Books for those Who Think They Don’t Read Science Fiction

Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
Imagine a world in the near-future dying from genetic engineering, climatic catastrophe, and social inequality among other ills.

The Brief History of the Dead
Kevin Brockmeier
In this complex literary thriller, the recently departed inhabit a place called “The City” but only as long as someone living remembers them. Meanwhile, a young researcher is stranded in Antarctica when a deadly virus spreads worldwide.   

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
Michael Chabon
Chabon’s storytelling skills shine in this noir crime alternative history about displaced World War II Jews.

Stories of Your Life and Others
Ted Chiang
A collection of brilliantly-written, mind-bending short stories which twist the familiar into the unexpected.

Pattern Recognition
William Gibson
Cayce’s psyche is sensitive to marketing trends and allergic to brand names. Hired to discover who is producing a series of enigmatic clips on the Internet, she finds unknown forces trying to deter her. Gibson’s wry writing packs a punch, in this believable take on the future.

In War Times
Kathleen Ann Goonan
In this alternative universe, a young soldier is seduced into using his musical skills to create a machine that will end war – with unimagined consequences.

The Accidental Time Machine
Joe W. Haldeman
Matt is a likeable underachiever stuck in a rut until he realizes an MIT experiment has created a time machine.  Deciding he has nothing to lose, he jumps into a series of futures where he learns about himself and what he really wants from life.

Beggars in Spain
Nancy Kress
In another imagined future, the beautiful Leisha, one of the “Sleepless” finds herself an outcast from society.

As She Climbed Across the Table
Jonathan Lethem
Lethem spoofs academic life and the search for meaning in this witty tale of a guy trying to compete for the girl he loves against her obsession with an accidently-created hole in the universe.

The Sparrow
Mary Doria Russell
Paleontologist Russell weaves a tale of moral dilemmas and unintended consequences when a team from Earth, led by a Jesuit priest, makes “first contact” with an extraterrestrial species.

Halting State
Charles Stross
A brilliantly conceived techno-crime thriller laced with black humor.

To Say Nothing of the Dog, or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last
Connie Willis
Travel back to Victorian times in this comic romp that meshes science, romance, and… anthropology?

Spin
Robert Charles Wilson
This apocalyptic tale is part SciFi thriller, part coming-of-age saga, and part tender love story.

Death Qualified: A Mystery of Chaos
Kate Wilhelm
Wilhelm mixes murder, legal ethics, and the chaos theory in this nuanced mystery.

Even more titles:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
In the Garden of Iden: A Novel of the Company by Kage Baker
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Timeline by Michael Crichton
Gravity by Tess Gerritsen
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Children of Men by P. D. James
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Wired by Liz Maverick
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut
On Basilisk Station by David Weber
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

Compiled with help from the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list.

St. Charles Public Library

mcs 4/08