Science Fiction and Fantasy Classics
Here are some books that have withstood the test of time and critical fashions. I pay attention to publishers devoting time and energy to bringing back books or authors in an organized way. For instance, MIT Press is doing such an admirable job with Stanislaw Lem that it inspired a separate page devoted to him. The new Dune films are reviving a sf landmark series. I will add others in time.
The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds
The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds
Gathered together in one hardcover volume: three timeless novels from the founding father of science fiction.
The first great novel to imagine time travel, The Time Machine (1895) follows its scientist narrator on an incredible journey that takes him finally to Earth’s last moments—and perhaps his own. The scientist who discovers how to transform himself in The Invisible Man (1897) will also discover, too late, that he has become unmoored from society and from his own sanity. The War of the Worlds (1898)—the seminal masterpiece of alien invasion adapted by Orson Welles for his notorious 1938 radio drama, and subsequently by several filmmakers—imagines a fierce race of Martians who devastate Earth and feed on their human victims while their voracious vegetation, the red weed, spreads over the ruined planet.
Here are three classic science fiction novels that, more than a century after their original publication, show no sign of losing their grip on readers’ imaginations.