Author Topic: Science Fiction books (Read 29635 times)

Corkboy · « **on:** January 15, 2007, 01:46:42 pm »

I searched and searched....

Actually, there was a thread some months back which morphed into a Sci Fi type discussion but anyway.

That thread seemed to end up with a lot of people liking Iain M Banks (not to be confused with Iain Banks who is....the same guy, but just normal fiction). The middle "M" is reserved for his sci fi stuff.

Another sci fi writer I've gotten into recently is Jack McDevitt. Now, it would be harsh to say he is the Dan Brown of the sci fi world but he's not far off. Story, story, story but a cut above the Da Vinci Code and very enjoyable.

Any other faves?

Fiend · « **Reply #1 on:** January 15, 2007, 01:57:07 pm »

I'm not sure if you mean Fantasy too but since they tend to get lumped together...
I wholeheartedly recommend George R R Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series.
Its probably the most gruesome, shocking story I've ever read in fantasy. One of the major problems with Lord of the Rings is that all the main characters live. In Martin's world NOBODY is safe! Just as you grow to love a character he kills him off horribly.
Great series. I cant wait for the next book.

Corkboy · « **Reply #2 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:00:08 pm »

Quote from: Fiend on January 15, 2007, 01:57:07 pm

I'm not sure if you mean Fantasy too but since they tend to get lumped together...

I didn't, as it turns out, but work away!

America's Sweetheart · « **Reply #3 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:10:22 pm »

I love Iain M Banks. Have been reading a lot of Jack McDevitt. And would also recommend Alistair Reynolds and Peter F Hamilton.

Corkboy · « **Reply #4 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:15:03 pm »

Quote from: America's Sweetheart on January 15, 2007, 02:10:22 pm

Have been reading a lot of Jack McDevitt.

Would you agree with the Dan Brown comparison?

Ken-Obi · « **Reply #5 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:16:13 pm »

Dune.

America's Sweetheart · « **Reply #6 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:19:52 pm »

Quote from: corkboy on January 15, 2007, 02:15:03 pm

Would you agree with the Dan Brown comparison?

No. Never even occured to me. There are plenty of Dan Brown rip-off merchants, but I would never have thought of putting McDevitt in that category - though I can see a few common elements: revealing hidden truths, and gimmick-ridden searches, but only really in the books about the historic artefact bloke.

Try Matthew Reilly's utterly ridiculous "Seven Deadly Wonders" for a real Brown rip-slash-pisstake.

Armin · « **Reply #7 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:24:59 pm »

I really enjoy Iain M Banks novels. My favourite is probably 'Use of Weapons' but they're all pretty good. The 'Culture' is a great antidote to all the dystopian nightmare worlds that often crop up in science fiction. There are other British writers worth checking out. M. John Harrison has an amazing imagination. Another favourite is Jeff Noon from Manchester. 'Vurt' is his best, a fantastic novel.

The established American writers are good, Philp K Dicks short stories aren't especially well written but the ideas and imagination are first rate.

The best fantasy I've read is Stephen Donaldson's 'Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'. I read his 'gap into' series which tried to do the same thing for space opera but I never felt he hit the heights he reached in the Covenant novels. I also quite enjoyed Roger Zelazny's 'Amber' novels. I've recently bought a Jack Vance collection as he's a writer I admire.

Filler. · « **Reply #8 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:27:48 pm »

I'd look no further than JG Ballards's 'Complete Short Stories', and not a space ship in sight

Alan Moore?

Corkboy · « **Reply #9 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:29:20 pm »

Quote from: America's Sweetheart on January 15, 2007, 02:19:52 pm

I would never have thought of putting McDevitt in that category

Yeah, I've been ripping through them recently. Ancient Shores, then Polaris, then Slow Lightning and now just finished Deepsix. All thumping good reads.

Art Vandelay · « **Reply #10 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:31:12 pm »

I did a course during uni called Science Fiction Science, which was good fun. There was one short story I loved but I can't remember the title or the author, I'll have to have a look later.

Some of Crichton's early stuff is pretty decent, particularly The Andromeda Strain.

Fiend · « **Reply #11 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:35:37 pm »

Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is probably my favourite Sci-Fi story. It still stands the test of time with a few notable exceptions (computers are as 'big' as cities). It won the Hugo award for 'best series of all time' in 1965 beating out Tolkien's LOTR.

Ken-Obi · « **Reply #12 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:38:38 pm »

Oh, does Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator count?

Corkboy · « **Reply #13 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:40:18 pm »

Quote from: iArmin on January 15, 2007, 02:24:59 pm

I really enjoy Iain M Banks novels. My favourite is probably 'Use of Weapons' but they're all pretty good. The 'Culture' is a great antidote to all the dystopian nightmare worlds that often crop up in science fiction.

Yup, he's a great man for the "big ideas".

America's Sweetheart · « **Reply #14 on:** January 15, 2007, 03:05:11 pm »

Totally agree about Foundation -- especially when you factor in the way Asimov later blended in his robot series.

Some of Orson Scott Card's work is also pretty damn great if you can get past his frequent religious subtext. Ender's Game and all the related books totally rock. And Treason is a really good read too.

Stephen Donaldson turned out to be a one trick pony in my view. The first set of Thomas Covenant was a fascinating read. The second trilogy and all his other books -- including the hardboiled detective fiction, were pretty much the same ideas recycled.

Julian May is also worth a look at, if you like the fantasy side of things. Particularly the Pliocean Exile and Galactic Milieu series.

And while we're throwing names out, what about Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Robert A. Heinlein. Not necessarily grandmasters of the form, but capable of great books from time to time. For example, The Mote In God's Eye and Stranger In A Strange Land or The Number Of The Beast.

Art Vandelay · « **Reply #15 on:** January 15, 2007, 07:20:23 pm »

Quote from: Art Vandelay on January 15, 2007, 02:31:12 pm

I did a course during uni called Science Fiction Science, which was good fun. There was one short story I loved but I can't remember the title or the author, I'll have to have a look later.

Was just looking through my uni stuff, Kyrie by Poul Anderson was the short story I really enjoyed working on. We also studied Nemesis by Isaac Asimov and Stephen Baxters Vacuum Diagrams (in particular The Sun-People), which were also good.

Mouth · « **Reply #16 on:** January 16, 2007, 05:20:35 am »

Dan Abnett

I've recently been plowing through his monsterous output for the black library.

Rhaegar21 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 16, 2007, 09:30:22 am »

Quote from: Fiend on January 15, 2007, 01:57:07 pm

I wholeheartedly recommend George R R Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series.

The greatest fantasy ever written. Realistic, gritty, complex and character driven.

Dance of Dragons will be sweeet. It contains my favs Tyrion and Dany - When it eventually come out

On another note, I tried Steven Erikson's series which is supposedly up there with Martin, but god, I read the entire first volume and I don't know whats going on, the characters have no character, and there's way too much magic.

Brian Blessed · « **Reply #18 on:** January 16, 2007, 02:03:52 pm »

Regardless of genre, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is my favourite book ever. It's a real character piece, so if that's your taste I can't recommend the book highly enough.

SP · « **Reply #19 on:** January 16, 2007, 02:44:27 pm »

Both the Enders Game and Foundation series suffer from the author milking it. They should have stopped writing them much sooner. You get the feeling in the end of Foundation series that Asimov is twisting the narrtive for the sole purpose of constructing a consistent universe from independently written novels. It just doesn't work in my opinion. Robert A Heinlein must be the worst offender for this.

I have recently been reading through most of these.

Not a duff novel in sight.

The gap between Iain Banks and Iain M Banks has been narrowing. The Business and the Bridge were very M like.

xavidub · « **Reply #20 on:** January 16, 2007, 11:37:46 pm »

Most of the stuff I've read has been mentioned, Asimov kind of invented sci-fi really, (not the genre, but the ideas), Phillip K Dick I really liked, especially A Scanner Darkly, Neuromancer by William Gibson was terrific.

Used to love John Wyndham as well, check out The Midwich Cuckoos or Trouble With Lichen, or Day of The Triffids.

HP lovecraft wrote some cracking short stories as well.

Armin · « **Reply #21 on:** January 17, 2007, 10:36:16 am »

My favourite Wyndham novel is The Crysalids. Haven't read Trouble with Lichen. The triffids terrified me on telly as a child, I think I read the book later but don't recall much about it. A good writer.

I've read a few of those Sci Fi Masterworks. The Lathe of Heaven is superb and reminded me how much I loved the Earthsea series by the same author. Probably the first fantasy series I read and it stands up well to any other. 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson is also superb. I'll probably start picking off that list as well, perhaps we could do a book swap?

Poul Anderson was someone I first came across via short stories. Science fiction seems to lend itself to this format. I prefer Philip K Dick's short stories to his novels, he's not great at character but his ideas are, er, out of this world...

Dune is mentioned above. The first novel is one of the greatest acts of imagination ever committed to a page. The depth of the world he creates is mind blowing. I stayed with the series but eventually I felt it lost its way. The interesting thing about the first book however is that several people I know who have no time for the sci fi genre have read this book and loved it. As they should because it's a classic.

Talking of Dune reminded me of another series linked to the effect climate has on civilisation. Brian Aldiss is a British writer, he wrote three novels set on Helliconia, a world with something like a 1000 year cycle of seasons. An excellent read.

I've recently bought two collections from the Fantasy Masterworks series, Jack Vance's 'Tales of the Dying Earth' and a collection of the short stories of Lord Dunsany. Jack Vance is just a brilliant writer, regardless of which genre or box you care to put him in. Lord Dunsany is often cited as the father of the genre. If you want a flavour of his writing try this little gem. It subverts the traditional telling and has one of the best endings of any short story.

Mudface_ · « **Reply #22 on:** January 17, 2007, 10:53:00 am »

I'm not a huge Sci-Fi fan but Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy was superb space opera (even if he did manage to resolve 3000 pages worth of preamble within half a chapter at the end...). Iain Banks has gone badly off the boil in the last few years, unfortunately. I even find Excession (probably his last really good Sci Fi novel) annoying these days down to the boring bits with the eternally pregnant woman. Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others is a great collection of short stories.

I found the first Dune book to be excellent, but by the time you had a worm emperor zooming around on a cart, it was just silly and really dull.

Armin · « **Reply #23 on:** January 17, 2007, 11:21:35 am »

I can't remember the pregnant woman, only the mad ship disgorging thousands of warships stuck with me from that one.

My issue with Iain Banks is that he's too wedded to a kind of split narrative. So you have separate strands which seem utterly disconnected but as the story unfolds the relation becomes clear. When it works, as it usually does, it's very effective. The problem is that he's used the same format so many times that it's become formulaic.

I still enjoy his novels though. From memory 'Look to Windward' was pretty good, think that was pretty recent? I liked the idea of the machine intelligence crushed by memory and remorse. The culture assasin made up of nano particles was also cool. I could make ample use of one of those. Make it so please.

Which was the one with the giant sentient gas balloons?

Corkboy · « **Reply #24 on:** January 17, 2007, 11:27:57 am »

Quote from: iArmin on January 17, 2007, 11:21:35 am

Which was the one with the giant sentient gas balloons?

Think it was the Algebraist, http://www.iainbanks.net/sf10.htm

Corkboy · « **Reply #25 on:** January 17, 2007, 11:41:45 am »

Also reading a bit of Neil Gaiman at the moment. Not sure if he qualifies for SF, more magicky kind of stuff (and not your South American magical realism, either) but very bizarre and quite out there, as well as being very funny.

Alan_X · « **Reply #26 on:** January 17, 2007, 11:51:50 am »

I'm a massive fan of Phillip K Dick and really like Heinlein, Asimov etc. Ubik is one of the great sci-fi novels in my opinion. Some of his less well known novels are my favourites: Clans of the Alphane Moon which is about a society that develops out of a psychiatric colony that becomes cut off from Earth. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and A Maze of Death are also excellent. The themes of reality, empathy and what it is that makes us human run through all of his books.

Stanislav Lem was a genius (he died in 2006). Solaris is a wonderful book and even the Soderbergh film version was pretty good (though not a patch on Tarkovsky's). As a start try reading The Cyberiad, which is a collection of fables about a universe populated by robots. I haven't read it for years but remember it as intelligent and very funny. Both Lem and Dick are writers first and science fiction writers second having more in common with writers like Jorge Luis Barthes and Orwell. One of Lem's books, A Perfect Vacuum, is a review of sci-fi books that don't actually exist (something Borges does), apart from a scathing review of "A Perfect Vacuum" of course. And Dick's a Scanner Darkly is not so much about the future as about Californian drug culture in the sixties and seventies - the sci-fi elements just bring the issues of insanity and mistrust into sharper focus in the same way that 1984 is about the post-war world, not the future.

One Book that I would recommend to everyone is Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky (made into a film entitled Stalker by Tarkovsky). The premise takes the standard idea of aliens visiting earth and gives it a sublime twist. Instead of the usual alternatives - make peace or attack without warning and enslave the population, or maybe watching over us - it has the aliens stopping and "having a picnic" leaving their rubbish and moving on. The aliens have been and gone when the book starts leaving "The Zone" full of anomalies and a host of artefacts that are collected by the Stalkers... a strange and thought-provoking book.

I enjoyed J G Ballard's Crystal World and Drowned World which share themes of entropy and slow collapse and fragmentation. They are strange and dreamlike but memorable.

I think I prefer science fiction that challenges and goes beyond the space cowboy principle or even the science fantasy tales which are essentially moral tales about good v evil. I actually enjoy the best of those but it's more interesting to consider the fact that instead of being God or the Devil, an alien might be incapable of mutual understanding, or even be completely indifferent to us and see where that leads. For me the best sci-fi isn't about trying to predict technological advances but should be telling us about our lives today by casting a different shadow. It should be in the mould of Huxley, Orwell and Swift.

Corkboy · « **Reply #27 on:** January 23, 2007, 10:34:38 am »

Quote from: corkboy on January 17, 2007, 11:41:45 am

Also reading a bit of Neil Gaiman at the moment. Not sure if he qualifies for SF, more magicky kind of stuff (and not your South American magical realism, either) but very bizarre and quite out there, as well as being very funny.

Ok, read American Gods previously, and now just finished Anansi Boys, which was very inventive and funny. I heartily recommend.

Yorkykopite · « **Reply #28 on:** January 23, 2007, 11:04:11 am »

Quote from: Alan_F on January 17, 2007, 11:51:50 am

For me the best sci-fi isn't about trying to predict technological advances but should be telling us about our lives today by casting a different shadow. It should be in the mould of Huxley, Orwell and Swift.

'The Dispossessed' by Ursula Le Guin. 'Left hand of darkness' too.

timiano · « **Reply #29 on:** January 23, 2007, 01:00:36 pm »

Anyone read Neal Stephonson's Snow Crash?

I'm contemplating this one for my holiday next week.

Corkboy · « **Reply #30 on:** January 23, 2007, 02:34:59 pm »

Quote from: timiano on January 23, 2007, 01:00:36 pm

Anyone read Neal Stephonson's Snow Crash?

I'm contemplating this one for my holiday next week.

Yes, quite "hard" sci fi, of a type sometimes called cyberpunk. I seem to remember liking it lots.

timiano · « **Reply #31 on:** January 23, 2007, 03:06:08 pm »

Might have a look in Borders at the end of the week, cheers.

Alan_X · « **Reply #32 on:** January 23, 2007, 03:14:49 pm »

Quote from: yorkykopite on January 23, 2007, 11:04:11 am

'The Dispossessed' by Ursula Le Guin. 'Left hand of darkness' too.

I'm going to have to dig through the loft and find Left Hand of Darkness... I don't think I've read The Dispossessed but will have a look.

Corkboy · « **Reply #33 on:** May 13, 2007, 10:06:14 pm »

This week, I 'ave been mostly readin'....

Stephen Baxter. A Liverpool lad, apparently and quite varied, at least from what I've gleaned from the two I've read and a quick wiki search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Baxter.

"Time" was really very well put together, a good story with lots of character and plenty of theory and toys. Some of it is actually quite profound and always enough science to go with the fiction.

As for the the other one, "Ring" is completely different, and frankly tough going. There's a lot of particle, astro and other types of physics in there and I don't which is made up and which is true - maybe it's all scientifically sound, I don't know. Now, I'm interested in that stuff but I know really fuck all about it, and this is just over my head.

Anyway, I'm going for "Evolution" now, which is apparently from another series of his and is supposed to be altogether different from either of the two other types.

This by the way...

Quote from: Art Vandelay on January 15, 2007, 07:20:23 pm

We also studied Nemesis by Isaac Asimov and Stephen Baxters Vacuum Diagrams (in particular The Sun-People), which were also good.

....is apparently from the same series as the one of which I couldn't get more than the general gist. You must be brainy.

Wilbur · « **Reply #34 on:** May 14, 2007, 03:36:03 am »

Quote from: timiano on January 23, 2007, 01:00:36 pm

Anyone read Neal Stephonson's Snow Crash?

I'm contemplating this one for my holiday next week.

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is very good, and I also recommend the following of his novels:

Cryptonomicon
Zodiac
The Diamond Age, or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Stephen Baxter has some good recent stuff.

Of course William Gibson's books are ALL excellent.

Vernor Vinge's "Deepness in the Sky" and "A Fire Upon the Deep" are tremendous.

Ginamos · « **Reply #35 on:** May 14, 2007, 03:47:37 am »

Quote from: Alan_F on January 17, 2007, 11:51:50 am

I'm a massive fan of Phillip K Dick and really like Heinlein, Asimov etc. Ubik is one of the great sci-fi novels in my opinion. Some of his less well known novels are my favourites: Clans of the Alphane Moon which is about a society that develops out of a psychiatric colony that becomes cut off from Earth. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and A Maze of Death are also excellent. The themes of reality, empathy and what it is that makes us human run through all of his books.

Stanislav Lem was a genius (he died in 2006). Solaris is a wonderful book and even the Soderbergh film version was pretty good (though not a patch on Tarkovsky's). As a start try reading The Cyberiad, which is a collection of fables about a universe populated by robots. I haven't read it for years but remember it as intelligent and very funny. Both Lem and Dick are writers first and science fiction writers second having more in common with writers like Jorge Luis Barthes and Orwell. One of Lem's books, A Perfect Vacuum, is a review of sci-fi books that don't actually exist (something Borges does), apart from a scathing review of "A Perfect Vacuum" of course. And Dick's a Scanner Darkly is not so much about the future as about Californian drug culture in the sixties and seventies - the sci-fi elements just bring the issues of insanity and mistrust into sharper focus in the same way that 1984 is about the post-war world, not the future.

One Book that I would recommend to everyone is Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky (made into a film entitled Stalker by Tarkovsky). The premise takes the standard idea of aliens visiting earth and gives it a sublime twist. Instead of the usual alternatives - make peace or attack without warning and enslave the population, or maybe watching over us - it has the aliens stopping and "having a picnic" leaving their rubbish and moving on. The aliens have been and gone when the book starts leaving "The Zone" full of anomalies and a host of artefacts that are collected by the Stalkers... a strange and thought-provoking book.

I enjoyed J G Ballard's Crystal World and Drowned World which share themes of entropy and slow collapse and fragmentation. They are strange and dreamlike but memorable.

I think I prefer science fiction that challenges and goes beyond the space cowboy principle or even the science fantasy tales which are essentially moral tales about good v evil. I actually enjoy the best of those but it's more interesting to consider the fact that instead of being God or the Devil, an alien might be incapable of mutual understanding, or even be completely indifferent to us and see where that leads. For me the best sci-fi isn't about trying to predict technological advances but should be telling us about our lives today by casting a different shadow. It should be in the mould of Huxley, Orwell and Swift.

Excellent post, if you don't mind me saying.

Ubik is a great book...err ubiquitous even. I'd recommend Phillip K Dick, although his writing style can often be quite rough, probably on account of the drugs (speed) he used when writing.

Neal Stephenson has already been mentioned. Love his stuff, but maybe he's not for everybody. Cryptonomicon is a cracking read, but I'm not really sure why it gets put in the Science Fiction section. Essentially it's a WWII thriller with some stuff about cryptography and Japanese gold in the Philippines, worth reading all the same.

Neil Gaiman, mentioned above, Neverwhere and Stardust would be my picks, but haven't read his latest stuff.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is also good. The first book is definitely the best, the other two get a little strange.

A classic era sci-fi writer worth trying and not already mentioned is Arthur C Clarke, "Rendezvous With Rama".

A couple of others J. G. Ballard and Brian Aldiss.

Andy @ Allerton! · « **Reply #36 on:** May 14, 2007, 08:46:06 am »

Some good Science Fiction authors;

Arthur C. Clarke
Isaac Asimov
Philip K. Dick
Stephen Donaldson
William Gibson
Steven Baxter

SP · « **Reply #37 on:** May 14, 2007, 12:22:01 pm »

Quote from: corkboy on May 13, 2007, 10:06:14 pm

This week, I 'ave been mostly readin'....

Stephen Baxter. A Liverpool lad, apparently and quite varied, at least from what I've gleaned from the two I've read and a quick wiki search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Baxter.

Just reading Time Like Infinity. Not bad so far, but the font of the book is too large - it feels like it should be a kids book rather than the hard s.f. it actually is.

I enjoyed Moon Seed.

I have just read most of Alastair Reynolds ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds ). Good hard s.f. - he is an astrophysicist by trade. He does seem to have suffered from disaster inflation - he has to wipe out several solar systems per novel. He had the guts to kill off recurring characters in the first half of a novel - which was refreshing.

Rusty Oysterburger · « **Reply #38 on:** May 14, 2007, 04:53:39 pm »

Not sure if it is Sci Fi exactly but World War Z by Max Brooks is very very good.

Its about zombies taking over the world but written in the style of an offical report by the U.N. so its just interviews with the people who survived.

That makes it sound really shit, but believe me, it is very enjoyable!

Bobby Fury · « **Reply #39 on:** May 14, 2007, 05:00:40 pm »

I read the book "Earth Abides", by George Rippey Stewart many years ago while in school. It was written in the late 1940s but is still an excellent read and still available!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Earth-Abides-George-Rippey-Stewart/dp/0345487133/ref=sr_1_4/202-7510317-8320648?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179158235&sr=1-4