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Science Fiction

It's no surprise that science fiction didn't surface till the end of the 19th century....and the beginning of the Technological Age. Modern man is preoccupied with technology, both as villain and hero, and though most people probably associate sci-fi with Star Wars and Doctor Who, originally it was a literary genre devoted to serious (and often terrifying themes).

That's not to say it hasn't always been plain fun. H.G. Wells was making weighty social commentary when he wrote The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man, but both of those are also rousing adventure stories with themes that remain stock elements of the genre. Dune is Frank Herbert's political and ecological manifesto, as well as a desert saga filled with knife fights and mysterious Fremen wanderers.

At first glance a lot of science fiction looks pretty much like tech-savvy fantasy. In some cases it is—the aforementioned Star Wars has swords and knights and an evil emperor, just like The Prydain Chronicles or John White's Archives of Anthropos. But this kind of swashbuckling galactic adventure is typically called "space opera" and not taken very seriously except as great entertainment.

The more contemplative (but no less exciting) work of Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Orson Scott Card is what comprises the canon of Science Fiction proper. Subjects range from psychological investigations to the ethics of human-robot relations, but all of them are concerned primarily with human society and the moral obligations of those within its bounds.

In 1896, H.G. Wells published a novel called The Island of Dr. Moreau. It follows a captive of the crazed Dr. Moreau, whose experiments uniting animal and human organisms reach a gruesome level. While the implications would seem distant from any realm of possibility, Wells' fable touches on many contemporary themes, from stem cell research to the Creation/Evolution debate. It is in this tradition that the greatest science fiction authors write, making some small sense of the growing senseless complexity of modern life.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, Translated by Lewis Page Mercier, edited by Allen Grove
from Chartwell Books
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Readers #19
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen with a frontispiece by Milo Winter
1956 printing from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (2 in stock)
Among the Barons
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
from Simon and Schuster
for 5th-8th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$7.99 $4.50 (1 in stock)
Among the Enemy
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
from Scholastic Inc.
for 5th-8th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Among the Free
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
from Scholastic Inc.
for 5th-9th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Case of the Gasping Garbage
by Michele Torrey
2nd edition from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$6.95 $4.50 (1 in stock)
Chronicles of Amber Volume 1
by Roger Zelazny
Book Club Edition from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
City and the Stars
Book Club Edition from Harcourt, Brace & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
First Men in the Moon
by H. G. Wells
from Magnum
for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Forbidden Planet
by W. J. Stuart
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
Giver
The Giver Quartet #1
by Lois Lowry
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 7th-10th grade
1994 Newbery Medal winner
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$11.99 $6.00 (4 in stock)
House of the Scorpion
by Nancy Farmer
Reprint from Atheneum
for 8th-Adult
2003 Newbery Honor Book; 2003 National Book Award for Young People's Literature
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$12.99 $7.00 (1 in stock)
Journey to the Center of the Earth
by Jules Verne, illustrated by Edouard Riou
from Dover Publications
Science Fiction for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Mirkheim
by Poul Anderson
Book Club Edition from Berkley Books
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Mockingjay
by Suzanne Collins
1st edition from Scholastic Press
for 7th-9th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Mountain of Truth
by Dale Carlson; illustrated by Charles Robinson
from Atheneum
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Mysterious Island
by Jules Verne, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Science Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
Sent
Missing #02
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
from Simon and Schuster
for 4th-7th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$16.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Shadow Puppets
by Orson Scott Card
1st edition from Tor Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Hitchhiker's Trilogy #4
by Douglas Adams
from Crown Publishers
Humorous Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Swiftly Tilting Planet
Wrinkle in Time Series #3
by Madeleine L'Engle
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Fantasy for 4th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Swiftly Tilting Planet
Wrinkle in Time Series #2
by Madeleine L'Engle
from Quality Paperback Book Club
for 7th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Swiftly Tilting Planet
Wrinkle in Time Series #3
by Madeleine L'Engle
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Fantasy for 4th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Time and Space of Uncle Albert
by Russell Stannard, Illustrated by John Levers
from Faber & Faber
for 3rd-8th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Time Machine
by H. G. Wells
from Dover Publications
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Time Machine
by H. G. Wells
from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.00 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Tom Swift and His Flying Lab
Tom Swift Jr. #1
by Victor Appleton II, illustrated by Graham Kaye
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Tom Swift (Location: VIN-SER)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Tom Swift and His Flying Lab
Tom Swift Jr. #1
by Victor Appleton II, illustrated by Graham Kaye
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Tom Swift (Location: VIN-SER)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Tom Swift and His Jetmarine
Tom Swift Jr. #2
by Victor Appleton II
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Tom Swift (Location: VIN-SER)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship
Tom Swift Jr. #3
by Victor Appleton II
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Tom Swift (Location: VIN-SER)
$10.00 (2 in stock)
Touch of Strange
by Theodore Sturgeon
Book Club Edition from Doubleday & Company
for Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Wild Robot
by Peter Brown
from Little, Brown & Company
for 2nd-5th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Wild Robot
Wild Robot #1
by Peter Brown
from Little, Brown & Company
for 2nd-5th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$8.99 $4.50 (1 in stock)
William Shakespeare's Star Wars Part the Fifth
William Shakespeare Star Wars #5
by Ian Doescher
First Edition from Quirk Books
for 4th-10th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Wind in the Door
Wrinkle in Time Series #2
by Madeleine L'Engle
from Square Fish Publishing
Fantasy for 4th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$8.99 $4.50 (1 in stock)
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