Science fiction for grownups not only means avoiding magic and supernatural elements but grounding the stories’ “what-ifs” in hard science and/or narrative anthropology. When we (readers) are invited to a story, we come with a willing suspension of disbelief, and I have as strong a suspension of disbelief as anyone—what if dinosaurs could be grown from ancient DNA, or what if an asteroid struck the earth? However, the ground rules of what-ifs should be laid out and should not include a sweeping suspension of the laws of physics, nature, and common sense. So, no hundred-and-ten-pound woman, with toothpick arms and dressed in cleavage-revealing spandex, beating up twelve burly guys.
A hellish apocalypse reduces the human population to numbers so low that future generations will inbreed and degenerate. Survivors turn to Hell’s Gate, an experimental sedation prison, to secure more females for world repopulation. They must depend on a damaged psychologist, Jason Adams, to select which female inmates to revive. While searching the prison, an accident revives a serial killer, and inmates take over the asylum.
Adams must use his heart and not his head to save the woman he loves and save the world from a madman.
I loved the complex plot structure and the moral questions!
Earth discovers a sentient civilization with the potential to surpass our own. But the aliens are trapped in a solar system that they cannot escape without Earth’s faster-than-light technology. How should Earth respond?
Aliens - Moties - were first contacted in AD3017 in the region of space known as the Coalsack. The eponymous mote in his eye, which has winked out, much to the distress of pious Himmists, just might have been Motie laser light. It might even indicate the position of their home planet.
I love Charles Sheffield’s good, hard science fiction. An astronomer and mathematician, Charles Sheffield, could craft plotlines supported by hard science like few others.
I'm drawn to his competent, realistic characters and the way his narratives create drama reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2002.
Jay Hara is an ordinary young man growing up on the isolated planet of Erin. But Jay dreams of adventure and escapades and the legend of the lost “Godspeed” drive which allowed humans to travel at faster-than-light speeds.
His life changes when he joins up with the seedy spacer, Paddy Enderton and Captain Daniel Shaker. Captain Shaker is a charming but ruthless adventurer who inspires both fear and admiration in equal measure, and he and his questionable crew are joined by Jay as they race to find the legendary drive Jay Hara used to dream about.
I love the fast-paced, imaginative plot and the hard science.
Andy Weir takes a futuristic “what-if” and plays it out with vision and relatable characters. This follows the tradition set in his previous book, The Martian.
Having been a substitute teacher myself, the protagonist, a Junior High School teacher, is delightful.
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through…
I love anthropology, so what could be better than an alien anthropologist who visits 1350 Earth to study the Black Plague, hoping to find clues to help her civilization respond to a different plague?
Anthropological principles presented through narrative storytelling define science fiction for grownups.
In medieval Italy, Niccolucio, a young Florentine Carthusian monk, leads a devout life until the Black Death kills all of his brothers, leaving him alone and filled with doubt. Habidah, an anthropologist from an alien world racked by plague, is overwhelmed by the suffering. Unable to maintain her neutrality, she saves Niccolucio from the brink of death. Habidah discovers that neither her home's plague nor her assignment on Niccolucio's ravaged planet are as she's been led to believe. Suddenly the pair are drawn into a worlds-spanning conspiracy to topple an empire larger than the human imagination can contain.
I’m drawn to this futuristic murder mystery because it lays out the rules of the “created world” and invites the reader to solve it. A murderer and a limited number of suspects/victims are all confined on a spaceship.
I love the setup, and I was immersed from the start.
In this Hugo nominated science fiction thriller by Mur Lafferty, a crew of clones awakens aboard a space ship to find they're being hunted-and any one of them could be the killer.
Maria Arena awakens in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood. She has no memory of how she died. This is new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died.
Maria's vat is one of seven, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so…
I have been a writer for more than twenty years and have favored pursuing “truth in fiction” rather than “money in formula.” I also spent over thirty years in the corporate world and was exposed to many situations reminiscent of those described in my fiction and in these recommended books. While I support enterprise, “enlightened capitalism” is preferable to the bare-knuckle type we have today, and which seems to resurface whenever regulation weakens. I also find writing novels closer to my lived experience connects me intimately with readers who are looking for socio-political, realist literature.
Avery Mann, a retired pharmaceuticals executive, is in crisis.
His wife dies of cancer, his son’s marriage is on the rocks, his grandson is having a meltdown, and his good friend is a victim of the robocalls scandal that invades the Canadian federal election. Throw in a reckless fling with a former colleague, a fire that destroys his retirement property, and a rumour emerging that the drug he helped bring to market years ago may have been responsible for the death of his wife, and Avery’s life goes into freefall.
Does an octogenarian beekeeper living on Vancouver Island hold the key to Avery’s recovery, a man holding secrets that put lives in jeopardy? Avery races across the country to find out, with crooked bosses, politicians, and assassins on his tail. Joseph spins a cautionary tale of corporate and political greed that is endemic to our times.
Avery Mann, a retired pharmaceuticals executive, is in crisis. His wife dies of cancer, his son’s marriage is on the rocks, his grandson is having a meltdown, and his good friend is a victim of the robocalls scandal that invades the Canadian federal election.
Throw in a reckless fling with a former colleague, a fire that destroys his retirement property, and a rumour emerging that the drug he helped bring to market years ago may have been responsible for the death of his wife, and Avery’s life goes into freefall.
Does an octogenarian bee keeper living on Vancouver Island hold…
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