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"Must-Read" Sci Fi books

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onewheelwizzard:

--- Quote from: KharBevNor ---Illuminatus! completely changed my outlook on life.
--- End quote ---


It does that pretty well.

Read some Tom Robbins.  His books are as close to Wilson's as anyone's and he's got a much more interesting command of language and writing.  Wilson's got crazy ideas and writes them into books really well, but Robbins does all that with more poetry.  Illuminatus! would've been a total revelation to me (and in many ways it sorta was) except for the fact that reading Tom Robbins had sorta made a lot of it old news.  And as engaging as Wilson's prose is, Robbins's is way, way more fun.  Wilson makes me think, but Robbins makes me think with a smile on my face.

Praeserpium Machinarum:
Really interesting recommendations everyone!

I just ordered Stranger in a Strange Land(I always wanted to read that one) and Snowcrash from another library. Because they only have translated shit at my library, and scarce at that.
I would probably recommend some Dennis Jürgensen but I don't think he's translated into English.
Generally I don't think any Danish science fiction is published in English, not that we have that many SF writers either.
But I do love Jules Verne and the first Dune book. Slaughterhouse 5 in English which I had difficulties with but I survived.
I read a little of Neuromancer(or Neuromantiker because it was in Danish) and it didn't grab me at all.
I like Philip K. Dick's short stories, especially the one dealing with a warworn battlefield and robots who imitated children and such to infiltrate bunkers.
I can't remember the name of it.

But judging by all these books I still have plenty of reading ahead of me.

KharBevNor:

--- Quote from: Praeserpium Machinarum ---
I like Philip K. Dick's short stories, especially the one dealing with a warworn battlefield and robots who imitated children and such to infiltrate bunkers.
I can't remember the name of it.
--- End quote ---


That's 'The Second Variety'. As I said, it seems to me pretty certainly the basic inspiration for The Terminator and The Matrix.

Praeserpium Machinarum:
Oh, well that is a great, if depressing, story.

Didn't the Wachowski brothers nick their ideas from some manga?


--- Quote ---Read some Tom Robbins. His books are as close to Wilson's as anyone's and he's got a much more interesting command of language and writing. Wilson's got crazy ideas and writes them into books really well, but Robbins does all that with more poetry. Illuminatus! would've been a total revelation to me (and in many ways it sorta was) except for the fact that reading Tom Robbins had sorta made a lot of it old news. And as engaging as Wilson's prose is, Robbins's is way, way more fun. Wilson makes me think, but Robbins makes me think with a smile on my face.
--- End quote ---


I also ordered Tom Robbins - Villa Incognito, is that a good place to start?

KharBevNor:

--- Quote from: Praeserpium Machinarum ---Oh, well that is a great, if depressing, story.

Didn't the Wachowski brothers nick their ideas from some manga?

--- End quote ---


From my own personal discernment, the Wachowski brothers primary influences were Ghost in the Shell (the manga and film), Terminator,  The Shockwave Rider, and a good dose of William Gibson (for tech) and Philip K. Dick (for paranoia and virtual reality) and a dash of the theory of storytelling as well as HKBO and other manga and anime such as Akira, Lain, Appleseed etc.

They're actually monstrously derivative films. I wish they were just a monstrously derivative film.

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