The Best... Science Fiction!

[Gray Lensman]

Submitted by request (okay, it was Elliot who requested ;D ), here's a list of SF books for your consumption. These may not necessarily all be personal favorites, and they're not listed in any sort of order... just some of the notables that I've read. Consider this to be a list of starting places if you're interested in trying SF.

So without further ado, here goes.

1. The Dune series by Frank Herbert: I finally read the first of these fairly recently, and it really is everything they say it is. Young Paul Atreides travels to the planet of Arrakis and gradually assumes his destiny over the course of the book. I couldn't possibly describe it adequately in a short synopsis, except to say it's a very deep and multilayered storyline.

2. The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov: A big, sweeping galactic epic. A psychohistorian named Hari Seldon predicts the ultimate downfall of the Galactic Empire, and forms a Foundation to plan for the ultimate collapse. The series spans thousands of years and generations of characters. It's been quite a long time since I've read this, but it's one of the majors.

3. Slan, by A.E. Van Vogt: The novel that was very likely the inspiration for Marvel Comics' X-Men, and deals with some of the same issues of prejudice. Actually, a lot of Van Vogt is quite good... War Against The Rull, Weapon Shops of Isher, the World of Null-A and such are all worth reading.

4. Dorsai, by Gordon Dickson: One of the defining works of military science fiction, standing alongside works like Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

5. The Widowmaker series, by Mike Resnick: Probably the best series I've seen deal with issues of cloning. A professional assassin finds out that he has a deadly disease, so he puts himself into cryogenic stasis until science can find a cure. To pay for the cryo-stasis, the company clones the assassin to perform high-paying, high-risk jobs. Although Widowmaker feels like a space western, the books actually explore what it means to be a clone, including issues of identity and spirituality and what makes a person an individual.

6. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein. I could go into an entire thread on Heinlein alone; his work is very complicated (and at times, utterly bizarre). But this is a pretty decent starting point into his work. This book focuses on a revolution that takes place on the moon, made possible in large measure by the sentient AI that runs the colony's computer network.

7. Neuromancer, by William Gibson. The opening shot that started the entire cyberpunk movement in the 1980's. Eerily prescient in some respects, too.

8. The Lensmen series, by E.E. "Doc" Smith. Worth reading, mainly because of all the storytelling innovations this series made into cosmic science fiction and space opera. These books aren't the easiest to find, either. If you should get this series, though, word to the wise... start with Galactic Patrol (the real first book in the series, but billed as the third), not Triplanetary (a prequel book that was written after the last four, and IMO, not the easiest to follow without reading the main series).

9. Drakon, by S.M. Stirling. A very bleak novel, but also a very compelling book. An officer of a far-future "master race" travels back in time to conquer present-day Earth. Mainly worth it for the character of Gwen Ingolffson, who is a compelling villain for all of her depravity.

10. The Vorkosigan series, by Lois McMaster Bujold. The best I could describe it as would be as an espionage/military space opera. Bujold seems to have ended this series for a while to focus on other things, but it's a well thought out and complex series. Very easy to find nowadays, too.

There's quite a bit more, but hopefully that should work for a starting point.

[Elliot Kane]

I doubt I can add much, except to note that Steve & I read a lot of the same SF, and that he reads about ten times as much of it as I do! ;D

I will add:

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison. Imagine an egomaniac conman, thief and super genius in a universe of utter conformity where anything unusual is frowned on and criminality is dealt with by reprogramming. But sometimes, you need a thief to catch a thief and only the best will do. Slippery Jim DiGriz IS the best.

The Warlock series, by Christopher Stasheff. Rod goes from planet to planet, trying to help the lost earth colonies to head back in the direction of civilisation, when he is sent to Gramarye... The 'witches' can't be FLYING can they? And yes, it IS SF

The Books Of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Starts with Shadow Of The Torturer where the Earth is old and the Sun is slowly dying. The hero is an apprentice Torturer, but destined to become so much more. Been many years since I read these, but they were awesome.

[ss]

I must concur with Gray here..

Dune is laborious to me, but very good.

The Foundations series were the best I ever read, especially the character of the "mule"..

All things by Heinlein...Stranger in a Strange Land, The Green Hills of Earth, Methusalah's Children.

I think I read everything he ever wrote...

I think the movie "I Robot" was based on Asimov's book, but for the life of me I can't remember which one it was..

[Elliot Kane]

I think God Emperor of Dune is the best of the series, but they are all very good, IMO. Just a shame Frank died leaving us with a cliffhanger at the end of Chapter House.... I refuse to acknowledge anything written by his son ;D

[Gray Lensman]

You and me both. But then, I also refuse to acknowledge anything written by Kevin J. Anderson... his Star Wars novels were lousy. ;D

[Ubereil]

I'm a big fan of The Shore of Women by Pamela Sargent. I suspect it's got a completely different approach than the ones mentioned by Gray (which I suspect is "Fantasy in Space"). It's not a fantastic story set in the future, it's a book about sexism and homosexualism vs heterosexualism. And it's a book about the nature of man (human, really). It's highly interesting IMO.

Übereil

[Gray Lensman]

Yeah, that's actually an entire subgenre in itself. There's a lot of SF dealing with biological and reproductive issues, feminist SF, and that kind of thing. I hear Sargent is good (IIRC, she was one of the pioneers of feminist SF), but I haven't actually read any of her stuff. Maybe one of these days I should, I dunno.

[Glance A'Lot]

I'll throw in James P. Hogan - Code of the Lifemaker for starters.
Hogan is very science fiction, and some of his stuff (like 'Thrice Upon a Time') while interesting and thought provoking, is heavy reading. I liked Inherit the Stars - where in a very near future they find a dead astronaut on the moon of whom they at first only know two things without doubt - he is human, and he is there since 50.000 years... (Developped into a series of 5 books - The Giant series)
(I very much liked his interpretation of 'the ultimate weapon', but I forgot the English title (Could be The Genesis Machine?) - must check with my brother, I think he got the book in his shelf) <- Checked, it is.

Another hard science fiction - actually by now set in our past - but very good reading (took me one night) is Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, one of his earlier and less popular works (has been made a film though - book's better, as usual).

When it comes to 'world building' I'd like to mention Larry Niven's Ringworld.
Also worth mentioning is The Mote in God's Eye (with J. Pournelle) - and one on the funny side is 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex' (On Superman and Lois Lane).

A fundamental one to read in SF IMHO are Isaac Asimov's stories on robots and robotics. First setting basic laws, so that nothing can go wrong, and then writing a number of (short) stories (including crime/detective stories) of how what cannot go wrong goes wrong.
Note to ss: The film 'I robot' is - very losely - based on several robot short stories. Another one based on one of his robot stories is Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams.[/i]

***

Edit: After a search for English titles, here are a few pearls from the shelves of the SF section:

Frank Herbert - apart from Dune, read Hellstrom's Hive - a tale of insects threatening to destroy the Orwellian state that was once America.

Gordon R. Dickson - The Alien Way, humanity seen through the eyes of an extra-terrestrian.

Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity, the race populating a neutron star meets an extremely fast living extra-planetary race - a meeting of two cultures on totally opposed speed levels.

Noteable also Iceworld - a star travelling crew finds a planet that is so cold that water is liquid and sulphur and lead are found in solid form!

Philip K. Dick - who wrote 'Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?' (Never heard of? It became 'The Blade Runner' in film) and 'Minority Report' - but I'm proposing Ubik in which the world's time turns backward, fragments of reality are time-slipping into past versions: Joe Chip's beloved stereo system reverts to a hand-cranked 78 player with bamboo needles...

David Gerrold - When Harlie was one, a classic from the early seventies (I believe there is a 2.0 version), when computers were young, mythical, and their nerds less far away from religion than they thought.

Norman Spinrad - The Void Captain's Tale, space pilots are a very rare and special breed, and they talk a multi-lingual mumbo-jumbo. You'll find that you know much more of foreign languages than you thought.

[killerzzz]

I've read the "I, Robot" book, and it's in fact a series of short stories spanning hundreds of years as I recall (it's been some time though). They're are some characters that are used in the movie, but they are a bit different. As far as I could see, there was no content in that particular book that was in the movie. However, it does touch on some of those same ideas of 'the spirit in the machine' thing, yet in different ways. And of how the 3 Laws can overlap/contradict each other, and stuff.

I consider Star Wars a fantasy, otherwise I'd list it here. Hmm....

1. Since we're talking about Crichton, I've very much enjoyed his Timeline book (much more complex and enjoyable than the movie, which was also fun). People get stuck back in time and have to deal with the realities of medieval war and brutality. Things are going wrong, and time travel leaves its marks...

2. H.G. Well's War of the Worlds anyone? Much better than the movie (which again, I enjoyed) set in around 1900, thins go differently. We see more of the global reaction to the invasion. Aliens attack, and one man must do what he can to survive.

3. Can't ignore Jules Verne in general, now can we? It would be a crime!

4. The Maximum Ride series by James Patterson is also very enjoyable. The first one most of all, but the others are nice fun reads too. He's up to... 5 books now. Several children have escaped from "The School", a laboratory which created them. They are not normal children; they have the slightest avian DNA, giving them wings and other surprises. They are being hunted by other mutant experiments of a more vicious nature, and must keep moving to survive.

5. William C. Dietz's Legion of the Damned series is also a good one. I've read two books. If you want to think of it this way, its almost like a Star Wars, but not really.... No Jedi (or anything like it), different aliens, and the focus is on ground wars and other army things. Troops rescuing other troops, war strategy, technology, army setup, the ideologies of the different races, etc. Its really more of a "Future Wars" thing, and its nicely done.

6. No. I'm not gonna do it. Well- No don't. I'm gonna do it. Don't do it! I'm gonna- The Halo series. I did it. ;D I've only read two of the books. I'd say, read it if you're a Halo fan. It's interesting. You get more detail, story, and perspective than you ever did from the games. All that crazy Halo storyline you wanted more of? Here it is, go get it.

Killerzzz

[Elliot Kane]

The Timeliner Trilogy by Richard C Meredith. Rather awesome (Also old, hence hard to find) series that deals with a battle for control of the many timelines. Saying more than that would spoil it, but it's a fantastic series and I thoroughly recommend it.