Our Recommended Books
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We like to recommend good science fiction as a highly accessible way to learn about the possible outcomes of technology choices. Not all science fiction does that: this is not a list of the best books in science fiction, but rather the ones we recommend as being reasonably accurate about science and/or social issues that will affect our future. If you have books you’d like to recommend, you can email me – Brenda Cooper.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s series on Climate Change
Kim Stanley Robinson’s series on climate change, which includes Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting. These are well-researched works that do a nice job of showing the complexity of both the problem and the possible solutions. It is a sobering but at least slightly hopeful series.
These are not page turners, but they are a much easier and more interesting way to absorb some of the intricacies of the possible effects of climate change than reading reports. I do recommend reading this series in order – there are engaging characters that will travel from book to book with you.
Recommended for: Everyone.
Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder
Canadian writer Karl Schroeder explores a layered set of virtual and physical worlds in Lady of Mazes. His thinking is audacious and interesting. This book is a great way to explore consensual world-building and the nature of belief in reality.
Recommended For: People who are at least slightly self-describable as “computer-geeks” and who have gamed or built a second-life avatar or otherwise experienced virtual realities. It’s reasonably accessible to anyone, but it’s a very, very bright book that requires following some very interesting but conceptually new ideas. I loved it, but had to stop and think a few times.
Rainbow’s End by Vernor Vinge
Vernor Vinge’s near-future tale, Rainbows End, is a true delight. The entire background of the book (as well as the main story, of course) is firmly set in an imaginable future. Almost every page is a lesson about at the future, and about what it will be like to be human there.
Vinge doesn’t flinch from real problems like Alzheimer’s in this book that in turn explores becoming young again, the meaning of family, and a 1984-style threat to human independent thought.
Recommended for: Everyone
Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear
Greg Bear’s award winning duology, Darwin’s Radio and Darwin’s Children, explores uncommon frontier in science fiction: biology. Like Kim Stanley Robinson, Greg does a lot of research and shares his knowledge so it goes down easy with a good twist of entertainment. Both of these books are page turners, and will be tough to put down.
Recommended for: Everyone
Snowcrash by Neil Stephenson
Neil Stephenson’s Snowcrash is spoken of as the father of the virtual world, Second Life. Written nearly twenty years ago, it was sweetly prophetic in many ways, and missed the mark in a few other, quaint ones. Stephenson invented fictional skateboards that my son still wants (and which are now a little bit available, but not as cool as the ones in the book) and a number of words from the book – such as descriptor for minivans — are still in our family vocabulary even though we read it shortly after it came out.
Recommended for: Everyone, including teens. Best for computer geeks, but there’s value for all.
1984 George Orwell
George Orwell’s fabulous 1984: The quintessential cautionary science fiction tale. So deep in our culture, it hasn’t been shelved with science fiction for a long time. Look for it in the “classics” section of most bookstores. Should be recommended or required reading in a high school and college classes. I’ve read it a few times, haven’t done it for a few years, and I think it’s time again….
Recommended for: Everyone
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. Anyone remember that when the Iraq war started we were told the way to support the troops was to keep the economy strong and consumer spending up? Notice a lot of us spend a lot more time playing games, watching television, or seeking some other form of entertainment than thinking deep thoughts? Like all of our classics, this one missed some major marks, but Brave New World hit us so close to the bone in some ways that it hurts.
Recommended for: Everyone
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