Fantasy and science fiction have long been been my favorite literary genres. They provide an opportunity for authors to describe worlds that do not exist, to pose questions that would be odious or untenable in our society, and to explore the consequences of ideas and technologies that might never come to term in our own world. As a child, many of the worlds and technologies in science fiction inspired me to study engineering – to create the cities of tomorrow.
At the suggestion of some of my friends here in Cambridge, I’m currently writing a short introductory guide to science fiction – Sci-Fi 101, if you will. Sci-fi isn’t even two centuries old, but it can be difficult to navigate if you’re just accustomed to reading other genres.
In the meantime, I’d like to share a list of sci-fi and fantasy compiled by NPR in 2011. It was based on reader polling (maybe not the best method for evaluating literature), so it does have a bias towards “pop sci-fi/fantasy” and to works that have been adapted in film. Despite this, it contains many of what I consider to be the best offerings form sci-fi and fantasy.
By my count, I’ve read about 50 of the 100 books on the list – clearly I still have some work to do, especially on the fantasy side. If you’re looking for a book recommendation from this list, this handy flowchart from SF Signal can probably point you in some interesting directions.
Image Credit: The Veil Nebula, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope