A Novel You Love

[DeathFusion]

Peter Watts - Blindsight. This hard sci-fi novel with elements of cosmic horror presents a chilling perspective on consciousness.

 

[Saiyali]

I had a look around the site and couldn't find this mentioned. I read it as a young teenager and it terrified me and blew my mind.

Level 7, by Mordecai Roshwald.

The protagonist and narrator (in the style of a personal journal) is known only as X127. He (or possibly she, though personally I feel X127 is a man) is a Push Button Officer, whose job is to push the buttons that launch the weapons that destroy an enemy. We never discover which 'side' X127 is on, and the character themselves assumes they have a counterpart.

It's dark and bleak, and is certainly one of the most direct, articulate and savage indictments of Mutually-Assured Destruction we have all, broadly, been living under since .. well, since 1962, when that phrase was coined (though this book was published in 1959)

No spoilers, except to say there isn't exactly a happy ending. But it really is a remarkable piece of work.

 

[Vince W]

Dune, but also Foundation, Neuromancer, Starship Troopers, Nova, LoTR... wait, what was the question?

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

"Rats and Gargoyles" by Mary Gentle. Most original fantasy novel I've ever read. It riffs on the alchemists and secret societies of the Renaissance period to create this extravagant cityscape of giant rodent aristocrats, gods who are living sculptures, and no end of other good stuff. My copy is falling apart.

 

[Thiery]

Seventeen years ago, before I joined Chrons, I asked some people:

What's a novel you love? What comes to mind?

Interpret the question as you like -- though I will say that it doesn't have to be sff or horror.

I loved reading Circe by Madeline Miller. Imaginative take on Greek mythology and the Odyssey. And you don't have to be familiar with either to enjoy her novel.