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“It is good to renew one’s wonder.” This is how Ray Bradbury opens The Martian Chronicles. And that’s exactly what makes his writing great—he renews that sense of wonder, a feeling that’s so easy to lose. Bradbury is best known for his novels, such as Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451 (which was … Read more
Today, I’m going to explore science fiction through one key concept, called cognitive estrangement, and one key work: Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. But firstly, if you missed it, be sure to check out why you should read science fiction here. Ok, let’s learn some things! What is cognitive estrangement? Cognitive estrangement is a term … Read more
Haruki Murakami’s Kakfa on the Shore is a strange, lurid book. You float through this dreamscape of modern Japan, effortlessly switching between the real, the fantastic, and the absurd. The characters drift through their story, unquestioningly, directed by powers outside of their own will. Everything in the book is subject to its own strange, internal … Read more
So, you want some science fiction books that’ll keep you glued to the pages? Look no further. I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 best sci-fi novels, particularly thinking of what I would recommend to someone starting with the genre. These are some of the very books that I first read in the sci-fi … Read more
When we hear the words science fiction—or sci-fi, or speculative fiction, whatever—we think of spaceships, aliens, time travel, and all things outer-worldly. And, indeed, it often is about those things. But the genre still has this sort of low-brow, fringe association; it’s excluded from literature’s mainstream, in favour of realism, romance, and fantasy. This … Read more
In the first chapter of the novel, Grossman muses: …How could a man be unhappy outside the camp? This remains one of the most impactful introductions to a book that I’ve read. Such striking and evocative turns-of-phrases whisk you through the pages of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. Today we’ll review his war epic, often … Read more