Jump to content
IGNORED

the best science fiction books of all time?

chaosmachine

By chaosmachine
in General Banter

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 62
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Atop Grand Master

Atop

Posted
Posted

More than Human, The Stars My Destination, A Voyage to Arcturus, Childhood's End, Rendezvous with Rama, 2001, We, War of the Worlds, VALIS, Dr Adder, The Divine Invasion, Dune, The Moon Pool, The Purple Cloud, Cat's Cradle. and many more not yet read

Link to comment
Share on other sites
joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

Posted
Posted

contact by carl sagan

the book is great because it doesnt have matthew macconagay

 

also the ending isn't as hilariously anticlimactic and half-assed as it is in the film

 

Ubik. Ubik. Ubik.

I like pretty much everything I've read from P. K. Dick, but this one is my all time favourite.

Also the whole the two main Asimov cycles : the Robots and Foundation...The way he managed to unite both into one gigantic piece of work is simply amazing.

 

Also mention speciale to Dune !

 

 

 

The Colour Out of Space by HPL

 

not a book but I dunno, it's one of my favorites.

 

I just loooooove Lovecraft as well, especially this one - but I don't think at it as being SciFi...

 

 

Eh, HPL helped set the stage for modern sci-fi so I consider some of his stories sci-fi. Especially when you consider that his old god mythos is based on them being from other worlds/planets/universes whatever/somewhere not from earth.

 

Yeah I finally read a collection of HPL myself, the plot concepts are incredibly ahead of their time: parallel universes, inter-dimensional beings, etc. Verne and HG Wells were novel as well, but more in regards to technology.

 

Hitchhiker's Guide

 

YES! I'm glad someone else mentioned Hitchhiker's. Another vote for Ender's Game here as well.

 

No Heinlein? I always see him up there with Asimov and Arthur C Clarke...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest ScreamingHorse

Guest ScreamingHorse

Posted
Posted

Accelerando by Charles Stross is a great sci-fi. Greatest of all time is a pretty heavy claim to make- it's definitely worth reading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bronchuseven Mentor

bronchuseven

Posted
Posted

i just read "babel-17" by sam delany and thought it was fantastic, though it ended a BIT too abruptly. still would put it in my top 10 just for the concepts.

Nice 1! There are quite a few Delany books I'd throw on the list, and Babel-17 is definitely one of the best. Just re-read it recently, and the concepts are indeed sparklingly original.

 

last_and_first_men_frontcover_large_BD1iVfZQvZRUxk8.png

Another stellar pick! Reading this, it's very hard to believe that it's over 100 years old! Way, way ahead of his time. Can be hard to track this one down - not sure if it's even in print any longer, and you'll never see it in any bookstore. I think mine came from amazon..

 

You guys already named most of my suggestions (atop!), but there are a few I'd like to add -

J.G. Ballard - The Unlimited Dream Company

David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest (it's not what most would consider science fiction, but I think it definitely fits)

Alfred Bester - everything he ever wrote! Stars My Destination & Demolished Man already mentioned, but also: Golem100, Extro (aka Computer Connection), The Deceivers, Psychoshop (finished posthumously by Zelazny)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
murve33 Grand Master

murve33

Posted
Posted

Philip K Dick - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

I'm glad someone said this. Such a trippy book.

 

The Divine Invasion by Phillip K Dick was fantastic as well. I haven't read one of his books in a while. I suppose I should read VALIS, since it has been mentioned a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cazador Mod Unit Proficient

Cazador Mod Unit

Posted
Posted

Pattern-Recognition-William-Gibson-18-lge.jpg

 

I like Pattern Recognition (William Gibson). It's about people posting in Internet forums, advertising pranks, hunting cool stuff, Macs, etc. It made me realize doing * this * doesn't necessarily have to be something to be ashamed of and now I'm looking forward to join a superspy watmm organization in the near future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TechDiff Proficient

TechDiff

Posted
Posted

Ooh, I figure most of my favs have been mentioned.. but just in case

 

Ubik/PKD

Neuromancer/Gibson

The Diamond Age (A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer)/Stephenson

Virtual Light/All tomorrows Parties/Gibson

Burning chrome (Collection of shorts by Gibson)

Do Androids Dream of electric sheep?/PKD

We/Zamyatin

Brave New World/Huxley

Diamond Dogs (short by Alastair Reynolds)

 

could go on tbh. Don't read as much as I used to. Couple years ago I was working in a bookshop and had an hours commute to work each day, loads of reading time. Still haven't got round to reading zero history, any good?

 

Honestly though, if you haven't read "we" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel) do so, Such a beautifully written book, pretty incredible considering when it was written, and its influence is very clear.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 years later...
doublename Grand Master

doublename

Posted
Posted

I'll add/second Inverted World by Christopher Priest.

 

Bump because Christmas.

 

Anyone reading/read Seveneves? I keep falling asleep listening to the first chapter (same thing happened with Anathem, eventually I got into it and it was great).

I quit Seveneves pretty early on. I also really enjoyed Anathem, but I think I'm done with NS after this and Reamde.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
QQQ Mentor

QQQ

Posted
Posted

A scanner darkly

Three stigmata of eldrich palmer

Flow my tears the policeman said

 

PKD can't be beat imo.

 

I never finished Dune. It was too dry (haha! dry! get it?) - I need to give it another shot, maybe I wasn't in the mood at the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

warb warb warble

 

Most of the books I've read and liked have been named; will read some of the recs made.

i do remember reading a star trilogy by timoty vaughn when i was 13/14. i remember it being pretty good.

 

just was looking through the list that was initially posted and it was on there

 

51uKH783EkL.jpg

 

:shuriken: -edit- it takes place AFTER star wars 6, so consider this story a paralel universe created before the newboot

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.