revolution books

[Denns Nist]

I love books like Eric Flint's 1632/1633 where a whole society have to change or start a sort of revolution. Another example that I just completet reading is: the quaddies in Falling free. Doesn't seem to have a sezuel I would have loved to read about how that society would have of evolved.

Do you guys have more examples of "revolutionary" books?
Both in sci fi and fantasy genres.

 

[Pyan]

I Another example that I just completet reading is: the quaddies in Falling free. Doesn't seem to have a sequel I would have loved to read about how that society would have of evolved.

You can find out by reading Diplomatic Immunity, also by Lois Bujold, which is set in a "modern" Quaddie habitat. Be warned though - if you are intending to read the Miles Vorkosigan Saga, there's spoilers in the book for most of the 16 other, intervening, novels and novellas!

 

[J-Sun]

Budrys' Some Will Not Die is not so much about a revolution as a volitional thing but, due to a population collapse, society is revolutionized.

Some that may be closer that I'm happening to at least partly recall include Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and periodic elements of his Future History. Le Guin's The Dispossessed. Shirley's "Eclipse" trilogy (only read the first so far). I can't recall if Spinrad's A World Between was outright revolutionary, but it at least had revolutionary elements. Seems like Resnick's "Chronicles Of Distant Worlds" basically do. Vinge's "Realtime" books pretty much do. Pat Murphy's The City Not Long After and Lisa Goldstein's A Mask for the General sort of straddle a border between fantasy and SF and might appeal more to fantasy readers than some of the others I've mentioned.

-- Oh yeah - again, not so much revolution as a revolutionized society (which it seems you're interested in, too): Poul Anderson's Brain Wave and most any book dealing with any sort of thing like that - human transformation which naturally ripples into social transformation, such as Bear's Blood Music. Lots of these "Singularity"/post-human books these days.

 

[Rodders]

Possibly a bit low brow, but "Eve: The Emyrean Age" by Tony Gonzales would fit this category. (It's based in the Eve: Online universe and was very enjoyable IMO.)

 

[Vertigo]

You might also enjoy David Weber's Safehold series. These are set on a planet containing the last remnants of the human race after a genocidal war with an alien race. The planet's society has been deliberately suppressed and held back to medieval technology through religion. The intent was to ensure there was no electromagnetic signature to lead the aliens to the planet. Some hundreds of years later an android from the human past appears and begins the process of revolting against the religious oppression in order to bring the humans back to a technological society. The theory there being that the aliens will have long since stopped looking.

Very good books both from an adventure story perspective and also interesting as they show the development of medieval technology beautifully by compressing it into a relatively short time period. As always with Weber he revels in the political machinations involved in such an undertaking.

 

[Extollager]

Perhaps Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s "Dark Benediction."

 

[Thadlerian]

If you happen to have any familiarity with Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, then his masterpiece Night Watch is a book for you. It catches very well the atmosphere of the (failed) 1848 popular revolutions in Europe, and retains just a bit of the standard Discworld comedy. A very strong read, although a little familiarity with the characters is recommended.

And then there's Iron Council by China Miéville. The guy is a Trotskist, so he knows his revolutionaries. Iron Council is a fantasy book, set in a weird steampunk universe, about a bunch of radical revolutionaries having hi-jacked a train (laying tracks in front of it, removing them afterwards).

 

[Toby Frost]

How about Animal Farm?

 

[Extollager]

How about Animal Farm?

Indeed!

 

[AnyaKimlin]

The Guardians by John Christopher I know it's a childrem's book but its my favourite

 

[Rufio]

The first that comes to mind is the Mars trilogy (Red/Green/Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson. It tells the story of humans colonising Mars, it has an epic scope and gives a really detailed look at a society before, during, and after revolution.

 

[hitmouse]

Dune, anyone?

 

[dask]

Just about any Edmond Hamilton space opera.

 

[Waiting]

Ken MacLeod - The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal, The Cassini Division, and The Sky Road.

 

[Pyan]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein.

 

[hitmouse]

Revolt in 2100 by Robert A Heinlein