Science-fiction literature

This section is dedicated to great books in science-fiction. All of these books are recommended for their entertainment value, but there is a lot of educational value in sci-fi as well. 

ORYX AND CRAKE

This is a post-apocalyptic novel that follows the main character, "snowman" as he tries to make his way in a  world wiped clean by disease. The book serves mainly as a warning of the perils involved in biological engineering and gene splicing, especially when they're allowed to go too far.

RED MARS
In 2026, a group of one hundred carefully selected scientists from around the globe become the vanguard of Mars colonization. These visionaries will grow to love and hate one another, to form coalitions and to break them, to together mold the future of a planet. 

The politics and economics of Earth have followed this internationally varied collection of intellectuals. Deep rifts occur between those who want to make Mars another Earth and those who passionately believe that Mars should remain unsullied to the fullest possible extent. 

As more and more humans follow the path of the first hundred, Martian soil will be rocked by explosive acts of environmental and political terrorism, and the lives of many of the first hundred will become forfeit in the struggle to determine the fate of an entire planet.

Speculative-fiction patriarch Arthur C. Clarke called Red Mars "the best novel on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written... it should be required reading for the colonists of the next century." Indeed, this is a story of the inevitable human struggle that constitutes the history of our own planet, a series of cautionary and intelligent what-ifs that could serve as a textbook for the many things to be considered before we carry our earthbound rivalries and dreams outside our own orbit.

As far as action is concerned, the book is a little slow. I would recommend it more for the scientific value than entertainment. It follows and explains the science and sociology involved in a very thorough manner, a highly educational endeavor.