10 Books Like Helliconia Spring

First things first; this is a Culture novel. Discussion on this centres on so-called hints about whether two characters are from the Culture. As far as I am concerned, the hints are obvious to a hedgehog on a galloping horse and to pretend otherwise is to invent an irrelevant and trivial debate. It's a Culture novel and it sits in that context in Banks' work.
The setting of this book is relatively unusual for Banks in general and the Culture series in particular, in that the society in which the story is set is at a level of technology equivalent to late medieval Europe or to India of the Mughals. Thus we are going to get to see an un-contacted planet which the Culture is on the verge of meddling with. Because our perspective is that of the people on this planet, it is never named, a clever piece of… show more.

A highly recommended work of outstanding scholarship.

This is an excellent retelling of the familiar story of the betrayal of the interwar Czechoslovak republic to Nazi Germany in 1938. Fresh information is brought to bear, along with some well-established but perhaps less well known information about Czechoslovak readiness to resist the Germans in 1938, along with a sober and convincing analysis of the lack of support for the Henleinists in the so-called Sudetenland.

The parallels with modern Ukraine and Russia and the possibility of any negotiations with the fascist regime of Putin over his annexed territories in Crimea and the Donbas are there to be seen.

1. The claims of the Henleinists and the laughably-titled Lukhansk and Donetsk 'Peoples' (read gangster) republics and Russian Crimea of discrimination and linguistic chauvinism, despite the evidence of the exact opposite before the independence of Czechoslovakia/Ukraine and the subsequent violation of all democratic norms… show more.

I hated reading 1984 and I loved hating it! What a chilling and coherent vision of an impossibly totalitarian society that seems all too possible and all too prescient more and more each day now. Orwell explores the foundations of truth as the government of Big Brother uses their control of language and information to manipulate the thoughts of their populace and thus the fundamental realities experienced by all.
The novel was published over 75 years ago, and sadly is more relevant today than ever.

Brian Aldiss is one of my favorite writers. His SF books are usually set far away, but this is a welcome change of pace. This novel is set around Oxford, and Aldiss breaks out his inner Tolkien (another one of my favorite authors) to describe the landscape.

In an age where ‘yoof’ is venerated, I loved the over-50s protagonists struggling with the declining world they created while their bodies and minds also declined. As I am in my mid-50s, I empathized with them.

This is no cosy dystopia. I was shocked by the violence and ruthlessness of the protagonists. This is a prescient novel, written 64 years before COVID-19, about a virus that emerges from China and ravages the world. Instead of infecting humans, the virus kills all grass. Brutal decisions are made, and any sense of law and order disappears.
We were a gnat’s whisker from this happening in the UK, and I was impressed with Priest’s vision. The book cracks along at a good pace, too.

Written in 1966, Make Room! Make Room! was the basis for the 1973 film Soylent Green—it’s one of those great books that (like The Exorcist) was totally overshadowed by its equally great film version. It’s set in 1999, in a grossly overpopulated and polluted world in which people are scrambling for ever-diminishing resources. It mainly follows the life of NYC detective Andy Rusch and his elderly roommate Sol—who has finagled a bicycle-powered generator to run the TV and refrigerator in their small apartment. Rusch falls in love with Shirl, the young mistress of a rich man whose murder Rusch is investigating, but Shirl dumps him when she realizes she has better options with the rich rather than the poor.

Make Room! Make Room! is a cautionary tale about unchecked population, and it’s driven not so much by plot as by what Harry Harrison had on his mind: pollution,… show more.

The news is full of stories about chilling developments in artificial intelligence.

And you don’t have to venture into the fantasy world of killer robots to be terrified. Already, “chatbots” are blurring the lines between human and machine intelligence.

It’s gotten to the point that you can’t trust what you see or read online—because it may have been created by some AI designed to cheat or scare you into doing something you really don’t want to do.

Ira Levin’s novel, published in 1970, shows us a world ruled by artificial intelligence. It’s dystopia in the truest sense—and it’s likely to frighten you, as it did me.

This book was too close for comfort in these times. A president who becomes a dictator had many parallels to our present world. Not an easy read, as it takes place in the 1930s, but many of the themes, such as the removal of press freedom, the president's private militia, people escaping to Canada, cult-like devotion, racism, misogyny, etc., are familiar. The best example, with 1984, of not learning from the past.

Like H.G. Wells, Wyndham is excellent at depicting normal people who are dealing with an unusual event in normal locations. This creates a level of reality that makes the circumstances more horrific. I could imagine myself in those places, with those people.

The Triffids have never translated well to the screen because the plants look awkward. This isn’t the case in the book. This is my favorite of all the Wyndham books because of their journeys and their descriptions of the landscape around them.

I loved the detailed characterization of the main protagonists (including a cat) in this novel set in Gloucester. Comptom’s prose is a delight to read; it is clear, descriptive, and unobtrusive. It is rare to read about a homeless person and their struggles, especially from that time and the obvious mental illness that he suffers from. His dealings with the vending machine and the cat are humorous and touching.
The novel reminded me of the Beatles song ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ with a Father Mackenzie-type vicar and a lonely female journalist. It is sad, touching, real, and a good story. I read it in a couple of sittings.