Fantastical Literature

Transport yourself to a new possibility with these books of far flung worlds and visions of what the future may hold.

2001: A Space Odyssey

by Arthur C. Clarke

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Hartmann, Erich, [Photograph 2012.201.B0227.0564],Arthur C. Clarke. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc202164/

Bonnie Dailey - Maumee

April 1969: "How significant is man in the universe? Everyone must answer this question for himself in his lifetime. Man is significant only as long as his intelligence is not wrapped up in self destruction. It is what one created, not is able to destroy, that is important.

In the book, the explorers nurtured the seeds of intelligence wherever they found it in the universe. Sometimes they failed, sometimes they reaped, and sometimes they had to weed. At the end of the book, Earth and her people were destroyed by megaton bombs set off by the Star-Child. The threat of atomic warfare exists today, but if man is to be important in time and space, he will have to work together as a unified world, not one split into an infinite number of factions. Only by the cooperation of everyone, will man remain in time. But when will this HAPPEN?"




Around the World in Eighty Days

by Jules Verne

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Caron, Leon (publisher, French, act. 1907-1914), French, (ca. 1907-1914 (publication date)) Monument de Jules Verne erige a Amiens, le 9 Mai 1909 [Monument to Jules Verne erected in Amiens May 9, 1909]. Depose. L. C.; verso: L. Caron, photo-Edit., Amiens. - Plaques Supra [divided back, no message]; overall; recto. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://search.openlibrary.artstor.org/object/SS7729975_7729975_8802496_TRINITY

Dave Hall - Maumee

February 1964: "Jules Verne's main purpose for writing Around the World in Eighty Days was to provide entertainment for the reader. The plot, an Englishman's race against time to circumnavigate the world, supplies exciting reading. The numerous incidents which threaten to delay the traveler's progress give the novel moments of thrilling suspense. The success of this novel can be directly attributed to the greatness of Verne's writing; he creates exciting, larger-than life characters. Thus, the voyage of Phileas Fogg - rich in marvels, in excitement, in humor, and in true recording of fact - has made Around the World in Eighty Days a living masterpiece."




Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

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(1956) Aldous Huxley. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/9516

Jeff Thornberry - Anthony Wayne

April 1962: "This is one of the most interesting and thought provoking books of our time. Everyone wonders what life on earth will be like a few hundred years in the future. Huxley views the future as a super-mechanized, pseudo-perfect society where the individual does not exist.

Such institutions as marriage, religion, and birth do not exist and are thought of as vulgar. People are mass produced in hatcheries where their intelligence and physical make-up can be controlled. They are classified as Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas and Epsilons.

Even in the society where there is nothing to be desired by anyone, there are those who are not satisfied with just existing. These people try to tkiink for themselves and relay their ideas to others. The government quickly finds these persons and punishes them.

Huxley does an excellent job of describing this 'Brave New World.' This book makes us realize how important and valuable such things as God and the family are. It also points out what eventually could happen to man if we do not stop and take account of our values and lives. It is well worth reading."

Genny Buehler - Anthony Wayne

November 1965: "Living in an age where the family is the basis of society, today's reader jumps with protest and dismay at even reading about the society in Brave New World.

In this book, families are a thing of the past. Babies are decanted, or produced by bottles. Just the thought of parenthood makes the people ill, for they think of the institution as a gross and savage thing. The theory behind this world's philosophy is, 'everyone belongs to everyone else.' All are tied together with the same thoughts and desires until peace and happiness are seemingly no longer unattainable goals. When these indoctrinated thoughts fail them, the people take 'soma,' a drug that produces instant bliss and rapture.

But what happens when a 'savage,' a person born from parents comes to this world? What happens when a person who thinks independently inhabits this world of unthinking, unehallenging, reliant people? What place can this savage have in society if he won't even rely on 'soma,' but will only rely on himself?

Today's reader may at first not accept the book, Brave New World. But after the savage is introduced, one cannot help but think into the future and also estimate the present world's society. The reader wonders, 'How brave is our world today? Do we really think independently?' These questions are added to the underlying challenge in Huxley's book. Would it be possible for our society to become the Brave New World?"




Dracula

by Bram Stoker

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Dracula. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, https://digital.lib.utk.edu/collections/islandora/object/playbills%3A10937

Scott Daniels - Maumee

February 1966: "The theme of Dracula is that when people are solidly united, they can conquer anything, no matter what the obstacles.

An English real estate firm sends Jonathan Harker to Transylvania to draw up the terms of the purchase of an English castle with Count Dracula. When Harker realizes that Dracula is a vampire, he makes a very narrow escape. After buying the castle from Harker, Dracula moves to England and starts forming new vampires by drinking their blood.

A group of Harker's friends find out about Dracula and try to track him down. Dracula has to retreat to his original castle. Just before he gets there, Harker attacks him and after a gory struggle, kills him. Dracula is very hard to believe!"




Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

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West Valley College, (1974 January) Ray Bradbury with students. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/c87d2s4w

Lynn Matty - Maumee

May 1969: "Fahrenheit 451 tells about the future where men burn books instead of reading and writing them. This book is the story of one such fireman whose job is to burn books. Montag was the normal fireman, enjoying his book burning sessions. With the friendship of a young girl who had been fired for being different, he began to change. She made him think about the world around him and about his job. Ensuing incidents showed him the value of books. He began to read the books he could smuggle to his home. While Montag was at work, his wife and her friends turned in an alarm on his home. By custom, Montag was forced to burn his books and then his own home before he was arrested. Montag then realized that all was lost and in his anger, turned the flame thrower on his superior officer.

Montag then ran for the river with a mechanical hound on his trail. He lost the hound at the river and swam upstream to join up with a band of former college professors who had left, sickened by their mother society. They each memorized a complete book so that society would not lose the great literature it once had. They were ready to wait till the era of books could be revived.

The main idea of this book is to show that man's appetite for knowledge will never die. I thought that this was a brilliant work of science fiction, and was extremely interesting."




Fantastic Voyage

by Isaac Asimov

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Klein, Jay Kay, (1966) Isaac Asimov, Tricon. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, https://calisphere.org/item/5211bb74-c8c5-4e46-a9bb-f8d7e8e6a1fb

Jim Newton - Anthony Wayne

May 1968: "This is the story of five people who journeyed through the body of a living man in hopes of saving his life. These five people, in an atomic submarine were reduced to microscopic size and injected into the blood stream of a man who possessed the knowledge that would decide the future of the whole world. Their mission was to travel through the body to the brain, destroy a blood clot there, and be out of the man's body within sixty minutes. The future of the world depended upon their success or failure.

Share the adventures of these five as they attempt this fantastic journey through the body. Share their dangers from within their own ranks and those created by the body; the coming of destruction and failure, but in the end, success."




Planet of the Apes

by Pierre Boulle

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Gabriel Cordero Huertas ( aka Dr.Worst) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boulle_Cansado.png

Charles Lloyd - Springfield

February 1966: "A cleverly different story. Imaginary opinion of the outcome of the human race in the simian world civilization on Lorar, where apes are men, and men are animals scurrying from the vicious slaughters of the apes. A scientist and journalist journey to this world, only the journalist retaining his ability to fight for his intelligence. The outcome is thoroughly unexpected, bringing to a conclusion an exceptionally well-written book."




The Time Machine

by H. G. Wells

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Gilmore, Samuel Perkins, 1868-1948, Portrait of H. G. Wells. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://kdl.kyvl.org/catalog/xt74xg9f5h51_220_1

Allan Rappaport - Whitmer

April 1962: "Do you sometimes stop to wonder what the world will be like 1000 years hence? One interesting glimpse of the future can be found in the science-fiction novelette, The Time Machine...

We first meet the Eloi—short, delicate, distinctly human creatures—and the Morlocks—mole-like people of the underworld. Puzzled by these two marked classes, our friend first hypothesizes that the Morlocks are but serfs to the aristocratic Eloi'. How wrong he is! Later, as he surveys the ruins of ages gone by, the stark truth is finnally realized...This story uses the science-fiction background only as a clever way to convey the warning of the author for a civilization facing increasing challenges. Will H.G. Wells' forecast materialize? Just what does the future hold for Mankind? What do YOU think?"

Bernard Beins - Cardinal Stritch

November 1965: "I liked this book because it presents an unusual story. The Time Traveler responds quickly to stimuli and knows his limitations. The Traveler's friends are believable because they are skeptical about time traveling.

He tells his friends present in the den of his house about his theory that there are four, not three, dimensions. Along with length, width and height, there is time. He tells them that he can travel backward and forward in time.

The year 802,701, he perceived, is in the midst of a Golden Age. The people are fragile looking, very beautiful, and speak a sweet language. They are, however, ignorant.

When he meets the Marlocks, who are cannibals, his troubles begin. They take his time machine and he has a struggle to snatch it from them. He finally succeeds in destroying the Marlocks to the very last individual."

Mike O'Brian - Clay

February 1967: "The Time Machine, H.G. Wells's first book, was written in 1895. It is the story of the Time Traveller, an Englishman who had conquered time. He built a time machine which one day he used to journey into the future.

Stopping in the year 802,701, he found a warm world of beauty. The only inhabitants to be found were the Eloi, or Children of Light. These were small humans with a meek, indifferent, ignorant attitude, like so many cattle.

And, as the Time Traveller was to discover, that was all the Eloi were; cattle to feed the ape-like subterranean dwelling creatures called the Morlocks, whose only fear was light.

This book, like Wells's next book, The War of the Worlds, was meant to shatter 'that serene confidence in the future which is the most abundant source of decadence.' Not only was England's nineteenth century smugness assaulted, but this century may shudder too = simply by turning the pages of these books."

Michael Carlo - Clay

November 1969: "This realistically concise and unique story, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, skillfully relates the adventurious and exciting escapade of the time-traveller from Englad durinmg the 1890's.

The main character of the book experiences a journey into the future. Upon his return, he describes his astonishing trip into the year 802.701 A.D. He also provides evidence of his presence in this new time era by showing his listeners two withered flowers he had put in his pocket while exploring the land of the Eloi and Morlocks.

This distinguished novel observes the time-traveler moving at will in a new epoch of time which is very strange to him. His description of the Eloi - the people living out in the sunshine - and the Morlocks - the people living in tunnels away from the sun - shows that the author has proposed a certain scientific hypothesis about the future of the world.

The novel ends with the time-traveler just fading into his second voyage to seek evidence for proof of his journey.

The characterization of this story adds to the realistic, life-like presentation of the novel. The dominating, subjective comments of the time-traveler make the reader feel as though he is being told the adventure by the time-traveler, who is sitting across the table.

This book provides the reader with such fascinating enjoyment that once the book is started, it will have to be finished as quickly as possible in order that the reader may satisfy his curiosity as to what happens to the time-traveler."