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Best Science Fiction Novels of the 80's
The
1980s were a wonderful decade for science fiction books. It was, although not widely appreciated at the time, a golden age of speculative literature, with new styles and themes flourishing while the older strands of the tapestry were woven ever more richly. The sub-genre of "
Cyberpunk" was launched by
William Gibson and and promoted by
Bruce Sterling. There was a resurgence of "hard
Sci Fi".
Fantasy headed in unexpected directions, with major new voices, and horror (with
Stephen King and
John Crowley leading the pack) darkened into the "splatterpunk" subgenre, which held that the supernatural was part of a spectrum of terror that included the reality of serial killers, genocide, child molestation, and the like.
Sophisticated writers created "cross-genre" books that combined aspects of
Fantasy and Science Fiction in new ways, most notably
J. G. Ballard and
Gene Wolfe.
Here is my top 5 in reverse order
...
No. 5
Contact by
Carl Sagan
It was probably sheer luck that caused the many radio telescopes of the
Argus project to
point at the star system of
Vega at exactly the right time
. If the telescopes hadn't been looking at the star that night, the scientists watching over the signals picked up by the telescopes may never have discovered the first
sign of life outside our planet. But they caught a broadcast of prime numbers, a message that would change the course of
Earth's history forever
No. 4
Speaker for the Dead by
Orson Scott Card
Three thousand planet-bound years have fled since
Ender Wiggin won humanity's war with the Buggers by totally destroying them. Ender remains young-travelling the stars at relativistic speeds, a hundred years or more might pass while he experiences a month-long voyage. In three thousand years, his books
The Hive Queen and
The Hegemon have become holy writ, and the name of Ender anathema; he is the Xenocide, the one who killed an entire race of thinking, feeling beings, the only other sapient race humankind had found in all the galaxy. The only ones, that is, until the planet called
Lusitania was discovered and colonized.
No. 3
Hyperion by
Dan Simmons
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the
Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the
Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it
. In the Valley of the
Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
On the eve of
Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret.
And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.
No. 2
Neuromancer By William Gibson
Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting
Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and
Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.
No 1
Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy,
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother
Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister
Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting
Battle School for rigorous military training.Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long.
Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives. Ender's Game is the winner of the
1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the
1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBeEZF6zeoI
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Sources:
www.magicdragon.com;
www.goodreads.com;
www.wikipedia.org
- published: 17 Aug 2012
- views: 4804