New Wave Science Fiction Like Rendezvous With Rama

In this alliteratively titled book set in the 22^nd century, a cylindrical alien starship enters the Solar System and is intercepted by a group of explorers who struggle to understand its origins and purpose. The author doesn’t provide any clear answers, and thus, the sudden arrival and departure of the starship becomes a mystery without any explanation. Even so, the astronauts who climb aboard it give familiar names to its interior parts such as “New York” or “South Pole.”

The novel masterfully emphasizes the limits of human understanding when confronted with the unknown. If you’re in the mood for contemporary books that also tackle the sense of mystery and wonder that outer space evokes, you can also try the Booker-winning Orbital by Samantha Harvey and the novella “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. 

Another huge influence on Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life,” Delany’s Babel-17 explores the power and limits of language to influence one’s perception of reality. This idea of linguistic relativity is also known as the “Sapir-Whorf” hypothesis. The title of Delany’s book refers to a language that is wielded as a weapon in an interstellar war, and one of the main characters is Rydra Wong, the starship captain, poet, and linguist who is brought in to decipher the enemy’s language and predict where the next attacks might take place. But the more she deciphers the language, the more the language changes her. Told in vividly poetic prose, Babel-17 is an enthralling read that will stay with you for a long time.

Greybeard is a quiet, somber and introspective post-apocalyptic novel detailing the plight of a dying population. The premise of the book is that humans are now sterile following the results of some nuclear tests, and the elderly have to come to terms with the fact that there’s no future generation to succeed them. The story unfolds through the perspectives of Algy Timerlane and his wife, Martha—part of the aging and childless population—watching the world slowly empty of humans. Overall, Greybeard makes for a strange, thoughtful and memorable read. 

Some of the elements in Joanna Russ’ highly inventive The Female Man may appear dated in this day and age, but it nevertheless remains a feminist classic, challenging sexism and gender roles of the ‘60s and ’70s. The novel is divided into four distinct worlds, exploring the themes of women emancipation and matriarchal utopias. 

There’s a world where World War II never happened, another far-future without any men, and another world where the sexes both battle and trade with each other. While Russ’ portrayal of gender may seem reductive, her criticism of patriarchal society is still on-point and highly relevant even now. 

If you’re in the mood for a New Wave novel steeped in symbolism, surrealism and satire, The Futurological Congress by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem is the book for you. It reimagines a far-future world where nearly everyone has turned to addictive hallucinogens to escape the devastations of reality. From cryogenics to chemically-addled populations, the novel is an exciting psychedelic ride, and in a way, prophesizes how addiction (of any kind) can numb people, suppress rebellion and pave the slow way for humanity’s downfall. 

The main character, Ijon Tichy, also appears in Lem’s other works, and the book was adapted to a film called The Congress by Ari Folman that interestingly blends live-action and animation and makes for a uniquely entertaining watch. 

Social commentary was one of the foremost concerns of the New Wave authors, and Ursula K. Le Guin does it best. The Dispossessed draws upon ideas of individualism vs collectivism, and imagines a revolutionary anarchist society. It’s a thorough breakdown of how different political systems work, and offers novel ways in which societies can be restructured to address the actual needs of people. It’s a novel that invites discussion, making it the perfect choice for book clubs.

Finally, the New Wave in sci-fi wasn’t just limited to experimental novels. Short stories, a staple of the field, also broke with tradition, particularly those published in the Moorcock-edited New Worlds magazine or the 1967 anthology Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison. Another ground-breaking short story collection by James Tiptree Jr., Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, highlights the sheer versatility of the New Wave sub-genre, featuring darkly complex tales that explore everything from metaphysics to biological determinism. 

The author, James Tiptree Jr., was also a highly interesting figure—she served in the army and in the CIA, dabbled in art criticism and painting, and published prolifically under a male pseudonym.