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All the dune books minus the one's by Frank Herbert's son. Why did he have to have a son?
Iain Banks, up to just before Matter, where his writing style has dipped a bit. I hope it'll be better in the next Culture book.
Steven Erikson - Canadian military fantasy novel. Crazy world building, somewhat overdrastic writing style, but still a great read.
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Someone has probably already stated this one, but I'll say it anyways:
Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
It was my 'waiting' book, I'd read it in small chunks while I was waiting for my carpool buddy to get off work. I was so, so sad when I finished it.
For lighter books, Jack McDevitt's Hutchins series was great. Gives you a good sense of the wonder of exploration. I also found his forays into the politics of the future to be fun and cute. Start with The Engines of God. Some nice suspense bits too. Gosh, I need to reread it again.
edit - wait, cryptonomicon isn't really sci fi. Hurrdurr. I offer up the Honor Harrington series for redemption? It's delicious military sci fi by David Weber.
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I'm so glad theres a thread like this.
Dune: Honestly, the time worth explaining why Dune is the best sci-fi book ever created is lengthy and could be better spent actually reading the best sci-fi book ever created.
My next favorite thing to read other than the Dune series would have to be Asimov's short stories. Just grab the anthology and read just about any of them. Truly the source of what are today many generic concepts of sci-fi and always incredibly thoughtful and inventive.
I'm going to have to go back through this post and start grabbing suggestions.
On October 27 2010 15:17 nihoh wrote: All the dune books minus the one's by Frank Herbert's son. Why did he have to have a son?
I have a theory that Brian Herbert ruined what might have been one of the best plot twists in history.
+ Show Spoiler +I don't know if you've read the books that he wrote based off of his fathers outlines, but when he revealed that the hidden threat from beyond (the one frequently prophesied throughout the series) were the thinking machines I got really pissed.
His son wrote a whole series about the thinking machines. He created characters and plots revolving around the concept. He did that after his father died leaving the series unfinished, but with the knowledge of where the series was going to go.
So basically, he spoiled the big ending. Imagine how it would've been had Frank Herbert written it. The thinking machines, so sparsely mentioned throughout the series, so inconsequential to the story (yet crucial to the universe's setup), end up being the threat from beyond that Leto was trying to prevent with the Golden Path.
This rant was unexpected, and it should probably go between some spoiler tags.
Edit: Upon reading some previous posts, I realized that if I'm going to mention Asimov, I have to also recommend The Gods Themselves. Easily his best stand alone work.
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Anthem by Ayn Rand.
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Otherland by Tad Williams
BEST
SERIES
EVER!!!!
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On October 28 2010 15:00 forgotten0ne wrote: Otherland by Tad Williams
BEST
SERIES
EVER!!!!
Really? I just finished that earlier this year, and I thought it was okay ... But not great. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (his first fantasy series) was much, much better. Otherland had too much padding (Book 2 was especially slow IMO). Particularly as science fiction, it's not that great.
Re: Bijan
I'm not even convinced that Frank Herbert wrote down notes about that "threat from beyond." I only read the "House: X" novels before feeling like the Brian Herbert / Kevin J. Anderson books sucked and stopped reading them. So we can safely treat it all as non-canonical.
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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
Given that "God-Emperor of Dune" was the best book in the series, I would certainly recommend reading all of the Frank Herbert authored Dune books.
I would also recommend reading "Prey", "Next", "State of Fear" and my all time favourite book of all time "Jurassic Park", which are all written by Michael Crichton.
The Red Dwarf books are all really good as well (though are comedy set in a sci fi universe rather than a bone fide sci fi).
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Didn't read all posts, but anything by Richard Morgan is a great read.
I suggest "Thirteen"
Edit: Otherland was 1 or 2 books too long. Reminded me of Wheel of Time with some of the filler Neil Stephenson is good, although "Snow Crash" is probably one of his more sci-fi books
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On October 28 2010 17:32 smegged 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
Given that "God-Emperor of Dune" was the best book in the series, I would certainly recommend reading all of the Frank Herbert authored Dune books. I would also recommend reading "Prey", "Next", "State of Fear" and my all time favourite book of all time "Jurassic Park", which are all written by Michael Crichton. The Red Dwarf books are all really good as well (though are comedy set in a sci fi universe rather than a bone fide sci fi).
now hold up here, god-emperor was the best book in the series? while certainly better then messiah or children, i would consider it rather bland and dry when you take heretics and chapterhouse into consideration. after reading the final two, god-emperor is nothing but back story
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Children of Hope by David Feintuch - one of the best Sci-Fi's I've ever read... seriously, just read it. It's epic.
EDIT: And oh yeah, the Ender series was genius as well! Got a tad strange after the first book, but they were good nonetheless. Ender's Game was by far my favourite of that series.
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Hyrule18773 Posts
On October 27 2010 15:20 littlewisp wrote: Someone has probably already stated this one, but I'll say it anyways:
Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
It was my 'waiting' book, I'd read it in small chunks while I was waiting for my carpool buddy to get off work. I was so, so sad when I finished it.
For lighter books, Jack McDevitt's Hutchins series was great. Gives you a good sense of the wonder of exploration. I also found his forays into the politics of the future to be fun and cute. Start with The Engines of God. Some nice suspense bits too. Gosh, I need to reread it again.
edit - wait, cryptonomicon isn't really sci fi. Hurrdurr. I offer up the Honor Harrington series for redemption? It's delicious military sci fi by David Weber. True, but his other books (like Snow Crash which is fucking awesome) are. Cryptonomicon is a bit of historical fiction mixed with plain fiction. Awesome book though. I've read through it at least 4 times.
McDevitt is also awesome. The Benedict series is also quite good.
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Not sure if it's been mentioned but China Meiville's Perdido Street Station.
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Seconded: Dune Nights Dawn Trilogy and Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep
Alastair Reynold has spoiled me to most SciFi. I would direct unfamiliar readers to Chasm City and/or Pushing Ice.
A few other oft under-looked works:
Greg Bear: The Forge of God, and it's unbelievable sequel Anvil of Stars Peter Watts: Blindsight, the most thought provoking SciFi book I've ever read and, the best "alien invasion" storyline of all time: World War, by Harry Turtledove
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I know this sounds silly considering I looooove StarCraft 2, but.... I hate science fiction. Weird, huh? >.<
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I can recommend reading the trilogy The Traveller, The Dark River and The Golden City.
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On October 28 2010 23:31 DarKFoRcE wrote: I can recommend reading the trilogy The Traveller, The Dark River and The Golden City.
this.
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On October 28 2010 17:25 wail wrote: Re: Bijan
I'm not even convinced that Frank Herbert wrote down notes about that "threat from beyond." I only read the "House: X" novels before feeling like the Brian Herbert / Kevin J. Anderson books sucked and stopped reading them. So we can safely treat it all as non-canonical.
Actually, here's a quote from his son:
"I got a call from an estate attorney who asked me what I wanted to do with two safety deposit boxes of my dad's ... in them were the notes to Dune 7 -- it was a 30-page outline. So I went up in my attic and found another 1,000 pages of working notes."
And I know that he intended to write it as a 7th book, but couldn't figure out how to do it and broke it up into 2.
On October 28 2010 22:11 pfods wrote: now hold up here, god-emperor was the best book in the series? while certainly better then messiah or children, i would consider it rather bland and dry when you take heretics and chapterhouse into consideration. after reading the final two, god-emperor is nothing but back story
God Emperor is the most philosophical of all the novels and in that way is more similar to Dune Messiah. Those were both certainly slower in action and pacing. Its my favorite after the original book.
Actually, Heretics and Chapterhouse are my least favorites because they are more action driven. There are less thought-provoking themes.
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The Gateway Trip - Frederik Pohl Footfall - Niven / Pournelle The Legacy of Heorot - Niven / Pournelle / Barnes The Demons at Rainbow Bridge - Jack Chalker Building Harlequin's Moon - Niven / Cooper DUNE and if you like really cheesy ending its hard to beat The Stars, Like Dust - Asimov
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Dune
Brave New World
Atlas Shrugged
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