Published By: Riya Banerjee

5 Sci-fi novels you must read

Some are far-fetched but not impossible

The genre of sci-fi acknowledges everything we know, and all we can hope to know one day. We do not know if lightsabers do exit, but we would sure love to hold it someday. That’s what Star Wars has done for us. Sci-fi generates possibilities in the future and is worth your time. So, who apart from Arthur C Clarke is worth reading, you ask?

We have curated an easy-to-read list of novels that won’t disappoint you.

  1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K Dick authored, though most people would know of it as Dennis Villeneuve’s Blade runner. An android mercenary, Rick Deckard, in the process of his work, questions his identity in war and pollution ridden world. It paints a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, a world remaining after a nuclear war and Rick’s existential crisis and doubt about the world is fascinating to read.
  1. Dune
Frank Herbert authored Dune and has been made into a motion picture back in the 80’s. Dune is about elite, feuding families in the far, far future and the exile of one in Arrakis. The novel is set in a desert planet but also home to Spice -a drug used in interstellar travel and behemoth sandworms. Read it for its geopolitical echoes.
  1. 1984
George Orwell’s word of 1984 features a utopian all-seeing authority with a rebel right in the mix of it. If the crux of it feels too familiar, it’s because rebellion forms a part of Orwell’s novel. Sky-scraping buildings, monitoring of citizens, punishments are all part of this sci-fi novel that almost gets too real at times. A timeless classic and should not be missed.
  1. Ghost in the Shell:
Before you dismiss this as being manga, let it be known that The Matrix owes much to this Masamune Shirow’s manga. This manga has influenced global sci-fi storytelling about a half-android cop. Read it for its brilliant illustrations and the inept storyline.
  1. Solaris:
This Stanislaw Liem novel written in 1961, is a dark telling truth of humans and how limited and controlled they are by their self. Solaris is the alien planet with the ocean being a sentient being in itself. What do you do when you are researching something that is studying you in return? Read it for the twists and turns and learning the miniscule knowledge humans have when it comes to the universe.