Jan 16
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The End of Eternity | Isaac Asimov

The End of Eternity © 1955 Fawcett Crest (1971) 192 pages Reading 50 year old science fiction is an entertaining experience. Not only do you have to envision the future with the author, you have to view it through a dated lens. Asimov’s The End of Eternity is a great example of classic science fiction. [...]

Author: Stephen Barkley
Dec 20
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The Outward Urge | John Wyndham

The Outward Urge © 1959 Penguin 187 pages You can enjoy The Outward Urge on a couple different levels. On the surface, it’s a collection of short stories about humanity’s exploration of space. Dig a little deeper and a couple sub-themes stand out. These stories cover 200 years of the history of the Troon family [...]

Author: Stephen Barkley
Dec 08
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Star-Begotten | H. G. Wells

Star Begotten © 1937 Mannor Books 173 pages Do you remember The War of the Worlds? This is a sequel, of sorts. In War, the Martians were defeated by their vulnerability to earth’s ecosystem. Star-Begotten explains plan B. What if, instead of invading earth, they used interplanetary rays to subtly change humans into their own [...]

Author: Stephen Barkley
Nov 09
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The Case Against Tomorrow | Frederik Pohl

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 [...]

Author: Stephen Barkley
Aug 10
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The Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury

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, [...]

Author: Stephen Barkley
Jul 13
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Chocky | John Wyndham

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 [...]

Author: Stephen Barkley
Apr 27
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Neuromancer | William Gibson

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 [...]

Author: Stephen Barkley
Apr 13
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Watchmen | Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

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 [...]

Author: Stephen Barkley