The 10 Sci-Fi Books Everyone Needs To Read

My favorite single genre of fiction is science fiction.

That’s because science fiction is, almost always, political. Science fiction allows us to explore different ideas in a creative guise, to perform thought experiments outside the boundaries of our current reality. It’s the source of new and creative notions. And, often, it’s inspiring: there’s a reason William Shatner was sent to Space on Blue Origin. Innovators have been inspired for generations by science fiction.

With that said, here’s my list of favorite science fiction novels.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury.

There are some books that are underrated, and thus nearly-anonymous. Then there are some books that are so well-known that they are actually underrated for their very prominence. Fahrenheit 451 is the latter type of book. A masterpiece of brevity, colorfully written, filled with profound notions in the guise of a rip-roaring dystopian plot, the book moves at breakneck pace – and you find yourself swept along in the process. The villainous Captain Beatty is the man who sees through the system, and his insights are chilling: 

Now let’s take up the minorities in our civilization, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities…The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said. But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic books survive. And the three dimensional sex magazines, of course. There you have it, Montag. It didn’t come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God.

1984, by George Orwell.

Orwell’s exploration of communist atrocity in the façade of science fiction is justly famous – and remains extraordinarily chilling. The journey of Winston Smith from lackey of the regime to rebel against it and then back toward love of Big Brother is a solemn reminder that bowing to tyranny is easy – it’s resistance that is hard. And Orwell’s description of Oceania remains frighteningly prescient and relevant today:

Every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered…History has stopped.

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