Uisce Beatha
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat From: In the Jar
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Best Sci-Fi Book
« on: June 29, 2007, 12:49:42 PM » |
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Lots of geeks here. Figure this dog will hunt. I thought about doing it as a poll but too much work to handle the "others" that surely will arise. Please, no fantasy. That's a different thread.  Best for me by leaps and bounds is Dune. There are probably a half-dozen Herbert books in my top ten including a few of the other Dune books. White Plague is excellent. The Jesus Incident and The Lazarus Effect are great. I like the Foundation series by Asimov, they'd crack my list. But the original Dune is, for me, perhaps the best novel ever written. Hidden agenda here. I need some recommendations.  |
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"If you're darker than a caramel, Reverend Al speaks for you." - Aasif Mandvi
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spacey
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat From: Group W Bench
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2007, 01:03:38 PM » |
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I'm not a huge sci-fi reader, nor have I really ever been. However, a few that I've read and enjoyed:
Starship Troopers
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Foundation Series
Fahrenheit 451 (might not qualify as pure "science fiction")
A Scanner Darkly
VALIS Trilogy
All time best Science Fiction book/s: A Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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Aske
Lederhosen
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2007, 01:08:56 PM » |
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meh, all the great stuff out there merges scifi and fantasy is 1984 still sciFI, since it has come true ?  |
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spacey
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat From: Group W Bench
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2007, 01:13:09 PM » |
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meh, all the great stuff out there merges scifi and fantasy is 1984 still sciFI, since it has come true ? I thought about listing Nineteen Eighty-Four and A Brave New World, but somehow neither actually strikes me as science fiction so much as political commentary. Then again, Heinlein and Bradbury sort of fall there too... |
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Uisce Beatha
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat From: In the Jar
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2007, 01:25:24 PM » |
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meh, all the great stuff out there merges scifi and fantasy Rules are made to be broken. I didn't mean hard science only. Just wanted to keep Tolkein, Eddings, etc. out of it. List away. |
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"If you're darker than a caramel, Reverend Al speaks for you." - Aasif Mandvi
"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man: no time to talk." - stroh
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Uisce Beatha
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat From: In the Jar
Karma: 116 Posts: 7357
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2007, 01:35:08 PM » |
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I dig Heinlein too. Just finished Time Enough For Love for about the fifth time.
Hard to classify that dude that's for sure. Way too much man-on-man action going on though. NTTAWWT.
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"If you're darker than a caramel, Reverend Al speaks for you." - Aasif Mandvi
"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man: no time to talk." - stroh
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1puttpar
Vest & Plus Fours From: Loomis, CA
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2007, 05:50:14 PM » |
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Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is my fav.
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and the entire Callahan series is pretty good too.
Anything by Robert Rankin.
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Clive
Full Metal Jacket
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2007, 06:22:37 PM » |
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Really liked Dune and the one or two that followed it. Then I thought they got weak.
Foundation series. Asimov is (was) the Man.
I actually rather liked the couple Philip *8==>* novels I've read. Titles escape me right now, of course.
Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park were good reads., but I wouldn't class either as Best Sci-Fi Novel Evar.
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Seamus
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2007, 10:42:19 PM » |
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Dune.
Anything by Ayn Rand. Clarke. Asimov.
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spacey
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat From: Group W Bench
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2007, 11:07:36 PM » |
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Dune.
Anything by Ayn Rand. Clarke. Asimov.
I always considered Ms. Rand to be a bit "out there" but never had I thought of her as "sci-fi."  |
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stroh
Sleeveless Hoodie From: Impact Crater Springs, CA
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2007, 05:43:46 AM » |
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I almost feel like I'm missing out on something here.
meh.
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stroh
Sleeveless Hoodie From: Impact Crater Springs, CA
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2007, 05:44:17 AM » |
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Stranger in a Strange Land
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Seamus
Straitjacket
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #12 on: June 30, 2007, 06:25:08 AM » |
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Dune.
Anything by Ayn Rand. Clarke. Asimov.
I always considered Ms. Rand to be a bit "out there" but never had I thought of her as "sci-fi." Yeah, you're probably right in the classic sense, I guess I found elements of science and fiction in a few of her writings, most especially Atlas Shrugged, but as far as a pure Sci-Fi writer like say a George Orwell or an Isacc Asimov no. Jules Verne was another that grabbed me at an early age, anyone who can think out of the box and write about a trip around the moon 100 years before it happened is aces in my book. Pierre Boulle who gave us Planet of the Apes. Dang, how freaky was that for a 5 year old boy to watch and then later read. [sidebar] We have the Science Fiction Hall of Fame here in Seattle, and for a geek like me it was heaven, it would probably rank #3 in my list of all the "Halls". http://www.sfhomeworld.org/[sidebar] Uisce Ba-Booey...go to the SF Hall link and then enter where it says "Hall of Fame", it list all enshrinees and the category they were nominated in, all the Halls writers are there. |
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« Last Edit: June 30, 2007, 06:49:50 AM by Seamus »
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Seamus
Straitjacket
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #13 on: June 30, 2007, 06:40:42 AM » |
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Oh man I forgot Phillip K. *8==>* (hey man, the dudes name is *8==>*, why can't we just say *8==>*, sometimes it really pisses me off that we can't say something like *8==>* especially when the guys name is *8==>*) The Man in the High Castle Martian Time Slip Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which became the Blade Runner movie) and H.G. Wells The Time Machine: An Invention (1895) The Island of Dr Moreau (1896) The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance (1897) The War of the Worlds (1898) and Ursula K. LeGuin The Left Hand of Darkness The Lathe of Heaven was an awesome book and a suck ass movie starring Kelso and I think a Cosby daughter.  |
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spacey
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat From: Group W Bench
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Re: Best Sci-Fi Book
« Reply #14 on: June 30, 2007, 08:01:02 AM » |
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