Science Fiction

[The Bookshelf]

What are some of your favorite SciFy books?

 

Mine in no particular order:

- Where were you last Pluterday? by Paul van Herck

- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

- Emphyrio by Jack Vance

- Greybeard by Brian Aldiss

- Witches of Karres by James Schmitz

- Thud! by Terry Pratchett

[dave]

Oh, yeah, if anyone is into Philip K. Dick, his biography Divine Invasions, A Life of Philip K. Dickis at least as fascinating as anything in his novels. Also, for fans of the Blade Runner movie, the book about the making of the film,

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, by
Paul M. Sammon is too cool, and shows just how complex the making of an adaptation is.

[dave]

Can't-stop-talking: If you're looking for a somewhat challenging author, try Tim Powers. He's kinda the Quentin Tarantino of SF/Fantasy. He takes historical facts and put them in a completely new context, but before that he drops you into the middle of the story and feeds you the beginning bit-by-bit. My favorite of his is Declare, which concerns a Cold War spy (no spoilers!), but I've enjoyed everything by this guy.

[Last Night]

Try Robert Rankin ! the Armageddon, the Musical (1990) series are great ! elvis , aliens, zombies all of that with a big sens of humor and non-sense !

they are quite rare to find in french translation... but i guess in UK or US...

[Funhouse Skull]

Wow. I see I'm joining this party a little late, but what the fuck? Science fiction is without a doubt my favorite genre in both literature & film. The drawback to SF in film is that fans are frequently given  short shrift as the perception is we will accept anything as long as it includes bug-eyed monsters & scantily clad space wenches.

But I digress.

I'd like to first establish that I am on board with Harlan Ellison's revised definition of SF as "speculative fiction" as this broadens the imaginary limits of the genre by opening possibilities outside the interstellar travel / alien invasion / dystopian society / post-apocalyptic / science gone awry tropes that dominated the genre many years. Not that there's anything wrong with exploring these domains. That said, my favorite SF novels are:

A Clockwork Orange - ANTHONY BURGESS

Logan's Run - WILLIAM F. NOLAN & GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON

A Canticle For Leibowitz -WALTER M. MILLER, JR.

The Sirens Of Titan - KURT VONNEGUT, JR.

Starship Troopers - ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

The Lathe Of Heaven - URSULA K. LE GUIN

Creatures Of Light And Darkness - ROGER ZELAZNY

The Road - CORMAC McCARTHY

Damnation Alley - ROGER ZELAZNY

The Lost Traveller - STEVE WILSON

[Max Reverb]

phillip k dick is my favorite sci fi writer

Martian time slip is good, radio free albemuth everything is good that ive read of his

i really liked Asimov's foundation series as well

[sleazy]

Two recent books I got in mail last week :):)

By blackglove at 2012-04-02

By blackglove at 2012-04-02

[dave]

Hey, here's Rudy Rucker's latest e-zine, Flurb #13

[Jersey City Mods]

I love the classics of the genre as well and would add

Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

Ringworld (and the rest of the Known Space stories) - Larry Niven

Niven's recently published 4 Ringworld prequels that I enjoyed as well.

I took a long break from SF, but now that I'm a librarian and commuting by public transport, I've got a lot more time and opportunity to catch up.  Trying to get into steampunk but haven't found a keystone for that sub-genre yet.
 
Funhouse Skull said:

Wow. I see I'm joining this party a little late, but what the fuck? Science fiction is without a doubt my favorite genre in both literature & film. The drawback to SF in film is that fans are frequently given  short shrift as the perception is we will accept anything as long as it includes bug-eyed monsters & scantily clad space wenches.

 

[Bibliodiscoteque]

Please allow me to plug my Philip K Dick Podcast here. Thanks. 

Future Noir is a great read. I spent years looking for the cigarettes Rachel smokes in the film. That said, Divine Invasions is great. I do recommend tracking down any of the Collected Letters Collections. They are a trip as most of them were collected at the height of Dick's drug phase and are ramblings on Washing machines and Nixon. 

[dave]

Thanks for your post. Concerning Niven's new Known Space novels, I found them immensely enjoyable, but noticed a rather dark, cynical worldview that's not in his earlier stuff. Comment?

Jersey City Mods said:

I love the classics of the genre as well and would add

Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

Ringworld (and the rest of the Known Space stories) - Larry Niven

Niven's recently published 4 Ringworld prequels that I enjoyed as well.

I took a long break from SF, but now that I'm a librarian and commuting by public transport, I've got a lot more time and opportunity to catch up.  Trying to get into steampunk but haven't found a keystone for that sub-genre yet.
 
Funhouse Skull said:

Wow. I see I'm joining this party a little late, but what the fuck? Science fiction is without a doubt my favorite genre in both literature & film. The drawback to SF in film is that fans are frequently given  short shrift as the perception is we will accept anything as long as it includes bug-eyed monsters & scantily clad space wenches.

 

[dave]

Recently, I finished Terry Pratchett's DODGER, a re-telling of The Artful Dodger. It was a load of fun, despite being for juvenilles (don't ever let that stop you). Pratchett's Discworld novels don't do much for me (perhaps they remind me of Piers Anthony), but this stand-alone novel is great, as is Nation.  Recommended.

[dave]

As far as SF goes today, it's fresher than it's ever been to me, tho' it is just as tough to find novels that don't have space battles/bug-eyed monsters/and those  scantily clad space wenches. With our world changing so quickly, it takes some kind of radical new ideas to inject new life into a form that may as well be embedded in amber most of the time.

I like the Cyberpunks: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling (man, is this guy funny! And he keeps throwing out the ideas at quite a pace), Rudy Rucker (The Hunter S. Thompson of Rock & Roll Sci-Fi, read his 'Ware tetralogy), 

Neal Stephenson was solid gold for awhile, but now has sadly ditched the cool ideas and is aiming more for the New York Times Bestseller List, meh. However, I second the motion to call Snow Crash a classic, as well as The Diamond Age and (for geeks) Cryptonomicon. 

Kim Stanley Robinson imbues his work with a sense of spirituality, and adds architecture, ecology and love of nature, plus a healthy dose of politics. Try his DC trilogy, which puts global warming front-and-center.

Corey Doctorow put me off at first, but his books of the past 5 or so years really grabbed me, they are political novels aimed at the Young Adult market, yet still remain exciting for adults. Little Brother, its sequel Homeland, For The Win, and Pirate Cinema all kick serious ass, and as a bonus, some of them teach us a few tech tricks.

Funhouse Skull said:

Wow. I see I'm joining this party a little late, but what the fuck? Science fiction is without a doubt my favorite genre in both literature & film. The drawback to SF in film is that fans are frequently given  short shrift as the perception is we will accept anything as long as it includes bug-eyed monsters & scantily clad space wenches.

But I digress.

I'd like to first establish that I am on board with Harlan Ellison's revised definition of SF as "speculative fiction" as this broadens the imaginary limits of the genre by opening possibilities outside the interstellar travel / alien invasion / dystopian society / post-apocalyptic / science gone awry tropes that dominated the genre many years. Not that there's anything wrong with exploring these domains. That said, my favorite SF novels are:

A Clockwork Orange - ANTHONY BURGESS

Logan's Run - WILLIAM F. NOLAN & GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON

A Canticle For Leibowitz -WALTER M. MILLER, JR.

The Sirens Of Titan - KURT VONNEGUT, JR.

Starship Troopers - ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

The Lathe Of Heaven - URSULA K. LE GUIN

Creatures Of Light And Darkness - ROGER ZELAZNY

The Road - CORMAC McCARTHY

Damnation Alley - ROGER ZELAZNY

The Lost Traveller - STEVE WILSON