A precursor to the Golden Age of science fiction, Olaf Stapledon’s 1937 classic attempts to explain who created the universe and why. Pretty simple right? One thing is for sure, “A living man is worth more than a lifeless galaxy.”

A challenging, twisted and mysterious story brings to mind questions of belonging and morality in addition to great cover art from around the world. This is sci-fi artistry because it’s fantastical, ominous and hints at the questions: Could something like this happen? Has it already? Dive deep into Sturgeon infested literary waters….

Ahhh… early 70’s Silverberg, my happy place. One of the best novels by the Grand Master himself, Son of Man is poetic, literary sci-fi or perhaps a stream of consciousness existence diary. As the back-cover blurb states, ‘A Fellini trip in literary form’.

The world’s second Atomic Age has become a new Dark Age where the religious hierarchy use hidden science to mislead their followers and keep them safe from the ‘New Witchcraft’.

An elongated actor who’s spent his entire life living in zero gravity heads to Texas in a metal exoskeleton in search of a mining claim and ends up being the figurehead of a Mexican revolution. Yes, please.

Peeling back the layers of China Mieville’s dense cityscape and the outlandish occupants of New Crobuzon, Perdido Street Station is a bookfull.

God’s reasons are unknowable so one relies on faith, right? Within The Sparrow there is plenty of evidence that faith alone is not enough to justify a lifelong devotion to God and the human wreckage of Father Emilio Sandoz embodies an unfortunate example.

This book has left an indelible impression on my psyche and imagination after reading it years ago, so rad. Included in this review you’ll find some amazing fan art by Luis Melo.

Part of Blish’s After Such Knowledge series which includes A Case of Conscience and Dr. Mirabilis, Black Easter and The Day After Judgement do black magic and demon summoning literary justice!

Inferno is a rendition of the roadmap to the layers in Dante’s Hell, however this time instead of Virgil guiding Dante, we have Benito Mussolini guiding Allen Carpenter (pen named Carpentier), a current day sci-fi author. Runner-up for the Nebula Award in 1977, Inferno sits nicely in that evil fascination space we all love.

In the interest of keeping an open mind, instead of methodically reading the Nebula award winners from the 60’s and 70’s, why not the winner from 2022?