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GAF, recommend me some good Science Fiction novels!

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Mik2121

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What the Title says. Recommend me some good SF books!.

I've read most of Asimov's novels so no need to list them. I also recently read the Halo: Fall of Reach novel which I enjoyed quite a bit, but I think the rest of the novels are written by different people so I don't know if they'll be any good.

Also, cheap / free novels would be a plus, but not a must.

EDIT - Btw when I said SF I meant in a futuristic setting, kinda like the Asimov novels, Halo, Dune, etc..
 
Best "Sci-Fi" I've ever read:

#1 Handmaid's Tale

Ender's Game

Ringworld (especially if you liked the concept of Halo)

Hyperion & Fall of Hyperion

Canticle for Leibowitz

Straying a bit from Sci-Fi, but still "Super Natural"

American Gods

House of Leaves

The Terror
 
altered_carbon.jpg

Excellent sci-fi/noir novel.
 
From a Sci-Fi mega-list I'm working on:


Hey,
I've seen a bunch of GAF threads where people are asking about what good sci fi and fantasy is out there. There are already a lot of resources on this site from past threads, so I decided to start compiling them into a big list so people have a central source to check things out. This is just the beginning, I expect it'll be updated, corrected and added to regularly for a while. Feel free to post really good Sci-Fi / Fantasy that I have missed and I'll add it. Where the author wrote novels in both genres and the recommendation for them is 'read everything!', they have usually only been listed in one genre.

LINKS

Hugo Award List and Runner Up List. Read all of these books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel

Arthur C. Clarke Award
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke_Award

Nebula Award
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel

Top 100 Science Fiction Books (by online vote)
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html

Next 100 Science Fiction Books (by online vote)
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank2.html

Top 100 Fantasy Books (by online vote, I do not agree at all with a lot of these)
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/fantasy100/lists_books.html

Next 100 Fantasy Books (by online vote, I still don't agree with most of these)
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/fantasy100/lists_books2.html

Top 100 Science Fiction Books (from David Pringle's book detailing his top 100 sci fi books from 1949-1984)
http://www.listology.com/list/david-pringles-best-100-science-fiction-novels

Prometheus Award (Libertarian Science Fiction Award)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Award

John W. Campbell Memorial Award
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell_Memorial_Award#Recipients

Locus Award for Best Novel (fantasy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_Award_for_Best_Fantasy_Novel

Locus Award for Best Novel (science Fiction)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_Award_for_Best_Science_Fiction_Novel



Science Fiction (Just a sample and start-off point)

Iain Banks - Culture Series
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep; A Deepness in the Sky
Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End; Rama Series; 2001: A Space Odyssey; The City and the Stars
Philip Jose Farmer - Riverworld
Larry Niven - Ringworld (sequels are not as good)
Frank Herbert - Dune Chronicles
Isaac Asimov - Foundation Trilogy (and everything else he's written)
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space Series (and everything else he's written)
Orson Scott Card - The Ender Series
William Gibson - The Sprawl Trilogy
Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger From a Strange Land; The Moon is a Harsh Mistress; Starship Troopers (not like the movie, much better); (everything else he wrote)
Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy; Starship Titanic
Joe Haldeman - The Forever War
Neal Stephenson - (everything he's written)
Peter Hamilton - Confederation Series; Night's Dawn Trilogy; Void Trilogy
Walter M. Miller, Jr. - A Canticle for Leibowitz
George Orwell - 1984
John Wyndham - The Chrysalids; The Day of the Triffids; The Midwich Cuckoos
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep )and everything else he wrote)
Dan Simmons - Hyperion Cantos
H.G. Wells - The Time Machine; The War of the Worlds
Carl Sagan - Contact
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five; Cat's Cradle
Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; A Journey to the Center of the Earth; Around the World in 80 Days
Stephen Baxter - (everything he wrote, starting with the Xeelee Sequence)
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
David Brin - Uplift Series; Uplift Storm Series; The Postman; The Practice Effect; The Kiln People
Ursula K LeGuin - (everything she wrote)
Greg Bear - The Forge of God; Anvil of Stars; The Way Series; Darwin Series; Blood Music
E.E. Doc Smith - Lensman Series
Richard Morgan - Kovacs Series
James Blish - Cities in Flight Series
Frederik Pohl - Heechee Saga
Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars Trilogy
Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun Series
David Weber - Honor Harrington Series
Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park; The Lost World; The Andromeda Strain; Sphere; Timeline; Prey; State of Fear; Next
Roger Zelazny - Lords of Light; This Immortal; (everything he wrote)
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Harlan Ellison - (everything he wrote)
Charles Stross - Accelerando; (everything he wrote)
Stanislaw Lem - Solaris; The Cyberiad
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination
Gordon Dickson - Lifeship
Poul Anderson - The Boat of a Million Years; (lots of his other stuff)
Ben Bova - (everything he wrote)
Jerry Pournelle - (his best stuff usually is co-authored)
H. Beam Piper - Terro-Human Future History Series
Robert Charles Wilson - Spin; The Chronoliths
C.J. Cherryh - Cyteen; Downbelow Station; Rimrunners; Tripoint; Finity's End; (lots of her other stuff)
Piers Anthony - Biography of a Space Tyrant (totally different from his other work. These five books are fairly dark, very mature and extremely well written)
Julian May - The Saga of Pliocene Exile
Sean McMullen - Greatwinter Trilogy
Olaf Stapledon - Starmaker
Timothy Zahn - Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars)
Spider Robinson - Deathkiller Trilogy; Stardance Trilogy
 
Uhm I've heard a lot of people talk about Hyperion, so I guess I'll give that one a chance. Also checking the Hugo Awards list. Lots of books I've heard of, but never ever read.

Keep posting suggestions!
 
If you loved Dune, I highly recommend reading Courtship Rite. Nominated for a Hugo. Written in 1968. Great, great sci-fi wth fantastic characters and a really interesting and harsh world, a-la Dune. Book doesn't share much with Dune, but it's an incredibly difficult book to describe, as it touches on so many themes and ideas in a very complete way. Great book about mankind living a new planet, unaware of earth or how they arrived there. Really interesting world and culture and technology. Great, great book about a a fascinating group of people. My fiance and I consider it one of our favorite sci-fi books, up there with the classics of Herbert and Asimov, and I could not praise the genius of this overlooked sci-fi masterpiece enough.

It is a little-known classic by Donald Kingsbury. See amazon reviews (all five star reviews, except one three star review that was double-posted):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/073947183X/?tag=neogaf0e-20
 
Ugh. I've only read one thing from Asimov (Nightfall) and it was overly cynical about the nature of the human race for me (the idea behind the sci-fi world was immersive though).

Anyways, if you're looking for food for thought, I thought Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed (an anarchy based society and the mentality that would grow from it) and The Left Hand of Darkness (dual gender roles) were fascinating, though not quite page turners.

If you're looking for page turners, then I agree to the Altered Carbon rec (and Morgan's other stuff). Disposable entertainment hyper masculine Hollywood style.
 
Dax01 said:
Spin – Robert Charles Wilson
Click to expand...
+1

also
1984 - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World - Haruki Murakami
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman


also Altered Carbon and Snowcrash are the worst books i've ever read
 
Stanislaw Lem.

Despite being one of the most brilliant sci-fi writers to have ever lived, Lem remains criminally under-appreciated. His books can be savagely funny, incisive, dense, hard to understand, but usually worth the read.

Start with The Cyberiad, which is a series of stories about two rival inventor robots. For something more serious, you could read Memoirs Found In A Bathtub, which is about a future version of the military-industrial complex, but taken to a tragic and farcical extreme.
 
S. L. said:
+1

also
1984 - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World - Haruki Murakami
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman


also Altered Carbon and Snowcrash are the worst books i've ever read
Click to expand...

Snow Crash is about a million times better than The Forever War.
 
Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein

Seriously, if you really want to read scifi novels you really have to read this book (and most of his others, but start there to get into the vibe). It will help you grok.
 
If you want to start reading SF, start with the classics:

40ies/50ies:

Isaac Asimov - Foundation Trilogy, Robot stories
Arthur C Clarke - Childhood's End, The City and the Stars
Robert Heinlein - Glory Road, The Door Into Summer, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination

60ies:
Frank Herbert - Dune
Harlan Ellison - Short stories collections
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light

70ies:
Ursula K LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness
Lary Niven - Ring World
Joe Haldeman - The Forever War
John Varley - The Persistence of Vision, The Barbie Murders

80ies:
Joan D Vinge - The Snow Queen, The Summer Queen
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Greg Bear - Eon, Eternity
David Brin - Startide Rising

90ies:
Dan Simmons - Hyperion
Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars-trilogy
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
Lois McMaster Bujold - Any of the Miles Vorkosigan books
 
The Night's Dawn Trilogy

No need to thank me.
 
Mifune said:
Snow Crash is about a million times better than The Forever War.
Click to expand...
if you enjoy written out B-Movie teenage Sci-Fi fantasies with endless "fight scenes" and pretentious techno-babble, certainly
 
I find that too many of the classic SF novels have great ideas but are really clunkily written. I'm thinking of Rendezvous With Rama, The Forever War, Childhood's End.
 
S. L. said:
if you enjoy written out B-Movie teenage Sci-Fi fantasies with endless "fight scenes" and pretentious techno-babble, certainly
Click to expand...

It's okay when you're fifteen or so, but yeah... I read it a month ago and it was badly paced and most of it wasn't so good. Thumbs up on Hardboiled Wonderland. It's a wonderful book.
 
S. L. said:
if you enjoy written out B-Movie teenage Sci-Fi fantasies with endless "fight scenes" and pretentious techno-babble, certainly
Click to expand...

If you enjoy pages of turgid and dry military/scientific prose with zilch in the way of character or emotion, then I've got a used copy of Tom Clancy's Executive Orders you might want.
 
Mifune said:
If you enjoy pages of turgid and dry military/scientific prose with zilch in the way of character or emotion, then I've got a used copy of Tom Clancy's Executive Orders you might want.
Click to expand...

I like Snow Crash a helluva lot, but considering how much meandering exposition there is in the middle I wouldn't go out of my way to rag on another book's prose in comparison.

The Fnord War
 
FnordChan said:
I like Snow Crash a helluva lot, but considering how much meandering exposition there is in the middle I wouldn't go out of my way to rag on another book's prose in comparison.

The Fnord War
Click to expand...

I just get annoyed when people say X book/movie/album (usually of the generally acclaimed variety) is the worst thing they've ever read/seen/heard. I mean, come the fuck on now.

I admit...I stooped.
 
FnordChan said:
I like Snow Crash a helluva lot, but considering how much meandering exposition there is in the middle I wouldn't go out of my way to rag on another book's prose in comparison.

The Fnord War
Click to expand...

Well one gross oversimplified generalization of a book certainly deserved another.
 
I have been reading quite a bit of Robert Silverburg lately. Face of the Waters, Dying Inside, and The World Inside, were all very enjoyable.
 
Mifune said:
I just get annoyed when people say X book/movie/album (usually of the generally acclaimed variety) is the worst thing they've ever read/seen/heard. I mean, come the fuck on now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Internet has issues with hyperbole. Hey, S.L., if you want to enjoy books like Altered Carbon and Snow Crash, pick up, say, Galaxy 666 by Pel Toro. That'll give you an understanding of what a truly bad novel is.

FnordChan
 
Mifune said:
I just get annoyed when people say X book/movie/album (usually of the generally acclaimed variety) is the worst thing they've ever read/seen/heard. I mean, come the fuck on now.

I admit...I stooped.
Click to expand...
The worst book I've ever read is The Fifth Sorceress by a guy called Robert Newcomb.

If the worst thing you've read is Snow Crash, count yourself lucky.
 
Cyan said:
The worst book I've ever read is The Fifth Sorceress by a guy called Robert Newcomb.

If the worst thing you've read is Snow Crash, count yourself lucky.
Click to expand...
well I certainly must have read and enjoyed way worse books in my youthful days :lol

BobsRevenge said:
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Click to expand...
I've read this many years ago and found it quite fascinating but not an easy read. Maybe i should give it another go, plus the book is pretty thin.
 
The Revelation Space trilogy by Alastair Reynolds
Altered Carbon/Broken Angels/Woken Furies by Morgan
Glasshouse - Charles Stross
Light - M John Harrison
Blindsight - Peter Watts
Agent to the Stars - John Scalzi (its funny, not great, but very enjoayble)
When Gravity Fails - George Alec Effinger
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
Brasyl - Ian Mcdonald
 
H.G Wells, Jules Verne, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, John Wyndham are my favourite sci-fi authors, but you seem to only want like futuristic stuff so I guess none of this will really help you, you're missing out though.
 
This is an out-of-nowhere suggestion, but there was a series written by and author named Karin Lowachee, loosely called "Earthhub", I think, the first of which, "Warchild", won a few awards, I believe.

It's definitely not hard sci-fi, and the other two novels (Burndive and Cagebird) aren't as memorable as the first. Still, I really enjoyed Warchild, and recommend it whenever I can.

For a more "real" sci-fi fix, you're better off mining the classics. Modern sci-fi has started getting a little funny, leaning towards space opera, with a few exceptions.
 
I offer up a seconding of Frederik Pohl's Heechee saga. Such a rich and wonderful tale.

If you're in the mood for a crazy, rollicking post-apocalyptic adventure, I recommend Patrick Tilley's Amtrak Wars.
 
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