Your best SciFi book ?
-
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.
Sounds most like science fiction. If you liked the "Hobbit" and such, read on. Chronological Reading Order | The Official Raymond E. Feist Website[^] After that, go for Assassin's Quest - Wikipedia[^]. And in between, everything Pratchett wrote, he explains perfectly what it means to "go postal".
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
-
Chris C-B wrote:
if the core story could be written for any other genre, then it ain't SciFi.
I guess it therefore depends upon what you consider the "core story" to be. I've found most if not all science fiction to be retellings of classic themes in a science fiction setting. By that reasoning, your list would not just be short - it would be empty.
Software Zen:
delete this;No, not empty! To start, the two I have already mentioned match my criterion - 'Contact' and '2001', although '2001' was a film before it was a book. There many examples, like the original H. G. Wells 'War of the Worlds', 'The Mote in God's Eye', 'The Tommyknockers' and even TV dramas like 'Quatermass and the pit'. The one thing I will concede is that the majority have one thing in common - earth science is pretty much 'present day', with the science fiction bit coming from an alien civilization.
-
Sounds most like science fiction. If you liked the "Hobbit" and such, read on. Chronological Reading Order | The Official Raymond E. Feist Website[^] After that, go for Assassin's Quest - Wikipedia[^]. And in between, everything Pratchett wrote, he explains perfectly what it means to "go postal".
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
Interesting. For me, everything you cited is classified as fantasy rather than science fiction. I'm not judging (I say toe-may-toe, you say toe-mah-toe), but I'm curious that you group them together.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Interesting. For me, everything you cited is classified as fantasy rather than science fiction. I'm not judging (I say toe-may-toe, you say toe-mah-toe), but I'm curious that you group them together.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
For me, everything you cited is classified as fantasy rather than science fiction
Tis, more elves and dwarfs, but still spanning multiple planets. Sometimes they overlap, and while I prefer SciFi over fantasy, I loved those books.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
-
I've got around 2,000 now, and that's after heavily winnowing my book collection over the last 20 years. When we moved into our previous house, the moving company added a surcharge for the 250+ boxes of books my wife and I had between us.
Software Zen:
delete this;:thumbsup:
-
Was it you who talked about Rene Barjavel's The Ice People several years back here? I ended up convincing a friend to buy a second hand copy off some foreign Amazon site (they were not active in India then and still don't sell second hand books) and bring it to me the next time they came. I rather enjoyed it, although the ending was sad. So thanks a lot for the (much) earlier recommendation. I also liked: Clifford Simak - City. Arthur C Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama. Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity.
Cheers, Vikram.
Vikram A Punathambekar wrote:
Was it you who talked about Rene Barjavel's The Ice People several years back here?
Either me or KaRL, who was the only other person that I know (also IRL) who also knew Barajavel. But wow, good memories :-D ! And what an effort you got into to buy the book :thumbsup:
-
Vikram A Punathambekar wrote:
Was it you who talked about Rene Barjavel's The Ice People several years back here?
Either me or KaRL, who was the only other person that I know (also IRL) who also knew Barajavel. But wow, good memories :-D ! And what an effort you got into to buy the book :thumbsup:
Ah yes, might have been Karl with the backwards R, but probably you. Yes, I went to a lot of effort to buy some secondhand books ~10 years back. The aforementioned Mission of Gravity and City were also bought on Amazon US/UK secondhand.
Cheers, Vikram.
-
Interesting. For me, everything you cited is classified as fantasy rather than science fiction. I'm not judging (I say toe-may-toe, you say toe-mah-toe), but I'm curious that you group them together.
Software Zen:
delete this;Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks Tolkien is Fantasy rather than Science Fiction :confused: And it's not a pejorative comment, I really liked LotR.
Cheers, Vikram.
-
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.
tooo many to count. I read them like they are water. I agree on i-robot and Asimov. Fantastic author, book and series. Lately I have been enjoying a series by Christopher Nuttall Empires Corps. Interesting political angle he has. I really loved alot of Jack Vance books. Ports of Call standing out right now in my memory. Timothy Zahn's Cobra soldier series is kind of an interesting premise Jack McDevitt's books are a fun current read.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
-
Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks Tolkien is Fantasy rather than Science Fiction :confused: And it's not a pejorative comment, I really liked LotR.
Cheers, Vikram.
I like some fantasy, LotR included. I no longer have the patience though to read the 1,000 page paperbacks with countless subplots, author-created pseudo-languages, and the quests that take 15 or 20 books to resolve. My preference nowadays is for urban fantasy from authors like A. Lee Martinez[^], N. K. Jemisin[^], and Jim Butcher[^].
Software Zen:
delete this;