#80. HELLICONIA By Brian Aldiss

Published : 1985
Pages : 1303
Overall Mark : 6/10

A planet orbiting binary suns, Helliconia has a Great Year spanning three millenia of Earth time : cultures are born in spring, flourish in summer, then die with the onset of the generations-long winter.

The Helliconia trilogy, Spring, Summer and Winter, represent one of SF's greatest feats of world-building.

Helliconia Spring was the winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best SF novel in 1983 and the trilogy still stands as an exemplary example of the Planetary Romance.

BRIAN ALDISS (1925-)
Aldiss served in the Far East during the Second World War, and later worked as a bookseller. He published his first SF story in 1954, and has been a leading figure in British SF ever since. His many other novels include Hothouse and Non-Stop; his Trillion Year Spree (1987, with David Wingrove), which won a Hugo award, remains the best history of SF.

VERDICT
If you can get passed the sheer volume of this trilogy you'll find a well thought through universe that Aldiss has clearly put a lot of thought into. Sadly for me this didn't really get going until Winter, by which time I'd already felt like the first two thirds of the book has been something of a waste.

#79. DHALGREN By Samuel R Delany

Published : 1974
Pages : 801
Overall Mark : 6/10

In the crippled city of Bellona two moons appear; a huge, blood-red sun rises; landmarks shift; time contracts; and savage gangs roam the lawless streets.

When the Kid wanders in Bellona, he finds the few people still there struggling to do what they can to survive But the Kid is blessed with great strengths and a huge capacity for love...

Hugely controversial, Dhalgren is Delany's most ambitious and popular novel.

SAMUEL R. DELANY (1942-)
Born to a prominent black family in New York, Delany published his first novel, The Jewels Of Aptor, when he was only nineteen. Among his other novels are Babel 17, Triton and Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand. He has also written a number of autobiographical works, including The Motion Of Light In Water. He has won four Nebulas and two Hugos and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002.

VERDICT
This sounded promising when I started out to read it, but as it progressed it felt like it was just getting increasingly peculiar. There is no real story to speak of, what with the circular storytelling, and the concept that this book can be read as a loop and pretty much started at any point in the narrative sounds clever but just makes this book feel all the more laboured and unworthwhile.

#78. THE TIME MACHINE By H G Wells

Published : 1895
Pages : 125
Overall Mark : 7/10

At first, the far future looks like an enchanting place to the Time Traveller. The graceful Eloi appear to embody contentment, beauty and peace, and the Eden they live in seems to be free of suffering. But he soon comes to understand that the Eloi ar fragile creatures, desperately afraid of the dark, and with good reason. For the Morlocks live in the dark, and the Morlocks are to be feared. And the Time Traveller must venture into their subterranean world to find his way back to his own era.

H. G. WELLS (1866-1946)
Born in Bromley, Kent, Herbert George Wells was apprenticed to a draper before becoming a teacher-pupil at Midhurst Grammar School and winning a scholarship to study under T.H. Huxley. Through his trail-blazing works of science fiction, his prophetic imagination and his championing of socialism, science and women's rights he became a hugely influential figure of international renown.

VERDICT
In spite of being well ahead of its time, and paving the way for all science fiction literature in the years following, this story isn't that impressively written and can at times get a little repetitive and boring. Despite this weakness Wells does still manage to drag out what could otherwise be a few pages of scenery into an entire novella and comes up with some ingenious visuals.

#77. CHILDHOOD'S END By Arthur C Clarke

Published : 1953
Pages : 237
Overall Mark : 9/10

The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty and end war. With a little rebellion at first, mankind agreed, and a golden age began.

But at what cost?

ARTHUR C. CLARKE (1917-2008)
Born in Somerset, but a long-time resident of Sri Lanka, Sir Arthur C. Clarke was the world's most famous SF writers. He wrote the scientific paper which established the principle of communications satellites and he collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey.

VERDICT
I loved this book about alien overlords who take it upon themselves to end all suffering on earth in exchange for a level of human stagnation, wherein nothing classed as progress can be said to occur on Earth. The twist in the tale happens some 50 years later when the true identity of the overlords is revealed, but where some writers would stop there, Clarke continues and brings us a very interesting look at human perception can lead to some sever prejudice which may or may not be warranted.

#76. THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU By H G Wells

Published : 1896
Pages : 186
Overall Mark : 7/10

When Edward Prendick is rescued after the shipwreck of the Lady Vain, he finds himself aboard a vessel carrying a menagerie of wild animals and their keeper, Montgomery. Nursed back to helath by Montgomery, Prendick is put ashore with the man and his beasts on an unknown island where he encounters Montgomery's master, the brilliant and sinister Doctor Moreau. And soon, Prendick discovers that the island holds a dark and terrible secret - Doctor Moreau has been playing God.

H. G. WELLS (1866-1946)
Born in Bromley, Kent, the third son of a shopkeeper, Herbert George Wells was apprenticed to a draper before becoming a teacher-pupil at Midhurst Grammar School and winning a scholarship to study under T.H. Huxley. Through his trail-blazing works of science fiction, his prophetic imagination and his championing of socialism, science and women's rights he became a hugely influential figure of international renown.

VERDICT
This is definitely one of HG Wells strongest novels, which has a perfect flow to its narrative and an imaginative yet believable storyline. Don't presume that this will just be another poorly executed great idea because this manages to take the idea of a mad scientist living on a monster inhabited island surprisingly plausible and well ahead of its time.

#75. CAT'S CRADLE By Kurt Vonnegut

Published : 1963
Pages : 203
Overall Mark : 9/10

Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale preys on our deepest fears of Armageddon. Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding fathers of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy. For he is the inventor of ice-nine, a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three eccentric children, to a crazed dictator, to madness. Hoenikker's death-wish comes true when his last, fatal, gift brings about an end that, for all of us, is nigh.

KURT VONNEGUT (1922-2007)
Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany, during the saturation bombing which devastated the city during WWII, an experience which formed the basis for the novel which made him a world-wide bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five. Cat's Cradle, first published in 1963, is his third novel.

VERDICT
This is a fun book that takes a sideways look at a possible nuclear future that is rife with the wit you'd expect from Vonnegut when he is at his best. It's a shame that more of his books aren't as solid as this one which, in spite of the fact that it doesn't have the best of endings, is a joy to read.

#74. INVERTED WORLD By Christopher Priest

Published : 1974
Pages : 303
Overall Mark : 8/10

The city is winched along its tracks through a devastated world. Rails must be laid ahead of it and removed in its wake. If the city does not move, it will fall behind the 'optimum' and into a crushing gravitational field. The alternative to progress is death.

The rulers of the city make sure its inhabitants know nothing of this. But the dwindling population is growing restive. And the rulers know that the city is falling further and further behind.

CHRISTOPHER PRIEST (1943-)
In a career spanning 40 years Priest has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the World Fantasy Award and the James Tait Memorial Award and become on of the UK's most critically acclaimed author. Inverted World was published in 1974 and was his third novel.

VERDICT
This sounds like a really boring idea; a mobile city that has to keep moving or suffer destruction? What could you possibly write about that would fill up over 300 pages? Thankfully Priest makes this a suspenseful tale that is peppered with mystery and moments where we really feel for the characters who have their beliefs challenged at every turn.