Science, History, and Fiction in Everyday Life
The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman is a military science fiction novel, telling the story of William Mandella, a soldier of the United Nations Exploratory Force that fights an interstellar war against the alien Taurans. Widely believed to be…
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This is a guest post by Chango (for contributing posts here have a look at this). The original version of these two book reviews, genre YA-fantasy, has been uploaded on Amazon Italy as a verified purchase. I’ve put them together…
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I have been an avid manga reader (and anime fan) since childhood, and what I loved the most was to pick my hero and follow him (her) during the story. Or a villain, that sometimes is far more charming than any…
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Steel Beach (1993) by John Varley, is a sci-fi novel where humans now live on the Moon after an alien invasion. Steel Beach, this is the name of the colony, is a sort of utopian, free-love society run by a…
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Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell is a novel that needs no introduction. Difficult to imagine a dark, dystopian book that had a stronger impact on our culture, or that got right in a surprising way many aspects of our…
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Ringworld (1970) by Larry Niven, is the first of a series of stories – including prequels and sequels – set in a version of the universe called the Known Space. It features as backdrop an artificial structure of 600 million miles in…
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Vampires, we know, are a popular brand at least since John Polidori’s Lord Ruthven, allegedly inspired by Lord Byron during a fateful night at Villa Diodati I have already talked about. Joined a few decades later by a female vampire – Le Fanu’s Carmilla –…
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The Player of Games (1988) by Iain M. Banks is a SF novel belonging to the Culture series. It features the most skilful and celebrate player in the Culture society, Jernau Morat Gurgeh, who travels from his world to a far-away…
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Astrophysics has to make sense, especially in a SF book. When designing your fictional worlds you need to make sure things can survive on their own, short of creating an alternate physical universe – and I won’t even start imagining how difficult…
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Helliconia Summer (1983) by Brian W. Aldiss is the second instalment of the Helliconia Trilogy, set on the Earth-like Helliconia. The planet, orbiting a binary star, experiences seasons that last eons. This is the the rise and fall of a…
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