Christopher Mason, a professor of physiology and biophysics and author of the book The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Explore New Worlds, shared with the publication Five Books which science fiction works he considers the best. His list includes five books that belong to the genre of “hard” science fiction, where real science plays a key role and fiction is kept to a minimum.
First on the list is Andy Weir’s novel The Martian, the story of an astronaut who must survive on the Red Planet using only his knowledge and ingenuity. Second is Neal Stephenson’s epic Seveneves, which focuses on a global catastrophe and humanity’s fight for survival in space.
The list also includes Isaac Asimov’s famous Foundation series, which explores the future of civilization and the concept of psychohistory; Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel Red Mars, which provides a detailed account of the planet’s colonization and terraforming; and Robert Heinlein’s book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, about the struggle of lunar colonists for independence.
According to Mason, these works inspire us to contemplate the future of humanity and its place in the universe, combining drama, science, and philosophical questions.
