But the true genius of the book is its language - depicting a powerful allegory crushing pain of addiction, loneliness and mental illness will do little to cheer you up, but will capture your attention. The novel reads like a grown-up, nightmarish version of Alice in Wonderland: Kavan takes you on a journey that is hallucinogenic and unsettling, with no regard to whether the narrator is dreaming or awake. And as the ice closes off almost all paths by land and sea, he is running out of time to catch them up. He frequently crosses paths with the Warden, the sometimes-husband but also captor of the young woman, who is always one step ahead. The male protagonist and narrator of the story (who is nameless) is eternally chasing after an elusive and ethereal young woman, while contemplating feelings that become darker and more violent towards her as the ice closes in. Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Wordery | Audible trial The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester (1957)Īnna Kavan's last (and best) sci fi novel provides a haunting, claustrophobic vision of the end of the world, where an unstoppable monolithic ice shelf is slowly engulfing the earth and killing everything in its wake. A long-awaited screen adaptation is one of the flagship shows of Apple TV+. You can see why it’s one of Elon Musk’s favourite books (along with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Moon is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein – also recommended). The Foundation series follows Hari Seldon, who is the architect of psychohistory – a branch of mathematics that can make accurate predictions thousands of years in advance, and which Seldon believes is necessary to save the human race from the dark ages. Asimov’s prose can be stilted, and betrays the attitudes of its time in the portrayal of female characters, but it has left a lasting legacy. In the Foundation series, he’s in another mode entirely, charting the rise and fall of empires in sweeping brush strokes.

Asimov was a prolific writer, but many of his best works are classic short stories such as Nightfall, or The Last Question, which play out like long jokes with a punchline twist at the end.

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