11 ms·

Sci-Fi Novels You Should Read

187 points by smoyer 12y ago

garyrichardson 12y ago
Snow Crash has always been more popular than Diamond Age -- I think that's because when it came out the idea of cyberspace was quite new. I think Diamond age is a lot more relevant for 2014. Snow Crash almost feels like an alternative history piece now -- virtual reality isn't new and exciting. Diamond Age is about a world with advanced 3d printers and iPads designed to be personal tutors. I already live in Snow Crash, I want to live in Diamond Age.
hamidr 12y ago
It's already down!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
mp4box 12y ago
Cached version: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fhowtosplitanatom.com%2Fnews%2F32-sci-fi-novels-you-should-read%2F https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3...
- cturhan 12y ago
  Came here to share this. I'm late
- thisjepisje 12y ago
  It's up for me.
bd 12y ago
Good books (mostly). Though if you like sci-fi, you have likely already read most of them (this list is mostly "classics" category). Here are two better lists if you are after lesser known / more modern sci-fi gems: http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/281se9 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/281se9 http://timothylottes.blogspot.com/2014/08/scifi-reading-suggestion-list-from.html http://timothylottes.blogspot.com/2014/08/scifi-reading-sugg... I'm slowly chewing through them, there are some awesome books / new authors there.
- smoyer 12y ago
  "this list is mostly "classics" category" Well stated! But I found 6 books that I haven't read yet, so that will keep me busy for a few weeks.
- Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
  Curious to see the Cryptonomicon on the second list. It's a great books sure, but sci-fi? Surely just contemporary fiction? Hell, half of it is historical fiction.
tbingmann 12y ago
Looks like a list of familiar titles. I already read 19 of the 32, do I have to worry? They were very good books, though.
thisjepisje 12y ago
PKD's short stories are excellent. Beyond Lies the Wub, We can remember it for you wholesale, Adjustment Team, Perky Pat, etc... I would also like to add Greg Egan - Diaspora. I love it for how it takes post/transhumanism (among other things) to the extreme.
- megablast 12y ago
  PKD's short stories are amazing, get the collection of 5 editions. He often started with short stories, then expanded them into full novels. Greg Egan is amazing as well, and has fantastic short stories too.
  - thisjepisje 12y ago
    Cool, I didn't know about Egan's short stories.
ssalenik 12y ago
OT, but it seems that in Canada all of the Foundation series is available as ebooks (on Amazon, Google, etc) except for the very first one... very annoying.
deleted 12y ago
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rmbe 12y ago
Good list, though it is missing The Culture series of Iain M Banks.
- TheMiller 12y ago
  I'll second the recommendation for The Culture series, and add "A Fire Upon The Deep" by Vernor Vinge.
- andrey-p 12y ago
  Thirding The Culture series (I've only read Matter, but I loved the setting) and adding Embassytown by China Miéville.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  The Culture series is one of the most uplifting series I've read. When I'm reading it, I'm just smiling thinking "yeah, that's exactly how humans should develop". Also, ships named Well, it works for me.
- midhir 12y ago
  Fourthing the Culture series. I've read most of them now and the highlights for me are Look To Windward, Player of Games and Fearsum Endjinn (stick with that one). I also rate Excession and Matter though I know a lot of other people think they're weaker. Atlas Shrugged has been called the 'second most influential book in America' so I can understand why it gets mentioned a lot. I found it an unimaginative, tacky bore. It's at least three times the length it should be, the characters speak in diatribes and are impossible to empathise with. At best it's interesting as a thought experiment and it did affect my outlook on life but, really, I read it because I thought I should, not because I wanted to. I also found Red Mars a bit of a struggle in this way too. It seemed similarly ideological to Atlas Shrugged but from the other direction. It was worth reading for the sheer attention to detail and imagination though.
  - rvkennedy 12y ago
    I find it amazing that there still hasn't been a film or TV adaptation of Iain M Banks. Not that such a thing would be necessary or a validation of his writing; but I'd love to see it imagined and realized visually. It's a vision of perhaps the best possible case for the human future - if we don't fuck up.
phkahler 12y ago
I would add "The End of Eternity". The ending of that book was by far the best I've ever read. Everything in the book is brought together and everything that matters to the main character is put on the line in one decision which is resolved in a fun and unexpected way.
andrey-p 12y ago
Dune was an amazing read. I'd recommend reading it if you haven't. The setting is unique and mindblowing in scale. However, if you're planning on going through the entire series I'd suggest stopping at God Emperor. The books afterwards seem to lose their direction, the plot starts to feel a bit contrived. The focus shifts from action to endless discussions between characters that could've been used to develop character and story, but seem to tread the same ground. At the same time details that were mentioned in a sentence suddenly balloon into massive plot points, and bizarre deus ex machinae pop up all over the place. YMMV, of course. I stopped after finishing the original series, and read the Wikipedia synopses of the rest of the books in order to get some sort of closure.
- mpdehaan2 12y ago
  While it gets weirder towards the end of the six books, I found the philosophy and generally strange quotes and philosophy to be more interesting and worthwhile, even if the plot got exceptionally less so. To me, I think the gap in readability was in books two and three - maybe.
  - magicalist 12y ago
    Yeah, I find Heretics of Dune to be much better than Children of Dune, for instance, both in characterizations and the ideas it explores. I'll break ranks, though, and say I actually enjoy the plot after God Emperor of Dune quite a lot. I didn't really the first time I read the books, so that may have some bearing, but it helped to read a piece discussing the books, where they claimed that the Dune books are two separate trilogies, with God Emperor as the transitional book. Unfortunately, Frank Herbert didn't get to complete the second trilogy, but the first two books of it -- when thought of as a mostly separate set of stories from the first Dune books -- becomes much more interesting, rather than just "why is he introducing all this new stuff into this universe?" As for those other "Dune" books written by Frank Herbert's son and Kevin Anderson, they are total trash, and not worth any more of your time than, say, your average bottom-of-the-barrel Star Wars EU novel (it's telling that it took Frank Herbert nearly 30 years to write his six Dune novels, and it took them less than 5 years to write their first six). If you're curious about them, do yourself a favor by reading their synopses on wikipedia, feeling sad that they even exist, then forgetting that they do.
sjcsjc 12y ago
I don't remember seeing anyone recommend Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger[1] in these kinds of list. Not sure if it counts as sci-fi, and it's at least 25 years since I read it, but I recall it being worth reading. [1] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3186/3186-h/3186-h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3186/3186-h/3186-h.htm
- pmoriarty 12y ago
  There's a great little animation inspired by "The Mysterious Stranger",[0] which is apparently part of a film called "The Adventures of Mark Twain".[1] [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpaRouocBes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpaRouocBes [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Mark_Twain_%281985_film%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Mark_Twain_%...
- colomon 12y ago
  Was going to ask "Which Mysterious Stranger?" but then I noticed you'd linked straight to text. :) Ooo, checking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger there was apparently one version I didn't know about. (I've read the one you posted ("1916 publication"), "No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger", and "Schoolhouse Hill".)
breckenedge 12y ago
Here's another list sorted by decade. http://blog.fogus.me/2012/09/21/the-amazing-colossal-science-fiction-ketchup/ http://blog.fogus.me/2012/09/21/the-amazing-colossal-science... Been following it for a few years now.
astkaasa 12y ago
My favorites: Hyperion series, Robotech series
smoyer 12y ago
I've been reading more science fiction from "classic" authors lately - everyone knows that Jules Verne wrote science fiction but what about Edgar Allan Poe? I'm currently reading "The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe (Penguin English Library)" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140431063/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0140431063&linkCode=as2&tag=selesy-20&linkId=FLZ67NTHKN3XYJXG http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140431063/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...)
- nabla9 12y ago
  I read all Jules Verne novels I could get my hands on when I was 14-16 years old (for those who have not read Verne, they are very dry and detailed books). Recently I discovered yet another, his dystopian novel: Paris in the Twentieth Century (written in 1863, first published 1994) and it totally blew my mind how interestingly prophetic some of his predictions for 100 ahead years were (and some of the predictions still might become true).
  - pmoriarty 12y ago
    If you enjoy prophetic scifi, you might be interested in a 1909 story called "The Machine Stops"[0][1], a short story by E. M. Forster, which predicted the internet, internet addiction, video conferencing, and other later technologies and scifi tropes. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops [1] - http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html
omni 12y ago
Just my two cents, but if I were to make a sci-fi novel list of length 1, the only entry would be Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's the Canterbury Tales in space, but the thing they're pilgrimaging towards is a nightmarish god of death. http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cantos-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685 http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cantos-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283...
- gooseyard 12y ago
  another hyperion devotee here. my favorite since reading the hyperion and olympos books was Anathem by N. Stephenson, if you haven't read that one I bet you'll like it too!
  - joshka 12y ago
    Anathem was the entire reason I caved and bought a Kindle (many years ago). Great book, killer as a hard copy trade paperback.
  - geuis 12y ago
    Anathem is one of my favorite books. I've lost count of how many times I listened to the audio book. Check out the subreddit /r/anathem too.
- grimman 12y ago
  Puts an entirely new spin on Catholics in space. :) I'll go ahead and second your recommendation. A thoroughly enjoyable read with several really great concepts.
- _deh 12y ago
  Agree entirely, an excellent read. Fiercely imaginative blend of sci-fi, religion, time travel, horror, Keats & Chaucer.
- wlesieutre 12y ago
  Hyperion and Chasm City (2nd book of Revelation Space) are two of my favorite books I've read in the last few years. The whole Revelation Space series is fantastic. It's written by a former ESA astronomer, so it definitely falls more toward the "hard sci-fi" side of the spectrum than Hyperion. It takes a few scientific liberties, but all of them are significant to the setting. Interstellar human civilizations without FTL are a pretty cool place for a story.
msh 12y ago
hmm I would rate Accelerando as the least good book Stross have written. I would say that all his other books are much much better written and have better structure but that is of cause my own opinion.
- yk 12y ago
  Funny thing, I agree that Accelerando is his least good book, but still it is the book that should be on such a list. It is just a lot more influential than Halting State or the Laundry series.
- cstross 12y ago
  You might (or might not) be surprised to learn that I agree. Reason: Accelerando is really a fix-up of nine novelettes, previously published separately in Asimov's SF Magazine. So it is, to say the least, episodic ...
- waterlesscloud 12y ago
  While I mostly agree, I first encountered the 'Lobsters' section on its own and loved it for the way it ran with its ideas.
- xaritas 12y ago
  It is definitely thought-provoking on the subject of computation and human culture; it's also really enjoyable. It's available for free under a Creative Commons license: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera... I agree that the structure and pacing is odd if taken as a single corpus (which is hard not to do in its book form!) I wasn't surprised to learn after reading it that it was published serially over the course of three years. I suspect that the sequence was not mapped out fully. Edit: Heh. When I refreshed I didn't see the response from the author confirming this.
VLM 12y ago
Good novels. As a meta note I'd suggest splitting hard and soft sci fi... someone who likes KSR's mars trilogy (which needs to be on the list) is possibly not going to like ultra super soft stuff like stranger in a strange land and vice versa. Then there's the in between stuff like moon is a harsh mistress. Its sort of like a religious books list. Its quite possible that a lot of devout followers aren't going to be amused by reading the competition, and if you want a survey textbook, just buy a textbook.
- brudgers 12y ago
  I read just about every Heinlein story I could get my hands on as a teenager. The funny thing is that the one's I thought were sort of stupid - e.g. Have Space Suit Will Travel and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - because they were only about the solar system, I've found to be among my favorites as an adult. Then again, I couldn't get through Friday back then, but found the description of the role that big data would play in the future prescient a few years ago. Likewise, understanding Stranger in a Strange Land in the context of Heinlien's relationship with Hubbard was beyond me in high-school [Hubbard's BattleField Earth is worth a read or at least a try, even if the movie isn't. He was a talented writer among other things].
  - gregpilling 12y ago
    I still have almost every story and book he has written. I especially enjoyed "Grumbles from the Grave" where talks about pushing the envelope to see what he could get away with. It made some of his more extreme viewpoints in the later books make more sense. He was trolling people. Moon is a Harsh Mistress is my favorite of his, because it is a fun multi layered story. And we are almost at the day that Adam Selene could exist. I saw a Simon Jester reference the other day, made me laugh. I have read BattleField Earth a couple times, it is a massive book. L. Ron writes in the introduction that he wrote the book for himself, that he let his imagination run wild. L. Ron has quite an imagination (see Xenu), and the book is a long fast roller-coaster. Has anyone else noticed the similarity between DD Harriman (The man who sold the moon) and Elon Musk? Also he had a version of the internet thought out in 1938 "For us the living" which relied on an intercontinental series of tubes. Maybe Ted Stevens got his information from that. That book has many of his major plot lines jammed into one book. Not the best, but interesting to see the V1.0 of what became the Future History ideas. I read it right after the banking problems in 2008, so it was timely to read Heinlein rant about banking in the book (he disliked fractional reserve banking) /fanboyoff now.
osxrand 12y ago
One sci-fi author that I really found refreshing was Karl Schroeder. His first book has been made available for anyone to read, and if you like nano bots, micro payments, discussions on what it means to be human, I'd highly recommend checking his works out. http://www.kschroeder.com/my-books/ventus/free-ebook-version http://www.kschroeder.com/my-books/ventus/free-ebook-version
- elzr 12y ago
  I second Karl Schroeder as a worthwhile SF author! His novels can be challenging but his ideas are unique and worth the price of admission: * Ventus, his first novel, is about a world that turns accidentally alive (think Gaia) via nanotechnology. * Lady of Mazes turns around how we could use (very advanced) technology to preserve cultures instead of undermining them. * Permanence is about a star-faring civilization so advanced it doesn't need technology, it is technology, having perfectly evolved itself to its niche. * The Virga series is set in a wonderfully imaginative zero-gee bubble-of-gas world, heated by an artificial sun --think of it as space with air! Besides being an SF author, Schroeder is also a professional futurist. I recommend his OSCON 2009 talk,The Rewilding: A Metaphor, as a good introduction to his thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb7pkohj6wE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb7pkohj6wE
dsr_ 12y ago
The authors are overwhelmingly male (90%), and the titles are overwhelmingly old. That's not to say that they're bad (though at least one is objectively bad). Just old and male. Here's three for diversity: - Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. Character-driven space opera, with side-trips into mystery, thriller, and (gasp) romance. Start with the short story collection _Borders of Infinity_ to get a taste for it. - Elizabeth Bear -- lots of variety, but _Carnival_ and _Dust_ are excellent. Respectively, they are an espionage/police procedural and a political thriller on a doomed starship. - Linda Nagata -- she's best known for the epic nanotech series (The Bohr-Maker, Limit of Vision, Tech Heaven...) but recently started a near-future series about the impact of cybernetics, prosthetics and early AI (First Light).
- jib 12y ago
  More notably to me they are all western. There's a lot more diversity missed out on due to not having say Lem and the Strugasky brothers than on old and male imo. Eastern European sci-fi is well worth spending some time on.
  - goldfeld 12y ago
    I was half expecting you'd suggest some Far East sci-fi, which I'd love to get acquainted with. On the GP's call for female authors, I'd add Joan Slonczewski, who's also a microbiology book author and professor, and draws on that knowledge for her classic A Door Into Ocean which is also feminist sci-fi.
    - jib 12y ago
      I would love some far east too - I have no experience with that though, so if someone has some advice I'd love to hear it too.
  - merrua 12y ago
    It looks like that a lot of russian sci-fi is hard to get english translations of. For example a search for "Kir Bulychov" on amazon.co.uk doesnt return anything of the childrens sci-fi he wrote, which you would expect to still sell well.
chrisweekly 12y ago
PSA: for contemporary, entertaining, thought-provoking novels relating to sci-fi, my short list of must-reads includes these gems: * The Gone-Away World (Harkaway) [1] * Ready Player One (Cline) [2] and * The Martian (Weir) [3] each of which is impossible to put down. Actually Harkaway's entire oevre is terrific. The steampunk Angelmaker [4] was a ton of fun. Also, many of Iain M Banks' Culture novels (The Player of Games [5] is at the top of my personal list; they can be read in any order) and The Wind-up Girl (Bacigalupi) [6] are must-reads too. This is not meant as criticism of the OP, rather as fodder for commenters referencing other longer and more contemporary lists. Oh and a final, related tangent: if, like me, you really enjoy G.R.R. Martin but generally avoid straight-up fantasy [it seems to me the genre is awash in mediocre Tolkien rip-offs] please give The Name of the Wind (Rothfuss) [7] a chance. You'll be glad you did. :) [1] http://smile.amazon.com/Gone-Away-World-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B001EL6R9W/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Gone-Away-World-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/... [2] http://smile.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline-ebook/dp/B004J4WKUQ/ref=sr_1_1_ha http://smile.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline-ebook/... [3] http://smile.amazon.com/Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA/ref=sr_1_1_ha http://smile.amazon.com/Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00... [4] http://smile.amazon.com/Angelmaker-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B005IQZ7IG/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Angelmaker-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B0... [5] http://smile.amazon.com/Player-Games-Culture-Novel-Book-ebook/dp/B002WM3HC2/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Player-Games-Culture-Novel-Book-eboo... [6] http://smile.amazon.com/Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi-ebook/dp/B006TKP2B2/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi-ebook/d... [7] http://smile.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Day-ebook/dp/B0010SKUYM/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Day-e...
- jrmiii 12y ago
  Our taste in novels seems to be really similar. For that reason, I'm reading the ones on your list I have not read.
- chrisan 12y ago
  Ready Player One was awesome. Highly recommend the Wil Wheaton audio book!
al2o3cr 12y ago
"Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read." Yes, just like a certain goat-URLed website that used to feature a man "stretching his boundary" farther than seemed possible...
- aluhut 12y ago
  The first book I wasn't able to finish. The mix of stupidity, contradictions, overstretched scenery, cringe worthy glorifications, weird ideology, stupid characters and the unbelievably slow progress were just too much. I plan to finish it some day...when I'm already depressed maybe. I would like to understand what people see in this...thing.
- jordanpg 12y ago
  Atlas Shrugged is many things, but it doesn't look or act like sci-fi by any measure. This choice stands out like sore thumb and compromises the integrity of the list for the obvious reasons.
- demachina 12y ago
  I cringed most of the way through Atlas Shrugged when I first read it. Having encountered more than my share of bureaucrats , inept big corporations and NGO's since, I can say she did have some valid points. The world is full of people who survive by sucking the blood out of the doers. It is nuts putting it on a sci-fi list, its more a political screed.
merrua 12y ago
After reading Ringworld as a kid, Halo was a bit of a let down. For all those who grew up with Halo, I wonder if Ringworld stands up. I'd add the new Young Miles omnibus by Lois McMaster Bujold. Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones (read it again recently and the quantum computer is interesting). Moon of Three Rings and Sargasso of Space by Andre Norton.
- grimman 12y ago
  Absolutely. I played and read Halo related material before Ringworld, and it's the reason I even bothered reading Ringworld in the first place. Definitely enjoyed both, though I felt the first Halo book trilogy was weak the first time I read it too, and I fear it won't hold up well at all.
  - merrua 12y ago
    Thats good news that you still enjoyed Ringworld. I was wondering if the orginality of the work was the main strength of it at the time. I still hear mixed things about the Halo books. Goodreads is still giving the first one a good rating, but the reviews are all over the place.
    - grimman 12y ago
      If you're at all curious, by all means pick the Halo books up, just don't expect too much from them.
- brudgers 12y ago
  The really interesting concept in RingWorld is the genetic predisposition of luck.
  - merrua 12y ago
    I agree. I loved that. Its great material to run with too. An idea that gives more ideas.
_femp 12y ago
There are some great books on the list, however it should be a criminal offense to not include Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (first published as Tiger! Tiger!). It's best summed up as The Count of Monte Cristo, in space. Bester's novel is in many ways the forerunner of the cyberpunk genre.
- Donch 12y ago
  I was just about to make the very same suggestion. Ignore the list and just read this book! The threading of the 'jaunting' concept was way ahead of its time in 1956 and the inspiration can be seen in many modern films.
- colomon 12y ago
  But (for those of you who haven't read it) that summary really doesn't even hint at the novel's greatness. It just spills out cool ideas, hardly ever pausing to take a breath. Bester's The Demolished Man is also well worth mentioning. Won the very first Hugo award, still stands up well today.
  - _femp 12y ago
    > still stands up well today Something that amazes me about Bester's writing is that neither book feels dated. Then, you think about how visionary he was in the time they were written, and it blows you away. Of course, the other thing about Bester that amazes me is that he's so obscure, despite as you point out winning the first Hugo and for writing notable early sci-fi. Someone's knowledge of Bester has become an informal litmus test for me to get a feel for how well read someone is in sci-fi. Neat tidbit about Bester: he's also credited with writing the Green Lantern Oath. edit: to be specific, Silver Age Green Lantern.
    - waterlesscloud 12y ago
      William Gibson wrote a little appreciation of The Stars My Destination: http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/appreciation/gibson.jsp http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/appreciation/gibson.jsp 'It is, as Bruce Sterling remarked to me on our first meeting, “a seamless pop artifact.” Few and far between, such artifacts; each one a complete anomaly.'
brudgers 12y ago
I was thinking, "Atlas Shrugged, what the fuck?" but then I re-read the title of the article. As is [ironically with a sense that is lost upon them] common to admirers of Ayn Rand, the author feels compelled to "should" on their readers. I was warned. I've read most everything on the list, though the dead horse of Animal Farm was first beaten for me in sixth grade...and that was long enough ago that Cold War MADness was a reality in the days when "PG" on a movie meant "tits" and Murray and Ramos could parody the US Army...if the list has talking animals, where is Watership Down? But I digress... A few years ago, I came back to science fiction and started reading the Hugo Award novels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winners_and_nominees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winne... What I found is that the list gives context to the novels...the line of telephones ringing are forgivable in 1985's Neuromancer in a way that they wouldn't be in a movie made today. The competence of the grunts in 1960's Starship Troopers is a reaction to the USMC in the Second World War and the experience of the US military during the shooting phase of the Korean War. 1998's Forever Peace shows how much computers changed the meanings of "combatant" and "battlefield" in the subsequent 40 years. One of the other interesting themes of science fiction is the evolution of the post-apocalyptic world. The alien invasion of 1950's Day of the Triffids and the pandemic of 1949's Earth Abides [not a Hugo Novels] giving way to the nuclear wastelands of 1961's Canticle for Leibowitz's and 1966's This Immortal [when Zelzany's novel tied Herbert's Dune for the Hugo and rightly so]. By 1996's Diamond Age or 2010's Windup Girl the apocalypse is a slow moving tragedy of the commons brought on not by rash misunderstanding but by long term economic rationalizations...bringing us full circle, and you were warned.
- RobertKerans 12y ago
  Yeah, re Atlas Shrugged, that was exactly my first thought as I scrolled down. If you want a [nuts] libertarian fantasy, then Weapon Shops of Isher is slightly better written and at least entertainingly camp. And Animal Farm definitely doesn't belong on a scifi list, and I think hammers home the political sympathies of the post's author (yeah, why not Watership Down? Or Shardik even?).
  - pavel_lishin 12y ago
patja 12y ago
Its a good list of classics, but dropping Doctorow in there seems a bit incongruous. I've never cared for his novels. They always strike me as little more than pandering spackling together of snappy glib dialogue with pop culture tropes and memes. They leave me feeling about as satisfied and intellectually stimulated as eating ice cream for lunch does for my nutritional needs. I say the same about Scalzi.
- brudgers 12y ago
  Rapture of the Nerds and Makers are both competent utopian/distopian novels respectively. Little Brother etc. are sound as teen fiction. If spackled memes aren't appropriate, then Orwell probably should not be on the list unless pandering to anti-communists in an English accent counts as gravitas. At least Doctorow takes on the world wide media machine that is the Rat of Orlando.
- nicholassmith 12y ago
  Early Doctrow fiction is pretty good, he doesn't attempt to push his political beliefs as much. I actually don't disagree with a lot of the ideas he espouses, but his last two books were as subtle as a stomach pump.
- geuis 12y ago
  Hmm I entirely agree with your description of Doctorow, but disagree about Scalzi. I've been enjoying most of his books quite a lot. I wasn't a big fan of Old Man's War and won't read any more of that series, but I still quite like his other books.
bostik 12y ago
I would probably drop I Robot (yes, really!) from the list, and replace that with Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. And if you do read Rama, don't bother with the sequels/spinoffs. The closes depiction to the feeling I had after reading Rama II has been captured by xkcd in the Matrix strip. [0] [0]: http://xkcd.com/566/ http://xkcd.com/566/
- sxcurry 12y ago
  I agree - Rendezvous with Rama is a great book. I'd recommend listening to it as an audio book - really lets your mind fully construct Rama.
- psychometry 12y ago
  The Rama sequels should be required reading in college composition classes. They're such a wonderful fount of lessons in how not to write fiction.
sn41 12y ago
Stanislaw Lem: Fiasco Stanislaw Lem: His Master's Voice Strugarsky Brothers: Roadside Picnic Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker
- pmoriarty 12y ago
  If you liked "Roadside Picnic" you should really watch Tarkovsky's "Stalker" (though the film is much more mystical and less science-fictional than the book). If you like Lem, I would heartily recommend "Cyberiad". Unfortunately, Tarkovsky's adaptation of Lem's "Solaris" was pretty awful, especially compared to the likes of "Stalker" and other great Tarkovsky films like "Mirror" and "The Sacrifice". Curiously, despite Stapledon's enormous influence, to my knowledge none of his books have ever been made in to major motion pictures.
bpcse 12y ago
hello
harshreality 12y ago
Panshin - The World Beyond the Hill (meta) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1715812.The_World_Beyond_the_Hill http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1715812.The_World_Beyond_...
joshka 12y ago
I'm going to put my vote in for an old one Nightfall by Asimov and Silverberg. http://smile.amazon.com/Nightfall-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553290991?tag=joshka-20 http://smile.amazon.com/Nightfall-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553290991...
- tzs 12y ago
  That was pretty good. For those who have read the "Nightfall" short story, the novelization is still worthwhile. It mostly, if I recall correctly, deals with the aftermath of the events in the short story. It does cover the same ground as the short story in the early parts of the novel, so you don't have to have read the short story first.
joncp 12y ago
Seems to be down. Here's the Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:x8_BOh5naSEJ:howtosplitanatom.com/news/32-sci-fi-novels-you-should-read/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:x8_BOh5...
pmoriarty 12y ago
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was a minor work of Philip K Dick. The movie inspired by it, "Blade Runner" (the original version, not the director's cuts) was far, far better. "Minority Report" was also a pretty forgettable short story, and this time the movie made of it was mediocre. "A Scanner Darkly" was yet another minor PKD work that was made in to yet another movie. It seems this list of scifi books if partial towards books made in to movies. But just because they've been made in to movies doesn't make the original book good, much less great. As far as PKD books go (which is quite far, as he is one of my favorite authors), I would recommend "Ubik", "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", and "Martian Time Slip". And of his short stories, I'd recommend "Beyond Lies the Wub" and "Woof". Gibson's "Neuromancer" is alright, but "Count Zero" is better. Avoid the rest of his work. "Brave New World" is an incredibly overrated, heavy-handed propaganda novel, written without a shred of talent. Avoid. "Dune" is great, though I prefer the last few books of the original (Frank Herbert) series: "God Emperor", "Heretics", and "Chapterhouse". Definitely skip "Children" and "Messiah". "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is utterly brilliant, and is deserving of a place on a top-10 scifi novels list. I enjoyed "Foundation" and "I Robot" as a kid. Not sure if I'd still like them now, decades later. Likewise for "Farenheit 451" and "Ender's Game". I haven't read "Atlas Shrugged", but I did read "The Fountainhead", which amounted to a very long-winded statement of Ayn Rand's philosophy with two-dimentional characters serving as mouthpieces for it. It could have easily been stated in 30 pages, but instead was stretched out over 600.
- brudgers 12y ago
  Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle is definitely worth a read. Valis [or is it VALIS?] is also an interesting read...in the psychotropic sense of "interesting". I found Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep worth a read for the way in which it differs from the movie...the importance as status symbols of synthetic animals in the novella and its implications in regard to synthetic human lives a more compelling theme than the straightforward human rights theme of Blade Runner [or Alien from the same period in film]. What's funny is that I consider God Emperor and beyond to be the Dune series books worth skipping, but that's probably because they came out after I had read the first three...at the time, trilogies were the thing due to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Assimov's Foundation series [later to also be extended like Herbert's epic opus].
swayvil 12y ago
Greg Egan will explode your brain. PERMUTATION CITY http://amzn.com/1597805394 http://amzn.com/1597805394 And here's some ultrasharp online science fiction RA, FINE STRUCTURE, CAUSAL NOOSE ETC http://qntm.org/fiction http://qntm.org/fiction FRIENDSHIP IS OPTIMAL http://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/friendship-is-optimal http://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/friendship-is-optimal
- jcrites 12y ago
  Great suggestions! However, any discussion of Greg Egan is not complete without "Diaspora"! A novel about a world where most humans' minds have been scanned into a benevolent, human-operated machine world like The Matrix. Best book about those concepts I've ever read. It explores (with an intriguing plot) questions like, "What do you do with yourself when you control the matrix and, furthermore, can rewrite the code that is your own mind?" "How do senses and perception work in a digital world lacking all physical constraints? In what kind of environment will people interact? Will they have physics-simulated bodies or just be abstract shapes?" "How does the nature of space exploration change if you can slow down your mind until the orbit of planets is your day/night cycle?" It goes after these questions in a believable hard science fiction way. The remaining normal humans meanwhile see those living in the machine world as a deception or trick of evil robots, causing the digital humans great anguish since they wish to relieve the others of their pain and suffering. Beautiful and mind-bending.
  - swayvil 12y ago
    Ya Diaspora is excellent. Extremely boldly going. I've read it like 3 times (it's hard to find good sci if). How about that online stuff that I listed. Have you read any of that? It is of comparable quality. I'm serious.
DanBC 12y ago
(Currently showing "database error" for me.) I kind of wish list makers would include use-cases for their lists. "This is a list for people who don't often read SF"; "This is a list of Japanese, Korean, etc SF"; "This is a list of colonising SF". I really enjoy Greg Egan and Adam Roberts (although the endings can be infuriating). Jon Cortenay Grimwood's "Pashazade" trilogy was good. This is a reasonable intro list of Japanese SF. http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/editorial-on-japanese-sf-by-nick-mamatas-haikasoru-week/ http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/editorial-on-japanes...
platz 12y ago
I liked J.G. Ballard's novels - seemed to be sci-fi but not so on-the-nose that it beat you over the head with it.
duckingtest 12y ago
Lem: "Dialogs" - essays about consciousness uploading and its nature, construction of AI and self-replicating organisms.
cheeseprocedure 12y ago
Check out "Riddley Walker." It takes place in a devolved post-apocalyptic England where the folk mythology is an echo of everything lost from the information and nuclear ages, and it's utterly haunting. (I'd recommend it to anyone looking for fiction, and not just sci-fi.)
twirlip 12y ago
For years now, I purchase used paperback copies of Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep. I give them out to whomever asks me what he or she should read in science fiction. I think it's a perfect blend of old and new tropes and a rousing tale of adventure. But my favorite SF author is Howard Waldrop, though Ted Chiang is climbing up my list.
namanyayg 12y ago
Another contemporary author I haven't seen mentioned is Ted Chiang. I've read 'Stories Of Your Life and Others' by him, a collection of short stories. While I've found them to have unsatisfying endings, the ideas they explore are great. Especially liked 'Division by Zero', 'Story Of Your Life', and 'Seventy-Two Letters'. Definitely worth a read.
- twirlip 12y ago
  Oh, and 'Exhalation' is a perfect little gem of a story. It's about entropy, the thrill of discovery and understanding and, er, philosophical endings.
  - namanyayg 12y ago
    Ah yes, definitely. Quite interesting, and this had a great ending too! Characters were great.
geuis 12y ago
Alastair Reynolds. He's a recent writer and many of his books are great.
api 12y ago
I recently read a contemporary one I'd add to the list: Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson. http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Lake-Robert-Charles-Wilson-ebook/dp/B000FBFLRG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413052235&sr=8-1&keywords=blind+lake http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Lake-Robert-Charles-Wilson-ebook... It reminded me of classic Asimov, but updated, and the writing and characterization are superb. I find that I can't read some sci-fi because I can't deal with cardboard characterization.
leapius 12y ago
Sad not to see 'The Black Cloud - Fred Hoyle' in that list..
sgt101 12y ago
No one has said "The Left Hand of Darkness" or "The Dispossessed" LHOD is an exploration of what it means to be human, and what it means to love and the imagery of the trek across the ice sheet will live with me forever. TD is deeply political, for me layered and lacquered with nuance and questions. Written by a woman, a good balance for Rand.
sgt101 12y ago
Also, Greg Bear has hacked out some dreadful stuff but "Moving Mars" and "The Anvil of Stars" (the Forge of God is a bit of a pot boiler tbh, but it is the prequel, so...). Both are really big picture sci-fi; about what humans will do with toys that are beyond them, and are doing. Amazing.
fsloth 12y ago
Nice list but I would definitely include among contemporaries: - Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" as suggested already - Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" - this is absolutely an amazing book for anyone familiar with geek culture and the interplay of academia and industry - anything by Iain Banks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks). "Excession" (http://www.amazon.com/Excession-Bantam-Spectra-Book-Banks/dp/0553575376 http://www.amazon.com/Excession-Bantam-Spectra-Book-Banks/dp...) is good, but the culture series in general is very nice literate approach to imagining a post-singularity scifi future that manages to combine deep psychological characters with wacky dark humour, lots of space opera action that is fresh every time and, most of all the ship names... of the ship names are just amazingly ... just go and read it already - in fantasy (or, dark fantasy, perhaps) genre Joe Abercrombie's "First law" trilogy is an gut wrenchingly entertaining trope-twisting joyride, starting from "The Blade Itself" http://www.amazon.com/The-Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/159102594X http://www.amazon.com/The-Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/15910259... that is worth reading for the hilarious character development (or degeneration?) alone. - Vernor Vinges "A deepness in the sky"(http://www.amazon.com/A-Deepness-Sky-Zones-Thought/dp/0812536355 http://www.amazon.com/A-Deepness-Sky-Zones-Thought/dp/081253...) is presented as a hard-scifi space opera but actually manages to be a witty commentary on the state of software engineering now and thousands of years into the future, usage of human intellect in the "mechanical turk" fashion in systems engineering and the potential of 'smart dust'. Almost made me want to start learning Erlang :)
- marssaxman 12y ago
  I got absolutely nowhere with Simmons and have no idea what the appeal is, but I cannot encourage Banks enough. Worth reading all, and again.
  - fsloth 12y ago
    Hmm, it might be nostalgia as I was in my late teens when I read "Hyperion" the first time. The rest of the books in the series are weaker, though. Hyperion seems to be an amalgamation of lots of nuggets of story building and elements that the author has lovingly crafted in span of several years and if one does not enjoy pondering, poetic world-building or heart pounding scifi action with time shifting supersuits for their own sake, then there is very little meat in the book.
tejon 12y ago
Astonished to find no David Brin on that site, or in this discussion. The man has seven Hugo Awards for a reason! Otherness (short story collection) and Earth were downright formative for me.
adamfeldman 12y ago
I'm surprised to see the lack of love of cyberpunk in this thread. Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) is my favorite book. Ender's Game (and the rest of the series, which quickly gets very cerebral) is awesome. I feel like we're living in the world that the cyberpunk genre foresaw. At least in my home, Houston: the urban sprawl, powerful companies, etc.
MichaelMoser123 12y ago
(database error for me) my personal favourites are the 'robots of dawn' by Asimov and Lem's 'Washing mashine tragedy'. And of course it's Bradburies 'illustrated man'; not to forget all of Vonnegut - that's a must, especially 'Cat's cradle' and 'Slaughterhouse-Five'. (i guess this got to the top because it's Saturday and almost everybody is drunk; so it goes)
MCRed 12y ago
One of the most compelling arguments for reading _Atlas Shrugged_ in my opinion, is that whenever it's mentioned people seem to fall over themselves to tell you not to read it (or to bash Rand, call it bad writing, or whatever.) They never seem to make attempts to refute the arguments made by the book (almost always when they do it's knocking down straw men, alas.)
- rvkennedy 12y ago
  I'm in two minds about reading Rand: on the one hand, I've heard nothing but contempt for the quality of her writing from commentators I respect - i.e. prose, structure, etc. On the other, as I'm assuming I would disagree with her theses I would like to do so from an informed perspective. Should I bother?
xaritas 12y ago
For those looking for some additional recommendations that are "literary" (by which I mean, densely allusive and layered with meaning, yet not painfully self-conscious or lacking in any sense of awe and wonder, let alone enjoyment), look into Gene Wolfe. He is not exclusively a science fiction author, but The Book of the Sun (a tetralogy) and the rest of the Solar Cycle books definitely are, and they remain among my favorites. The entire series will keep you busy for a while. For a shorter introduction, consider The Fifth Head of Cerberus, consisting of three related novellas, is exquisite; also worth checking out. See also, Borges; not usually considered a science fiction author, I suppose for reasons having to do with the connotations of being a genre author.
- groovy2shoes 12y ago
  I've been reading the Book of the New Sun for the last couple of weeks, and I can second this recommendation. It straddles a very interesting line between science fiction and fantasy, and it definitely feels like a piece of literature more than most works of either genre. As I recently explained it to a friend of mine, it's "Dune caliber" (though not at all similar in terms of setting). A great read.
- tjradcliffe 12y ago
  Not of the same league as Borges or Wolfe, but there's also this, which is literary and layered and allusive but which also tells a story with real characters and big ideas: http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Theorem-TJ-Radcliffe-ebook/dp/B00KBH5O8K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413073225&sr=8-1&keywords=darwin%27s+theorem http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Theorem-TJ-Radcliffe-ebook/dp/...
tomrod 12y ago
I can't recommend David Brin enough: 1. The Postman 2. Earth 3. Existence
BrindsleyQuives 12y ago
"Error establishing a database connection" Never heard of that one. Is it by Arthur C Clarke?
mpdehaan2 12y ago
Forgot one that was pretty good: Robert Charles Wilson's Spin - http://www.amazon.com/Spin-Robert-Charles-Wilson/dp/076534825X http://www.amazon.com/Spin-Robert-Charles-Wilson/dp/07653482...
Demiurge 12y ago
Not a single Stanislaw Lem novel? Why is this so typical of USA sci-fi section? His 'Fiasco' is one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read.
BugBrother 12y ago
I am a day late (and I might be Hell banned?), but Blindsight by Watts ought to be mentioned. It was a total kick. It might be space opera, but with little of faked science. People's taste either seems to go literary (e.g. Hyperion) or ideas/science (Benford). I do both. Edit: I should add that Blindsight is available under an open license from the author's website.
based2 12y ago
The World of Ā, Alfred Elton van Vogt Rendezvous with Rama, Sir Arthur Charles Clarke Ravage, René Barjavel Le Gambit des étoiles, Gérard Klein Niourk, Stefan Wul

187 points by smoyer 12y ago

Snow Crash has always been more popular than Diamond Age -- I think that's because when it came out the idea of cyberspace was quite new. I think Diamond age is a lot more relevant for 2014. Snow Crash almost feels like an alternative history piece now -- virtual reality isn't new and exciting. Diamond Age is about a world with advanced 3d printers and iPads designed to be personal tutors. I already live in Snow Crash, I want to live in Diamond Age.

hamidr 12y ago

It's already down!

deleted 12y ago
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mp4box 12y ago

Cached version: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fhowtosplitanatom.com%2Fnews%2F32-sci-fi-novels-you-should-read%2F https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3...

cturhan 12y ago
Came here to share this. I'm late
thisjepisje 12y ago
It's up for me.

bd 12y ago

Good books (mostly). Though if you like sci-fi, you have likely already read most of them (this list is mostly "classics" category). Here are two better lists if you are after lesser known / more modern sci-fi gems: http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/281se9 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/281se9 http://timothylottes.blogspot.com/2014/08/scifi-reading-suggestion-list-from.html http://timothylottes.blogspot.com/2014/08/scifi-reading-sugg... I'm slowly chewing through them, there are some awesome books / new authors there.

smoyer 12y ago
"this list is mostly "classics" category" Well stated! But I found 6 books that I haven't read yet, so that will keep me busy for a few weeks.
Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
Curious to see the Cryptonomicon on the second list. It's a great books sure, but sci-fi? Surely just contemporary fiction? Hell, half of it is historical fiction.

tbingmann 12y ago

Looks like a list of familiar titles. I already read 19 of the 32, do I have to worry? They were very good books, though.

thisjepisje 12y ago

PKD's short stories are excellent. Beyond Lies the Wub, We can remember it for you wholesale, Adjustment Team, Perky Pat, etc... I would also like to add Greg Egan - Diaspora. I love it for how it takes post/transhumanism (among other things) to the extreme.

megablast 12y ago
PKD's short stories are amazing, get the collection of 5 editions. He often started with short stories, then expanded them into full novels. Greg Egan is amazing as well, and has fantastic short stories too.
- thisjepisje 12y ago
  Cool, I didn't know about Egan's short stories.

ssalenik 12y ago

OT, but it seems that in Canada all of the Foundation series is available as ebooks (on Amazon, Google, etc) except for the very first one... very annoying.

deleted 12y ago

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rmbe 12y ago

Good list, though it is missing The Culture series of Iain M Banks.

TheMiller 12y ago
I'll second the recommendation for The Culture series, and add "A Fire Upon The Deep" by Vernor Vinge.
andrey-p 12y ago
Thirding The Culture series (I've only read Matter, but I loved the setting) and adding Embassytown by China Miéville.
MichaelGG 12y ago
The Culture series is one of the most uplifting series I've read. When I'm reading it, I'm just smiling thinking "yeah, that's exactly how humans should develop". Also, ships named Well, it works for me.
midhir 12y ago
Fourthing the Culture series. I've read most of them now and the highlights for me are Look To Windward, Player of Games and Fearsum Endjinn (stick with that one). I also rate Excession and Matter though I know a lot of other people think they're weaker. Atlas Shrugged has been called the 'second most influential book in America' so I can understand why it gets mentioned a lot. I found it an unimaginative, tacky bore. It's at least three times the length it should be, the characters speak in diatribes and are impossible to empathise with. At best it's interesting as a thought experiment and it did affect my outlook on life but, really, I read it because I thought I should, not because I wanted to. I also found Red Mars a bit of a struggle in this way too. It seemed similarly ideological to Atlas Shrugged but from the other direction. It was worth reading for the sheer attention to detail and imagination though.
- rvkennedy 12y ago
  I find it amazing that there still hasn't been a film or TV adaptation of Iain M Banks. Not that such a thing would be necessary or a validation of his writing; but I'd love to see it imagined and realized visually. It's a vision of perhaps the best possible case for the human future - if we don't fuck up.

phkahler 12y ago

I would add "The End of Eternity". The ending of that book was by far the best I've ever read. Everything in the book is brought together and everything that matters to the main character is put on the line in one decision which is resolved in a fun and unexpected way.

andrey-p 12y ago

Dune was an amazing read. I'd recommend reading it if you haven't. The setting is unique and mindblowing in scale. However, if you're planning on going through the entire series I'd suggest stopping at God Emperor. The books afterwards seem to lose their direction, the plot starts to feel a bit contrived. The focus shifts from action to endless discussions between characters that could've been used to develop character and story, but seem to tread the same ground. At the same time details that were mentioned in a sentence suddenly balloon into massive plot points, and bizarre deus ex machinae pop up all over the place. YMMV, of course. I stopped after finishing the original series, and read the Wikipedia synopses of the rest of the books in order to get some sort of closure.

mpdehaan2 12y ago
While it gets weirder towards the end of the six books, I found the philosophy and generally strange quotes and philosophy to be more interesting and worthwhile, even if the plot got exceptionally less so. To me, I think the gap in readability was in books two and three - maybe.
- magicalist 12y ago
  Yeah, I find Heretics of Dune to be much better than Children of Dune, for instance, both in characterizations and the ideas it explores. I'll break ranks, though, and say I actually enjoy the plot after God Emperor of Dune quite a lot. I didn't really the first time I read the books, so that may have some bearing, but it helped to read a piece discussing the books, where they claimed that the Dune books are two separate trilogies, with God Emperor as the transitional book. Unfortunately, Frank Herbert didn't get to complete the second trilogy, but the first two books of it -- when thought of as a mostly separate set of stories from the first Dune books -- becomes much more interesting, rather than just "why is he introducing all this new stuff into this universe?" As for those other "Dune" books written by Frank Herbert's son and Kevin Anderson, they are total trash, and not worth any more of your time than, say, your average bottom-of-the-barrel Star Wars EU novel (it's telling that it took Frank Herbert nearly 30 years to write his six Dune novels, and it took them less than 5 years to write their first six). If you're curious about them, do yourself a favor by reading their synopses on wikipedia, feeling sad that they even exist, then forgetting that they do.

sjcsjc 12y ago

I don't remember seeing anyone recommend Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger[1] in these kinds of list. Not sure if it counts as sci-fi, and it's at least 25 years since I read it, but I recall it being worth reading. [1] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3186/3186-h/3186-h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3186/3186-h/3186-h.htm

pmoriarty 12y ago
There's a great little animation inspired by "The Mysterious Stranger",[0] which is apparently part of a film called "The Adventures of Mark Twain".[1] [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpaRouocBes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpaRouocBes [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Mark_Twain_%281985_film%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Mark_Twain_%...
colomon 12y ago
Was going to ask "Which Mysterious Stranger?" but then I noticed you'd linked straight to text. :) Ooo, checking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger there was apparently one version I didn't know about. (I've read the one you posted ("1916 publication"), "No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger", and "Schoolhouse Hill".)

breckenedge 12y ago

Here's another list sorted by decade. http://blog.fogus.me/2012/09/21/the-amazing-colossal-science-fiction-ketchup/ http://blog.fogus.me/2012/09/21/the-amazing-colossal-science... Been following it for a few years now.

astkaasa 12y ago

My favorites: Hyperion series, Robotech series

smoyer 12y ago

I've been reading more science fiction from "classic" authors lately - everyone knows that Jules Verne wrote science fiction but what about Edgar Allan Poe? I'm currently reading "The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe (Penguin English Library)" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140431063/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0140431063&linkCode=as2&tag=selesy-20&linkId=FLZ67NTHKN3XYJXG http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140431063/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...)

nabla9 12y ago
I read all Jules Verne novels I could get my hands on when I was 14-16 years old (for those who have not read Verne, they are very dry and detailed books). Recently I discovered yet another, his dystopian novel: Paris in the Twentieth Century (written in 1863, first published 1994) and it totally blew my mind how interestingly prophetic some of his predictions for 100 ahead years were (and some of the predictions still might become true).
- pmoriarty 12y ago
  If you enjoy prophetic scifi, you might be interested in a 1909 story called "The Machine Stops"[0][1], a short story by E. M. Forster, which predicted the internet, internet addiction, video conferencing, and other later technologies and scifi tropes. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops [1] - http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html

omni 12y ago

Just my two cents, but if I were to make a sci-fi novel list of length 1, the only entry would be Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's the Canterbury Tales in space, but the thing they're pilgrimaging towards is a nightmarish god of death. http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cantos-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685 http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cantos-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283...

gooseyard 12y ago
another hyperion devotee here. my favorite since reading the hyperion and olympos books was Anathem by N. Stephenson, if you haven't read that one I bet you'll like it too!
- joshka 12y ago
  Anathem was the entire reason I caved and bought a Kindle (many years ago). Great book, killer as a hard copy trade paperback.
- geuis 12y ago
  Anathem is one of my favorite books. I've lost count of how many times I listened to the audio book. Check out the subreddit /r/anathem too.
grimman 12y ago
Puts an entirely new spin on Catholics in space. :) I'll go ahead and second your recommendation. A thoroughly enjoyable read with several really great concepts.
_deh 12y ago
Agree entirely, an excellent read. Fiercely imaginative blend of sci-fi, religion, time travel, horror, Keats & Chaucer.
wlesieutre 12y ago
Hyperion and Chasm City (2nd book of Revelation Space) are two of my favorite books I've read in the last few years. The whole Revelation Space series is fantastic. It's written by a former ESA astronomer, so it definitely falls more toward the "hard sci-fi" side of the spectrum than Hyperion. It takes a few scientific liberties, but all of them are significant to the setting. Interstellar human civilizations without FTL are a pretty cool place for a story.

msh 12y ago

hmm I would rate Accelerando as the least good book Stross have written. I would say that all his other books are much much better written and have better structure but that is of cause my own opinion.

yk 12y ago
Funny thing, I agree that Accelerando is his least good book, but still it is the book that should be on such a list. It is just a lot more influential than Halting State or the Laundry series.
cstross 12y ago
You might (or might not) be surprised to learn that I agree. Reason: Accelerando is really a fix-up of nine novelettes, previously published separately in Asimov's SF Magazine. So it is, to say the least, episodic ...
waterlesscloud 12y ago
While I mostly agree, I first encountered the 'Lobsters' section on its own and loved it for the way it ran with its ideas.
xaritas 12y ago
It is definitely thought-provoking on the subject of computation and human culture; it's also really enjoyable. It's available for free under a Creative Commons license: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera... I agree that the structure and pacing is odd if taken as a single corpus (which is hard not to do in its book form!) I wasn't surprised to learn after reading it that it was published serially over the course of three years. I suspect that the sequence was not mapped out fully. Edit: Heh. When I refreshed I didn't see the response from the author confirming this.

VLM 12y ago

Good novels. As a meta note I'd suggest splitting hard and soft sci fi... someone who likes KSR's mars trilogy (which needs to be on the list) is possibly not going to like ultra super soft stuff like stranger in a strange land and vice versa. Then there's the in between stuff like moon is a harsh mistress. Its sort of like a religious books list. Its quite possible that a lot of devout followers aren't going to be amused by reading the competition, and if you want a survey textbook, just buy a textbook.

brudgers 12y ago
I read just about every Heinlein story I could get my hands on as a teenager. The funny thing is that the one's I thought were sort of stupid - e.g. Have Space Suit Will Travel and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - because they were only about the solar system, I've found to be among my favorites as an adult. Then again, I couldn't get through Friday back then, but found the description of the role that big data would play in the future prescient a few years ago. Likewise, understanding Stranger in a Strange Land in the context of Heinlien's relationship with Hubbard was beyond me in high-school [Hubbard's BattleField Earth is worth a read or at least a try, even if the movie isn't. He was a talented writer among other things].
- gregpilling 12y ago
  I still have almost every story and book he has written. I especially enjoyed "Grumbles from the Grave" where talks about pushing the envelope to see what he could get away with. It made some of his more extreme viewpoints in the later books make more sense. He was trolling people. Moon is a Harsh Mistress is my favorite of his, because it is a fun multi layered story. And we are almost at the day that Adam Selene could exist. I saw a Simon Jester reference the other day, made me laugh. I have read BattleField Earth a couple times, it is a massive book. L. Ron writes in the introduction that he wrote the book for himself, that he let his imagination run wild. L. Ron has quite an imagination (see Xenu), and the book is a long fast roller-coaster. Has anyone else noticed the similarity between DD Harriman (The man who sold the moon) and Elon Musk? Also he had a version of the internet thought out in 1938 "For us the living" which relied on an intercontinental series of tubes. Maybe Ted Stevens got his information from that. That book has many of his major plot lines jammed into one book. Not the best, but interesting to see the V1.0 of what became the Future History ideas. I read it right after the banking problems in 2008, so it was timely to read Heinlein rant about banking in the book (he disliked fractional reserve banking) /fanboyoff now.

osxrand 12y ago

One sci-fi author that I really found refreshing was Karl Schroeder. His first book has been made available for anyone to read, and if you like nano bots, micro payments, discussions on what it means to be human, I'd highly recommend checking his works out. http://www.kschroeder.com/my-books/ventus/free-ebook-version http://www.kschroeder.com/my-books/ventus/free-ebook-version

elzr 12y ago
I second Karl Schroeder as a worthwhile SF author! His novels can be challenging but his ideas are unique and worth the price of admission: * Ventus, his first novel, is about a world that turns accidentally alive (think Gaia) via nanotechnology. * Lady of Mazes turns around how we could use (very advanced) technology to preserve cultures instead of undermining them. * Permanence is about a star-faring civilization so advanced it doesn't need technology, it is technology, having perfectly evolved itself to its niche. * The Virga series is set in a wonderfully imaginative zero-gee bubble-of-gas world, heated by an artificial sun --think of it as space with air! Besides being an SF author, Schroeder is also a professional futurist. I recommend his OSCON 2009 talk,The Rewilding: A Metaphor, as a good introduction to his thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb7pkohj6wE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb7pkohj6wE

dsr_ 12y ago

The authors are overwhelmingly male (90%), and the titles are overwhelmingly old. That's not to say that they're bad (though at least one is objectively bad). Just old and male. Here's three for diversity: - Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. Character-driven space opera, with side-trips into mystery, thriller, and (gasp) romance. Start with the short story collection _Borders of Infinity_ to get a taste for it. - Elizabeth Bear -- lots of variety, but _Carnival_ and _Dust_ are excellent. Respectively, they are an espionage/police procedural and a political thriller on a doomed starship. - Linda Nagata -- she's best known for the epic nanotech series (The Bohr-Maker, Limit of Vision, Tech Heaven...) but recently started a near-future series about the impact of cybernetics, prosthetics and early AI (First Light).

jib 12y ago
More notably to me they are all western. There's a lot more diversity missed out on due to not having say Lem and the Strugasky brothers than on old and male imo. Eastern European sci-fi is well worth spending some time on.
- goldfeld 12y ago
  I was half expecting you'd suggest some Far East sci-fi, which I'd love to get acquainted with. On the GP's call for female authors, I'd add Joan Slonczewski, who's also a microbiology book author and professor, and draws on that knowledge for her classic A Door Into Ocean which is also feminist sci-fi.
  - jib 12y ago
    I would love some far east too - I have no experience with that though, so if someone has some advice I'd love to hear it too.
- merrua 12y ago
  It looks like that a lot of russian sci-fi is hard to get english translations of. For example a search for "Kir Bulychov" on amazon.co.uk doesnt return anything of the childrens sci-fi he wrote, which you would expect to still sell well.

chrisweekly 12y ago

PSA: for contemporary, entertaining, thought-provoking novels relating to sci-fi, my short list of must-reads includes these gems: * The Gone-Away World (Harkaway) [1] * Ready Player One (Cline) [2] and * The Martian (Weir) [3] each of which is impossible to put down. Actually Harkaway's entire oevre is terrific. The steampunk Angelmaker [4] was a ton of fun. Also, many of Iain M Banks' Culture novels (The Player of Games [5] is at the top of my personal list; they can be read in any order) and The Wind-up Girl (Bacigalupi) [6] are must-reads too. This is not meant as criticism of the OP, rather as fodder for commenters referencing other longer and more contemporary lists. Oh and a final, related tangent: if, like me, you really enjoy G.R.R. Martin but generally avoid straight-up fantasy [it seems to me the genre is awash in mediocre Tolkien rip-offs] please give The Name of the Wind (Rothfuss) [7] a chance. You'll be glad you did. :) [1] http://smile.amazon.com/Gone-Away-World-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B001EL6R9W/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Gone-Away-World-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/... [2] http://smile.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline-ebook/dp/B004J4WKUQ/ref=sr_1_1_ha http://smile.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline-ebook/... [3] http://smile.amazon.com/Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA/ref=sr_1_1_ha http://smile.amazon.com/Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00... [4] http://smile.amazon.com/Angelmaker-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B005IQZ7IG/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Angelmaker-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B0... [5] http://smile.amazon.com/Player-Games-Culture-Novel-Book-ebook/dp/B002WM3HC2/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Player-Games-Culture-Novel-Book-eboo... [6] http://smile.amazon.com/Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi-ebook/dp/B006TKP2B2/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi-ebook/d... [7] http://smile.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Day-ebook/dp/B0010SKUYM/ref=sr_1_1 http://smile.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Day-e...

jrmiii 12y ago
Our taste in novels seems to be really similar. For that reason, I'm reading the ones on your list I have not read.
chrisan 12y ago
Ready Player One was awesome. Highly recommend the Wil Wheaton audio book!

al2o3cr 12y ago

"Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read." Yes, just like a certain goat-URLed website that used to feature a man "stretching his boundary" farther than seemed possible...

aluhut 12y ago
The first book I wasn't able to finish. The mix of stupidity, contradictions, overstretched scenery, cringe worthy glorifications, weird ideology, stupid characters and the unbelievably slow progress were just too much. I plan to finish it some day...when I'm already depressed maybe. I would like to understand what people see in this...thing.
jordanpg 12y ago
Atlas Shrugged is many things, but it doesn't look or act like sci-fi by any measure. This choice stands out like sore thumb and compromises the integrity of the list for the obvious reasons.
demachina 12y ago
I cringed most of the way through Atlas Shrugged when I first read it. Having encountered more than my share of bureaucrats , inept big corporations and NGO's since, I can say she did have some valid points. The world is full of people who survive by sucking the blood out of the doers. It is nuts putting it on a sci-fi list, its more a political screed.

merrua 12y ago

After reading Ringworld as a kid, Halo was a bit of a let down. For all those who grew up with Halo, I wonder if Ringworld stands up. I'd add the new Young Miles omnibus by Lois McMaster Bujold. Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones (read it again recently and the quantum computer is interesting). Moon of Three Rings and Sargasso of Space by Andre Norton.

grimman 12y ago
Absolutely. I played and read Halo related material before Ringworld, and it's the reason I even bothered reading Ringworld in the first place. Definitely enjoyed both, though I felt the first Halo book trilogy was weak the first time I read it too, and I fear it won't hold up well at all.
- merrua 12y ago
  Thats good news that you still enjoyed Ringworld. I was wondering if the orginality of the work was the main strength of it at the time. I still hear mixed things about the Halo books. Goodreads is still giving the first one a good rating, but the reviews are all over the place.
  - grimman 12y ago
    If you're at all curious, by all means pick the Halo books up, just don't expect too much from them.
brudgers 12y ago
The really interesting concept in RingWorld is the genetic predisposition of luck.
- merrua 12y ago
  I agree. I loved that. Its great material to run with too. An idea that gives more ideas.

_femp 12y ago

There are some great books on the list, however it should be a criminal offense to not include Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (first published as Tiger! Tiger!). It's best summed up as The Count of Monte Cristo, in space. Bester's novel is in many ways the forerunner of the cyberpunk genre.

Donch 12y ago
I was just about to make the very same suggestion. Ignore the list and just read this book! The threading of the 'jaunting' concept was way ahead of its time in 1956 and the inspiration can be seen in many modern films.
colomon 12y ago
But (for those of you who haven't read it) that summary really doesn't even hint at the novel's greatness. It just spills out cool ideas, hardly ever pausing to take a breath. Bester's The Demolished Man is also well worth mentioning. Won the very first Hugo award, still stands up well today.
- _femp 12y ago
  > still stands up well today Something that amazes me about Bester's writing is that neither book feels dated. Then, you think about how visionary he was in the time they were written, and it blows you away. Of course, the other thing about Bester that amazes me is that he's so obscure, despite as you point out winning the first Hugo and for writing notable early sci-fi. Someone's knowledge of Bester has become an informal litmus test for me to get a feel for how well read someone is in sci-fi. Neat tidbit about Bester: he's also credited with writing the Green Lantern Oath. edit: to be specific, Silver Age Green Lantern.
  - waterlesscloud 12y ago
    William Gibson wrote a little appreciation of The Stars My Destination: http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/appreciation/gibson.jsp http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/appreciation/gibson.jsp 'It is, as Bruce Sterling remarked to me on our first meeting, “a seamless pop artifact.” Few and far between, such artifacts; each one a complete anomaly.'

brudgers 12y ago

I was thinking, "Atlas Shrugged, what the fuck?" but then I re-read the title of the article. As is [ironically with a sense that is lost upon them] common to admirers of Ayn Rand, the author feels compelled to "should" on their readers. I was warned. I've read most everything on the list, though the dead horse of Animal Farm was first beaten for me in sixth grade...and that was long enough ago that Cold War MADness was a reality in the days when "PG" on a movie meant "tits" and Murray and Ramos could parody the US Army...if the list has talking animals, where is Watership Down? But I digress... A few years ago, I came back to science fiction and started reading the Hugo Award novels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winners_and_nominees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winne... What I found is that the list gives context to the novels...the line of telephones ringing are forgivable in 1985's Neuromancer in a way that they wouldn't be in a movie made today. The competence of the grunts in 1960's Starship Troopers is a reaction to the USMC in the Second World War and the experience of the US military during the shooting phase of the Korean War. 1998's Forever Peace shows how much computers changed the meanings of "combatant" and "battlefield" in the subsequent 40 years. One of the other interesting themes of science fiction is the evolution of the post-apocalyptic world. The alien invasion of 1950's Day of the Triffids and the pandemic of 1949's Earth Abides [not a Hugo Novels] giving way to the nuclear wastelands of 1961's Canticle for Leibowitz's and 1966's This Immortal [when Zelzany's novel tied Herbert's Dune for the Hugo and rightly so]. By 1996's Diamond Age or 2010's Windup Girl the apocalypse is a slow moving tragedy of the commons brought on not by rash misunderstanding but by long term economic rationalizations...bringing us full circle, and you were warned.

RobertKerans 12y ago
Yeah, re Atlas Shrugged, that was exactly my first thought as I scrolled down. If you want a [nuts] libertarian fantasy, then Weapon Shops of Isher is slightly better written and at least entertainingly camp. And Animal Farm definitely doesn't belong on a scifi list, and I think hammers home the political sympathies of the post's author (yeah, why not Watership Down? Or Shardik even?).
- pavel_lishin 12y ago

patja 12y ago

Its a good list of classics, but dropping Doctorow in there seems a bit incongruous. I've never cared for his novels. They always strike me as little more than pandering spackling together of snappy glib dialogue with pop culture tropes and memes. They leave me feeling about as satisfied and intellectually stimulated as eating ice cream for lunch does for my nutritional needs. I say the same about Scalzi.

brudgers 12y ago
Rapture of the Nerds and Makers are both competent utopian/distopian novels respectively. Little Brother etc. are sound as teen fiction. If spackled memes aren't appropriate, then Orwell probably should not be on the list unless pandering to anti-communists in an English accent counts as gravitas. At least Doctorow takes on the world wide media machine that is the Rat of Orlando.
nicholassmith 12y ago
Early Doctrow fiction is pretty good, he doesn't attempt to push his political beliefs as much. I actually don't disagree with a lot of the ideas he espouses, but his last two books were as subtle as a stomach pump.
geuis 12y ago
Hmm I entirely agree with your description of Doctorow, but disagree about Scalzi. I've been enjoying most of his books quite a lot. I wasn't a big fan of Old Man's War and won't read any more of that series, but I still quite like his other books.

bostik 12y ago

I would probably drop I Robot (yes, really!) from the list, and replace that with Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. And if you do read Rama, don't bother with the sequels/spinoffs. The closes depiction to the feeling I had after reading Rama II has been captured by xkcd in the Matrix strip. [0] [0]: http://xkcd.com/566/ http://xkcd.com/566/

sxcurry 12y ago
I agree - Rendezvous with Rama is a great book. I'd recommend listening to it as an audio book - really lets your mind fully construct Rama.
psychometry 12y ago
The Rama sequels should be required reading in college composition classes. They're such a wonderful fount of lessons in how not to write fiction.

sn41 12y ago

Stanislaw Lem: Fiasco Stanislaw Lem: His Master's Voice Strugarsky Brothers: Roadside Picnic Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker

pmoriarty 12y ago
If you liked "Roadside Picnic" you should really watch Tarkovsky's "Stalker" (though the film is much more mystical and less science-fictional than the book). If you like Lem, I would heartily recommend "Cyberiad". Unfortunately, Tarkovsky's adaptation of Lem's "Solaris" was pretty awful, especially compared to the likes of "Stalker" and other great Tarkovsky films like "Mirror" and "The Sacrifice". Curiously, despite Stapledon's enormous influence, to my knowledge none of his books have ever been made in to major motion pictures.

bpcse 12y ago

hello

harshreality 12y ago

Panshin - The World Beyond the Hill (meta) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1715812.The_World_Beyond_the_Hill http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1715812.The_World_Beyond_...

joshka 12y ago

I'm going to put my vote in for an old one Nightfall by Asimov and Silverberg. http://smile.amazon.com/Nightfall-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553290991?tag=joshka-20 http://smile.amazon.com/Nightfall-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553290991...

tzs 12y ago
That was pretty good. For those who have read the "Nightfall" short story, the novelization is still worthwhile. It mostly, if I recall correctly, deals with the aftermath of the events in the short story. It does cover the same ground as the short story in the early parts of the novel, so you don't have to have read the short story first.

joncp 12y ago

Seems to be down. Here's the Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:x8_BOh5naSEJ:howtosplitanatom.com/news/32-sci-fi-novels-you-should-read/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:x8_BOh5...

pmoriarty 12y ago

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was a minor work of Philip K Dick. The movie inspired by it, "Blade Runner" (the original version, not the director's cuts) was far, far better. "Minority Report" was also a pretty forgettable short story, and this time the movie made of it was mediocre. "A Scanner Darkly" was yet another minor PKD work that was made in to yet another movie. It seems this list of scifi books if partial towards books made in to movies. But just because they've been made in to movies doesn't make the original book good, much less great. As far as PKD books go (which is quite far, as he is one of my favorite authors), I would recommend "Ubik", "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", and "Martian Time Slip". And of his short stories, I'd recommend "Beyond Lies the Wub" and "Woof". Gibson's "Neuromancer" is alright, but "Count Zero" is better. Avoid the rest of his work. "Brave New World" is an incredibly overrated, heavy-handed propaganda novel, written without a shred of talent. Avoid. "Dune" is great, though I prefer the last few books of the original (Frank Herbert) series: "God Emperor", "Heretics", and "Chapterhouse". Definitely skip "Children" and "Messiah". "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is utterly brilliant, and is deserving of a place on a top-10 scifi novels list. I enjoyed "Foundation" and "I Robot" as a kid. Not sure if I'd still like them now, decades later. Likewise for "Farenheit 451" and "Ender's Game". I haven't read "Atlas Shrugged", but I did read "The Fountainhead", which amounted to a very long-winded statement of Ayn Rand's philosophy with two-dimentional characters serving as mouthpieces for it. It could have easily been stated in 30 pages, but instead was stretched out over 600.

brudgers 12y ago
Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle is definitely worth a read. Valis [or is it VALIS?] is also an interesting read...in the psychotropic sense of "interesting". I found Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep worth a read for the way in which it differs from the movie...the importance as status symbols of synthetic animals in the novella and its implications in regard to synthetic human lives a more compelling theme than the straightforward human rights theme of Blade Runner [or Alien from the same period in film]. What's funny is that I consider God Emperor and beyond to be the Dune series books worth skipping, but that's probably because they came out after I had read the first three...at the time, trilogies were the thing due to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Assimov's Foundation series [later to also be extended like Herbert's epic opus].

swayvil 12y ago

Greg Egan will explode your brain. PERMUTATION CITY http://amzn.com/1597805394 http://amzn.com/1597805394 And here's some ultrasharp online science fiction RA, FINE STRUCTURE, CAUSAL NOOSE ETC http://qntm.org/fiction http://qntm.org/fiction FRIENDSHIP IS OPTIMAL http://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/friendship-is-optimal http://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/friendship-is-optimal

jcrites 12y ago
Great suggestions! However, any discussion of Greg Egan is not complete without "Diaspora"! A novel about a world where most humans' minds have been scanned into a benevolent, human-operated machine world like The Matrix. Best book about those concepts I've ever read. It explores (with an intriguing plot) questions like, "What do you do with yourself when you control the matrix and, furthermore, can rewrite the code that is your own mind?" "How do senses and perception work in a digital world lacking all physical constraints? In what kind of environment will people interact? Will they have physics-simulated bodies or just be abstract shapes?" "How does the nature of space exploration change if you can slow down your mind until the orbit of planets is your day/night cycle?" It goes after these questions in a believable hard science fiction way. The remaining normal humans meanwhile see those living in the machine world as a deception or trick of evil robots, causing the digital humans great anguish since they wish to relieve the others of their pain and suffering. Beautiful and mind-bending.
- swayvil 12y ago
  Ya Diaspora is excellent. Extremely boldly going. I've read it like 3 times (it's hard to find good sci if). How about that online stuff that I listed. Have you read any of that? It is of comparable quality. I'm serious.

DanBC 12y ago

(Currently showing "database error" for me.) I kind of wish list makers would include use-cases for their lists. "This is a list for people who don't often read SF"; "This is a list of Japanese, Korean, etc SF"; "This is a list of colonising SF". I really enjoy Greg Egan and Adam Roberts (although the endings can be infuriating). Jon Cortenay Grimwood's "Pashazade" trilogy was good. This is a reasonable intro list of Japanese SF. http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/editorial-on-japanese-sf-by-nick-mamatas-haikasoru-week/ http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/editorial-on-japanes...

platz 12y ago

I liked J.G. Ballard's novels - seemed to be sci-fi but not so on-the-nose that it beat you over the head with it.

duckingtest 12y ago

Lem: "Dialogs" - essays about consciousness uploading and its nature, construction of AI and self-replicating organisms.

cheeseprocedure 12y ago

Check out "Riddley Walker." It takes place in a devolved post-apocalyptic England where the folk mythology is an echo of everything lost from the information and nuclear ages, and it's utterly haunting. (I'd recommend it to anyone looking for fiction, and not just sci-fi.)

twirlip 12y ago

For years now, I purchase used paperback copies of Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep. I give them out to whomever asks me what he or she should read in science fiction. I think it's a perfect blend of old and new tropes and a rousing tale of adventure. But my favorite SF author is Howard Waldrop, though Ted Chiang is climbing up my list.

namanyayg 12y ago

Another contemporary author I haven't seen mentioned is Ted Chiang. I've read 'Stories Of Your Life and Others' by him, a collection of short stories. While I've found them to have unsatisfying endings, the ideas they explore are great. Especially liked 'Division by Zero', 'Story Of Your Life', and 'Seventy-Two Letters'. Definitely worth a read.

twirlip 12y ago
Oh, and 'Exhalation' is a perfect little gem of a story. It's about entropy, the thrill of discovery and understanding and, er, philosophical endings.
- namanyayg 12y ago
  Ah yes, definitely. Quite interesting, and this had a great ending too! Characters were great.

geuis 12y ago

Alastair Reynolds. He's a recent writer and many of his books are great.

api 12y ago

I recently read a contemporary one I'd add to the list: Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson. http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Lake-Robert-Charles-Wilson-ebook/dp/B000FBFLRG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413052235&sr=8-1&keywords=blind+lake http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Lake-Robert-Charles-Wilson-ebook... It reminded me of classic Asimov, but updated, and the writing and characterization are superb. I find that I can't read some sci-fi because I can't deal with cardboard characterization.

leapius 12y ago

Sad not to see 'The Black Cloud - Fred Hoyle' in that list..

sgt101 12y ago

No one has said "The Left Hand of Darkness" or "The Dispossessed" LHOD is an exploration of what it means to be human, and what it means to love and the imagery of the trek across the ice sheet will live with me forever. TD is deeply political, for me layered and lacquered with nuance and questions. Written by a woman, a good balance for Rand.

sgt101 12y ago

Also, Greg Bear has hacked out some dreadful stuff but "Moving Mars" and "The Anvil of Stars" (the Forge of God is a bit of a pot boiler tbh, but it is the prequel, so...). Both are really big picture sci-fi; about what humans will do with toys that are beyond them, and are doing. Amazing.

fsloth 12y ago

Nice list but I would definitely include among contemporaries: - Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" as suggested already - Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" - this is absolutely an amazing book for anyone familiar with geek culture and the interplay of academia and industry - anything by Iain Banks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks). "Excession" (http://www.amazon.com/Excession-Bantam-Spectra-Book-Banks/dp/0553575376 http://www.amazon.com/Excession-Bantam-Spectra-Book-Banks/dp...) is good, but the culture series in general is very nice literate approach to imagining a post-singularity scifi future that manages to combine deep psychological characters with wacky dark humour, lots of space opera action that is fresh every time and, most of all the ship names... of the ship names are just amazingly ... just go and read it already - in fantasy (or, dark fantasy, perhaps) genre Joe Abercrombie's "First law" trilogy is an gut wrenchingly entertaining trope-twisting joyride, starting from "The Blade Itself" http://www.amazon.com/The-Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/159102594X http://www.amazon.com/The-Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/15910259... that is worth reading for the hilarious character development (or degeneration?) alone. - Vernor Vinges "A deepness in the sky"(http://www.amazon.com/A-Deepness-Sky-Zones-Thought/dp/0812536355 http://www.amazon.com/A-Deepness-Sky-Zones-Thought/dp/081253...) is presented as a hard-scifi space opera but actually manages to be a witty commentary on the state of software engineering now and thousands of years into the future, usage of human intellect in the "mechanical turk" fashion in systems engineering and the potential of 'smart dust'. Almost made me want to start learning Erlang :)

marssaxman 12y ago
I got absolutely nowhere with Simmons and have no idea what the appeal is, but I cannot encourage Banks enough. Worth reading all, and again.
- fsloth 12y ago
  Hmm, it might be nostalgia as I was in my late teens when I read "Hyperion" the first time. The rest of the books in the series are weaker, though. Hyperion seems to be an amalgamation of lots of nuggets of story building and elements that the author has lovingly crafted in span of several years and if one does not enjoy pondering, poetic world-building or heart pounding scifi action with time shifting supersuits for their own sake, then there is very little meat in the book.

tejon 12y ago

Astonished to find no David Brin on that site, or in this discussion. The man has seven Hugo Awards for a reason! Otherness (short story collection) and Earth were downright formative for me.

adamfeldman 12y ago

I'm surprised to see the lack of love of cyberpunk in this thread. Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) is my favorite book. Ender's Game (and the rest of the series, which quickly gets very cerebral) is awesome. I feel like we're living in the world that the cyberpunk genre foresaw. At least in my home, Houston: the urban sprawl, powerful companies, etc.

MichaelMoser123 12y ago

(database error for me) my personal favourites are the 'robots of dawn' by Asimov and Lem's 'Washing mashine tragedy'. And of course it's Bradburies 'illustrated man'; not to forget all of Vonnegut - that's a must, especially 'Cat's cradle' and 'Slaughterhouse-Five'. (i guess this got to the top because it's Saturday and almost everybody is drunk; so it goes)

MCRed 12y ago

One of the most compelling arguments for reading _Atlas Shrugged_ in my opinion, is that whenever it's mentioned people seem to fall over themselves to tell you not to read it (or to bash Rand, call it bad writing, or whatever.) They never seem to make attempts to refute the arguments made by the book (almost always when they do it's knocking down straw men, alas.)

rvkennedy 12y ago
I'm in two minds about reading Rand: on the one hand, I've heard nothing but contempt for the quality of her writing from commentators I respect - i.e. prose, structure, etc. On the other, as I'm assuming I would disagree with her theses I would like to do so from an informed perspective. Should I bother?

xaritas 12y ago

For those looking for some additional recommendations that are "literary" (by which I mean, densely allusive and layered with meaning, yet not painfully self-conscious or lacking in any sense of awe and wonder, let alone enjoyment), look into Gene Wolfe. He is not exclusively a science fiction author, but The Book of the Sun (a tetralogy) and the rest of the Solar Cycle books definitely are, and they remain among my favorites. The entire series will keep you busy for a while. For a shorter introduction, consider The Fifth Head of Cerberus, consisting of three related novellas, is exquisite; also worth checking out. See also, Borges; not usually considered a science fiction author, I suppose for reasons having to do with the connotations of being a genre author.

groovy2shoes 12y ago
I've been reading the Book of the New Sun for the last couple of weeks, and I can second this recommendation. It straddles a very interesting line between science fiction and fantasy, and it definitely feels like a piece of literature more than most works of either genre. As I recently explained it to a friend of mine, it's "Dune caliber" (though not at all similar in terms of setting). A great read.
tjradcliffe 12y ago
Not of the same league as Borges or Wolfe, but there's also this, which is literary and layered and allusive but which also tells a story with real characters and big ideas: http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Theorem-TJ-Radcliffe-ebook/dp/B00KBH5O8K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413073225&sr=8-1&keywords=darwin%27s+theorem http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Theorem-TJ-Radcliffe-ebook/dp/...

tomrod 12y ago

I can't recommend David Brin enough: 1. The Postman 2. Earth 3. Existence

BrindsleyQuives 12y ago

"Error establishing a database connection" Never heard of that one. Is it by Arthur C Clarke?

mpdehaan2 12y ago

Forgot one that was pretty good: Robert Charles Wilson's Spin - http://www.amazon.com/Spin-Robert-Charles-Wilson/dp/076534825X http://www.amazon.com/Spin-Robert-Charles-Wilson/dp/07653482...

Demiurge 12y ago

Not a single Stanislaw Lem novel? Why is this so typical of USA sci-fi section? His 'Fiasco' is one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read.

BugBrother 12y ago

I am a day late (and I might be Hell banned?), but Blindsight by Watts ought to be mentioned. It was a total kick. It might be space opera, but with little of faked science. People's taste either seems to go literary (e.g. Hyperion) or ideas/science (Benford). I do both. Edit: I should add that Blindsight is available under an open license from the author's website.

based2 12y ago

The World of Ā, Alfred Elton van Vogt Rendezvous with Rama, Sir Arthur Charles Clarke Ravage, René Barjavel Le Gambit des étoiles, Gérard Klein Niourk, Stefan Wul