Best SciFi Books Ever Written

[The Rock]

Dunno if it really counts as Sci-Fi, but Aldous Huxleys' "Brave New World" gets a vote from me, especially considering when it was first published.

Bart

[cjolley]

Bart,
Brave New World counts big time
Good one.
chuck

PS Can't say I would read BNW while I was looking for a job though.

[Gurm]

Required Reading... Sci-Fi

Well, here's my take on things. I'll be starting a different topic on the Fantasy side of things, but this will do for starters.

You have to differentiate between "hard" Sci-Fi and "soft" Sci-Fi. Almost everything I've seen listed thus far has been "soft" Sci-Fi - which is fine. There is very little "hard" Sci-Fi in novel form, most of it is short stories. But if you grab the Nebula Award Winners book for the past few years you won't be disappointed in the world of "hard" sci-fi.

As for general reading of Sci-Fi:

Orson Scott Card:

Ender's Game, as well as Speaker For The Dead, are must-reads. The rest of the series is good IF you really enjoy the prime characters, or are one of those people who REALLY wants to know how things turn out. But as with all of Card's work, he really founders once he passes the first couple books, and the series ends up meandering.

Isaac Asimov:

Asimov is the ruling deity of sci-fi. The man wrote more books than most people ever READ. Many were textbooks used for collegiate-level science courses. The best of his work, however, lies in three completely intertwined series (although you don't KNOW they're intertwined until MUCH later on!):

The Robot Series
The Galactic Empire Series
The Foundation Series

I highly recommend reading the robot series (all the books) first, then the first three foundation novels, then the galactic empire series (all), THEN the remaining foundation novels... or else you spoil the fun. Basically read them in the order in which they were published (Galactic Empire came first, IIRC, but it is pretty much disconnected time-wise from the rest of the series).

Douglas Adams:

ALL Douglas Adams is great work, but the "increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy" is of course the best, followed by Dirk Gently. The other stuff is mainly for if you like his writing style, as it isn't sci-fi per se.

L. Ron Hubbard:

Just Battlefield Earth. The mission earth series, while 800,000 books long, is just kinda crappy. Plus I don't think it was ever really finished. Battlefield Earth was written well before Scientology ever came about (although Dianetics was a JOKE, something Scientologists fail to understand), and is quite the spectacular piece of Sci-Fi.

Robert A. Heinlen:

I concur with the "dirty old man" analysis of Heinlen. His work is very thought-provoking, and was for its time quite salacious. Personal favorites are "Starship Troopers" (which is more of a diatribe on the stupidity of "new thinking" in the Western World than the military drama the movie makes it out to be) and "Friday", although certainly "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "I Will Fear No Evil" are excellent as well.

William Gibson:

Gibson, before anyone else had ever contemplated the idea, dreamt up Cyberpunk. And the kicker? He had never even USED a computer before he sat down to write "Neuromancer". Books to read for sure:

Neuromancer
Count Zero
Burning Chrome
Mona Lisa Overdrive

Books to read if you like his writing style:

Virtual Light
Idoru
Difference Engine
All Tomorrow's Parties

Frank Herbert:

Dune. I concur with the others, the series begins to wander after the first two books. In fact, you might just be happiest with your conception of his world if you leave it alone after the first book.

Anne McCaffery:

Pern, Pern, and Pern. Read them in the order in which they were intended to be read:

Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
The Harper Hall Series (Dragondrums, Dragonsinger, Dragonsong)
Then the pre-history ones... then the later ones (all the Weyrs of Pern, etc.)

Also her Freedom series is worth checking out (this added by Julie).

Classics:

Jules Verne and H. G. Wells are of course required reading, as well.

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Ok, that's all I could think of to start. But that's a couple weeks' worth for me, maybe more. Ought to keep y'all busy all summer.

- Gurm

[Wombat]

BNW is really good. It's on my list of re-reads. I've got to get 1984 this summer too.

D. Adams: I still have to say that as the series grows in size beyond the "trilogy" it gets pretty bad.

Card: <I>Game</I> is really really good. <I>Speaker</I> was also good. <I>Ender's Shadow</I> was probably better than <I>Game</I>, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the Shadow series.

[Lemmin]

I'm usually a lurker on these forums, but I can't keep quiet when you are ignoring some of the best authors out there!

Iain M Banks: 'Against a dark background' is an amazing book. The Culture series is cool (warning for Americans - the Culture series deals with communist/socialist issues which you might find disturbing ). 'Feersum enjin' is a challenging read - about 20% of it is written phonetically - as well as being a very clever story.

Peter F. Hamilton: The Night's Dawn trilogy is an excellent space opera with some very well thought out technologies and cultures, and it has the bonus of being HUGE (more story for your money). The Mindstar books are somewhat lighter reading, but extremely well written and entertaining.

Neal Stephenson: A relatively new author, 'The Diamond Age' is worth a read, although I am not so keen on his historical/factual/fiction effort with 'The Cryptonomicon'.

Stephen Baxter: He writes a wide mix of books - some of the science could be quite challenging if you didn't have a decent grounding in it.

Jeff Noon: Definately an aquired taste, and sometimes very weird, but interesting.


Some other authors who I read (and enjoy):
Tad Williams - Otherworld
Frank Herbert - Dune etc
Terry Pratchett - all good, less funny recently
William Gibson - well written, and aging moderately well
David Brin - the uplift series
Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun series + others

Regards,

Lemmin

[Gurm]

Ooh ooh I forgot one...

George Alec Effinger...

He wrote "The Circuit's Edge" and the following books.

Very Gibson-ish.

- Gurm

[EchoWars]

Gurm...

Jogged my memory with Friday. Loved that book!

Which somehow reminded me of To Sail Beyond The Sunset. Being from Kansas City, his descriptions of KC from the early 20th century were great!

<EchoWars...compiling what appears to be a bitchin' list and readying for a visit to Barnes and Noble>

[Jorden]

Cradle

Just ended Cradle from A.C. Clarke again. I still think the end is a bit strange.
Am now starting off with Rama again. I've got the whole Rama series (4 books for you who think it's only 3 ), so I should be doing something this summer
Although I might get some "Ghost of the Grand Banks" into me before that

How far does SciFi go, anyway? Is it "books that play in the future" when you buy and read them, and if yes, how far into the future?
Is Clive Cussler writing a SciFi when he writes a book in 1990 and puts it in 2003?

Jord.

[Schorsch]

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned Stanislaw Lem so far. This guy from Poland has written some awesome novels, most of them are very sophisticated (and at times even philosophic) but sometimes also quite ironic and funny. I rate him much higher than, say, Asimov or Heinlein.

Lem is pretty popular here in Germany - what about the rest of the world?

Schorsch

[Gurm]

Scorsch:

Lem is "hard" sci-fi. Not only that but he really loses a bit in the translation. We're mostly discussing "soft" sci-fi here. But I agree - Lem kicks ass.

- Gurm

[RichL]

L.Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth was great the first time I read it, not so good the second time and the third time around bordered on crap. He had some good ideas, fairly original stuff but the last half/third of the story just fell to pieces for me.

William Gibson
I am in 110% agreement with Gurm. Neuromancer invented the whole Cyberpunk genre. Dont be put off by the naff film of Johnny Mnemonic, the short story (found in Burning Chrome) is far, far better.

I have to add to the list with -

Walter Jon Williams
Did some sci-fi stuff, but also the excellent Cyberpunk books 'Hardwired' and 'Voice of the Whirlwind'. If you like Cyberpunk, you'll like these.

Harlan Ellison
I'm not sure if he's actually done a full length novel, but most of his short stories and collaborations are very good.

Harry Harrison
His Stainless Steel Rat series is a bit cheesey, but good fun. As is his Bill the Intergalactic Hero.

Robert Asprin
The Phules Company series are quite good humouros Sci-Fi, but prior to that he did a novel called 'Bug Wars' thats worth a read if you can find it.



And of course, one day in the dim distant future I hope to add myself to the list , although everytime I read William Gibson I sigh and realise just how far I have to go.

The sky over the port was the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel.

[cjolley]

Originally posted by RichL
[B]Harry Harrison
His Stainless Steel Rat series is a bit cheesey, but good fun. As is his Bill the Intergalactic Hero.

Rich,
I didn't know anyone else had ever read "Bill"!
Read his "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers"
Still 10 points for the connection between Star Smashers.....
and MURC!
chuck

[mdhome]

Although I am not heavily into SC-FI, I have to agree with Wulfman. Philip K Dick does it for me.

regards MD

[Muad'Dib]

As usual, I'm adding my vote for Dune as being great. Books 3 through 5 pretty much bit, but I remember really liking the 6th book, although it was a LONG time since I've read it.

I'm glad Philip Jose Farmer was mentioned - To your scattered bodies go pretty much rules.

I don't know if short stories really count, but (trying to remember name.... still trying ... not succeeding ... ah yes) the Rollerball Murders short story (s) are pretty good if anyone has read those.


***EDIT***
Now that I can post again, The Philosopher's Stone by Colin Wilson is a GREAT book, but it's harder than hell to find. Anyone else read it?