Science Fiction

[Amenhotep04]

I've begun reading science fiction recently. Been wanting to read at least 100 books. So far I've read 'Fahrenheit 451', 'Stranger in a Strange Land', '1984'. Just started 'Foundation'. On the shelf I have 'Slaughterhouse Five', 'Enders Game', 'Wrinkle in Time', 'Blindness', 'The Time Traveler's Wife', and a list of stuff from H.G. Wells.

What good science fiction do you recommend?

:farao:

 

[pipetongue1]

been reading SF/Fantasy! Heinlen, Azimov,Hubbert, L. Sprague DeCamp, George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, Feist,et al, since !950, Ken :tongue:
My birthyear post!!!

 

[Amenhotep04]

been reading SF/Fantasy! Heinlen, Azimov,Hubbert, L. Sprague DeCamp, George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, Feist,et al, since !950, Ken :tongue:
My birthyear post!!!

Thanks Ken. I'm thinking about developing a class looking at the themes of science fiction early post World War II, and then maybe comparing that with themes of recent years. Not sure yet. I'm finding it all very fascinating. Was never one to read fiction. So this is a new world for me.

:farao:

 

[Dakki]

Aside from what you've listed, Iain M. Banks' Culture stories are all great (the non-Culture stories not so much), as is Joe Haldeman's Forever War. Asimov's robot stories are very cool as well.

And The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy of course.

 

[Dakki]

Forgot to mention Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, both by Neal Stephenson. The only cyberpunk I've read I'd bother reading again.

Isaac Asimov edited this great series of books titled something like "The Best Science Fiction Short Stories of 19XX," "The Best Science Fiction Short Stories with Robots" and so on. They had them at my school library and maybe they spoiled SciFi for me by giving me unrealistic expectations. After reading through them the current stuff rarely measured up, not just in the quality of the writing but also in the sense that they informed my idea of what "real" SciFi should be like. The current stuff all seems to be "a war novel set in the future," "a hardboiled detective story set in the future" and so on rather than "real" SciFi, if that makes sense.

Sorry for the double post, the forum 404's when I try to edit my prev. post.

 

[Falconer]

I'm not as big on the science part but for pure good fantasy I highly recomend the Thomas Covenant Chronicles by Stephen Donaldson, starting with 'Lord Fouls Bane'. Problem is they're addictive and he's now working on the 11th or 12th in the series. There's no doubt I'll have to have them all eventually.

 

[Tock the Always]

Big scifi fan here. The Time Machine was my first real venture into the genre and my mind was blown. Love me some H.G. Wells.

Dakki, you mentioned Snow Crash. That was recommended to me based on my undying passion for the Otherland series by Tad Williams. I'd suggest Williams to anyone looking for a long, epic journey. He usually puts out books in four part series.

If you wanna get slightly creeped out there's always Philip K. Dick... XD

 

[Centurian 803]

Anything by Harlan Ellison is good. Never read a Heinlein I didn't like. And of course Ray Bradbury is good.

 

[Tock the Always]

Anything by Harlan Ellison is good.

Yes! Harlan Ellison is excellent. I just recently watched the movie based on "A Boy and His Dog."
One of my favorite short stories of his is probably the furthest from sci-fi he got. The Three Most Important Things in Life.

 

[Doc Manhattan]

If you're looking for Golden Age SF, "Doc" Smith's Lensman series are great, even if they aren't always good.

The first books in Orson Scott Card's Ender series are great.

Oh, and Harry Turtledove's alt-histories are tremendous.

 

[MisterE]

I've been working on the Asimov Foundation novels. Now that I'm on vacation I can get ahead on them!!

 

[Amenhotep04]

Wow, thank you everyone. Definitely lots of good info. Very much appreciated. Over Labor Day weekend Dragon Con 2010 is down the road in Atlanta. I think I'll head on over there and maybe talk with some of the authors as well.



:farao:

 

[rickf28]

Terry Goodkind "The Sword of Truth " series are by far the best books i have ever read...Highly recommend

 

[Al in Canada]

where to start, where to start?

I am not much on the fantasy line, unless they have a good dose of humor, such as Robert Aspirin's Myth series, "Little Myth Marker", "Mything link" , etc. the notable exception being those that are on the Arthurian legend.

On older SF I particularly like: all the Heinlein novels involving Woodrow Wilson Smith, AKA Ted Bronson, lazrus Long, etc. starting with "Methuseluh's Children"; Asimov's Robot and the Foundation novels (especially the first 3), Philip Jose Farmer's novels with the real stories behind the pulp fiction heroes Tarzan, Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes, Phinneas Fogg, etc., but not so much the riverworld series which got redundant an repetitive; Harlan Ellison as an suthor, but better still as an editor in Dangerous Visions; Samuel (Chip) Delaney; Keith Laumer ; Hary harrison (esp. the Stainless Steel Rat stories); and so many more.

A word to the wise, it was hard to make a living writing SF back when the primary sales were to the pulp magazines. the authors were paid by the word (2 to 5 cents per), so the emphasis was on turning it out quick and in quantity. A lot of the stories that were published as Ace Doubles today would have been expanded, and bulked up with intellectual steroids so that they would have been much bigger books, or trilogies or series. Some of the most successful of these early authors had many pseudonyms, so that you wouldn't feel that when you bought the current copy of Analog that you were buying a magazine written mostly by one or two authors. ;-)

Among more contemporary authors : Niven, possibly the best of "hard" science authors; David Weber whose Honor Harrington series is the SF version of the "wooden ships and iron men" novels of the like of C.S. Forester, Bernard Cornwell, etc.; Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan Adventures; Robert Aspirin's "Phule's Company" series,: Spider Robinson's Callaghan's Crosstime Saloon series, and harry Turtledove's alternative history series are fun too.

Hope that helps you get a start. Welcome to SFAD!

Al (in Canada)

 

[Tock the Always]

Oh, one more I'll mention. Matt Ruff. His two best as far as I'm concerned are Fool on the Hill and Bad Monkeys. Fool on the Hill is sort of a fantasy based in the real world. Bad Monkeys is a little more... out there. He's a creative bastard though.

 

[SmokeyTweed]

What no L. Ron Hubbard mentions?! 8)

 

[babysinister]

I read Theodore Sturgeon back in the early sixties and have never managed to get two of his books out of my mind: The Dreaming Jewels and More Than Human (alt. title The Synthetic Man), both of them belong more, perhaps, in the straight fantasy genre than traditional science fiction. He was also a pipe aficionado, btw.

Another long-forgotten (seems to me, unfortunately) writer is John Wyndham, the author of The Midwich Cuckoos and The Day of the Triffids, both of which were adapted into film versions. The former novel was filmed twice (with George Sanders and Christopher Reeve, respectively) and released as The Village of the Damned.

 

[pipetongue1]

Over the course of my life I've read Triffids 50 times!! Great Stuff!! :tongue: Ken

 

[St Fiacre]

A great and inexpensive series of books are produced by Robbin Hobb. She produces books under several names but this moniker is the best IMO. I have read all twelve produced under that name and they were all excellent. A unique aspect is that of the four sagas three of them have the same setting even though one of the sagas has different characters.

 

[adauria]

I can't believe no one has mentioned one of the great sci-fi novels of all time: Dune by Frank Herbert. The sequels got a little out there, but the original is a MUST READ.

-Andrew