A ReadOrbit guide
A compact novel can still hold an enormous idea. These selections make a strong case without demanding a month of reading.
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2021
by James G. Robertson
Death comes, and misery follows. As a man in his early twenties, Leon never genuinely contemplated what would happen after his death. Like those before him, he never understood the truth of our universe. After his sudden demise, the terrorizing reality of a mysterious dystopian a…
2018
by Benjamin Eldon Stevens, Brett M. Rogers
"Frankenstein and Its Classics is the first collection of scholarship dedicated to how Frankenstein and works inspired by it draw on ancient Greek and Roman literature, history, philosophy, and myth. Presenting twelve new essays intended for students, scholars, and other readers…
2017
by D. Harlan Wilson
"Prophetic short stories and apocalyptic novels like The Crystal World made J.G. Ballard a foundational figure in the British New Wave. Rejecting the science fiction of rockets and aliens, he explored an inner space of humanity informed by psychiatry and biology and shaped by Sur…
2017
by Alan Dean Foster
"Unlikely duo Pip and Flinx return to right another wrong in this all-new sci-fi adventure from one of the genre's living legends. Fans of fun, fast-paced, imaginative science fiction adventure, rejoice! #1 New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster returns to his much-lo…
2017
by Jay Hosking
"Three Years with the Rat is a mind-warping thriller that will make you question reality as you conceive of it. One of the most assured and haunting debuts I've read in recent memory." --Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter After several years of drifting between school and go-now…
2016
by Chuck Palahniuk, Cameron Stewart, David W. Mack
"Fight Club 2 is available exclusively as a Graphic Novel! Some imaginary friends never go away. Ten years after starting Project Mayhem, he lives a mundane life. A kid, a wife. Pills to keep his destiny at bay. But it won't last long, the wife has seen to that. He's back where h…
2016
by Chuck Tingle
With his genre-defining work, Space Raptor Butt Invasion, Chuck Tingle proved that even gay dinosaur erotica could be nominated for a Hugo Award, the most prestigious honor in science fiction. Nobody could have expected what would happen when the story continued. Collected here i…
2016
by Gerald Alva Miller
"Gerald Alva Miller Jr.'s Understanding William Gibson is a thoughtful examination of the life and work of William Gibson, author of eleven novels and twenty short stories. Gibson is the recipient of many notable awards for science fiction writing including the Nebula, Hugo, and…
2014
by Toby Whaymand
Susan Atkins, Captain of Starship NOVA, is on a special mission to transport prisoner CX589 to the planet Troidon. It is Earth Year 2288, and she and her crew must ride a wormhole in order to propel themselves into the future to reach Troidon. While time travel is impossible, The…
2014
by Steve White
"Book #4 of the Jason Thanou Time Travel series. Jason and his team travel to the latter days of the American Civil War to combat a transhumanist threat. Sequel to Pirates of the Timestream. Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once ag…
2014
by Karen Burnham
"Greg Egan (1961- ) publishes works that challenge readers with rigorous, deeply-informed scientific speculation. He unapologetically delves into mathematics, physics, and other disciplines in his prose, putting him in the vanguard of the hard science fiction renaissance of the 1…
2013
by Gary Westfahl
The leading figure in the development of cyberpunk, William Gibson (born in 1948) crafted works in which isolated humans explored near-future worlds of ubiquitous and intrusive computer technology and cybernetics. This volume is the first comprehensive examination of the award-wi…
2012
by Olivia M. Ravensworth
Released at the end of 2012 by Pink Flamingo Publications http://www.pinkflamingo.com/brands/Olivia-Ravensworth.html , Slave to Six Worlds is a tale of the future as imagined from the Golden Age of science fiction of the 1930s—a colorful, bawdy, brawling time of atomic-powered ro…
2010
by L.A.TAYLOR
A SYNOPSIS OF M.D. (MORGUE OF THE DEAD) BY L.A. TAYLOR WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF THE TOWN YOU LIVED IN WAS OVERTAKEN BY FLESH-EATING ZOMBIES? WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF A LOVED ONE TURNED INTO ONE OF THEM? The town of Clifton Falls had recently put aside the terrible bank robbery from a few…
2006
by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy's tenth novel, The Road, is his most harrowing yet deeply personal work. Some unnamed catastrophe has scourged the world to a burnt-out cinder, inhabited by the last remnants of mankind and a very few surviving dogs and fungi. The sky is perpetually shrouded by du…
2004
by Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur C. Clarke is a living legend, a writer whose name has been synonymous with science fiction for more than fifty years. An indomitable believer in human and scientific potential, Clarke is a genuine visionary. If Clarke has an heir among today's science fiction writers,…
2004
by Aldous Huxley
In 1958, Aldous Huxley wrote what might be called a sequel to his novel Brave New World, published in 1932, but it was a sequel that did not revisit the story or the characters, or re-enter the world of the novel. Instead, he revisited that world in a set of 12 essays. Taking a s…
2004
by Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey
Beginning with the classic Dragonriders of Pern, Anne McCaffrey has created a complex, endlessly fascinating world uniting humans and great telepathic dragons. Millions of devoted readers have soared on the glittering wings of Anne's imagination, following book by book the evolut…
2003
by Howard Waldrop
A stew of talent, well simmered... In a career that has spanned thirty-four years, Howard Waldrop has withheld these collaborations from his five short story collections, in order to create a dream, this special volume. Included are several Hugo and Nebula nominated stories, rang…
2002
by Tite Kubo
Bleach (ブリーチ Burīchi?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. Bleach follows the adventures of the soulless ginger kid Ichigo Kurosaki after he obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper (死神 Shinigami?, literally, "Death God") —a death personification similar t…
2001
by Joe Haldeman, Kevin Orton
The Arrival Is Imminent Joe Haldeman's novel The Comingis a tightly constructed near future thriller which begins by recapitulating a classic science fictional motif: the moment of first contact with an alien intelligence. The story begins on October 1, 2054. Aurora (Rory) Bell,…
1998
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Dr. Abner Perry has invented a high-calibration digging machine affectionately called 'The Iron Mole'. While testing his invention with his financial backer and former student David Innes, the machine malfunctions and the pair end up burrowing deep into the earth to emerge in Pel…
1997
by Robert A. Heinlein
Starship Troopers takes place in the midst of an interstellar war between the Terran Federation of Earth and the Arachnids (referred to as "The Bugs") of Klendathu. It is narrated as a series of flashbacks by Juan Rico, and is one of only a few Heinlein novels set out in this fas…
1994
by Ian McDonald
Ian MacDonald explores the gestalt of transhumanism in a radically unfamiliar dystopian future. **Terminal Cafe** projects the future of the United States if we stopped pretending Brazil doesn't exist and embraced the Afro-Carribbean elements of our memetic function. This book is…