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Eliana -> Favourite science fiction books (10/12/2007 2:51:41 PM)

What are the best science fiction books you've read? I liked:

* Dune (Frank Herbert)
* Empyrion (Steven Lawhead)
* The Mind Thing (Fredric Brown)
* The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells)

Although I loved Dune, I decided to only read two books in the series, including one prequel. The books really captured my imagination and I didn't want to get carried away and caught up in the whole Dune "universe".



Auben -> RE: Favourite science fiction books (10/12/2007 3:20:47 PM)

What a great question!

I really like science fiction.

Short stories: Cordwainer Smith, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick

Novels:
The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula LeGuin)
The Martian Chronicles/Something Wicked this Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)
Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Ender's Shadow (Orson Scott Card)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
Alas, Babylon (Pat Frank)
The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)



Random -> RE: Favourite science fiction books (10/12/2007 3:26:00 PM)

Player Piano -- Kurt Vonnegut



uncabeeil -> RE: Favourite science fiction books (10/12/2007 3:38:25 PM)

I love Robert Heinlein's work, especially "Time Enough for Love"
"Nightfall and Other Stories" and the original Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
The Stainless Steel Rat and Bill The Galactic Hero series by Harry Harrison
Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers, The Man-Kzin Wars series by Larry Niven
Titan, Wizard, and Demon by John Varley
Anything by Robert Sheckley or Phillip K Dick, two of the greatest short story writers ever.
The Firebird Trilogy, Shivering World - by Kathy Tyers
The original Dune Trilogy
Anne McCaffrey's "Ship Who..." series, all of her Pern books, the Crystal Singer series
The "Myth" series by Robert Asprin
Wild Cards - Various authors, edited by George RR Martin
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. I through Vol. IV



Eliana -> RE: Favourite science fiction books (10/12/2007 3:42:30 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: uncabeeil

I love Robert Heinlein's work, especially "Time Enough for Love"
The original Dune Trilogy



Dune is amazing. He created a world of incredible scope and depth...comparable to Tolkien's Middle Earth. Have you read the Dune prequels? What did you think of them?



uncabeeil -> RE: Favourite science fiction books (10/12/2007 3:52:12 PM)

I didn't read the prequels. I read one sequel and didn't like the fact that he moved ahead 2000 years.



Auben -> RE: Favourite science fiction books (10/12/2007 4:59:57 PM)

Dune [8|]



Rom1221 -> RE: Favourite science fiction books (10/12/2007 6:56:13 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Auben

What a great question!

I really like science fiction.

Short stories: Cordwainer Smith, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick

Novels:
The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula LeGuin)
The Martian Chronicles/Something Wicked this Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)
Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Ender's Shadow (Orson Scott Card)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
Alas, Babylon (Pat Frank)
The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)


The Diamond Age was execellent! true dat.



VincentGrayson -> RE: Favourite science fiction books (10/15/2007 8:21:18 AM)

Not an entire book, but Ted Chiang's "Understand" is just about the most amazing sci-fi story I've ever read.

The rest of his book is pretty good, but Understand is the best bit in it.



DaveW -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/15/2007 1:08:24 PM)

I started my lifelong love of reading SF with the book "A Fall of Moondust." I do not remember the author. I then started reading Asimov's short stories including "Nightfall" (love the original short - hate the longer version) and several of his "I Robot" series.

I also read many of Alan Dean Foster's Star Trek Log books. I also like CS Lewis' Space Trilogy and almost anything by Kathy Tyres, esp her "Firebird" series.

Now reading the New Jedi Order series and enjoying in immensly. (Tyers wrote book #6)



Auben -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/15/2007 4:03:19 PM)

quote:

The Diamond Age was execellent! true dat.


Yeah, I'm going through a huge Stephenson phase right now, reading The Diamond Age (with all its intricate levels of nanotechnology, neo-Victorianism, Dickensonian drama, and bio-informational flow) and Cryptonomicon (WWII, cryptography, modern day business backstabbing, and treasure hunting) back to back. I think we read Snow Crash last year or the year before and while I enjoyed it I didn't get into it as much as I'm getting into these two novels.

Dh and I are also going through a big Cordwainer Smith thing too. We read a book of his best short stories in August which prompted dh to go out and get We the Underpeople. What a fascinating author.



FREELUTH -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/15/2007 6:44:41 PM)

Does SF have to be about space ect ?



Auben -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/15/2007 10:26:01 PM)

No.

Pure science fiction has something to do with science (not necessarily space), but they also classify fantasy and any speculative fiction in there as well.



9drtr -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/15/2007 10:33:28 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: FREELUTH

Does SF have to be about space ect ?


Hard sf must have one of the hard sciences at its core: physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, etc, and if the science is removed, the story should disappear. But that's only hard sf.

Many sf people prefer to use the initials to mean speculative fiction, and any speculation will do. At its best, sf asks questions.

Favourites apart from those already mentioned:

Omnivore, Orn, and Ox, a trilogy by Piers Anthony. Orn is the weakest, but is necessary for continuity. Ox is the only sf novel I've read based on pure math.

Anything by Hal Clement. Mission of Gravity is his best-known work. He's short on character and story, but long on science, and he creates the most wonderful planets.

The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven.

Neuromancer by William Gibson.



9drtr -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/15/2007 10:36:50 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Auben

No.

Pure science fiction has something to do with science (not necessarily space), but they also classify fantasy and any speculative fiction in there as well.


Sorry, but fantasy can't be classed as science fiction, except that they are sold together as a marketing convention because there's a large overlap in readership.



Auben -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/16/2007 12:08:43 AM)

[8|]

I said what you said, just with fewer words. There's a lot of middle ground between speculative fiction and fantasy. While neither is hard SF they still get thrown into the pot because of common elements in world building and imagination, not just marketing.

You sound like a hard SFguy to me. [;)]



Eliana -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/16/2007 9:51:44 AM)

Wow...lots of books and authors here who I'd never heard of! I'll definitely be looking them up in the library.

I forgot to include Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham! Put me off looking at celestial phenomena for a long time...[&:]



rnershigh -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/16/2007 7:18:47 PM)

Off the top of my head, Mothership by Tony Chandler. A bit sad though. It's a YA sci-fi book. Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton is also a good read, a long book, but complex and space opera-ish (the sequel is Judas Unchained which I haven't read yet). I read the first book or two of The Saga of Seven Suns series, really great read. I forget the titles, but it's by Kevin Anderson I think.



9drtr -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/17/2007 6:27:42 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Auben

You sound like a hard SFguy to me. [;)]


I've enjoyed a lot of hard sf, but also soft sf, and fantasy. There is certainly overlap in technique and story background that other fields of fiction don't have, but I'll fight forever to keep fantasy from being classified as a subclass of science fiction, which is what your post seems to do. Since fantasy predates sf by several millenia, it might be fairer to see sf as a subclass of fantasy, although I'm certainly not suggesting it.



Auben -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/19/2007 2:58:43 PM)

Other than rolling my eyes at Dune, I can't see anything I may have said to imply that I think fantasy is a subclass of anything. It isn't. It is classified together with science fiction in modern classification systems though. I suspect because of magazine publishing during the 30s and 40s, but perhaps also in terms of the fantastical and thus 'kiddie' status given by the mainstream literary world.

We could speculate that all fiction is a subclass of fantasy, but that doesn't change how most people categorize it.



rnershigh -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/19/2007 4:24:37 PM)

It's like Mystery and thriller, which I noticed are usually shelved together in the bookstores. Same goes with sci-fi and fantasy. They are shelved together. Don't know why, but 9drtr's theory is as good as any. Overlap of the readership, which does make some sense as I do like to read sci-fi and fantasy books and those are my favorite genres. I don't have to search far for my favorites, as they're together.



soleyyoun -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/19/2007 6:43:44 PM)

Oh, I love books by Madelein L'Engle! Has anyone read her books. I like Frank Peretti. You guys have to read "the Last Guardian"...it's awesome!...I'm a bookworm!...I'm in a need for great books, any suggestions would be great...:)[:)][;)][:D]



greatdivide46 -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/20/2007 10:04:53 AM)

I love to read Science Fiction. I go in mostly for short stories, though and probably have close to 100 anthologies of short stories in my library. I have most of the "Best of.." series: The Best of Fritz Leiber, The Best of John W. Campbell etc.

My favorite author, I guess would be Isaac Asimov, although I really like Phillip Jose Farmer and Poul Anderson, too.

I've read Asimov's Foundation trilogy as well as the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson.



9drtr -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/20/2007 10:13:33 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Auben

but they also classify fantasy ... in there as well.


That's the line that caught my attention.

I may have misinterpreted. It wouldn't be the first time.



Auben -> RE: Favorite science fiction books (10/21/2007 2:57:01 PM)

I think you're reading into that.

But as a fan, I understand its easy to be defensive about something like that.



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