#94. THE AFFIRMATION By Christopher Priest

Published : 1981
Pages : 247
Overall Mark : 8/10

Peter Sinclair is tormented by bereavement and failure. In an attempt to conjure some meaning from his life, he embarks on an autobiography, but he finds himself writing the story of another man in another, imagined, world, whose insidious attraction draws him even further in...

CHRISTOPHER PRIEST (1943-)
Christopher Priest's widely acclaimed novels include Fugue For A Darkening Island, The Space Machine, A Dream Of Wessex, The Glamour, The Extremes and The Separation. The Prestige was the winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction and the World Fantasy Award, and was memorably filmed by Christopher Nolan.

VERDICT
This is an interesting, thought-provoking novel that leaves us with a note of ambiguity from the outset as we try to puzzle over which of the characters in the novel is real and which is make-believe. This gives us a permanent sense of intrigue which allows the reader, even in the more subdued moments of the piece, to look for clues as to the answer to the riddle that this novel contains.

#93. RUR & WAR WITH THE NEWTS By Karel Capek

Published : 1920 & 1936
Pages : 349
Overall Mark : 6/10

R.U.R., or Rossum's Universal Robots, is regarded as the most important play in the history of SF. It introduced the word 'robot' and gave the genre one of its most enduring tropes.

Written against the background of the rise of Nazism, War With The Newts concerns the discovery of a sea-dwelling race, which is enslaved and exploited by mankind. In time they rebel, laying siege to the strongholds of their former masters in a global war for supremacy.

KAREL CAPEK (1890-1938)
Karel Capek was one of the most important Czech writers of the twentieth century and a major voice in early European science fiction. His work traversed many genres, and his most famous play, R.U.R., introduced the word 'robot' into popular usage. He died on Christmas Day 1938.

VERDICT
It may just be that the concept of these stories have been lost in translation, but I found these not only difficult to read, but at times padded out with a lot of unneccessary detail. The play's abrupt ending makes me think that Capek was actually becoming bored of the story (not surprisingly), and though War With The Newts was a better thought through concept with some nice focus on the background of the hatred that would lead to the war, it was still at times a little hard to follow.

#92. OF MEN AND MONSTERS By William Tenn

Published : 1968
Pages : 235
Overall Mark : 8/10

Giant, technologically duperior aliens have conquered Earth. Humans live like mice, within the massive walls of the aliens' huge home, and scurry about under their feet, stealing from them. A complex social order has evolved, with women preserving knowledge and working as healers, and men serving as warriors and thieves.

For the aliens, people are just a nuisance, nothing more than vermin. Which, ironically, my just be humankind's strength and point the way forward...

WILLIAM TENN (1920-2010)
William Tenn was the pseudonym of Philip Klass. Although he was born in London, he spent most of his life in America, teaching writing and SF at Pennsylvania State College from 1966. He began writing after serving in the Second World War and published his first story, 'Alexander The Bait' in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946. Stories like 'Down Among The Dead Men', 'The Liberation Of Earth' and 'The Custodian' quickly established him as a fine, funny anf thoughtful satirist. In 1999 William Tenn was selected the Science Fiction Writers of America's Author Emeritus.

VERDICT
Clearly inspired by Mary Norton's The Borrowers, this story of narrow views and short sightedness is great fun to read. The idea of an entire sub-species of mankind living in the homes of giant aliens and evolving seperately from each other is a nice concept which is delivered perfectly by Tenn in this short yet idea-filled novel.

#91. HELLSTROM'S HIVE By Frank Herbert

Published : 1973
Pages : 332
Overall Mark : 9/10

America is a police state, and it is about to be threatened by the most hellish enemy in the world: insects.

When the Agency discovered that Dr. Hellstrom's Project 40 was a cover for a secret laboratory, a special team of agents immediately dispatched to discover its true purpose.

What they found was a nightmare more horrific and hideous than even their paranois government minds could devise.

FRANK HERBERT (1920-1986)
Frank Herbert was born in Tacoma, Washington and worked as a reporter and later editor of a number of West Coast newspapers before becoming a full-time writer. His first SF story was published in 1952 but he achieved fame more than ten years later with the publication in Analog of 'Dune World' and 'The Prophet Of Dune' - amalgamated in the bestselling novel Dune in 1965, and winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

VERDICT
Herbert's portrayal of a secret experiment into human DNA manipulation is inspired. The characteristics of those affected by the hive-like changes in behaviour are sublime, and his slow progression into the government's realisation of what is happening is paced perfectly, as well as being a nice reversal of the usual roles where it is the government trying to hide the truth from the public.

#90. CITY By Clifford D Simak

Published : 1952
Pages : 242
Overall Mark : 8/10

On a far future Earth, mankind's achievements are immense: artificially intelligent robots, genetically uplifted animals, interplanetary travel, genetic modification of the human form itself.

But nothing comes without a cost. Humanity is tired, its vigour all but gone. As the human race dwindles and declines, which of its great creations will inherit the Earth? And which will claim the star...?

CLIFFORD D. SIMAK (1904-1988)
Clifford Donald Simak was a regular contributor to John W. Campbell's Astounding Stories, and won the Nebula and multiple Hugo Awards. In 1977 he was the third writer to be named a Grand Master by SFWA.

VERDICT
This is a nice look at how natural selection and evolution can play a part in not only the progression od one species but also the collapse of another. As each story progresses to the next we are introduced to periods in time where humanity is slowly being replaced by dogs, and eventually humanity becomes something of a myth to the dominant species, with only their robot servants to serve as a reminder of past times.

#89. HYPERION By Dan Simmons

Published : 1989
Pages : 473
Overall Mark : 8/10

The universe of the Human Hegemony is under threat. Invasion by the warlike Ousters looms, and the mysterious schemes of the secessionist AI TechnoCore bring chaos ever closer.

One the eve of disaster, seven pilgrims set out on a quest for the legendary Time Tombs on Hyperion, home to the Shrike, part god and part killing machine with powers that transcend the limits of time and space. The pilgrims have resolved to discover nothing less than the secrets of the universe itself.

DAN SIMMONS (1948-)
Born in Illinois, Dan Simmons won the World Fantasy Award for his first novel, Song Of Kali. In 1990 Hyperion, the first book in the famous Hyperion Cantos series, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

VERDICT
Simmons manages to make his version of The Pilgrim's Progress a fascinating journey of unusual tales that are as similar to each other as they are different. He comes up with some very imaginative ideas of how the pilgrims have been lead to Hyperion and what they think they are expected to do there, as well as their various experiences with the Shrike. The tales are perfect to read as stand alone stories, but together they create an interesting background for what is to come in The Fall Of Hyperion.

#88. SIRIUS By Olaf Stapledon

Published : 1944
Pages : 194
Overall Mark : 8/10

Sirius is Thomas Trelone's great experiment - a dog with the intelligence of a human being. Sirius is a remarkable creature. His inquiring mind ranges across the spectrum of human knowledge and experience. But Sirius isn't human and he is tortured by conflicts that cannot be resolved. Probably the finest novel with a nonhuman protagonist ever written, Sirius is a moving and powerful study of alien intelligence and sensibility.

OLAF STAPLEDON (1886-1950)
Educated at Balliol College, Oxford and Liverpool University, Olaf Stapledon worked for a shipping office in Liverpool and Port Said before lecturing for Liverpool University. He served in the Friends' Ambulance Unit in France from 1915 to 1919 and then lectured again for Liverpool University. His books include the classics Last And First Men and Star Maker.

VERDICT
This story of a super-intelligent dog is intriguing in its approach to the dichotomy faced by the dog, as he is less than human but more than beast. This question, and how both Sirius and those around him answer it, makes for a great read that is possibly one of the most unusual morality tales of our time.