A classic, foreboding example of British New Wave science fiction that uses outer space to explore inner space.

Writing in New Worlds magazine in 1962, J.G. Ballard made the case for science fiction to explore not outer space, but “inner space”. This emphasis on the workings of the human mind, and what Ballard called the “interzone” between external reality and the inner world, was foundational to British “New Wave” SF. This tendency coalesced in and around New Worlds, then edited by Michael Moorcock.

The Black Corridor is an important early novel by Moorcock, with significant uncredited contributions from Hilary Bailey (then married to Moorcock). Published in 1969 as part of the first series of Ace Science Fiction Specials, it is one of Moorcock’s relatively few “straight” SF novels. It is a fine example of the New Wave ethos, a thorough exploration of inner space in an outer space setting. 

A businessman and family man named Ryan has escaped a dying Earth, on a stolen starship with his family in suspended animation. His aim is to land on a habitable planet and restart human society - but three years into the voyage, loneliness and guilt impose an intolerable strain on his fractured psyche.

There are schemes within schemes at two medieval courts in a striking stylistic shift in the fifth Culture novel.

If one were to read Inversions without any context at all, it would come across - at least at first - as a broadly conventional fantasy novel. It is a story of kingdoms and fiefdoms, ruled by feudal monarchies. The level of technology is perhaps late medieval, with sexual politics to match. The plot is driven by intrigue at court, and by wars fought over the remnants of a collapsed empire. It is steeped in many of the outward trappings of fantasy.

There is no magic in this world, however - no strange beasts, no objects of power, no heroic quests. There are intimations of a quite different element lurking at the edges of the scene. The old empire was destroyed by rocks that fell from the sky. In one kingdom there is a loyal doctor - a woman! - whose bearing and methods seem too foreign, too unworldly. And over the mountains, in another court, there is a bodyguard who tells fanciful stories of a place where every man is a king, every woman a queen.

Inversions is not, in fact, a fantasy novel - but a science fiction novel in disguise. It is the fifth entry in Iain M. Banks’ Culture series, and his effort to write “a Culture novel that wasn’t.” This is the boldest stylistic shift yet in the series, one which immerses Culture citizens fully into a primitive civilization, to better explore Banks’ most abiding question: is it ever right to intervene in the affairs of another society?

The author’s breakout novel helped make SF respectable, and is an integral part of the British disaster novel tradition.

In an opening chapter ominously titled “The End Begins”, John Wyndham starts to unveil an unforgettable depiction of disaster. His protagonist, Bill Masen, wakes up in hospital, his eyes covered by bandages. He knows it to be a Wednesday, but the quiet outside makes him think of Sunday. Something has gone terribly wrong.

Carefully exposing his eyes, Masen realises that the hospital, all of London, the whole of the country and perhaps the world, have fallen into chaos. Due to a cosmic event the previous night, almost everyone has been rendered blind. Society has collapsed, and civilization is all but gone. What is worse, a new plague is spreading and a strange type of plant is adapting to become a deadly threat to the survivors. It seems the era of humankind is over, giving way to The Day of the Triffids.

Two quite different science fiction novels both explore religious themes in troubled future scenarios.

Neither Let the Fire Fall by Kate Wilhelm nor Strength of Stones by Greg Bear are among the best-known or best-regarded of their authors’ works. In both cases, they were written well before those authors reached the peak of their success in SF. What they share is a focus on religious themes, albeit approached in very different ways.

Published in 1969 and out of print since 1974, Let the Fire Fall is the fourth novel by Kate Wilhelm (1928 - 2018). Beginning with a contemporary setting, its narrative extends out decades into the future. That future is profoundly changed by the arrival of an alien starship which lands in rural Ohio. While only one infant alien survives, the incident triggers the emergence of a sinister new religious movement which throws the United States into chaos.

Published in 1981, Strength of Stones is the fourth novel by Greg Bear (1951 - 2022). It is a revised extension of two previously published stories. In this far future tale, a confederation of faith groups - exiled from Earth after a series of brutal religious wars - have colonised the planet God-Does-Battle. Intelligent, mobile cities were created to fulfil their every need but humans were declared unworthy and cast out of these machines for living in. A thousand years later, the humans again try to lay claim to the decaying cities.

Two collaborators imagine a world dominated by a monolithic insurance company, and threatened by tyranny and nuclear terrorism.

Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth formed a key collaboration in 1950s American science fiction. Their string of novels written together, beginning with The Space Merchants (1952), helped to establish the tradition of satirical, social SF in that decade. 

Preferred Risk is a direct successor to those landmark collaborations, with Lester del Rey filling in for Kornbluth. It is a clever variation on the template established by The Space Merchants, depicting a world dominated by a single, nearly all-powerful insurance company. It is a lesser novel, but an interesting one in its own right. 

Over the years, though, the content of Preferred Risk has been overshadowed by the strange and unedifying story of its creation. That is because this novel was the winner of a sham contest, and was originally credited to a made-up scientist.

A haunting lunar mystery with deep psychological and philosophical implications.

Rogue Moon is a standalone science fiction novel by the Lithuanian-American author and critic Algis Budrys (1931 - 2008). Today, it is one of the most praised SF novels of the 1960s, and appears on several “best of” lists. 

The story has a contemporary setting. Few know that a mysterious structure of alien origin has been discovered on the far side of Earth’s moon. Extreme steps are taken to explore it. With funding from the United States Navy, Continental Electronics has secretly devised an extraordinary machine which can duplicate matter and transmit it over large distances. Unfortunately, visitors to the lunar structure suffer a terrible fate and only a uniquely qualified man can possibly unlock its mysteries.

While perhaps better known as a prolific critic of SF, Budrys made a major impact with this unique novel, known for its strong characters, profound questions, and extended meditation on death, the self, and transcendence.

A debut novel which deals with guilt, art, and suspicious happenings on a troubled colony founded on matter transmission.

Originally published in 1992 - and out of print for many years - Meridian Days is the debut novel by British SF author Eric Brown (1960 - 2023). Following on from a string of successful stories, the novel is connected to Brown’s wider “Telemass” setting. 

Meridian is a planet over 20 lightyears from Earth, which orbits the star Beta Hydri. Its colonisation by humans has been made possible by advanced technology; a huge sunshield which dampens the star’s intensity, and an interstellar matter transmission system which permits trade with distant Earth. The novel’s protagonist is Bob Benedict, a former spacecraft pilot with a drug habit, a guilty conscience, and a desire for solitude. 

Slowly but surely, Benedict is drawn into the tangled affairs of a prominent artist, Tamara Trevellion, and her troubled family. The former pilot becomes determined to establish the facts of a case which may have dramatic implications for the future of Meridian itself.

The landmark novel from the Northern Irish writer combines his interest in optics with an anti-neutrino planet and an unusual African setting.

Originally published in 1976, A Wreath of Stars is a standalone science fiction novel and the ninth to be published by Northern Irish author Bob Shaw (1931 - 1996). 

Set in the near future, the story is a chain of events triggered by the invention of a groundbreaking new kind of lens. This makes possible the discovery of a previously unknown type of planet, one which is hurtling towards Earth. Fortunately, “Thornton’s Planet” is composed of anti-neutrinos. Being insubstantial, it poses no threat. Some time after the initial panic subsides, ghost sightings are reported in the depths of a diamond mine in East Africa. Something links these strange occurrences, and humanity’s view of its place in the universe is about to be challenged like never before.

A Wreath of Stars is a brisk, exciting SF novel in the dependable tradition of the 1970s. While its scientific backdrop is dubious - especially today - Shaw weaves the sciences of optics and astronomy, alien life, and Earthly conflict into a compelling tale.

The definitive arcology novel is an urban story with grim politics, skilfully told.

Larry Niven (1938 - ) and Jerry Pournelle (1933 - 2017) made up one of the most fruitful collaborative teams in 1970s and 1980s American SF. Beginning with The Mote in God’s Eye (1974) - which was nominated for the Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Awards -  they delivered a string of successful novels. They were united in their enthusiasm for hard SF approaches and in their staunch right-wing, libertarian political views, and worked together over a period of more than 30 years.

Oath of Fealty is the fourth Niven-Pournelle collaboration, published initially by the small Phantasia Press in 1981. It is one of the last entries in David Pringle’s book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (1985) and James Wallace Harris included it in his list of the defining science fiction novels of the 1980s.

A standalone science fiction novel, Oath of Fealty is a key exploration of the concept of an arcology, an example of the wider keep trope in SF. In near-future California, Los Angeles is in the grip of poverty and crime. A private walled city-state, Todos Santos (or “All Saints”), is constructed over the ruins of a burned-out part of LA. Oath of Fealty explores the workings of this new kind of community, in which residents trade privacy for security. 

A break-in is the inciting incident for a new conflict between Todos Santos and the city of Los Angeles. Involving ecology activism, betrayal, private security, chemical weapons, and a kind of propaganda war, this struggle will determine whether the walled community can survive. While somewhat dated and suffused with harsh right-wing views that many will find objectionable, Oath of Fealty is a brisk and cleverly constructed take on the future.

A classic robot novel with a philosophical bent, set in a far-future world.

In a rural backwater, a master robot-maker and his wife construct a robot of their own. “We made you”, they say to him when he awakens, “you are our son.” The robot, Jasperodus, laughs at them dismissively and immediately walks out of their lives. He embarks on a series of adventures, all of them affected by his particular quirk - uniquely among machines, he has full consciousness: a soul. 

Originally published by Doubleday in 1974, The Soul of the Robot is the sixth novel by Barrington J. Bayley. Today, it is the best-known novel by this under-recognised author. It hews to Bayley’s frequent approach in that it fuses a fast-moving, pulpy story with deeper speculations. Jasperodus imposes himself excitingly on a far-future world of fractured empires and decayed technology; but also explores the riddle of consciousness, where it comes from and what it means to be alive.