Sci-fi books you must read....

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287
Calling all sci-fi heads.

The classics:

Ian M Banks "consider Phlebas"
Alfred bester "the stars my destination"
Greg Bear "Hull three zero"

Trash sci-fi but I love it:

James Axlers "Deathlands" series.

What's yours?
 
joe mcclaine said:
Hitch-Hikers' Guide To The Galaxy is the only one I've read.

Any others would need to be pretty special to come close.

Read "the stars my destination" it was written in 1950s and beat the matrix and all other sci-fi films to the punch. It's fantastic.
 
Serious Sci-Fi

Alister Reynolds Pushing Ice and Century Rain. Both absolutely stunning in terms of scope and vision.

Ian M Banks - Look to Windward and The Algebraist, took several goes to fully appreciate the depth of characters and all the minor 'sub-plots'.

Trash Sci-fi

Just gone through the 'Lost Fleet' series by Jack Campbell.

Dread Empires fall by Walter Jon Lloyd

When I was a teenager, really liked the Spellsinger series and Commenwealth of the Thranx books (including the Icerigger triology) by Alan Dean Foster.
 
Gigahurtz said:
joe mcclaine said:
Hitch-Hikers' Guide To The Galaxy is the only one I've read.

Any others would need to be pretty special to come close.

Read "the stars my destination" it was written in 1950s and beat the matrix and all other sci-fi films to the punch. It's fantastic.

Just checked and it looks like I have this on my PC.

Girl at work had one of those DVDs with 10,000 books on it.

It's now on my Kindle and ready to go.
 
Hiya,

I usta read lots of science fiction, but that goes back over 30 years ago. Yeah. for whatever the reason I kinda got away from that type of writing and rarely read that type of fiction anymore.

Now if I was gonna recommend one book, I'm thinking that 'Dune' would be a possible pick. Written by Frank Herbert, along with about 5-6 sequels that go from being good to not. The first one in the series though..........that is an excellent read.

I think this author musta dropped some acid at some point. It shows in some of his character's thoughts and adds an extra dimension that hits close to home in my case. Extremely entertaining story line with characters who are very well developed and interesting.

There's been a few movies made of this novel, but none have been able to capture the essence of the story. This needs to be read in order to understand the deep thoughts involved.

Martin
 
isaiah53 said:
robert heinlein's stranger in a strange land is a fine read

Hi there,

Man, that was an amazingly popular book back in the day. Personally, I never did grok it myself, but I'm in the minority on that.

Heinlein was really a prolific writer, and a favorite of mine by him is called 'The Puppet Masters'. Kinda like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in a way.
 
The two that I just reread. Mainly because they were free or almost free ebooks were: Dracula and Frankenstein . Can't remember how long ago I first read them was but I'm glade that I took the time to do it again.
 
+1 on Neuromancer which is fantastic. If you like your SF nearly possibly not completely beyond the realms of what might (or might not) feasible at some stage in the future, then Red Mars (and sequels) are worth a read.

Slightly off the wall, but a hugely entertaining read is Vurt by Jeff Noon. It's nearly my "if you could only read one SF book" choice.

Finally, Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner is an all time classic. Look it up on google and see if it takes your attention. If it does, then grab a copy - you won't regret it.

Oh, I also have a soft spot for Otherland by Tad Williams, but I met the author once and he was a genuinely nice chap, so I may be biased!
 
Pretty much any Iain M Banks.

The only two I couldn't get in to are Transition - a non-M novel but very sci-fi from what I can tell - and Against a Dark Background.

I enjoyed The Day of The Triffids by John Wyndham. I've read a few others of his but that's the one that sticks in my mind.
 
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