Science Fiction: Books

ciderman9000000

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
29,640
Location
The General
I'm a massive Science Fiction fan (literature, not TV- TV does Sci-Fi badly). I've just compiled a list of all the Sci-Fi books i've read, since starting about three years ago, to help me remember them and keep track of what i've read. Here it is...

--------------------


Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Series


Neal Asher
Gridlinked, Brassman, Cowl


Isaac Asimov
Foundation Series, The Caves Of Steel, The End Of Eternity, The Gods Themselves, I-Robot, The Rest Of The Robots


Iain M Banks
Consider Phlebas, The Player Of Games, Use Of Weapons, Excession, Inversions, Look To Windward, Against A Dark Background, Feersum Endjinn, The Algebraist, The State Of The Art


Stephen Baxter
Sunstorm, The Time Ships


Greg Bear
Darwin’s Children


Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Game, Speaker For The Dead, Xenocide, Ender’s Shadow, Shadow Of The Hegemon


Arthur C Clarke
Childhood’s End, Earthlight, A Fall Of Moondust, Space Odyssey Series, Rendezvous With Rama, The Songs Of Distant Earth, The Light Of Other Days, Sunstorm, Collected Short Stories


Samuel R Delany
Dhalgren


Philip K Dick
The Man In The High Castle, Simulacrum, VALIS, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, A Scanner Darkly


William Gibson
Neuromancer


Joe Haldeman
The Forever War


Peter F Hamilton
The Reality Dysfunction


Robert A Heinlein
Stranger In A Strange Land


Frank Herbert
Dune Series


Aldous Huxley
Brave New World


Larry Niven
Ringworld, A Gift From Earth


George Orwell
1984


Frederick Pohl
Gateway, Man Plus


Alistair Reynolds
Absolution Gap, Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days


John Scalzi
Old Man’s War


Dan Simmons
Hyperion


Vernor Vinge
A Fire Upon The Deep, A Deepness In The Sky, Rainbows End


HG Wells
The Time Machine


Roger Zelazny
Lord Of Light


-------------------------

Anyone ever read any of those books? Or got any recommendations?
 
As much as I love Brave New World I have always thought Ape and Essence was better

Island being Huxley's greatest Novel
 
IBleedRed said:
As much as I love Brave New World I have always thought Ape and Essence was better

Island being Huxley's greatest Novel
Click to expand...

Not read either of them, 'Brave New World' was good though so i'll take your word that they're better and get them next :D

Read Vernor Vinge's 'Rainbows End' for a more modern take on the Utopia theme.
 
I just finished reading the Foundation. I'm going to read Foundation and Empire in a few days. Fantastic book.

Do you like Star Wars/Star Trek? I think they did pretty well, despite sci-fi coming off badly on tv screen. I could recommend good ones there

Also, did you read Chronicles of Riddick? Not a bad movie, but the book is probably better.
 
Dont think it was ever a book but George Lucas' THX 1138 is a great sci fi dystopia movie

reminded me of Brave New World and im sure was heavily influenced by it
 
Great list Cider. Lots of books there that I've been wanting to read.

Can't help but notice that you haven't put down any Bradbury in the list. If you haven't read anything by him ..... I recommend Fahrenheit 451 and Martian Chronicles. Both excellent.
 
Not really my genre in books despite quite liking films when they're well done. Brave New World and 1984 are true literary classics though showing how the best written sci-fi is usually a social and political commentary on the present day rather than a fanciful vision of the future. I do rate Iain Banks none sci-fi books but have never picked up one of his sci-fis.

I'd have DNA filed under humour rather than Sci-Fi in the same way that I wouldn't really consider Pratchett in the same bracket as Tolkein despite the obvious thematic similarities.

You've not listed any L.Ron Hubbard there either Cider, not tried it myself but my mate Tom swears by it:

tom-cruise-oprah-couch.gif
 
Hyperion was a great sci-fi novel.

You might wanna take a look at Mass Effect Revelations, its the prequel to the xbox 360 game, great read.
 
Nistelrooy10 said:
I just finished reading the Foundation. I'm going to read Foundation and Empire in a few days. Fantastic book.

Do you like Star Wars/Star Trek? I think they did pretty well, despite sci-fi coming off badly on tv screen. I could recommend good ones there

Also, did you read Chronicles of Riddick? Not a bad movie, but the book is probably better.
Click to expand...

TBH i never really liked the foundation series much, i'm not a big fan of asimov atall, which is odd considering he's oft regarded as the master of science fiction. I find his stories often have huge flaws of science which let them down badly, whereas most authors will try and give plausable explanations for their plotlines i find asimov rarely bothers. For example- in 'The Gods Themselves' towards the end of the book
humans have colonised the moon and split somewhat into two factions- the lunies and the earthies- the lunies develop a method of propulsion to move the moon out of earth orbit and accross the galaxy and want to explore space with it. They tell the earthies of their plan which results in an argument which lasts for an entire page and a half in the book- and then, after completely underestimating the impact of moving the moon would have on earth and trivialising the whole matter in a few sentences, everyone decides that the moon had best stay where it is. The book was ok but it's just things like this that, as with most asimov books, ruin it by showing up asimov's lack of scientific nuance and simplifying the whole plot into b-movie nonsense. That said- i did enjoy 'The End Of Eternity'

Star Trek's ok but, as is almost always the case with on-screen sci-fi, pretty much all the stories are lifted from sci-fi literature- only then to be heavily dumbed down for the mass audience and fitted into a nice TV friendly one hour slot.
 
I'd say you can do far better than Darwin's Children when it comes to Greg Bear.

Anvil of Stars is probably his best book, just mind-blowing stuff, but either of Eon or Moving Mars is definitely worth a read. Blood Music is very good too. Bear seems especially keen on destroying the world/the human race for some reason.

I'd say you have to read 'Red Mars' by Kim Stanley Robinson too, it's a classic.

With Heinlein, 'Stranger' is good fun but the Moon is a Harsh Mistress is Heinlein at the top of his storytelling game.

Reckon you'd enjoy all of the above.
 
Bury Red said:
Not really my genre in books despite quite liking films when they're well done. Brave New World and 1984 are true literary classics though showing how the best written sci-fi is usually a social and political commentary on the present day rather than a fanciful vision of the future.
Click to expand...

I'd have to say Brave New World is probably the most depressing book I have ever read. Far more so than 1984.
 
nickm said:
I'd say you can do far better than Darwin's Children when it comes to Greg Bear.

Anvil of Stars is probably his best book, just mind-blowing stuff, but either of Eon or Moving Mars is definitely worth a read. Blood Music is very good too. Bear seems especially keen on destroying the world/the human race for some reason.

I'd say you have to read 'Red Mars' by Kim Stanley Robinson too, it's a classic.

With Heinlein, 'Stranger' is good fun but the Moon is a Harsh Mistress is Heinlein at the top of his storytelling game.

Reckon you'd enjoy all of the above.
Click to expand...

Yeah, 'Darwin's Children' was a bit of a bore, i picked it up in the library when i couldn't find anything else and it put me off reading any more Greg Bear. I'll try the otheres you mentioned.

I've wanted to read more Heinlein, i've heard elsewhere that 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' is his best so i'll read that too, and i've always wanted to read 'Starship Troopers'.
 
nickm said:
I'd have to say Brave New World is probably the most depressing book I have ever read. Far more so than 1984.
Click to expand...
They're both depressing now because it's clear that the horrors these authors predicted for society have largely come true highlighting just how stupid humanity actually is.

In his intro for V for Vendetta (the book, not the watered down film) Alan Moore comments on his dismay that so much of what he had predicted when he first begun writing V for Vendetta in the early '80s had come true so quickly and that while he had envisaged a nuclear holocaust being the catalyst that would turn Britain into a totalitarian state it had taken far less for people to accept the loss of their civil liberties.

I'm sure Huxley and Orwell would be equally horrified at the pace with which their horrific prognoses are coming true.
 
ciderman9000000 said:
Yeah, 'Darwin's Children' was a bit of a bore, i picked it up in the library when i couldn't find anything else and it put me off reading any more Greg Bear. I'll try the otheres you mentioned.

I've wanted to read more Heinlein, i've heard elsewhere that 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' is his best so i'll read that too, and i've always wanted to read 'Starship Troopers'.
Click to expand...

Starship Troopers is fun: different to, and better than, the movie. Other Heinlein tips would include Job: A Comedy of Justice, Friday, The Door into Summer (his funniest, if dodgiest at times). Under no account should you ever read the 'Number of the Beast'.
 
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is amazing - best book ever.

Think I read some of the others on your list when I was younger. The Reality Dysfunction I remember, enjoyed it at the time but think it's a bit crap now.
 
McCool said:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is amazing - best book ever.

Think I read some of the others on your list when I was younger. The Reality Dysfunction I remember, enjoyed it at the time but think it's a bit crap now.
Click to expand...

Funny thing about 'The Reality Dysfunction' is that i never finished it. The book's nearly 1000 pages long and i read it all the way to page 990 and enjoyed it but then stopped reading for reasons beyond my conscious understanding, that was a couple of years ago and i've yet to read the last ten pages.

FAO Bury Red
The idea that 1984 has come true is crazy. Have you read the book? There might be certain aspects that can be mildly related to life today, an abundance of CCTV cameras for example, but the rest is non-existant. Where is the total censorship or false war? Where is the curfew, the prison style dorms, or the rationed food? Where is the despotic leader or the thought police? The sex ban? The proletarians? The false imprisonment and torture? None of this has happened or realistically is even close to the truth. Sensationalists are quick to claim that we are living in a Orwelian nightmare and that if George could see us now he'd gently weep in his grave for we failed to heed his warning, but seriously, that's just bollocks. If anything we're freer than we were when 1984 was written, we can get away with all kinds of shit without fear of persecution, we can travel the world and write and say anything we please, we can protest and slag off politicians, there are TV programs dedicated to just that purpose. Yet you still get the odd drama queen yanking off about CCTV being the beginning of the end. Our government is democratically elected ffs, 1984 was a commentary on communism! Where are these 'horrors' of which you speak? How is this a 'totalitarian state'? I'm not saying that Britain is perfect, but 1984 it is not. We are in no way being controlled or brainwashed by anybody, get over it.
 
The War of the Worlds.

Part of the way through The Player of Games at the minute, read Consider Phlebas as well.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Just discovered this bloke. Nerdy stuff but very enjoyable. Absolution Gap is the last book in a trilogy. The others are called (IIRC) Revelation Space and Redemption Ark and are also well worth a read.
Click to expand...

Yeah i was half way through 'Absolution Gap' before i realised it was the third book in a series, good book though even when read as stand-alone. The idea of the roaming cathedrals was awesome and very original. If you like this you'd love Iain M Banks, he's my favourite author to date, some of his stories are truly mindbending and he has a thoroughly entertaining vicious streak, 'Use of Weapons''Against a Dark Background' and 'The Algebraist' being my favourites.
 
ciderman9000000 said:
Yeah i was half way through 'Absolution Gap' before i realised it was the third book in a series, good book though even when read as stand-alone. The idea of the roaming cathedrals was awesome and very original. If you like this you'd love Iain M Banks, he's my favourite author to date, some of his stories are truly mindbending and he has a thoroughly entertaining vicious streak, 'Use of Weapons''Against a Dark Background' and 'The Algebraist' being my favourites.
Click to expand...

I'm huge fan of Ian M Banks. Gobbled up all his books ages ago. And the Ian Banks books for good measure.

I can see the similarity with Reynolds, although I think Reynolds is a lot more accurate and interesting when it comes to the "science stuff". You don't see Ian Banks dabbling in quantum gravity and the string theory!

If you liked Absolution Gap you should definitely read the others. Just be sure to read them in order. I liked the trilogy so much I ordered everything else he's ever written off Amazon. Am planning to plough my way through most of 'em during a three week holiday in Bali next month. Nice.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I'm huge fan of Ian M Banks. Gobbled up all his books ages ago. And the Ian Banks books for good measure.

I can see the similarity with Reynolds, although I think Reynolds is a lot more accurate and interesting when it comes to the "science stuff". You don't see Ian Banks dabbling in quantum gravity and the string theory!

If you liked Absolution Gap you should definitely read the others. Just be sure to read them in order. I liked the trilogy so much I ordered everything else he's ever written off Amazon. Am planning to plough my way through most of 'em during a three week holiday in Bali next month. Nice.
Click to expand...

Banks has got a new one out, 'matter'. I've yet to read it, though i can hardly wait.
 
ciderman9000000 said:
FAO Bury Red
The idea that 1984 has come true is crazy. Have you read the book? There might be certain aspects that can be mildly related to life today, an abundance of CCTV cameras for example, but the rest is non-existant. Where is the total censorship or false war? Where is the curfew, the prison style dorms, or the rationed food? Where is the despotic leader or the thought police? The sex ban? The proletarians? The false imprisonment and torture? None of this has happened or realistically is even close to the truth. Sensationalists are quick to claim that we are living in a Orwelian nightmare and that if George could see us now he'd gently weep in his grave for we failed to heed his warning, but seriously, that's just bollocks. If anything we're freer than we were when 1984 was written, we can get away with all kinds of shit without fear of persecution, we can travel the world and write and say anything we please, we can protest and slag off politicians, there are TV programs dedicated to just that purpose. Yet you still get the odd drama queen yanking off about CCTV being the beginning of the end. Our government is democratically elected ffs, 1984 was a commentary on communism! Where are these 'horrors' of which you speak? How is this a 'totalitarian state'? I'm not saying that Britain is perfect, but 1984 it is not. We are in no way being controlled or brainwashed by anybody, get over it.
Click to expand...

By no means was I saying that it has all come true, there are however enough parallels in modern society to say that some of his warnings had gone unheeded. I'd say the false war, wrongful imprisonment and torture are on very shaky ground in the US and to a lesser extent the UK while the nanny state we live in stops short of full blown censorship and curfews but has certainly squeezed personal liberties in the last 40 years while a democracy is only worthwhile if there's any discernable difference between the parties standing for election.

The food rationing is another interesting one if you look at the failed rice harvests in my part of the world that have doubled prices and are posing serious famine threats to the world. I may live in a benign dictatorship through choice but it was the supermarkets rather than the politicians who last week slapped a personal limit on rice purchases to prevent people from panic buying and profiteering.

As for the brainwashing, how do you know you haven't been already? ;)
 
Bury Red said:
By no means was I saying that it has all come true,
Click to expand...

Bury Red said:
They're both depressing now because it's clear that the horrors these authors predicted for society have largely come true highlighting just how stupid humanity actually is.

In his intro for V for Vendetta (the book, not the watered down film) Alan Moore comments on his dismay that so much of what he had predicted when he first begun writing V for Vendetta in the early '80s had come true so quickly and that while he had envisaged a nuclear holocaust being the catalyst that would turn Britain into a totalitarian state it had taken far less for people to accept the loss of their civil liberties.

I'm sure Huxley and Orwell would be equally horrified at the pace with which their horrific prognoses are coming true.
Click to expand...

Bury Red said:
there are however enough parallels in modern society to say that some of his warnings had gone unheeded. I'd say the false war, wrongful imprisonment and torture are on very shaky ground in the US and to a lesser extent the UK while the nanny state we live in stops short of full blown censorship and curfews but has certainly squeezed personal liberties in the last 40 years while a democracy is only worthwhile if there's any discernable difference between the parties standing for election.

The food rationing is another interesting one if you look at the failed rice harvests in my part of the world that have doubled prices and are posing serious famine threats to the world. I may live in a benign dictatorship through choice but it was the supermarkets rather than the politicians who last week slapped a personal limit on rice purchases to prevent people from panic buying and profiteering.

As for the brainwashing, how do you know you haven't been already? ;)
Click to expand...

Hmmmm yeah, totalitarian nightmare. :rolleyes:

If anyone feels that their personal liberties are being squeezed in Britain then they really have to get out more. I'm going to a festival called The Middle Of Nowhere located just outside Newport on Saturday if anyone wants to come, there'll be loads of Victory Gin going round and we've even got the go-ahead from the Thought-Police. :p
 
I read quite a lot of Banks but Feersum Endjinn broke my will to live never mind read any more of his books.

I am going to recommend Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.Nice central idea/concept .

What is Enders Game like?
 
ciderman9000000 said:
I find his stories often have huge flaws of science which let them down badly, whereas most authors will try and give plausable explanations for their plotlines i find asimov rarely bothers.
Click to expand...

If you're looking for better scientific backdrop, you would get a kick out of Robert Forward's books. Bases his work on "hard-science" ideas, and it's really what the novels are there for. The drawback being that the personalities therein are rather cardboard. No matter though, as the science is great fun.

I read "Dragon's Egg", "Starquake" and "Flight of the Dragonfly".

The first 2 deal with evolution of life on a neutron star. Great stuff. The latter with a trip to a binary planet system where he explores all sorts of technologies, and the natural phenomena that could arise if there were a binary planetary system.

Bags of fun.

Enjoyed Clark's "2001" and (especially) "2010". Has anyone read "2061" or "3001"? I seem to remember hearing that they weren't up to snuff.

Why on earth was Douglas Adams was taken so early? He wasn't done with us. Some of his post-Hitchhikers work was superb. "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" was brilliant. RIP.
 
I'm only recently getting into reading a lot of Sci-fi books so havn't read a lot

i did read a trilogy by Nick Sagan.....Idlewilde, Edenborn and Everfree in that order and i quite enjoyed them.

Wouldn't mind a few tips on good ones to read though if anyone has any?
 
Don't Kill Bill said:
I read quite a lot of Banks but Feersum Endjinn broke my will to live never mind read any more of his books.

I am going to recommend Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.Nice central idea/concept .

What is Enders Game like?
Click to expand...

Feersum Endjinn was an experimental novel in the extreme, and IMO failed to get it's point across (a point which, to this day, i have missed entirely). It's a real acid trip of a story, the concept of which is irritatingly hard to fathom. I kept thinking that, at some point, Banks would surely explain what was going on- but an explanation never comes. You should not judge Banks by this novel though, if you read the others- preferably in order of publication- you should not be disappointed.

'Ender's Game' is a brilliant novel- 'Lord Of The Flies' in space! You'd be surprised by the sequels though, they're of an entirely different breed, highly philosophical, political, and moral-questioning, but just as entertaining. I think of all the authors I've read, Scott Card is the best writer.

brad-dyrak said:
If you're looking for better scientific backdrop, you would get a kick out of Robert Forward's books. Bases his work on "hard-science" ideas, and it's really what the novels are there for. The drawback being that the personalities therein are rather cardboard. No matter though, as the science is great fun.

I read "Dragon's Egg", "Starquake" and "Flight of the Dragonfly".

The first 2 deal with evolution of life on a neutron star. Great stuff. The latter with a trip to a binary planet system where he explores all sorts of technologies, and the natural phenomena that could arise if there were a binary planetary system.

Bags of fun.

Enjoyed Clark's "2001" and (especially) "2010". Has anyone read "2061" or "3001"? I seem to remember hearing that they weren't up to snuff.

Why on earth was Douglas Adams was taken so early? He wasn't done with us. Some of his post-Hitchhikers work was superb. "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" was brilliant. RIP.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendations. i'm not specifically looking for books based on hard scientific fact though, my qualms with Asimov are not that he isn't technical enough, just that IMO he often overlooks or disregards simple scientific truths.

Stemmy said:
I'm only recently getting into reading a lot of Sci-fi books so havn't read a lot

i did read a trilogy by Nick Sagan.....Idlewilde, Edenborn and Everfree in that order and i quite enjoyed them.

Wouldn't mind a few tips on good ones to read though if anyone has any?
Click to expand...

Well ok, I'll give you five books that you, or any sci-fi fan, must read. These books i loved so much i almost regret reading them because i know i'll never get to read them for the first time again:-

Vernor Vinge - A Deepness In The Sky
Iain M Banks - Use Of Weapons
Orsen Scott Card - Ender's Game
Frank Herbert - Dune
Arthur C Clarke - Collected Short Stories

Five very different, and very good books.
 
Roger Zelazny
Lord Of Light

I love this book. It is not an easy read as the plot jumps twice in time. It is a story about a world where the first settlers (i.e. the crew of the spaceship) have taken the powers and appearances of Hindu gods. One of them decides that they oppress their fellow humans and aims to create a more equal world. The plot beautifully combine elements from Hindu mythology and scifi ideas.

I can recommend another good book:

Robert Heinlein
The moon is a harsh mistress
 
Loved A Brave New World, ironically was reading it it at 6;45 am MST on 9/11; have to say the world has changed a feck load since then
 
ciderman9000000 said:
Feersum Endjinn was an experimental novel in the extreme, and IMO failed to get it's point across (a point which, to this day, i have missed entirely). It's a real acid trip of a story, the concept of which is irritatingly hard to fathom. I kept thinking that, at some point, Banks would surely explain what was going on- but an explanation never comes. You should not judge Banks by this novel though, if you read the others- preferably in order of publication- you should not be disappointed.

'Ender's Game' is a brilliant novel- 'Lord Of The Flies' in space! You'd be surprised by the sequels though, they're of an entirely different breed, highly philosophical, political, and moral-questioning, but just as entertaining. I think of all the authors I've read, Scott Card is the best writer.



Thanks for the recommendations. i'm not specifically looking for books based on hard scientific fact though, my qualms with Asimov are not that he isn't technical enough, just that IMO he often overlooks or disregards simple scientific truths.



Well ok, I'll give you five books that you, or any sci-fi fan, must read. These books i loved so much i almost regret reading them because i know i'll never get to read them for the first time again:-

Vernor Vinge - A Deepness In The Sky
Iain M Banks - Use Of Weapons
Orsen Scott Card - Ender's Game
Frank Herbert - Dune
Arthur C Clarke - Collected Short Stories

Five very different, and very good books.
Click to expand...

I am going to order Enders Game and I think I have Use Of Weapons,so I might give Banks another go.I have read the others on your list.If I am honest I sometimes forget which ones I have read and the plots squeeze together in my brain.Its a tight fit don't you know.I will have to get organised and make a list like yours,if I can ever get around to it.
 
Ok, thanks for the tips guys. So far i've ordered:-

Island - Huxley - thanks to IBleedRed
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein - thanks to nickm
Altered Carbon - Morgan - thanks to DKB
The Handmaid's Tale - Atwood - thanks to spinoza

Keep the recommendations coming.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.