Starfleet Jedi

Pretty straightforward topic: what are the best science fiction novels you have ever read, by any author? What are some novels that you simple have to read before you die?

In my opinion (and in no particular order);
-Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
-2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
-Vacuum Diagrams, by Stephen Baxter
-1984, by George Orwell

You?

my absolute favorite sci-fi novel of all time is 'The Stars My Destination' by alfred bester.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination
my second favorite is 'Lord of Light' by roger zelazny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_light
i would suggest those to anyone who reads.

'the weapon shops of isher'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weapon_Shops_of_Isher
'the ship who sang'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ship_Who_Sang
'alas, babylon'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alas_Babylon
'blood music'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Music_(novel)
'on the beach'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(novel)
'slaughterhouse 5'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five
'ender's game'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game
'man plus'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Plus
'dune'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)
'bluebeard'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard_(novel)
'flowers for algernon'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon
'planet of the apes'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Apes_(novel)
'fahrenheit 451'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451
'as on a darkling plain'
no specific wikipedia entry
http://www.amazon.com/As-Darkling-Plain ... 0812515463
'the lathe of heaven'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_lathe_of_heaven
'childhood's end'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood%27s_End
'godbody'
no specific wikipedia entry
http://www.genrebusters.com/print/review_godbody.htm
'why call them back from heaven?'
no specific wikipedia entry
http://www.eternalnight.co.uk/books/s/s ... eaven.html
'the man who awoke'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Awoke
'star-begotten'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-Begotten
'foundation'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(novel)

that's all that springs immediately to mind.

aaaand..
Rocket Ship Galileo, 1947 *
Beyond This Horizon, 1948 (initially serialized in 1942, and at that time credited to Anson MacDonald)
Space Cadet, 1948 *
Red Planet, 1949 *
Sixth Column, 1949 (initially serialized in 1941, and at that time credited to Anson MacDonald) (aka: The Day After Tomorrow)
Between Planets, 1951 *
The Puppet Masters, 1951 (re-published posthumously with excisions restored, 1990)
The Rolling Stones, 1952 (aka: Space Family Stone) *
Farmer in the Sky, 1953 (initially serialized in 1950 in a condensed version in Boys' Life magazine as "Satellite Scout" (Retro Hugo Award, 1951) *
Starman Jones, 1953 *
The Star Beast, 1954 *
Tunnel in the Sky, 1955 *
Double Star, 1956—Hugo Award, 1956[2]
Time for the Stars, 1956 *
Citizen of the Galaxy, 1957 *
The Door into Summer, 1957
Have Space Suit—Will Travel, 1958—Hugo Award nominee, 1959[3] *
Methuselah's Children, 1958 (originally a serialized short story in 1941)
Starship Troopers, 1959—Hugo Award, 1960[4]
[edit]Middle Heinlein novels
Stranger in a Strange Land, 1961 -- Hugo Award, 1962,[5] (republished at the original greater length in 1991)
Podkayne of Mars, 1963 *
Orphans of the Sky, 1963 (fix-up novel comprising the novellas "Universe" and "Common Sense", both originally published in 1941)
Glory Road, 1963—Hugo Award nominee, 1964[6]
Farnham's Freehold, 1965
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966 -- Hugo Award, 1967[7]
I Will Fear No Evil, 1970
Time Enough for Love, 1973—Nebula Award nominated, 1973;[8] Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominated, 1974[9]
[edit]Late Heinlein novels
The Number of the Beast, 1980
Friday, 1982—Hugo, Nebula, and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1983[10]
Job: A Comedy of Justice, 1984 - Nebula Award nominee, 1984;[11] Locus Fantasy Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, 1985[12]
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, 1985
To Sail Beyond the Sunset, 1987
[edit]Early Heinlein works published posthumously
For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs (written in 1939, published posthumously in 2003)
Variable Star (posthumously with Spider Robinson) (Heinlein's 8 page outline written in 1955; Robinson's full novel from the outline appeared in 2006)
[edit]Short fiction

[edit]"Future History" short fiction
"Life-Line", 1939
"Let There Be Light", 1940
"Misfit", 1939
"The Roads Must Roll", 1940
"Requiem", 1940
"If This Goes On—", 1940, first novel.[1]
"Coventry", 1940
"Blowups Happen", 1940
"Universe", 1941
"—We Also Walk Dogs" 1941 (as Anson MacDonald)
"Common Sense", 1941
"Methuselah's Children", 1941 (lengthened and published as a novel, 1958)
"Logic of Empire", 1941
"Space Jockey", 1947
"It's Great to Be Back!", 1947
"The Green Hills of Earth", 1947
"Ordeal in Space", 1948
"The Long Watch", 1948
"Gentlemen, Be Seated!", 1948
"The Black Pits of Luna", 1948
"Delilah and the Space Rigger", 1949
"The Man Who Sold the Moon", 1951, (Retro Hugo Award)
"The Menace From Earth", 1957
"Searchlight", 1962
[edit]Other short speculative fiction
All the works initially attributed to Anson MacDonald, Caleb Saunders, John Riverside and Simon York, and many of the works attributed to Lyle Monroe, were later reissued in various Heinlein collections and attributed to Heinlein.
At Heinlein's insistence, the three Lyle Monroe stories marked with the symbol '§' were never reissued in a Heinlein anthology during his lifetime.
"Magic, Inc.", 1940 (aka: "The Devil Makes the Law")
"Solution Unsatisfactory", 1940 (as Anson MacDonald)
"Let There Be Light", 1940 (as Lyle Monroe)
"Successful Operation" 1940 (aka: "Heil!") (as Lyle Monroe)
"They", 1941
"—And He Built a Crooked House—", 1941
"By His Bootstraps", 1941 (as Anson MacDonald)
"Lost Legacy", 1941 (aka: "Lost Legion") (as Lyle Monroe)
"Elsewhen", 1941 (aka: "Elsewhere") (as Caleb Saunders)
§ "Beyond Doubt", 1941 (as Lyle Monroe with Elma Wentz)
"The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag", 1942 (as John Riverside)
"Waldo", 1942 (as Anson MacDonald)
§ "My Object All Sublime", 1942 (as Lyle Monroe)
"Goldfish Bowl", 1942 (as Anson MacDonald)
§ "Pied Piper", 1942 (as Lyle Monroe)
"Free Men", 1946 (published 1966)
"Jerry Was a Man", 1947
"Columbus Was a Dope", 1947 (as Lyle Monroe)
"On the Slopes of Vesuvius", 1947
"Our Fair City", 1948
"Gulf", 1949
"Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon", 1949
"Destination Moon", 1950
"The Year of the Jackpot", 1952
"Project Nightmare", 1953
"Sky Lift", 1953
"Tenderfoot in Space", 1956 (serialized 1958)
"The Man Who Traveled in Elephants", 1957 (aka: "The Elephant Circuit")
"—All You Zombies—", 1959
[edit]Other short fiction
"A Bathroom of Her Own", 1946
"Dance Session", 1946 (love poem)
"The Witch's Daughters", 1946 (poem)
"Water Is for Washing", 1947
"They Do It with Mirrors", 1947 (as Simon York)
"Poor Daddy", 1949
"Cliff and the Calories", 1950
"The Bulletin Board", 1951

Star Trek: To Reign In Hell by Greg Cox
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

mojo wrote:aaaand..

Holy shit you've read a lot of sci-fi novels. 0_o

holy fuck mojo you need to discover porn dude...:).

my grandma used to tell anyone who would listen that when i first learned to read she would refuse to take me anywhere because i couldn't see a printed word anywhere without reading it. apparently it didn't even matter if it was a duplicate, because she said i would throw a fit if, for example, we were walking down an aisle in a supermarket and she tried to stop me from reading each individual can of green beans. everyone thought it was hilarious, but she actually still seemed sincerely frustrated even 20 years later. she must have been pulling her hair out at the time.
then, growing up, i was constantly getting in trouble because my parents thought it was unhealthy to just lay in bed and read a book all day so they'd throw me out of the house and tell me to 'go play', but i would always carry a paperback around in my pocket and hours later they'd find me sitting under some tree.
i've read literally thousands of books. i would imagine that's not such a mindblowing thing for most sfj members, though. surely there are people here who make that seem normal by comparison. this place is filled with borderline geniuses.

AnticitizenOne wrote:Pretty straightforward topic: what are the best science fiction novels you have ever read, by any author? What are some novels that you simple have to read before you die?

The Doom comic adaptation...

... Oh, we're serious? Well, I'd recommend mostly old school stuff (Asimov, Heinlein, Bester, Smith, van Vogt, etc).

In more modern times I'm mostly mired in shared universes like SW, 40k or BattleTech. So there I don't have as many good ones to submit, since most fiction based on RPGs tends to be average at best, and usually far worse. (Though there are rare exceptions.)

General Donner wrote:

AnticitizenOne wrote:Pretty straightforward topic: what are the best science fiction novels you have ever read, by any author? What are some novels that you simple have to read before you die?

The Doom comic adaptation...

... Oh, we're serious? Well, I'd recommend mostly old school stuff (Asimov, Heinlein, Bester, Smith, van Vogt, etc).

In more modern times I'm mostly mired in shared universes like SW, 40k or BattleTech. So there I don't have as many good ones to submit, since most fiction based on RPGs tends to be average at best, and usually far worse. (Though there are rare exceptions.)

golden age sci-fi and earlier is pure joy. it's nice to find someone else who sees that.

i would argue that zahn's star wars stuff is very good. not on the same level, but very good. i enjoyed most of the njo as well.

I have to say, "Hitchicker's guide to the Galaxy" is pretty near the top, with "2001: A Space Odyssey" as well...
But my favorite books, of late, have been Shadorun books, mostly written by Nigel Findley...
Intense action, a main character a bit like John McLane, and interesting stories with nice humane elements...

AnticitizenOne wrote:Pretty straightforward topic: what are the best science fiction novels you have ever read, by any author? What are some novels that you simple have to read before you die?

In my opinion (and in no particular order);
-Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
-2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
-Vacuum Diagrams, by Stephen Baxter
-1984, by George Orwell

You?

It's a bit hard to jump into something like a book where it's written that it's tied to the Xeelee. It's both too huge too absorb, if you go by what fans write, and too vague for your interest to get caught.
So what's the thing that makes Baxter's book good?

I remember reading the Vorkosigan saga, which was very entertaining. But then, I can't figure out how to tell why I liked those books and I could certainly not sell them.
What was appreciable was the central character, Miles Vorkosigan, how events unfolded around him, how he met and built his own team from scratch, how he outsmarted his enemies but sometimes got smacked really hard, and how his adventures inserted themselves into an intrigue focused on a couple major worlds and dominions. I prefer stories to focus on less worlds but have them considerably well developed.

This is what happened with the Dune series, which are part of those I cherish the most.

I went through Hyperion, which was very nice, but for some reason, once Hyperion was down and the whole network crashed, I didn't care much about the rest of the universe's evolution. Plus Simmons hard on for poetry at any opportunity was getting tiring.

A few years ago I bought Snow Crash. Yeah, I know. I think it's a book that is too tied to a given era. Trying to get into it now is just too hard.

Mojo, since it seems you're literally beyond using usual nutrients and now solely feeding on fiction, may I obtain your help in order to find some good science fiction to read?

I'd like something of the vein of Dune or Hyperion, perhaps a bit stargatish if possible.
Would you know a book that would come close to any of that?

probably. tomorrow i'll go through the study and see what pops out.

OMG UR SO L8!!!!!1!!

god, oragahn, my apologies. i read your request just before i went to bed the other night and forgot all about it.

i don't know a thing about stargate. i know it's kind of your thing, but unfortunately every time i try to watch the movie i just immediately fall asleep. i don't know what it is. it's not just stargate, the same thing happens when i try to watch the lord of the rings movies. anyway, i don't think i can help you there.

i loved dune, but i am not much of a fan of the rest of the series.

dune, though, of course feels much more like fantasy than sci-fi. i'm not huge on fantasy, but i have read some interesting and i think fairly obscure things you might not have read. of course, if you are a big fan of fantasy, you will probably already know about these.

i very much enjoyed the thomas covenant books, 'the chronicles of thomas covenant the unbeliever'. this series is about a 20th century man who has leprosy who finds himself in a fantasy world filled with magic and whatnot, but the training he was given in order to survive with the disease causes him to reject the possibility that what he's seeing is real. he has a white gold ring which is a source of wild magic in that world, but, hilariously, you have to believe in it to make it work. it sounds dumb, but so do most stories if you try to explain the premise in one or two sentences. it's done well, and there are two full trilogies and one in progress, averaging five hundred or so pages per book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Covenant

i also LOVED fred saberhagen's Books of Swords series. this is one of those series where you have a fantasy setting that turns out to be a far future post-apocalyptic world. the gods decide to play a game, and so they make 12 magic swords using metal from a meteorite which makes them so powerful that they can affect the gods themselves. the swords have different powers, and the series is more about the swords than the characters. this series actually is kind of stupid, but it's so much fun that neither i nor my brothers minded. i read them in high school, though, so your mileage may vary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_swords

the last fantasy series i really loved was the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony. each book centers on a different god, as in the god of death or the god of war, and it's obvious the author had a lot of fun just working out how the powers would work and what would be the problems this or that god would have to deal with. it does a pretty good job of actually having a decent overarching storyline as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarnatio ... mmortality

it seems like maybe you ought to be suggesting fiction for me to read instead, because i've never read hyperion either. in fact, i thought it was a horror novel. isn't that what dan simmons writes, generally? reading the wikipedia article gives me the impression hyperion might be another sci-fi story that reads more like fantasy.

i feel like i've totally failed you here because i'm honestly not sure what it is that you're looking for. i really have read quite a lot, and i'm eager to help you in any way i can, which you know. maybe you could be a little more specific about what you liked in those books you mentioned?

the problem may be that i have read a tremendous amount of a very specific kind of sci-fi. i have read so much golden age science fiction that i am beginning to have trouble finding stuff i haven't already read. that means, of course, that i have read very very little that comes after 1970 or so, and that's pushing it as it's late silver age.
i read a huge amount of star wars eu, probably between 1/3 to 1/2 of all the novels, within a six month period directly after finding this site and getting obsessed with the topic. after that, i have read almost no more sw, and that was 2007. i think the last thing i read was the comic book in which luke goes dark side for a while. i thought it was shit.
i have read all the star trek fiction that i could find that had Q in it, and the book series that has the kind of 'what if' sort of stories that someone here aimed me at when i asked if there was any more Lore to be found anywhere. there was some great stuff there. that was probably 2007 or thereabouts as well, and i haven't bothered since.
i do keep up with new fiction by specific authors with some connection to the golden age, like the more recent roger zelazny and such.
aside from that i read a lot of horror fiction and all types of non-fiction.