Techie Reads While Waiting for Tenet
[Movie still from Tenet, Syncopy and Warner Bros.]
Christopher Nolan has made some of the most compelling and confusing movies of the last twenty years. The mind that brought Inception and Interstellar to the screen for your viewing pleasure is at it again with Tenet, an action packed SFX mindbender. The film was originally slated to be released on July 17th, but due to theaters being shut down, has had its release date pushed several times. While Nolan fans are chomping at the bit to see the film, they may have to wait just a bit longer as again it seems theaters may not open in time for the new release date. With that in mind, here is a list of some great science fiction reads to fill the hours until the film is released.
A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K. Dick
Phillip K. Dick is one of those legendary science fiction writers, and while most people know him from his work on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, it is A Scanner Darkly which really gets deep into his sci-fi world of paranoia. The novel follows Bob Arctor, an undercover cop, who is struggling to take down a drug cartel in a world where nothing is as it seems. With a true twist ending, this one is hard to put down.
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All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
As bad as Groundhog Day must have been for Bill Murray, it has to be a thousand times worse for soldier Keiji Kiriya, who dies at the end of every battle just to be reborn and try again. Things get even more complex when Keiji meets Rita Vrataski, a similarly immortal warrior who trains him in the ways of the infinitely looping timeline. Sakurazaka has an easy to read writing style which helps immensely in driving home his story about the futility of war
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William Shakespeare’s The Merry Rise of Skywalker by Ian Doescher
One of the funniest, smartest crossover concepts in recent memory, Ian Doescher has brought iambic pentameter back with his work on the nine William Shakespeare’s Star Wars plays. In this final instalment, questions will be answered, heroes will rise and old enemies will fall. This will be a great one to read, as Doescher manages to provide the same cinematic experience of Star Wars on the written page.
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The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
When human native of Terra, Genly Ai is sent on a political mission to the planet Gethen, he finds himself lost in the cultural intricacies of the people there. Ai must find a way to bridge the gap between himself and the ambisexual inhabitants of the planet or fear failing in his appointed task. Seen as a major feminist science fiction piece, this novel was decades ahead of its time in terms of discussion of gender.
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Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi Okorafor has a great ability to combine science-fiction with folklore and Lagoon is a perfect example of those skills. When a comet crashes to Earth, three humans must learn to interact with an alien ambassador. This novel pulls from the Nigerian stories Papa Legba, a trickster god who wants nothing more than to cause havoc.
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InterWorld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
One for the younger crowd, InterWorld is a great introduction to quantum mechanics. During a school trip, Joey Harker finds himself dragged into an alternate and drafted into a war where various versions of Joey make up the entirety of a unit of soldiers. This is a perfectly complex and simultaneously simplistic flight of fancy from Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves. With a story that flies by page by page, this book is great for those YA readers.
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