Genre: Science Fiction

Brendan · Post by **Brendan** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:48 am

Just thought I’d start some threads on favourites we may have in various genres. Typical of me, I do a few good reviews and include one I think a stinker, however popular.

Although I don’t read much SF these days, I do recall with fondness the works of Asimov, Clarke etc, so just thought I’d mention a few personal favourites rather than compile some kind of “best of all time” list. There are many great SF novels not mentioned here: please fill in your own blanks.

The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle.
Just loved this book, particularly the ending when you realize Kutuzov is right.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert Heinlein
Heinlein’s masterpiece, IMHO. If not, a personal favourite.

Snowcrash – Neal Stephenson
Any novel that can get away with its two POV characters named Hiro Protagonist and Yours Truly has something going for it – and this has so much more than cheap gags. A delight from start to finish.

The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
Much more than a brilliant counterpoint to Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, Haldeman’s work is one of the few to include time dilation due to relativistic effect as part of the consequences of space travel/warfare. Lovely touch.

Star-Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers – Harry Harrison
Loved this comic work-over of ‘Doc’ Smith’s Lensman series (and others of its ilk).

Dune – Frank Herbert
Although I didn’t mind Dune itself, all the rest of the subsequent volumes turned into something awful. Bad taste in my mouth kind of feeling about this one.

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:07 am

The classic A Canticle for Leibowitz left a mark on me as a boy. I have never been able to find out the story behind its mysterious author. Years later I got considerable enjoyment out of Stanislav Lem.

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:17 am

I don't know if I've ever read any Sci-Fi except for Dune (which I didn't care for at all). However, just yesterday I got Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game." Reliable sources tell me that each is incredible, so yeah, I hope they're right!

-G

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:31 am

IcedNote wrote:I don't know if I've ever read any Sci-Fi except for Dune (which I didn't care for at all). However, just yesterday I got Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game." Reliable sources tell me that each is incredible, so yeah, I hope they're right!

-G

I don't get it. All science fiction is incredible.

nut-job · Post by **nut-job** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 4:05 pm

The only SF that made an impression on me was "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell.

BWV 1080 · Post by **BWV 1080** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:15 pm

Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton is great modern space opera

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:04 am

I just plowed through Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End"...and absolutely loved it. What a fantastic, succinct novel. Even though the reader spends very little "time" with each character, I not once felt any of it was cursory. And hell, I totally dug the story.

-G

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 2:34 pm

I just finished "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. I really enjoyed it. Nice easy read (which is always a nice break from school).

Has anyone read the rest of the series? Is it worth continuing? I know sequels aren't always the greatest of things...

-G

Brendan · Post by **Brendan** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:42 pm

Speaker for the Dead, the immediate sequel, deserved the Hugo and Nebula awards it won, IMHO. But after the 4th or 5th (Ender's Shadow) I just lost interest. I wasn;t upset with it or anything, just never bothered to get another.

A trilogy is difficult to maintain, and good ones very rare indeed, but these massive modern series of SF & F always bore me silly after the first few. Same with extensions to classics: I loved Asimov's Foundation trilogy as a lad (The Mule had it right!), but could have done without all the later additions.

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 7:58 pm

Brendan wrote:Speaker for the Dead, the immediate sequel, deserved the Hugo and Nebula awards it won, IMHO. But after the 4th or 5th (Ender's Shadow) I just lost interest. I wasn;t upset with it or anything, just never bothered to get another.

Thanks, Brendan! Sounds like I'll pick up "Speaker of the Dead" next time I'm out.

-G

John F · Post by **John F** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:01 am

There's a new sequel to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": title, "And Another Thing..." Douglas Adams not being available, his widow authorized Eoin Coifer to do it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Anothe ... 28novel%29

Heard some of it read on one of the BBC radio channels. Sounded like the real thing to me.

D · Post by D » Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:35 pm

THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN by Gene Wolfe

david johnson · Post by **david johnson** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 4:32 am

"This Island Earth" first appeared a magazine serialization and is now available in book form. If you are familiar with the spectacular (in the 1950s understanding of the term) older technicolor movie version you'll feel right at home until the final third of the book.
At that point the movie digressed into hollywood tomfoolery. The book remains on-task and finishes up with a bit of a story twist that is very enjoyable.

The usual story items appear, but seem freshly done (they were so at the time): pilotless aircraft, flying saucers, mysterious scientific discoveries, humanoid aliens seeking help to win a desperate war, treachery and mind control...

Great fun! Get the book.

dj

i had this presented online a few years ago. the editor of the 'nebo journal' was going to use it, too, but decided in favor of something longer.

RebLem · Post by **RebLem** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 6:21 pm

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick. This is an example of my favorite sub-genre of sci fi, the alternative history. Its sometime in the late 50's or early 60's, The Axis powers won WWII, and the US is occupied by Germany east of the Mississippi, and Japan west of the Mississippi. The protagonist is a small time Jewish merchant in San Francisco who ekes out a precarious living on the edge of the economy. The person referred to in the title is a character we only actually meet briefly near the end of the novel--a science fiction writer who has written a best selling novel about an alternative end of WWII, but a different alternative than the one which actually occurred. Lots of social commentary, many on issues I haven't even touched on in this mini-review.

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. The action begins on Annares, a hard scrabble planet that is part of a dual planet system, the other being Urras. Two hundred years before the beginning of the story, Annares had been uninhabited, except for a few mining operations. An anarcho syndicalist revolution was foiled on Urras, but the leaders of Urras offered the revolutionaries the right to settle on Annares, which they accepted. Annarean society is anarchistic except for one anomalous feature which many would find oppressive, but which is accepted by Annareans--everyone is assigned his name of five or six letters, by the planetary central computer. The protagonist, Shevek, is a physicist who is working on some cutting edge problems; he also has a political ideology which, at some points, is at odds with the Annarean founding orthodoxy. The Annareans have had no contact with Urras for two hundred years, but Shevek decides it is time for some sort of rapprochement, or at least contact in pursuit of dialogue. Along the way, wonderful writing and penetrating insights. A short story by Le Guin called The Day Before the Revolution is a sort of prequel to The Dispossessed.

BWV 1080 · Post by **BWV 1080** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:00 pm

(bump)

ravel30 · Post by **ravel30** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:08 pm

Very interesting thread so far. I have learned a lot so far. Many thanks to all of you.

I am a huge fan of the Foundation series. But my favorite SF book and probably one of my favorite book period is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. The first of the three sections of this book is my favorite. Specially the character of Clarisse. Very inspiring character.

Matt.

Brendan · Post by **Brendan** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:53 pm

Some other favourites, in no particular order I am aware of:

Excession by Iain M Banks
The best of the Culture novels, it really requires that you have read Consider Phlebas or Use of Weapons first to get the feel of the Culture. But Excession takes the whole thing to new levels of possibilities - and if The Affront aren't the best (if obviously invented) race of aliens ever then we have very different senses of humour.

Startide Rising by David Brin
I hesitate to recommend this, as it may end up getting you hooked on the whole Uplift War saga - which meandered off into tangential pointlessness with the Uplift Storm trilogy. I didn't make it through Infinity's Shore. But with Sundiver and particularly Startide Rising the story was fresh and interesting and the characters believable. The idea of dolphins as making the best starship pilots just makes a lot of sense - or at least appeals to the imagination.

Halcyon Drift by Brian Stableford
Classic SF novel of the integration of man and machine (along with McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang) and first of the interesting Hooded Swan series. As with many such, the first is the freshest and best.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Magical from beginning to end. Deserved the '68 Hugo Award. One of the most vividly imagined and powerful books I ever read as a youth (and probably my first introduction to Buddhist and Hindu thinking, however distorted and displaced). Just amazing - there is simply no other work to compare it to nor style it fits into.

Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison
One of the few Ellison stories I like, along with some in the Deathbird collection. And it's a better title than that of the published book: Paingod and Other Delusions.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R Delany
Considered a modern classic, I've never much cared for Delany as a writer (very - I would say painfully - avant garde and PC). Yet its influence cannot be denied, and if you are looking for something VERY different it may be your cup of tea.

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 4:08 am

Brendan wrote:Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Magical from beginning to end. Deserved the '68 Hugo Award. One of the most vividly imagined and powerful books I ever read as a youth (and probably my first introduction to Buddhist and Hindu thinking, however distorted and displaced). Just amazing - there is simply no other work to compare it to nor style it fits into.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R Delany
Considered a modern classic, I've never much cared for Delany as a writer (very - I would say painfully - avant garde and PC). Yet its influence cannot be denied, and if you are looking for something VERY different it may be your cup of tea.

Added both of those to my wishlist. Cheers.

-G

ravel30 · Post by **ravel30** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:42 pm

Just to let you know that I bought A canticle for Leibowitz and Childhood's End due to the comments here. I have only read the first of three parts and I am hook. What an interesting book.

While on the topic of SF, how many of you have read Hyperrion by Dan Simmons ? What are your thoughts on that book ?

Matt.

MJWal · Post by **MJWal** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:20 am

I haven't read Hyperion - but I very much enjoyed Ilium, his ironic take on the Iliad.
My favourite SF writers over the years have been Philip Dick and Stanislaw Lem. A special place in my affections is held by various quasi-SF novels like the Jerry Cornelius tetralogy (and other novels) by Michael Moorcock, which like Dick and the later cyberpunk sub-genre (Gibson's Neuromancer or Snowcrash), are very much veiled analyses of the writer's present - come to think of it, Illuminatus! and Schrödinger's Cat (R.A.Wilson), famed 60s acid-freak satires, are that too.
That raises the question: what is Science Fiction exactly? Did it start with Mary Shelley, Cyrano de Bergerac or even Lucian? Is it always at least partially a critique of the writer's society, like 1984? Slowly, a long time after Wells, it seems that awareness is growing that so-called "genre" fiction can achieve masterpiece level. Indeed, Pynchon's work always reads like SF to me in its fusion of adventure fiction with profound multi-faceted investigations of what are, in effect, alternative universes very close to our own: they read back into a baffling alternative past in order to read futuristically forward to the catastrophe of our present.

John F · Post by **John F** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 2:30 pm

jbuck919 wrote:The classic A Canticle for Leibowitz left a mark on me as a boy. I have never been able to find out the story behind its mysterious author. Years later I got considerable enjoyment out of Stanislav Lem.

I still have the paperback that I somehow picked up when the novel was new, and I reread it now and then. Never thought about the author at all, indeed his name, Walter M. Miller, Jr., doesn't stick in my memory.

Now you mention "Canticle," though, I went over to Wikipedia to find that Miller wrote another novel toward the end of his life, "Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman," that appeared posthumously in 1997. It fits into a gap midway in the earlier work, which I now learn was assembled from three novellas previously published separately. Apparently available from amazon.com. Miller left it unfinished and the conclusion, about 1/6 of the overall length, is by one Terry Bisson. He tells the story and gives an idea of Miller's personality here:

http://www.sff.net/people/tbisson/miller.html

Turns out Miller was a recluse, seriously depressive, and finally killed himself.

Well, I guess that's another book I need to have.

HoustonDavid · Post by **HoustonDavid** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 3:08 pm

Glad to see some new posts here, especially from a mixture of old and new forum members.
I was deeply moved by Clark's "Childhood's End" and Miller's "Canticle for Leibowitz" when I was
younger and continued reading science fiction for several years, until high school and university
English courses (Canadian school system) broadened my reading interests. My father read science
fiction until the day he died, at 93. I haven't returned to the genre, but this thread has brought
back many fond memories of my early reading habits.

Guitarist · Post by **Guitarist** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 5:02 pm

I just finished Justin Cronin's The Passage, which I highly recommend, and I met him last night at a reading/signing--quite a funny fellow! (His novel is absolutely not funny...)

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 12:55 pm

Oh I'm a big reader of science fiction and am currently making my way Clarke's Odyssey series, but with a difference! You can see what I mean here:
http://sfaddict.blogspot.com
Previous to that I read Poul Anderson's classic hard SF novel Tau Zero-very good!

Burbage · Post by **Burbage** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 6:53 pm

MJWal wrote:That raises the question: what is Science Fiction exactly? Did it start with Mary Shelley, Cyrano de Bergerac or even Lucian? Is it always at least partially a critique of the writer's society, like 1984? Slowly, a long time after Wells, it seems that awareness is growing that so-called "genre" fiction can achieve masterpiece level.

Science Fiction is the imagining of social changes caused by technological changes. Whether it's set in a possible future, an alternate past or a parallel now is largely irrelevant, but the future seems best, if only because it doesn't tempt writers into cod-archaic language, which is merely irritating.

Shelley is arguably science fiction, though it was more of an ethical than a social exploration, more akin to Stevenson's Dr Jekyll, which merely continued the weary line of potion-based plots. To my mind, HG Wells was the first real science fiction writer, and happily was less distracted by the fashionable (and bankable) spiritualism that distracted Conan Doyle and even Kipling, both of whom, depsite that, produced creditable attempts (the Kipling story "With the Night Mail" is proper SF. "Wireless" is not, but it is one of the most readable of spiritualist stories).

Dystopian/utopian novels, such as "1984", "We" and "Brave New World", are as much Science Fiction as Capek's "War with the Newts", and I would nclude them because each relies on technological devices to a significant degree. There are many that don't, though, such as "The Napoleon of Notting Hill" by Chesterton (coincidentally also set in 1984) and the twin peaks of shopping-mall-based-dystopian fiction, Saramago's "The Cave" and Ballard's "Kingdom Come", although they often show up under SF in bookshops (particularly the Ballard).

Clearly, Huxley, Wells, Capek, Orwell and Kipling are 'masterpiece'-level writers. As was Saramago (who won a Nobel prize), but he doesn't count as an SF writer. Some argue the case for Poe and Verne (I've actually got a book called "The Science Fiction of Edgar Allen Poe"), but they wrote imaginary travelogues, the technology angle reduced to a form of transport, with no social context (though both do include social comment). Dick, Lem, Stephenson and Banks come close but, for different reasons in each case, I'm not sure they'll become the classics of a century hence.

Of course, my definition excludes an awful lot of supposed science fiction. But I think that's fair enough. Using a spaceship or planet in the same way Agatha Christie used country houses isn't morally wrong, but I do think it's cheating.

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:26 am

Well the definition of SF is a scenario that comes about due to changes or advances in technology-literally fiction based around science and technology and Frankenstein definitely fits the definition, and is generally recognised as the first SF novel.

John F · Post by **John F** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:57 am

How about the Baron Münchhausen stories? First published in 1781. They include feats that were impossible with the technology of the time, including a round trip to the moon.

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 5:17 am

John F wrote:How about the Baron Münchhausen stories? First published in 1781. They include feats that were impossible with the technology of the time, including a round trip to the moon.

Yes but did it base its ideas on technological advances or ideas from the time like Shelley did? There's a saying of Clarke's that goes any significantly advanded trchnology is indistinguishable from magic. Another way of looking at it is you can use magic as an analogy of technology.

John F · Post by **John F** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 5:30 am

The Baron went to the moon by hot air balloon. That was the latest flying technology of the time, cf. the Montgolfier brothers. Unlike in Haydn's opera "Il Mondo della Luna" in which the butt of the prank drinks an elixir, goes to sleep, and wakes up in his own back yard decked out in the latest moon fashions.

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 5:59 am

John F wrote:The Baron went to the moon by hot air balloon. That was the latest flying technology of the time, cf. the Montgolfier brothers. Unlike in Haydn's opera "Il Mondo della Luna" in which the butt of the prank drinks an elixir, goes to sleep, and wakes up in his own back yard decked out in the latest moon fashions.

Yes but that's bad science as we know so belongs, along with Haydn's idea, in the realms of fantasy. Much better is Verne's method. Tho his idea is technically unsound it is idealogically plausible.

John F · Post by **John F** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 8:25 am

Lots of science fiction is based on what turned out to be bad science. Science fiction writers are not prophets, though some of their prophecies have come good. It's not science but storytelling that lies behind the transporter in "Star Trek." "The War of the Worlds" assumed a race of canal-building aliens on Mars, and while this was a plausible guess as recently as 1938, we've since been to Mars and know better. So unless you're saying that science fiction is only science fiction as long as its scientific premises haven't been scientifically disproved, and then must be expunged from the canon, Baron Münchhausen's trip to the moon by hot air balloon is as much sci fi as anything.

lennygoran · Post by **lennygoran** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 8:39 am

>trip to the moon <

As an aside btw that Haydn production at the Hayden planetarium was imo just wonderful--couldn't care less if it was good science fiction--it definitely was great opera!

Joseph Haydn

Il mondo della luna

Gotham Chamber Opera
in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, and in association with American Repertory Theater

The Hayden Planetarium Rose Center for Earth and Space American Museum of Natural History
West 81st Street, NYC

Regards, Len

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 8:44 am

Hmm I still say Baron Munchausen is fantasy! Who wrote the stories anyway?

ravel30 · Post by **ravel30** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:49 pm

Wow! Once again, thank you guys for starting this excellent thread. Like I mentionned before, I used to know a little bit about Science Fiction and read a few things but since I started reading this thread, I started to become a big fan of this genre.

On top of the books that I previously mentionned here (see previous posts), I have recently read 'The Martian Chronicles' by Ray Bradbury and ... a book that I am very excited about called 'The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1' edited by Silverberg.

[img][http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/imag ... 27.jpg/img]

The book contains the following 26 short stories

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Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964 is a 1970 anthology of science fiction short stories, edited by Robert Silverberg. It is generally considered one of the best, if not the best, of the many science fiction anthologies. Author Lester del Rey said that "it even lives up to its subtitle." It was first published by Doubleday and subsequently reprinted by Orb.

The content of the book was decided by a vote of the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America, choosing among short stories (up to 15,000 words long) that predated the Nebula Awards. The top 15 vote-getters were included; Silverberg then used his judgment, rather than the number of votes, in selecting most, but not all of the next 15 for a total of 26 stories. (Several authors had two stories in the top 30 vote-getters, but no author is represented twice in the collection.) "Nightfall" was chosen as the best short story, followed by "A Martian Odyssey" and "Flowers for Algernon".

In 1973, it was followed by The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time. Further volumes were published, consisting of early Nebula winners, thus straying outside the original "pre-Nebula" concept.

Stanley G. Weinbaum "A Martian Odyssey"
John W. Campbell "Twilight"
Lester del Rey "Helen O’Loy"
Robert A. Heinlein "The Roads Must Roll"
Theodore Sturgeon "Microcosmic God"
Isaac Asimov "Nightfall"
A. E. van Vogt "The Weapon Shop"
Lewis Padgett “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”
Clifford D. Simak “Huddling Place”
Fredric Brown “Arena”
Murray Leinster “First Contact”
Judith Merril “That Only a Mother”
Cordwainer Smith “Scanners Live in Vain”
Ray Bradbury “Mars is Heaven!”
Cyril M. Kornbluth “The Little Black Bag”
Richard Matheson “Born of Man and Woman”
Fritz Leiber “Coming Attraction”
Anthony Boucher “The Quest for Saint Aquin”
James Blish “Surface Tension”
Arthur C. Clarke “The Nine Billion Names of God”
Jerome Bixby “It's a Good Life”
Tom Godwin “The Cold Equations”
Alfred Bester “Fondly Fahrenheit”
Damon Knight “The Country of the Kind”
Daniel Keyes “Flowers for Algernon”
Roger Zelazny “A Rose for Ecclesiastes”

Very interesting so far. So far, I have read the following 8 stories

Stanley G. Weinbaum "A Martian Odyssey"
John W. Campbell "Twilight"
Lester del Rey "Helen O’Loy"
Judith Merril “That Only a Mother”
Ray Bradbury “Mars is Heaven!”
Richard Matheson “Born of Man and Woman”
Arthur C. Clarke “The Nine Billion Names of God”
Damon Knight “The Country of the Kind”

and I really enjoyed them.

I don't know if some of you are familiar with some of these stories but if so, would you have any recommandations as to which one I should read next ?

@LSAmadeus

I had a look at your blog and thought that it was very interesting. Many thanks.

Matt.

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:03 pm

Some good classic stories in that collection Matt, especially Nightfall and Clarke's 9 Billion Names of God!
And thabks for the comment on my blog

Mark Harwood · Post by **Mark Harwood** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 2:54 am

I hope you folks can help me here.
I've read everything I can get by Alastair Reynolds, and must wait for his next book. So I tried Peter Hamilton's "Reality Dysfunction" & was totally disappointed. So, in Mr. Reynolds's field, who should I try?
Cheers.

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:24 am

Mark Harwood wrote:I hope you folks can help me here.
I've read everything I can get by Alastair Reynolds, and must wait for his next book. So I tried Peter Hamilton's "Reality Dysfunction" & was totally disappointed. So, in Mr. Reynolds's field, who should I try?
Cheers.

Try these names:
Stephen Baxter
Paul McAuley
Ken McLeod
Iain M Banks
Mike Cobly
Eric Brown
David Brin
Greg Egan
John Varley
Vernor Vinge
Arthur C. Clarke
Isaac Asimov
Poul Anderson
Frederick Pohl
Greg Bear
Larry Niven
Jack Williamson
And tons more...

Mark Harwood · Post by **Mark Harwood** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:28 am

LSAmadeus wrote:
Mark Harwood wrote:I hope you folks can help me here.
I've read everything I can get by Alastair Reynolds, and must wait for his next book. So I tried Peter Hamilton's "Reality Dysfunction" & was totally disappointed. So, in Mr. Reynolds's field, who should I try?
Cheers.
Try these names:
Stephen Baxter
Paul McAuley
Ken McLeod
Iain M Banks
Mike Cobly
Eric Brown
David Brin
Greg Egan
John Varley
Vernor Vinge
Arthur C. Clarke
Isaac Asimov
Poul Anderson
Frederick Pohl
Greg Bear
Larry Niven
Jack Williamson
And tons more...

Thanks, LS.
Greg Egan's brilliant, & I've only read a couple. There are some here that I know, & a few others to check out.
Cheers.

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:06 am

I've been reading a lot of classic SF of late, the pioneering stuff, War of the Wolrds and its sequel by Garrett P. Servis and am now reading A Honeymoon in Space by George Griffith (1901)

david johnson · Post by **david johnson** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:41 am

Have any of you read "A Work of Art" by James Blish? Richard Strauss is resurrected centuries after his death to provide music for the new world.

dj

LSAmadeus · Post by **LSAmadeus** » Wed Dec 08, 2010 4:39 pm

david johnson wrote:Have any of you read "A Work of Art" by James Blish? Richard Strauss is resurrected centuries after his death to provide music for the new world.
dj

Hmmm interesting! Not read much Blish, this one sounds fun!

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 3:24 pm

jbuck919 wrote:The classic A Canticle for Leibowitz left a mark on me as a boy. I have never been able to find out the story behind its mysterious author. Years later I got considerable enjoyment out of Stanislav Lem.

Just finished this last week (yes, another I bought based on your recommendation). Pretty damn good! Makes me wish I was able to read it at the time of publication...probably would have been even more impactful. (Why isn't "impactful" recognized by Firefox as a word?)

I looked up the sequel...but it seems to have been universally panned. Oh well.

-G

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 4:54 pm

IcedNote wrote:
jbuck919 wrote:The classic A Canticle for Leibowitz left a mark on me as a boy. I have never been able to find out the story behind its mysterious author. Years later I got considerable enjoyment out of Stanislav Lem.
Just finished this last week (yes, another I bought based on your recommendation). Pretty damn good! Makes me wish I was able to read it at the time of publication...probably would have been even more impactful. (Why isn't "impactful" recognized by Firefox as a word?)

I looked up the sequel...but it seems to have been universally panned. Oh well.

-G

Now you are qualified to play my FunTrivia quiz on that book:

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Li ... 76663.html

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:57 pm

jbuck919 wrote:Now you are qualified to play my FunTrivia quiz on that book:

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Li ... 76663.html

Missed the first two. It happens.

-G

Mark Harwood · Post by **Mark Harwood** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 5:23 pm

I'm a lifelong fan of SF, but have only now got around to reading William Gibson's "Neuromancer".
Great entertainment!

John F · Post by **John F** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 10:53 pm

jbuck919 wrote:Now you are qualified to play my FunTrivia quiz on that book:

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Li ... 76663.html

I reread it recently enough to get all the questions - the last because I'd looked up Miller in Wikipedia with results mentioned in this thread. Any other sci fi novel and I'd probably get everything wrong.

BWV 1080 · Post by **BWV 1080** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:40 am

read two books last year by the contemporary writer Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space and Chasm City. Interesting that these are vast space opera works but without any form of FTL transportation or communication. Also some interesting plays on the Fermi Paradox

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Tue Jan 10, 2012 3:26 pm

John F wrote:
jbuck919 wrote:Now you are qualified to play my FunTrivia quiz on that book:

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Li ... 76663.html
I reread it recently enough to get all the questions - the last because I'd looked up Miller in Wikipedia with results mentioned in this thread. Any other sci fi novel and I'd probably get everything wrong.

Incredibly, Wikipedia has an article on the Latin in that novel, which I recently stumbled on. I know you and others have been dying to know all these translations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_La ... _Leibowitz

Some of the selections are taken from well-known sources, but some, and lengthy ones at that, were written from scratch by Miller, who must have been a considerable Latinist.

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Sun May 27, 2012 7:01 pm

Well, I *finally* got around to reading "Brave New World." Pretty good but not as impactful as I had expected/hoped. Oh well. Good chance I would have gotten my wish had I been alive to read it at its publication.

-G

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Sun May 27, 2012 7:37 pm

IcedNote wrote:Well, I *finally* got around to reading "Brave New World."

May the blessings of Jesus and Pookong be upon you.

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