Science Fiction & Fantasy Month

Dragons, spacecraft, magic, other worlds, and magical creatures are just a few of the wonders a reader can find in science fiction or fantasy books.  Whether you are looking for a good read on space travel (see Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) or a gentle story about magic and evil wizards (see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), we have a plethora of novels to entertain! 

The classics are always a good place to start.  The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is a compendium of novels that follow the story of a family of children who travel through a wardrobe to a magical world called Narnia.  The children have adventures and meet mythical creatures that speak, finding their way to adulthood as they go.  Also, check out Jules Verne, the grandfather of science fiction who wrote 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and A Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Many science fiction and fantasy stories are dark, and they reveal the dangers of society if it is given too free a rein.  A Game of Thrones demonstrates the brutality of the medieval dark ages, a time before laws and mediated consequences, but it shows us from the page (a safe place) what man is capable of without being checked.  The Handmaid’s Tale demonstrates a society in which fertility has fallen critically. Humans have devised a system that imprisons women in order to have more children.  There are themes of power and the ultimate dissolution of modern society. 

Science fiction and fantasy novels are a safe place to explore difficult issues, but it is also a free place to devise new worlds that otherwise would not exist.  They take us to the brink of what is possible and beyond, making for a good story and memorable characters that we come to root for and love.