Favorite Science Fiction Thread

[Hunter_Rose]

Just thought that if we were already doing a favorite fantasy series that it would make sense to have a thread for favorite science fiction too.

I like all science fiction, but here's some of the stuff I really enjoyed

Kim Stanly Robinson
Mars Trilogy
"Red Mars"
"Green Mars"
"Blue Mars"

Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash
Diamond Age
(technically not a series, but it is kinda agreed that Diamond age is at least set in the world introduced in Snow Crash but much farther along in the future)

S.M. Stirling
The Draka Books
"Marching into Georgia"
"Under the Yoke"
"The Stone Dogs"
"Drakon"
"Drakas" (short story compliation edited by S.M. Stirling)

Island in the Sea of Time Series
"Island in the Sea of Time"
"Against the Tide of Years"
"Oceans of Eternity"

Dies the fire series
"Dies the Fire"
"The Protector's War"
"Meeting at Cornwalis"

I like allot of other stuff, but these are the author's who's books I'm always a little excited about when they come out in mass market paperback.

[Kosmopolite]

Well, to be honest, I haven't read a lot of science-fiction, all though I'm starting to get into it. I really enjoyed the short story The Belonging Kind by William Gibson.

Currently, I'm reading Blindsight (http://www.rifters.com/blindsight/BS_main.htm) by Peter Watts. It's really good, though it is described as 'hard' sci-fi: i.e. pretty heavy techno-'babble'. It's well worth sticking with it, though. I recommend the about link. Click 'vampires'. I'm researching vampires at university, so I know quite a lot about about them, and this is one of the most original types I've ever seen. It's a great video.

[anphorus]

The Hyperion series of books by Dan Simmons is some of the finest Sci Fi you will ever read. Guarenteed.

Dune by Frank Herbert is also a classic. And I always eagerly await any books by Iain M. Banks.

[The Prince of Cats]

I second the Snow Crash recommendation and would suggest Cryptonomicon, even if it is technically not quite sci-fi...

I would add "Dragon's Egg" by Robert L. Forward and Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy. I like some trashy sci-fi too, not just the hardcore stuff, so I would recommend Necroscope, but warn that the series changes dramatically as it moves on...

[Hunter_Rose]

Well, to be honest, I haven't read a lot of science-fiction, all though I'm starting to get into it. I really enjoyed the short story The Belonging Kind by William Gibson.

Is very jelouse of Vampire_Hermes because he has already read the hardcover edition of the William Gibson short story collection. I have a strict personal rule not to read anything in hardcover (otherwise I would burn through books waaaaaaaaay to fast). Still patiently waiting for that collection to come out in trade paperback.

Also Vamp Herms you should check out this series by E.E. Knight

"Way of the Wolf"
"Choice of the Cat"
"Tale of the Thunderbolt"
"Valentine's Rising"
"Valentine's Exile"
"Valentine's Resolve"

Cool series about Vampires.

[Hunter_Rose]

I second the Snow Crash recommendation and would suggest Cryptonomicon, even if it is technically not quite sci-fi...

Yeah I find it hard to classify Cryptonomicon along with the Baroque Cycles books as Science Fiction. They're so well researched that I would almost have to go with historical fiction. Great reads though, but if people are picking them up for the first time they should read them in this order:

"Quick Silver" (hardcover title)
"The Confusion" (hardcover title)
"The System of the World" (hardcover title)
"Cryptonomicon"

I specify the hardcover titles because the publishers are slicing up the hardcover and trade paperback editions into easy to digest mass market paperbacks with different titles.

[The Prince of Cats]

I specify the hardcover titles because the publishers are slicing up the hardcover and trade paperback editions into easy to digest mass market paperbacks with different titles.
That is one advantage to being in the UK. I remember going to America and seeing a book I knew that seemed far smaller than it should be. Turns out that they had split a trilogy into nine separate volumes.

We just don't see that happen so much over here. I think I have seen US editions pop up rarely, for people who would rather have smaller books I suppose, but American book-shops are a surreal experience for me.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

My favorites are the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card, including the Bean sidebooks.

Any of the Humanx Commonwealth series by Alan Dean Foster, along with The Damned trilogy in his other universe.

Silent Planet trilogy by C.S. Lewis

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is of course in there.

Also enjoyed the old Lensman books, as well as the aformentioned Dune and Dragon's Egg.

Tons more, but only ones that come to mind immediately.

[ampcptlogic]

I'm seconding Dune, anything by Neal Stephenson, the original Ender series, and the Space Trilogy.

I also vote for most anything by Robert Heinlein. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers top my list. The movie of the latter, however, is an unspeakable abomination.

[Hunter_Rose]

I also vote for most anything by Robert Heinlein. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers top my list. The movie of the latter, however, is an unspeakable abomination.

You should check out "Friday" and "The Cat who Walked Through Walls" they are both set in the Lunar Free State Universe.

[Joran]

Dune by Frank Herbert
The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

Oh and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

[Nahal]

I found the ender quartet got a little ham-fisted with the ethical commentary but was definitely a good read. Dune series is also seconded, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is up there with Discworld for some of the funniest stuff in print. Aside from the book of Leviticus, but that's not technically science fiction.

Any recommendations for reading Asimov? I've always wanted to familiarize myself with his work.

[Kosmopolite]

Is very jelouse of Vampire_Hermes because he has already read the hardcover edition of the William Gibson short story collection. I have a strict personal rule not to read anything in hardcover (otherwise I would burn through books waaaaaaaaay to fast). Still patiently waiting for that collection to come out in trade paperback.

Also Vamp Herms you should check out this series by E.E. Knight

"Way of the Wolf"
"Choice of the Cat"
"Tale of the Thunderbolt"
"Valentine's Rising"
"Valentine's Exile"
"Valentine's Resolve"

Cool series about Vampires.


Actually, I've got the paperback Burning Chrome with has [b]The Belonging Kind[/u] in there. Also, thanks for the reccomendations, I'll check them out. I really reccomend the vampire video on Watts' site. Hugely creative. Not easy to do with a thousand-year-old myth!

[Hunter_Rose]

Any recommendations for reading Asimov? I've always wanted to familiarize myself with his work.

The foundation trilogy was interesting. The robot cronicles are good too. Most of what I've read of Aasimov was his short stories. He gets a bit woody in his series, but then I read them when I was younger, I might appreciate them more now.

[ampcptlogic]

You should check out "Friday" and "The Cat who Walked Through Walls" they are both set in the Lunar Free State Universe.

I agree about Cat/Walls. I haven't read Friday, though.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I've probably read a good dozen or two of Asimov's works but y'know, just never got that much out of it. The Foundation series I think was perhaps the best, but still wasn't all that enthralled.

I, Robot the film I think was actually unique in being the first movie I thought was better than the book.

[Joran]

I, Robot the film I think was actually unique in being the first movie I thought was better than the book.

Ahem... BLASPHEMY! That movie was originally a completely different work; the producers then just put some "I, Robot" window dressing and included the three laws and you have that movie. It was enjoyable, but there was nothing of the book in the movie. I guess if you didn't like the book, then the movie would be an upgrade.

My view of Asimov is basically a great thinker with big ideas, but sadly, didn't have the writing to pull it completely off. His dialogue sounds wooden sometimes and his characters are often one-dimensional. The Three (Four) Laws of Robotics and Psycho-history are very interesting ideas and he does a good job of exploring the ramifications of both of them.

As posted above, I've read only "I, Robot" and the Foundation "trilogy", but they are basically the the epitome of Asimov's work.

P.S. I absolutely adore I, Robot, which is probably why I defend it so adamantly. I liked the character of Susan Calvin and definitely liked the story "Liar!"

[Joosbawx]

I love so many of the things mentioned so far, but one I haven't seen yet is:

Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. Yes, that L. Ron Hubbard. And don't say a word about the movie, because, yes, it was complete @$$, but the book it so much more than that. It could have been a trilogy of movies if done correctly.

As for Asimov, one of my favorites has always been Nightfall. I believe that is the title, anyway.

[Andiamo]

These have all been said before,
Dune... not so much the sequels though.
I, Robot. I barely remember it, but I remember thoroughly enjoying it.
Any Robert A. Heinlein. Tunnel in the Sky and Starship Troopers are some of the best books ever.

And, not just the best science fiction book, but in my opinion the best book overall:
Ender's Game. It really is impossible to beat. Not much else to say. The sequels... they were good, but in a different way. And I enjoyed the first two of the "Bean" books. The next two were somewhat hard to finish, unfortunately.

[averagejoe]

Huh, glad to see another Battlefield Earth fan. I was starting to think I was the only one.

Alright, favorite science ficiton *deep breath*

Anything by Philip K. ****. Thoughtful, creative, and dark, cyberpunk at its finest. Don't judge it by the movies, by the way, they are as much atrocities (when stacked against the books) as Battlefield Earth and I Robot.

Speaking of which, I Robot, and also the Foundation trilogy. The other two weren't as good.

Arthur C. Clarke. Not necessarily the best writer, and not as good at the "human condition" thing as others, but he has some fantastically creative ideas. The little details are often very worthwhile.

Stanislaw Lem (the guy who wrote Solaris.) I've never actually read Solaris, but he's done some excellent short stories that are often based on more classical myth ("How Erg the Self Inducting Slew a Paleface," for example.)

Some of Heinlein. He's a guy who either writes fantastically good stories or really horrible ones. I've never read Starship Troopers, which seems to be popular on this board, but I've been meaning to read it. Job: A Comedy of Justice was excellent, but maybe not sci fi. Some short stories were very good.

Kurt Vonnegut is always a good read, and he's done some really excellent, if unorthodox, sci fi.

Ender's Game. Didn't like the sequels or the parallel stories nearly as much, but this was first class.

Dune, a classic. Didn't read the sequels.

I know there are some others, but this is what comes to mind right now.

[Raveler1]

I agree with almost everything said so far, and would like to add a few more of my favorites:

Vernor Vinge
A Fire Upon the Deep
A Deepness in the Sky

A great duology of books (though not really in the same time, both take place in the same universe) that explains why FTL travel is impossible near earth, but extrapolates that it is possible elsewhere. Some of the most unique aliens, too - Plant-creatures that ride around on mechanical sleds that help them remember, and thus function in society; a pack of dog-like critters that collectively function as one individual by pulsing low-frequency sound waves to each other; and many, many more. I also enjoy his short stories, though I'm more familiar with his longer space-opera works.

L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Gravity Dreams
The Forever Hero

Modesitt's books are without a doubt some of the most intriguing in terms of conceptual reality that I've read. Gravity Dreams is far and away my favorite, dealing with concepts of a world divided amongst nanotechnology and an almost zen-like religion, and the changes in society that nanotech would cause. The Forever Hero is also wonderful, as it combines three books, and details the rise to power of a man whose goal is to clean up an ecologically unstable Earth.

Harry Turtledove
Between the Rivers
Worldwar/Colonization/Homeward Bound

Turtledove is mostly known for his alternate history series, and is possibly my favorite author. Between the Rivers postulates what would happen in a bronze-age society if the legends as we know them are true - think, Sumerian gods, walking amongst their worshipers. It's much more fantastic than Sci-Fi, I guess... but there are points made about modern psychology that are quite apt, so I include it in this list anyway. The Worldwar (et al) series is another amazing piece of alternate history/sci-fi, wherein aliens land on Earth during the Battle of Moscow (WWII). The rest of the series deals with the questions of how humanity would face an occupying force, especially from extraterrestrial origins.

I could probably go on and on, but here's a list of some of my other favorite authors that have yet to be mentioned on this thread -
Michael Stackpole, Michael McCollum, Kevin J. Anderson, John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem

[Hunter_Rose]

Since no one mentioned David Brin's Uplift Series I thought I should mention it here.

David Brin
Sundiver
Startide Rising
The Uplift War

Brightness Reef
Infinty's Shore
Heaven's Reach

I really like the uplift concept where a patron race alters a client race to eventually help them reach sentience and self-determination. Brings allot of interesting moral issues to the forefront. Another thing I like about this series is that Brin also really tries to introduce unique aliens.

The introduction of Brin's Aliens is in a way that makes them seem not so foreign from humans in their gestalt behavior, but in the way humans developed. The one thing that really separates humans from the rest of the races in the galaxies is that no one can figure out who humanity's patron is so humanity is labelled an orphan race. Instead of the aliens being super evolved, peaceful, and beneficient compared to the bestail, primitive, and warlike humans they are instead presented as not as dynamic in their pursuit of knowledge and hedged into their beliefs ofthe universe.

[endoperez]

Naomi Novik:
Temeraire / His Majesty's Dragon
Throne of Jade
Black Powder War

A story about Napoleon's era with rather sentient dragons of various breeds bred for war and armed and equipped as living ships of a kind. Harness where the crew hang themselves and where the bombs are held, gunmen who are armed with swords to prevent boarding, etc.