― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 11 June 2004 09:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fred (Fred), Friday, 11 June 2004 09:34 (nineteen years ago) link
Personal favourite is Alfred Bester - 'The Stars My Destination' (originally published as 'Tiger, Tiger') is just a fantastic read, dark and funny.
― Mog, Friday, 11 June 2004 09:50 (nineteen years ago) link
Jeff Noon's 'Falling out of cars' is a really good post-apocalptic-y novel; his short story collection, 'pixel juice', can be patchy but has some wonderful cyberpunky shorts. (He's in love with words, and it can get a little too much, but can also be breathstopping gorgeous.)
The short stories archived at sci-fiction can be pretty good, too, and are conveniently online.
― cis (cis), Friday, 11 June 2004 09:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― SRH (Skrik), Friday, 11 June 2004 09:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 11 June 2004 09:58 (nineteen years ago) link
I second the emotion for the SF Masterworks series. And you can get them new in Fopp (if you live near one) for a tasty fiver each. That's class.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 11 June 2004 11:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― otto, Friday, 11 June 2004 12:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 11 June 2004 13:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fred (Fred), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 11 June 2004 17:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 11 June 2004 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 11 June 2004 23:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― kath (kath), Saturday, 12 June 2004 02:54 (nineteen years ago) link
I oppose the recommendation of anything by Asimov, unless you have very high tolerance for awful prose, and possibly for Heinlein too, except there are a couple of very neat early time travel shorts, on the basis of his having the emotional maturity of a 12 year old and being very right wing.
Favourite funny SF: much of Stanislaw Lem and Robert Sheckley.
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 12 June 2004 12:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 12 June 2004 13:02 (nineteen years ago) link
Budrys wrote one excellent book, Who?, but was generally fairly dull.
Which Vinge? There are at least two I know - Joan, who wrote at least one fine novel, and Vernor. Pretty sure they were related, possibly married.
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 12 June 2004 17:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 12 June 2004 19:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Nelly Mc Causland (Geborwyn), Saturday, 12 June 2004 20:13 (nineteen years ago) link
There is this one guy in the Galaxy collection who looks really cool. I haven't read the whole story yet. He wrote under the name Cordwainer Smith. Apparently he was a professor at John Hopkins University who also wrote strange surreal sci-fi stories. The story in the collection is called The Lady Who Sailed The Soul.
― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 12 June 2004 20:51 (nineteen years ago) link
Nelly, I don't know The Ice People or Barjavel - can you tell me something more about it?
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 12 June 2004 21:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fred (Fred), Sunday, 13 June 2004 09:12 (nineteen years ago) link
As for more modern stuff, I like Joe Haldeman's work (the best of which is "The Forever War") and Robert Charles Wilson also does some good stuff; his "Chronoliths" is one of the more interesting time travel works to be written in recent years.
― Mark, Sunday, 13 June 2004 15:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fred (Fred), Sunday, 13 June 2004 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mark, Monday, 14 June 2004 03:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fred (Fred), Monday, 14 June 2004 18:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Docpacey (docpacey), Monday, 14 June 2004 22:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 07:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mog, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 09:25 (nineteen years ago) link
Current: Jim Munroe.
(Ya ya, all Canada-connected: Hey, I warned you I was into Canucks these days. Cue the Russian Futurists album!)
― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:24 (nineteen years ago) link
Hey, Some help required, I'm looking for any recomendations people have for Classic Sci-Fi, excuse me if my terms are a little off beam I guess I mean classic as in taking part in the future/in space or on alien worlds/general epic-ness, as opposed to say I Am Legend or later Heinlein books.
I have read a few bits and bobs over the years (Dick/Heinlen/Asimov/Clarke etc:) but I'm wondering what the big space opera style books are like and who to read, but I've no idea where to start or who to start with.
The net throws up lots of lists but they are pretty impersonal even the Amazon ones are a bit alll over the place.
There are so many exotic names out there Simak/Le Guin/Pohl/Van Vogt I'd like a little guidance.
Thanx
― MaresNest, Monday, 7 July 2008 09:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Jack Vance's "The Demon Princes" are good if you want a fellow traveling to planets full of odd people. (Giant mechanical spiders and the like) He writes well, too, so that's a nice bonus. These are practically the definition of space opera. It's _Lady Snowblood in Space_, if you will.
Iain M Banks' "Culture" novels are excellent as well. I'm not sure which one might be most up your alley here though, perhaps "Consider Phlebas"
Friends who are more into SF than I are seem very fond of these huge Peter F Hamilton tomes such as his "The Dreaming Void" trilogy. I gather there's a lot of giant spaceships and the like. Charles Stross has done some popular space opera recently with "Singularity Sky" etc. I find his writing dreadfully annoying, but he's a guy that's really having a lot of fun with his books. What else? I guess Stross' fondness for the singularity would naturally lead you to Vernor Vinge and stuff like his "A Fire Upon the Deep".
― Øystein, Monday, 7 July 2008 11:29 (fifteen years ago) link
A seconding for 'Consider Phlebas' by Banks: big, fast-paced, intelligent, hugely imaginative fun. Alistair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter (who has "co-written" with Clarke, in that he wrote the books and Clarke stuck his name on the cover) and Greg Bear (esp 'Blood Music' (which is epic but not far-future or space-y) and 'Eon') are all good starting points for writers still writing and not dead. Greg Egan and Ted Chiang also good for mind-blowing short stories, if that's your thing.
― James Morrison, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 00:46 (fifteen years ago) link
i got a TON of great recommendations on this thread:
School Me On Some Sci-Fi My Astral Brothers And Sisters!
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 01:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Thanks all, Quick update, I snuck into Borders yesterday after work and bought Fallen Dragon by Peter F Hamilton, it's a stand alone and is supposed to be one of his best.
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 08:28 (fifteen years ago) link
I need to read more SF... maybe I should finally read some of the Phillip K Dick books (other than the two easy ones) so that I can have an informed opinion on this writer.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 14:28 (fifteen years ago) link
I used to read TONS of sci-fi when I was a kid, continuing up through my late twenties, though not so much these days. Some favorites:
Ringworld: Larry Niven The Anubis Gates: Tim Powers Crash: J.G. Ballard The Cyberiad: Stanislaw Lem Way Station: Clifford D. Simak The Master of Space and Time: Rudy Rucker The Book of the New Sun: Gene Wolfe Brightness Falls from the Air: James Tiptree, Jr. Roadmarks: Roger Zelazny The Man in the High Castle: Philip K Dick Bill, the Galactic Hero: Harry Harrison (skip the many sequels) Dhalgren: Samuel R. Delany Blood Music: Greg Bear Neuromancer: William Gibson The Iron Dream: Norman Spinrad Presidio Street Station: China Mieville Vurt: Jeff Noon Dr. Adder: KW Jeter
Short stories by Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Connie Willis.
― contenderizer, Thursday, 24 July 2008 16:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Also, The Difference Engine, a Victorian proto-cyberpunk thing by Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Not a great story, but the ideas and implications have stuck with me for years.
― contenderizer, Thursday, 24 July 2008 16:52 (fifteen years ago) link
That's a hard list to argue with.
― James Morrison, Thursday, 24 July 2008 23:04 (fifteen years ago) link
this YouTube channel looks..... intertsing
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7sDT8jZ76VLV1u__krUutA
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 17 December 2019 13:25 (four years ago) link