Must have Books - Top Ten Books

	1 The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien This is a single-volume edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which the hobbit Frodo and his elfish friends get swept up in a mighty conflict with the dark lord Sauron (who owes much to proud Satan in Paradise Lost), the monstrous Gollum, the Cracks of Doom, and the awful power of the magical Ring. The book's characters--good and evil--are recognizably human, and the realism is deepened by the magnificent detail of the vast parallel world Tolkien devised, inspired partly by his influential Anglo-Saxon scholarship and his Christian beliefs.
	2 Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear All the best thrillers contain the solution to a mystery, and the mystery in this intellectually sparkling scientific thriller is more crucial and stranger than most. Why are people turning against their neighbors and their newborn children? And what is causing an epidemic of still births? A disgraced paleontologist and a genetic engineer both come across evidence of cover-ups in which the government is clearly up to no good. But no one knows what's really going on, and the government is covering up because that is what, in thrillers as in life, governments do. And what has any of this to do with the discovery of a Neanderthal family whose mummified faces show signs of a strange peeling?
	3 Encounter With Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes Buzz Aldrin, one of manned space flight's pioneers, has helped create a stunning, possibly prophetic novel of the future of space exploration. A radio beacon from an unknown world leads an astronaut to disaster on the Moon -- and his son far beyond that as he searches for the key to the mystery of Tiber, a civilization who left artifacts in the solar system some 9,000 years ago, with sufficient impact on human affairs to explain some odd references in the Bible. The villains of the book are not the aliens, but the benighted politicians with the minds of accountants who won't fund the necessary scientific derring-do to save the world -- apparently an affliction which alien astronauts also have to bear.
	4 The Faded Sun by C. J. Cherryh They were the mri-tall, secretive, bound by honor and the rigid dictates of their society. For aeons this golden-skinned,golden-eyed race had provided the universe mercenary soldiers of almost unimaginable ability. But now the mri have faced an enemy unlike any other-an enemy whose only way of war is widespread destruction. These "humans" are mass fighters, creatures of the herb, and the mri have been slaughtered like animals. Now, in the aftermath of war, the mri face extinction. It will be up to three individuals to save whatever remains of this devastated race: a warrior--one of the last survivors of his kind; a priestess of this honorable people; and a lone human--a man sworn to aid the enemy of his own kind. Can they retrace the galaxy-wide path of this nomadic race back through millennia to reclaim the ancient world which first gave them life?
	5 Contact by Carl Sagan It is December 1999, the dawn of the millennium, and a team of international scientists is poised for the most fantastic adventure in human history. After years of scanning the galaxy for signs of somebody or something else, this team believes they've found a message from an intelligent source--and they travel deep into space to meet it. Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan injects Contact, his prophetic adventure story, with scientific details that make it utterly believable. It is a Cold War era novel that parlays the nuclear paranoia of the time into exquisitely wrought tension among the various countries involved. Sagan meditates on science, religion, and government--the elements that define society--and looks to their impact on and role in the future. His ability to pack an exciting read with such rich content is an unusual talent that makes Contact a modern sci-fi classic.
	6 The Apocalypse Troll by David Weber David Weber, author of the enormously popular Honor Harrington military SF series, takes to deep space and the high seas in the opening chapters of Apocalypse Troll. The fateful space battle and resulting spaceship crash that bring together Colonel Ludmilla Leonova and Captain Richard Aston, U.S. Navy, set the stage for another rip-roaring, guns-blazing science fiction adventure. When Captain Aston finds out Colonel Leonova's secret, he eagerly offers his help, then finds himself in the middle of an extremely dangerous military situation. Weber's fast plots, nonstop action, and attention to detail are what makes his books so much fun to read, and Apocalypse Troll is no exception. Richard Ashton is sailing in the middle of the Atlantic when a UFO is shot down. When the crippled alien lifeboat homes in on his sailboat, suddenly his hands are full with a wounded and impossibly "human" alien warrior who also happens to be a gorgeous female.
	7 Moving Mars by Greg Bear In this 1995 Nebula Award-winning novel, a revolution is transforming the formerly passive Earth-colony of Mars. While opposing political factions on Mars battle for the support of colonists, scientists make a staggering scientific breakthrough that at once fuels the conflict and creates a united Mars front, as the technically superior Earth tries to take credit for it. Backed against a wall, colonial leaders are forced to make a monumental decision that changes the future of Mars forever.
	8 The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham The night the sky broke out in mysterious green flashes, all but a few people on Earth were blinded. The world went mad. Ordinary folk became animals, turning on one another in terror and desperation. Bill Masen was one of a handful who struggled to preserve a shred of civilization amidst the chaos. But chaos soon became the least of mankind's problems. Walking plants were appearing -- plants that fed on the bodies of their human prey. The triffids had arrived, and it was up to Bill Masen to stop them!
	9 Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard A towering masterwork of science fiction adventure and one of the best-selling science fiction novels of all time. L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth" opens with breathtaking scope on an Earth dominated for 1,000 years by an alien invader--and man is an endangered species. From the handful of surviving humans a courageous leader emerges--Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, who challenges the invincible might of the alien Psychlo empire in a battle of epic scale, danger and intrigue with the fate of the Earth and of the universe in the tenouos balance.
	10 Starfarers by Poul Anderson An observatory on the far side of the moon detects strange energy emissions from deep space, which leads to the discovery of space-faring aliens and a drive engine that will power human ships at near light speed. A ship is constructed, and a crew of 10 is chosen to make the trip to try to contact the aliens, even though the ship won't be able to return to Earth for thousands of years. As the explorers reach out to the far side of the galaxy, interacting with three radically different alien races, Earth undergoes a series of radical changes. When and if the crew returns, it is a gamble that they will come back to a recognizable home planet. Master storyteller Anderson uses this backdrop to explore how individuals, cultures, and civilizations react to paradigm shifts and the resulting cycles of expansion and equilibrium. He posits that humanity's desire to explore could ultimately be destructive, but it is integral to our nature. Recommended.