Science fiction sagas to read: our tips
Science fiction sagas to read
After years of silence, literary science fiction seems to be once again one of the leading genres of publishing houses, which among reprints of historical works and new proposals have decided to populate the shelves of bookstores. Space adventures, forays into famous narrative universes and more bizarre stories aim to satisfy every reader, offering a wide selection of science fiction sagas to immerse yourself in.What are the science fiction sagas to read? Here are our suggestions
Going beyond recognized masterpieces of the genre, we have tried to create a selection of alternative proposals for interesting readings, including new proposals and classics of the genreIl Ciclo di Dune The Expanse Trilogy of Sprawl Giant Saga Rama's Cycle Eymerich's Cycle Lucky Starr's Cycle Metroverso Invasion and Colonization Takeshi Kovacs' Trilogy Ender's Cycle Radch's Trilogy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Foundation Cycle Robot Cycle Murderbot: The Killing Machine Diaries Songs by Hyperion The Cycle of Thrawn
The Cycle of Dune
A science fiction saga that made the history of sci-fi, arriving in the cinema in 1982, giving life to video games and TV series. While waiting to see how Villeneuve will bring Arrakis and La Spezia back to the cinema, we can review this long saga, inaugurated by Frank Herbert and continued by his son Brian, with the help of Kevin J. Anderson. Frank Herbert is responsible for the initial intuition, which led him to create a future baroque society animated by conspiracies and court games, while his son Brian, working on his father's notes, gave life to the prequels of the main events of the saga, as well as some short novels that deepen aspects little dealt with in the chapters written by his father.
In Italy the six books written by Herbert senior are available, while for the prequels signed by his son you have to go hunting for old editions of the first ones, based on the houses that populate the universe of Dune, passing to reading original language for the most recent volumes
The Expanse
Saga successfully landed also in the world of TV series, The Expanse tells of a fragmented humanity between Earthlings, Martians and Cinturians, united by the need to share resources but in a state of perennial tension. The appearance of an alien threat shatters this apparent peace, leading to outright hostility.Written jointly by Daniel James Abraham and Ty Corey Frank under the pseudonym of James S.A. Corey, The Expanse bases its solidity on a classic science fiction theme, combined with a modern taste for political intrigue and a science that tends to be as truthful as possible. The volumes of the saga are available in Italian, while in English you can also read the short stories that present some secondary aspects of the main plot, offering new, interesting points of view.
Sprawl Trilogy
Not a science fiction saga in the classic sense, but the creation of a shared universe, which later became the fulcrum on which cyberpunk was canonized. Cowboys of cyberspace, zaibatsu and neon, cybernetic grafts and a degraded and deeply divided humanity. The theater of this future human tragedy is the Sprawl, an immense urban agglomeration in which the great cities of the American east coast are incorporated. Composed of Down in Sprawl, Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Cyberpunk, the Sprawl Trilogy is a great way to get into cyberpunk perfectly
Saga of the Giants
Classic science fiction, less adventurous and more devoted to a scientific construction. James P. Hogan starts with a simple question: what if everything we know about humanity and our history were erased by an incredible finding on the Moon? This is what happens when a skeleton of a gigantic being is found on our satellite, in a spacesuit, dating back to centuries earlier. From this point of view, Hogan sets up an exciting search for truth, but aimed mainly at an audience little inclined to action sci-fi.What would happen if everything we think we know about humanity were overturned? The narrative universe of James P. Hogan starts from this question, by finding the gigantic skeleton of a humanoid creature on the moon. Written with a tone that is sometimes too scientific, this cycle is nevertheless exciting and represents a different approach to science fiction, with an intriguing idea that is well developed, leading the reader on paths never traveled before!
The Cycle of Rama
Saga that began in 1972 with Rama's Encounter, at the center of this cycle of novels we have contact with a object navigating within the Solar System, whose mysterious construction and purpose cannot be fully understood. Written by Arthur C. Clarke, the first chapter of this saga maintains the classic scientific approach of the English author, while the following chapters are the work of Gentry Lee (with Clarke's supervision) in which the topics left open in the first volume are explored. . The first four books of the cycle have been translated in Italy (Encounter with Rama, Rama II, Rama's garden, Rama's secret).
The Eymerich Cycle
What can unite a real Inquisitor, known for his ruthless ferocity, and the future of humanity? The answer was given by Valerio Evangelisti in his cycle dedicated to the inquisitor Eymerich, a clergyman dedicated to the hunting and eradication of heresies, who finds himself facing demonic manifestations, but which are then revealed in a science fiction perspective. The power of Evangelisti's work is in creating the perfect alternation between the different temporal fronts, while maintaining full mastery of the horizontal plot of the saga, without affecting the reading of a chapter as a stand alone. Mondadori paid tribute to the importance of this saga by collecting it in three of its Titans.The Lucky Starr Cycle
Isaac Asimov's production is composed not only of robots and foundations. The American author, after a production of short stories based on adventure, gave life to a short saga of novels that reconciled science fiction with a more adventurous and dynamic spirit, typical of the science fiction of magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction. The protagonist was Lucky Starr, a young scientist with a passion for the future, who together with his friend Bigman, a native of Mars, is carrying out incredible feats for the galaxy.Metroverso
From Russia comes one of the science fiction cycles of recent years. Dmitry Gluchovsky set his literary saga in post-atomic Moscow, with the population taking refuge in the Moscow metro, the only area still habitable. In addition to having also become a series of successful video games, Metro 2033 has given birth to the Metroverso, a literary vein to which authors from different countries have joined, who have shown the consequences of the atomic clash in the rest of the world, including Italy. thanks to the books of Tullio Avoledo
Invasion and Colonization
And if the fate of our society had been decided by an alien invasion at the time of the Second World War? From this question, Harry Turtledove conceived his cycle that follows the development of modern society starting from the encounter with an alien civilization in one of the darkest moments of the modern era. Written with a very human edge, enriched by a large group of characters, it is an excellent dystopian series that thrills and offers an innovative vision!Takeshi Kovacs trilogy
Before being one of the most watched productions on Netflix, Altered Carbon was the first chapter of the Takeshi Kovacs spedi saga, created by Richard D. Morgan, Takeshi Kovacs si MOVES INTO A FUTURE WHERE MANKIND HAS CONQUERED THE STARS AND CAN MOVE FROM PLANET TO PLANET, SIMPLY DIGITIZING ITS CONSCIOUSNESS AND SENDING IT AS A DATA PACKET IN BODIES AVAILABLE ON OTHER PLANETS! The three books that make up the Takeshi Kovacs saga deal with different themes, from classic science fiction adventure, to xenophobia to religion, all with a typically sci-fi but easily recognizable slant. All three chapters of the saga are available in Italian, the first book can be found both with the title of the first publication (Bay City), and with the one used for the new edition following the success of the Netflix series, or the original Altered Carbon.
Ender cycle
For many years misunderstood as a pro-war manifesto, the Ender saga conceived from Orson Scott Card, which has also become a discreet film, offers a series of interesting insights, starting from a war resolved by a young protagonist, Ender, who will then have to spend the rest of his life living with the choices of an entire culture. Card has created an incredible narrative universe, also choosing to enrich his story with a parallel character who moves in the shadows, showing the other side of the Ender myth!Radch Trilogy
An interesting science fiction cycle, in which a different way of understanding science fiction is presented, especially in the construction of a complex society, in which the reader is pushed to keep an open and dynamic mindset, as described in our review. Ann Leckie imagines a social dynamic in which an artificial intelligence trapped in a human body, an abandoned battleship, must survive and builds an exciting adventure on these elements. Recently, Mondadori published a Titan in which the two novels are collected, plus two short stories set in this universe.
The Guide Galactic for hitchhikers
That is, like the answer to life, the universe and everything 42. The saga signed by Douglas Adams is an example of high-value comic science fiction, characterized by a series ingenious you find narratives intertwined with what are almost daily events (from the oppressive bureaucracy to the complexity of relationships). Adams has created a narrative cycle that has become a foundation of nerdy culture, which has paid homage to this paradoxical and funny universe in a thousand ways, from World Towel Day to the quotes of phrases typical of these adventures ("goodbye and thanks for all the fish" to example). Recently, Mondadori re-published the entire cycle in a single volume of the series I Draghi.
Cycle of the Foundation
One of the great science fiction sagas, signed by one of the fathers of sci-fi, Isaac Asimov. Within Asimov's full-bodied production, the Foundation Cycle is the pinnacle of a narrative universe which, started with the Robot Cycle, reaches its conclusion. The Cycle of the Foundation is a science fiction story in which the social aspect is privileged, thanks to the presence of a sociological science, psycho-history, which provides the possibility of anticipating future events with good probability, guiding humanity. But what if someone wants to destabilize this possibility? Between daring escapes and the search for the original planet of humanity, Asimov presents us with a fascinating story with a classic cut.
Cycle of Robot
Still Asimov? Yes, talking about literary science fiction involves a massive presence of what is one of the founding fathers of modern sci-fi. Especially when it comes to robots, since the American novelist has sanctioned a sort of robotic renaissance with his work. From the first stories contained in anthologies such as I, Robot, we moved on to the creation of the Robot Cycle, novels that have as protagonists the human investigator Elijah Bailey and his counterpart R. Daneel Olivaw (R for robot, for the record) . A mix of investigation, galactic intrigue and the search for a coexistence between a divided humanity and robots, the Robot Cycle represents the basis on which the entire literary corpus of Asimov is then developed
Murderbot: the diaries of the killing machine
In a cyberpunk-tinged future, the safety of shipments in deep space is guaranteed by the SecUnits, robotic units with organic grafts capable of transforming themselves into real war machines. Martha Wells imagines that one of these units succeeds in becoming independent, deciding to discover the truth about their past, eventually revealing one of the most incredible secrets of the human race. The Murderbot cycle, which we talked about in this review, was recently collected by Mondadori in a single volume.
The Songs of Hyperion
One of the most exciting and beloved recent science fiction sagas, The Songs of Hyperion, written by Dan Simmons, represent a modern and compelling take on some of the great themes of modern sci-fi. Divided into two blocks, Hyperion and Endiymion, Dan Simmons' cycle unfolds over a time horizon of three centuries, telling a story presented from different points of view, but appealing to the best literary science fiction. In 2700 humans, thanks to the development of farcaster technology, moved instantly in the galaxy, but a terrible experiment, the Great Mistake, caused the destruction of the Earth and the diaspora of man in space, thus giving life to a new federation that unites all inhabited worlds: the Hegemony of Man. On the eve of Armageddon, seven pilgrims embark on a final journey to Hyperion, in search of the answers to the riddles of their lives. Recently, Mondadori has published the entire two-volume cycle of the Titan series.» Click here to buy the volume Endymion: The Songs of Hyperion
