📖 I, Robot <Isaac Asimov; 1950>

Notes: Famous for introducing the Three Laws of Robotics, which govern robot behavior: 
1. a robot may not harm a human, 
2. must obey humans (unless it conflicts with the First Law), and 
3. must protect itself (unless it conflicts with the First or Second Law).

📖 The Lathe of Heaven <Ursula K. Le Guin; 1971>

Notes:  It won the 1972 Locus Award for Best Novel and was a finalist for the 1971 Nebula Award for Best Novel and 1972 Hugo Award for Best Novel. More importantly, it was recommended by Paul Giamatti.

📖 Guards! Guards! <Terry Pratchett; 1989>

Notes: The eighth installment in the Discworld series. Will be my first exposure to it. Was told it was an ideal entry point into the series.

📖 Sand <Hugh Howey; 2014>

Notes: The start of another trilogy, from the author who wrote 'Silo'.

📖 The Martian Chronicles <Ray Bradbury; 1950>

Notes: Innocent sci fi storytelling. Very 1950s. Having a bit of a tough time finding a rhythm with it, probably due to the anthology structure. 

📖 A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms <George R. R. Martin; 2015>

P* score: 6.9

Notes: Part of the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a collection containing the first three 'Dunk and Egg' novellas by George RR Martin.

Pretty fun read. Got to play in the sandbox of ASOIAF, but tell a simplified story through one character's POV. Easier read. Lower stakes. Likeable main characters. Coherent. A good hang. 

📖 Project Hail Mary <Andy Weir; 2021>

P* score: 7.3

Notes: Really, really enjoyed it. The author did an excellent job of steering the ship. Easy to follow. Constantly heading in an interesting direction. Had fun going on an adventure of science and discovery with the protagonist. Read like the book 'Rendezvous with Rama' and the movie 'Arrival' had a baby that was directed by Steven Spielberg. Has some Disney DNA. Refreshingly positive approach to science fiction and a looming apocalypse. I can tell this book will be among exclusive company as one that I'll read again. I already miss spending time with Grace and Rocky.   

📖 Burning Chrome <William Gibson; 1982>

P* score: 7.0

Notes: Gibson cranks out more bangers than a British sausage factory. Johnny Mnemonic - absolute top shelf banger. Hinterlands - banger. Red Star, Winter Orbit - banger. The titular final short story in the collection, banger. Well curated - almost no fluff or filler stories that fell flat. Man, that guy can cook.

📖 Snow Crash <Neal Stephenson; 1992>

P* score: 5.9

Notes: It was fine. Not special, but a worthwhile read. I appreciate that it was visionary at the time and was an important evolutionary link in the development of the cyberpunk genre. But it feels very dated, not necessarily in the ideas, but in the language and conventions. Very '80s. Even if Stephenson painted an evergreen image, the brushstrokes and color palette he used did not age gracefully.  I almost gave up during the first third of the book. It was cartoonish, unserious, overwritten, a teenager more focused on impressing his English teacher with the construction of every sentence than telling a compelling story. I couldn't see what the hype was about. But then, to his credit, the author found his stride. He started weaving in some interesting big ideas and infusing momentum into the narrative. His version of cyberspace was fun to explore. The concepts involving neurolinguistics and human development were by far the most fascinating element, they were worth the price of admission. Glad I stuck around. 

📖 Mona Lisa Overdrive <William Gibson; 1988>

P* score: 7.1

Notes: Fun action. Would make a great movie, especially the portion with Slick Henry and his robots. Not sure I totally got it, though. 

Bonus: Book Character Casting

📖 Rendezvous with Rama <Arthur C. Clarke; 1973>

P* score: 6.8

Notes: Spooky echoes of the news with the 3I/ATLAS comet passing through out solar system and reaching the perihelion within days of the vessel in Rama doing the same thing as I read the book. So many parallels that it's impossible not to wonder if 3I/ATLAS is our Rama.

📖 Count Zero <William Gibson; 1986>

P* score: 6.6

Notes: The structure and storytelling weren't nearly as compelling and coherent as 'Neuromancer', but that might have more to do with the first book in the Sprawl trilogy setting the bar so high. I had a difficult time latching onto it and understanding the story lines on my first read. I thought it was much better the second time through. Don't go into it expecting a direct sequel to 'Neuromancer'. It plays in the same universe, and some of the elements are a continuation, but it mostly stands alone as its own story. 

He really hit on something with the concept of the 'horses', that idea sticks with me. AI entities convincing humans to allow them access to their meat hardware to escape cyberspace and interact with the real world is both scary and increasingly plausible. 

📖 Neuromancer <William Gibson; 1984>

P* score: 11.2           🔥🔥 Must read 🔥🔥

Notes: Masterpiece. Prescient. Incredibly re-readable. Gibson struck a perfect balance between interesting ideas and excellent writing. I appreciate how much care and effort he put into crafting the language. The ideas could have carried the book on their own. The writing took it to another level. Instant classic. 

📖 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? <Philip K. Dick; 1968>

P* score: 8.1               

Notes: Enjoyable to read for the surface level plot alone. It has good momentum and it's easy to see why it was ripe for an effective movie adaptation. But the author built in plenty of depth and thought-provoking ideas to explore. You can get lost in the subterranean tunnels beneath the surface. I'm convinced that Deckard is an android / replicant. What's your read on it? Do you think he's a human? Vote in the poll, or detail your argument in the replies below.  

📖 Project Hail Mary <Andy Weir; 2021>

Notes: per the Lobos recommendation. I recently put it on hold at my local library

📖 He, She, and It <Marge Piercy; 1991>

Notes: Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction in 1993. Partially inspired by William Gibson's cyberpunk work. I'm only a few pages in and I can already tell I'm going to like this one. 

📖 Woman on the Edge of Time <Marge Piercy; 1976>

Notes: Recently enjoyed Piercy's beautiful poetry in The Moon is Always Female and was stoked to learn about her sci-fi novels. William Gibson has apparently credited her 1976 book Woman on the Edge of Time as the birthplace of cyberpunk, or at least the inspiration for it (I can't find his original quote). Excited to read more from this Detroit based author.

'Woman on the Edge of Time' was unique and quite unlike anything I've read before. Piercy pulls you in and shows you how cruel and crushing our world can be to the disadvantaged, while also imagining a beautiful utopian future society where oppression and inequality are overcome (mostly). Foundational in intersectional feminism and science-fiction. I can see why William Gibson said this story from 1976 helped inspire the cyberpunk genre, especially near the end. Great author, well written, highly imaginative and emotional story, leaves reader bearing heavy emotional weight throughout.

📖 Mona Lisa Overdrive <William Gibson; 1988>

Notes: A fun read. I love following up with characters from Neuromancer and Count Zero. Lots of action and enjoyable character development. I need to brainstorm with others about the ending, some things may have been lost on me. Was Kumiko on the horse at the end some type of foreshadowing?

📖 Count Zero <William Gibson; 1986>

Notes: 

📖 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? <Philip K. Dick; 1968>

Notes: 

📖 Neuromancer <William Gibson; 1984>

Notes: 

📖 The Dispossessed <Ursula K. Le Guin; 1974>

Notes: Looking forward to this one, just got it from the library. I have no prior knowledge of the plot, but I know it's one of her most famous, and I've really enjoyed the little of Le Guin I've read. Very chunky hardcover with a map on the first page: promising.

📖 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance <Robert Persig; 1974>

Notes: Not sure if I'll get around to this one, but it's been on the shelf here for years so I figure I should give it a try. I know it's popular. I am hoping it will have some similarity to "Sophie's World", a didactic book which uses the plot to explain philosophical concepts. 

📖 Godzilla (and Godzilla Raids Again) <Shigeru Kayama, translated by Jeffrey Angles; 1955>

Notes: A gift I read most of a couple years ago but didn't finish, want to circle back. Recently watched "Shin Godzilla" (2016), which thoroughly illustrated the raison d'etre of Godzilla: political commentary, and smashing stuff. The blurb on the cover implies this novella was commissioned as the inspiration for the original Godzilla movie; I'd like to know more about that. Translated by a guy at Western Michigan who I hope gets paid to watch Godzilla movies.

📖 Homegrown Handgathered: The Complete Guide to Living Off Your Garden <Silvan Goddin & Jordan Tony; 2025>

Notes: Happy to have snagged this new book from the library on the art and science of gardening for maximum nutrition (rather than decoration or profit). The authors have publicized their efforts to go several months eating only home grown/foraged/hunted good. Nice to flip through in January...

📖 The Origins of Efficiency <Brian Potter; 2025>

Notes: A dense, not to say dry, nonfiction book on the optimization tactics that fuel technological development. Learning a lot about the history of manufacturing processes of everyday objects, such as light bulbs and nails. A great supportive read for classic, engineer-y sci fi. I think Arthur C. Clarke would have been very jazzed about this book. 

📖 Go Down, Moses <William Faulkner; 1942>

Notes: I knew Faulkner had college-syllabus status but had never read him. This book was really a trip. It's set across a century or so of one plantation family, jumping around between time and narrators, formatted as a set of short stories. In subject matter (the way trauma can echo through an isolated, intertwined family, for one) it reminded me of "A Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Whereas Marquez (or his translator) used a kind of plain spoken style to draw the reader into his magical realism world, Faulkner seemed to enjoy wielding complexity to beat the implications of his stories into the reader. I had to re-read the first story three times with a dictionary on hand. It was great to start the year with something challenging. 

📖 Touching the Void <Joe Simpson; 1988>

Notes: The true story of a terrible mountaineering accident, documented after the fact by its survivor in a voice which is arrestingly honest and unpolished, yet poetic and precise. I have been thinking a lot about the ethics of extreme outdoor activities lately. We recently watched Herzog's "The Dark Glow of the Mountains", a documentary focusing on the inner motivations of two climbers attempting a first summit in 1985. That film (and a lot of Herzog films) seems to ask: what exactly drives a person to pursue a goal to the point of self-destruction? "Touching the Void", also set in 1985, is sort of an inverted answer to that question in the form of an account of his struggle to survive in a hopeless situation. Great book to read in a snowstorm.