Brain Training & Conversion (LEAP SERIES Book 1)

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The authors certify that they have obtained all appropriate patient consent forms. In the form, patients gave their consent for their images and other clinical information to be reported in the journal. Patients understand that their names and initials will not be published and due efforts will be made to conceal their identity, but anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Checked twice by iThenticate. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Neural Regen Res v. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Accepted Oct This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Open in a separate window. Abstract Virtual reality is nowadays used to facilitate motor recovery in stroke patients.

Introduction Chronic conditions such as stroke are becoming more prevalent as the world's population ages Christensen et al. Inclusion criteria Patients presenting with all of the following criteria were considered for study inclusion: Exclusion criteria Patients with one or more of the following conditions were excluded from this study: Leap Motion-based virtual reality system and training games. Experimental procedure Training started after baseline evaluation and fMRI examination. Outcome measures Primary outcome measure The primary outcome measure was the motor functions as assessed using the Wolf motor function test WMFT Saposnik et al.

Secondary outcome measure The secondary outcome measure was the fMRI results. Results Demographic baseline of subacute stroke patients Twenty-six patients with subacute stroke were included. Table 1 Demographic baseline clinical data of enrolled patients.

Table 2 Effect of Leap Motion-based virtual reality training on motor functions of subacute stroke patients. Neural reorganization in subacute stroke patients before and after Leap Motion-based virtual reality training The activated brain regions of interest during the thumb-to-palm opposition task, both before training and after training in the two groups, are shown in Figure 3.

Adverse effects of Leap Motion-based virtual reality training on subacute stroke patients The patients of the two groups completed all the training sessions without any adverse effects. Discussion The present study evaluated the effect of a rehabilitation protocol incorporating Leap Motion-based virtual reality training and conventional occupational rehabilitation therapy on the cortical reorganization and motor function recovery of the affected upper limb of patients who had experienced a subacute stroke.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the patients for their participation. Brain activation patterns of motor imagery reflect plastic changes associated with intensive shooting training. Mechanism of Kinect-based virtual reality training for motor functional recovery of upper limbs after subacute stroke. Treatment interventions for the paretic upper limb of stroke survivors: Motor testing procedures in hemiplegia: Analysis of fMRI and finger tracking training in subjects with chronic stroke. Nervous system reorganization following injury. A functional MRI study of subjects recovered from hemiparetic stroke.

Biomechanics and motor control of human movement. Virtual reality based rehabilitation speeds up functional recovery of the upper extremities after stroke: Training and exercise to drive poststroke recovery. Nat Clin Pract Neurol. Measurement of motor recovery after stroke. Outcome assessment and sample size requirements. Repetitive task training for improving functional ability after stroke. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. Virtual reality interface devices in the reorganization of neural networks in the brain of patients with neurological diseases.

Canadian stroke best practice recommendations: Stroke rehabilitation practice guidelines, update Holden MK, Dyar T. A New Tool for Neurorehabilitation. J Neurol Phys Ther. Leap motion controlled videogame-based therapy for rehabilitation of elderly patients with subacute stroke: Cortical reorganization and associated functional motor recovery after virtual reality in patients with chronic stroke: Arch Phys Med Rehabil.

The necessity and limitations of evidence-based practice in stroke rehabilitation. Potential pitfalls of functional MRI using conventional gradient-recalled echo techniques. Longitudinal fMRI study for locomotor recovery in patients with stroke. The effect of virtual reality training on unilateral spatial neglect in stroke patients. Recovery of upper limb dexterity in patients more than 1 year after stroke: Frequency, clinical correlates and predictors.

Plasticity in the motor system related to therapy-induced improvement of movement after stroke. Predicting disability in stroke--a critical review of the literature. Motor recovery after stroke: Virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation. Brain activations underlying different patterns of performance improvement during early motor skill learning.

Treatment-induced cortical reorganization after stroke in humans. Interactive metronome applied in the rehabilitative treatment of the central nervous system. Zhongguo Zuzhi Gongcheng Yanjiu. Motor retraining in virtual reality: J Phys Ther Educ. Virtual reality to maximize function for hand and arm rehabilitation: Stud Health Technol Inform. Longitudinal optical imaging study for locomotor recovery after stroke. Premotor cortex is involved in restoration of gait in stroke. Imaging correlates of motor recovery from cerebral infarction and their physiological significance in well-recovered patients.

Compensation in recovery of upper extremity function after stroke: Neural bases of recovery after brain injury. Brain magnetic resonance imaging with contrast dependent on blood oxygenation. Neural reorganization accompanying upper limb motor rehabilitation from stroke with virtual reality-based gesture therapy. Mental practice combined with physical practice for upper-limb motor deficit in subacute stroke.

The augmented-feedback rehabilitation technique facilitates the arm motor recovery in patients after a recent stroke. Resonance behaviors and mirror neurons. Virtual reality in stroke rehabilitation: Effectiveness of virtual reality using Wii gaming technology in stroke rehabilitation: Effect of increased intensity of physiotherapy on patient outcomes after stroke: Ont Health Technol Assess Ser. Validation of the Leap Motion Controller using markered motion capture technology. Cortical activation during executed, imagined, observed, and passive wrist movements in healthy volunteers and stroke patients.

The solution is also useful for retail customers like parents of first-time teenage drivers. The product is being marketed to commercial fleet operators to enable them to monitor drivers and enhance the safety of cargo. Agrawal, whose company employs around 60 people, expects Driveri customers to see a significant reduction in the number of traffic violations and accidents; in turn, safer driving would result in greater fuel efficiency and lower maintenance costs.

His plan is to bring Driveri to every car in the world with insurance partners who agree to use its data for investigating accidents and deciding on a more accurate premium amount. Embibe founder Aditi Avasthi. In the book and movie Moneyball , a baseball coach and an economics graduate from Harvard use an analytics engine to ditch decades of baseball practice and identify a world-class team that ends up breaking numerous Major League Baseball records.

Major teams end up adopting the model. Embibe is hoping to create a similar impact in the world of education. Its learning platform is being used by thousands of students and the start-up is in talks to ally with educational training centres. Embibe, which runs a website and a mobile app, collects data from students, charging only for advanced analysis and personalized learning recommendations. Students can actually improve test scores by fixing basic mistakes using its AI platform. This value is actually 41 minutes for Indian kids for the IIT exams out of minutes—in an exam where 1 mark is almost equivalent to 10, ranks.

To get the bulk of data that its core cloud-based platform crunches, the start-up bought Marks, another ed-tech start-up, in It started out as an analytics company in and began using AI and machine learning tools in in an effort to create personalized solutions for individual students. Tricog Health Services co-founder Charit Bhograj. What can take up to 6 hours before treatment starts, Tricog accomplishes in a few minutes. These machines are not widely available in India, nor are there enough cardiologists to interpret ECG data.

And it can take up to 6 hours before a patient is diagnosed and sent for treatment, says Bhograj. So Tricog set out to help doctors make instant diagnoses of heart attacks and ensure treatment is not delayed. It gives these devices to general physicians, clinics and nursing homes on a subscription basis. Through the Internet, this device sends the ECG or recorded heart movement to a set of algorithms, which then generates a report.

Before the report is sent, a specialist doctor verifies it. In , Tricog processed the ECG reports of , patients; about 11, of them were diagnosed with a heart attack. The company claims it has never reported false results. Founded in , the company spent close to four years putting the technology together and launched the product in February As of April, Tricog had clients general physicians, clinics and nursing homes across cities and towns, and 20 specialist doctors, including clinical cardiologists, who study the reports.

In the next five years, Tricog aims to be present in , locations—it claims that though such a scale would ordinarily require around doctors, it would be able to deliver comparable service with only 50 doctors. Vinay Kumar Sankarapu, chief executive officer, and Deekshith Marla, chief technology officer. Many start-ups are working with AI to solve problems in banking and insurance. Last year, world champion Lee Sedol was pitted against AlphaGo, a computer program made by Google, in a game of Go, an abstract board game.

The best science fiction books

All AlphaGo needed to be told was the desired result. It figured out the rest for itself. Many start-ups in India are working with deep learning, which aims to make human effort minimal. For instance, if a consultancy firm is building AI for its investment banking client, Arya. An algorithm may take months to build. The change is already visible: This is the result of the data fed into it, based on geographical location and your records of the past 30 days.

Their work is mostly at the business-to-business level but the effects, says Sankarapu, will also be felt by the man on the street. If there were , books on a particular subject, it was not humanly possible to read them all; Sankarapu was trying to build AI that would absorb as much information as these books would hold in less time than the human brain ever could. He says that like any new, exciting technology that comes every decade or so, AI has been hyped beyond its capabilities. To him, it is a formula, one which is more exciting than fantasy. The human brain is nothing but a simple mathematical computer.

The two had co-founded PinChat, a location-based conversational platform, in August Locus has developed route-planning algorithms so companies can chart the best possible route to deliver an order and allow a salesperson to cover the maximum number of points in the shortest time possible. Locus aims to automate all the human decisions involved in sending a package. The company, which says it has more than 25 clients, has developed a route-planning engine, its core business, apart from a 3D packing engine that provides configurations for loading cargo into containers.

Locus also offers companies a weekly schedule of the most efficient routes and outlets for their sales teams. Rastogi says each schedule planned by their routing engine takes minutes, whereas a skilled human being would take hours to process the same data. Locus offers solutions for both intracity and intercity operations. Planning the best possible route is not as easy as it sounds.

We have to convert this information into latitude and longitude. But if you reach the gym 5 minutes late, that is also fine. How do I make the system understand that it is better to reach the gym by 6. In the real world, if a truck is full, the driver can keep one package next to his seat. It is important in the real world to understand what that soft threshold is. Companies provide Locus the origin of the package, destination and expected time of delivery. A challenging and interesting book best read with some understanding of the culture within which it was written although the film adaptation is also of high quality.

The cleverest Sci-Fi book i've ever read. A classicand the reason that Azimov deserves his moniker of the father of Science Fiction. This book features on every 'Best of' list at some time or other and there's a good reason: So much of science fiction focuses on heavy subject matter without a drip of humor.

Adams wants us to laugh at it all, the pretentiousness and the craziness and never forget our towel. War as a constant theme, messed up with embryonic sleeps through hyper speed jumps across the universe, to fight in a ship that is now 10 years out of date.

Multi-platform emotional relationships and an unknown foe. What's not to like? The aliens will need to know what humanity was like even if only to recreate us as a digital slave race in their virtual reality matrix , and if any single author grasps the state of our technological society today it is William Gibson.

I was 14 when I first read Neuromancer, one of the first generation to grow up hooked in to the computer-generated realities that Gibson so presciently explores. For me and for millions of others who live in the modern reality of computers and the internet, William Gibson's imagined future is closer to the truth of now than any work of realist literature.

If you liked Neiromancer, you'll probably like this. Good cyberpunk vibe to it and some literary pretentions , going with a wellpaced, nicely written, occasionally twisted little book. It has survived a damn sight longer than most 'real' scfi novels ever will. And it's a great yarn. It's got everything - essentially it's about Imperialism and Rhetoric, but it has many lessons and much wisdom for those interested in learning about Imperialism, especially the modern-day form of 'Aid' and 'helping the natives' - but then justifications for Imperialism have usually been wrapped up in fluffy-feel-good 'humanitarian' terms.

A good SF novel should be, above all things, a good novel. Sturgeon, a great short-story writer, uses the genre to explore what it is to be human, and how we can strive to be more. It is a novel of discovery, but also a novel of compassion and hope. It's also a cracking good read! One of the most accurate prediction novels I've ever read. This book is great sci-fi- offers a convincing portrayal of a science-led society where privacy and individualism are crushed with an exploration of love, conscience and desire.

Despite some dubious plot points Perdido Street Station features one of the most mesmerising and terrifying monsters I've ever come across. Described with a stunning, fluid, dreamlike intensity, in a wonderfully rendered world, the Slake Moths made Perdido Street Station the most memorable sf novel I've read. Banks novels are great because you have to think quite hard to understand them while you're reading them. I normally read pretty fast, but I have to slow down to read an Iain M. Which is appropriate for The Algebraist because he created a whole species of creatures, The Dwellers, that are 'slow'.

They live for aeons, on gas giants, and little things like having a conversation can go on for centuries for them. When I read this book I thought that was the most wonderful idea, that we can't communicate with some entities because we're simply on a different time scale. The fun of reading Iain M. Banks novels is that somehow he manages to think of these things, that once you've got your head round make perfect sense but you might never have thought of yourself.

The Laws of Robotics have been one of the guiding ethical codes of my life - and should be for any good person, I believe. I was very surprised that not a single person mentioned Asimov as their favourite, despite him having such a wide repertoire. This is a strange little novelette in the middle of Dickson's epic "Dorsai" series.

It tells the tale of a pacifist Dorsai who like all Dorsai is in the military, but whose weapon is the bagpipes. Surrounded in a fortress by hordes of clansmen on a Spanish speaking planet, he uses music to insult and infuriate the hordes and sacrifice himself to win the battle.

His honour and courage and the creativity of the cultural values described make this story one my favorites of all time. Ridley Scott is working up the film project now. Superb book, though if you have seen Starship Troopers the film it can spoil it a bit. Its scary, funny and unusually for PKD its got lots of heart. Gully Foyle is a refreshing bastard of a hero. He's agressive, selfish and mean and deserves everything he gets Very cool book goes a little freaky at the end. A beautifully simple idea a child with an invisible friend that as the book progresses becomes more intriguing and more dangerous at the same time.

Also - it's an easy read that can encourage youngsters to take up SF. Brilliant short story about the exploitation of a young gaming genius by the military, published originally in Unfortunately got expanded into a series of novels, but the original is a chillling political parable, which has gained resonance in the era of child soldiers and xbox. Not only does it have dinosaurs, humour, adventure and a loss of control of the environment in which the protagonists find themselves, but unlike the film version it examines the importance of chaos theory which is what makes it SF for me.

Two more choices in no order of priority: A pretty obvious one - Childhood's End is one of Arthur C. Clarke's best and is a science fiction classic.

Any fan of the genre reading this book will instantly notice countless ways in which it has influenced subsequent work. For anyone new to the genre, this book is a good starting point. The story itself is short, enthralling, and easy to read. Even reluctant readers could finish it in a day or so. Murakami is our greatest living writer, and whilst most of his books have flights of fancy that could loosely align them with SF, this is his full-blown masterpiece. Discovered it when I was 11 or 12, in the adult section of the local public library.

It opened me up to the world of "what if" that has remained to this day. I was hooked on Science Fiction since. Smith is human, only he was born on Mars, and raised there. That has caused him to think a bit differently, and use more of his brain than the rest of us do. When the full version of the book was finally released, I also bought a copy of it. Using it as a way to look at life, and how we can treat one another, as opposed to how we do responded to daily life, remains fascinating.

It does not cease to teach. I have given copies of it away, as gifts, to whomever asks "Why do you like to read that junk, anyway? Asimov's robot stories not only present a coherent, imaginative vision of the future, but also give us an insight into the ways in which he and others during his lifetime thought about and presented the future. Not only that, but he writes excellent prose and the stories he conceived are always clever and illuminate the human condition.

I wish very much that he was alive today to see the innovations that are happening now. It's an SF story that's really all about humanity, including man's inhumanity to man. It's really the history of philosophy disguised as SF but don't let that put you off. Its depth and language. It rung a chord at the time, the messiah will be crucified nor what time what century and what period. Our political masters cannot handle popular uprising even if they are democratic institutions. The original world, within a world, within a world, later used frequently in the matrix inception and others.

The thirteeth floor film adaptation doesn't do it justice. I would recomend this book because it deals with exactly what science fiction means to discuss: Lem's best novel is about epistemology, and the our absolute ignorance of what lies beyond the bounds of the earth, and how utterly unprepared we are to encounter it. Very very difficult to describe - but it's simply brilliant. It's wildly imaginative, frightening - psychedelic, even. A great, simple story boy searches for lost sister set in a future Britain seemingly viewed through early 90s ecstasy-flavoured optimism.

Gods and monsters, budhism v hinduism v christianity in a fight to the finish, the worst pun ever recorded, and a joy in humanity in all of its many aspects and attributes. And yes, it's SF, not fantasy. I used to re-read this book every couple of years; it's long, confusing at times, but has a wonderful circular narrative that invites further exploration.

It's also got a fabulous sense of place even though the city of Bellona is fictional. Like early McEwan stories, Delany brilliantly captures a sense of urban ennui and although there are elements of hard sci-fi in the book, they are kept in the background, so that the characters are allowed to come through - something quite rare is SF. I also concur with the support for Tiger, Tiger: Find it pretty remarkable that such a list would completely omit any of Dick's work.

Many of his books are of a high enough standard to be chosen, but 'Flow My Tears The Policeman Said' is one of his best. Not really SF, but a world where gods actually exist counts as imaginative fiction to me. A haunting modern mythic saga. The first and best of the epic series which ultimately became too convuluted. Characters innocent and undeveloped, I wish I could read this for the first time again.

The book that kicked off the 'Foundation' saga. The dead hand of Hari Seldon and his new science, the mathematics of psycho-history unfold against a backdrop of the whole galaxy. Asimov was just so full of ideas and happily his characters were full and real people I cared about - he was THE giant of Sci-Fi and 'Foundation' one of dozens I could have chosen. Morally ambiguous love-story combined with grounded, 'realistic' sci-fi - i cannot believe no has turned this into a film yet I read it as a child and it has never left me.

I believe it leads a young mind to explore "the other" in a different way. Most science fiction, it has been said, is driven by violent conflict; Babel avoids that, having an idea - an untranslatable language - and unpacking it, unfolding out from there. It packs in interesting and human characters, stylish writing, fascinating concepts and ideas, a manic outpouring of intelligent thought, and a great plot, managing to, even now, 45 years after its original publication, be thought-provoking and boundary-pushing.

I love the language and the way the book draws you into an "alien" perspective by the assumption that this perspective is "normal". Much like Jostein Gaarder's 'Sophie's World,' or indeed most of Stephenson's other writing, 'Anathem' is a lesson in science and philosophy wrapped in narrative. In this case, the narrative is sprawling, believable and dramatic, although the middle section feels like a lecture, the purpose of which only becomes apparent towards the end of this weighty novel.

The world Stephenson creates is rich and believable, a parallel universe in which science and philosophy are restricted to an odd, codified monastic system - at least until a global crisis places the monks centre stage. It was one of the first sf novels I read when I was a kid and it blew my mind. The basic idea of taking current trends, creatively extrapolating them into the future and weaving personal as well as social stories from them just stunned me. And my eldest son is called Isaac.

The aliens are fascinating but it's all about the characters and getting inside the heads of flawed, damaged, normal human beings! Not really sci-fi, more fantasy, still a great book to read that gives the world a cracking character - Druss, the Legend of the title.

Displays some of the better gamut of human characteristics, without being overly poncy. Dark, satirical, laugh out loud funny, ridiculous and scathing. The book follows robot Tik Tok as he realises that he does not have to follow the Asimov laws when he kills a young innocent blind girl just for fun. He soon gets a taste for murder and gets very good at it. Farcical in places with a whole raft of ridiculous characters it draws parallels with the slave trade and the fight for equality.

His murderous exploits and cool, calm cunning takes him although way to the top at the White House, his aim: The novel also takes swipes at celebrity culture, religion, mob mentality and pretty much everything else. It's one of those goto books when a friend asks for a recommendation. A book that was way ahead of its time, predicting flying machines and total war.

Plus it is a great read and adventure story. You believe what you are reading really happended as Martians invide Surrey and London in the late Victorian era. It also created a sub genre of its own the "Alien Invasion" story. A classic novel that stands above all others. Read this, and it's sequels, 20 years ago. Could not put the book down. Finished it in 2 days. Still totally abosrbs me today. Great detailed story about a lonely, little boy. Also fascinating on the military life of Battle School and the Earth's attitude to alien races. Not just this book but the whole series.

Benchmark sci fi novel and whats important is the prose, the ideas expunded in the books and the fact that all my sci fi hating friends read the series on reccomendation and were completely converted. Lazurus Long - how I wish to be him! I was twelve when I read Ringworld, my first adult Science Fiction novel. It sparked a life long love of SF. The central concept of the Ringworld a constructed habitat that is a ring around a star is vividly brought to life. The story moves at a pace and the aliens very well imagined - especially the Pearson's Puppeteer. This book is a prime example of why SF will always be a literary form with TV and film being very much the poor relations.

I still have that battered second hand copy I read first over thirty years ago and have reread several times since. Becasue it's a collection of haunting short stories about what would happen when humans got to Mars, each filled with twists, turns and pathos. Like the Martians who defend themselves by changing their appearance to look like humans, to the last human left on the planet after the rest have gone back to Earth. Plus, like all good Sci Fi, it's not really about space, but about humanity.

As a young boy this book fed my imagination for sci-fi. Having been originally written in the 30s the vivid pictures he paints of far away worlds with bizarre creatures in a swashbuckling story were far ahead of its time. As you say if current human civilization was unexpectedly destroyed, I'd like this to survive as a warning of how it could all happen again.

An ambassador given permission to roam. The discovery that the society is not really primitive and pre-industrial. The gradual realization that the society is post-atomic and that the re-discovery of machinery and science has been banned post the disaster Mary Gentle's book is in itself a voyage of discovery in which the reader starts as a comfortable alien observer and ends as a very uncomfortable but involved critic of a world that wobbles between utopia and dystopia. Very handy for hitchhikers and the best read.

Introduces millions of people to to British humour and the SF genre every year. Great advert for SF and also very funny. A fantastic book that should be read by anyone planning to join the secret service as a subversive officer! It's easy to read, a great story that keeps you hooked. The characters are great and you really root for the hero. A man wakes up naked to find he has been resurrected along with every other human who ever lived during the history of earth.

Their new home is a riverplanet, they are all 25, they don't age, they can't die, and it is all a big social and spiritual project, created by an alien race. This book and the ones that follow are staggering conceptually. They mix history, politics, pyschology, religion, and everyday life in a sublime cocktail. One of the few Sci-Fi books that you read in which that you know you are also a character.

For those that go the distance with the whole Riverworld series, the final installment 'Gods of the Riverworld' cranks up the hypothetical social situations to mind boggling levels. Computers that play your whole life back to you, so you can come to terms with your wasted time, evil deeds, poor posture. A super computer that can build rooms a hundred miles wide, and produce anything from human history at request.

A cornerstone of the sci-fy genre. Read how Paul Atriedes uncovers the secrets of Arrakis and the Fremen people. Follow Paul's journey into a dangerous world where unlocking the power of the spice melange and it's keepers transforms him into the most powerful being in the galaxy. Set in an epic universe filled with wierd and wonderul creatures, monsters and alien races.

A must read for any sci-fy nut. Despite not having the easiest of openings you really have to force yourself to get past the first few pages , this really is a superb opening to a wonderful Sci-Fi trilogy. There are some great ideas, some excellent characters and some wonderful speculation on humanities future, but most of all it's a cracking story, and the main plot sideswipes you from left-field when you get to it as it was for me, at least totally unexpected.

Cannot recommend this enough.

I really like the way the author describes a data world, and interweaves this with a broader narrative, which includes a comparison between the plight of a Jewish community in Prague during the 16th-century and the futuristic community of the future. So much SciFi work is seen as being written by people whose only talent was a good imagination. Alfred Bester was one a new age of writers who wrote engaging stories that happened to be along a SciFi theme. Gully Foyle is reborn on the Nomad, but is alive to revenge only, in a plot which takes us through a world where instantaneous travel with the power of the human mind is possible.

His journey to discover who he is can only be compared to the greats of SciFi writing. A definite must read.

10 standout start-ups taking an AI leap in India

It challenges the concept of self and individuality. It is unremittingly, violently captivating throughout and it introduces the coolest hotel ever imagined. Its simply sublime, beautiful written, and would be an epic if it was on screen.

Self-Esteem: Walking Tall

Simply the best series of SCi Fi books ever written. How was it missed out? Asimov changed our understanding of robots with his formulation of the laws governing the behavior of robots. The stories combine science fact and fiction in such a way that you almost believe the robots are humans. Well written interesting stories that really make the reader ponder the future of robots. It's just a feckin brilliant story apart from the end which was a bit naff imo. This fantasy doesn't include any aliens, space ships, or magic, but it's in its' own weird universe.

A very Dickensian gothic tale. I agree about William Gibson. The tale is a great romp of the imagination with an insight into some physics. It is a completely worked out version of a believable future. It does not require the 'suspension of disbelief' normal to SF. And it is a great adventure story!

Procrastination: Breaking Free

Old school Silverberg before he went over to the dark side of fantasy , details human feelings of loss like no other SF tale. Very human story of the more-than-humans living amongst us. The enormous scale and technical details of the science fiction element of the story are breath taking whilst the story still holds the reader close to the characters of the core individuals in the story.

As with all Dick's books, it explores his twin fascinations: The human side is handled with his usual tender melancholy, while the metaphysical investigations are ramped up and up as the protaganist, teleported to a colony planet where all is not as it seems, dissolves, with the aid of an LSD tipped dart, into a nightmare where reality itself seems to deconstruct.

Wonderful language and weird world building. The protagonist - Adam Reith - a stranded earthman has many adventures, encountering the various inhabitants of Tschai, a much fought over planet. Not quite a picaresque as Reith is too honest but some of his associates are less so. Charming and lovely books and, let us not forget, anyone who can title one of them vol 2 Servants of the Wankh is worthy of deep respect even if he didn't know what it means to english ears haha.

Do yoursel a favour: The Player of Games does more than tell an exciting and engaging tale. In the empire of Azad, where the books action takes place, Iain M Banks creates a civilization which reflects the worst excesses of our own, despite its alien nature. Using the empire of Azad themes of one cultures interference in another are explored as the benign, peaceful Culture displays the lengths it will go to push a cruel empire closer to its own philosophy.

The story revolves around a man playing a board game. Admittedly it's a vast, complex board game central to the lives of those who play it, but it's essentially just a big, complicated chess set. This sounds like rather dull stuff to relate to the reader, but the authors descriptions of the game are never less than completely involving and genuinely exciting. There is a popular misconception that Douglas Adams was responsible for bringing humour into Sci-Fi.

But before him there was already the brilliant Stanislaw Lem, whose humour can be often anarchic and deeply satirical. This is a good example of his satirical humour at its most razor sharp. If the idea of Sci-Fi combined with Swiftean satire sounds appealing then this book is definitely for you. Supremely imaginative, and enjoyable at some level at almost any age. Written in the 50s, it creates a remarkably believable portrayal of modern life, before continuing an escape into an equally believable future.

It asks all the important questions about human beings and society. I'm using UoW as my choice but really any of Banks' culture novels fit the bill. Banks' stands astride 21st century science fiction as a giant. He not only manages to excel in world building, The Culture has to be one of the greatest realised sci-fi universes in print, but also manages something that virtually all other sci-fi authors fail at; the evolution of psychology over time.

The inhabitants of Banks' worlds are existentially flawed and carry with them a melancholy created by pitting emotional psychology against the vast backdrop and advanced science they have foisted upon them. The scale of his stories could leave the protagonists dwarfed by the spectacle but they end up dovetailing perfectly into the situations thought up by Banks by allowing us to connect to the madness of existance, whether they're human or alien.

Each of his new novels are events in the genre and allow their readers to conduct thought experiments of what it would be like to exist in such a reality surely the goal of any sci-fi? I read it as a teenager and the sheer scale of the technological achievement of building the Ring has stayed with me - even though I cant remember much of the details of the story today! Totally influenced and encouraged me to pursue my dream of working in the building industry which I don't regret, even today.

Atmospheric blend of fantasy and s decadence, with a consumptive, sexually ambiguous heroine whom I'd love to see Tilda Swinton play! It realistically sets out an anarchist society from an anthropological background; it's a hard life but it actually works! AND it also provides the alien's perspective on humanity! Not just the best SF. But best novel Ive ever read. Impossible to explain its importance so briefly. Orwell lays it out. It is appropriated by literary fiction like most great SF. It's a thousand pages of wonder and awe at how mindboggling complex the universe is and the joy and fascination there is in trying to understand it with just the human brain.

This is how physics and philosophy should be taught - at the same time and with multi-dimensional spaceships. An Epic Story, with a dark plot. Donaldson creates a very beleiveable universe. As Soon as I finished the 1st book, I was online ordering the remaining 4 stories. This is the third book in C. Lewis's science fiction trilogy. It combines themes of mythology, allegory and religion with some great characters and moments of true horror.

It's a great story that keeps you gripped all the way through. This book is about the simple acts of kindness that can make immense and profound differences to the future. The main character is Shevik: He makes a difficult decision to travel to the neighbouring planet of Urras to try and use their expertise to piece it together. The novel weaves around in time: Shevik's present and past are explored: Back on Urras, Shevik begins to realise he is becoming a small pawn in a powerful government's game and has to reconcile himself with the fact that he may never have been able to go home in the first place and may never go home now.

At its centre is Shevik: It remains one of the best characters I can remember in any book - at the end the final twist of the twin narratives meets into one of the best endings I have read in any book. It's a different kind of science fiction that allows the reader to be an active creator of the "other timely" world introduced by Koontz. It's not about zombies or aliens or space but it does represent something maybe even more bone-chilling: The epic scope of the book, showing the terrifying yet exciting possibilities of the human race as an multi planetary starship faring bunch of brilliently flawed individuals, and organsiations.

A really rare find these days as I think it is out of print. Witty and engaging, it draws parralels with life on earth in a profound and imaginative alien galaxy. First published in , the book documents the many highs and lows of man's struggle for survival. The book contains the first mention of genetic engineering in a sci fi novel, a compelling and truly eye-opening read.

So maybe it is the outer fringes of SF where myth and fantasy meets "steam punk" but it does have futuristic dimensions albeit in a retro kinda way. It is the way the characters seem unbelievable yet real which gets me in all of his books by the way and sucks me in to a reading time vortex - as all good books should. Bradbury's Mars keeps shifting its identity, becoming a symbol of the dreams and fears of America itself. No attempt is made at scientific accuracy this Mars is hot, for example , and the stories reflect the Cold War era in which they were written.

Bradbury could overwrite, but he keeps this tendency under control here, and the book has a haunting resonance. It has the fastest start I can recollect any book having, The Affront are hilarious and the Culture ships superb. I also appreciate that the nature of the excession is never defined. Hard sci-fi at its best. The attention to detail and depth of knowledge of the author make this a compelling and inspirational book to read. This is a strange, compelling and beautifully written story. I'd defy anyone from the most hard-nosed SF aficionado on up not to enjoy reading it.

If can get into the language, you'll enter a plausible yet mythical world where you'll get your first knowin from the eyes of a dog and learn the secrets of the master chaynjis. Can't believe that none of these magnificent books were chosen. Some better than others, but all full of wonderful prose, deep imagination, gripping stories and interesting characters. One of the few books I've read in one sitting. Set in a wonderfully imagined dystopic America, it's very bleak but also savagely funny, always brilliant, and ultimately heartbreaking. This book is a positive, hopeful contemplation of mankind's possible next step.

How we might evolve into something better than we are now. The first hint of this next evolutionary step is not evidenced by those we conventionally think of as brighter, stronger or more beautiful, but by the supposed freaks and invalids that just might come together in some way to become, collectively, something Ringworld is SF on a grand scale in many respects. Set far into the future, it is scientifically well researched and utterly believable, with "alien" characters that are lifelike and convincing: A fantastic novel, one of many well-written books by Larry Niven.

Excellent book using Sci-fi construct of time dilation to show futility of war. Written after he server in Vietnam. The sheer scope of the imagination: The gradual unfolding of the driving force of the novel: My son and I discussed it for days. Farmer is woefully under-rated, and really only known for his Riverworld series, but the World of Tiers is, I think, his masterwork. It contains so much of why I read SF - it has terrific characters, it's overflowing with ideas, it has marvellous set pieces and it engenders a sense of awe and wonder at the possibilities of our universe or, rather, the multiverse.

If I had the money I'd personally bankroll a film of the books, now that we have the technology to do justice to them. It has a breadth, wit and complexity that ensnared me from the first line. Banks has the ability to create fullt formed world's that are totally believable. An utterly wonderful read. Reads like an allegorical account of the Chernobyl disaster, fifteen years before it happened.

The love affair between Lazarus Long and Dora Brandon - but much more. Although not usually classified as Science Fiction, Carter's early novel certainly echoes the themes and styles of the genre. After all, what could be more sci-fi than a plot in which our hero must struggle against a mad scientist, in order to restore a world of order and 'reality'?

The surrealist form of the novel and it's passionate portrayal of female sexuality which is quite unusual for a genre largely dominated by men makes it, for me, all the more interesting. But, first and foremost, it is Carter's unforgettable language that puts the Infernal Desire Machines A book about an unbelievably old man and the wisdom that he has learned throughout the years.

Shows the way we grapple with the big questions. Not without problems, but has incredibly high peaks. The story of an alien who comes to earth to in a quest to save his planet, not ours but is destroyed when he becomes all-too-human. The style is nicely understated, the plot, tech and characters believable and the story is full of gentle ironies. Gripping story,fascinating,immaculately drawn characters living in believable world s. This book,and it's sequel,"Fall of Hyperion",are masterworks,in my opinion. I was so caught up in these books that they seemed more real than fiction to me,and this feeling holds up with repeated readings.

The story got it all: Compared to his earlier novel "Snow Crash", Stephenson move further away from "Neuromancer" and into the future. And that's where I like my Sci-Fi: To my mind, Dick is the greatest writer of the 20th Century full stop. Never afraid to tackle the big questions, eg what does it mean to be human? Or, as in this case, what exactly is the nature of reality?

Banks' love of the genre shines out of every word. He has all the usual suspects in the Space Opera toy box, but he shows them to us through the eyes of a spoilt man-child who wants to play with them as much as we do.

And finally we get the twist, probably Banks' finest, that makes us immediately turn back to page 1 and read it all again in a completely different context. A bonkers, mad book, the story of Dr Frankenstein taken to a grey-goo-fuelled extreme. As the character's life disintegrates under the power of his creation, the narrative expands and fragments.

The structure mimics the plot, sliding deliriously out of control until the reader ends up somewhere quite other than where they expected to.

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