As a follow up to my piece last week about 5 great short stories, I thought that this week we’d discuss five great novels that I’ve read and loved.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson

Another crazed tale from Hunter S. Thompson, this is an American classic if there ever was one. This novel is a venture into Gonzo journalism, where the journalist writes without any claims of being objective about the subject matter and often writes in the first person. In the novel, Hunter S. Thompson and his lawyer go to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race, but the trip quickly devolves into a drug-fueled crusade through Sin City. In this trip, Thompson paints not only a sense of who he was but also delivers a biting social commentary about the 1960s.

The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien

Ostensibly for children, this classic fantasy tale is excellent. It’s the story of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Wizard, and their dwarf companions making their way to the lair of the dragon Smaug, intent on retrieving the treasure he guards. Tolkien is one of the greatest writers of all time, and his prowess (especially in describing locations, I would specifically point out) shows in this inspired tale that forms the prologue to The Lord Of The Rings.

The Running Man, Stephen King

A very creative tale by the master of horror himself, The Running Man is about a man living in a dystopian state where those in poverty are exploited for entertainment by a television network. The protagonist is selected to appear on The Running Man, a high stakes program where the person appearing on the show is declared an enemy of the state and hunted by an elite team for thirty days, during which they will either survive or be killed. No one has ever made it the full thirty days, but the protagonist is shaping to challenge this.

Swan Song, Robert McCammon

If you asked me what my favorite book of all time is, I’d probably say Swan Song. It’s a gritty, disturbing post-apocalyptic tale that takes us to post-nuclear war America, and follows the journeys of several people as they try to survive in the wasteland, their stories weaving and intersecting as time passes. Like I said, it’s one of the darker works out there, but that’s the reality of the wasteland that McCammon creates.

Lucifer’s Hammer, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

This is another post-apocalyptic tale that actually follows a scenario that I’ve wrote about before: an asteroid impacting Earth. Asn asteroid, dubbed “The Hammer,” draws near to Earth, eventually slamming into it and ending society as we know it. Like Swan Song, this novel features a cast of characters whose journeys bring them into contact with each other as they try to survive the post-strike world and the dangers it holds.

Blood Music, Greg Bear

An incredibly unique tale for sure, Blood Music is about a scientist who develops a novel type of biological computer. Faces with his employer destroying his research, he injects himself with the cells in order to save them and continue his research elsewhere. However, inside him, the cell multiply and evolve, forming a society that begins to spread to other people. It’s a fascinating take on the grey goo hypothesis and raises some interesting questions about the nature of reality as it relates to observers.

A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller Jr.

A post-apocalyptic tale like no other, A Canticle for Leibowitz is about a group of monks in the post-nuclear war world who dedicate themselves toward preserving knowledge from destruction. Their order was founded by the aforementioned Leibowitz, an electrical engineer who survived the war and dedicated himself toward saving what was left of pre-war information. Over a large span of time, this book follows this group as society begins to rebuild itself. This is a classic sci-fi novel and is one of the best examples of post-apocalyptic science fiction, if not just straight science fiction, out there.

So there they are! All of these are unique works in their own right, and I hope you all enjoy them as much as I have.