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[Fjordson]

I think it was the first great sci-fi novel that I ever read and it's stuck with me ever since. Re-read it last year and I enjoyed it just as much. Love Gibson's style. And reading it nowadays you can really see just how influential it was.

edit: just noticed this thread is old as hell. Oops.

 

[inm8num2]

The Man in the High Castle.

 

[Cameron122]

The best science fiction book I have read is probably The Book of the New Sun. I tend to read a lot more from the fantasy side of the science fiction / fantasy continuum, though.

High five.

Dune and Foundation as well.

 

[Inversive]

I read Dune for the first time while on holiday in the summer and really enjoyed it, it's worthy of all the praise it gets. Though i've been told to avoid the other books, is that good advice?

 

[t-ramp]

I've read some of the major ones mentioned, but nothing really jumps to mind as the best. One that I think of every now and then is Pohl's The World at the End of Time, which is a great story.

I never read anything like this before and it was recommended here by another gaf reading thread. It started me reading again since the last book I went through was the second Jurassic Park in school. This book is so good I am reading it again and I have never done that before.

But The Scar is better!

These are both such excellent books. I have Iron Council, but for whatever reason didn't get sucked in like I did with Perdido Street Station and The Scar. I still need to read that one, since I'm sure it's worth it.

 

[Ratrat]

Enders Game

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

I haven't read too much sci-fi, but it's probably Dune.

Compelling story with great characters.

 

[Trent Strong]

Snow Crash?

 

[sn00zer]

For fans of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, I highly recommend checking out the accompanying adventure game of the same name - or at least a playthrough of it on YouTube, which will accomplish roughly the same thing without all the frustrations of playing a buggy, trial & error-fraught pixel huntin' point & clicker from the early 90s. The game narrative fleshes out the characters (I believe them to 'overlap' with those described in the short story) and maintains the grim tone while never quite covering the same ground, making for a very different but complementary experience.

Man I dont know if I can sit in that universe longer than it took to read the story.

 

[NinjaTehFish]

Galactic Milieu Series by Julian May.


From wiki:

The book follows the Remillard family of New Hampshire from the years immediately after World War II through an increasingly turbulent world, in which various "metapsychic" humans manoeuvre in secret to direct the destiny of the human race. The Remillards play a central role in this story, though the narrator, Rogatien "Uncle Rogi" Remillard, is often an alienated observer rather than a central participant. At the same time, the earth is under surveillance by representatives of a galactic culture (the "Galactic Milieu" of the series title), who monitor the human race's fitness for admission into the wider galactic community. Interwoven with this narrative are glimpses of the time after the main action of the series, drawing together threads from it and the Pliocene Exile series.

Blew my damn mind back in the day.

 

[Dead Man]

Galactic Milieu Series by Julian May.


From wiki:



Blew my damn mind back in the day.

Such an awesome series. A bit mary sueish at times, but a great read. Rogi is a pretty damn awesome character. And of course the family ghost.

 

[Oracle Dragon]

You guys are way to highbrow for me

 

[Thug Waffle]

.

 

[Zeus Molecules]

The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov.

∆∆∆This

 

[Mook1e]

Neuromancer by William Gibson

and I also highly recommend Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.

READ THEM NOW.

Fucking A Right.

 

[Lamel]

The Picture of Dorian Gray.

 

[bdouble]

Hyperion

 

[Aureon]

Foundation.
Although it shows it's years, there's hardly contenders. Dune is good, but overrated - Damn fine literature, has a very important historical meaning (Not at the levels of Lord of the Rings for the fantasy genre, but comes close), but, at the end of it, especially considering that sequels at a certain point become.. questionable, it's not THAT good.

 

[Stallion Free]

I love OG Robert Heinlein like nothing else. Pulpy classic sci-fi 4 life.

 

[Dead Man]

Foundation.
Although it shows it's years, there's hardly contenders. Dune is good, but overrated - Damn fine literature, has a very important historical meaning (Not at the levels of Lord of the Rings for the fantasy genre, but comes close), but, at the end of it, especially considering that sequels at a certain point become.. questionable, it's not THAT good.

Not sure it is fair to dock Dune for the sequels when the question is about the best book.

 

[Sax Russel]

It's hard to pick a BEST, but Revelation Space (and the following two books) deserve a mention for sure.

 

[HK-47]

I dont have a favorite book, but I think The Last Question is my favorite short story.

And Dangerous Visions is still the best anthology.

 

[Salvor.Hardin]

You're good people.

Foundation might be it if Salvor Hardin stuck around. I never get very far after his time in the book. I would read a whole series with Salvor Hardin as the main character.

I appreciate the kind words.

 

[twobear]

I haven't read a lot of sci-fi but it's a tossup between

and

two of my favourite books, in fact.

 

[siddx]

Ill be honest, I love my star trek novels. Have read every single one that has come out over the last few years and tons from before that. I really enjoyed the "further adventures of DS9" novels and despite it's absurdity, the Destiny trilogy was a damn entertaining read. As far as more "classic" sci fi, I really enjoyed Hyperion and although I'm not quite as enamoured with the fall of Hyperion, I'm still having a good time with it. Every pilgrims story in the first book being written in a unique style and tone to match their character was fantastic and what made the book really stand out to me. That's sorely missing in the sequel. Although I'm only a quarter way through.

 

[Chumpion]

The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem.

Came here to post this.

 

[Nozem]

My favorite:

I also really liked:

 

[AlteredForms]

 

[Das Ace]

All the good ones of mine are taking, so I'll say:

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.

Not really pure SciFi, but I loved it when I read it last. The ending is kind of ...eh. To steal GRRM's metaphor, it seems R.C.W. wrote it like a gardner, as opposed to an architect. But the journey is definitely worth it.

 

[teruterubozu]

I love most anything by Philip K Dick, but The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin is by far the most beautiful sci-fi prose I've ever read. It's like reading a painting. Simply breathtaking book.

 

[Mr.Pig]

I really liked the first Rama, but from what I hear the sequels are more about like, politics and stuff and less about cool alien artifacts

The sequels as I remember them were mostly about

Spoiler

disco spiders, sex and the place of the human race in an advanced alien populated galaxy.

They didn't quite have the same amount of Lost-y "what does it mean? Aaw, no time for answers." The answers are never as interesting as the mystery still unsolved.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

Excession by Iain M. Banks comes to mind, simply because it stands out from the rest of the Culture series. Most books in the series involve the most powerful pan-galactic society needling in the business of less advanced races, but Excession has them reacting to a power far beyond theirs.

It really shows the personal side of the AI minds a lot better, and I think it rules because of it.

Spoiler

I also love that the few human characters in the story, who I suppose you should identify with, turn out to only be bargaining chips to convince a ship to involve itself in the scheme.

 

[endre]

Asimov robot novels and stories. Currently reading Robots of Dawn. Great read.

I wasn't overwhelmed with the Foundation trilogy.

I read Ender's Game. Mainly because his name is so close to mine. I wasn't attracted to the book from what I read before reading it. After I read it I still do not get the hype over it.

Dune wasn't a page turner for me. Rama is also very close to meh. Stars My Destination I liked.

Oh yeah, I liked Hyperion. And the Thrawn trilogy but that is more fiction then sci-fi. Do not get me wrong I like Star Wars very much. But I cannot really count it as a sci-fi.

 

[LollipoPReapeR]

enders game

 

[hat_hair]

There are so many potentially good choices.
Gateway, Use of Weapons, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Snow Crash, Ender's Game, Ringworld, 1984, Brave New World, Farenheit 451, The Island of Doctor Moreau, or pretty much anything by Philip K Dick.

But I probably have to say that The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is the single greatest piece of Science Fiction I have ever read.

 

[Kater]

Either H.G. Wells "Time Machine" or Tad Williams "Otherworld".

Btw, is The Island of Dr Moreau (H.G. Wells) classified as Sci-Fi?

 

[Parch]

You guys are way too highbrow for me

Books are like movies. Rarely does an action movie ever get consideration for an academy award. I've always preferred my sci-fi to be a little more action-movie.

I do like my science fiction to be thought provoking, but frequently they get so deeply philosophical to the point of being boring. Great when done right but too often they try too hard. They want that "classic" label.

Always a matter of preference, but the tech heavy, creepy aliens, action adventure, popcorn movie craziness is good too. They might not ever be considered classic, but they're fun.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

I read Dune for the first time while on holiday in the summer and really enjoyed it, it's worthy of all the praise it gets. Though i've been told to avoid the other books, is that good advice?

The other ones from Frank Herbert aren't bad, and a few of them (imo) are almost as good as Dune. Heretics of Dune and Children of Dune are great, after that things get weirder and weirder. I enjoyed the lot of them though.

Avoid the one's not written by Frank like the plague though.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

this, and HG Wells's Time Machine and War of the Worlds, obviously.

everything else is just footnotes.

 

[AlteredForms]

this, and HG Wells's Time Machine and War of the Worlds, obviously.

everything else is just footnotes.

Give Orwell some credit, 1984 was and still is an entertaining read.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Use of Weapons.

Sublime in Peace, Banks.

Excession by Iain M. Banks comes to mind, simply because it stands out from the rest of the Culture series. Most books in the series involve the most powerful pan-galactic society needling in the business of less advanced races, but Excession has them reacting to a power far beyond theirs.

It really shows the personal side of the AI minds a lot better, and I think it rules because of it.

Spoiler

I also love that the few human characters in the story, who I suppose you should identify with, turn out to only be bargaining chips to convince a ship to involve itself in the scheme.

I actually didn't like it because it turned the AIs, these beings that are so much more intelligent and superiour to the pleb humans, into such fragile and flawed beings.

 

[tycoonheart]

The Foundation series.

Followed by Hyperion.

 

[MikeDown]

i don't really read, though my favorite (and prolly the only books) I have read are Animal Farm, Ferinheit 451, Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.

 

[Nozem]

Also an excellent short scifi/horror story: I have no mouth and I must scream

Here is the full text (PDF, only 13 pages)

 

[IISANDERII]

The author studied astrophysics in university and served in Vietnam. And it shows.

 

[Taffer]

The entire 2001 series and Rendezvous with Rama. I want to read the Rama sequels but haven't found copies yet.

I just picked up Rama Returns today after finishing 2001 and Rendezvous, I remember reading the Rama books years ago and wanted to see if I still like it. Dune next for the same reason.

As for actual favourites, it's probably going to be Count Zero - I end up reading the Sprawl books every year or so.
Stephen Baxter's Manifold books are amazing, I want to be a crotchety old bastard like Malenfant when I grow up (and after looking up the wiki page I just noticed there's a third one I've never read. Hype!).
And because I love the shit out of it and no-one mentioned it that I saw I'll recommend Cities In Flight by James Blish. Anti-gravity drives powerful enough to lift cities lead to Earth's cities becoming interstellar hobos travelling around colony worlds looking for work.

 

[O.DOGG]

Nothing's been quite as good as Arthur Clarke's Childhood's End for me.

 

[Tesseract]

probably the forever war, maybe the 2001 series.

 

[Carcetti]

I have metric tons of scifi in my bookshelf so this is really, really hard.

I guess I'll have to go with something that's always joy to read and has good balance on plot, sf thingys, character drama and political commentary, so I'll pick Player of Games by Iain M. Banks - RIP

 

[Walshicus]

Should be the only reply.

Dune's okay, but there are better. I think the Martian Trilogy is superior in the Planetary Romance genre.

I prefer Banks' science fiction. Not sure if I could pick a single book; Look To Windward is favourite at the moment, but that opinion changes weekly.