Book picks similar to
Five to Twelve by Edmund Cooper


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The Ruins of Isis


Marion Zimmer Bradley - 1977
    Of all the worlds of the Galaxy, only the matriarchy of Isis Cinderella has returned to an ancient social order, it is on Isis that women rule, their control total and unbending, on Isis men are regarded as dangerous animals or, at best, as sexual playthings, and on Isis exists the great enigma of the known universe, the Builder Ruins - last remnant of an unknown, ancient culture, within those strange Ruins, something survives - something which speaks to the women of Isis and to no one else.

The Moreau Factor


Jack L. Chalker - 2000
    The story revolves around a reporter determined to chase down an explosive story that a renowned geneticist was going to tell, until he vanished.

Phaid the Gambler


Mick Farren - 1986
    

The Dreaming Earth


John Brunner - 1963
    Here is a novel to equal Arthur Clarke's Childhood's End. It tells with frightening clarity of a desperately stricken earth-wracked by overpopulation and plagued by famine and despair. It tells, too, of a new breed of men and women--21st century lotus eaters caught up in a mysterious euphoria which will ultimately threaten all life on this planet; the drug-induced world of "happy dreams." Do these "happy dreamers" herald the end of the human species--or the next extraordinary step in the evolution of humanity?

The Time of the Hawklords


Michael Moorcock - 1976
    Buried there from time immemorial by a long-dead race of aliens, it had at last been triggered into action . . .For among the ruins of London, surrounded by the survivors of the recent holocaust, Hawkwind rock, their music catalysing the attacking Death Raythe only potential saviours of the human race otherwise doomed to extermination in an apocalyptic battle between the forces of good and evil . . .

Spacetime Donuts


Rudy Rucker - 1981
    Under the bottom is the top--and the power to smash the Machine. After humanity becomes inextricably linked to the computers, a heroic couple makes a scale-ship journey beneath the smallest particles and through the largest cosmic structures, seeking a perfect world.

Galaxies


Barry N. Malzberg - 1975
    Malzberg . . . In a genre that, with one hand, claimed to be the ultimate storehouse of innovation, and with the other, leveled strict rules for writing and codes of narrative conduct onto its authors, Malzberg stuck out like a forked tongue, composing works of bona fide literature that dwarfed the efforts of his contemporaries and established him as one of science fiction's most dynamic enfant terribles. Originally published in 1975, GALAXIES is a masterwork of the Malzberg canon, which includes over fifty novels and collections. Metafictional, absurdist and sardonic, the book mounts a concerted attack against the market forces that prescribed SF of the 1970s and continue to prescribe it today. At the same time, the book tells a story of technology and cyborgs, of bureaucracy and tachyons, of love and hate and sadness . . . Despite his deviant literary antics, Malzberg could not be ignored by the SF community. In 1973, he won the first annual John W. Campbell Memorial Award, which is presented to the best SF novel of the year by a distinguished committee of SF experts, authors and critics. Thereafter he received nominations for the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards, among others. Nonetheless his writing has not received the attention it so profoundly deserves. GALAXIES is among the works listed in acclaimed SF editor David Pringle's SCIENCE FICTION: THE 100 BEST NOVELS, published in 1985. With an introduction by Jack Dann, this special paperback edition ushers Malzberg's genius into the twenty-first century.

Slow Train to Arcturus


Eric Flint - 2008
    The vessel’s design was odd—a multitude of separate globular habitats in a framework—and most of the alien team that entered one of the habitats were slaughtered by savage creatures called “humans.” One alien had barely managed to escape to another habitat where the humans were more friendly, if rather technologically backward. But he needed to get back to his spaceship, and he would need one human’s help to do that.They would have to travel through several more habitats, each one isolated from the other, each with its own bizarre dangers and customs. And friendliness toward strangers was not one of those customs. . . .

The Last Starship from Earth


John Boyd - 1967
    It was in the best interests of the human race, said the State, that mates be selected for all professional people according to strict scientific principles.

Monument


Lloyd Biggle Jr. - 1974
    In this lost colony the inhabitants had forgotten the very existence of earth. Only one man remembered. He foresaw the awesome consequences if this paradise were ever rediscovered.MonumentThe novel of a frightening future - a planet in mortal combat with an alien universe.

Planets for Sale


A.E. van Vogt - 1954
    Menaced by a terrifying array of lethal forces, Blord risked his life against alien aggressors as well as more human adversaries.Never knowing at what moment death might overtake him, he fought to fulfill a dream; that he might one day claim the title that riches couldn't buy: Master of the Ridge Stars!Originally published in 1954. It is based on these short stories, all by E. Mayne Hull: Competition (1943) The Contract (1944) The Debt (1943) Bankruptcy Proceedings (1946) Enter the Professor (1945)

The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde


Norman Spinrad - 1970
    There's not a bad story in the lot." --Bud Webster

The Two-Timers


Bob Shaw - 1968
    If anyone needed incontrovertible proof that the fiction of wonder has come of age, Bob Shaw has provided it in one extraordinary novel of power, warmth, ideas and imagination. The Two-Timers says something fresh and memorable about the monomania of love, about the way we wear our universe, about a few of the eternal verities that suddenly seem less secure. Aside from the sheer impetus of the story, which grasps and won't release till the unexpected conclusion, the writing is exquisite. It knocked me cold: painfully good."Harlan Ellison

The Veils of Azlaroc


Fred Saberhagen - 1978
    yourself as a settler, living in a translucent "pocket" that makes your life an almost ageless state, as time in each pocket passes so slowly that senility and death are meaningless concepts. Your immortality has a price; you have free interaction only with those of your "generation"; you see settlers from ten years before as blurred outlines. And a settler from fifty years before can walk right through you!IMAGINE... yourself as a tourist, struck by the wonder of the shimmering planet, yet careful to heed the date of the next predicted veilfall, knowing that to be on Azlaroc at veilfall is to be there forever.IMAGINE... yourself as the one man on Azlaroc who knows for a certainty that, this time, veilfall will come early, and without warning!

Regiment of Women


Thomas Berger - 1973
    In New York City the worst fears of future shock have become daily realities for its inhabitants. There are frequent pollution alerts and detention centres are located. Georgie Cornell goes to work in a white tailored blouse and pleated skirt. Only Georgie is a man.