Favorite Sci-Fi Novels?

My favorite is "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis. It's one of the best novels I've every written. It's a superb story, with great wit and well researched aspects to it. There's so many fun historical things in this time travel story and it has an interesting spin on time travel. It's wonderful. I cannot heap enough praise on this novel.

Does "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" count? I don't know why it wouldn't, aside from being funny enough for the humor section of the bookstore. I hardly read any novels, but I've read all five parts of the trilogy.
I wonder if the movie is still going to be made since Doug Adams died recently...

I love that series of books too. But the first book has the best wit. I've heard Adams drafted a final version of the script but the director, Jay Roach recently said the project is still in development hell.

hmm... you certainly put me in a perdiciment, Major... I've forgotten more great SF than many will ever read... my favorites have to be... hmm... the Pern series, Anything reguarding Calahan's bar, the Proton/phase series (All of these are done by different authours!) hmm... one book I remember reading a loooong time ago, Berserker Base, umm... dangit, what was that nifty apocolypse one with the ice rings? more Piers Anthony in the form of Tarot, umm... Animorphs by K.A. Applegate (I know it's not her fault my subscription never came... :( ) ummm... EVERY STAR TREK BOOK EVER PUBLISHED!!!... sorry, but they are amazingly well done, for FanFic. Han Solo's book serieses, as that guy is sooo cool. umm... possibly the X-Wing Rogue squadron, but the first was (so far) the best. umm... Anyone play RIFTS? that sourcebook is the 1337ness... as well as the Japan, Canada(tho there is a SERIOUS flaw in the canadian climate effects area of the book) and Mexico.... umm.... lets see.. anything else popping to mind? I _KNOW_there's more... at the core of my mind... hmm... the Warloc/Wizard series (sounds fantasy, isn't. think titles like: A wizard in mind, a Wizard in Bedlam... stuff like that. it's about controlled Anarchy. guess why THAT appeals to me?)
umm... That and the "Ship who sang" are pretty much my favorites... I can't really remember anything else really sticking out.. tho nigh all of the SF I've read was good, these are so far the best. note: Acanous only ever reads a book once. after that point, it is cemented in his brain. the title and authour, however, don't really stick)
aside from stuffs like that, I will read the occasional non-series book and love it, like Rats, Bats and Vats. but I like serieses, they grow on you and make you work your imagination.

oops, forgot Bio of a space tyrant!

I remember the "Ship Who Sang". Wasn't that by the same author as the Pern series?

I think so... I'm trying to remember.. Ane McAffery? yeah, that sounds right..
But at any rate, those are some of my favorites (the ones where I remembered the titles and the ones at the top are the best.)

Anne McAffrey (sp), that's her. Pern's the dragon series, right? Was that considered sci-fi?

yup. they Bio-engineered native mini-dragon things when they landed on Pern to combat the Thread.
it started out LOOKING like fantasy, but it's really just some transitionary SF.

That woman is a truely great writer...I advise anyone who reads a lot to voraciously consume any of her books they can. Oh, and they all tend to be pretty happy stories too :)

The books I'd like to recommend to the world are Ian M Banks' Culture novels, about as far a cry within sci-fi as you can get from the Pern stories. The Culture is a massive space-based civilisation which is incredibly technologically and socially advanced. All of their artificial worlds are practically utopias and they live alongside various AI constructs descended from those their ancestors created thousands of years ago, now in full control of their own destinies. The most powerful of these are the Minds, who run the Orbitals and the massive ships in which the Culture is based.

The novels however follow Culture interference in other, more primitive civilisations which they try and steer into a "better" state by influencing their wars and their progress. Occasionally things go horribly, horribly wrong, which is where most of the stories come in.

The best is "Use of Weapons". READ THIS BOOK. It's an incredible exploration of the main character, and has a brilliant ending. In fact all of Ian M Banks' books are pretty good for brilliant endings, so if you want something new to make you think try reading them. Any other Culture fans out there?

Im more into Terry Pratchett books. would they count as sci-fi? or just fantasy?

They're fantasy with the odd sci fi idea...have you read his early sci fi, "The Dark Side of the Sun" and "Strata" though? They're really good :) Discworld rules though!

those are the only 2 i havent red yet

When you read "Strata" bear in mind that it is not the "Discworld" we know and love that features in that novel, although it was to inspire it.

ill try and remember that

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.

Post-DS9 Star Trek books being a close second (Star Trek books where they actually evolve characters and the environment! Woohoo!)

Anything Star Trek or Star Wars.

Any adult level Star Wars novel.

Hey Ryvaken, have you read any of the newer 'New Jedi Order' Star Wars books?

Originally posted by Pest
Hey Ryvaken, have you read any of the newer 'New Jedi Order' Star Wars books?

The question wasn't directed at me, but I've read the first 3 or 4 of the NJO books, for the record. :P

With Star Trek books I've only read Imzadi. I dunno, it's hard to really read books in a series based on a tv show for me. Mainly because there's so little wiggle room the author can have most of the time with the story.

Originally posted by Pest
Hey Ryvaken, have you read any of the newer 'New Jedi Order' Star Wars books? I own Vector Prime, Dark Tide 1/2, Agents of Chaos 1/2, Balance Point, Edge of Victory 1/2, Star by Star, Dar Journey, Enemy Lines 1/2, Traitor, and Destiny's Way. I own but have not yet read Force Heretic 1/2. I do not own Recovery, Ylesia, or Force Heretic III, and frankly I don't believe Recovery exists.

Whaddya want to know?

Just curious if anybody else had read them. I think its a really cool series. Although I probably liked the other Star Wars books a more.

The continuity between the SW:NJO books is really cool though.

The continuity between the books and the new movies is not cool. Lucas is a hack.

Dune, Children Of dune, God emperor of Dune, House Atradies, House Harkonnen, And probaly House Corrino as I REALLY want to find out what happens to the Teliaxu occupation of Ix.

The enders game seris is good, but not astounding in my opinion.

Any robot story by Asimov, the god of robotics. (First person to coin the term as well)

And this action seris by Douglas Hill I think, about the last mercenary of this planet and he was called Keill Randor.

It is time for tass' little know book that he likes.

Nor Crystal Tears as my favorite first contact book ever.

The Icerigger Triligy for its cool ecosystem.

Both by Alan Dean Foster.

Ringworld for well the ring by Larry Niven

Stranger in a Strange Land for being great old fashioned scifi

Starship Troopers for intorducing the world to power armor

Both by Robert A. Heinlein

1984 for showing humanity in a new light By Orsen Wells.

And finaly Dune for the most well developed world I have read By Frank Herbert.

Well Ther are the little known and well known books that I like

Originally posted by Major Kerina
With Star Trek books I've only read Imzadi. I dunno, it's hard to really read books in a series based on a tv show for me. Mainly because there's so little wiggle room the author can have most of the time with the story.

They've allowed the DS9 characters a LOT of wiggle room for the post-"What You Leave Behind" novels. They're starting to become just like the Star Wars novels in that regard, there's a certain amount of continuity between them.

If I were to take an interest in them, where would probably be the best place to start reading them?

Originally posted by Major Kerina
If I were to take an interest in them, where would probably be the best place to start reading them?

First would be the 2-parter "Avatar", which picks up 3 months after the series finale of DS9

There's a gap between Avatar and the next set, which supposively is filled by the "Section 31" and "Gateways" books; I haven't had the money yet to buy the full set of those two series, so I can't be any more specific, as I haven't read them yet. :P

Then would come "Mission Gamma", which is a four-parter that picks up shortly after Avatar ends. Mission Gamma picks up right after the Gateways crisis from the 7-part "Gateways", which is the annual "span the generations" books

And finally, there's "Rising Son", a single novel that coincides timeline wise with "Mission Gamma"

Also, J.G. Hertzler (General Martok, DS9) has two books out called the "Left Hand of Destiny", which details Martok and Worf on Qo'nos; those two are next on my list.

1984 for showing humanity in a new light By Orsen Wells.


1984 isint really SciFi, it's a horrible half reality of today.

I once owned both Dark tide books. I read them, and they were good.
and Hyperspace bears more investigation...

Originally posted by CRS2117
1984 isint really SciFi, it's a horrible half reality of today.

1984 was sci-fi. It was written about a future period, and what might be possible with "advances" in society and technology.

Apart from opinions (and I'll support the Larry Niven, Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov fans) 1984 is a book which should be read by everyone who can read. Period. This book is incredibly important, as well as having a good story.

If Star Wars can be counted as "Sci"-fi then it's definition is broad enough for those novels too.

Originally posted by Major Kerina
If Star Wars can be counted as "Sci"-fi then it's definition is broad enough for those novels too.

Star Wars is generally counted as Science Fantasy-- Fantasy elements in a Science Fiction environment, and one of the few such to pull it off successfully on a large scale.

Star Wars is generally counted as Science Fantasy-- Fantasy elements in a Science Fiction environment, and one of the few such to pull it off successfully on a large scale.

I thought Star wars counted as "pretty flashing lights and some music with it"

I think Space Opera fits best....that's also a brand of sci-fi novel...

Originally posted by CRS2117
I thought Star wars counted as "pretty flashing lights and some music with it"

That's Eps 1 and 2. :P

Actually, that's every movie. The books are so much better it's not even funny.

And I can and will start a detailed analysis of just how little story there actually is in the movies if this comes up again. You were warned.

Originally posted by Ryvaken Tal`Draco
Actually, that's every movie. The books are so much better it's not even funny.

And I can and will start a detailed analysis of just how little story there actually is in the movies if this comes up again. You were warned.

Sounds like fun! :devil:

Ian M Banks is the master of space opera...but I've already babbled about him enough, I'll stop now... :D

Ahh, the thin red line between Sci-fi and Sci-fa. (And unlike Harry Solomon's Sci-fa, this is fantasy, not fact) the difference between say, Dune and Starship Troopers.
most SF has SOME fantasy eliment, which is really just there to be the unexplained, or to count as an advance in technology, or an alien ability or blah. Star Trek has some, even tho it's arguably the most Science based Sci-Fi ever.

"Sufficiently advanced technology is indistingiushable from magic" - Author C Clarke

Originally posted by Acanous
Ahh, the thin red line between Sci-fi and Sci-fa. (And unlike Harry Solomon's Sci-fa, this is fantasy, not fact) the difference between say, Dune and Starship Troopers.
most SF has SOME fantasy eliment, which is really just there to be the unexplained, or to count as an advance in technology, or an alien ability or blah. Star Trek has some, even tho it's arguably the most Science based Sci-Fi ever.

*creates a bat'leth out of thin air*

Well, actually, no, I just requested a bat'leth, and the holodeck computer has created either a replica of a bat'leth using a combination of holographic light and force fields, or accessed the replicator matter storage to physically create a bat'leth, but it didn't just appear out of thin air...

:P

Acanous:

Star Trek IS NOT "the most Science based Sci-Fi ever". How dare you sir. Do you see the slightest attempt to scientifically explain most of what is going on? Now go thee forth and read Red Mars, and discover true hard sci-fi.

The Hugo Awards - for looking for some really good novels.

2002 American Gods - Neil Gaiman
2001 Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling (ok, that one I have trouble believing)
2000 A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge
1999 To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
1998 Forever Peace - Joe Haldeman
1997 Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
1996 The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
1995 Mirror Dance - Lois McMaster Bujold
1994 Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
1993 A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernon Vinge
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis (tie)
1992 Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold
1991 The Vor Game - Lois McMaster Bujold
1990 Hyperion - Dan Simmons
1989 Cyteen - CJ Cherryh
1988 The Uplift War - David Brin
1987 Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card
1986 Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
1985 Neuromancer - William Gibson
1984 Startide Rising - David Brin
1983 Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov
1982 Downbelow Station - CJ Cherryh
1981 The Snow Queen - Joan D Vinge
1980 The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C Clarke
1979 Dreamsnake - Vonda McIntyre
1978 Gateway - Frederik Pohl
1977 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
1976 The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
1975 The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin
1974 Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C Clarke
1973 The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
1972 To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip José Farmer
1971 Ringworld - Larry Niven
1970 The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin
1969 Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
1968 Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
1967 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A Heinlein
1966 ... And Call Me Conrad - Roger Zelazny
Dune - Frank Herbert (tie)
1965 The Wanderer - Fritz Leiber
1964 Way Station - Clifford D Simak
1963 The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick
1962 Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein
1961 A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller Jr
1960 Starship Troopers - Robert A Heinlein
1959 A Case of Conscience - James Blish
1958 The Big Time - Fritz Leiber
1957 no award
1956 Double Star - Robert A Heinlein
1955 They'd Rather Be Right - Mark Clifton and Frank Riley
1954 no awards given
1953 The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester

_VERY_ surprised that Asimov only won once.
Gibson won on my Birth-year! that's cool.

odd Ian Banks isn't on that list.

Dunno, the Hugo doesn't seem to go for space opera.

Hurrah! Finally another Banks fan?

Acanous: Asimov won twice, with The Gods Themselves and Foundation's Edge.

Hmmm...of them I've read a disturbing amount, and intend to read both Neuromancer (because of how much is said about it) and The Man in the High Castle (because Phil K Dick was a genius, if a fairly drugged up and slightly insane one, and I'm surprised I haven't managed to come across this book yet)

and WHAT THE HELL IS HARRY POTTER DOING THERE? HERESY!

Hugo is broader, includes fantasy. The Nebulas as well include fantasy occasionally (Lord of the Rings won best movie of the year). Btw, Connie Willis has won 12 of both awards, six of each.

2002 American Gods by Neil Gaiman
2001 The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro
2000 Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
1999 Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
1998 Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
1997 The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre
1996 Slow River by Nicola Griffith
1995 The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer
1994 Moving Mars by Greg Bear
1993 Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
1992 Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
1991 Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
1990 Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
1989 The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
1988 Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
1987 The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy
1986 Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
1985 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
1984 Neuromancer by William Gibson
1983 Startide Rising by David Brin
1982 No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop
1981 The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
1980 Timescape by Gregory Benford
1979 The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
1978 Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
1977 Gateway by Frederik Pohl
1976 Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
1975 The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
1974 The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin
1973 Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
1972 The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
1971 A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg
1970 Ringworld by Larry Niven
1969 The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
1968 Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
1967 The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delaney
1966 Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney
and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
1965 Dune by Frank Herbert

Mmmm...you always know something's really good when it wins both the Hugo and the Nebula ;)

I need to start reading Neil Gaiman I think...

I have that book by him but I haven't started reading it yet. Check it out on Amazon, they offer excepts as usual.

1966 ... And Call Me Conrad - Roger Zelazny
Dune - Frank Herbert (tie)

Never heard of the former, shows how fickle reviewers and voters are.

Wha the hell is harry potter doing there? The best use for it is toilet paper and even then it's not that good. BLASPHEMY! REMOVE THIS ENTRY FROM MY SIGHTS.

deletes 2001 from memory.

Ahh better, I wonder what happened to those ugly eyesores on the nyc cityscape?

Neil Gaiman is a tremendous, wonderful, amazing, fantabulous author. One of my favorite books is a colaboration between him and Terry Pratchett, another favorite of mine: Good Omens.

Back to the topic, and some clarification.
First off, some of you may have realized by now that I am often quite verbose. Bear with me. I'm normally not all that picky about the terms I'm about to discuss, but this is a topic all about it, so, eh, why not?

First off, Science Fiction, taken from www.m-w.com[/url]

Main Entry: science fiction
Function: noun
Date: 1851
: fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals or having a scientific factor as an essential orienting component

Science Fiction is about how a given technology impacts a culture. True science fiction is all about the culture, not about wars, or battles, or heroes, but about the culture that started those wars, fought those battles, and spawned those heroes.

Sci-Fi.
Sci-Fi is actually a pejorative term meant to rhyme with Hi-Fi. Sci-Fi is all flashy lights and pretty colors and flashing explosions. This is often on the outskirts of Science Fiction, but is not hard Science Fiction. If you'll notice, few magazines these days refer to Sci-Fi, they refer to SF, which is...

SF
Acronym for Science Fiction

Science Fantasy
This is an odd term. More or less it means SF or Sci-Fi using technology that just truly boggles the mind to the point that we see it as utterly impossible. This has a few problems, because, well, see the aforementioned Arthur C. Clark quote. It's possible there are entire fields of learning we don't even know about, which could allow for anything, be it portable black holes or a species-wide genetic restructuring that allows them to draw forms of energy from one source and direct it to another by will and procedure, i.e. magic.

Fantasy, and by extention Science Fantasy is a story told in a Universe where the fundamental laws of physics are different. In those universes lifting a truck with your mind isn't impossible because the very nature of the universe says it isn't.

</EndRant>

In casual conversation I use Sci-Fi, but since this is a specific topic, I figure we should be clear.

As for my favorites?

[u]Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein - Read the Unabridged version. I say this because most books don't tell you it's abridged. The publishers didn't realize it was abridged, in fact, because one guy trimmed 60,000 words and then left the publishing house. Later, after his death, his wife found the original and had it published. It is so, so, SO much better! And the original is GREAT! In fact, some of my personal philosophy is based upon the dialogues and scenes removed from the original, it's that good.

Ringworld, Larry Niven - It's funny, it's intricate, it's well thought out, it's intense, it rocks.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein - In which it is described how the most perfect government is a colony of anarchy and capitolism on the moon. And there's a war between Luna and Earth.

Dune, Frank Herbert - Read everyone elses statements. This book is both interesting and filled with depth.

Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson - Sometimes his words are so fluid and good you don't even care what he's actually saying. "The gel protected like a stack of telephone books and breathed like zephyr through a freshly napalmed forest."

Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson - See the above, but since I'm studying to make Nanotechnology my stock and trade, this book is doubly cool.

Alright, now for books that might not win many awards, but are just fun to read.
Gaunt's Ghosts, Dan Abnett - A Warhammer 40,000 book, SF war stories and gallows humor at its finest.

All the Way to the Gallows, David Garnett - More gallows humor!

Grunts, Mary Gentle - Orcs + Dragon Hoard of a Gun Nut Dragon + Geas = Orcish Marines! This book is wrong on so very many levels, and yet so, so right.


All right, I'll shut up now. Soon. Yeah, everyone should read 1984. If you want a great, true space opera, go get Crest of the Stars, in book format (if an English translation exists...) or in anime format. True Science Fiction Space Opera. All the setups for a thousand anime cliches are there, and none of them are used (Well, if there are, there aren't many). My favorite line in the entire movie is when the intelligence officer informs the gung-ho, seemingly cocky fleet commander that there is a 95% of success if they attacked. I was blown away when the commander turned, and then asked: "What's the other five percent?" He wasn't a complete idiot! What an amazement! (And, yes, when the battle did occur, he kicked arse, but also cool about the series is that while there are really cool battles, that's just window dressing, not the point of the story.)

Alright, I'm done.

For now.

I love anything by Isaac Asimov. He's got a rather Plato-esque view of the world in a strange sciency way, and it's rather...uplifting reading his material. His robot work aside things like Nightfall and the Foundation series are awesome pieces of badass.

Originally posted by CRS2117
deletes 2001 from memory.

Ahh better, I wonder what happened to those ugly eyesores on the nyc cityscape?

You might want to amend that statement, because that's completely uncouth, disgusting and vile to say.

As for Harry Potter. Well I think your opinions on it have ad much intellectual depth and meaning as a bird leaving on a sidewalk. I don't think it deserves the Hugo award because I prefer seeing it go to Science Fiction works. But the novels give joy to a lot of people.

*STILL wonders where the back row got thier fresh, buttery popcorn from*
dangit, people with better sources than me suck. especially when they don't even pre-emptively gloat about it.

I.... have no idea, honestly.

Asimov is my favorite author, if he wrote it, I'll read it (heck, even his science essays are often great reads), and he's done more to shape my current philosophy and worldview than any 3 other sources I can think of.

Still, there are tons of individual stories which I just love, and I just find my brain isn't able to pick a 'best'.

Hmm... there were some great Man-Kzin war short stories...

Actually there are a lot of short stories I like....

I've read a couple stories with Nanites that I found really intriguing but I still oddly enough can't remember the names of... one with a neat fusion/fission base energy economy...

Hmm... ah, I'd say my favorite 'current' (non-Asimov or other such great books that I've absorbed enough of that I can't really judge) SF novels are Signal to Noise and Signal Shattered, by Eric S. Nylund. Some really incredible books.



Now, for some related stuff: Crest of the Stars is an anime based on Japanese novels. It has a really great SF setting, very well-written, and has pretty nice explinations on why stuff works. The Abh culture, central to the story, is very well-developed, with it's own language even (much like Tolkien, in that respect. Heck, they're pretty comparible in many respects).

Schlock Mercenary (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/) Hard SF webcomic! Good written, art starts out fairly base but gets better, some neat races and ideas. Most interesting in the SF weaponry department.

Anyone read anything by Ian Watson? He has a great, slightly odd style of writing but his imagination is so very, very twisted...

With reference to DODurden's post, I advise Ian Watson's books in the Warhammer 40,000 universe over the "Gaunt's Ghosts" ones. There's considerably more depth to them...however generally all 40k books are brilliant, despite apparently being originally devised as a merchandising ploy (or perhaps I'm just cynical...). Oh, and with spaceships powered by warp drives, an immortal Emperor of the galaxy-wide Imperium of Man, threatened by aliens and daemons from an alternate dimension, and full of mutants and pyschers, Warhammer 40,000 almost seems to be the perfect example of "science-fantasy"...

Originally posted by Q99

I've read a couple stories with Nanites that I found really intriguing but I still oddly enough can't remember the names of... one with a neat fusion/fission base energy economy...

I know the one you're talking about, where people fled to moons and asteroids in order to survive, and every once in a while a nanite "Phage" would infect one of the colonies. after destroying the nanites, life would return basically to normal. one guy figures there must be more to it, gets a ship, meets this girl, who shows him some cool computer program of complete randomness that can be structured into anything from a digital computer to a digital planet. some intrigue follows, and they end up in the asteroid belt, where it turns out *SURPRISE!* that there's people alive on earth. later the girl turns out to be a terrorist or something and gets eaten by nanites. than we find out that the nanites are actually people who feel "Liberated" and want to spread the joy to others.. it ends with the guy (Who lost his arm somewhere thru) turning into nanites, too. oh, and the fuel system was cool, they called it a "Ladder Down" system in which atoms were reduced to hydrogen for fuel, than the output was reintegrated with the hydrogen and reused. and water was more valuable than gold. yeah, I remember that one. Don't remember the name, tho..

I've read a couple stories with Nanites that I found really intriguing but I still oddly enough can't remember the names of... one with a neat fusion/fission base energy economy...

WAs it Moonrise by Ben Bova? That was an interesting story, what Scifi should be about (Yeah I know, I shoudl say science fiction, but im so accustomed to using the term scifi I don't see the need to differentiate)

Asimov, he's just brillitant. About the only author who does not write about robots with the "Krush, Kill, Destroy" pretense. The only time he came close is a breif mention in Foundation and Empire when robots were being disscussed and something along the lines of "Eventually they were humanitys downfall, and people realised they must intermingle again, not just surround themselves with servants".

Iv'e been thinking about Dune, whilst a very complex and interesting read, does anyone find it slighty overrated? Sometimes I feel Frank Herbert's complex philiosphys and dense plotlines somewhat detract from the storytelling.

And the technoolgy wasn't really explained that well. Except for the Dune enclyopedia, which is dull as a very dull thing.

I loved the origional Dune, and the game Dune: The Battle For Arakkis (SP?) but after the first book... they should have stopped there. seriously.

I liked the directions the Dune series took, there were some really clever and unexpected ideas, especially at the end of the final book - was that "Chapter House Dune"? I forget.

In Asimov's universe it was the "Spacer" faction who were responsible for their own downfall through the overuse of robots. The robots were just doing their jobs.

I liked the first Dune but it got poorer after that. The whole idea of this empire with no computers was fascinating as was the spice, but...after someone becomes a mighty leader and destroys his enemy, you roll the credits and leave the cinema, not trying to go on after that.

The way I see it, the first Dune was incredible, but then they start getting exponentially worse. I read them all, hoping I'd get the same level of amazement, but didn't find them.

Then comes House Atreides and Harkonnen, and the series returns to its inital Dune-level achievement. Those are so worth the read.

I loved the origional Dune, and the game Dune: The Battle For Arakkis (SP?) but after the first book... they should have stopped there. seriously.

Ick... If westwood were not already bankrupt I would sue them for dulling the name of dune.

The whole idea of this empire with no computers

Well they did have mentats, who for government purposes were much more useful than just a calculator. Personally I liked the Feudal system the entire empire was in, makes a nice change from multinational companies with forgettable histories.

Then comes House Atreides and Harkonnen, and the series returns to its inital Dune-level achievement. Those are so worth the read.

I agree with that, but many original dune fans can't stand the new prequels as there not in the same style as Frank Herbert's dense as (a very dense substance, like lead or uranium) writing.

Personally I like them much more so than Dune (children of dune was my favorite out of the original novels) but Iv'e yet to find a place where I can accuire House Corrino.

i personally am a dragon ridder of pern fan, anne mccaffrey, mainly because i'm into dragons and a would love to live on a planit as peacefull as pern is.

unfortunality the lack of techenology would eventually drive me insane since i'm am already to old to try to impress a dragon.

what about the ship they found? it still works... sort of...
'course, if we're gettin into other realms... Proton. I'd wanna live on proton and not just 'cuz of the naked people.... no, I'd go for the Games.....

Originally posted by Major Kerina
My favorite is "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis. It's one of the best novels I've every written. It's a superb story, with great wit and well researched aspects to it. There's so many fun historical things in this time travel story and it has an interesting spin on time travel. It's wonderful. I cannot heap enough praise on this novel.

"The Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis is also a favourite of mine - same premise as "To Say.." but a much bleaker world, being set in the days of the Black Death.

Anything by Neal Stephenson is good, though his story endings fade a bit.

I agree the original Dune was great, but it's been downhill ever since. Anyone tried the "spin-off" novels published since Frank Herbert's death?

Asimov's Foundation series is another favourite in a similar vein - the original trilogy was great, but the later add-ons were very ordinary.

Hitch-hikers guide - read and enjoyed all five, but the last couple were getting a bit flat...:cool:

I dunno, I really liked the way Asimov expanded and linked his universe with his last novels, and they had some brilliant twist all over the place. I enjoyed Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth even more than the earlier books...and he left an open ending to the entire storyline! Returning to the very beginning of the Foundation's history with his Hari Seldon books being the last he wrote means we'll never find out what happens next...

Shame about his blood transfusion. I mean he really died before his time. It's not s if he'd stop writing but even so I still feel it's unfair he died from AIDS.

Really?...*checks on IMDB*
"It has recently been admitted by Janet Asimov, his wife, that Isaac acquired HIV during a bypass operation in 1983. He had kept it hidden at the behest of his doctors. Although it is believed that the primary cause of death wasn't AIDS, but kidney and heart failure."

oh my...poor guy...:(

well thats to bad to hear that a ritter died that always makes things more boring in life.

He was writing right until the end of his life, his last book, "Forward the Foundation" was actually published after his death. Another thing to add to the great man's admirable traits, which I think are more important than the sadness of his death.

I didn't know the man, but his work has made me gain his respect.

I havent written in ages, can't think up anything good or original.

Originally posted by CRS2117
I didn't know the man, but his work has made me gain his respect.

Ditto, I wish I had had the chance to meet him, but I didn't get into his writings until after he had died.

Neither did I, which was a pity...

I love reading old sci-fi, but I get a really odd feeling...so many people from the 1950s and 1960s projected their hopes and their dreams upon our parents' generation...and in many ways the human race has "failed", where is the space travel? The manned mission to Mars? And yet, communication technology has advanced way beyond anything they could of expected...

Although Arthur C Clark did make a dramatic prediction with 2001 and the communications satelite.

Indeed there are many ways to communicate now, and not all good (I hate text messages, normally I have to type two to get my message across without gay lame "txt tlk")

I read 3001 and I was suitably impressed. I should read more by him.

If you're reading Clarke, "Fountains of Paradise" is worth a look, and definitely "Rendezvous with Rama". Opinions of the sequels to "Rendezvous" are variable, but I quite enjoyed 'em. :cool:

there are so many Asimov books and Asimov inspired books that it would take me a year to get through them all.

Yeah, I't does take a while to get through all of his works.

It took me about a year to read most of his Robot stories, most of the time was searching the 'net and waiting at the libary for people to return.

Oh, I just got Gardner Dozois latest Annual Collection. Awesome short fiction.

I don't recognise that one... and something tells me that I should.
oh well. when you live in a hitchcock world where an evil computer glitch runs your life by giving you too much lag to deal with, you start losing not only your sanity, but your intelligence, as well. ;)
there's tons of fiction and SF in this house, my room is filled with Dean Koontz horrors, my little sister's with Harry Potter, my mom's got Killing Time by Caleb Carr, and my Dad has some book called the first step to a million, a financial help book, and we all know THOSE things are fictional...

whoa, I just finished a handful of Orson Scott Card's Excellent novels, and i am deeply impressed. Ender's game and Ender's shadow are both excellent novels, but children of the mind and Xenocide really blew me away. I... can't recomend these books emphatically enough to make you realize Card's genius.

Yeah I know what you mean...I had to read Ender's Game for school, and by the end of the month I had read the whole series. They're awesome.
I guess you could call this a sci-fi novel, but it really isn't that far from the truth at all...it's almost non-fiction. But most Michael Chricton novels are. My personal favorites are Timeline and his most recent masterpiece, Prey. They're so good, it's scary.

Dean Koontz's Strangers was quite spooky. It's a behemoth, but it's worth reading; I highly recommend it.

Oh I forgot one book. War of the worlds is a must read. It is amazing when you relizes that the Heat beams (lasers), Black smoke (poison gas), alien invasions, a devastated world (post apocalyptic world , and extreamly fast walking machines of war (mechs) were all first thought about in the book. This is even if you ignore the sociol comentary and that he created the first aliens and they are still more alien then most aliens in books today. It is a must read just to see how Science fiction all started.

There are so many great Sci Fi writers and novels that no list could ever hope to be even close to complete. However, there are a few that really stand out in my opinion.

Orson Scott Card- I first happened on Ender's Game many years ago and have loved his books ever since. The best being Xenocide without a doubt.

L. Ron Hubbard- Beyond the Scientology and the crappy Battlefield: Earth he also wrote the the immense Mission Earth series. The wildly funny and very raunchy tale of a would be conquest of Earth by incompetent agents of an galactic empire.

Brian Daley- Not exactly famous even though he's written many books. Back in the 80's he wrote a trio ( Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds, Fall of the White Ship Avatar and Jinx on a Terran Inheritence ) of books that rank as some of the best science fiction I've ever read. Really, the man has a knack for dialogue and setting up describing scenes that's absolutely top notch.

David Brin- Startide Rising and Sundiver. What more needs to be said?

Sean McMullin- Souls in the Great Machine was one of the best science fiction novels I've read in the last 10 years. One of the most imaginitive writers in a genre of imaginitive writers.

Mary Doria Russell- her two books, The Sparrow and Children of God are perhaps two of the most important science fiction works ever written.

I agree on David Brin. I've read both those books. I need to check out Sean McMullin. And I've seen Sparrow around but always figured it was a non-genre or at least fantasy book. I never knew it was sci-fi. Thanks :)

Oh one guy I forgot, who was it who wrote the stainless steel rat books?

That would be Harry Harrison. The Stainless Steel Rat series was a favorite of mine when I was younger, it's been a long time since I've read anything by him though. He also wrote Make Room! Make Room! which was the basis the 1973 movie Soylent Green.

Oh! I'll watch out for that, I also really liked his stories about Bill, the intergalactic hero.

If only more millitary stories were like that.

Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series here.
I just need to find the copy I loaned to my dad, which he lost somewhere in the house. >___<
And I have yet to read 'Salmon of Doubt' which came out earlier in 2003 which is #6 in the series. And the final one. Douglas Adam's editor finished it.

Edit: I Robot is pretty good too. I enjoyed that one. This thread encourages me to get off the computer for a while, and read some more Sci-fi. :D

Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series here.
I just need to find the copy I loaned to my dad, which he lost somewhere in the house. >___<
And I have yet to read 'Salmon of Doubt' which came out earlier in 2003 which is #6 in the series. And the final one. Douglas Adam's editor finished it.

Edit: I Robot is pretty good too. I enjoyed that one. This thread encourages me to get off the computer for a while, and read some more Sci-fi. :D

I dont think Salmon of Doubt is part of the trilogy in five parts....its more just anyonomus writings of douglas adams. (correct me if im wrong). That said Douglas Adams is top notch stuff. A must read.

Ender's Game series has another vote from me, and from what my friends have said the two sidestories Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon are also quite good.

I've read alot of the Starwars EU stuff and its all pretty good with the exception of a few. The authors that stood out in my mind were Timothy Zahn (I don't remember the book titles off the top of my head but i do know they all revolved around a Chiss Grand Admiral ;)) and Matthew Stover (Traitor from the NJO series and Shatterpoint). Both are good authors and I'm currently looking for other stuff they published, i'll bet its worth a look.

I agree with 1984, and you should also try out Brave New World by A. Huxley ("A." because I don't know how to spell the first name)

The number one series I'd recommend is the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind...no its not exactly Science Fantasy...just Fantasy...but it totally changed my life philosophies and quite frankly turned my life around, so i'd feel guilty for not advertising it.

One other very short book that could be considered philosophical, science fantasy, and religious (among other things) is a book by Scott Adams called God's Debris. Also very much worth the read if you have 3 or 4 hours to kill. And yes Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert, but no it is not a comic book and isn't really comedic at all for that matter. serious book.

Well that pretty much wraps it up for me. Thanks for all the great suggestions you guys, I'm only 17 but lookin for alot of books to read. Some of these books i've never heard of, or heard of but never thought of reading. heh

One thing about Douglas Adams is he put off deadlines even more than I do for writing.

One thing about Douglas Adams is he put off deadlines even more than I do for writing.

Heh. Luckily I don't make deadlines for myself. (My projects take me forever and a half to do, assuming I ever finish them.) (Unless it's homework)

I dont think Salmon of Doubt is part of the trilogy in five parts....its more just anyonomus writings of douglas adams. (correct me if im wrong). That said Douglas Adams is top notch stuff. A must read.

I'm pretty sure it is the 6th in the series, but I'd have to double check with my dad, he's read it. So, I'll know for sure sometime tomarrow.

'Forever War' all the way! w00t!

Etc. :D :bunny:

Some of my favourites, in no particular order:

- Ringworld series, or anything set in Known Space, by Niven.

- The Voices of Heaven, by Frederik Pohl. Good portrayal of a colony world, but my favourite part was probably the antimatter fuel system they had.

- Time is the Simplest Thing, by Clifford D. Simak. Possibly the most interesting concept of time travel and truly alien beings I've seen.

- To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. I really liked the concept of the continuum in this one.

Hmm.. what else is good... Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl, Starship Troopers, and most things by David Weber, especially his series starting with Mutineer's Moon (I don't know if it even has an official name). Weber's probably my favourite out of all of those.

I'm pretty sure it is the 6th in the series, but I'd have to double check with my dad, he's read it. So, I'll know for sure sometime tomarrow.

The Salmon of Doubt is a collection of non-fiction articles and the novella 'A Salmon of Doubt', which was a Dirk Gently story, pieced together through his notes and previous drafts, after his death.

The only HHGTTG-related piece in there was "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe" which is a short-story that has appeared in previous HHGTTG collections, including the hardcover version of "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Complete and Unabridged".

The HHGTTG series is tied in greateness with The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

Hitchhiker is great in just the way it is written while Cat is Heinlein gold with taking real science odd ball thinking and melding it into one consitent and real feeling whole that is extrodanarly funny.

I guess...I can only vote for Jurassic Park and Lost World, and Andromeda Strain and Sphere by Crichton, Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz, and Heir to the Empire by Zahn, 'cause that's all I've ever read in that genre. >_>