Your best SciFi book ?
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As a follow up to Glenn's post below, what would be your best SciFi book ? To me it is a hard choice, there are so many, but here a few that are important to me: - The Ice People by Barjavel, that I read when I was 8, and that probably gave me the taste for sciFi - I, Robot, that got me into robotics, computer science, logical thinking, ... - Another small book I cannot remember the name, talking about astronauts trapped in a spaceship (kind of Apollo 13) that my English teacher gave me and that was the first book I have read in English language. - A brave new world, because of that dystopian but maybe not so wrong description of our future. - Ubik, because ... Ubik. - Jurassic Parc, not because of the story, but for the chaos theory developed over 40 pages by Crichton. The movie was awesome in its time, but the book is on another level - I know it is cliché to say the book is better than the movie. Same for Terminator, the book/screenplay explains so much better the overall atmosphere, the character of Sarah Connor, and helps understanding a few shortcuts that were hard to follow in the movie.
Does one lose his access to the lounge if he admits to never reading SF?
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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As a follow up to Glenn's post below, what would be your best SciFi book ? To me it is a hard choice, there are so many, but here a few that are important to me: - The Ice People by Barjavel, that I read when I was 8, and that probably gave me the taste for sciFi - I, Robot, that got me into robotics, computer science, logical thinking, ... - Another small book I cannot remember the name, talking about astronauts trapped in a spaceship (kind of Apollo 13) that my English teacher gave me and that was the first book I have read in English language. - A brave new world, because of that dystopian but maybe not so wrong description of our future. - Ubik, because ... Ubik. - Jurassic Parc, not because of the story, but for the chaos theory developed over 40 pages by Crichton. The movie was awesome in its time, but the book is on another level - I know it is cliché to say the book is better than the movie. Same for Terminator, the book/screenplay explains so much better the overall atmosphere, the character of Sarah Connor, and helps understanding a few shortcuts that were hard to follow in the movie.
Solaris, see: sci-fi-and-fantasy-books[^]
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Kris Lantz wrote:
Otherwise, my bookshelves are lined with Fantasy novels; Forgotten Realms and The Wheel of Time sort of stuff
they get a couple of shelves at my place too. - Tolkien: Middle Earth - Weiss & Hackmann: Dragonlance serie && The Death Gate Cycle - Many others.... more Dragonlance (I think I have almost the whole set) - Miguel de Castro: El pais inerme (not sure if it has been translated to english, but if yes... a nice one too) -
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
Nelek wrote:
Weiss & Hickmann: Dragonlance serie && The Death Gate Cycle
I loved SciFi books as a kid. These were every bit as good as anything I read back then! Read them standing up in the bookstore! Only Ender's Game comes to mind as being equal or better. But haven't read much since then.
The Science of King David's Court | Object Oriented Programming with C++
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Probably... The Foundation series (the original 3 books, a bit less for the other prequels and sequels). Dune (the original 3 books, obviously, and a bit less for the other prequels and sequels) The [Lost Fleet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Lost\_Fleet) (Jack Campbell) And I know, unpopular and controversial because of the Author and what he stand for (will remain nameless and no link provided), but they are fun and entertaining.... Battlefield Earth (the movie was horribly bad) and Mission Earth.
I'd rather be phishing!
:omg: I never realized this was the same person (the book author and the controversial one). I am speechless.
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Does one lose his access to the lounge if he admits to never reading SF?
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
No, I have never read any programming book neither. :-D
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Anything Dr. Seuss.
Why the rant ?
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Having +/- 1200 of them it is very hard to choose ( I know, I am an addict ) but I did enjoy the Foundation series, the Dune series, The dragons of Pern and many others. Special mention though for Douglas Adam's and Terry pratchett's stuff. After all it is very hard to beat 42 and the idea of a discworld. :-D
1200 as hard cover ? And the mansion that goes with it :-D ?
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Chris C-B wrote:
if the core story could be written for any other genre, then it ain't SciFi.
I am puzzled by your logic: No great love story can be SF. No critical assessment of anarchism, or any other political / social structure, can be SF. No mystery can be SF. If story is bases on philosophical or moral issues, it cant' be SF. ... So, what is left for SF? No nothing. Pure drivel - that is what it sounds like to me. I strongly disagree. I have read loads of SF books of great value as love stories, as political / social comment and criticism, as great mysteries, as philosophical or moral issues. I haven't read 'Contact', but my first guess (from the summary in Wikipedia) is that I would see a lot of elements in it belonging in other genres, once you look behind that hardcore SF setting. The setting is required, if you want to direct a spotlight from that direction onto political and social issues, but as a mere storyteller's tool - the real story is not the high-tech spaceships and signals from remote galaxies. A book can be read in many ways. Same with movies: Lots of people may reject a movie on the grounds that "I know how it ends" (in IMDB comments, and many other places, you are expected to clearly mark your comment as a 'spoiler' if it reveals anything about the ending) - I often enjoy watching it for the second and third time because I know how it ends, and I want to see how all the small strands of the story leads up to that ending. Strangely enough, I have never heard any music lover rejecting, say, a symphony because "I know how it ends" :-) So you could probably read a novel such as Contact with little or no concern from what I consider the real, underlaying story, about social and political ideas and conflicts. The technology part, the action part, the 'science' part, are the only essential aspects. Some people watch movies that way: If you ask what the movie was about, they immediately start telling about the fighting, the battles, the crazy car driving, ... When I stop them, and ask which conflicts it was about, they go on naming the actors on this side and on that side. But... Which ideas or ideals where driving the two sides? Then we are down to the philosopical level of "the good against the bad". (If you know the ending, you certainly know which side is the good!) I had a similar experience with an SF book: I gave a copy of one really great SF novel, Daniel Keyes: Flowers for
You just got awarded the >>1024 answer of the month award. Congratulations !
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It's a Friday evening here, and I am about to shut down and pour myself a gin and tonic, but your reply deserves the courtesy of a response. My position is simple - if the main story line is concerned with love, grief, power struggles, conquest, deceit, mass psychology or any other human or societal circumstances and emotions, why complicate it with science fiction, unless that science fiction is absolutely essential to the plot? Perhaps I have read some bad science fiction, but a lot of what I have read concerns themes that could just as easily, and what is more important, more believably, be set in a purely earth-bound narrative. For me, if a science fiction story leaves me with a sense of wonderment about the universe we live in, then I feel it has truly succeeded - like how I felt when I walked out of the cinema after first seeing '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Maybe I just have too much difficulty in suspending belief.
I was tempted to answer "Sure." to OP. :-D I share your thoughts about 2001. In other registers, same feelings about Lost in translation and Dancer in the Dark.
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Why the rant ?
Because it's annoying what people are doing to Dr. Seuss books now.
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You just got awarded the >>1024 answer of the month award. Congratulations !
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Having +/- 1200 of them it is very hard to choose ( I know, I am an addict ) but I did enjoy the Foundation series, the Dune series, The dragons of Pern and many others. Special mention though for Douglas Adam's and Terry pratchett's stuff. After all it is very hard to beat 42 and the idea of a discworld. :-D
Special effects are now robust enough for Pern. Anne refused to sell the rights?
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
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As have already been said, there is a lot of good SciFi out there. - Pohl: The heechees series, Merchant wars... - Heinlein: The moon is a bad mistress, Friday... - Crichton: Jurasic parc, State of fear - Asimov: Foundation serie - Herbert: Dune serie (although some are not that good) - Schätzing: Limit - I don't know how it is called in english but the plot is that every human being that reached more than 5 years old is resurrected all at once in a world were basic needs are automatically covered by some allien technology. 5 or 6 books -... -...
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
Nelek wrote:
- Heinlein: The moon is a bad harsh mistress,
FTFY That is where Mycroft comes from :)
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Because it's annoying what people are doing to Dr. Seuss books now.
PC gone mad!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Probably... The Foundation series (the original 3 books, a bit less for the other prequels and sequels). Dune (the original 3 books, obviously, and a bit less for the other prequels and sequels) The [Lost Fleet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Lost\_Fleet) (Jack Campbell) And I know, unpopular and controversial because of the Author and what he stand for (will remain nameless and no link provided), but they are fun and entertaining.... Battlefield Earth (the movie was horribly bad) and Mission Earth.
I'd rather be phishing!
Maximilien wrote:
Battlefield Earth
The book I enjoyed, the film stands out as one of the absolute worst ever.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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I am sorry - I wasn't aware that the Lounge was restricted to oneliners. I'll honor that rule from now on.
No, that's twitter.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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It's a Friday evening here, and I am about to shut down and pour myself a gin and tonic, but your reply deserves the courtesy of a response. My position is simple - if the main story line is concerned with love, grief, power struggles, conquest, deceit, mass psychology or any other human or societal circumstances and emotions, why complicate it with science fiction, unless that science fiction is absolutely essential to the plot? Perhaps I have read some bad science fiction, but a lot of what I have read concerns themes that could just as easily, and what is more important, more believably, be set in a purely earth-bound narrative. For me, if a science fiction story leaves me with a sense of wonderment about the universe we live in, then I feel it has truly succeeded - like how I felt when I walked out of the cinema after first seeing '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Maybe I just have too much difficulty in suspending belief.
-
As a follow up to Glenn's post below, what would be your best SciFi book ? To me it is a hard choice, there are so many, but here a few that are important to me: - The Ice People by Barjavel, that I read when I was 8, and that probably gave me the taste for sciFi - I, Robot, that got me into robotics, computer science, logical thinking, ... - Another small book I cannot remember the name, talking about astronauts trapped in a spaceship (kind of Apollo 13) that my English teacher gave me and that was the first book I have read in English language. - A brave new world, because of that dystopian but maybe not so wrong description of our future. - Ubik, because ... Ubik. - Jurassic Parc, not because of the story, but for the chaos theory developed over 40 pages by Crichton. The movie was awesome in its time, but the book is on another level - I know it is cliché to say the book is better than the movie. Same for Terminator, the book/screenplay explains so much better the overall atmosphere, the character of Sarah Connor, and helps understanding a few shortcuts that were hard to follow in the movie.
The classics are classics for a reason and most of them hold up very well today. Dune (the first one) - builds an entire galactic civilization and an incredible story in one book. Loved it. The next few - not as much. Off the beaten path though: One book I read that I really enjoyed was 'The Excalibur Alternative' - David Weber. Good stand-alone story in the age of 10 book series. James Hogan had some great takes on robotic evolution in Code of the Lifemaker, and on AI in The Two Faces of Tomorrow. I don't know how well these have aged in 40 years though. David Brin 'The Practice Effect' has a great twist on fundamental physics in an parallel universe. My two cents.
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Chris C-B wrote:
if the core story could be written for any other genre, then it ain't SciFi.
I am puzzled by your logic: No great love story can be SF. No critical assessment of anarchism, or any other political / social structure, can be SF. No mystery can be SF. If story is bases on philosophical or moral issues, it cant' be SF. ... So, what is left for SF? No nothing. Pure drivel - that is what it sounds like to me. I strongly disagree. I have read loads of SF books of great value as love stories, as political / social comment and criticism, as great mysteries, as philosophical or moral issues. I haven't read 'Contact', but my first guess (from the summary in Wikipedia) is that I would see a lot of elements in it belonging in other genres, once you look behind that hardcore SF setting. The setting is required, if you want to direct a spotlight from that direction onto political and social issues, but as a mere storyteller's tool - the real story is not the high-tech spaceships and signals from remote galaxies. A book can be read in many ways. Same with movies: Lots of people may reject a movie on the grounds that "I know how it ends" (in IMDB comments, and many other places, you are expected to clearly mark your comment as a 'spoiler' if it reveals anything about the ending) - I often enjoy watching it for the second and third time because I know how it ends, and I want to see how all the small strands of the story leads up to that ending. Strangely enough, I have never heard any music lover rejecting, say, a symphony because "I know how it ends" :-) So you could probably read a novel such as Contact with little or no concern from what I consider the real, underlaying story, about social and political ideas and conflicts. The technology part, the action part, the 'science' part, are the only essential aspects. Some people watch movies that way: If you ask what the movie was about, they immediately start telling about the fighting, the battles, the crazy car driving, ... When I stop them, and ask which conflicts it was about, they go on naming the actors on this side and on that side. But... Which ideas or ideals where driving the two sides? Then we are down to the philosopical level of "the good against the bad". (If you know the ending, you certainly know which side is the good!) I had a similar experience with an SF book: I gave a copy of one really great SF novel, Daniel Keyes: Flowers for
Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed immediately occurred to me upon reading your third sentence. Wonderful work by a wonderful author.
Real programmers use butterflies
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Maximilien wrote:
Battlefield Earth
The book I enjoyed, the film stands out as one of the absolute worst ever.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
Too true. I was really looking forward to the movie.
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Top ten reasons why I'm lazy 1.