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Please recommend the best Sci Fi novels or series

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Some other good books,

Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
Evolution by Stephen Baxter
Star Maker (and Last and First Men) by Olaf Stapledon
 
HeirToTheEmpire.jpg
 
Just to echo some of the recommendations:

Rendezvous With Rama - Arthur C. Clarke (hard sf; also you need to watch this )
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke (loved it)
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison (short story)
Spin - Robert Wilson (more a bildungsroman on a sf background; very very good. Never read the sequel, which i hear isn't as good as the original)
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov (short stories collection; anyone should read it - and don't see the 2004 movie)
The Last Question - Isaac Asimov (awesome short story)
The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem (i read this book about a dozen times; it's a short stories collection)

Burger said:
Came in to post these. Good advice, listen to these men.

A Fire Upon The Deep is one of my favorite novels.
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I'm halfway through A Fire Upon The Deep and i lost all interest in finishing it. I bought it based on recommendations but it just didn't do it for me. Now i've started Roadside Picnic and i'm enjoying it a lot more than A Fire...
 
SabinFigaro said:
- Dune (Frank Herbert)
>> Dune Messiah
>> Children of Dune
>> FULL STOP
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Nonono.

God Emperor of Dune is fantastic.

Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
>> FULL STOP

The last two books (Chapter house and Heretics) are based on a different story arc and are pretty disconnected. Also the writing is by an old man needing an output for his sexual being.
 
The man asks for recommendations including space opera, and there's no E E Doc Smith (Lensman series, Skylark of Space, Family D'Alembert etc.) or Simon R Green (Deathstalker) recommended?

For shame, NeoGAF. For shame.

Edit: If you've even a passing interest in space opera and haven't read everything Smith wrote, then there's your starting point. Pretty much in the order I listed them - those three series are all awesome, but Lensman pretty much defines space opera.

Deathstalker is a much more modern, anarchic take on the genre. I'd describe it as space punk opera, or something like that. But it's every bit as awesome in its own way. Yes, you have to turn large parts of your brain off to enjoy it. Yes, there's a new deus ex machina on every page. But it's a damn fine read at that.
 
I don't know why, but I while I found Ender's Game to be a decent book, I actually find the whole "Ender is Hitler" thing far more interesting.
 
Recently I read and really enjoyed:

- Red Mars
- Green Mars
- Blue Mars

It's a trilogy. Kim Stanley Robinson. Basically about the terraforming of Mars and the first few generations of Martians.
 
Regarding Dune: Actually I enjoyed "God Emperor of Dune" the most. I think Herbert really let loose when he wrote that one.

The dialogs of Leto II. and Malky, that little filthy ambassador of Lucifer, were just pure gold. I remember huge parts of the storyline consisting of philosophical and historical musings between two people. Just that. No action whatsoever, but still, it was highly entertaining to hear Leto talking about Hitler and Agamemnon, and why Bach was a genius and so much superior to Beethoven. The whole setting was influenced by an atmosphere created by two people, who knew that one of them had had all the power in the world to shape it after his fashion, but who would soon be gone.

It's been at least 3-4 years since I read the Dune series again (after Part 8 - Sandworms of Dune - was released by his son), but that's what I remember of it.
 
Everything by Iain M. Banks, and especially his Culture novels, starting with:

ConsiderPhlebas.jpg
UseofWeapons.jpg


In my opinoin, Use of Weapons is Banks' masterpiece. Unforgettable characters, amazing narrative structure and
(something that should never be spoiled).
 
Awesome space opera authors:

Neil Asher
Alastair Reynolds
Peter F Hamilton
Stephen Baxter
Richard Morgan
 
I found the Posleen war series to be quite fun, it's not exelent, but it's fun, read it after you have read some of the more "important" stuff mentioned so far

just don't read it if you are a hardcore liberal
 
The_City_and_the_Stars_hardcover.jpg

On of the greatest works of fiction of the 20th century, and without doubt Clarkes greatest novel. This book has such a broad scope and is about much more than mere story and entertainment. And props for predicting in 56, VR videogames for the first time that I know of in literature.
Amazing amazing book in every way.
 
You can't go wrong with reading all Hugo Award winners in chronological order. There are so many great novels on that list ... I've bolded some of my favorites.

Year Author Title
2009 Neil Gaiman The Graveyard Book
2008 Michael Chabon The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 Vernor Vinge Rainbows End
2006 Robert Charles Wilson Spin
2005 Susanna Clarke Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
2004 Lois McMaster Bujold Paladin of Souls
2003 Robert J. Sawyer Hominids
2002 Neil Gaiman American Gods
2001 J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2000 Vernor Vinge A Deepness in the Sky
1999 Connie Willis To Say Nothing of the Dog
1998 Joe Haldeman Forever Peace
1997 Kim Stanley Robinson Blue Mars
1996 Neal Stephenson Diamond Age
1995 Lois McMaster Bujold Mirror Dance
1994 Kim Stanley Robinson Green Mars
1993 Vernon Vinge Fire Upon the Deep
1993 Connie Willis Doomsday Book
1992 Lois McMaster Bujold Barrayar
1991 Lois McMaster Bujold Vor Game
1990 Dan Simmons Hyperion
1989 C. J. Cherryh Cyteen
1988 David Brin Uplift War
1987 Orson Scott Card Speaker for the Dead
1986 Orson Scott Card Ender's Game
1985 William Gibson Neuromancer
1984 David Brin Startide Rising
1983 Isaac Asimov Foundation's Edge
1982 C. J. Cherryh Downbelow Station
1981 Joan D. Vinge Snow Queen
1980 Arthur C. Clarke Fountains of Paradise
1979 Vonda McIntyre Dreamsnake
1978 Frederik Pohl Gateway
1977 Kate Wilhelm Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
1976 Joe Haldeman Forever War
1975 Ursula K. LeGuin Dispossessed
1974 Arthur C. Clarke Rendezvous with Rama
1973 Isaac Asimov Gods Themselves
1972 Philip Jose Farmer To Your Scattered Bodies Go
1971 Larry Niven Ringworld
1970 Ursula K. LeGuin Left Hand of Darkness
1969 John Brunner Stand on Zanzibar
1968 Roger Zelazny Lord of Light
1967 Robert A. Heinlein Moon is a Harsh Mistress
1966 Roger Zelazny ... and Call Me Conrad
1966 Frank Herbert Dune
1965 Fritz Leiber Wanderer
1964 Clifford D. Simak Way Station
1963 Philip K. Dick Man in the High Castle
1962 Robert A. Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land
1961 Walter M. Miller, Jr. Canticle for Leibowitz
1960 Robert A. Heinlein Starship Troopers
1959 James Blish Case of Conscience
1958 Fritz Leiber The Big Time
1956 Robert A. Heinlein Double Star
1955 Mark Clifton They'd Rather Be Right
1953 Alfred Bester Demolished Man
1946 Isaac Asimov Mule

If you want the best of the best, start reading the books that won both the Hugo AND the Nebula that same year.

My personal recommedation? Alfred Bester. Both "The Demolished Man" and "The Stars My Destination" are true classics that every SF fan should have read.
 
ElectricBlue187 said:
The Culture Series - Iain M. Banks

Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter

I've read them all and I consider this the best Sci-Fi series ever.
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Came to back this shit up. Found The Culture on GAF, hope more people read it. I've just finished Excession and its been a blast.

The Player of Games was my favourite, kept me up for many nights.
 
Greg Bear's "Eon" novels
David Brin's "Uplift" series
Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" triology (+ the short story collection, THE MARTIANS)
Gregory Benford's "Galactic Center" novels
Everything by Greg Egan

Also, throw in Queen of Angels and Slant by Greg Bear. Near-future cyberpunk done right.
 
I just want to recommend something that has not yet been posted (I think):

Sean Williams - Astropolis Series:

Saturn Returns
Earth Ascendant
The Grand Conjunction

Excellent books, all of them, imho.
 
The_Technomancer said:
Just about the only SW books worth reading, IMO. I'm hugely picky, and I don't like most of them. But that trilogy....just.....wow
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I hated it. Zahn didn't understand at all what makes Star Wars great. The Droids are practically forgotten, Han Solo was emasculated even further(which I thought was impossible), and the villains were retconned garbage not fit to lick Vaders and the Emperors boots.

iapetus said:
The man asks for recommendations including space opera, and there's no E E Doc Smith (Lensman series, Skylark of Space, Family D'Alembert etc.) or Simon R Green (Deathstalker) recommended? For shame, NeoGAF. For shame. Edit: If you've even a passing interest in space opera and haven't read everything Smith wrote, then there's your starting point. Pretty much in the order I listed them - those three series are all awesome, but Lensman pretty much defines space opera. Deathstalker is a much more modern, anarchic take on the genre. I'd describe it as space punk opera, or something like that. But it's every bit as awesome in its own way. Yes, you have to turn large parts of your brain off to enjoy it. Yes, there's a new deus ex machina on every page. But it's a damn fine read at that.
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I haven't read any of these, I'm adding them to my list.
 
Tobor said:
I hated it. Zahn didn't understand at all what makes Star Wars great. The Droids are practically forgotten, Han Solo was emasculated even further(which I thought was impossible), and the villains were retconned garbage not fit to lick Vaders and the Emperors boots.
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Interesting. Most Star Wars books that I've tried to get into read, to me, like above average fanfiction. Even those that were good weren't really compelling enough for me to read aside from the license. Zahn's books were the only ones (I've come across) that I feel I would have read even if they weren't SW books.
 
Tobor said:
I hated it. Zahn didn't understand at all what makes Star Wars great. The Droids are practically forgotten, Han Solo was emasculated even further(which I thought was impossible), and the villains were retconned garbage not fit to lick Vaders and the Emperors boots.
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One of first ever seen anyone hate on the series, it is considered a huge fan favorite.
 
The_Technomancer said:
Interesting. Most Star Wars books that I've tried to get into read, to me, like above average fanfiction. Even those that were good weren't really compelling enough for me to read aside from the license. Zahn's books were the only ones (I've come across) that I feel I would have read even if they weren't SW books.
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Honestly, if they weren't Star Wars books, I might have enjoyed them.

The only Star Wars books I've ever read that I enjoyed were The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley. They take place before A New Hope, with Han as a smuggler in his prime, before ROJ ruined him.
 
Tobor said:
Honestly, if they weren't Star Wars books, I might have enjoyed them.

The only Star Wars books I've ever read that I enjoyed were The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley. They take place before A New Hope, with Han as a smuggler in his prime, before ROJ ruined him.
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Maybe its just because I'm not that huge of a Star Wars fan then. (Trek nerd here)
My then-girlfriend, who is a total Star Wars freak, recommended them to me, and I thought they were great. My only other real experience with SW books were four or five random ones from the library that I tried reading when I was like thirteen...
 
Peronthious said:
I'd love to know why people are so against everything after the first three Dune books. Maybe it's just because I was a naive middle school kid/high school sophomore when I originally read it/reread it, but I remember really enjoying the bits of philosophy coupled with looking at the unique diplomatic and domestic issues in God Emperor. Chapterhouse was its own thing, but I remember it being a fun book if only for the action.

I can understand not reading anything outside of the original series, though. The efforts by his son are barely passable.
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The reason people are against the last two books and the more recent books is that they were trash.

Spoilers ahead.
The story started out very balanced as a story about the characters of three houses, the politics of the day and with some ecology mixed in for good measure. Also loved the stuff about the spice, the future, and the crazy molecular kung fu that Paul and his mom could do. It stays interesting and I was even on board when one of the main characters becomes an immortal and all knowing worm. But after Leto died the books lost all focus and when the enemy becomes space whores who control everyone with their vaginas, well by that point you could tell that Herbert was hitting a little much acid at that point. The stuff with Teg was pretty cool and Duncan becoming the secret pimp weapon was also entertaining, but I couldn't take it serious after awhile.
 
The_Technomancer said:
Maybe its just because I'm not that huge of a Star Wars fan then. (Trek nerd here)
My then-girlfriend, who is a total Star Wars freak, recommended them to me, and I thought they were great. My only other real experience with SW books were four or five random ones from the library that I tried reading when I was like thirteen...
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The quality of the older books was pretty random since they brought in so many different authors and each did their own thing with very little planning between them all. Zahn's trilogy is considered the pinnacle of the SW books, and in many peoples mind they basically just read that trilogy and that's it. It was the Zahn books that caused the explosion of SW books and basically is considered the start of the true expanded universe, though lot of the follow up novels were crappy one shot adventures that didn't go anywhere or add anything meaningful to the universe, they just had the characters doing more things that really had no bearing on the universe as a whole.

There are other great novels though out of the over hundred novels they have done so far, like the Xwing series and such, but one can be happy just reading Zahn's trilogy.
 
Kraftwerk said:
I'm reading the whole Isaac Asimov collection at the moment.From i,robot till the end.Brilliant stuff.
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While "I Robot" and the Foundation trylogy are pretty good, some of the latter books are terrible. The final foundation book was a joke and some of the prequels are ridiculous in their retconning.

It's been recommended already, but I think "Dune" by Frank Herbert is a must. All 6 of them, plus the prequels by his son (not as good, but fun anyway).

If you're looking for TV shows, Farscape is my favorite Sci-fi series of all time (If Firefly hadn't been cancelled on its first season it might have been a contender).
 
Anything by Spider Robinson. A fair warning, his books are quite...eclectic for the most part.

The Deathkiller Trilogy and The Stardance Trilogy are both really awesome though.

Also, the greatest sci-fi comedy(?) setting ever, the Callahan series. These are some of my favorite books. It's based around on a bar where the regulars are a bunch of freaks basically. Sentient computer, super smart toddler, time travel belts, nuclear weapons, time stoppages, vampires, and motherfuckin' Nikola Tesla carrying around his death ray with him. Also, if you love word play, these books have some of the best puns I have ever heard, as well as some amazing palindromes.

Also, he's a local author to me, lives in Vancouver.
 
Wormdundee said:
Anything by Spider Robinson. A fair warning, his books are quite...eclectic for the most part.
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I love Spider. As long as we're talking about 70's-80's era soft science fiction, can I recommend Mike Resnick (34 Hugo nominations, 5 wins) if you like some pulp in your science fiction?
 
BrokenSymmetry said:
Everything by Iain M. Banks, and especially his Culture novels, starting with:

ConsiderPhlebas.jpg
UseofWeapons.jpg


In my opinoin, Use of Weapons is Banks' masterpiece. Unforgettable characters, amazing narrative structure and
(something that should never be spoiled).
Click to expand...
Those two and Player of Games are probably the best of the series. The great thing about Banks is he is so consistant that the other books are still fuckawesome and should be read by everyone
 
timetokill said:
Recently I read and really enjoyed:

- Red Mars
- Green Mars
- Blue Mars

It's a trilogy. Kim Stanley Robinson. Basically about the terraforming of Mars and the first few generations of Martians.
Click to expand...
This is a great series.

I also recommend all 6 Dune novels, fuck the haters who tell you to stop at Children of Dune.

Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead/Xenocide/Children of the Mind is good too

Also Foundation series and Asimov's Robot series starting with the Caves of Steel and ending with Robots and Empire
 
Santiako said:
Why on earth would you stop before Speaker for the Dead, which is even better than Ender's Game. Such an amazing book.
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Ender's Game is actually the worst book in the series, more for teenagers than anything else. Speaker for the Dead shits all over Ender's Game but it requires thinking so I can see why some people may be turned off by it.
 
The Forever War
Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow
War of Gifts (Ender's Game Story)
...in my opinion, avoid the rest of the Ender's game. And if you want a quicker option, check out the Trade Paperback Collections of Marvel's Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow Command School and Command School. They do the novels justice and are really well put together.

If you are into games, specifically Mass Effect, their are 2 books that are based in that world. Neither are fantastic on their own merit, but if you enjoyed the games and are familiar with the universe they are fun reads.

Manics said:
Ender's Game is actually the worst book in the series, more for teenagers than anything else. Speaker for the Dead shits all over Ender's Game but it requires thinking so I can see why some people may be turned off by it.
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To each their own.....I dont think Speaker of the Dead is bad by any means, I just didnt find it to be an enjoyable sci-fi read.
 
The_Technomancer said:
Just about the only SW books worth reading, IMO. I'm hugely picky, and I don't like most of them. But that trilogy....just.....wow
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I thought Shadows of the Empire was pretty excellent.
 
bionic77 said:
It isn't a series of books, but the Worthing Saga was pretty enjoyable for. I liked it more than Enders game.
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Well, technically it was a series of short stories recompiled into kind of a novel....sorta

Agreed though, very good. Also worth checking out. If you had the chance to reboot humanity....what would you do with it?
 
besada said:
Me too. I giggled when Bear mentioned it on facebook. There's supposed to be a demo of it at the SF App show soon.
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apparently it's tomorrow! snow crash is one of my favorite books so i'm hyped.

dude is an innovator.
 
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