Science Fiction
Braille
About this list
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or email
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Booklist
Aldiss, Brian W.
Supertoys last all summer long. 2000. 4v. UK Loan Only.
The title story tells the tale of a young boy who, whatever he does, cannot please his mother. He is puzzled by this, not realizing that he is an android, a cunning construct of artificial intelligence - as is his one ally, his teddy bear.
Amis, Kingsley
The Green Man 1969. 4v. UK Loan Only.
The narrator, proprietor of a historic and reputedly haunted inn, is into his drinking fifties and a second marriage when he begins to see things. Used to the unpleasant side-effects of too much boozing, he knows they are something more than hallucinations. The author's preoccupation with death in this tale of the supernatural is spiced with a saving sardonic humour. Unsuitable for family reading.
Anderson, Kevin J.
The X-files: anti-bodies. 1998. 5v.
When a diseased-ravaged body is found in the smouldering ruins of the DyMar genetic research lab, FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully fear that a deadly man-made plague is on the loose. As the agents investigating the X-files - cases that the bureau deem unsolvable - Mulder and Scully must pursue the truth wherever it leads, even into the labyrinthine corridors of the FBI ... and beyond.
Asher, Neal L.
Hilldiggers. 2007. 9v.
During a war between two planets in the same solar system - each occupied by adapted humans - what is thought to be a cosmic superstring is discovered. After being cut, this object collapses into four cylindrical pieces, each about the size of a tube train. Each is densely packed with either alien technology or some kind of life. They are placed for safety in three ozark cylinders of a massively secure space station. There a female research scientist subsequently falls pregnant, and gives birth to quads. Then she commits suicide - but why? By the end of the war one of the contesting planets has been devastated by the hilldiggers - giant space dreadnoughts employing weapons capable of creating mountain ranges. The quads have meanwhile grown up and are assuming positions of power in the post-war society. One of them will eventually gain control of the awesome hilldiggers...
Asimov, Isaac.
I, robot. 1996. 3v.
The three Laws of Robotics ensure that humans remain superior and the robots are kept in their rightful place. But an insane telepathic robot results from a production error, and logically deduces its superiority to non-rational humanity.
Atwood, Margaret Eleanor.
Oryx and Crake. 2003. 4v.
Snowman may be the only survivor of an unnamed apocalypse. Once he was Jimmy, member of a scientific elite; now he lives in isolation and loneliness, trawling through the past- the disappearance of his mother and the arrival of his mysterious childhood companions Oryx and Crake.
Ballard, J.G.
The terminal beach.1997. Interline. 6v.
The terminal beach" is an exhilarating collection of short stories, ranging from the title story's disturbing picture of an abandoned atomic testing island in the Pacific to the shocking Oedipal fantasy of "The gioconda of the twilight moon". At the heart of the stories lies the bitter paradox that the extraordinary creative power of man's imagination is matched only by his reckless instinct for destruction. Stories concerning the paradox of mans creative imagination and his reckless instinct for destruction.
Banks, Iain M.
The algebraist. 2004. 9v.
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year. Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of - part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony - Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer - a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known.
Banks, Iain
Walking on glass. 1990. 5v
Graham Park is in love, but Sara Ffitch is an enigma to him. Steven Grout is justifiably paranoid, he knows they are out to get him. Quiss is playing impossible games, looking for the solution to the oldest of all paradoxical riddles which will release him. First, however, he has to find the question. The separate courses of this trio are set for collision. Graham Park is in love. Steven Grout is paranoid - they are out to get him. Quiss is playing impossible games, looking for the solution to the oldest of all paradoxical riddles which will release him. First, however, he has to find the question. The separate course of this trio are set for collision ... Contains swear words.
Baxter, Stephen.
Flux. 1993. Interline. 8v.
Made from elementary particles, a sub microscopic race of humans was engineered to survive in the mantle of the Star. When a powerful force threatens the Star, its leader turns in desperation to a group of exiles, the only people who have kept alive knowledge of the origin of Star-humans. Together, they must discover how to deny the tyranny of heaven to control their own destiny.
Bear, Greg.
Eon. 1998. Interline.13v.
Above our planet hangs a hollow Stone, vast as the imagination of Man. The inner dimensions are at odds with the outer; there are different chambers to be breached, some containing deserted cities; and the furthest chamber contains the greatest mystery ever to confront the Stone's scientists.
Bear, Greg.
Star wars: Rogue planet. 2000. 6v.
Three years after the events of "The Phantom Menace", young Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi encounter a mysterious world. Dispatched to the planet Zonama Sekot, source of the fastest ships in the galaxy, the pair are swept up in a swirl of deadly intrigue and betrayal. (Also for sale)
Blish, James.
They shall have stars. 1956. 3v. UK Loan Only.
Cities in flight; book 1. In the year 2018, man undertook the most stupendous project in human history - to build a bridge on Jupiter. In that frozen, raging, gaseous hell, the space men built a fantastic, colossal bridge - thirty miles high, eight miles wide, and always growing in its astounding length. What was the purpose of this incredible object? Only one man knew - and he possessed the most tormenting knowledge in the Universe.
Blish, James.
The day after judgement. 1972. 1v. UK Loan Only.
The demons of hell, unleashed by black magic, seem to have conquered the heavenly host and run amok among mankind in this science fiction fantasy. God is dead and doomsdays is at hand. Or is it? Previously uncontrol: the demons gradually become restrained, What is the force controlling them?
Bonanno, Margaret Wander.
Probe. 1992. 3v. American Braille. UK Loan Only.
The Romulan Praetor has died and the Federation has joined together for talks that they hope will at last bring peace to the galaxy. But news that the Probe has entered Romulan space sends Captain Kirk, Dr. Spock and the crew of the "Enterprise" on a dangerous mission.
Boulle, Pierre.
Planet of the apes. 1964. 2v. American Braille. UK Loan Only.
They christened the planet Soror. They landed without a jolt - three men and a pet monkey. They were pleased to see that life existed. But humans here were nothing but naked animals. The master race were apes. Apes that dressed like men and hunted humans for their sport.
Bradbury, Ray.
Fahrenheit 451. 1954. 2v
Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which a book will burn. Montag is a fireman but the work of the fire brigade is not to put out fires but to burn books. The penalty for any fireman who tries to read or hide away a book is death by the fangs of a mechanical blood-hound - and Montag has begun to doubt the wisdom of the all-powerful system...
Bujold, Lois McMaster.
Cetaganda: a Vorkosigan adventure. 1996. 3v. American Braille. UK Loan Only.
While Miles Vorkosigan and his dim-witted cousin Ivan are on a diplomatic mission to the Cetaganda Empire, the Cetagandan empress dies. After another mysterious death, Miles starts investigating and is drawn into a treacherous game of court politics and romance, in an alien land.
Burgess, Anthony.
A clockwork orange. 1994. 4v.
Fifteen-year-old Alex and his three friends start an evening's mayhem by hitting an old man, tearing up his books and stripping him of money and clothes. Because of his delinquent excesses, Alex is jailed and made subject to "Ludovico's Technique", a chilling experiment in reclamation treatment.
Butler, Samuel.
Erewhon. 1985. 5v.
When the traveller Higgs discovers the remote land of Erewhon he finds a strange race who have forbidden the use of machines, who treat their sick like criminals and their criminals like sick people, who suppress originality and hold that the greatest scholarly achievement is proficiency in the study of unreason and hypothetics. Butler uses this work to attack ecclesiastical institutions and the moral hypocrisy of Victorian England.
Clancy, Tom.
SSN: strategies of submarine warfare. 1997. 8v.
China has invaded the oil-rich Spratly Islands. The American response is swift - and deadly. The Third World War has begun. Captain Bartholomew Mackey is the skipper of the USS "Cheyenne", a nuclear submarine dispatched to the Spratlys to protect a carrier group. But in a few moments, the submarine's mission - and the world change, as a tense situation explodes into a full-scale war of nightmarish proportions.
Clarke, Arthur C.
Rendezvous with Rama. 1973. 3v.
Rama; book 1. In the year 2130, a mysterious and apparently untenanted alien spaceship, Rama, enters our solar system. The first product of an alien civilization to be encountered by humans, it reveals a world of technological marvels and an unparalleled artificial ecology. But what is its purpose?
Cole, Stephen.
The monsters inside. 1v. 2005.
The Tardis takes the Doctor and Rose to a destination in deep space - Justicia, a prison camp stretched over six planets, where Earth colonies deal with their criminals. While Rose finds herself locked up in a teenage borstal, the Doctor is trapped in a scientific labour camp. Each is determined to find the other, and soon both Rose and the Doctor are risking life and limb to escape in their distinctive styles.
Crichton, Michael.
Jurassic Park. 1992. 8v. UK Loan Only.
On a remote jungle island there is an attempt to avert a global emergency, a crisis triggered by the headlong rush to commercialise genetic engineering - the dinosaur is alive and back on earth. The hugely successful film of the same title was based on the hair-raising twenty-four hours described in this book.
Dicks, Terrance.
Doctor Who and the genesis of the Daleks. 1976. 4v. UK Loan Only.
Genesis of the Daleks sees the Doctor sent on a mission to Skaro, where the crippled scientist Davros is engaged in the creation of protective casings for the ravaged Kaled race.
Doyle, Arthur Conan.
The poison belt. 1913. 1v.
Just returned from his famous adventure in the Lost World, Professor Challenger faces his greatest danger yet: the planet will pass through a belt of poisonous ether, and mankind might not survive. Despite the Professor's dire warnings about the coming catastrophe, no one listens.
Du Maurier, Daphne.
The house on the strand. 1969. Coming Soon.
Dick Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as guinea pig for a new drug Magnus has discovered in his biochemical research; the effect of which is to transport Dick from the house at Kilmarth to the Cornwall of the 14th century. Acting as a guinea-pig for a new drug discovered by his friend, Dick Young finds himself enabled to take short trips into the past and finds his real life much less interesting than that of 14th century Cornwall.
Fforde, Jasper.
Lost in a good book. 2002. 5v.
Having barely caught her breath after 'The Eyre Affair', literary detective Thursday Next heads back into fiction to search for some answers. Along the way she finds herself helping Miss Havisham close narrative loopholes in 'Great expectations' and struggling for a deeper understanding of 'The tale of the Flopsy Bunnies'. Paper politicians, lost Shakespearean manuscripts, woolly mammoth migrations, a flurry of near-fatal coincidences, and impending Armageddon are all part of a great plan - but whose, and why? Contains swear words.
Foster, Alan Dean.
Aliens. 1992. 6v.
Only Ripley and Mr Jones escaped the alien horror on their spaceship. But, rescued years later from their hypersleep, Ripley's tales of terror are doubted, her warnings of the danger lying dormant go unheeded. When all communication from the planet are cut off, Ripley fears the worst. She joins the space marines to investigate the eerie silence.
Gibson, William.
Neuromancer. 1984. 2v. UK Loan Only.
Case, a twenty-first century computer interfacer, is caught stealing and receives nerve damage as punishment. When even Japan's medical minds can't repair the injury, drug-addicted and penniless Case loses hope, until he is kidnapped by strangers who promise to cure him if he uses his expertise on their dangerous project.
Gibson, William.
Virtual light. 1993. 6v.
Set in the states of Northern and Southern California, this is an unforgettable portrait of life on the edge in the twenty-first century. Ex-cop Berry Rydell, now with IntenSecure Armed Response is sent to San Francisco with Lucius Warbaby, a skip-tracer, adept at hunting people down through the Virtual Reality maze of DatAmerica.
Haldeman, Joe.
The forever war. 2004. 1v.
Private William Mandella is a reluctant hero, drafted into an elite military unit to fight in a distant interstellar war against an unknowable and unconquerable alien enemy. Mandella will perform his duties and, as he survives, rise through the ranks, but his greatest test will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the effects of relativity, every time he comes home after a few months' tour of duty, centuries have gone by on Earth, making him and his fellows ever more isolated from the world for whose future they are fighting.
Hamilton, Peter F.
The reality dysfunction. 1997. 26v.
In the 26th century the human race is finally beginning to realise its full potential. But on a primitive colony planet a renegade criminal's chance encounter with an alien entity unleashes the most primal of fears - "the reality dysfunction".
Heinlein, Robert A.
Orphans of the sky. 1963. 2v.
A gigantic, cylindrical generation ship is cruising pilot less toward a distant solar system, inhabited by a crew that has forgotten their origins over time and lapsed into superstition. Most crew members lead a simple bucolic life of farming, never venturing to the upper decks where the "muties" (mutants or mutineers) dwell. One day, Hugh Hoyland starts exploring and finds the astonishing secret of the ship's purpose.
Herbert, Frank.
Dune. 1968. 14v.
A sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a Byzantine interstellar empire. Trouble begins when the Emperor transfers stewardship of Arrakis from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. But the Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die.
Huxley, Aldous.
Brave new world. 1932. 4v.
Prophesies on the future of man-kind, which may perhaps come to pass. The world of Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne is one where human beings are brewed from test tubes and then conditioned to accept the duties of their predestined castes in society. It is a world of soma tablets and ultimate stability.
James, P.D.
The children of men. 1992. 6v.
In 2021 infertility has spread like a plague, and no babies have been born for a quarter of a century anywhere in the inhabited world. The old are driven to despair and suicide, and the young are beautiful, violent and cruel. The middle aged try to sustain normality under the rule of the Warden of England. Theo Faron, Oxford historian, meets a girl who is one of a group challenging the regime. His life is dramatically changed, and he is drawn into unimaginable horrors.
Kalu, Peter.
Black star rising. 1997. 5v.
The time is the distant future. SunOne Command has drafted four black astronauts to crew a remote engineering craft, zsf-e5, on a far-flung tour. The crew are uncertain as to why they've been drafted. The on-board computer might know, but isn't telling. And Command offers no explanation. It's minus 100 degrees in the void - colder when love freezes. The time is the distant future and SunOne Command has drafted four black astronauts to crew a remote engineering craft, zsf-e5, on a far-flung tour.