Sci-Fi books
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blackjack2150 wrote:
The only SF I've read so far is some Asimov, Childhood's End by Sir Arthur C Clarke and Starship Troopers.
:omg: Dude, I don't even know where to start. :) I could recommend pretty close to a thousand books just off the top of my head if I had the time. Those all sound like good choices, Dune I'm not so keen on it's decent enough but there are about 1000 books ahead of it that are ultra classics but YMMV and I've no idea what H2G2 is. Remember you can get all those classics for probably even less at a decent sized used book store these days. I envy you, I've probably read every notable or even semi interested sci fi book ever published in the english language over the last 30+ years. It would be cool if I could take a pill and forget the plot of all those books and happily read them all again. :)
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
John C wrote:
I've no idea what H2G2
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?
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I'm a bit excited because there's a 35% discount at one book house here for all books in their SF collection, and I'm gonna spend some cash on that. The titles that I've chosen are: H2G2 Dune (the initial 6 volumes) Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) I can't go wrong with these, can I? The only SF I've read so far is some Asimov, Childhood's End by Sir Arthur C Clarke and Starship Troopers.
Alastair Reynolds - All of His Novels are Excellent Kevin Anderson - Saga of the Seven Suns Simon Green - Deathstalker Series (Space Opera) I also recently read the collected works of HG Wells which were amazing especially considering when he wrote them.
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I'm a bit excited because there's a 35% discount at one book house here for all books in their SF collection, and I'm gonna spend some cash on that. The titles that I've chosen are: H2G2 Dune (the initial 6 volumes) Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) I can't go wrong with these, can I? The only SF I've read so far is some Asimov, Childhood's End by Sir Arthur C Clarke and Starship Troopers.
Stephen Baxter: Titan and Evolution are superb, most of his stuff is very good. And I'll ditto calls for Iain M Banks, Asimov, Clarke etc.
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Another vote for Iain M Banks (Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games especially). And Neal Stephenson - Zodiac and The Diamond Age thoroughly recommended Bruce Sterling's written some excellent stuff - Heavy Weather's the one I remember best Jeff Noon - Vurt, Pollen and Nymphomation J.G.Ballard has written many excellent books that could almost be considered SF - The Drowned World, The Burning World/The Drought, The Crystal World and High Rise are the closest Joe Haldeman - The Forever War is excellent - an interstellar Vietnam novel And if you like the "cosy catastrophe" style, give John Wyndham (Midwich Cuckoos, Day of the Kraken) and Fred Hoyle (The Black Cloud, The Inferno)
Stuart Dootson wrote:
The Player of Games
Didn't get on with that on a first read - got very annoyed that the rules of the game itself weren't made plain. I will give it another go sometime. :)
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Stuart Dootson wrote:
The Player of Games
Didn't get on with that on a first read - got very annoyed that the rules of the game itself weren't made plain. I will give it another go sometime. :)
Steve_Harris wrote:
got very annoyed that the rules of the game itself weren't made plain
That was kind of the point, as far as I could tell - [SPOILER!!!!] the point was that until the end, Gurgeh didn't understand that the rules of the game were the rules of the Azad empire, and once he did, he (unknowingly) fulfilled what Contact/Special Circumstances expected, and started the decline of the empire. [/SPOILER!!!!]
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Of the titles listed, any that you reccommend?
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It depends on your tastes, I like Lois Bujold McMaster's books Mountains of Mourning[^] Keith Laumer's Retief[^] is humourous. Interstellar Patrol[^] is quite 'Buck Roger'. Take your pick, they're free!
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I'd recommend (in no particular order): Stephen Donaldson's "Gap" series; C J Cherryh's "Downbelow Station, "Cyteen" and others in that "future" (not her fantasy stuff, unless you're into that sort of nonsense...); Just about anythihg by Greg Bear; "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson is a legend in it's own time - a real classic; And if you haven't read the graphic novel "The Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons you really really should... I've just re-read it and it still blows my mind... ..and any early Heinlein for some old classics ("The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", "Stranger In A Strange Land", etc...) /edit - and Philip K Dick, of course... /edit
gmPhil wrote:
..and any early Heinlein for some old classics ("The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", "Stranger In A Strange Land", etc...)
I second that. I read both those books last year. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read. I think it won the Hugo award back when it was published in the 60's.
Words fade as the meanings change, but somehow, it don't bother me.
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Some more works for you to consider: Robert Heinlein: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Stranger In A Strange Land) Joe Haldeman: The Forever War Larry Niven: Ringworld, Protector Frederick Pohl: Gateway (in fact, the whole Heechee Saga) C. J. Cherryh: Pride of Chanur, the Faded Sun trilogy Allen Steele: Orbital Decay, Lunar Descent Almost anything by these authors is good.
Software Zen:
delete this;I read Forever War recently, and thoroughly recommend it. It was published in 1973 as a sci-fi anti Vietnam novel (Haldeman was a vet), but in these times it still resonates. I believe it is currently being made into a movie.
Words fade as the meanings change, but somehow, it don't bother me.
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Pardon my knowledge on Sci-Fi books, but I have never ever read any Sci-Fi. Can anybody recommand a good Sci-Fi book to start with?
I would recommend Accelerando by Charles Stross. Its a vision of where humanity is going as we get more and more processing power, able to augment our minds and memory digitally, downloading 'wetware' plugins for our brains. Some of the ideas in it are amazing and creepy.
Words fade as the meanings change, but somehow, it don't bother me.
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I'm a bit excited because there's a 35% discount at one book house here for all books in their SF collection, and I'm gonna spend some cash on that. The titles that I've chosen are: H2G2 Dune (the initial 6 volumes) Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) I can't go wrong with these, can I? The only SF I've read so far is some Asimov, Childhood's End by Sir Arthur C Clarke and Starship Troopers.
I'm going to add a few that nobody has mentioned yet: Anything by Vernor Vinge - 'Rainbows End' and 'Deepness In The Sky' are very good Ian MacDonald - 'Ares Express' China Meiville - 'Perdido Street Station' trilogy Ken McLeod - 'Learning The World' Neil Gaiman - 'American Gods' - more fantasy than sci-fi really, but awesome.
Words fade as the meanings change, but somehow, it don't bother me.
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Cell (more horror then SF), by Steven King is fairly entertaing. I think he wrote it because he hates people who talk on cell phones at resturants, so he wrote horrific telepathic killer zombie book about these "rude people".
MrPlankton
Multicultural Diversity Training, the new Socialist Reeducation Camp-light.
MrPlankton wrote:
Cell (more horror then SF), by Steven King is fairly entertaing.
I actually read that just a few months ago. A really good book, but to me it seemed to lag behind King's classics, which are not good, but brilliant. (The Stand, It, Pet Sematary, Salems Lot, Misery, etc...) But any of his novels is guaranteed not to be boring. One of the (few) good deeds I did last year was convincing my cousin, who hasn't read any book in years to try SK. He was already into horror movies and games so he said Ok. Now he owns a douzen or so of his novels and reads them with great pleasure.
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John C wrote:
I've no idea what H2G2
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?
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Of course. Sorry for being too lazy to type it.
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Of the titles listed, any that you reccommend?
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gmPhil wrote:
..and any early Heinlein for some old classics ("The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", "Stranger In A Strange Land", etc...)
I second that. I read both those books last year. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read. I think it won the Hugo award back when it was published in the 60's.
Words fade as the meanings change, but somehow, it don't bother me.
Boro_Bob wrote:
I think it won the Hugo award back when it was published in the 60's.
It was nominated in both 1966 (because of magazine serialization) and in 1967, when it won. You might also enjoy Red Planet - although written much earlier and as a juvenile, it is also the story of colonists (Martian, in this case) rebelling against an absentee government. You might also enjoy Starship Troopers - it is, by the way - very, very different from the movie. The screenwriter and director proudly announced that they had never read the book before making the adaptation.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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For some more recent good work (particularly if you like Heinlien): John Scalzi : Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony. All three are most enjoyable.
Rob Graham wrote:
John Scalzi : Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony. All three are most enjoyable.
Absolutely agree. By the way: Scalzi has just hired on as Creative Consultant for Stargate: Universe, the upcoming third series set in the Stargate universe. ;)
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
modified on Friday, January 16, 2009 5:28 PM
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Boro_Bob wrote:
I think it won the Hugo award back when it was published in the 60's.
It was nominated in both 1966 (because of magazine serialization) and in 1967, when it won. You might also enjoy Red Planet - although written much earlier and as a juvenile, it is also the story of colonists (Martian, in this case) rebelling against an absentee government. You might also enjoy Starship Troopers - it is, by the way - very, very different from the movie. The screenwriter and director proudly announced that they had never read the book before making the adaptation.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
So, have you read Variable Star yet? I picked it up last week and have to say that I like it so far. I'll probably finish it this weekend so I'll have a real opinion then.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
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I'm a bit excited because there's a 35% discount at one book house here for all books in their SF collection, and I'm gonna spend some cash on that. The titles that I've chosen are: H2G2 Dune (the initial 6 volumes) Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) I can't go wrong with these, can I? The only SF I've read so far is some Asimov, Childhood's End by Sir Arthur C Clarke and Starship Troopers.
The mars trilogy is good.Gateway by Frederic Pohl is also highly recommended. Check out Death World, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga (the first books are better but it gets addictive fast so ...), can't really think of anything else right now so ... Edit: Michael Chrichton: Prey Zelazny: Chronicles of Amber - though this is somewhat mind boggling There was a book called "The Oracle" I believe, it was about this girl who could change with a random action (like move her hand etc). I can't remember the name of the Author. I think it was trilogy, the other books being called "The wizard" and something else I think.
modified on Friday, January 16, 2009 5:56 PM
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I read Forever War recently, and thoroughly recommend it. It was published in 1973 as a sci-fi anti Vietnam novel (Haldeman was a vet), but in these times it still resonates. I believe it is currently being made into a movie.
Words fade as the meanings change, but somehow, it don't bother me.
Boro_Bob wrote:
believe it is currently being made into a movie.
It looks like most of these statements are based on an announcement last October by Ridley Scott that he was optioned to direct a film version of the novel. I couldn't find anything else about it, so I doubt there are any firm plans at this point. I would be extremely disappointed (but not surprised) if it didn't turn into a generic special effects CGI masturbate-a-thon.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
So, have you read Variable Star yet? I picked it up last week and have to say that I like it so far. I'll probably finish it this weekend so I'll have a real opinion then.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
Chris Austin wrote:
So, have you read Variable Star yet?
Yep - got it on a 2-4-1 deal through the Heinlein Society (with Robinson's latest)
Chris Austin wrote:
so I'll have a real opinion then
I'll be intereste in hearing it and sharing mine, too. By the way, have you read For Us, The Living?
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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Boro_Bob wrote:
believe it is currently being made into a movie.
It looks like most of these statements are based on an announcement last October by Ridley Scott that he was optioned to direct a film version of the novel. I couldn't find anything else about it, so I doubt there are any firm plans at this point. I would be extremely disappointed (but not surprised) if it didn't turn into a generic special effects CGI masturbate-a-thon.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^]Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
I would be extremely disappointed (but not surprised) if it didn't turn into a generic special effects CGI masturbate-a-thon.
But it would still generate lots of extra sales of the book. Ginny Heinlein told me that when that travesty of Starship Troopers was made, sales of the novel skyrocketed and stayed high for quite awhile. So even a bad adaptation can lead people to a book that makes 'em think.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface