Passage

Author: Connie Willis

Immortality, cryogenics, uploading the mind to an AI, extended lifespans, time and again science fiction revolves around the issue of how to avoid death. In this novel, which won the Locus Award, Connie Willis tackles the subject head on. It's the story of a researcher into Near Death Experience, the way patients who are revived after clinical death consistently report walking towards a bright light. What emits that light? What will people find when they get there? Willis writes about all of this without resorting to supernatural explanations of any sort. Rather, the dying person finds themselves in a significant place, in this case the Titanic, able to pass messages to the living and possibly be revived. Why it's on the list: If it can't tackle big themes, what's the point of science fiction? And in this novel Connie Willis tackles the biggest theme of all, without sentiment and without resorting to religion or magic. It's a powerful novel on a powerful subject.