Econ Sci Fi Book Club

ECONOMICS SCI-FI BOOK CLUB  

Winter 2025 Voting

Voting is open until November 20 (new deadline) for this year's Winter Book Club (Classics edition) selections.  

Check out the options listed and click on vote to make your choice. 

And we look forward to seeing you near the end of December.

Matt, Alberto and Christine 

List of Spring 2025 Options 

Dune, Frank Herbert (1965)

Famous for the David Lynch and the Denis Villeneuve movies. Dune is set in a feudal interstellar society (fantasy and sci fi!), descended from terrestrial humans, in which various noble houses are battling for status and control of resources. With scarcity (water), monopolies over resources essential for travel (spice/melange), some interesting cultural takes on AI, issues of colonization, and a theme of messianic religions that rise from deserts. there’s some economics here for almost everyone.  But how much do you really want to read a novel that could only get self-published via a printer of auto repair manuals?  See Mark Koyama’s chapter in Economics of Fiction for more.  https://www.markkoyama.com/p/the-political-economy-of-dune 

Downbelow Station, C.J. Cherryh (1981)

Goodreads describes it as “A blockbuster space opera of the rebellion between Earth and its far-flung colonies, it is a classic science fiction masterwork.”, and elsewhere described as “Machiavellian intrigue in space” https://fantasyliterature.com/reviews/downbelow-station/.  The Earth Company, a private corporation, takes the risk of exploring space when earth’s government’s don’t, building stations in orbit of planets that are mostly toxic to humans – until Pell’s World is discovered, and the Earth Company starts to lose its control. The book starts with a refugee crisis on a crowded station, and follows the struggle for control of resources. Downbelow Station won the Hugo Award in 1982, as did its follow up, Cyteen, though there are some suggestions it’s not the best place to start with the Union-Alliance series. 

A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller (1959)

A post-apocalyptic social science fiction novel book in three parts, spanning thousands of years as civilization rebuilds after a nuclear war. Starting off in a Catholic(ish?) monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States, the first third focuses on the preservation of knowledge in a dark period of anti-technology backlash that followed the war.  The later two sections see an eventual resurgence in science – but can the monks keep it from threatening a second destruction of the world?  1961 Hugo Award winner.  https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/science-fiction-classic-still-smolders

Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes (1966)

Expanded from a short story version (Hugo winner in 1960), Flowers for Algernon follows Charlie Gordon, who undergoes an experimental surgery that should raise his IQ. The procedure was tested on a mouse, named Algernon. But will it work for Charlie?  Should we be trying to use technology to fundamentally change people? Sometimes used in schools, but sounds like this is a kid appropriate book in about the same way as Watership Down is – you may need some hankies.  https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/may/04/flowers-for-algernon-daniel-keyes-review  

Foundation, Isaac Asimov (1951) 

Another entrant that was initially short story/ies, before being pulled together, Asimov’s Foundation has been described as Fall of the Western Roman Empire in space but with economists (well, kind of) to the rescue!  Psychohistorian Hari Seldon sees the fall of empire coming – but how can he, a single person, even if a genius, stave off the galactic recession/dark age?  Beloved of Paul Krugman, who has said economics is as close as you can get to psychohistory (though Asimov totally ruins it later with Hari Seldon predicting the emergence of The Mule, but that’s another story). https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/04/paul-krugman-asimov-economics 

Hyperion, Dan Simmons (1989) 

Also a Hugo winner, it follows a similar structure to The Canterbury Tales: as the galaxy teeters on the edge of war, a group of pilgrims sent to Hyperion's Time Tombs, to make a request of the Shrike, a metallic creature that is said to grant one wish to each pilgrim. Described as “a vibrant extrapolation of what human society could look like if everything was digitized and every person had nearly instant access to any piece of information”, and “an underrated classic” https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2022/04/you-should-read-hyperion-by-dan-simmons-review/; https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/03/dan-simmons-hyperion.html 

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