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What's the best science fiction book you've ever read?
- Thread starter DrLazy
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Alx
Member
mclem said:
I think that's exactly the reason. That's why it works so well in shows like "the Twilight Zone". Short stories get straight to the point, and Asimov is very good at this.
I love in general the old trope of "two astronauts facing crazy situations on their ship/a foreign planet". Asimov has his Powell and Donovan duo, but Sheckley's Arnold and Gregor duo is hilarious too.
Themacabre
Member
For me, it has to be The book of the new sun.
Templar Wizard
Member
Cheng ho or Zones, which is which now? I think Vinge has the rare talent of expressing his concepts without poor exposition.
Im looking at you 'Raul rhymes with Paul'
Im looking at you 'Raul rhymes with Paul'
Man said:God Emperor of Dune
Dune
Forever War
The Stars my Destination (aka Tiger Tiger)
Enders game was also pretty good.
Jesus Christ. We really got the same taste. These four were some of the first books I thought about.
Right off my mind, I would add:
Kobo Abe - Inter Ice Age 4 (Dai yon kan pyouki)
Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle
Brothers Strugatzki - Maxim Kammerer Trilogy / Roadside Picnic /One Billion Years Before the End of the World
Lem - The Futurological Congress / Solaris / Thus Spoke Golem
Trying to get into my first Komatsu book now. Just got this story called "Japan Sinks" (Nippon Chimbotsu; I acquired the German translation) which deals with a very interesting topic: Japan gets hit by a massive earthquake on March 3 and the following tsunami devastates the homeland. The book was written 1973.
edit: nearly forgot Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Love Ender's Game. One of several books I can read over and over and over and never get bored. Another book (series) like that is the March Upcountry books by John Ringo and David Weber.
This is my new favorite thread on GAF since I've been looking for books to read for a long time now.
This is my new favorite thread on GAF since I've been looking for books to read for a long time now.
Loved Time Out of Joint as well.kinoki said:
I've had VALIS, Neuromancer, Dune, and Clash of Kings all on the backburner. I really need to finish one at a time. I won't even list the scifi I've collected over the past year, just daunting...
Another favourite of mine would definitely be A Scanner Darkly. I remember the summer I read it and just couldn't put it down near the end. I also really enjoyed Mockingbird. Kind of never see that listed anywhere.
Going to go read, bye gaf.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Wow, what is with the love for Dune in here? I thought it was good, but it would probably barely make my top 10 list
The_Technomancer said:
Dune and Ender's Game both are terribly overrepressented in this thread. Both of them are pretty good, and while Dune is leagues better than Ender's Game, neither deserve positions in the top 5 much less best ever.
I just think not enough people in this thread have read Riverworld.
RoninChaos
Member
I bought Cryptonomicon a while back but haven't had time to get around to it.
I'd say 1984. I liked a Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid. Don't know if that counts.
I'd say 1984. I liked a Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid. Don't know if that counts.
acheron_xl
Member
Boken said:
Hyperion is probably my favorite book ever. So good.
Alex Connolly
Member
rayner said:
Good man. Nice books.
I can understand the Dune love here, primarily the first one. It's just a rich space opera tale with a late medieval flair. Gorgeous tale, if a little atrophied by the end of the saga.
Maybe not the best but my favorites:
Starship Troopers:
I really enjoyed the Movie and the Book, even though they are both exactly the same and different.
Hyperion:
A friend of mine loaned me his copy. Got me started on the Dan Simmons train
R is for Rocket:
Ray Bradbury can make any story lyrical even if the subject matter is standard fare.
Dangerous Visions:
A great anthology edited by Harlan Ellison.
Beggars in Spain:
Sleepless people vs those who Sleep.
Watchmen:
Men in tights done right.
The Stand:
My Favorite parts are not the end of the world parts but the middle section of the book where it deals with starting over.
Lucifer's Hammer:
Asteroid heading to Earth. This needs to be a Movie!
Have Spacesuit Will Travel
The first Science Fiction book I ever read. Maybe my first "real" book I ever read! 4th Grade library, had a really cool cover that demanded to be read. It may not be the best book but it means the most to me...
Starship Troopers:
I really enjoyed the Movie and the Book, even though they are both exactly the same and different.
Hyperion:
A friend of mine loaned me his copy. Got me started on the Dan Simmons train
R is for Rocket:
Ray Bradbury can make any story lyrical even if the subject matter is standard fare.
Dangerous Visions:
A great anthology edited by Harlan Ellison.
Beggars in Spain:
Sleepless people vs those who Sleep.
Watchmen:
Men in tights done right.
The Stand:
My Favorite parts are not the end of the world parts but the middle section of the book where it deals with starting over.
Lucifer's Hammer:
Asteroid heading to Earth. This needs to be a Movie!
Have Spacesuit Will Travel
The first Science Fiction book I ever read. Maybe my first "real" book I ever read! 4th Grade library, had a really cool cover that demanded to be read. It may not be the best book but it means the most to me...
Most of the ones I liked (such as Dune) have already been mentioned, but I wanted to point out one other book that is absent from the list (from what I can see): Children of Men by P.D. James.
It might not register with many as a Sci-Fi book, as it is not "Hard Sci-Fi", and more in line with the books of Urusla K. Le Guin. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating book, showing a compelling dystopia.
Obviously the film is well-liked, but as is often the case, I find the book vastly superior.
A former professor of mine pointed it out to me, saying he found it "better than Orwell", which I think might be a bit too much praise, as it obviously has nowhere near the legacy and impact his writing had. It is, however, a testament to the book being very good and definitely worth a read.
On a personal note, I didn't actually read it myself. I bought the audio-book, which was narrated by Julian Glover (Walter Donovan in the Last Crusade). His accent might have made the book even better.
It might not register with many as a Sci-Fi book, as it is not "Hard Sci-Fi", and more in line with the books of Urusla K. Le Guin. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating book, showing a compelling dystopia.
Obviously the film is well-liked, but as is often the case, I find the book vastly superior.
A former professor of mine pointed it out to me, saying he found it "better than Orwell", which I think might be a bit too much praise, as it obviously has nowhere near the legacy and impact his writing had. It is, however, a testament to the book being very good and definitely worth a read.
On a personal note, I didn't actually read it myself. I bought the audio-book, which was narrated by Julian Glover (Walter Donovan in the Last Crusade). His accent might have made the book even better.
The Lamonster
Member
Jurassic Park.
Ainaurdur said:Not sure I really have a favorite, but wanted to add something not yet mentioned that I enjoyed.
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis
Followed by Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.
Wow you read my mind with this post. I was even going to say the bit about posting something not already in here.
This book was more than just a good scifi story. The reveries of the narrator were a real mental trip. I need to check out the followups.
One that just sprung to mind - but raises interesting questions about where the line lies between Fantasy and Science Fiction - is the Thursday Next novels (The Eyre Affair, The Well of Lost Plots, Lost in a Good Book, Something Rotten, First among Sequels, One of our Thursdays is Missing)
Science fiction-ness: Alternative 1980s. Airships in common usage; genetic engineering is plentiful. Ducks are extinct. Time travel exists (but only officially for use by the government). The populace has heavily embraced the written word (an inverse Fahrenheit 451, if you like)
Fantasy-ness: There is an entire universe *within* books, where the laws of narrative are significant. It's *very* playful with the concept - to the extent that a fictional book mentioned in the narrative has since become a *real* series of books. There's still an internal logic, after a fashion, although it's very left-field, even compared to the 'real world' logic.
Science fiction-ness: Alternative 1980s. Airships in common usage; genetic engineering is plentiful. Ducks are extinct. Time travel exists (but only officially for use by the government). The populace has heavily embraced the written word (an inverse Fahrenheit 451, if you like)
Fantasy-ness: There is an entire universe *within* books, where the laws of narrative are significant. It's *very* playful with the concept - to the extent that a fictional book mentioned in the narrative has since become a *real* series of books. There's still an internal logic, after a fashion, although it's very left-field, even compared to the 'real world' logic.
Ainaurdur said:Not sure I really have a favorite, but wanted to add something not yet mentioned that I enjoyed.
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis
Followed by Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.
Oh, man. I picked Dune, but Out of the Silent Planet is probably the most beautifully-written sci-fi book I've ever read -- Just ahead of Bradbury's Dandelion Wine.
I just read A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and I absolutely loved in. It hit all the right places for me. It's now my favorite sci-fi novel. Honorable mention to Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.
I haven't read The Foundation series but I have the books already and just need to get around to it. I've read some other Asimov books and really liked them, but just haven't gotten around to Foundation yet.
I haven't read The Foundation series but I have the books already and just need to get around to it. I've read some other Asimov books and really liked them, but just haven't gotten around to Foundation yet.
Polish covers of the Hyperion series are pretty good i think:Dead Man said:Why do they have so many crappy covers, when good ones are often done too for the same book? Surely the good ones sell more.
http://www.mag.com.pl/pliki/ksiazki/Endymion/Endymion.jpg
http://www.mag.com.pl/pliki/ksiazki/Triumf Endymiona/TriumfEndymiona-doREC.jpg
Dammit, now i want to read it again...
Maklershed
Member
I personally wouldn't say its boring but its one of the few cases imo that the movie > book. (Blade Runner being another that immediately comes to mind)
Well I started reading Dune. I haven't found it to be very good. The writing is poor. It uses a lot of one person saying to another "As you know, your father is the duke." type stuff to inform the reader about things. Its nonsensical that people who've known each other for years would say the things that they say. Maybe it gets better later on tho.
Boken said:
Good luck!
heyf00L said:
I don't find expository dialogue in and of itself particularly problematic. I find it to be a completely natural way of speaking, so long as it leads somewhere (e.g. his father being a duke means X or Y thing that the character did not know and is worth explaining both for the character and the reader). It does get rather annoying when it is sort of thrown in there and it breaks suspension of disbelief that someone might say that, though.
But I don't think Dune's (or most science fiction's) strong point is the writing itself so much as it is the world-building and the plot.
drop it and read The Book of the New Sun; it's totally better and you can go to the other end of the telling too much / intentionally not telling you things to make you figure it out scale
The Albatross
Member
Brave New World or The Giver.
Currently reading A Canticle for Leibowitz
Currently reading A Canticle for Leibowitz
Expository dialogue can be great. I'm no writer, but usually this is done by having a new character in the scene who needs things explained to him (often the protagonist). But when it's just a few characters who already know each other and their plans and one of them says "As you know, I am the Baron and plan to take over the world." it ruins everything. No one ever uses this phrase in real life. It only exists because of bad writing. I wouldn't complain, but it's happened a few times already, and I'm not very far into it. However, I'll read it just for the imagined world. That's the same reason I finished Red Dead Redemption.Mumei said:
Also, I've already read the Book of the New Sun twice. That's probably why my standards are so much higher now. Wolfe doesn't have this problem because he usually doesn't want you to know what's going on.
You have to slowly piece it together and then go "Ooooooooh, now I get it." And then you want to read it again (hence the reading it twice).SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
marrec said:
Ender's Game takes a big steaming shit on Dune. Come at me, launchies.
ElectricBlue187
Member
I'm going with Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion. I loved every single bit of that novel. They are best read as one.
leroy hacker
Member
The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem.
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