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On August 09 2010 13:57 NobleHelium wrote: Snow Crash for sure. Brave New World is pretty good for something heavier.
Neal Stephenson is my fetish writer at the moment. Right now I am reading Diamond Age, is a ciberpunk thriller with some RPG nonsense in a nanotech earth. Pick anyone on that page above, and enjoy.
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I really liked the halo series books!
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Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
A giant spacecraft of unknown origin enters the Solar System, and Earth sends out a team to investigate. The storyline is very well done by Clarke for a theme that's been replicated a lot. His writing makes the visual scene a very crisp, so you won't have trouble figuring out what exactly is going on.
If you do happen to read it and enjoy it, Clarke wrote 3 more sequels. Quite good.
Quote wikipedia - Awards
Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 British Science Fiction Association Award in 1973 Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1974 Jupiter Award for Best Novel in 1974 Hohn W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1974 Locus Award for Best Novel in 1974
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Well you can't go wrong with Roger Zelazny. He's not precisely sci-fi, it's more of a combination of fantasy + sci-fi, but you won't be disappointed.
Probably the most famous work is Lord of Light, it's not the easiest of reads however, but any of you shouldn't miss it. It takes place in a space colony far away, where a handful of people decide to pretend to be hindu gods, they develop special powers and try to guide the rest of the people (well actually they force them to use praying machines etc.) When I first heard about that idea I wasn't interested at all.. but how awesome can that turn out? Check these out: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_151xaYaZnMs/SL271ZxVVAI/AAAAAAAAAVE/5gQ0EJsND7I/s1600-h/LOL Montage (small).jpg
Anyways whatever it is from Zelazny, you can't go wrong and I mean that. He's a witty writer that will never bore you like Tolkien. If you search the internets you can also find his series of Amber narrated by him alone which is one of the things that'll always have place in my mp3 player.
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On August 09 2010 14:58 Fontong wrote: Anything by Alastair Reynolds is really good.
Look for Revelation Space as a start.
Yes. Alastair Reynolds is one of my all time favourite SCfi authors, all the more so coz its 'hard' scfi. For the uninitiated, that just means that it makes sense, and often includes current scientific theories, rather than say Star Wars where they just 'go into lightspeed' and such.
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On August 09 2010 13:45 Avalanche wrote:Show nested quote +On August 09 2010 13:30 Beloth(OD) wrote: Are you telling me you haven't read the 2nd best SF of all time (2nd to Ender)
Dune - Frank Herbert
I'm actually on the 2nd book :D
woah now, you must speak from ignorance, because although good, ender's game is definitely not the best sci fi book of all time.
your actually right, I don't really read a lot of SF, so I'm biased
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As far as SF reading goes the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov is a must.
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Hands down the most entertaining Sci-fi book I have ever read would be the Sam Gunn Omnibus.
Epic character, epic adventures, and great science and business.
As for Rama series, I think it's pretty good, having only read Rendezvous and Garden...
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stanislaw lem - solaris psychological scifi. lampoons scientific writing in general. amazing and also only 200 pages or so. was made into a film twice.
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Definitely recommend Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and even though it's not sci-fi, Cryptonomicon because it's awesome). Neuromancer by William Gibson, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein and Dune by Frank Herbert also go without saying.
I'm kind of surprised no one has mention Iain M. Banks. He writes some great Space Operas and the Culture novels are set in one of my favourite sci-fi universes. Consider Phlebas is technically the first but they aren't dependent on each other so you can start wherever, my favourites being Excession and the Player of Games. He also doesn't tend to succumb to Aliens-look-like-humans syndrome, so that's always a plus.
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On August 09 2010 13:19 happyness wrote: Hi TL community. Since I think people on here generally have good taste, I decided to ask what SF book should I read next. I'm not at all an avid reader, though I would like to be, and really don't know where to begin looking for new authors.
The complete list of every SF I've read is:
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind - Orson Scott Card Nightfall - Isaac Asimov Foundation - Isaac Asimov (just the first one of the series. I found it interesting but not too riveting) Do Androids Dream of electric sheep? - Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
Thanks!
go straight to hell for the foundation comment and never come back
you should read at least the trilogy if not all of the foundation books
and anything asimov is straight up gold
as far as new authors arthur c clarke is a very famous and good choice
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Colin Kapp books. "Cageworld Series" "Patterns of Chaos" and the sequel "Weapon of Chaos" <-- Must Read.
James White "Space Hospital" series.
C.C MacApp "Recall Not Earth" <-- Another Must Read "Secret of the Sunless World"
Brian Aldiss "Non-Stop"
And as everyone ever said "Dune" "Foundation" "Ender" etc. Those are the pillars of S-F.
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On August 09 2010 13:45 Avalanche wrote:Show nested quote +On August 09 2010 13:30 Beloth(OD) wrote: Are you telling me you haven't read the 2nd best SF of all time (2nd to Ender)
Dune - Frank Herbert
I'm actually on the 2nd book :D
woah now, you must speak from ignorance, because although good, ender's game is definitely not the best sci fi book of all time. I agree with this statement. The Ender series is good, but more appropriate for younger audiences. My theory on why it is so popular is the same one I hold in regards to the Harry Potter series: good writing as far as children's books go, but just not on the same level as books that adults should be reading. However, it becomes very popular in the mainstream due to being very accessible.
On August 09 2010 13:42 heishe wrote: what can you suggest to someone like me who loves the Mass Effect universe? I just like the setting, with humanity relatively fresh in space travel and not on their own (found alien artifacts and reverse engineered them) For you, definitely check out Alastair Reynolds and Jack McDevitt. Both feature a human race just beginning to discover the (often dark) secrets of their universe. They have human-focused stories, but not to any effect of humans being the center of the universe. Often, humans are the ones just stumbling upon the traces of aliens who have long transcending the human race.
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Hyperion, the Fall of Hyperion and its sequel Endymion and the Rise of Endymion are pure gold
-Technology that makes sense (i hate bullshit like minority reports, with former drug addicts children who can read the future and when plugged to a machine it writes a name on a wooden ball seriously wtf) - A real space opera with hundreds of planets with their specificities and communities - Incredible plot - Very well written (eventhough it's not scifi, I wanna say im sick of Stephen king's terrible writing style, his stories are often great but ...) - A lot of philosophy inside.
I also enjoyed Arthur C Clarke's books. (Rama series especially)
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There are so many good science fiction books but here a few who have been most memorable for me:
"The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester. "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clark "The End of Eternity" by Asimov (in my opinion his best work) "Sunstorm" by Arthur C. Clark and Stephen Baxter (its the 2nd part of the time trilogy but you it also works as standalone book as the necessary information is provided at the start and in my opinion this book is by far the best of the trilogy).
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A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Millter Jr.
One of the finest books ever written in my opinion, though most people can't appreciate it. SF is actually a misclassification of it, despite the setting.
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Alistair Reynolds is great if you like "dark SciFi"! Most strongly recommended for reading!
Also, books i found particularly good that were not yet mentioned:
"Quest" by Andreas Eschbach "The Great Sky River" by Gregory Benford (its book 3 from a series of 6 but the others do not remotely reach the level of this one).
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not a single A.E.Van Vogt book in here (strange) 3 pretty good ones are
Slan Wizard of Lin Empire of the Atom
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As far as Phillip K. Dick goes: VALIS The transmigration of timothy archer The three stigmata of palmer eldritch The divine invasion Lies Inc.
Well, I could go on and on but realy 99% of his work is G R E A T. Also his collected short stories are pretty much all awesome books.
gogogo PKD GET.
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