If you are a true lover of technology, science and fiction (get it?), We bring you a list of 10 essential books for every geek who boasts of his name . Put on your reading glasses, because these are classic incunabula and masterpieces that will take us to dystopian futures, distant galaxies and fast-paced adventures. Like any list of this type, there will be a lack of space and there will be opinions for all tastes, but it will be impossible to fail with any of these books. And yes, the fantasy is left out , hopefully, we will make another compilation in which to rant about Game of Thrones.
1. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
I’m going to start with my personal favorite. If you have not read Hyperion (first book of a tetralogy), you are missing an epic story like few others .
An indispensable cult book.
2. Dune, by Frank Herbert
By now you’ll be tired of hearing about Dune , but you have to read Dune .
At least the first of the volumes, which is a masterpiece . Just as it sounds.
The intrigues, the richness of the universe, the environmental issues already anticipated for so long, the peculiar technology and with that personal flavor… I would spend the day talking about Dune , but you’d better read it.
3. 1984, by George Orwell
The book that everyone names on social media and no one has read.
Orwell is a master, his command of the language is on another level , but without incurring any frills or complications, which is easy.
And what about history? You have to read it to see that most of those who quote 1984 every three seconds, have not understood anything.
4. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
It is impossible to name one without the other, so here is Huxley’s work that made us always wonder who would be right, Orwell or him, when it came to fulfilling his dystopia in this world that we live.
If you read both, you will see that the answer is that they were both right and some have taken very good note of the main elements of each book to have us well controlled.
They weren’t supposed to be instruction manuals, but …
By the way, the series out there is lazy, lazy.
5. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Another inevitable in such a list and, since we are talking about dystopias . You’ve probably seen the series, or at least heard of it if you haven’t returned from a desert island. Better to go to the original.
Atwood presents us with a dystopian society where the situation of women is not so far-fetched or impossible, if we listen to the news from some parts of the world.
6. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
The beginning of a mythical saga by Card had a very forgettable adaptation to the cinema , so skip it and go to the book, because you will love it.
A war against bugs and children who are trained in it from a young age. And speaking of bugs …
7. Space Troops, by Robert A. Heinlein
Here the film that Verhoeven made is worth it , although if you read the book, you will see that our dear Paul took a few licenses.
Be a good citizen, step on a few roaches and find your copy of the book. It’s going to be a bit difficult to find, but it will be worth it.
8. The problem of the three bodies, by Cixin Liu
If you are a pro geek , you have to have this trilogy read by the time the series is released and criticize that they have not understood anything. Unfortunately for this piece of book, the makers of smash it adapting it will be the same as Game of Thrones and they are unnameable here, so that’s likely to happen.
There is still for that, but it is that they are thousands of pages and a fascinating story . The first book is actually titled The Remembrance of Earth’s Past , although almost everyone calls it after the name of the saga.
9. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Leguin
The phenomenal American writer was ahead of everyone in 1969 with this novel, in a story in which an Earthman visits the planet Gueden, where its inhabitants have fluid sex and gender.
A multi-award-winning novel that should not be missing from every geek’s library.
10. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Oh, how can you not love good old Ray?
They’ve done a few screen adaptations already, but none of them reach book level. A classic in which firefighters burn books (and this list would be a crime) cannot be absent either.
Honorable mentions
It’s going to be three, but it could actually be a hundred or two hundred recommendations, from Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon , which captured my kid’s imagination, to Wells’s War of the Worlds. The fact is that it would never end and would occupy the entire space of El Output.
So yes, there are many who remain in the pipeline , but let it be said. If you are a geek , they should also appear on your shelves at a minimum.
- The Asimov Foundation saga, of course.
- Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash for the most cyberpunks. I know I should put Neuromancer but, it pains me to say it, it is not a good book, although it defined a whole genre and aesthetics.
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, a bit of humor amid so much dystopia.
Etc etc. And, if you are a real geek , you will be lucky that you never lack exceptional books.
