More literate Sci Fi

Explore a curated list of the most literate sci-fi books, featuring thought-provoking narratives and rich prose for discerning readers. Discover your next intellectual adventure.

Janus Cover
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Janus

by Andre Norton

Previously published in two separate volumes--Judgment on Janus and Victory on Janus--the jungle world of Janus is where Naill Renfro hopes to begin his life again. But he remembers another life in another time when he was not human. Soon Niall discovers the source of his new memory, and the fate of others of his kind.
The Black Cloud Cover
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The Black Cloud

by Fred Hoyle

Astronomers fear danger from the huge cloud advancing toward the earth.
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Floating Worlds

by Cecelia Holland

The Styths, a powerful and aggressive mutant race from the Gas Planets, Uranus and Saturn, have been launching pirate raids on ships from Mars, and EarthÂżs Committee for the Revolution has been asked to mediate, to negotiate a truce between the Middle Planets and the Styth Empire. The task of conducting the talks falls to an intelligent, resourceful and unpredictable young woman, Paula Menoza. Her initial meetings with the Styth warlord and his unruly band of bodyguards and advisers are not promising. But then Paula adopts a less conventional approach. The consequences for her are considerable and she finds herself on the Gas Planets, the only tenuous link between Earth and the Styth Empire...
The Ship Who Sang Cover
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The Ship Who Sang

by Anne McCaffrey

Helva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved—saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted into the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner—male or female—to share her exhilirating excapades in space! Her life was to be rich and rewarding . . . resplendent with daring adventures and endless excitement, beyond the wildest dreams of mere mortals. Gifted with the voice of an angel and being virtually indestructable, Helva XH-834 antipitated a sublime immortality. Then one day she fell in love!
The Gods Themselves Cover
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The Gods Themselves

by Isaac Asimov

In the twenty-second century Earth obtains limitless, free energy from a source science little understands: an exchange between Earth and a parallel universe, using a process devised by the aliens. But even free energy has a price. The transference process itself will eventually lead to the destruction of the Earth's Sun—and of Earth itself. Only a few know the terrifying truth—an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun. They know the truth—but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy—but who will believe? These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to Earth's survival.
The Dosadi Experiment Cover
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The Dosadi Experiment

by Frank Herbert

Science fiction roman.
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Phule's Company Cover
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Phule's Company

by Robert Asprin

Phule's company, a handful of military rejects, becomes mankind's last hope in the face of an alien attack.
The Complete Paratime Cover
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The Complete Paratime

by H. Beam Piper

From H. Beam Piper, the creator of the Terrohuman Future History and the bestselling Fuzzy novels, come the parallel worlds of Paratime—collected for the first time in one volume. Infinite worlds allowed for infinite evil—unless the doorway to those worlds was most carefully guarded. The Paratime Police are an elite force of men and women charged with defending a million unsuspecting Earths from their more developed—and more ruthless—neighbors in parallel continua. From the original Paratime, which introduced the unceasing struggles of the time-traveling heroes, to Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, the last Paratime story of a state trooper’s conquest of an alternate Earth...The Complete Paratime is a grand science fiction experience.
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The Caves of Steel

by Isaac Asimov

A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between Life and his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the “R” stood for robot—and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!
The Many-colored Land Cover
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The Many-colored Land

by Julian May

When a one-way time tunnel to Earth's distant past, specifically six million B.C., was discovered by folks on the Galactic Milieu, every misfit for light-years around hurried to pass through it. Each sought his own brand of happiness. But none could have guessed what awaited them. Not even in a million years.... THE SAGA OF PLIOCENE EXILE Volume I:THE MANY-COLORED LAND Volume II:THE GOLDEN TORC Volume III:THE NONBORN KING Volume IV:THE ADVERSARY . . . and don't miss A PLIOCENE COMPANION
The Real Story Cover
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The Real Story

by Stephen R. Donaldson

With an enormous corporation controlling all of explored space in an era of a faster-than-light travel known as "crossing the gap," Morn Hyland flees from the military police she once served and joins space pirate, Angus Thermopyle. Reprint.
The Postman Cover
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The Postman

 

No summary available.
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The Sirens of Titan

by Kurt Vonnegut

“[Kurt Vonnegut’s] best book . . . He dares not only ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it.”—Esquire Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read The Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there’ s a catch to the invitation–and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell. “Reading Vonnegut is addictive!”—Commonweal
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Ringworld Cover
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Ringworld

by Larry Niven

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel Four travelers come to the ringworld. . . Louis Wu: human and old; bored with having lived too fully for far too many years. Seeking a challenge, and all too capable of handling it. Nessus: a trembling coward, a puppeteer with a built-in survival pattern of nonviolence. Except that this particular puppeteer is insane. Teela Brown: human; a wide-eyed youngster with no allegiances, no experience, no abilities. And all the luck in the world. Speaker-To-Animals: kzin; large, orange-furred, and carnivorous. And one of the most savage life-forms known in the galaxy. Why did these disparate individuals come together? How could they possibly function together? And where, in the name of anything sane, were they headed?
Gateway Cover
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Gateway

by Frederik Pohl

Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe...and on reaches of unimaginable horror. When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take! THE HEECHEE SAGA Book One: GATEWAY Book Two: BEYOND THE BLUE EVENT HORIZON Book Three: HEECHEE RENDEZVOUS Book Four: THE ANNALS OF THE HEECHEE
Helliconia Spring Cover
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Helliconia Spring

by Brian Wilson Aldiss

In the first volume of this monumental trilogy, Brain Aldiss introduces readers to Helliconia, the chief planet in a binary system. Emerging from a centuries-long winter, the Helliconians ready themselves to fight the ferocious phagors who have taken over in their absence.
The Ship Who Searched Cover
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The Ship Who Searched

 

No summary available.
A Fire Upon The Deep Cover
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A Fire Upon The Deep

by Vernor Vinge

A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization. A Fire Upon The Deep is the winner of the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
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ID: 0380000938
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ID: 0425044688
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