Best Books: Science Fiction

God-Emperor · Post by **God-Emperor** » 27 Oct 2012, 23:36

Foundation by Issac Asimov.

The Duat · Post by **The Duat** » 18 Feb 2013, 08:24

Hopefully we can breath some new life into this thread.

Easily may favorite "hard" sci-fi writer is Peter Watts. If you enjoy both intellectually and psychologically "difficult" writing, I can't recommend his work highly enough. I believe that he's recently decided to retire, which is unfortunate, because he's had a novel in the works for several years which will now likely never be published. That being said, his already published works can now be found at his website as a free download:

http://www.rifters.com/

God-Emperor · Post by **God-Emperor** » 18 Feb 2013, 23:34

My favorite hard science fiction hasta be one of the Killer B's: Bear, Benford or Brin.

Hulde Gran · Post by **Hulde Gran** » 21 Feb 2013, 08:04

Finally finished "A Dance with Dragons", the most recent book from the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

Now i'm going to start reading "The Eye of The World", first book of "The Wheel of Time" series. If i manage to finish this one, i will have only thirteen more books to go. Can't believe this guy actually made fourteen books for this franchise, it's crazy.

Almonaster · Post by **Almonaster** » 24 Apr 2013, 23:38

I have a ridiculous SF library, so if there's anything you want to track down I may well be able to trace it.

Of current authors, I would particularly recommend Dan Simmons (esp the Hyperion Cantos), and Alistair Reynolds (Galactic North, Revelation Space, etc.)

God-Emperor · Post by **God-Emperor** » 25 Apr 2013, 07:17

I'm currently readin' Altered Carbon, and I recommend it.

Post by **Spartan Termopylae** » 19 Jun 2013, 00:29

Tried reading Altered Carbon once. Couldn't really get into it

Almonaster · Post by **Almonaster** » 15 Aug 2013, 12:21

I've recently finished Anathem (Neal Stephenson) and Transitions (Iain Banks). Both are quite chunky, but well worth a read.

Post by **frattastan** » 15 Aug 2013, 22:31

Although I'll watch pretty much everything when it comes to sf films, with books so far I've been sticking to classics or short stories.
Last month I read Asimov's The God Themselves and Lem's The Master's Voice.

Liked both, but The Master's Voice is a bit harder to read if you're not into the genre (plus, it makes for an interesting read because of the themes, but imo doesn't have enough -literary- quality).

Almonaster · Post by **Almonaster** » 18 Aug 2013, 16:40

Lem is obviously somewhat dependant on the quality of the translation. The ones I've read have been pretty good. I haven't read TMV, so I can't comment there.

Post by **frattastan** » 18 Aug 2013, 21:20

Both are dependent on translation, actually.

I read The Invincible before and liked it, but couldn't manage to finish Solaris (but that was a few years ago, so may be worth giving it another try

).

Almonaster · Post by **Almonaster** » 19 Aug 2013, 03:09

Eh? Asimov wrote in English, AFAIK.

I'm probably missing something.

Returning to Lem, I would agree that Solaris was quite heavy going, but more comprehensible than the (1968) film. I wasn't particularly impressed with the Futurological Congress, but I did like the Cyberiad. I've read a few more short stories, but I'm not about to go rooting through the shelves trying to find them.

Post by **frattastan** » 20 Aug 2013, 19:46

Yep, watched the Solaris film and found it too mind-screwy (whereas I had liked Tarkovsky's other 'science fiction'/philosophical/religious/whatever film, Stalker).

Almonaster wrote:Eh? Asimov wrote in English, AFAIK.

I'm probably missing something.

English is not my first language, so I prefer not reading in English unless I have to.

Almonaster · Post by **Almonaster** » 27 Aug 2013, 23:23

Aha!

You do much better in English than I do in any other language. I had no idea.

Post by **frattastan** » 30 Nov 2013, 12:58

Decided to read Starship Troopers.

Post by **Guy** » 30 Nov 2013, 18:34

Well, I'm resurrecting a two year old discussion, but I did not enjoy the Ender's Shadow series much. Speaker, on the other hand, was phenomenal - the fact that Ender's Game was initially written to be a prequel for it is telling. Hugely underrated.

Almonaster · Post by **Almonaster** » 01 Dec 2013, 23:52

Speaker is my favourite of the Ender series, too.

Coming back to Heinlein, I agree that he wrote a lot of good ones. I think Starman Jones was one of the books that really sold me on SF when I was growing up. The only real clunker IMHO is I will fear no Evil. For a quick start try...

Citizen of the Galaxy
Double Star
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

I think a lot of Niven's best work was short stories - I particularly rate the Neutron Star collection.

Post by **Spartan Termopylae** » 04 Dec 2013, 12:43

Footfall by Niven, though. Fantastic novel, you simply can't disagree.

I started on Speaker, but struggled to get beyond the first page.

Heinlein, now, Starship Troopers is epic, one of the few first person narratives I can read. Farnhams Freehold wasn't bad

Almonaster · Post by **Almonaster** » 04 Dec 2013, 22:48

Footfall was a collaboration with Pournell, IIRC. Many of Niven's novels were team efforts. I'm certainly not dissing them, I just think the short stories were even better.

For hard SF fans, it's maybe worth mentioning a few more recent authors such as Timothy Zahn (Spinneret, the Conquerors trilogy), Kim Stanley Robinson (The Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy), Ken McLeod (The Stone Faction, Cassini Division, etc.) and Alistair Reynolds (Chasm City, Pushing Ice, Absolution Gap, ...)

Post by **Spartan Termopylae** » 06 Dec 2013, 02:23

I've only read Zahn's Star Wars books as yet, but they are among the best examples

Saeturn Valerius · Post by **Saeturn Valerius** » 06 Dec 2013, 09:04

I don't know if anyone would consider The Giver SciFi, but I read it and highly recommend it.

Post by **thechurchofsatan** » 06 Dec 2013, 09:14

The Giver is in the category of Soft Science Fiction. So it is sci-fi. I read it in high school and I too recommend it.

Horse · Post by **Horse** » 06 Dec 2013, 18:52

DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY.

Post by **Evolu Tanis** » 10 Jan 2015, 08:20

unibot wrote:
05 Sep 2014, 03:33
H.G Wells's "Invisible Man" and "The Time Machine" also established whole genres of their own and are worth a read if you can handle the exposition.

Wells's Time Machine is a hell of a spooky thing to have as a bedtime audiobook for an 8-year-old kid. I highly recommend it. Scared the shit out of me, and all to the good.

Dune is the most important book written in the 20th century. Its original slate of sequels are also well worth the read. The Dune prequels, otoh, are about on a level with the Star Wars prequels for anyone who appreciated the original story.

Anything Heinlein wrote prior to, oh, the mid 70s or so is worth a read; but I can't get into a single one anymore other than The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Not all that sure why. He might've been the first to realize settling other planets is more than likely to be like settling the Wild West, and for the same reasons.

Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination might be the most underrated sci-fi novel ever; and it has aged unbelievably gracefully for a pulp 50s story. This book is the Velvet Underground of sci-fi - not a lot of people read it when it came out, but almost everyone who did ~~started a band~~ became a sci-fi writer. Possibly the first to examine the sociology of the future, not just the gadgetry and the star wars.

Niven wrote Ringworld by himself; and I love all his Known Space stuff. But other work with Pournelle that's top-notch (besides Footfall) includes Destiny's Road and The Legacy of Heorot. Footfall is a fantastic book, but every time I read it again I catch some new piece of political polemic that sticks in my craw. E.g. the worst human villain is... an investigative reporter! After the environmental devastation, the naturalist watching the first rains pitter-patter over Death Valley comes to the conclusion that... we should've been building as many nuclear power plants as we could find fuel for! An expansive, open-minded, liberal-seeming President at war is likely to... try to give away the house at the last second instead of letting his commanders press the attack (and therefore a coup d'etat is totally justified!)! Their worst piece of work is the fun but horrific global-warming-denialist screed Fallen Angels (premise: environmental laws including carbon controls have ushered in a new Ice Age between 1992 and the 2020s). Ye gods.

Ken MacLeod is incredibly worth paying attention to, especially if you're one who can't fucking stand mainstream political parties; a Scottish ex-Trotskyist libertarian, he has sympathy for the rational fringes who can't get the center to grow some damn balls and stop being mediocre. The Fall Revolution books are good (and play with every conceivable political ideology), as is everything else I've read from him.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy is utterly amazing (some have criticized its character development, though I didn't find it bad in that regard); probably the best and most detailed account of terraforming you'll be able to find until the day we actually start doing it. Tons of description and exhibition; but enough of the other good stuff that it makes me want to walk naked on the beaches of Arcadia Planitia and then curl up by a fire with some friends and watch the sun take an hour or two to fully set on Mons Olympus.

Umm... Douglas Adams (RIP), Iain M. Banks (RIP), Frederick Pohl (RIP), Neal Stephenson, Vernor Vinge are all worth reading... Pohl has my favorite quote about being a sci-fi author: "A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile, but the traffic jam."

Gradea · Post by **Gradea** » 27 Jan 2015, 04:31

1984. Full stop.

The Rejected Realms

The Rejected Realms