Science Fiction Books > T Science Fiction Books

The Triffids are Coming

Advantages: Tense, atmospheric, compellingly written
Disadvantages: Dialogue feels slightly stuffy in places

...Wyndham's 1951 novel 'Day of The Triffids', main protagonist Bill Masen awakes in a London hospital to find that his eyes are heavily bandaged and nobody appears to be around to attend to him. Tentatively removing his bandages and discovering that he is still able to see, Masen quickly discovers that the hospital is deserted and some terrible catastrophe appears to have occured, with the city in a state of abject chaos. Everyone appears to be blind, ...
...the numerous pubs throughout the city, whist others cling to one another in an attempt to find food and somehow remain alive. Masen remembers the radio reports about strange cosmic phenomena in the sky that played out during the weeks he was incapacitated in the hospital, and it soon becomes apparent that watching these weird lights in the sky has somehow caused 99% of the worlds population to go completely blind. This is not all that humanity suddenly ...

Burning_Darkness 02.07.2009 · Read Full Review
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Review of The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

Does my second head make me a deviant?

Advantages: Thoughtful, intelligent sci-fi...
Disadvantages: ... some occasionally long-winded speeches

The Chsysalids by John Wyndham is a post-apolaclyptic vision of a world where people are obsessed with conformity to the norm, or in their words, "the image of God". Anyone who does not conform to this image becomes an outcast, and the women who are categorised as Deviants are sterilised before being sent off. The "image of God" has 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, 1 nose, 5 digits at the end of eat hand and foot… etc. You get the idea. The narrator of this ...
...is, so is safe from the religious-minded people around him, chief of whom is his father. Not so lucky is a girl he meets who has a physical deviation, and this causes him to wonder whether it really is the will of God being done by the zealots here… As David realises the danger his special talents wrought from his differences could cause, and becomes aware of others with the same talents, he is drawn instinctively away from his family. He knows that ...

CaptainDisaster 31.08.2005 · Read Full Review
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Review of The Chrysalids - John Wyndham

Restaurant and galaxy book

Advantages: funny story, very well written
Disadvantages: no disadvantages

...because I feel they are the chief books of Trampers to the galaxy. The CBOTTG are books that when the words are read the writing marks you in a thrilling and funny way. I never cause an almost terrible thing to happen like the reading of the Hitchhiker books to pass from my life. That is a most unverifiable thing I would be doing. Although the writer of this book was reputed to be a crotchety writer, I found his ideas were very substantial. His books ...
...With the five novels, belonging to the Hitchhikers guide trilogy, Douglas Adam gave his life to writing them in a very different way to other books which was to first begin in 1979 and to finish in 1992. The books have been read by millions of readers and they have been a very pleasant read, so I hope they will be read for hundreds of years. I am not sure, if future novels will ever be written like this but I had never once actually seen something ...

lovelyben 18.09.2006 · Read Full Review
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Review of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams

Welcome To A Dark Future

Advantages: Long and complex – and only the first part of the trilogy
Disadvantages: Long and complex – and only the first part of the trilogy

...would be impossible to compress the contents of its 1,221 pages into two hours, and still tell a coherent story. Remember what happened with "Dune"? The Reality Dysfunction is the first part of a space opera on the grandest possible scale. Peter F. Hamilton shows the same careful thought and consideration of consequence that was evident in his debut novel, "Mindstar Rising", only this time he has extrapolated all the way out to the beginning of ...
...the effects of global warming; great storms torture the surface, and Man lives under protective domes that cover whole cities, linked by a rapid transit system that can cross the Atlantic in 45 minutes. But Earth is not the setting for the first part of the "Night's Dawn" trilogy, merely the psychological background. The main plot follows the events that unfold on Lalonde, a recently opened colony world orbiting a far distant star. One of Hamilton's ...

TallTone 25.09.2001 · Read Full Review
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Review of The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F. Hamilton

Asimov - The Complete Robot

Advantages: Excellent compilation of all things robot
Disadvantages: Contains stories already in previous compilations

...10 stories involving Susan Calvin the worlds best (and only) robopsychologist. Many of the stories are very clever, if you are a fan of Asimovs work you will know the 3 rules, many of the stories revolve around these rules and include clever interpretations of these rules. Some of the rules involve good robots, others involve special robots with interesting quirks. Some of the stories are just short little stories with hardly a mention of robots, ...
...bit boring but have a nice moral to the story. If you have other compilations you may well have read some of these, but there are new stories for people who have read all the other compilations. Go out and buy it if you enjoy robots, short stories or Asimov. ...

89kab 02.01.2008 · Read Full Review
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Review of The Complete Robot - Isaac Asimov