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

Listen to Bruce Sterling at SXSW 2013

It's only an hour long, dive in!

I love anything with a dystopian sort of vibe; Aldous Huxley's "Brand New World" and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" both come to mind. :)

HEY!! Be the first kid on *your* block to read Cory Doctorow's HOMELAND, it's the sequel to Little Brother. Don't say I never did nothin' for ya  ;)

Here's the PDF

China Mieville Selects 50 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels That Socialists Must Read

I have not read this, but it comes w/ a Bruce Sterling recommendation, good enough for me.

The Fat Years is a 2009 Chinese science fiction novel written by Chan Koonchung.

It was first published in Hong Kong, though it has been banned in m... [Wiki]

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Banned in China, sounds good already...

Errrr....apart from the obvious (1984, Brave New World, anything by Philip K. Dick anything by J.G. Ballard) I really liked "The Player of Games" and "Use of Weapons" by Iain M. Banks......

Thanx dave.......see you in 2013 :):)

Oh, almost forgot. Here are Rudy Rucker's short stories online. Try 'Instability'.

Ask and ye shall receive. This is online. Rucker's Ware Tetralogy Enjoy!!

sleazy said:

I can't find Software anywhere....any cool linx?!:):)

 

How aBOUT..........

Grazianohmygod said:

I just read Software by Rudy Rucker. It a short piece of hard boiled cyberpunk that deals with sentient robots called "Big Boppers" revolting against humans. Asimov's laws of robotics are scoffed at by the boppers. Funny, thought-provoking, and definitely strange.

I can't find Software anywhere....any cool linx?!:):)

How aBOUT..........

Grazianohmygod said:

I just read Software by Rudy Rucker. It a short piece of hard boiled cyberpunk that deals with sentient robots called "Big Boppers" revolting against humans. Asimov's laws of robotics are scoffed at by the boppers. Funny, thought-provoking, and definitely strange.

Hey, Grazianohmygod,

Yeh, I'm a big Rudy Rucker fan, sex, drugs, and geekage, SF's own Hunter S. Thompson.

He's got a new novel about Alan Turing and William S. Burroughs, 'A Beatnik SF Novel'.

I just read Software by Rudy Rucker. It a short piece of hard boiled cyberpunk that deals with sentient robots called "Big Boppers" revolting against humans. Asimov's laws of robotics are scoffed at by the boppers. Funny, thought-provoking, and definitely strange.

 I was more into Sci-Fi in Jr. High. I had older friends , whom I knew from the conventions and in the neighborhood , that did'nt treat me like a dumb -ass kid. They were all well - adjusted , confident , and , for the most part , good looking young adults. If I wanted to see the negative stereotype attached to Sci - Fi fans , all I had to do was check out the ones back at school. I even went on my first date before most of them ever did......

Yep, Ellison I think kinda got off on bein' the bad boy of the New Wave of SF. Seems to have cooled off in recent times, might have something to do with bein' off the radar, lately.

Anyhoo, for budding sf fans, I still think he should be read at a certain age (say, high school). Just to stretch their minds beyond ray-guns/warp-drive/bug-eyed monsters, etc.

Dunno if his stuff ages well, tho' (like so many others, both in mainstream and sf).

That's pretty funny. I'm sure a lot of people , here , swear by Ellison. Some might just like to swear AT Ellison. He sure swore at me , but I was very young , and not all cool and heavy and with it , reading Asimov and Kerouac at the same time , with Conan The Barabarian #1 and Howard The Duck #1 in my lap.....It does'nt excuse the way he spoke to me , tho' , I kind of got a laugh out of it. He was acting like an insult comic . He was rude to other people , too.

A former friend of mine became his bestest buddy , because he had the exact same Foghorn Leghorn coffee cup that Ellison lost in an earthquake , and he sent his to him.

But....Putting down Fantagraphics?! They sent me one of the nicest rejection letters I've ever recieved.

Ahhhh hahahaha! 

"I liked Harlan Ellison , too , even though I met him , once."

Called him up on a dare once, to check on some comics news (Polly and her Pals),

braced for an attack, and he was the nicest guy you could dream of! 

('Tho he did do his best to slag Fantagraphics)

Yeh, I was counting up my fave sf/fantasy authors, and except for 1-off books, came up w/ 3 from each category. Today the real world is more interesting than any fiction...

 I don't read a lot of Sci - Fi , anymore. I was into it when I was much younger. I was a big Bradbury fan , and I liked Harlan Ellison , too , even though I met him , once.

Asimov is pretty sick, as well as anything with the "dystopian" tag on it.

Just got me these SCI -FI gems...................

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

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.

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.

 

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. 

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.