Classic Science Fiction Essentials: Your Guide to the Timeless Novels Worth Reading First

Edward Arquette is a writer, editor, and lifelong reader of speculative fiction. A former bookseller, he spent a decade behind the counter of an independent bookstore fielding the question that inspired this book: "I've always meant to read science fiction—where do I start?" His essays, reviews, and reading guides have appeared in print and online, and he is the co-host of a podcast devoted to reading one classic novel each month with a live audience. He has led reading groups and library programs on the history of science fiction for more than fifteen years, with a special fondness for the moment a first-time reader discovers a book they will never stop recommending. He believes the best way to understand the future is to read what the people of the past imagined it would be—and that the most durable ideas in science fiction turn out to be about the present all along. Edward lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family and an alarmingly large collection of paperback editions, most of which he can swear he has read. He is at work on a companion guide to the science fiction short stories of the twentieth century.