5 ms·

Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read

58 points by axiomdata316 5y ago

Grakel 5y ago
Strange list- almost totally made up of weird, unapproachable stuff, and then also Andy Weir and Ted Chiang. I'm not knocking it, but these are edge case titles, certainly not what I would say everyone should read. Except Ted, who's maybe the best living short story writer.
- salamandersauce 5y ago
  I wouldn't call Dune, Frankenstein or Jurrassic Park unapproachable or weird edge case titles. Is Margret Atwood weird and unapproachable? Robert Heinlein? Philip K. Dick? I don't think there's books that everyone should read but none of this seems weird or unapproachable.
  - Grakel 5y ago
    I found Dune hard to get into, although I loved the film. But I think we're getting into just differences of opinion, so firm handshakes all around. I'm glad there's more out there to read every day!
- duskwuff 5y ago
  This list feels like two lists got pasted onto each other. There's a bunch of historical SF (like The Blazing World and Frankenstein), and a bunch of recently published SF (like The Martian and The Three-Body Problem), but not a lot in between.
erik_landerholm 5y ago
Nothing by Alastair Reynolds?
- andrei_says_ 5y ago
  I’d recommend House of Suns. I also love his short story collections - Beyond the Aquila Rift for example. What would be your recommendations?
  - mberger 5y ago
    I enjoyed Pushing Ice.
mindcrime 5y ago
I would add Permutation City by Greg Egan Glasshouse by Charles Stross
- aspenmayer 5y ago
  I’d add the spiritual precursor to Glasshouse, Accelerando. I met cstross at a reading back in SF nearly 10 years ago or so. Still have a signed copy of Glasshouse loaned out somewhere. He’s a delightful person in an affable curmudgeonly way. His blog is great. https://www.antipope.org/charlie/ https://www.antipope.org/charlie/
  - mindcrime 5y ago
    He’s a delightful person in an affable curmudgeonly way. Sadly I don't think Charlie would like me very much if we ever met. I'm an (American style) Libertarian, and he seems to have a rather strong disdain for us. Shame, as he's one of my favorite authors and I would otherwise say that he's somebody I'd rather enjoy meeting.
ArtWomb 5y ago
Journey's through the Golden Age of Sci Fi led me back chronologically to its Victorian precursors. Just finished HG Welles' The Island of Doctor Moreau. And I have to say, it's like an ur-Text for all Sci Fi has to say about nature, reason and fate. There's a documentary about the 1996 adaptation of the novel. The story was an obsession of British filmmaker Richard Stanley's. And the circumstances that followed are like something right out of its pages.
andrei_says_ 5y ago
Two titles that I hope everyone reads and are not on the list: * The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson * The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk And a bonus: * Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler
- layer8 5y ago
  Seconding Lilith’s Brood. Also, almost everything by Vernor Vinge.
saganus 5y ago
Since we are adding our recommendations, I would mention More than human by Theodore Sturgeon
blippage 5y ago
Ubik, by Philip K. Dick. Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut.
Barrin92 5y ago
Some good picks on the list (Solaris, Kindred, VanderMeer, Chiang) but also some awful ones. The Martian is probably one of the worst popular and hyped books I've ever read, together with Ready Player One. If I had to pick one PK Dick book it wouldn't be Scanner Darkly but Ubik or Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Also I think some important non-English fiction is missing. Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a foundational dystopian book, Roadside Picnic is great, 20000 Leagues under the Sea and Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights is a pretty wonky Japanese SF story. Also Eumeswil by Ernst Jünger for a niche German recommendation, not sure if this was ever translated.
- antegamisou 5y ago
  Yes I was surprised Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas did not make it to this list. But then most people have a very narrow view of what sci-fi is, boiling it down to cyborgs and space.
- xupybd 5y ago
  I loved the Martian. I get that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's not a profound book that explores any great ideas, but it was a fun main character, entertaining plot and a few good laughs.
nicopappl 5y ago
I'll just put out my list since it's probably what people browse those threads for. I just finished it so I might be biased, but Miller's "A canticle for Leibowitz" is some of the best Sci-fi I've read. Extremely thought provoking, and you get the opportunity to read from someone coming from a very different place than your usual sci-fi writer. I loved the setting and the plot, monasteries are definitively a unique setting for Sci-fi (Think Il Nome della Rosa by Eco meets Mad Max) Philip K. Dick also has a very unique outlook and is worth a read, either through "Do Androids dream of electric sheep" or "Ubick" (warning: Ubick is extremely weird) Given my native tongue is French, I'll not forget Barjavel, excellent writing (although I read it in the original French). Like Miller, the philosophy is very different from your usual Sci-fi. La Nuit des Temps (or "The Ice People") and Ravage ("Ashes, Ashes") are great reads. For Gibson, I'd recommend the Bridge trilogy ("Virtual Light", "Idoru" and "All Tomorrow's Paties") over Necromancer. Gibson writes prose like poetry, it's the best English literature I've read. His writing has a literal taste, sweet yet with a nuanced and rich flavor. Once you are into a book, each sentence is a pleasure to read. But he doesn't make any compromises for newcomers. Necromancer is really hard to grasp. Since the Bridge books are set in a world more similar to our own, it may be more approachable to someone new to the author. Asimov and Clarke were very popular at their time. But I think they didn't age well. The recommendation in the OP of the Foundation series (though I recommend you limit yourself to the original trilogy) is alright. The idea is very unique, but the writing is poor, and well, gender has a weirdly backward role for a futuristic society. OP is missing Clarke. Classic author who is responsible for 2001 A Space Odyssey. However, Clarke best work is "Childhood's end". Yeah, the new-age ending didn't age well, but it's still really good. "Rama" is good too, but the sequels do not hold up. Greg Egan is very obtuse, you need a very good level of math to understand some of his work. But not all of his novels are intractable. I loved "Distress", it introduced me to a very different way to think about gender identity. I'll second The Tchaikovsky recommendation from OP ("Children of Time") It's very high on my Sci-fi tier list. I'm surprised to see him in such a list, because he's not the conventional Sci-fi recommendation. But it makes sense, Children of Time is such a unique and excellent novel. The premise is insane, the story is excellent, and the writing tops if off. It works surprisingly well. I'm a big fan of Charles Stross. Accelerando and Glasshouse are definitively very good. But I'll go and recommend "Saturn's Children". It's more his style: Very much like Tchaikovsky, his premises are insanely ridiculous and almost outrageous, but perfectly coherent. His work is so much fun! It's a blast to read through his novels.
Rzor 5y ago
Very nice to see the Culture there. Very underrated. Everytime I try to convince my friends to read it they call me a commie bastard. Not cool.
gandalfian 5y ago
The sci-fi masterworks series is well worth a browse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks
xupybd 5y ago
I think the #1 sci-fi book that everyone should read is We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor.
cema 5y ago
Vernor Vinge.
joeman1000 5y ago
Oh nice science fiction book

58 points by axiomdata316 5y ago

Strange list- almost totally made up of weird, unapproachable stuff, and then also Andy Weir and Ted Chiang. I'm not knocking it, but these are edge case titles, certainly not what I would say everyone should read. Except Ted, who's maybe the best living short story writer.

salamandersauce 5y ago
I wouldn't call Dune, Frankenstein or Jurrassic Park unapproachable or weird edge case titles. Is Margret Atwood weird and unapproachable? Robert Heinlein? Philip K. Dick? I don't think there's books that everyone should read but none of this seems weird or unapproachable.
- Grakel 5y ago
  I found Dune hard to get into, although I loved the film. But I think we're getting into just differences of opinion, so firm handshakes all around. I'm glad there's more out there to read every day!
duskwuff 5y ago
This list feels like two lists got pasted onto each other. There's a bunch of historical SF (like The Blazing World and Frankenstein), and a bunch of recently published SF (like The Martian and The Three-Body Problem), but not a lot in between.

erik_landerholm 5y ago

Nothing by Alastair Reynolds?

andrei_says_ 5y ago
I’d recommend House of Suns. I also love his short story collections - Beyond the Aquila Rift for example. What would be your recommendations?
- mberger 5y ago
  I enjoyed Pushing Ice.

mindcrime 5y ago

I would add Permutation City by Greg Egan Glasshouse by Charles Stross

aspenmayer 5y ago
I’d add the spiritual precursor to Glasshouse, Accelerando. I met cstross at a reading back in SF nearly 10 years ago or so. Still have a signed copy of Glasshouse loaned out somewhere. He’s a delightful person in an affable curmudgeonly way. His blog is great. https://www.antipope.org/charlie/ https://www.antipope.org/charlie/
- mindcrime 5y ago
  He’s a delightful person in an affable curmudgeonly way. Sadly I don't think Charlie would like me very much if we ever met. I'm an (American style) Libertarian, and he seems to have a rather strong disdain for us. Shame, as he's one of my favorite authors and I would otherwise say that he's somebody I'd rather enjoy meeting.

ArtWomb 5y ago

Journey's through the Golden Age of Sci Fi led me back chronologically to its Victorian precursors. Just finished HG Welles' The Island of Doctor Moreau. And I have to say, it's like an ur-Text for all Sci Fi has to say about nature, reason and fate. There's a documentary about the 1996 adaptation of the novel. The story was an obsession of British filmmaker Richard Stanley's. And the circumstances that followed are like something right out of its pages.

andrei_says_ 5y ago

Two titles that I hope everyone reads and are not on the list: * The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson * The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk And a bonus: * Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler

layer8 5y ago
Seconding Lilith’s Brood. Also, almost everything by Vernor Vinge.

saganus 5y ago

Since we are adding our recommendations, I would mention More than human by Theodore Sturgeon

blippage 5y ago

Ubik, by Philip K. Dick. Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut.

Barrin92 5y ago

Some good picks on the list (Solaris, Kindred, VanderMeer, Chiang) but also some awful ones. The Martian is probably one of the worst popular and hyped books I've ever read, together with Ready Player One. If I had to pick one PK Dick book it wouldn't be Scanner Darkly but Ubik or Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Also I think some important non-English fiction is missing. Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a foundational dystopian book, Roadside Picnic is great, 20000 Leagues under the Sea and Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights is a pretty wonky Japanese SF story. Also Eumeswil by Ernst Jünger for a niche German recommendation, not sure if this was ever translated.

antegamisou 5y ago
Yes I was surprised Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas did not make it to this list. But then most people have a very narrow view of what sci-fi is, boiling it down to cyborgs and space.
xupybd 5y ago
I loved the Martian. I get that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's not a profound book that explores any great ideas, but it was a fun main character, entertaining plot and a few good laughs.

nicopappl 5y ago

I'll just put out my list since it's probably what people browse those threads for. I just finished it so I might be biased, but Miller's "A canticle for Leibowitz" is some of the best Sci-fi I've read. Extremely thought provoking, and you get the opportunity to read from someone coming from a very different place than your usual sci-fi writer. I loved the setting and the plot, monasteries are definitively a unique setting for Sci-fi (Think Il Nome della Rosa by Eco meets Mad Max) Philip K. Dick also has a very unique outlook and is worth a read, either through "Do Androids dream of electric sheep" or "Ubick" (warning: Ubick is extremely weird) Given my native tongue is French, I'll not forget Barjavel, excellent writing (although I read it in the original French). Like Miller, the philosophy is very different from your usual Sci-fi. La Nuit des Temps (or "The Ice People") and Ravage ("Ashes, Ashes") are great reads. For Gibson, I'd recommend the Bridge trilogy ("Virtual Light", "Idoru" and "All Tomorrow's Paties") over Necromancer. Gibson writes prose like poetry, it's the best English literature I've read. His writing has a literal taste, sweet yet with a nuanced and rich flavor. Once you are into a book, each sentence is a pleasure to read. But he doesn't make any compromises for newcomers. Necromancer is really hard to grasp. Since the Bridge books are set in a world more similar to our own, it may be more approachable to someone new to the author. Asimov and Clarke were very popular at their time. But I think they didn't age well. The recommendation in the OP of the Foundation series (though I recommend you limit yourself to the original trilogy) is alright. The idea is very unique, but the writing is poor, and well, gender has a weirdly backward role for a futuristic society. OP is missing Clarke. Classic author who is responsible for 2001 A Space Odyssey. However, Clarke best work is "Childhood's end". Yeah, the new-age ending didn't age well, but it's still really good. "Rama" is good too, but the sequels do not hold up. Greg Egan is very obtuse, you need a very good level of math to understand some of his work. But not all of his novels are intractable. I loved "Distress", it introduced me to a very different way to think about gender identity. I'll second The Tchaikovsky recommendation from OP ("Children of Time") It's very high on my Sci-fi tier list. I'm surprised to see him in such a list, because he's not the conventional Sci-fi recommendation. But it makes sense, Children of Time is such a unique and excellent novel. The premise is insane, the story is excellent, and the writing tops if off. It works surprisingly well. I'm a big fan of Charles Stross. Accelerando and Glasshouse are definitively very good. But I'll go and recommend "Saturn's Children". It's more his style: Very much like Tchaikovsky, his premises are insanely ridiculous and almost outrageous, but perfectly coherent. His work is so much fun! It's a blast to read through his novels.

Rzor 5y ago

Very nice to see the Culture there. Very underrated. Everytime I try to convince my friends to read it they call me a commie bastard. Not cool.

gandalfian 5y ago

The sci-fi masterworks series is well worth a browse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks

xupybd 5y ago

I think the #1 sci-fi book that everyone should read is We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor.

cema 5y ago

Vernor Vinge.

joeman1000 5y ago

Oh nice science fiction book