Good sci-fi novels

[Noel]

Neuromancer - William Gibson (Just Awesome)
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson (I've heard nothing but praise for this novel)
The Machine Stops - E.M. Forster (Great short story)

 

[Owl]

Stranger in a Strange Land and The Cat that Walks through Walls, by Robert Heinlein.

 

[MacGuffin]

Stranger in a Strange Land

Easily one of the worst novels I've ever read.

 

[Owl]

Easily one of the worst novels I've ever read.

Ok...

How's aboot Brave New World, by by Aldous Huxley?

 

[Jack Flak]

Easily one of the worst novels I've ever read.

I think I made it to Chapter Two. You must have low standards if you finished it.

Asimov's short stories are the only Sci-Fi you need. Sci-Fi writers don't know how to write novels anyway.

 

[Geoff]

I'm pretty unacquainted with sci-fi literature and being all old and lazier and now- the shelf seems pretty daunting (to slough through the technobabble to try and get to the meat).

I've read some Asimov. His short stories (from Robot Dreams) are really interesting, but the longer the work, the more his weakness in characterization/dialogue shows (Robot series). I've also read Perdido Street Station by China Mievelle- who is so in love with his own world and the same 10 obscure adjectives meaning "dilapidated" that he never bothers to get to the point. And The Hitchiker's Guide, which was cute but not very lasting. And Ender's Game... who in the hell wants to read about other people playing a video game. And then boring moral retconn about it not being a video game. (Does Brave New World count?)

So what's GOOD?

Perservering with THHGTG can help.. of course, it's quite "British" so that might be why it appeals to me..

Good Omens : The Nice and Accurate Prophicies of Agnes Nutter

nti-hero.

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
Another anti-hero. Fast and furious stuff: amusing and entertaining.

..and also by Harry Harrison, the Bill the Galactic Hero, at least the first couple. Just fun sci fi snacks for the jaded.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson (I've heard nothing but praise for this novel)

Yes. Snow Crash is a must. The sequel (of sorts) Diamond Age is great, too.

I grew up on Andre Norton (Sargasso of Space etc).. which is good if you want something in the old fashioned style.

 

[6sticks]

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson (I've heard nothing but praise for this novel)

Snow Crash sucked.

 

[MacGuffin]

I think I made it to Chapter Two. You must have low standards if you finished it.

In order to properly hate it, I felt I had to say I read the whole thing.

My loathing of that book is epic.

 

[6sticks]

Oh, and Stranger in a Strange Land sucked too. Made it halfway.

 

[Kanamori]

I liked The Gods Themselves.

 

[Jack Flak]

I liked The Gods Themselves.

Shit, you're right, that is good. REALLY good.

 

[Oso Mocoso]

Oh, I forgot to mention: read anything and everything by Philip K. Dick as he is THE MASTER OF SCIENCE FICTION!

While I really enjoy PKD, I'd be reluctant to give it a blanket recommendation to someone starting out with S.F. Great stuff. But I think it has limited appeal. Can you think of a good starter PKD book? Maybe Man in the High Castle or some of his short stories?

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Dear God no, the suck of that book was legendary. Cryptonomicon was boring too.

The Dune trilogy.

The first book was good. I drifted off during the second one and wasn't interested enough to pick it back up.

Oh, and Stranger in a Strange Land sucked too. Made it halfway.

I agree. I didn't even make it halfway.

 

[ed111]

While I really enjoy PKD, I'd be reluctant to give it a blanket recommendation to someone starting out with S.F. Great stuff. But I think it has limited appeal. Can you think of a good starter PKD book? Maybe Man in the High Castle or some of his short stories?

You could look at one of the collections of his short stories ... there's plenty of good stuff in those.

 

[sleeptowin]

Have space suit - Will travel by Robert Heinlein is good, so is The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert.

Dark Universe by Daniel Galouye is one of my favourites, though it's one of those books you either hate or love. It's a really weird piece of fiction.

 

[Randomnity]

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
Another anti-hero. Fast and furious stuff: amusing and entertaining.

Nice. I acquired an old copy of this book from my dad and like it a lot....but I haven't seen anything by Harry Harrison anywhere since, either new or second-hand (though admittedly I rarely tried to look for him).

And I own the cat who walks through walls too...I found it ok for a boredom-killer, but pretty slow and hard to get into.

Though, ender's game is one of my all-time favourite books, so maybe you shouldn't trust my opinion.

Edit: a few of my favourite sci-fi books are by authors I've never heard of before or since, but they had a really original concept for one novel, anyway. one of those is "don't bite the sun", by tanith lee (had to google that one, ha). The others I don't remember.

 

[Oberon]

Some sci-fi is just so original it changes everything, such as:

Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Heinlein, Starship Troopers
Herbert, Dune (but not the sequels.)
Gibson, Neuromancer (and the sequels too.)

Other sci-fi is merely excellent, like:

Niven & Pournelle, Ringworld
Asimov, the Foundation trilogy
Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles

 

[kuranes]

Much like Asimov, Phillip K. Dick's short stories are quite good but his books are horrible. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein are probably my favorite sci fi books. I have crappy taste though.

Many people like Heinlein, and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is certainly one of the ones most Heinlein fans consider a classic. I read it so long ago that I don't remember what its about, but that's not a good sign. I remember some conservative philosophy thrown in there for good measure.

I liked "The Forever War" and IIRC it reminded me of a book written later by Vernor Vinge. I met Joe briefly.

I'm not a huge Asimov fan, but I have read his more notable creations. I would agree he is a better short story writer, and that this is generally true of PKD also. However, there are some good PKD novels..

Bruce Sterling[/b] is also worth checking out. If the concepts of his books sound appealing to you, you'd probably like him. Distractions is one book of his I reread lately that stood up well.

I like Sterling a lot. He started out writing more traditional Fantasy and SF, then went into more "hard" science fiction, and in his later books is writing stories so much more plausibly connected with the reality of a near tomorrow, that they almost belong in a category of their own.

Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future by Olaf Stapledon
Written in 1930 it plots the rise and fall and rise (over and over) of the human race over a period of two billion years. I found it helps put my life and the world in perspective!

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Gully Foyle is a classic anti-hero.

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
Another anti-hero. Fast and furious stuff: amusing and entertaining.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Very deep and a difficult read, but worth the effort - 'On a colony planet, men have established a society based on technological means of imitating the Hindu religion. It is possible to reincarnate the "mind" or "soul" to a new body, even an animal. But some of the earliest colonists have additional powers, which give them the status of gods. And a faction among them is using that means in political ways: punishing their enemies with reincarnation as animals, or with the "true death."'

"Last and First Men" would try the patience of most people on these boards, IMHO. Having said that, I think Stapledon was more of an influence than he is generally credited with being on the shaping of the entire genre. An under rated master. The scope of some of his books is huge and sweeping. However, i think people are best off ( if never exposed to him before ) reading something like Sirius, a novel about a dog who gains more intelligence than most dogs can ever aspire to.

Alfred Bester - "The Stars My Destination" was so popular among some that the only Sci-Fi bookstore in the city of Chicago named itself after that. I liked it, but my favorite Alfred Bester was undoubtedly "The Demolished Man".

I like "The Stainless Steel Rat" stories by Harrison, since they remind me of pulps and early Jack Vance and E.E. "Doc" Smith, but my favorites of his are the books in the "Eden" series about competing with intelligent dinosaurs as cave men.

My favorite Zelazny series was the Amber series. Most of his books are fun.

Lol. Stay away from his next two books then, which make Perdido seem positivel focused. I don't actaully mind his work though. 7/10 stuff which is tolerable.

You might try Scar Night. Similar ambience to Meville's work but a bit more plot/character driven.

I try to make suggestions that aren't the same moldy old tombes written 20+ years ago (not that there is anything wrong with them).

Thx for the link Sens Eye. I found some other good stuff there in addition to the review of the "Scar Night" book, which might also be interesting.

Easily one of the worst novels I've ever read.

"Stranger in a Strange land" was one of the first "adult" sci-fi stories that i read, and so I put up with a lot that I might not have otherwise, thinking myself immature then for finding some of it boring. I still remember the sequence where the person is trying to figure out how to get through to decision makers that are protected by screeners, which is something I have to contend with IRL as part of business. His comments on that were the first i ever read on "social engineering".

Shit, you're right, that is good. REALLY good.

Who wrote "The Gods Themselves" ?

While I really enjoy PKD, I'd be reluctant to give it a blanket recommendation to someone starting out with S.F. Great stuff. But I think it has limited appeal. Can you think of a good starter PKD book? Maybe Man in the High Castle or some of his short stories?

Good novels by PKD are " A Scanner darkly" and "Flow My Tears The Policeman Said", and "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" ( my favorite ) . "Flow My Tears.." is a "man on the run" pulpey piece though. "Ubik" was interesting as well as "Eye in the Sky". He's hit or miss. Some of his short stories are stinkers, too. He wrote at a fast pace to actually try to make a living full time at this. Probably the worst thing I read by him was "Galactic Pot Healer". There are novels of his, beloved by some, that don't hold my interest, such as the one where the people on each planet each share a mental illness. Everyone on one colony has schizophrenia, for example, while everyone on another is depressed. Meh. His short story "Autofac" is a much anthologized classic.

 

[Lucifer]

The single greatest book is "Inherit the Stars" by Paul Hogan. It creates an extremely impressive version of invents leading to the creation of humanity. In retrospect it also has a large number of MBTI characters in all their forms. If you were going to read one last book, or only one Sci-Fi book this is a must.

 

[Kanamori]

Who wrote "The Gods Themselves" ?

Asimov

 

[LucrativeSid]

I absolutely loved "JEM" by Frederik Pohl. It's the book that got me interested in science fiction in the first place. I like hard sci-fi more than I do soft sci-fi. (Soft is when you mix in too many elements of fantasy.) Fantasy is great, just keep it away from the science.

"Reason" is my favorite short story by Asimov. It gave me quite a bit to think about.