Shakespeare's best known play and the most quoted work of the English language.

Hamlet's father is dead and he struggles with the desire for revenge. The play uses this backdrop to explore intrigue, incest, desire, and what is important in life.

Regularly included in lists of the greatest works of all time.

Set in the mid 1800s before the Civil War, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a runaway slave, drift on their raft down the Mississippi River. As they journey, adventure beckons bringing them closer whilst exposing entrenched values and attitudes as large blemishes on the Southern landscape. Controversial when first published. Paradigm shifting. Regarded as a masterpiece of American Literature. Listed as No.5 by Time magazine in its list of "10 Greatest Books of All Time", January 2007.

Mayer Alan Brenner's "The Dance of Gods" series was published by DAW Books in the 1990s. A witty and intelligent science / fantasy crossover, Pratchett meets Zelazny meets Douglas Adams, it also prefigures Charles Stross in interesting ways. The series follows a cluster of raffish characters through overlapping and colliding story lines in a wonderfully realized world.

"The humour was never farcical, always intelligent, but there was a certain madcap, slyness to it which I haven't experienced in fantasy for quite a while. Some scenes had me laughing out loud -- not good when traveling with a bunch of strangers, but a perfect remedy to Life..." -- The Book Swede

In an age where global travel within a limited time frame was unusual and reserved for heroic adventurers, Phileas Fogg bets his companions at the Reform Club 20,000 pounds that he can circumnavigate the world in only eighty days. Accompanied by his valet Passepartout, they attempt this feat. Despite obstacles thrown at them by man and nature, Fogg is determined that he will not be defeated. Gripping reading.

Witty. Charming. Very, very amusing. The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners, wickedly satirising the Victorian English Upper Classes. Algernon often uses a visit to an invented friend, Ernest, in the country as an excuse to escape obligations in the city. Meanwhile, his actual best friend who does live in the country enjoys visits to London from time to time to break up life in the country. Confusion and comedy ensues as love and courtship is pursued and the name "Earnest" is assumed by more than one character. Oscar Wilde dazzles with his humour.

Nominated for a Hugo for Best Novel in 2007

"Blindsight is a tour de force, redefining the First Contact story for good. Peter Watts' aliens are neither humans in funny make-up nor incomprehensible monoliths beyond human comprehension - they're something new and infinitely more disturbing, forcing us to confront unpalatable possibilities about the nature of consciousness. It'll make your skin crawl when you stop to think about it. Strongly recommended: this may be the best hard SF read of 2006."

- Charles Stross