From Time Travel to Space Comedy: 5 Sci-Fi Books to Finish This Weekend
Letters Across Time
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s This Is How You Lose the Time War won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novella. Blue and Red, rival agents serving opposing organizations, manipulate events across timelines and universes to shape the future their factions want.
After crossing paths on many missions, Blue sends Red a letter, beginning an exchange that grows into a risky companionship. At about 200 pages, the story uses letters to explore forbidden love, loyalty, and the possible effects of a personal relationship on entire universes.
A Comic Galactic Escape
Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy follows Arthur Dent after Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur escapes with Ford Prefect and travels through the galaxy with Zaphod Beeblebrox, Marvin, and Trillian.
The novel’s absurd universe includes a two-headed president and a supercomputer connected to Earth’s purpose. Its humor also pokes at humanity’s search for meaning, with the answer to existence proving hilariously underwhelming.
A Journey to the Future
H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine is a Victorian-era novella, ranging from 84 to 176 pages depending on the edition. Its unnamed Time Traveller builds a machine and journeys to the year 802,701.
There, he encounters the Eloi, a seemingly carefree people living among the remains of an advanced civilization. The world proves more complicated than it first appears, prompting him to reconsider humanity’s future.
Key points
- This Is How You Lose the Time War follows rival agents whose letters put their duties and loyalties at risk.
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy pairs a space adventure with humor about the search for meaning.
- The Time Machine sends its inventor to the year 802,701 to encounter the Eloi.
- The descriptions provided cover three books, while the headline promises five.