• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Classic Sci Fi book recommendations?

kurisu_1974

is on perm warning for being a low level troll
Often overlooked is Island from Huxley, the utopian counterpart to Brave New World.

I also bought We by Yevgeny Zamyatin some time ago, should also be a good dystopian read but haven't gotten to it yet.
We is set in the future. D-503, a spacecraft engineer, lives in the One State, an urban nation constructed almost entirely of glass, which assists mass surveillance. People march in step with each other and are uniformed. There is no way of referring to people except by their given numbers. The society is run strictly by logic or reason as the primary justification for the laws or the construct of the society. The individual's behaviour is based on logic by way of formulae and equations outlined by the One State.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
Could some HP Lovecraft stuff be considered scifi? I mean like Shadow Out of Time or Mountain of Madness.
Most HPL stuff is actually sci-fi since it is all about aliens or lost civilizations. While there is some "supernatural" in there it is more using arcane science to contact some type of space God or create a strange phenomenon rather than straight magic. A lot of those old pulp stories would be considered some type of sci-fi if they were written today as opposed to the urban fantasy stuff that they are usually conflated with.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Most HPL stuff is actually sci-fi since it is all about aliens or lost civilizations. While there is some "supernatural" in there it is more using arcane science to contact some type of space God or create a strange phenomenon rather than straight magic. A lot of those old pulp stories would be considered some type of sci-fi if they were written today as opposed to the urban fantasy stuff that they are usually conflated with.

HPL is horror, not SF. His aim was always to install a deep sense of dread, not a sense of wonder. His protagonists went mad because they witnessed things no man was meant to see, and could never understand. HPL has a deeply ascientific view of the world, the complete opposite of what you'd find in classic SF.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
HPL is horror, not SF. His aim was always to install a deep sense of dread, not a sense of wonder. His protagonists went mad because they witnessed things no man was meant to see, and could never understand. HPL has a deeply ascientific view of the world, the complete opposite of what you'd find in classic SF.
Doesn't matter. An alien mind controlling you from pluto and taking your brain out via a scientific apparatus is science-fiction. Most of his creations aren't magical, they are technologically advanced (or were, before they fell into degeneracy).

His TONE is horror, but his methods are sci-fi. It's a broad genre. Peter Watts is kinda a modern HPL and uses science in a similar way (with obviously a more advanced understanding).
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I'd check out some Michael Moorcock, you don't see his name mentioned much anymore, but he was a hugely influential fantasy/sci-fi writer (dunno if he created the multiverse concept for a body of fiction, but he really made it a cornerstone of his output). He tends to interweave fantasy and sci-fi elements so find one of the sci-fi heavy ones I guess.
Others have recommended Philip K Dick, but I would start with his short stories, he wasn't the best at writing novels, A Scanner Darkly is probably the most accessible of the ones I have read.
 
Last edited:

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
Not so much a classic dear German Hops German Hops but I feel like recommending it nonetheless..


1KTAeJs.jpg


Fact or fiction. That's for you to decide.

If you're eyes light up when reading about top secret intelligence projects/experiments that relate to dimensional/time travel, origins of remote viewing and other esoteric stuff you should give this a try for sure...
Awesome stuff! I appreciate any recommendation. 👍
 
Last edited:

greencoder

Member
"I Will Fear No Evil" by Robert Heinlein - to understand what a pervert he was. The book is bad and not a classic, but the author is.

175325.jpg
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom