29 1959 science fiction novels

A for Anything is a science fiction novel by American writer Damon Knight. The author postulates the discovery, in the near future, of the "Gismo", a device that can duplicate anything—even another Gismo. Since all material objects have become essentially free, the only commodity of value is human labor, and the author suggests that a slave economy would be the inevitable result.

Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by American writer Pat Frank. It was one of the first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and has remained popular more than half a century after it was first published, consistently ranking in Amazon.com's Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list and has an entry in David Pringle's book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. The novel deals with the effects of a nuclear war on the fictional small town of Fort Repose, Florida, which is based upon the actual city of Mount Dora, Florida. The novel's title is derived from the Book of Revelation: "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." The cover art for the Bantam paperback edition was made by Robert Hunt.

The Angry Espers is a science-fiction novel written by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. and published by Ace Books as half of Ace Double #D-485 in 1961. The novel first appeared in the August 1959 issue of Amazing Science Fiction Stories as A Taste of Fire. In 1962 it was given Honorable Mention as a candidate for the Best Novel Hugo Award.

The Beast Master is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, published by Harcourt in 1959. It inaugurated the Beast Master series, or Hosteen Storm series after the main character. In German-language translation it was published as Der Letzte der Navajos —literally The Last of the Navajo.

Danny Dunn and the Weather Machine is the fourth novel in the Danny Dunn series of juvenile science fiction/adventure books written by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams. The book was first published in 1959 and originally illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats.

The Dawning Light is a 1959 science fiction novel published under the name Robert Randall, collaborative pseudonym of American writers Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett. It depicts the changes, after the events of The Shrouded Planet by the same authors, in the society of the fictional planet Nidor, a world perpetually covered in dense cloud, inhabited by humanoids resembling humans but differing in several respects, notably in being covered from head to foot in short downy fur. The technological level of the society is about that of Renaissance Europe, and has been that way for thousands of years.

Echo in the Skull is a science-fiction novel by British novelist John Brunner, first published in the United States by Ace Books as part of Ace Double #D-385. In 1974 Brunner had an expanded version of the story published as Give Warning to the World.

The Enemy Stars, is a science fiction novel by American writer Poul Anderson, published in 1959 by J.B Lippincott in the US and by Longmans in Canada. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction under the title We Have Fed Our Sea__, it was a nominee for the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novel. The original title refers to a line in a poem by Rudyard Kipling.

The Falling Torch is a 1959 science fiction novel by American writer Algis Budrys. A 1999 Baen Books edition was "very slightly rewritten, and includes one entirely new chapter.

Four from Planet 5 is a science fiction novel by Murray Leinster. It was released in 1959 by Fawcett Publications under their Gold Medal Books imprint reference number S937. The novel details the arrival of a spaceship carrying four seemingly human children from an advanced civilisation close to a US scientific research base in Antarctica and the events that subsequently unfold. This story appeared in the September 1959 edition of Amazing Science Fiction under the title Long Ago Far Away.

The Fourth "R" is a science fiction novel by American writer George O. Smith, first published in 1959. It is a science fictional examination of the genius naïf phenomemon. The plot follows a five-year-old boy named Jimmy Holden, who was given the equivalent of a college education by virtue of his parents' invention, an "Electromechanical Educator." The book is not related to the movie The Brain Machine (1977).

Galactic Derelict is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, the second in her Time Traders series. It was first published in 1959, and as of 2012, had been reprinted in eight editions. It is part of Norton's Forerunner universe.

Immortality, Inc. is a 1959 science fiction novel by American writer Robert Sheckley, about a fictional process whereby a human's consciousness may be transferred into a brain-dead body. A striking concept in the novel is its description of random killings of strangers by people who intend to die. The serialised form was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Level 7 is a 1959 science fiction novel by the Ukrainian-born Israeli writer Mordecai Roshwald. It is told from the first-person perspective of a modern soldier, X-127, living in the underground military complex Level 7, where he and several hundred others are expected to reside permanently. X-127 fulfills the role of 'push-button' offensive initiator of his nation's nuclear weapons capacity against an unspecified enemy. X-127 narrates life within a deep shelter before, during and after a nuclear war that wipes out the human species.

Masters of Evolution is a 1959 science fiction novel by American writer Damon Knight. It first appeared in 1954 in Galaxy Science Fiction as the novella "Natural State". Knight subsequently expanded the text by about 5000 words, and the longer version was published by Ace Books in 1959 as Masters of Evolution, in a dos-a-dos paperback that included George O. Smith's Fire in the Heavens.

Next of Kin, also known as The Space Willies, is a science fiction comic novel by English writer Eric Frank Russell. It is the story of a military misfit who successfully conducts a one-man psychological warfare operation against an alien race, with whom humans and allied races are at war. It was published under the title Next of Kin in 1959. A novella-length version was published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1956 as "Plus X", then published in somewhat expanded form by ACE Books as The Space Willies in 1958.

Night of the Big Heat is a science fiction novel written in 1959 by John Lymington. It tells the story of an unnamed British island that is experiencing a bizarre and stifling heatwave.

Operation Columbus is a juvenile science fiction novel, the third in Hugh Walters' Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A. series. It was published in the UK by Faber in 1959, in the US by Criterion Books in 1960 under the title First on the Moon, and in the Netherlands by Prisma Juniores as 'Wedloop naar de Maan' 1963.

Ossian's Ride is a science fiction novel by British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, published in 1959.

The Outward Urge is a science fiction fix-up novel by British writer John Wyndham. It was originally published with four chapters in 1959. A fifth chapter, originally published in 1961 as a separate short story "The Emptiness of Space", was included in later versions.

The Pirates of Zan is a science fiction novel by Murray Leinster, originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in 1959 as "The Pirates of Ersatz". It was nominated for the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Novel. It first appeared in book form in 1959 as one component of an Ace Double, bound with Leinster's The Mutant Weapon; this edition was reissued in 1971. A German translation was issued in hardcover in 1962, an Italian translation appeared in 1968, and a Dutch translation was published in 1972. Bart Books published a stand-alone American paperback edition in 1989. and Baen Books included Pirates in a Leinster omnibus, A Logic Named Joe, in 2005.

The Secret of the Ninth Planet is a science-fiction novel written by Donald A. Wollheim and first published in the United States in 1959 by the John C. Winston Co. Wollheim takes his heroes on a grand tour of the solar system as that team struggles to prevent an alien force from blowing up the sun. This is the last of three juvenile novels that Wollheim wrote for Winston, the other two being The Secret of Saturn's Rings and The Secret of the Martian Moons.

The Sirens of Titan is a comic science fiction novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., first published in 1959. His second novel, it involves issues of free will, omniscience, and the overall purpose of human history. Much of the story revolves around a Martian invasion of Earth.

The Star Conquerors is a science fiction novel by American writer Ben Bova. It was published in 1959 by the John C. Winston Company.

Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. Written in a few weeks in reaction to the U.S. suspending nuclear tests, the story was first published as a two-part serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction as Starship Soldier, and published as a book by G. P. Putnam's Sons in December 1959.

Time Out of Joint is a dystopian novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in novel form in the United States in 1959. An abridged version was also serialised in the British science fiction magazine New Worlds Science Fiction in several installments from December 1959 to February 1960.

Voodoo Planet is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, first published in 1959 by Ace Books. This is a short novel that was usually published in a double-novel format. It is part of the Solar Queen series of novels.

Wolfbane is a science fiction novel by American writers Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, published in 1959. It was serialized in Galaxy in 1957, with illustrations by Wally Wood. In his review column for F&SF, Damon Knight selected the novel as one of the 10 best genre books of 1959.

The World Swappers is a science fiction novel by British writer John Brunner. It was first published in the United States in 1959, as one half of Ace Double D-391. The other half was Siege of the Unseen by A. E. van Vogt. Reprinted by Ace 1967, 1976.