THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: mberan42 on 17 Jul 2006, 16:04
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I looked back in the archives a few months and couldn't find this topic, so I decided to start it.
We've talked about favourite Sci Fi movies (http://forums.questionablecontent.net/viewtopic.php?t=10988), Neuromancer (http://forums.questionablecontent.net/viewtopic.php?t=10676), and even Orson Scott Card (http://forums.questionablecontent.net/viewtopic.php?t=9735).
However, I'm wondering what Sci Fi books are on your "Must Read" list? (In no particular order, obviously.)
Mine include the following:
Dune - Frank Herbert
Ender's Game - OSC
Neuromancer - William Gibson
The Mars Trilogy - (Red-, Green- and Blue-) - Kim Stanley Robinson
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Privateers - Ben Bova
The Star Fraction - Ken McLeod
The Guns of the South - Harry Turtledove (Historical Military SciFi, if you want to get technical.)
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Ringworld books are nice.
Dune, for sho.
Martian Chronicles.
I, Robot. Foundation Series.
I like technology scifi, but not so much alien scifi, but am known to like the exception. All old Isaac Asimov stuff is really good, in my opinion.
When I was a kid, I read this book that i have been trying to remember my whole life. I remember Buck Rogers being involved but a search of that has never helped. It's this academy on Earth that kids go to become astronauts in the future and there are students who come from Jupitar, Mars, and so on. It was good, I wish I remembered the title.
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I just recently got into the sci-fi/fantasy genre, so I have nothing really to recommend, except most definetely:
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass).
They're actually being made into movies (which will be released next year, if all goes well): I hear Paul Bettany and Nicole Kidman are getting roles, so that should be interesting. I just hope that New Line will do it justice and not censor out the religious aspect (there's a full-scale rebellion against "The Authority", or God).
Anyway, I do have a collection of Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, both well-known sci fi authors. I particularly like Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day" and "The Veldt."
PS: ORSON SCOTT CARD WENT TO MY BROTHER'S HIGH SCHOOL for a talk (about the upcoming movie-version of Enders Game) and a book signing. I'm so friggin jealous, my brother hasn't even read Ender's Game or have a care in the world for literature. Apparently, Orson went there because a niece or close relative attends the school. GAHH.
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I agree with Dune & Neuromancer, but I guess that they are a couple of the big names of the genre so they almost go without saying really :)
I recommend people check out Arthur C Clark's Rendezvous with Rama and Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, as well as Dan Simmons' Hyperion series.
All fairly well-written books with interesting subjects that I hadn't really seen handled in the way they address them.
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Well
I'll second these:
Enders Game
Dune
The Ringworld books
I don't read a whole lot of sci-fi but those first two books are must reads for everyone I think, rather or not you like sci-fi.
Oh and lest we forget
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy... its mostly sci-fi....
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Man, it was a rough enough day at work that I forgot H2G2 and Rendevouz with Rama...
I second both those recommendations.
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Agree with pretty much everything here. Ones I don't agree with are going on my 'books to buy' list.
By author (Not a definitive list):
Alfred Bester: 'The Demolished Man' (Man tries to get away with murder in a world of psychic detectives)
Ray Bradbury: 'Fahrenheit 451' (In a future totalitarian america, books are banned)
Phil K. Dick: 'UBIK' (In a world of nightmare commercialism, an unlikely group are trapped in a surreal, computer generated afterlife), 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' (In a depopulated, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, a detective-cum-hitman must decide what is real and what is not), 'A Scanner Darkly' (To combat a monstrously addictive new drug, police officers themselves must become addicts. The only problem is, the drug severs the links between the left and right side of your brain, turning you into two people, neither of which is quite sure what the hell is going on), 'Valis' (God is a computer, and the universe is mad), 'The Man in the High Castle' (The original 'The Germans won WW2' book, concerning an elusive author who has written a banned novel in which he postulated what might have happened if the Germans had lost. Reportedly written using the I Ching), 'Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said' (A drug is developed that alters not only your perception of reality, but everyone elses as well)
Philip Jose Farmer: 'The Riverworld Series (To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Fabulous Riverboat, The Magic Labyrinth, The Dark Design)' (Every man and woman that ever lived is resurrected along an endless river, incapable of death, with all their material comforts cared for, but no materials with which to establish a civilisation. High adventure, shitloads of sex and deep, spiritual themes ensue.)
Ursula K LeGuin: 'The Left Hand of Darkness' (Thought-provoking novel that examines what gender means in a world of hermaphrodites), 'The Word For World Is Forest' (Humans blatantly disrespect the shamanic beliefs of an alien race and exploit them and their vast hardwood forests with willful abandon. Aliens rise up. Humans get owned.)
Harry Harrison: 'Bill The Galactic Hero' (A vicious and cynical satire on the insanity of War), 'The Stainless Steel Rat' (The greatest criminal in the Galaxy becomes it's most unorthodox cop. You cannot help but love Slippery Jim DeGriz)
Also worth reading by Harrison is 'Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers', but only if you've ever read the Lensman series.
Aldous Huxley: 'Brave New World' (Drugs and mindless liesure render life meaningless in a dystopia of terrors far more subtle and unnerving than 1984)
Richard Jefferies: 'After London' (The first post-apocalyptic novel)
Anne McCaffery: 'The Ship Who Sang' (A pinnacle of hippie sci-fi not even LeGuin could approach. Crippled child is hardwired into a space-ship and roves the galaxy adventuring, exploring feminism and singing Bob Dylan songs)
Mary Shelley: 'Frankenstein' (Probably the first thing really deserving the title 'Sci-fi'. And still brilliant.)
Olaf Stapledon: 'The Star Maker' (Philosophical space opera that spans the life of the universe. The word 'Epic' is redefined.)
HG Wells: 'The War of the Worlds' (Wells laughs at imperialism as the Martian tripods tower over London), 'The Time Machine' (The Future's not worth knowing about)
Gene Wolf: 'The Book of the New Sun (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch)' (Sci-fi and fantasy meld in a work of vast imagination set in earths distant, dying days).
John Wyndham: 'The Chrysalids' (In a post-apocalyptic world, the greatest crime is deviation. I always maintain that this is Wyndhams best book), 'The Midwich Cuckoos' (Aliens impregnate all the women in a small English village. Creepy glowing eyed children proliferate), 'The Day of the Triffids' (Satellite weapons strike almost everyone blind. Unchecked, mutant plants go out of control and eat people.)
Sci-fi short stories you should attempt to acquire:
Jerome Bixby - It's a Good Life (Basis for the classic Twilight Zone episode)
Phil K Dick - The Second Variety (Paranoia reigns in a war between machines and humans. Primary source for Terminator and the Matrix.)
Walter M. Miller Jr. - Crucifixus Etiam (Frontier religion on a hellish, half-terraformed Mars)
Fredrick Pohl - The Tunnel Under the World (People are enslaved to market researchers)
Robert Sheckley - Specialist (Humanity finds its place in the universe)
Raccoona Sheldon - The Screwfly Solution (Aliens exterminate the human race without laying a finger on us. Utterly terrifying.)
Cordwainer Smith - The Game of Rat and Dragon (There are some really nasty things out there in interstellar space)
HG Wells - The Land Ironclads (HG Wells predicts the shape of future war in an extremely uncanny way)
I'd recommend 'The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories' (Ed: Tom Shippey) and 'The Golden Age of Science Fiction' (Ed: Kingsley Amis) as a starting point for these, though some, such as Tunnel Under The World and The Specialist, are in practically everything. I think I have the Specialist in four different collections.
I've tried to mainly keep to old stuff, mainly 70's and earlier, with this list, and of course there's a lot missed out even then. I just kinda got bored :/
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(fairly large, excellent list)
Awesome list, will check into some of these.
I second the Book of the New Sun, it was an excellent story.
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The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.
Pretty much anything Ray Bradbury wrote before the late eighties.
Dune, sure, but only the first one. After that....bleh. Same with Ender's Game.
Blood Music, Eon, Eternity, Across the Sea of Stars, and The Forge of God by Greg Bear. (He has tons more, but I haven't read them yet.)
The Uplift War series by David Brin.
People, PEOPLE! Why has no one mentioned the Hitchhiker's Guide books yet? Get with it! Douglas Adams FTW!
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey To the Center Of the Earth, and Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.
War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The First Men in the Moon by Herbert George Wells. (The Food of the Gods sucked, imho.)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
The World of Null-A by A. E. Van Vogt.
And...yeah. I could go on, but you don't want me to, prolly. I'll get all carried away.
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A really great thing to do is to get a big anthology of sci-fi short stories, even if most of them suck. I have 'The Hard Sci-Fi Renaissance' and it is pretty fucking tight. Its got Stephen Baxter, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ben Bova, lots of others too.
Beggars In Spain by Nancy Kress is pretty good.
Dune, Ender's Game , etc.
Most of my favs have been mentioned already.
But...
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein.
TANSTAAFL!!!!!
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Dune, sure, but only the first one. After that....bleh. Same with Ender's Game.
I disagree. Speaker For The Dead is one of my favorite books.
Although it's somewhat true about the Dune sequels. They're all about religion and sex. Specifically mind controlled vaginal stimulation.
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William Gibson's latest, Pattern Recognition, is a very good book - and it's very-near future, too, so he's using recognizable technology. It's a pretty good read.
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Robert A. Heinlein.
I was gonna say... It didn't seem like anyone had mentioned Heinlein.
Also;
Roger Zelazny-Lord of Light
Far future; a planet controlled by the immortal Hindu gods who maintain the balance between themselves, Buddha, a Christian saint and scores of demons. Reincarnation and fantastic technology play a huge part.
I don't want to spoil the plot but lets just say everything is not as it seems.
Don't read the Amazon plot summary, it completely ruins the book.
Roger Zelazny-Isle of the Dead/Eye of the Cat
Two fantastic midlength novels. Isle of the dead is about an immortal businessman and an intruder disrupting his life by bring his former friends back to 'life'.
Eye of the Cat is the story of a hunter set to protect a diplomat so he enlists the help of one of his captures on the condition that the 'Cat' be allowed to hunt him when the task is complete.
John Brunner-Stand On Zanzibar
John Brunner basically created ecoscifi. The world is basically fucked and this book tells some of it's story.
Neal Stephenson-Snow Crash
Tells the story of Hiro Protagonist and Y.T and their attempts to stop a computer virus that can affect people as well. Set in a dystopian corporate controlled future. Absolutely hillarious and very inventive.
Neal Stephenson-The Diamond Age
The future is dominated by nanotechnology which creates harsh divisions between rich and poor. What happens when the classless are given class?
I cannot recommend Lord Of Light, Snow Crash, Stand On Zanzibar and The Diamond Age enough. All absolutely fantastic books.
Peter F. Hamilton writes really good pulp scifi which is a lot of fun to read. Some Greg Bear stuff is good too.
Anything from Sector General by James White is pretty good too. Intergalactic hospitals are awesome.
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since all the classics have already been mentioned: i have one series that i can not recomend hard enough.
Dan Simmons- Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion
those four books changed my life. they are amazing. and its seems like no one has read them; my dad, his friend, and i are the only people i know that have read these books.
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Absolutely lots of Heinlein. (For some off-the-beaten-path, try Friday or JOB: A Comedy of Justice.)
Also, I have to agree with Rizzo on a couple of authors: Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash is great. Diamond Age is also very good, but less accessible if you're not ready for a lot of cyberpunk.
Peter F. Hamilton writes some really quality stuff that I tend to categorize into the "British SF" genre. The Mindstar trilogy is a good fun action romp, and plenty of fun. Fallen Dragon is a really good standalone novel, too.
In the same vein, Michael Flynn's Firestar series, referred to by some guy on Amazon as akin to Heinlein's Man Who Sold the Moon. Saving the earth through capitalism!
If you looking for something a little bit hippy and a lot of punny, try Spider Robinson's Callahan Chronicles or Lifehouse. Robinson claims Heinlein as a heavy influence, and is similarly interested in transcendentalism but a good bit more light-hearted about it.
For old classic SF (less politically correct and a little chauvinist), try "Doc" E.E. Smith's Lensman series.
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MAN I can't believe I forgot John Brunner! 'The Shockwave Rider' is great as well: probably the first sci-fi novel to envisage the impact of computers anywhere near accurately, with an analog of the internet and even hackers and computer viruses.
Peter F Hamilton is great. It's kind of a shame that pretty much everything he's ever wrote ends with a sudden Deus Ex Mechanica involving some sort of Alien cybergod. I mean, the end of the Nights Dawn Trilogy, my favourite thing he's ever written and an engrossing read despite being thicker than a stack of lead bibles, is like running into a brick wall, it's so sudden.
Other awesome modern sci-fi writers in a similiar vein (hard or semi-hard with a good bit of action) would be Alaistair Reynolds (Check out 'Chasm City' and 'Revelation Space') and Adam Roberts (Check out 'Salt' and 'Stone'). I'd also include Iain M. Banks, but his sci-fi generally isn't quite so hard. It is awesome though.
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I'd also include Iain M. Banks
Hmm, I can't remember what book of his that I read and really liked... Amazon.com, here we come...
Consider Phlebas, that's it. Good read.
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Cities in flight ~ James Blish
Anything by asimov
Banned andd the banished sierese(sp?) ~ James Clemens
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To be honest I'm amazed that Khar is the only person who's mentioned Philip K. Dick. Dick is a bit like Heinlein in that even his fluffier sci-fi works (examples: The Gameplayers of Titan for Dick, The Door Into Summer for Heinlein) are really intriguing and well-written sci-fi, even if they are effectively beach reading. And when they're at the top of their game ("Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," "Stranger in a Strange Land") they're absolutely extraordinary. Philip Dick and Robert Heinlein are pretty much unfuckwithable. From what little Azimov I've read I'd say the same is true for his work too.
Also, mad props to anyone who mentioned Neal Stephenson.
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OMG the Dragons of Pern series is so sad... :(
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anything by Ray Bradbury. seriously. the two mentioned, Farenheight 451 and The Veldt (short story), are very good. my favorite book by him is Something Wicked This Way Comes, though that's more horror/fantasy than sci-fi. but it's still very good.
yes on Dune, Brave New World, and H.G. Wells books...but i'm surprised no one mentioned Kurt Vonnegut yet.
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It's hard to consider Vonnegut sci fi, even though his work is about as trippy as it comes.
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Philip Dick and Robert Heinlein are pretty much unfuckwithable. From what little Azimov I've read I'd say the same is true for his work too.
I dunno, Dicks quality did vary a bit. Yeah, some of his fluffier stuff is pretty good, but I'm not sure I'd ever recommend anyone read, say, The Zap Gun or The Solar Lottery.
It doesn't really detract from Dicks incredible abilities though. He must have written about 50 books.
Consider Phlebas, that's it. Good read.
Ah yeah, the first Culture novel. It gets better from there, though I must say, for all I love the culture, I think the non-culture books 'Feersum Endjinn' and 'Against a Dark Background' are his best sci-fi. I also rate very highly 'The Bridge': it's published under plain Iain Banks, the name he uses for non-sci-fi, but it definitely has huge sci-fi elements.
Given how much I've been hawking it lately, I'm surprised I didn't mention Illuminatus! Maybe because I don't really consider it sci-fi, despite the aliens, undersea laser battles, Atlantis, talking dolphins and goodness knows what else.
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Given how much I've been hawking it lately, I'm surprised I didn't mention SeaQuest DSV! Maybe because I don't really consider it sci-fi, despite the aliens, undersea laser battles, Atlantis, talking dolphins and goodness knows what else.
Fixed.
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It's hard to consider Vonnegut sci fi, even though his work is about as trippy as it comes.
Vonnegut wrote an article about how he wants to be completely out and seperated from the Sci-Fi market, and it is hella hilarious.
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Well, I honestly don't see any defining qualities of Sci Fi in his work. I mean, Breakfast of Champions is fucking weird and is certainly not realistic, but there's no scientific explanation for what happens. He just has it happen. It's not even futuristic. Calling him sci fi would be calling Shakespeare's works fantasies.
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he's sort of on the same level as bradbury in how they use their sci-fi, he's more fantastical and focuses more on the society than the technology. it's "softer" sci-fi, but it's still sci-fi. i dunno. Harrison Bergeron is a really good short story.
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Fixed.
Yeah, the '!' is part of the title, and fucking annoying it is. Also, Illuminatus! is really NOTHING like SeaQuest. Unless SeaQuest had a lot more zombie nazi death-legions, lovecraftian monstrosities, rampant weed-smoking and kinky sex than I remember. I think the best way to describe Illuminatus! would be to imagine an unholy combination of Foucaults Pendulum, Catch 22, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Call of Cthulhu, Naked Lunch, Ulysses, Good Omens, The Principia Discordia and shit knows what else written by, well, lets call a spade a spade, two majorly doped out Playboy editors. It is a book that has literally altered my perception of reality.
And 'Slaughterhouse 5' is normally acknowledged as sci-fi.
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But SeaQuest DSV had Darwin, the talking Dolphin! And freakin' Jonathan Brandis!! Come ON!!
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Does Darwin write poetry, tell dirty jokes or battle zombie nazi death legions in secret underground seas?
I THINK NOT.
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But...! But...!
...damn
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Well, I honestly don't see any defining qualities of Sci Fi in his work. I mean, Breakfast of Champions is fucking weird and is certainly not realistic, but there's no scientific explanation for what happens. He just has it happen. It's not even futuristic. Calling him sci fi would be calling Shakespeare's works fantasies.
I personally wouldn't ever call him Sci-Fi ever. Mostly only people who have never actually read him use it, I think
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OMG the Dragons of Pern series is so sad... :(
God I hate Anne Macaffery... I want science not fantasy goddamnit. And she won't stop cranking out the same tired old concepts!
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I'm not a big science fiction buff, but I like a couple authors. Fahrenheit 451 (by Bradbury) is a great book, as is Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card). The His Dark Materials books (Philip Pullman) are some of my favorite ever, as I've probably mentioned.
Philip K. Dick is cool. What's up with that guy, anyways? (http://deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm)
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OMG the Dragons of Pern series is so sad... :(
God I hate Anne Macaffery... I want science not fantasy goddamnit. And she won't stop cranking out the same tired old concepts!
I only accept the existence of the first four dragon-riders books, and Dragonsdawn. Everything else is just...superfluous.
She hasn't written much good since the seventies. I class her with LeGuin, sort of the fluffier version.
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Yeah I read the Dragons of Pern series for a while... First 2 or 3 books were pretty reasonable then it all crashed and burned.
So I read Crystal Singer which was ok as well.
Then I read the series about the people abducted and left on some shitty planet... that was never ending suck. Seriously... one of the worst series I've ever read. I don't know how I got through it.
I think the fact that I actually know something about biology and physics now killed it for me. NO WOMAN, THAT WILL NOT WORK. FAIL.
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I think the first 3 Dragon Rider books are good, and then like the others (read most except for the newest 2 or 3) but only because I like the first 3 so much.
(No ideas about what my book was? :'( )
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Then I read the series about the people abducted and left on some shitty planet... that was never ending suck. Seriously... one of the worst series I've ever read. I don't know how I got through it.
Was that Dinosaur Planet? Actually no...as I said, I haven't read much of her stuff since the seventies. Mainly because I have never bought a single one of her books, just read my dad's copies.
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Nah nah, it was ummmmm *looks it up*
Freedom's landing and the rest of the Freedom series. Absolute fucking tripe.
And Acorna. Unicorn girl? More like unicornGAY AMIRITE?
Seriously though, go read romance novels, they have more basis in fact than Macaffrey. Generally more coherant plots too.
I work in a library. Therefore my word on books = law.
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Dan Simmons has been mentioned in connection with Hyperion. He also deserves to be known for other things he's written - his horror (particularly Song of Kali, and the short story Dying In Bangkok) is masterful.
The duology of Ilium and Olympos is fantastically good sci-fi, which I can't recommend highly enough.
Finally, his now-out-of-print book The Hollow Man (based upon the short story Eyes I Dare Not Meet In Dreams, which can be found in the anthology Prayers To Broken Stones - Eliot much?) is one of the most introspectively heartbreaking stories of love and redemption I've ever read. Synopsis: a brilliant mathematician, who is gifted/cursed with the ability to read minds, meets his soulmate (the only person he's ever met who can do the same thing) at a party. Years later, she dies from cancer, he goes insane, and then (through some bizarrely sub-quantum goings-on) they meet again and resolve their issues, and redefine the universe while they're at it. Khar, there may still be a copy of this book in the Southampton Public Library - you should get it out and read it.
Also, the somewhat obscure author Tim Powers. His books are not sci-fi in the traditional sense - rather, they tend to be secret histories, offering alternative views of world events with magic treated as a branch of science. Two in particular stand out as must-reads:
The Anubis Gates: this one won the Philip K. Dick Memorial award back in '83. In the 1800s, Egyptian magicians, their powers waning under the onslaught of the British, try and open a portal just outside London to summon the god Anubis. It works - sort of. Modern-day poetry analyst Brendan Doyle winds up travelling through this extradimensional gate into the past, where he undergoes Weird Happenings. The romantic poets make an appearance, as does Spring-Heeled Jack, the Apemen of London, and divers others. Amazing.
On Stranger Tides: Near the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, John Chandagnac, a young English puppeteer, finds himself captured by pirates in the Caribbean. Offered a choice of death or service, he chooses service, and embarks on an adventure that takes him to Port Royale, Charleston, and (by way of a change in scenery) the Fountain of Youth. This book feels authentic, despite (in fact, probably because) of the extensive use of vodoun folklore crossed with modern pseudo-science, as well as some very solid-feeling pirates (particularly Blackbeard). I love this book.
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The Vampire Earth Books
in order, Way of the Wolf, Choice of the cat, and Tale of the Thunderbolt byE.E. Knight
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... 'Valis' (God is a computer, and the universe is mad), ...
I love VALIS with a passion. I actually found it because our 7th grade music appreciation book fleetingly mentioned a weird opera called VALIS that sounded strange and neat and I remembered it until high school until I found that it was a book and that my dad had a copy. I spent a day of school ignoring pretty much all my classes and finished it quickly.
I might be one of the only people in the world who really liked Idoru. It was my first Gibson book so maybe I get some slack? No one else seems to like it.
I like the LeGuin Earthsea series, but the first one is the best.
Dune goes without saying- the whole series. Even though it wasn't as charming after awhile, it had its moments. And I've liked the McCaffery that I have read (not much) but I would call it more fantasy than Sci Fi.
And I love Ray Bradbury. He is just as awesome in person as you would imagine, if you haven't met him. My father is into Sci-fi literature and so I grew up going to book signings and such. My favourite memory (not that long ago, either. four years maybe? five?) is watching Bradbury sitting on the edge of the stage ranting and cursing about the people who bought the rights to Fahrenheit 451 (because they havent done crap about it except show him a few pitiful screenplays, accdn to him) and how much he hates Michael Moore. Then they served booze backstage even though it was a school function and there were student volunteers (like me) all over the place. It was the best thing our sad little school ever did.
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I'm not the biggest sci-fi reader (have read my share of Stephenson, Bradbury and Gibson) but I really dig Stanislaw Lem's books.
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I heard good things about this book; childhood's end by Clarke, can anyone corroborate? I have yet to pick it up. Hmmmm...... I <3 Gibson, and dammit there's something else!
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For some reason, Childhood's End reminds me of a Judge Dredd spin-off graphic novel featuring Judge Anderson (you know, the hot lass with issues from Psi Division).
Now I generally can't stand Judge Dredd, the neo-fascist thing just makes me ill plus the storylines can be more than a bit trite; but this was an awesome comic. Has anyone else read it? It featured the exploration of long-lost tombs on Mars, the Cydonia Face, and was remarkably philosophical for a Judge Dredd universe story. (It might not be as good as I remember it - I was only, what, seven when I read it).
But, ah, yeah, I've also heard good things about the Clarke book. I haven't read it - but I'll back up est on Rendezvous at Rama, which is one of the seminal sci-fi classics IMHO.
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the space trilogy is pretty awesome. i've only read the first dune, but i'll probably go get the others while i'm still on break. actually, now i have about 20 books to go read. thanks, guys. :)
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Try "The Night Land" (and the night land II) By William Hope Hodgson, it is pretty out there. Clark Ashton Smith wrote some good short stories that take place on mars.
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If you think Judge Dredd is neo-fascist you're kind of missing the point. Also, is the book seriously good enough to go to Scum for? It'd cost me more than a new book to go and rent it and take it back (£16 foot passenger return).
...especially when I just found it on Abebooks for $3.50. I'll be nabbing that when I get some money into my debit card account.
As for the Space books...I share Phillip Pullmans opinions on Carol in general. Yes, you should probably read them, but I wouldn't personally recommend them to someone wanting a good time.
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Yeah I get that it's parody and so on. It just somehow leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Don't ask me why, I'm not dissing it or anything, just saying it's not for me.
Damn. Ferry prices have gone up that much? I remember getting over to the Isle of Wight Festival and back for thirty quid, all inclusive.
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Yeah, read that over again.
THERE AND BACK THIRTY QUID.
For a piece of water you can fucking SEE across!
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My point was that the 30 quid included the festival admission.
16 quid on its own... That's ludicrous.
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Just over the last couple weeks I've been all over Robert Anton Wilson. I finished "Illuminatus!" reently and I'm working on Schroedinger's Cat.
Very, very, very good stuff. Read it. You'll understand why.
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Illuminatus! completely changed my outlook on life.
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It's hard to consider Vonnegut sci fi, even though his work is about as trippy as it comes.
Yeah, he's really just wacked out contemporary fiction. And I love him for it.
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I dunno, Slaughterhouse Five was pretty sci-fi.
Elcap: WHAT!? What year was this?
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Illuminatus! completely changed my outlook on life.
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.
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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.
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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.
That's 'The Second Variety'. As I said, it seems to me pretty certainly the basic inspiration for The Terminator and The Matrix.
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Oh, well that is a great, if depressing, story.
Didn't the Wachowski brothers nick their ideas from some manga?
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.
I also ordered Tom Robbins - Villa Incognito, is that a good place to start?
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Oh, well that is a great, if depressing, story.
Didn't the Wachowski brothers nick their ideas from some manga?
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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I also ordered Tom Robbins - Villa Incognito, is that a good place to start?
Villa Incognito is actually my least favorite of his. I mean, it's still quite good indeed, and I expect you'll enjoy it. But definitely get a different one after you're done with it. I think you'll be more impressed.
It doesn't really matter what order you read them in, but here's a list of how I'd rank them.
Jitterbug Perfume
Skinny Legs and All
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Still Life With Woodpecker
Another Roadside Attraction
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
Villa Incognito
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Recently came across Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom. The basic concept: set in the 22nd century, Earth now lives under the Bitchun Society. Technology has made death, labor, and currency obsolete, the closest thing to money being 'Whuffie," which is a measure of how much people admire and respect you. Most of the book takes place in Disneyland, where the narrator lives. It's interesting, and better still, available for free.
You can pick it up here (http://www.craphound.com/down/download.php), if you're so inclined.
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I can't believe no one has mentioned Dawn by Octavia E. Butler. I couldn't get into the rest of the trilogy, but this one is great. I've heard some of her other books, outside the trilogy, are good, too, but I haven't read them.
Also, someone mentioned Vonnegut, and someone said "he's not sci-fi."
The Sirens of Titan is very sci-fi, and very very good. Cat's Cradle has some sci-fi elements, too. It probably depends on the book.
Someone else mentioned Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. More fantasy than sci-fi, but very good! These books changed my life.
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I would recomend The Forever War by Joe Halderman its best described as Starship Troopers meets catch 22. I havent read any of his other books though.
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I second the nomination of Cat's Cradle as sci-fi. It's got even more elements of the stuff than Slaughterhouse-Five, which kind of was even though it didn't want to be.
Now, for unmentioned ones:
Armor, by John Steakley: This is what Starship Troopers would be if instead of focusing on the political, it looked at one person and the effects of a future war on his poor little mind. It also has a wonderful plot arc that seems to go all over the place but, in reality, is neatly connected.
The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle: Humanity's first contact with really alien aliens. With lots of very realistic politics and double-dealing. Dialogue isn't the best, but that does not detract from the overall quality.
First Contract, by Greg Costikyan: If aliens were to integrate Earth into the galactic economy...well, this might occur. Wildly amusing, and just as interesting to read.
Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan: The definitive cyberpunk novel of the 21st century. No, really. This guy gives Gibson the run of his life for his accumulated moneys. He manages to make a novel where people who die can just be resurrected thrilling and attention-grabbing.
Agreed on Reynolds, Gibson, Herbert, etc...though I have mad beef with Arthur C. Clarke. I also do not like Dan Simmons. He wrote a wonderful story of interlocking tales and then at the end he hit it with a hammer marked PERSONAL POLITICS. And that made me very sad. Then he went insane and made the Saga of the Evil Catholic Church #392.
...and the Space Trilogy. Oh, I remember those. I read the end of That Hideous Strength and I wanted to find that dead man and light him on fire. And then light the ashes on fire. And so on.
For a dead man I actually like, however...plenty of people have referenced "-ian" things of his, but Howard Phillips Lovecraft is a sci-fi author indeed, good sirs/madams, and one of some repute in my book.
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I also ordered Tom Robbins - Villa Incognito, is that a good place to start?
Villa Incognito is actually my least favorite of his. I mean, it's still quite good indeed, and I expect you'll enjoy it. But definitely get a different one after you're done with it. I think you'll be more impressed.
It doesn't really matter what order you read them in, but here's a list of how I'd rank them.
Jitterbug Perfume
Skinny Legs and All
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Still Life With Woodpecker
Another Roadside Attraction
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
Villa Incognito
Tom Robbins is my favorite author of all time. All of his books are just plain wonderful and thought provoking. Wild Ducks Flying Backwards just came out not too long ago and its a collection of his short work and its just absolutetly amazing. There are tons of 1 or 2 page articles on a huge variety of subjects and they will all pretty much rock your world. My favorite book though has got to be Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, I mean come on who doesnt love a pyramid headed south american shaman forcing a CIA agent to walk on stilts?