Classic Love - Sci-Fi Edition

Science Fiction

In this feature I will portray some of my favourite Classic (thus non-YA) books.

This week:

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginative content such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, and paranormal abilities. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas". Science fiction has been used by authors as a device to discuss philosophical ideas such as identity, desire, morality, and social structure. (wikipedia.org)

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells

 In The Island of Dr. Moreau a shipwrecked gentleman named Edward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by the notorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures, and a reason to run for his life. 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own.” Thus begins one of the most terrifying and morally prescient science fiction novels ever penned. Beginning with a series of strange flashes in the distant night sky, the Martian attack initially causes little concern on Earth. Then the destruction erupts—ten massive aliens roam England and destroy with heat rays everything in their path. Very soon humankind finds itself on the brink of extinction.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him the reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth.  There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well. 

As you can see I'm a bit of a HG Wells fan;)

All of these books don't have too difficult language and aren't hardcore sci-fi. I would recommend them to everyone!

Other sci-fi recommendations:

• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• Other books by HG Wells
• All books by Philip K. Dick

Have you read (some of) these books? Do you have any other sci-fi recommendations?

Classic Love - Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Edition

Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

In this feature I will portray some of my favourite Classic (thus non-YA) books.

This week:

A dystopia is a community or society, usually fictional, that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. It is the opposite of a utopia. Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. 

Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after a catastrophe. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). - Wikipedia

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose slogan becomes: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Published in 1945, this powerful satire of the Russian Revolution under Stalin remains as vivid and relevant today as it was on its first publication.

I absolutely loved this book! It is a funny story on its own, but if you know what the story actually mocks you'll appreciate the book even more.

1984 by George Orwell

Winston Smith works for the Ministry of truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent - even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101 . . . 
Ninteen Eighty-Four is George Orwell's terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime.

This book's subject of Big Brother and government control is a very actual subject. The society is scary, but unfortunately pretty realistic. 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Far in the future, the World Controllers have finally created the ideal society. In laboratories worldwide, genetic science has brought the human race to perfection. From the Alpha-Plus mandarin class to the Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons, designed to perform menial tasks, man is bred and educated to be blissfully content with his pre-destined role.
But, in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, Bernard Marx is unhappy. Harbouring an unnatural desire for solitude, feeling only distaste for the endless pleasures of compulsory promiscuity, Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…

Brave New World is a great book! It is one of the few books with a POV of an outsider, someone who doesn't live in the dystopian society.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behaviour collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them—the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories—and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible. Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought and literature.
Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic.

Lord of the Flies may not be the typical dystopian, but it is. The boys form a society on the island, but it is far from ideal and is based on fear. If that is a bit too far-fetched it is definitely a post-apocalyptic story, with stranding on the island the catastrophe for the boys.

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere twenty-four hours before is gone forever.
But to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. The Triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk, and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind. Wyndham chillingly anticipates bio-warfare and mass destruction, fifty years before their realization, in this prescient account of Cold War paranoia.

From this list this is probably the least known book. It is a post-apocalyptic book with some sci-fi elements.

All of these books did not have any too difficult language and were very intriguing and exciting. I would recommend them to everyone!
Some other examples of Classic Dystopian or Post-apocalyptic fiction:

• Fahrenheit 451
• Battle Royale
• The Road
• Handmaid's Tale
• A Clockwork Orange
• We

Have you read (some of) these books? Do you have any other dystopian recommendations?

[Classic Love] Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

This post features a favourite classic novel of mine.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Summary:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. Renowned literary critic and historian George Saintsbury in 1894 declared it the "most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author's works," and Eudora Welty in the twntieth century described it as "irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be."


Why I love this book...

Pride and Prejudice is still a big influence on modern day books even 200 years after it was published. The plot of this book is now a commonly used story: the girl meets the handsome, close-to-arrogant boy who later turns out to be sympathatic and they fall in love.

The characters in this novel are very realistic, I think everyone can identify themselves with someone in this book; honest Elizabeth, caring Jane, outgoing Lydia..
The book is beautifully written and it will suck you in from the very first page.

I can recommend this book to everyone, even if you usually do not read classic novels. Pride and Prejudice has everything a love story should have, from awkward encounters to unexpected love declarations.