7 ms·
What are your favourite sci-fi books?
- edem 12y agoSince the OP asked about books not authors my favourite book is "Foundation and Earth" (Isaac Asimov), "Childhood's End" (A.C. Clarke) and Solaris (Stainslaw Lem).
- crazychrome 12y agoFor 22+ years I believed Foundation series by Issac Asimov was unparalleled, since first read when I was 10. It changed after the Three Body Problem, especially the 2nd and 3rd installments, The dark forest, The forever death. I don't expect to add more to the list in my life span.
- ledzep2 12y agoThe Three-body Problem. It raises the bar of sci-fi literature in China. http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765377063 http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/07...
- mp8 12y agoSeconded! This is a fantastic book. Be warned: the English translation of the sequel is not yet released (and you will want it).
- macmac 12y agoAnything by Iain M. Banks. Start with "The Player of Games" and "Consider Phlebas". Anything by Vernor S. Vinge especially "Zones of Thought" series. "Daemon", "Freedom(tm)", "Kill Decision" and "Influx" by Daniel Suarez. "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Anything by Neal Stephenson, especially "Reamde: A Novel" and "Cryptonomicon". Anything by Hannu Rajaniemi, especially "The Fractal Prince".
- Tomte 12y agoI've just finished the first three Culture novels. Consider Phlebas starts great, but loses a lot during the rest of the book. The Player of Games is okay, but by far not as good as people told me. Use of Weapons is excellent. I'll have to re-read it in a few months.
- moomin 12y agoI thought the same thing the first time I read Consider Phlebas. Having now read it over 20 times, it's safe to say I changed my mind. My key to the novel: it's all about the nature of identity. The very first line is something of deep personal significance, but he's forgotten why. He steals identities. It ends with the mind taking his name. It's a keeper.
- macmac 12y agoI couldn't agree more. "The Player of Games" also only improved for me with time and depth of context provided by the subsequent Culture novels.
- akkartik 12y agohttp://akkartik.name/post/scifi http://akkartik.name/post/scifi Recommendations here that I consider over-rated: Ramez Naam, Daniel Suarez, Reamde. I also couldn't get through Three-body Problem. I might try again, though.
- joelanders 12y agoStumbled across and started reading A. E. van Vogt's "The World of Null-A" last night. Super trippy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_of_Null-A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_of_Null-A http://www.amazon.com/World-Null--E-Van-Vogt/dp/0765300974/ http://www.amazon.com/World-Null--E-Van-Vogt/dp/0765300974/
- tech-no-logical 12y agodidn't expect anyone to mention this book... but it's been a long time favorite of mine. I first read it in my teens, when I was heavily into asimov, vance, dick and other classics :)
- jfoucher 12y agoNull-A is probably the Van Vogt's most famous book, but others are great as well, I loved "Slan" from the same author : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slan
- everyone 12y agoI have strong opinions about this. My criteria for a book being science fiction and not fantasy is that is must be based on scientific thinking. The author must have done some work to determine whether whats happening in his book is at least plausible according to real science, and then work out the details of how it would actually function. So I regard most "science fiction" books and almost all "science fiction" films as really being fantasy. Essentially they are works of fantasy or dramatic fiction re-skinned with lasers and aliens instead of magic and goblins (to a great or lesser extent). So dune is a great book but it is 90% fantasy, there is only a little bit of research done by the author on desert ecosystems. My favourite real science fiction author is Arthur C clarke. some good books by him... earthlight the fountains of paradise islands in the sky the sands of mars rama songs of distant earth Also would recommend accelerando by Charles Stross and the mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson
- dcminter 12y agoOnce upon a time I would have agreed - but these days I find poor characterisation stalls my suspension of disbelief just as much as dodgy physics. So my current favourite is Fiasco by Lem. The physics at least sounds convincing and the characters are all too human.
- arethuza 12y agoThat reminds me of one reviewer who described the weirdest aliens in any science fiction novel as the human characters in a particular Robert L. Forward novel....
- pelario 12y agoMost of Asimov's books, specially: * Foundation Series / Robot Series / Empire Series * The Gods Themselves
- mofle 12y agoI maintain a community created list of Sci-Fi novels worth reading: https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome-scifi#novels https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome-scifi#novels
- auggierose 12y agoPhilip K. Dick (Ubik, Man in the high castle, Flow my tears the police man said) Frederik Pohl (Gateway, the Space Merchants) Ursula K. Le Guin (The Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness) Iain M. Banks (Culture novels) You will find many Sci-Fi treasures by just going through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks
- scyllax 12y agoIsaac Asimov Foundation (beside mangas!)
- firegrind 12y agoSnow Crash edit : and Ambient, by Jack Womack
- yaongi 12y agoThe three stigmata of palmer eldritch
- primitivesuave 12y agoThere are some excellent books in this thread (makes sense that the HN community would know their sci fi) - a short story addition to the list is "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster. Totally changed my opinion technology's impact on the modern world.
- arethuza 12y agoNeal Stephenson, Anathem Iain M Banks, Use of Weapons Greg Egan, Diaspora and Permutation City Frank Herbert, Dune Kim Stanley Robinson, the Mars trilogy Vernon Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky [Note to Hollywood: can we please have a Culture movie?]
- dghf 12y ago> [Note to Hollywood: can we please have a Culture movie?] The only one I can think of where they might be able to stay more or less true to the source is Consider Phlebas, wherein the 'hero' fights for a monotheistic alien race against a bunch of godless communists. Plus I would dearly love to see the Clear Air Turbulence's escape from the depths of that GSV rendered on the big screen.
- macmac 12y agoCaveat regarding note to Hollywood: Please only allow Nolan to direct, otherwise we are not interested.
- arethuza 12y agoActually, I always wanted to see Luc Besson (Fifth Element) direct a movie of Consider Phlebas. Edit: On the subject of Banks movies - one scene I would love to see (in addition to the CAT escaping from The Ends of Invention) is the scene with the Ethnarch and Zakalwe in UoW, might make a splendid cold open. "I," said the man, "am called Cheradine Zakalwe." He leveled the gun at Ethnarch's nose. "You are called dead." I just realised how carefully worded that is...
- dghf 12y agoIf that means we get Jean Reno as Bora Horza Gobuchul, I'm in.
- maxerickson 12y agoHe's really bad at sci fi. Inception doesn't make any sense (sense in terms of being sci fi, it's good entertainment). Nor do the climactic action scenes in the Batman movies: a mega powerful microwave device that only affects the water inside of far away pipes and a portable, self sustaining fusion reactor that blows up when its battery dies. The Joker's speed with setting up explosives is also a little bit ridiculous, but that's less of an offense against possibility than the above.
- Yetanfou 12y agoOne of the read-worthy books which immediately came to mind is Neverness [1] by David Zindell. It is actually the 'prequel' to a series ('A requiem for Homo Sapiens' [2]) which I have yet to read, but it stands by itself as far as I'm concerned. If you like SF, mathematics and deep ideas, this might be a book for you. [1] http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/968997.Neverness http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/968997.Neverness [2] http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/399921.David_Zindell http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/399921.David_Zindell
- aardvark179 12y agoNeverness is not a prequel since it was written before A Requiem For Homo Sapiens. That sort of sloppy thinking would get you killed as a pilot. :-) Also, autocorrect really doesn't want to let me type Neverness.
- Yetanfou 12y agoPrequel in the sense of being named 'A Requiem for Homo Sapiens 0'. I think I'll find my way through the manifold yet...
- dasmoth 12y agoThat's definitely retroactive, my old copy says no such thing. Neverness is a fabulous book though. RfHS also worthwhile, but does sprawl a bit for my taste.
- jacquesm 12y agoThe Space Merchants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants
- bobcostas55 12y agoGreg Egan - Permutation City Peter Watts - Blindsight
- TimSAstro 12y ago'Deep Six' (short story anthology) and 'Wind-up Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi.
- iloveyouocean 12y agoA Fire Upon the Deep A Deepness in the Sky both by Vernor Vinge
- rootlocus 12y agoThe Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.
- FleshGordon 12y agoHell yes.
- ajuc 12y agoNeal Stephenson "Anathem" Stanisław Lem "Cyberiad", "Solaris", "Futurologists' convent" Greg Egan "Permutation City" Jacek Dukaj "Black Oceans" Iain M. Banks "Algebraist" (I read some books from culture series, but IMHO culture is just too overpowered to make an interesting story possible - you basicaly read to see at which point they will show their full superiority, and it doesn't work for me)
- circlefavshape 12y agoThe Algebraist is my favourite Iain M. Banks book too - the breadth of imagination in it is amazing I think Surface Detail is my favourite Culture novel. Many Iain Banks books (regular fiction as well as sci-fi) are really just wish-fulfillment stories, but they're so stylish and fun to read that I love them (plus there's usually at least one very insightful rant by a minor character to be found in nearly every book)
- ajuc 12y agoMy favorite Culture story is actually fanfic - "Culture explores Warhammer 20k universe".
- mdpm 12y agoIMB is a yes. All of it. Devour. Much like the works of Steven Erikson (Not SF) they're fantastically detailed, which isn't everyone's taste. The Cyberiad is a trove of beauty, ridiculous, sublime, educational - touching on things as far apart as philosophy and maxwell's demon. Amazing that they're not even in English given the wonderous translation.
- lwgray 12y agoTop 3 for me, would be 1. Ender's Game 2. 2001 Space Odyssey - I sit down with Arthur for Tea at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka - He gave me a copy of his article in which he first described telecommunication via satellites 3. Snow Crash
- rnernento 12y agoDune - Frank Herbert There's something mystical and very powerful about this book and the theme of conquering fear. It also reads surprisingly well considering how dense some of the political and technical descriptions are.
- pkudel4 12y agoPrey is a novel by Michael Crichton - @everyone
- abhianet 12y agoI wonder why no one mentioned "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy" (Douglas Adams) yet. I died laughing twice while reading it.
- huhtenberg 12y agoLord of the Light Dune Neuromancer Hyperion Snow Crash Use of Weapons Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained
- wedesoft 12y agoArthur C. Clarke: 2001 Arthur C. Clarke: Rendezvous with Rama Pierce Anthony and Robert E. Margroff: The Ring Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes: The Legacy of Heorot Stanislaw Lem: The Invincible Isaac Asimov: The Foundation Trilogy
- TheLoneWolfling 12y agoI enjoy The Queendom of Sol series, by Wil McCarthy. Also, A Fire Upon the Deep / A Deepness in the Sky.
- dasmoth 12y agoPoul Anderson's "Technic" stories, e.g. "The Trouble Twisters". Must re-read some. Somewhat more recent: pretty-much anything by David Brin. For my taste, a lot of recent sci-fi seems to be a little too focused on politics and society vs. the exhileration of a good technical solution. But do enjoy Charles Stross and John Scalzi.
- tckr 12y agoEverything from John Scalzi, start with Old Man's War and then read through everything else.
- dghf 12y agoJoe Haldeman, The Forever War. Michael Moorcock, An Alien Heat & Behold the Man.
- kubiiii 12y agoMany of the already mentionned books. Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity, in the hard science genre. As a kid I was absolutely stunned by The Tripods. I highly recommend these books (trilogy) for your kids (10-13 yo).
- onion2k 12y agoStar Maker by Olaf Stapledon.
- mif 12y agoLast and First Men is incredible and one of my favourites. Also because of it's unprecedented time scale.
- elorant 12y agoEverything from Asimov. The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. The Culture books from Iain Banks. The Rama series from Clarke although it got tiresome after a while. The Sparrow and Children of God from Mary Doria Russell. Contact by Sagan which by the way is one of the very few sci-fi books that were successfully depicted in movies. Brave new world from Huxley. Old one but still highly relevant. The first ones from Gibson. The Enter series by Orson Scott Card. Bradbury's Farhenheit 451. This one is a classic. Revelation Space from Alaistair Reynolds who writes the most hardcore sci-fi I've ever come across.
- jfoucher 12y agoReally surprised to see no mention of H. G. Wells here, so I'm just going to add it : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine You can get it at project Gutemberg, so no excuse not to read it. Any book by French author Barjavel are also worth reading in my opinion, especially "La Nuit des Temps" / "The Ice People" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ice_People_%28Barjavel_novel%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ice_People_%28Barjavel_nov... ) and "Ravage" / "Ashes, Ashes" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravage_%28novel%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravage_%28novel%29 )
- jfoucher 12y agoPS : DO NOT read the Wikipedia articles if you plan on reading the Barjavel books because they contain spoilers that may ruin the experience for you...
- mojotoad 12y agoOn that note, I highly recommend The Time Ships, by Stephen Baxter. He picks up where The Time Machine leaves off and takes the story into some amazing directions.
- macmac 12y agoRemarkable consensus regarding Iain M. Banks and Vinge being top choices. Vinge I would have expected due to his background in Computer Science, but M. Banks is a very positive surprise.
- Jedd 12y agoDoubtless there'll be lots of strong opinions, and (hopefully, usefully) lots of duplicates that you can then tote up to get a bit of a consensus. Iain M. Banks - all his Culture books are fantastic, but I'll single out 'Excession' since you seek titles. Neal Stephenson's 'Anathem' Stephen Donaldson (most famous for the Thomas Covenant tri-trilogy) wrote a 5-book 'Gap Series'. I have very fond memories of it, though it's been two decades since I read it. Philip K. Dick wrote a tonne of good stuff (and a bit of meh) but my two favourite are Clans of the Alphane Moon (the first Dick I read), and Valis (a bit more conventional to have on the favourite list) Ursula Le Guin also has a huge body of excellent work - Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed are my favourites. I really loved Roger Zelazny's Lord Of Light, though I understand it's not conventionally considered his best work.
- mattkevan 12y agoAnything by Alastair Reynolds - his Revelation Space series is great, and House of Suns is a fantastic one-off. He's probably the closest to Ian Banks in creating galaxy-spanning civilisations across eons of time. Ian MacDonald is another good one. My favourite of his is The Dervish House, but his others are definitely worth reading. Charles Stross is good. Didn't get on with Accelerando, but his Laundry books are a fun mix of HP Lovecraft/Len Deighton/IT Crowd. Halting State and Rule 34 are good explorations of pervasive augmented reality and intelligent algorithms. Also Glasshouse as an exploration of post-singularity society. Never managed to finish a Cory Doctorow book though. I found William Gibson's Bigend trilogy a slog, but I really enjoyed The Peripheral - it's a fun read. Enders Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card are fantastic, but the remaining books suffer from diminishing returns (with the possible exception of Ender's Shadow). There are a lot of books in the series, but basically, the series finishes wherever you get bored reading it. Anything by China Mieville is well worth your time. Oh, I also really enjoyed Elizabeth Bear's Jacobs Ladder trilogy, set on a generation ship where the inhabitants have forgotten who they are and where they're going. For some older stuff: The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester – I was surprised at how good it is and how well it stands up. I couldn't believe it was written nearly 50 years ago. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein - possibly my favourite of his. I want to start a lunar revolution with a sentient mainframe... I'm currently working my way through all the Hugo Award winners, from 1953 up, and there's some real gems there.
- thekaleb 12y agoI 2nd _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_.
- moomin 12y agoYou realize not a single person has mentioned a female author? Let's fix that: The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis Among Others by Jo Walton Feed by Mira Grant The Hunger Games! The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin Grass by Sheri S Tepper Gate of Ivrael and Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh And the fabulous space opera: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
- akkartik 12y agoSeveral people including myself mentioned Ursula Le Guin, who should be #1 on any list of women authors. Also, mentioning Mira Grant and Hunger Games on this thread strikes me as blasphemous.
- huxley 12y agoOctavia Butler wrote some amazing stuff too.
- moomin 12y agoSo I'm told, although I haven't read any. I understand that quite a lot of it's pretty grim, so I need to be in the mood for it. There's a reason most of the things listed here are basically adventure stories...
- Bzomak 12y agoSome which I have re-read recently and still enjoyed: William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy Frank Herbert's Dune series Isaac Asimov's Foundation series Frederik Pohl's "Gateway" Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a harsh Mistress" Some which I remember liking when I read them many years ago as a teenager: E.E. Doc Smith's Lensman series David Brin's Uplift series Peter F. Hamilton's Greg Mandel trilogy and The Night's Dawn trilogy Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" George R. Dickson's "Dorsai!"
- aaronem 12y agoPeter Watts's Blindsight - easily the best SF novel I've read in the last decade. I haven't got round to Echopraxia yet, but I doubt it'll fail to live up to its predecessor. Also, while I have no use whatsoever for Stross's "Singularity" stuff, his Laundry Files series excels, especially for an inveterate old Lovecraft fan such as myself. If you want a taste, there are some shorts available online -- "Overtime" and "Funny Farm" are good places to start; "Equoid" is the most recent, but it's not representative, and it's also the weakest entry in the series as a whole due to its poor characterization and reliance on shock and gruesomeness rather than the more insidious sort of horror in which the rest of the series specializes. I'm sort of surprised to see that no one has yet mentioned Heinlein; I know he's a politically divisive figure in the fandom, to say the least, but he's also the great granddaddy of the modern field, and such prominence deserves recognition. (Hell, he was pushing the Rapture of the Nerds before any of its modern adherents was even born!) Granted that his later works tend to bog down in self-referentiality and author tracts on the evils of Communism and the benefits of casual nudism; in his prime, though, he was an author and storyteller practically beyond compare. In particular, his The Moon is a Harsh Mistress remains a classic among classics; The Puppet Masters even more so, to the extent of spawning practically a whole subgenre of second-rate imitations; and, for a lighter entry, his oft-overlooked The Door into Summer is a sweet story in which all's well that ends well and the importance of feline companionship in a well-rounded life is not overlooked.
- akkartik 12y agoYou better doubt it, Echopraxia fails to live up to Blindsight. Aren't sequels that match the original the exception rather than the rule?
- aaronem 12y agoSure. On the other hand, I found Watts's Rifters trilogy to be strong throughout, and I'd previously assumed that he'd turn in the same strong performance with his latest series. In what way does Echopraxia fail to live up to its predecessor? I'm eventually going to get around to it, but if it's going to disappoint me, I'd like to know ahead of time so that I can go into it with my expectations better calibrated.
- exar0815 12y agoI got hooked on SciFi with David Webers Harrington-Series which I found after enjoying the old Hornblower Series. Since then I enjoyed much omthe Kantaki-Cycle of Andreas Eschbach and the Collector/Justifier Series by Markus Heitz, even though they are what I would call typical german SciFi: Humans as nuisance in a peaceful and orderly Galaxy.
- msh 12y agoAncillary Justice by Ann Leckie is some of the best science fiction/space opera that I have read in several years (it won both the hugo and nebula). It is well written and a good story. Its kind of a strange story of revenge with a AI as the protagonist.
- TheMiller 12y agoI agree with many of the recommendations here, but am surprised to see no mention so far of "the three B's": Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and Ben Bova. All excellent hard science fiction authors.
- bruna597 12y agoSnow Crash Childhood's End
- kelu124 12y agoHey, I'd say Snow Crash (for history in geekery). The Ender series. Some of Neil Gaiman (I do love TPratchett, though not on this list) .. At the moment I'm a lot into short stories, and that'd mean Ted Chiang of course, and Greg Evan, as well as some of Vinge Vernor.
- tartuffe78 12y agoLot's of my favorites already listed Some more good ones: Ilium/Olympos - Dan Simmons Centuries - A. A. Attanasio Callahan's Crosstime Saloon - Spider Robinson Signal to Noise - Eric Nylund
- TimSchumann 12y agoHaven't seen it mentioned, so I thought I'd chime in. My favorite new series has been 'The Expanse' by James S.A. Corey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Abraham_(author)#The_Expanse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Abraham_(author)#The_Exp...
- ldc 12y agoEric Schwitzgebel composed a list of "philosophically interesting" SF from the recommendations of 34 professional philosophers: http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/SF-MasterList-141103-byauthor.pdf http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/SF-Master... It also includes non-printed media.
- secstate 12y agoJust finished reading "Fiasco" by Stanislaw Lem. Between that "Cyberiad" I feel like Lem doesn't get enough credit. Maybe part of it is not being in the Western European writer's camp? At any rate, I would say: Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein The Dispossessed, Le Guin The Stars My Destination, Bester Childhood's End, Clarke Stand out as some of my favorites. I'm pretty terrible at making top-5 lists, but those stand out as ones that I would read again in a heartbeat if there weren't already 50 books on the floor next to my bed waiting for me :)
- huxley 12y agoIf people knew of him at all, I'm afraid the Solaris films really damaged people's perceptions of Lem's work. I've been reading his stuff since 1986 and he can be as innovative and experimental as Philip K Dick, JG Ballard, or Thomas Pynchon while still being fun and readable.
- tkimmel 12y agoAltered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan is one of my favorite books of all time, and if you like it there are 2 more in the series. Very smart, noir sci-fi with a lot of heady concept play -- some consider it to be genre-defining.
- jacobroufa 12y agoI'm currently working my way through Stephen Baxter's Manifold trilogy. His writing is incredibly insightful and psychedelic. I'd also suggest the Time Ships (only authorized Time Machine sequel) and anything from the Xeelee universe. Maybe start with Vacuum Diagrams? David Brin's Uplift series is brilliantly written, and personifies non-human characters wonderfully. Heinlein has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, and his writing always makes me giddy.
- profexile 12y agoA couple books that I'd recommend for their attention to biology and genetics as the scientific driver: Julie Czerneda's Species Imperative Trilogy: Survival, Migration, and Regeneration. Maragaret Atwood, anything, but recently the MaddAddam trilogy: Oryx and Crake, Year of the Flood, and Maddaddam. Nancy Kress' Sleepless series: Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride.
- madink 12y agoWhat about Lois McMaster Bujold ? 4 Hugo Award gota count for something ! The Vorkosigan serie is space opera so not hard scifi but it's damn good.
- robbdavis 12y agoKim Stanley Robinson's "2312" carries on from the Mars Trilogy. Stephenson's "REAMDE", "The Diamond Age", "Cryptonomicon" and "Snow Crash" Does alternate history count her? If so, Robinson's "The Years of Rice and Salt" is great