Hi Everyone, i will list below my 5 best science Ficion books and I want to you all do the same!
This way we can share experiences and find new books.
1. Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov.
2. Ubik - Philip K. Dick ( I Really like this guy)
3. Time Machine - H.G.Wells
4. Childhood's end - Arthur C. Clarke
5. Do Androids dream with eletric sheep? - Philip K. Dick.
Enjoy! I'm waiting for all your responses!
Some must-reads:
Shute, ON THE BEACH
Burdick and Wheeler, FAIL-SAFE
Miller, CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ
Wylie, TOMORROW!
TRIUMPH
THE DISAPPEARANCE
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
I know this is a subjective thread, and I am not picking on you - only joining the conversation.
I have read On the Beach, and liked it, but Fail-Safe? Too predictable!
Try some Heinlein, as already mentioned, start with his masterpiece, Stranger in a Strange Land
GA
.
OMG! (I just love that - even though I am too old to own it)
After #1 the rest is small potatoes. I am glad to see someone else sees the "Foundation" series as I do. Absolutely awesome! As both entertaining and enjoyable reading, but also as a societal prophesy.
My second choice would be Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Thanks for the reading list. If you put "Foundation" first then you and I are like-minded enough to make your other recommendations worth checking out.
GA
What a neat Forum topic. So many new things to add to my to-read list after reading the comments!
Here's my list:
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
City of Diamond by Jane Emmerson
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Martian Chronicles- Ray Bradbury
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
(Sorry, that's all I got for now)
Great read, and I love Bradbury - but not in the "Foundation's" class. If you like 451, then I bet you will love the Foundation series.
Go to Half.com, for less than five bucks, (plus $3.99 shipping) you can find the complete series. I bet you will really enjoy it.
GA
My 5 favorite sci-fi books? Alrighty.
1. Mike Resnick - "Santiago"
2. Neal Stephenson - "Snow Crash"
3. Kurt Vonnegut - "Slaughterhouse Five" (it counts, dammit!)
4. Octavia Butler - "Dawn"
5. Ursula K. Le Guin - "The Lathe of Heaven"
No! Slaughter House Five does not count!
But The lathe of Heaven does, and you are the first person I have ever heard mention it - beside me of course.
GA
The premise is just so cool, y'know? I'm pretty much convinced that Nagaru Tanigawa has read and was inspired by the novel, because his light-novel-turned-anime-series series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an interesting take on the idea (spoiler alerts, by the way):
Basically, the title character, Haruhi, is a teenage girl who finds humanity to be boring and thus wishes that aliens, time travelers, espers, sliders, ghosts, and other such paranormal entities were real so that real life would be more interesting. The main character, Kyon, ends up getting wrapped in her shenanigans (including founding a school club to find such people) only to learn that some of the other members of the club are, in fact, an alien, a time traveler, and an esper.
The alien (taciturn bookworm Yuki Nagato) informs Kyon that Haruhi has the ability to manipulate reality at-will by rewriting the "code" of the universe. The time traveler (shy beauty Mikuru Asahina) tells Kyon that, for whatever reason, it's impossible for her and her colleagues to travel back further than three years prior--the time Haruhi began to wish that such things existed, and that very wish has something to do with it. The esper (always-smiling yes-man Itsuki Koizumi) shows Kyon the desolate other world created by Haruhi's distress and anger, telling him that, unless they keep Haruhi amused and content, the world could be destroyed in an instant--the very instant Haruhi wished for it.
It's like the opposite of "The Lathe of Heaven," in that while George knows he can alter reality but wishes to stop despite the psychiatrist subtly forcing him to continue doing so, Melancholy's Haruhi doesn't know that she can alter reality and the other characters desperately try to keep her from knowing so and doing so.
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood (note: that's first of a trilogy, but it stands alone just fine)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Golden Globe by John Varley
Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling
Enders Game Orson Scott Card
Against the Fall of Night Arthur C. Clark
Time Machine H.G. Wells
Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming Christie Golden
Deathworld Harry Harrison
"Against the Fall of Night" - a damned masterpiece! Glad to see it mentioned.
But Star Trek Voyager?" In the same breath as Fall. Really!!!!!!! (just kidding - to each his own)
GA
Oh my God, how did I ever forget Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series?! How?! Make that my #2 and push everything else down a notch!
Dammit!
Let's see...
1) Glory Road - Robert A. Heinlein
2) When Worlds Collide - Philip G. Wylie and Edwin Balmer
3) Shuttle Down - Lee Correy (G. Harry Stine)
4) Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
5) A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
I behaved and didn't list the science fiction novels I've written with my son.
1. The Dispossessed -- Ursula Le Guin
2. Xenogenisis series -- Octavia Bulter
3. R is for Rocket -- Ray Bradbury
4. The Way of the Cross and the Dragon (short story) -- George R R Martin
5. Alien Sex (anthology) -- Ellen Datlow
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