The Fantasy Review’s list of 10 Classic Science Fiction Books with Exploration and Adventure.
On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1) by David Weber
From the blurb:
Having made him look a fool, she’s been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her.
Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship’s humilating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station.
The indigenous people of the system’s only habiltable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens…
Foundation (Foundation, #1) by Isaac Asimov
From the blurb:
For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation…
Nine Princes in Amber (The Chronicles of Amber, #1) by Roger Zelazny
From the blurb:
Amber is the one real world, casting infinite reflections of itself – Shadow worlds that can be manipulated by those of royal Amberite bllod. Unfortunately, the royal family is torn by jealousies & suspicions. & the disappearance of the clan patriarch, Oberon, has intensified the conflicts by leaving Amber’s throne apparently up for grabs…
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
From the blurb:
This true modern masterpiece is built around the two fateful words that make up the title and herald the end – “Alas, Babylon.” When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly…
City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin
From the blurb:
Intergalactic war reaches Fomalhaut II in Rocannon’s World.Born out of season, a precocious young girl visits the alien city of the farborns and the false-men in Planet of Exile.In City of Illusions a stranger wandering in the forest people’s woods is found and his health restored; now the fate of two worlds rests in this stranger’s hands . . .
They Walked Like Men by Clifford D. Simak
From the blurb:
After a night out on the town, Parker Graves returns home to life-threatening danger. The science reporter for the local newspaper barely misses a bear trap sitting on his doorstep. Then, the object transforms into what looks like a bowling ball and rolls off into the night all by itself. He begins to obsess over the question—Who put the trap there? And why?…
The Lost World (Professor Challenger, #1) by Arthur Conan Doyle
From the blurb:
The Lost World is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1912, concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals still survive. It was originally published serially in the Strand Magazine and illustrated by New-Zealand-born artist Harry Rountree during the months of April–November 1912. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between indigenous people and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.
Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1) by Dan Simmons
From the blurb:
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all…
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
From the blurb:
Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad, Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had intended to leave him to die.
Berserker (Berserker, #1) by Fred Saberhagen
From the blurb:
Long ago, in a distant part of the galaxy, two alien races met—and fought a war of mutual extinction. The sole legacy of that war was the weapon that ended it: the death machines, the BERSERKERS. Guided by self-aware computers more intelligent than any human, these world-sized battle craft carved a swath of death through the galaxy—until they arrived at the outskirts of the fledgling Empire of Man…
