
Hyperion
The Canterbury Tales in deep space: seven pilgrims travel to the Time Tombs and the blade-covered creature guarding them, each telling the story that brought them. Simmons switches genre with every tale.

The Canterbury Tales in deep space: seven pilgrims travel to the Time Tombs and the blade-covered creature guarding them, each telling the story that brought them. Simmons switches genre with every tale.

Case, a burned-out hacker in Chiba City, has his nervous system rebuilt in exchange for one last job. Gibson gave cyberspace its look and its slang, and programmers spent decades building toward it.

Robots run on three laws: never harm a human, obey orders, survive. Asimov's stories hunt the cracks in those rules, and roboticists still argue about the Three Laws when drafting AI ethics.

Chiang treats theology, linguistics and free will with the rigor of proofs. A linguist learns an alien script written all at once, and it changes how she experiences her whole life.