#72. THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS By Robert A Heinlein

Published : 1966
Pages : 382
Overall Mark : 8/10

On Luna - an open penal colony of the twenty-frist century - a revolution is being plotted. The conspirators are a strange assortment: an engaging jack-of-all-trades, his luscious blonde girlfriend, and a lonely talking computer. Their aim: the overthrow of the hated Authority. But things don't go according to plan, and their independence may ultimately prove harder to maintain than it was to seize...

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN (1907-1988)
Educated at the University of Missouri and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, he served as a naval officer for five years but retired in 1934 due to ill health. He then studied physics at UCLA before beginning to publish SF with 'Lifeline' for Astounding Science Fiction in 1939.

VERDICT
This story explores the idea of a colony being placed on the moon and filled with all of the Earth's most undesirable people. Yet when their economy flourishes and Earth takes their much needs resources at the Loonies expense, the inhabitants of the moon revolt in a spectacular way. The characters are realistic and make the reader approve of their ideas and their methods, while the concepts explored manage to remain meaningful even after fifty years.

#71. DUNE By Frank Herbert

Published : 1965
Pages : 556
Overall Mark : 7/10

Far in the future, two powerful families are locked in a bitter feud. The Duke of Atreides has been outmanoeuvered by his arch-enemy, Baron Harkonnen, and must move from his home to take up the administration of the planet Arrakis, sometimes known as Dune, a vast desert where every drop of water is worth a fortune. But Dune is also a planet of fabulous wealth, for it is the only source of a drug prized throughout the Galactic Empire.

FRANK HERBERT (1920-1986)
Born in Tacoma, Washington, and educated at the University of Washington, Seattle, he worked first as a reporter and later editor of a number of West Coast newspapers. He began publishingscience fiction with 'Looking For Something?' in 1952, but he achieved fame with the publication of 'Dune World' in 1963-4, followed in 1965 by 'The Prophet Of Dune' and the two were amalgamated in 1965 as the multi-award winning novel Dune.

VERDICT
Although the ideas and the world created by Herbert are strongly structured and imaginative, I wasn't a huge fan of this, much preferring Hellstrom's Hive as a work of science fiction. Granted, there is plenty of imagination, and the world of Dune is a detailed one that most people have at least a familiarity with, but I have read better.

#70. MOCKINGBIRD By Walter Tevis

Published : 1980
Pages : 278
Overall Mark : 7/10

In a dying world where humans are drugged and lulled by electronic bliss, where there is no art, no literature, and there are no children, where some would rather burn themselves alive than endure, Spofforth is the most perfect machine ever created. But his only desire is the impossible - to cease to be. Yet there is hope in this bleak, depressing time, hope in the passion and joy that a man and a woman discover in love and in books, hope for the future, hope even for Spofforth.

WALTER TEVIS (1928-1984)
Born in San Francisco, Tevis's family moved to Kentucky when he was ten. He served as a carpenter's mate in the Second World War and then went to the University of Kentucky where he read English. He became a teacher in various Kentucky high schools and then a professor at Ohio University. He is perhaps best known as the author of The Hustler and The Man Who Fell To Earth.

VERDICT
A scary book for everyone who loves to read - a future where we as a species have lost the ability or even the longing to read. Tevis does a reasonable job with the lead characters, making them believable and likeable, and the idea itself is a simple yet effective one - though it does become a bit preachy when religion comes into the fold.

#69. DARK BENEDICTION By Walter M Miller Jr

Published : 1980
Pages : 472
Overall Mark : 8/10

Walter M. Miller is best remembered for A Canticle For Leibowitz but he also produced many shorter works of fiction of stunning originality and power that had a radical and important impact on science fiction. His profound interest in religion and his innate literary gifts marked him out as a unique talent and fuse perfectly in fine and subtle works like 'Dark Benediction', 'The Darfsteller' and 'Conditionally Human', which are included in this essential collection.

WALTER M. MILLER JR (1923-1996)
Born and raised in the American south, Walter M. Miller enlisted in the Army Air Corps and took part in fifty-five combat sorties over Italy and the Balkans as a radio operator and gunner. After the war, he studied engineering before turning to writing. He won Hugo Awards for A Canticle For Leibowitz and 'The Darfsteller'.

VERDICT
This collection of short stories by Walter M Miller Jr is a fascinating read and a great exploration of sci-fi writing in the 1950s. The majority of the stories age well, read well, and are great fun to read. Fans of short fiction will definitely get a kick out of this, and should also check out A Canticle For Leibowitz for a book length tale that is every bit as entertaining.

#68. ROADSIDE PICNIC By Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Published : 1977
Pages : 145
Overall Mark : 7/10

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those misfits who are compelled, in spite of the extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artefacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. Even the nature of his mutant daughter has been determined by the Zone. And it is for her that he makes his last, tragic foray into the hazardous and hostile territory.

ARKADY STRUGATSKY (1925-1991)
BORIS STRUGATSKY (1931-)
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky began to collaborate in the early 1950s after Arkady had studied English and Japanese and worked as a technical translator and editor and Boris had worked as a computer mathematician. Their work includes Hard To Be A God, Definitely Maybe and The Snail On The Slope. Andrei Tarkovsky's much admired film Stalker was based on Roadside Picnic.

VERDICT
This incredibly short novel plays off an interesting conceit - the idea of comparing alien visitors who have discarded rubbish on Earth to humans leaving rubbish at a picnic. With humans characterised as the wildlife that discover the rubbish, they are at a loss as to what the things really are or how dangerous they could be to them. A nice story that suffers possibly in translation, but is nevertheless a fine idea.

#67. WHERE LATE THE SWEET BIRDS SANG By Kate Wilhelm

Published : 1974
Pages : 251
Overall Mark : 6/10

The Sumner family can read the signs: the droughts and floods, the blighted crops, the shortages, the rampant diseases and plagues, and, above all, the increasing sterility all point to one thing. Their isolated farm in the Appalachian Mountains gives them the ideal place to survive the coming breakdown, and their wealth and know-how gives them the means. Men and women must clone themselves for humanity to survive. But what then?

KATE WILHELM (1928-)
Kate Wilhelm has won many awrds for her writing, including the Hugo and the Jupiter for Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang and several Nebulas for her short fiction. She has also been influential beyond her writing through the Milford Science Fiction Writer's Conference, founded by her husband, Damon Knight, and the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop.

VERDICT
The vision of a world over run with clones feels both real and worrying. Introducing a naturally born element reverses the usual view you'd expect in sci-fi of a clone living in a world of naturally born humans, and this makes the tale twice as effective as it could have been. My main gripe is the idea of deciding that the clones were in the wrong, and that naturaly born humans were in the right, as if it wasn't for the clones then humanity would have died out.

#66. LIFE DURING WARTIME By Lucius Shepard

Published : 1987
Pages : 418
Overall Mark : 7/10

While on R & R, a few miles from the rotting vegetation of the jungles of Guatamala and the endless, drug-fuelled dirty war there, David Mingolla meets the beautiful and enigmatic Debora and stumbles into a deadly psychic conflict where the mind is the ultimate weapon and there's no escape from thoughts that kill. But Debora may be fighting for the enemy, and Mingolla finds himself trained to pursue the woman he loves into the heart of darkness...

LUCIUS SHEPARD (1947-)
Born in the USA in 1947, Lucius Shepard lived in various parts of the world from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. In 1985 he won the John W. Campbell Award and in 1986 he won the Nebula for his story R&R which forms the first part of Life During Wartime. He has also won World Fantasy Awards for the short story collections, The Jaguar Hunter and The Ends Of The Earth.

VERDICT
This interesting look at a future where wars are fought on a psychic level is an interesting look into how trust can be undermined quite easily when people have an ability that can both pry and manipulate. The ambiguous conclusion is very well done, giving the reader free rein to decide what elements for the protagonist were reall and which were hallucinatory, a function that makes the book much more puzzling that it coudl have been given a more final conclusion.

#65. RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA By Arthur C Clarke

Published : 1973
Pages : 252
Overall Mark : 8/10

The enigmatic object christened Rama was detected while still outside the orbit of Jupiter, and a first radar contact at such a distance was unprecedented, indicating that Rama was of exceptional size. As it raced through the Solar System, it became apparent that Rama was a cylinder so geometrically perfect that it might have been turned on a gigantic lathe. Mankind was about to receive its first visitor from the stars.

ARTHUR C. CLARKE (1917-2008)
Born in Somerset in 1917, but a long-time resident of Sri Lanka, Sir Arthur Clarke is the world's most famous living SF writer. He wrote the scientific paper which established the principle of communications satellites and he collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rendezvous With Rama is the only novel to have won all the major SF awards.

VERDICT
Similar in tone to '2001 : A Space Odyseey', this first in a series of books focussing on the mysterious space craft known only as Rama. The difference between this and Space Oddysey is that Rama actually has aliens in it, which does make it less mysterious in a way but also makes it more rewarding to read.

#64. TAU ZERO By Poul Anderson

Published : 1970
Pages : 190
Overall Mark : 7/10

During her epic voyage to a planet thirty light-years away, the deceleration system of the Leonora Christine is irreparably damaged. Unable to slow down, she attains light speed, tau zero itself, and the disparity between time for those on board and external time becomes impossibly great. Eons and galaxies hurtle by in the blink of an eye as the crew speeds helpless and alone into the unknown...

POUL ANDERSON (1926-2001)
Born in Pennsylvania of Scandinavian parents, Poul Anderson lived for a short time in Denmark. He started publishing science fiction in 1947 and became one of the great figures in the genre, serving as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America, winning many Hugo and Nebula awards, and also winning the Gandalf (Grand Master) Award.

VERDICT
An intriguing idea filled with nice character studies - the crew of a colony ship are trapped travelling at tau zero with no means of stopping - is interspersed with scientific jargon to explain away any issues we might have with the plot. A sometimes difficult read that for some may prove also to be a rewarding one.

#63. A MAZE OF DEATH By Philip K Dick

Published : 1970
Pages : 190
Overall Mark : 8/10

When fourteen people arrive to colonize the otherwise uninabited planet of Delmark-O, they quickly discover that their bizarre new world is more dangerous - and much, much stranger - than they could ever have imagined. The colonists have nothing in common and no idea why they've been sent there. All they know is that there's no way to leave and, one by one, they are being killed...

PHILIP K. DICK (1928-1982)
'One of the two or three most important figures in 20th century US SF' (The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction). Born one of twins - his sister died in infancy - he lived most of his life in California, and wrote more than fifty books in a career of prodigious productivity and achievement. The films Blade Runner, Total Recall and A Scanner Darkly are based on his stories.

VERDICT
This is such an unusual tale, but definitely for me one of Dick's most effective. The use of hallucinations combined with the characters religious beliefs works well and the ideas that are created her of an all-controlling God like creation is both worrying and curiously plausible.

#62. MISSION OF GRAVITY By Hal Clement

Published : 1954
Pages : 203
Overall Mark : 7/10

Mesklin is a vast, inhospitable planet, so cold that its oceans are liquid methan, its snows frozen methane, a world where gravity can be a crushing 700 times greater than Earth's. But Mesklin holds secrets of inestimable value and only the tiny Mesklinites can help mankind discover them. And so begins an heroic and appalling journey into the terrible unknown...

HAL CLEMENT (1922-2003)
Hal Clement went to Harvard, Boston University and Simmons College, taking degrees in astronomy, chemistry and education. He gained his reputation as a writer in Astounding Science Fiction and Mission Of Gravity first appeared there in 1953. Towards the end of his life he was made a Science Fiction Grand Master.

VERDICT
This old-school sci-fi novel deals in great depth with the concept of a high gravity world and how its environment could effect the inhabitants. Although short, this novel contains some great insights into how the world of Mesklin works, and how its people react to their surroundings and the interfering presence of humankind. The imagination Clement invokes in order to produce this work is both startling in its depth and almost unapproachable in its thoroughness.

#61. THE CHILD GARDEN By Geoff Ryman

Published : 1989
Pages : 388
Overall Mark : 6/10

London's semi-tropical climate means that it is now surrounded by paddy-fields. Londoners, like plants, feed off the sun. The young, raised in Child Gardens, are educated by viruses: information, culture, law and politics are biological functions. The Consensus oversees the country, 'treating' non-conformism. But Milena is different: she is resistant to the viruses - and she is capable of changing the world.

GEOFF RYMAN (1951-)
Born in Canada in 1951, Geoff Ryman has lived in London since 1973. The Child Garden won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, His other books include the Fantasy Masterwork Was, 252, The Unconquered Country, Lust and Air.

VERDICT
This look at a future where disease has been vanquished in exchange for shorter lifespans, the young are educated via an intelligent virus. The usual fantasy trope of an individual who is immune to this social control is handled reasonably well by Ryman, and the idea of one girl being able to change how the world is run through her relationship with the hive mind that rules is an interesting notion that perhaps could have been explored to a fuller extent.