMINAL.

And because of Melanie, Stillman suddenly found himself on a horrifying flight through time, running back and forth through centuries to escape pursuers who were determined to follow him all the lives of his days...forever!]]> 232 Richard C. Meredith 0345250664 David 5 3.52 1976 Run, Come See Jerusalem
author: Richard C. Meredith
name: David
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1976
rating: 5
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]]> Up the Line 449343 320 Robert Silverberg 0743444973 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.69 1969 Up the Line
author: Robert Silverberg
name: David
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1969
rating: 5
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]]> The Man Who Folded Himself 624122 127 David Gerrold 1932100040 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.81 1973 The Man Who Folded Himself
author: David Gerrold
name: David
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1973
rating: 5
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]]> Lest Darkness Fall 94715 174 L. Sprague de Camp 0515608173 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.96 1941 Lest Darkness Fall
author: L. Sprague de Camp
name: David
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1941
rating: 5
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]]> Bring the Jubilee 91099 Alternative cover edition can be found here.

Hodge Backmaker lives in twentieth century New York, a city of cobblestones, gas lamps, and ten-storey skyscrapers. In his world, the Confederate South won its independence in the Civil War and North America is divided, with slavery and serfdom still facts of life in the Confederacy and New York a provincial backwater. Bring the Jubilee stands alongside Pavane as science fiction's finest explorations of alternative history.]]> 208 Ward Moore 1857987640 David 5 3.73 1953 Bring the Jubilee
author: Ward Moore
name: David
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1953
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[American Front (The Great War, #1)]]> 751724
Across the Americas, the fighting raged like wildfire on multiple and far-flung fronts. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states--Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews--Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a Confederacy still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war thundered on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn into a climactic confrontation . . .]]> 562 Harry Turtledove 0345405609 David 4 3.91 1998 American Front (The Great War, #1)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: David
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1998
rating: 4
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]]> Cryptonomicon 816 Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first... Of course, to observe is not its real duty—we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed... Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes—inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe—team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.]]> 1152 Neal Stephenson David 5 4.24 1999 Cryptonomicon
author: Neal Stephenson
name: David
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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]]> 1632 16967
1632 And in northern Germany things couldn't get much worse. Famine. Disease. Religous war laying waste the cities. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy.

2000 Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia, and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn's sister (including the entire local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time

THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED....

When the dust settles, Mike leads a group of armed miners to find out what happened and finds the road into town is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell: a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter attacked by men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don't have to ask who to shoot.

At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of the Thirty Years' War.]]> 597 Eric Flint 1416532811 David 4 4.04 2000 1632
author: Eric Flint
name: David
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man in the High Castle (Vintage)]]> 216363 I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied 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 wake.]]> 259 Philip K. Dick 0679740678 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.63 1962 The Man in the High Castle (Vintage)
author: Philip K. Dick
name: David
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1962
rating: 5
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]]> The Princess Bride 21787
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it's about everything.]]> 429 William Goldman 0345418263 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.27 1973 The Princess Bride
author: William Goldman
name: David
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1973
rating: 5
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]]> The Great Time Machine Hoax 473727 224 Keith Laumer 0441302688 David 5 3.53 1964 The Great Time Machine Hoax
author: Keith Laumer
name: David
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1964
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mote in God's Eye (Moties, #1)]]> 100365 596 Larry Niven 156865054X David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.08 1974 The Mote in God's Eye (Moties, #1)
author: Larry Niven
name: David
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> Gateway (Heechee Saga, #1) 218427
When prospector Robinette 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, Rob Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he has become... 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!]]> 278 Frederik Pohl 0345475836 David 5 4.07 1977 Gateway (Heechee Saga, #1)
author: Frederik Pohl
name: David
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1977
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)]]> 21611 278 Joe Haldeman David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.14 1974 The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)
author: Joe Haldeman
name: David
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1974
rating: 5
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]]> Dying Inside 968902
Universally acclaimed as Robert Silverberg's masterwork, Dying Inside is a vivid, harrowing portrait of a man who squandered a remarkable gift, of a superman who had to learn what it was to be human.]]> 245 Robert Silverberg 0743435087 David 5 3.85 1972 Dying Inside
author: Robert Silverberg
name: David
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1972
rating: 5
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]]> The Stars My Destination 333867
The Stars My Destination is a classic of technological prophecy and timeless narrative enchantment by an acknowledged master of science fiction.]]> 258 Alfred Bester 0679767800 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.07 1956 The Stars My Destination
author: Alfred Bester
name: David
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1956
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1)]]> 1137215
But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.]]> 416 Cherie Priest 0765318415 David 4 3.53 2009 Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1)
author: Cherie Priest
name: David
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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]]> Neverwhere (London Below, #1) 14497
"Neverwhere" is the London of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Strange destinies lie in wait in London below - a world that seems eerily familiar. But a world that is utterly bizarre, peopled by unearthly characters such as the Angel called Islington, the girl named Door, and the Earl who holds Court on a tube train.

Now a single act of kindness has catapulted young businessman Richard Mayhew out of his safe and predictable life - and into the realms of "Neverwhere." Richard is about to find out more than he ever wanted to know about this other London. Which is a pity. Because Richard just wants to go home...]]> 370 Neil Gaiman 0060557818 David 4 4.16 1996 Neverwhere (London Below, #1)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: David
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1996
rating: 4
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]]> The Drawing of the Dark 209693 336 Tim Powers 0575074264 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.93 1979 The Drawing of the Dark
author: Tim Powers
name: David
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at:
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]]> The Web Between The Worlds 778417 352 Charles Sheffield 0671319736 David 4 3.71 1979 The Web Between The Worlds
author: Charles Sheffield
name: David
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1979
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[To Crush the Moon (The Queendom of Sol #4)]]> 378929
TO CRUSH THE MOON

Once the Queendom of Sol was a glowing monument to humankind’s loftiest dreams. Ageless and immortal, its citizens lived in peaceful splendor. But as Sol buckled under the swell of an immorbid population, space itself literally ran out….

Conrad Mursk has returned to Sol on the crippled starship Newhope. His crew are the frozen refugees of a failed colony known as Barnard’s Star. A thousand years older, Mursk finds Sol on the brink of rebellion, while a fanatic necro cult is reviving death itself. Now Mursk and his lover, Captain Xiomara “Xmary” Li Weng, are sent on a final, desperate mission by King Bruno de Towaji–one of the greatest terraformers of the ages–to literally crush the moon. If they succeed, they’ll save
billions of lost souls. If they fail, they’ll strand humanity between death–and something unimaginably worse….


From the Paperback edition.]]> 400 Wil McCarthy 055358717X David 5 3.90 2005 To Crush the Moon (The Queendom of Sol #4)
author: Wil McCarthy
name: David
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Ringworld's Children (Ringworld #4)]]> 64466 284 Larry Niven 0765341026 David 4 3.76 2004 Ringworld's Children (Ringworld #4)
author: Larry Niven
name: David
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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]]> Ringworld (Ringworld #1) 61179 Ringworld.]]> 288 Larry Niven 0575077026 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.95 1970 Ringworld (Ringworld #1)
author: Larry Niven
name: David
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1970
rating: 5
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]]> Flashforward 337132
Two minutes and seventeen seconds that changed the world

Suddenly, without warning, all seven billion people on Earth black out for more than two minutes. Millions die as planes fall from the sky, people tumble down staircases, and cars plow into each other.

But that’s the least of the survivors’ challenges. During the blackout, everyone experienced a glimpse of what his or her future holds—and the interlocking mosaic of these visions threatens to unravel the present.]]> 320 Robert J. Sawyer 0812580346 David 5 3.69 1999 Flashforward
author: Robert J. Sawyer
name: David
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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]]> Eon (The Way, #1) 840278
For the Stone was from space—but perhaps not our space; it came from the future—but perhaps not our future; and within the hollowed asteroid was Thistledown. The remains of a vanished civilization. A human—English, Russian, and Chinese-speaking—civilization. Seven vast chambers containing forests, lakes, rivers, hanging cities...

And museums describing the Death; the catastrophic war that was about to occur; the horror and the long winter that would follow. But while scientists and politicians bickered about how to use the information to stop the Death, the Stone yielded a secret that made even Earth's survival pale into insignificance.]]> 504 Greg Bear 0812520475 David 5 3.88 1985 Eon (The Way, #1)
author: Greg Bear
name: David
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1985
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Across the Sea of Suns (Galactic Center, #2)]]> 382329 512 Gregory Benford 0446611565 David 4 3.76 1984 Across the Sea of Suns (Galactic Center, #2)
author: Gregory Benford
name: David
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1984
rating: 4
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> Artifact 453963

A small cube of black rock has been unearthed in a 3500-year-old Mycenaean tomb.

An incomprehensible object in an impossible place; its age, its purpose, and its origins are unknown.

Its discovery has unleashed a global storm of intrigue, theft and espionage, and is pushing nations to the brink of war.

Its substance has scientists baffled. And the miracle it contains does not belong on this Earth.

It is mystery and madness -- an enigma with no equal in recorded history. It is mankind's greatest discovery ... and worst nightmare.

It may have already obliterated a world. Ours is next.

]]> 416 Gregory Benford 1841490628 David 4 3.49 1985 Artifact
author: Gregory Benford
name: David
average rating: 3.49
book published: 1985
rating: 4
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> Titan (Gaea, #1) 49838 309 John Varley David 4 3.94 1979 Titan (Gaea, #1)
author: John Varley
name: David
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1979
rating: 4
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> Snow Crash 830 Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous… you'll recognize it immediately.]]> 438 Neal Stephenson 0553380958 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.02 1992 Snow Crash
author: Neal Stephenson
name: David
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1992
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> Courtship Rite 753136 409 Donald Kingsbury 0671460897 David 4 4.00 1982 Courtship Rite
author: Donald Kingsbury
name: David
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1982
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia]]> 13651 387 Ursula K. Le Guin David 5 favorite-science-fiction 4.25 1974 The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: David
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1974
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> Dune (Dune, #1) 234225 Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the "spice" melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for...

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul's family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.]]> 604 Frank Herbert 0340839937 David 5 4.21 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: David
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1965
rating: 5
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]]> Island 5130 Island, his last novel, Huxley transports us to a Pacific island where, for 120 years, an ideal society has flourished. Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala, and events begin to move when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there. What Faranby doesn't expect is how his time with the people of Pala will revolutionize all his values and—to his amazement—give him hope.]]> 354 Aldous Huxley 0060085495 David 4 3.87 1962 Island
author: Aldous Huxley
name: David
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1962
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Pacific Edge (Three Californias Triptych, #3)]]> 41130
2065: In a world that has rediscovered harmony with nature, the village of El Modena, California, is an ecotopia in the making. Kevin Claiborne, a young builder who has grown up in this "green" world, now finds himself caught up in the struggle to preserve his community's idyllic way of life from the resurgent forces of greed and exploitation.]]> 326 Kim Stanley Robinson 0312890389 David 5 3.76 1990 Pacific Edge (Three Californias Triptych, #3)
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: David
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1990
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)]]> 8935689 jihad; a holy war against the ultimate anathema of the communistic Culture and its sentient Minds. To the Culture, it was a matter of principle, the one fight it couldn't walk away from. In a galactic war of staggering scale and ferocity, waged with awesomely destructive weaponry and a numbing ruthlessness, billions died, the great starships burned like clouds of moths, and whole habitats, moons and planets were turned to dust.

Few single entitles could affect the course of such a vast conflict, but one desperate, fugitive Mind just might, even if it was deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, and even if that world was a Planet of the Dead, and it was protected by something very like a God...

The task of the Changer mercenary called Horza was to to the Mind before anybody else did, as quickly as possible, with or without help, and no matter who or what got in his way; the enemy, or his own side.

Consider Phlebas is more than Space Opera, more than just another SF novel; it is set to join the genre's classics.]]> 467 Iain M. Banks 1857231384 David 4 3.85 1987 Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: David
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1987
rating: 4
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]]> Beyond This Horizon 540503
They should all have been very happy....

But Hamilton Felix is bored. And he is the culmination of a star line; each of his last thirty ancestors chosen for superior genes. Hamilton is, as far as genetics can produce one, the ultimate man. And this ultimate man can see no reason why the human race should survive, and has no intention of continuing the pointless comedy.

However, Hamilton's life is about to become less boring. A secret cabal of revolutionaries who find utopia not just boring, but desperately in need of leaders who know just What Needs to be Done, are planning to revolt and put themselves in charge. Knowing of Hamilton's disenchantment with the modern world, they have recruited him to join their Glorious Revolution. Big mistake! The revolutionaries are about to find out that recruiting a superman was definitely not a good idea....]]> 158 Robert A. Heinlein 0451089669 David 4 favorite-science-fiction 3.72 1948 Beyond This Horizon
author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: David
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1948
rating: 4
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]]> The Disappearance 347397
On a lazy, quiet afternoon, in the blink of an eye, our world shatters into two parallel universes as men vanish from women and women from men. After families and loved ones separate from one another, life continues in very different ways for men and women, boys and girls. An explosion of violence sweeps one world that still operates technologically; social stability and peace in the other are offset by famine and a widespread breakdown in machinery and science. And as we learn from the fascinating parallel stories of a brilliant couple, Bill and Paula Gaunt, the foundations of relationships, love, and sex are scrutinized, tested, and sometimes redefined in both worlds. The radically divergent trajectories of the gendered histories reveal stark truths about the rigidly defined expectations placed on men and women and their sexual relationships and make clear how much society depends on interconnection between the sexes.

 

Written over a half century ago yet brimming with insight and unsettling in its relevance today, The Disappearance is a masterpiece of modern speculative fiction.]]> 407 Philip Wylie 0803298412 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.64 1951 The Disappearance
author: Philip Wylie
name: David
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1951
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> We 76171 The exhilarating dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell's 1984 and foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet Russia

Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and was the forerunner of works such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction. Clarence Brown's brilliant translation is based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.]]> 256 Yevgeny Zamyatin 0140185852 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.90 1924 We
author: Yevgeny Zamyatin
name: David
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1924
rating: 5
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]]> On the Beach 38180 On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.]]> 296 Nevil Shute David 4 favorite-science-fiction 3.96 1957 On the Beach
author: Nevil Shute
name: David
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1957
rating: 4
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]]> Make Room! Make Room! 473850 300 Harry Harrison 0553564587 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.74 1966 Make Room! Make Room!
author: Harry Harrison
name: David
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1966
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)]]> 164154 A Canticle for Leibowitzis a true landmark of twentieth-century literature -- a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future.

In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.]]> 334 Walter M. Miller Jr. 0060892994 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.99 1959 A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)
author: Walter M. Miller Jr.
name: David
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1959
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> Animal Farm 7613 Librarian's note: This an alternate cover for: 9780452284241

George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire of a downtrodden society’s blind march towards totalitarianism.

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.

When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]> 129 George Orwell David 5 3.90 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: David
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1945
rating: 5
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date added: 2012/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War, #2)]]> 239399
The universe is a dangerous place for humanity—and it's about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space. Their linchpin: the turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF’s biggest military secrets. To prevail, the CDF must find out why Boutin did what he did.

Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers -- a superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared’s brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades.

At first, Jared is a perfect soldier, but as Boutin’s memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reason’s for Boutin’s betrayal. As Jared desperately hunts for his "father," he must also come to grips with his own choices. Time is running out: The alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of them plan worse things than humanity’s mere military defeat…]]> 343 John Scalzi 0765354063 David 5 4.10 2006 The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War, #2)
author: John Scalzi
name: David
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2006
rating: 5
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date added: 2011/11/25
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]]> Flood (Flood, #1) 2111634
Lily, Helen, Gary and Piers, hostages released from five years captivity at the hands of Christian Extremists in Spain, return to England and the first rumours of a flood of positively Biblical proportions…

Sea levels have begun to rise, at catastrophic speed. Within two years London and New York will be under water. The Pope will give his last address from the Vatican before Rome is swallowed by the rising water. Mecca too will vanish beneath the waves.

The world is drowning. A desperate race to find out what is happening begins. The popular theory is that we are paying the price for our profligacy and that climate change is about to redress Gaia’s balance. But there are dissenting views. And all the time the waters continue to rise and mankind begins the great retreat to higher ground. Millions will die, billions will become migrants. Wars will be fought over mountains.]]> 536 Stephen Baxter 0575080566 David 5 3.64 2008 Flood (Flood, #1)
author: Stephen Baxter
name: David
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2011/01/19
date added: 2011/01/19
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]]> The White Tiger 1768603
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life—having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.

Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation —and a startling, provocative debut.]]> 288 Aravind Adiga 1416562591 David 4 3.76 2008 The White Tiger
author: Aravind Adiga
name: David
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2010/01/01
date added: 2010/11/27
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]]> The Windup Girl 6597651
Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.

What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century.]]> 359 Paolo Bacigalupi 1597801577 David 4 3.75 2009 The Windup Girl
author: Paolo Bacigalupi
name: David
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2010/08/23
date added: 2010/08/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unincorporated Man (Unincorporated Man, #1)]]> 4025200

The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that takes place in the future, after civilization has fallen into complete economic collapse. This reborn civilization is one in which every individual is incorporated at birth, and spends many years trying to attain control over his or her own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed.

Now the incredible has happened: a billionaire businessman from our time, frozen in secret in the early twenty-first century, is discovered and resurrected, given health and a vigorous younger body. Justin Cord is the only unincorporated man in the world, a true stranger in this strange land. Justin survived because he is tough and smart. He cannot accept only part ownership of himself, even if that places him in conflict with a civilization that extends outside the solar system to the Oort Cloud.  People will be arguing about this novel and this world for decades.

]]> 479 Dani Kollin 0765318997 David 4 3.79 2009 The Unincorporated Man (Unincorporated Man, #1)
author: Dani Kollin
name: David
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/07/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay]]> 3985
“It's absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal—smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read.”—The Washington Post Book World

One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Decade • Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century

A “towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book” (Newsweek), hailed as Chabon’s “magnum opus” (The New York Review of Books), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939.

A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink.

Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America’s finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age.]]> 639 Michael Chabon 0312282990 David 5 4.18 2000 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
author: Michael Chabon
name: David
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2010/04/26
date added: 2010/04/26
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]]> The Shockwave Rider 41070
Nickie Halflinger, the only person to escape from Tarnover—where they raise hyper-intelligent children to maintain the political dominance of the USA in the 21st century—is on the run, dodging from loophole to crevice to crack in the computerised data-net that binds the continent like chains. After years of flight and constant changes of identity, at the strange small town called Precipice he discovers he is not alone in his quest. But can his new allies save him when he falls again into the sinister grasp of Tarnover...?]]> 288 John Brunner 0345467175 David 5 favorite-science-fiction 3.93 1975 The Shockwave Rider
author: John Brunner
name: David
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/02/26
shelves: favorite-science-fiction
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]]>