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The Case Against Tomorrow ©1957
Ballantine Second Printing 1965
152 pages

There’s so much to love about golden-age science fiction like: detective stories with robots, martians with green skin, and dystopian views of the future that have proven true in ways the author didn’t quite foresee. This collection of Pohl’s short stories extrapolates the damning trends of 1950s [...]

Martian Chronicles © 1958
Bantam (1980)
181 pages

Ray Bradbury is lauded as one of the best science fiction writers of the 20th century. I’ve only read a couple of his books now (including the famous Fahrenheit 451), but I would have to agree. Put him and the dearly departed Asimov together in a room, and the very [...]

Chocky (Puffin Books) © 1968
Penguin (1970)
154 pages

Chocky’s a fine science fiction tale. In it, a boy named Matthew begins to have conversations with an imaginary friend—who turns out to be more than imaginary. The back cover states that the friend, “was far too intelligent and frightening” to spring from the mind of Matthew alone.
This story [...]

Neuromancer © 1984
Ace Books
271 pages

I decided to brush up on my sci-fi history by reading this archetypal Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick award winning Cyberpunk novel. I’ve already read Pattern Recognition and Spook Country, so I knew a bit of what to expect. What I found was Gibson in his raw unpolished brilliance. You [...]

Watchmen © 1995
DC Comics
416 pages

This was the first graphic novel I’ve read—and I’m hooked. This was a superhero story unlike anything I’ve read before. Most of the superheroes had no “super” in them at all. The cast was a mixed up group of people who used to get a kick out of dressing up and [...]