Science Fiction and other favorites of Byron Merritt
Explore Byron Merritt's favorite science fiction books and top fiction picks. Discover must-read titles and beloved classics in his curated collection of best-loved reads.
Book
Dune
by Frank Herbert
• DUNE: PART TWO • THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Directed by Denis Villeneuve, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert • Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, with Stellan Skarsgård, with Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem Frank Herbert’s epic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and the bestselling science fiction novel of all time. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad'Dib—and of a great family's ambition to bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
Book
Hyperion
by Dan Simmons
A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man. On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a 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. Praise for Dan Simmons and Hyperion “Dan Simmons has brilliantly conceptualized a future 700 years distant. In sheer scope and complexity it matches, and perhaps even surpasses, those of Isaac Asimov and James Blish.”—The Washington Post Book World “An unfailingly inventive narrative . . . generously conceived and stylistically sure-handed.”—The New York Times Book Review “Simmons’s own genius transforms space opera into a new kind of poetry.”—The Denver Post “An essential part of any science fiction collection.”—Booklist
Book
Prelude to Foundation
by Isaac Asimov
The first of two prequel novels in Isaac Asimov’s classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series THE EPIC SAGA THAT INSPIRED THE APPLE TV+ SERIES FOUNDATION It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall—those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future. Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire . . . the man who holds the key to the future—an apocalyptic power to be known forever after as the Foundation.
Book
Dune
by Brian Herbert
A prequel to Frank Herbert's Dune, written by his son, based on a recently found manuscript. It is the story of a paleontologist sent to study the planet Arrakis, home to spices which give longevity.
Book
The Secrets of Frank Herbert's Dune
by James Van Hise
The authorized behind-the-scenes story of the new epic mini-series. Includes full length exclusive DVD of interviews, production designs, behind-the-scenes film footage and more!
Book
Bird by Bird
by Anne Lamott
A step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life.
Book
Dune Messiah
by Frank Herbert
Muad'dib, heir to unimaginable power, has a scheme to create a superbeing.
Book
The King of Vinland's Saga
by Stuart W. Mirsky
An historical adventure in the heady tradition of Sir Walter Scott, James Fenimore Cooper, and H. Rider Haggard, this book sweeps the reader back to a time when bold men hazarded rough and unknown seas in search of treasure and glory. Denied his birthright at home, Sigtrygg Thorgilsson, orphaned grandson of Leif Eiriksson, must seek his due overseas -- in Leif's half-forgotten land-claim of nearly 50 years before, on the shores of the New World. Urged on by his beautiful young cousin, Thjodhild, and aided by a mysterious, one-eyed seaman, with a knack for spell-casting and dream interpretation, and a local ruffian armed with an unusual axe, Sigtrygg flees the ice-clad fjords of coastal Greenland just ahead of his greedy uncles who would keep his inheritance from him. But once in the new land, the adventurers find they must carve a place for themselves amidst the warring native tribes who rule the unknown country. Finding the ways of these tribal people both fascinating and repellent, they soon form an uneasy alliance with one side to save themselves and the daughter of one of their enemies. Yet they are not the only Norsemen in the land as they shortly discover when Sigtrygg's kinsmen suddenly arrive to contest his land-claim and the place he has made for himself among the tribes. Then only the passion of the head-strong and willful Thjodhild stands in the way of an irrevocable breach between the two Norse factions. But even she cannot easily win Sigtrygg back from the native woman who has captured his heart. Forced to choose between two women, two peoples and two lands, Sigtrygg wavers perilously as a native host gathers, like storm clouds overhead, and the two Norse factions stand poised on the edge of a blade which, once drawn, cannot be sheathed again -- until it has been bathed in kinsmen's blood. Then not even the invincibility of an enchanted axe or the wisdom of sorcerers can avert the doom which awaits those who walk in the shadow of Leif Eiriksson's greatest achievement. And that curse which lies across the land he took for his own.
Book
In a Sunburned Country
by Bill Bryson
Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion up, down, and over the Appalachian Trail (well, most of it) resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. Now he has traveled across the world and all the way Down Under to Australia, a shockingly under-discovered country with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. In a Sunburned Country is his report on what he found there--a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiosity. Australia is a country that exists on a vast scale. It is the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. Despite being the most desiccated, infertile, and climatically aggressive of all inhabited continents, it teems with life. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else: sharks, crocodiles, the ten most deadly poisonous snakes on the planet, fluffy yet toxic caterpillars, seashells that actually attack you, and the unbelievable box jellyfish (don't ask). The dangerous riptides of the sea and the sun-baked wastes of the outback both lie in wait for the unwary. It's one tough country. Bill Bryson adores it, of course, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond the beaten tourist path. Here is a place where interesting things happen all the time, from a Prime Minister lost--yes, lost--while swimming at sea to Japanese cult members who may have set off an atomic bomb (sic) entirely unnoticed on their500,000-acre property in the great western desert. Wherever he goes (and Bryson goes just about everywhere) he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging--the beaming products of a land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine. On occasion the Aborigines, a remote and mysterious race with a tragic history, make a haunting appearance in this book. But by and large Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide. Published just in time for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, In a Sunburned Country offers the best of all possible introductions to what may well be the best of all possible nations. Even with those jellyfish.
Book
Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden
A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable.
Book
Children of Dune
by Frank Herbert
For use in schools and libraries only. On the planet of Aurakis, men, nature, and time attend the messianic and evolutionary growth of Leto and his twin sister Ghanima, children and successors of the mighty Muad'Dib.
Book
God Emperor of Dune
by Frank Herbert
THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES IN HISTORYWith more than ten million copies sold, Frank Herbert's magnificent DUNE books stand among the major achievements of the imagination. God Emperor of Dune is the astonishing fourth book in the series. Centuries have passed on Dune itself, and the planet is green with life. Leto, the son of Dune's savior, is still alive but far from human, and the fate of all humanity hangs on his awesome sacrifice... Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Book
Heretics of Dune
by Frank Herbert
The planet Arrakis is becoming desert again. Lost ones are returning home from the far reaches of space. The great sandworms are dying, and the children of Dunes children awaken from empire as from a dream, wielding the new power of a heresy called love. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Book
Chapterhouse: Dune
by Frank Herbert
Fifteen thousand years after Leto II's death, the remnants of the Bene Gesserit contend with the ruthless leaders of an alien culture to forge a new civilization and preserve the best of the Old Empire