07-10-2011, 07:51 PM | #46 | |
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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. I have always been bothered by the ending. Intrigued by Prof. The book made an impression on me.
Probably my second favorite sci-fi book is a Philip K. Dick collection. I have reread 1984. Stranger in a Strange Land is on my Kindle to be read on vacation. I am on a mission to read more of Robert Heinlein this year. For some reason I overlooked this arthor, except for The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Quote:
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07-10-2011, 08:51 PM | #47 |
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Stars In Your Pocket Likes Grains Of Sand by Samuel Delaney
A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge Both really great books with some great ideas and interesting ways of writing. |
07-10-2011, 09:22 PM | #48 |
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"An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore.
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07-10-2011, 09:42 PM | #49 |
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07-11-2011, 02:00 AM | #50 |
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The Handmaid's Tale
Maybe Ender's Game |
07-11-2011, 02:25 AM | #51 |
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Isn't this a little bit like asking a mother to name her favorite child? Uh-uh. No way am I going to label any single book as the Best Sci-fi title ever. But a few of my favorites over the years have been:
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold The Ballad of Beta-2 by Samuel R. Delaney Timothy Zahn's Star Wars books (yes, I know; technically, they're science-fantasy) Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels |
07-11-2011, 02:29 AM | #52 |
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Wait wait! How could I forget The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey? Also The Ship Who Searched.
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07-11-2011, 06:58 AM | #53 |
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07-11-2011, 09:12 AM | #54 |
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I feel too that it is an impossible task, but I was saddened that nobody yet mentioned Clifford Simak. An incredible fusion of perfect SF with a melancholic vision of USA in the fifties.
I don't know where to begin, but certainly his City is one of the best books ever written. Stop. No arguments accepted. And Waystation, do not let me even begin to talk about it... it takes you to the heart. ... or Highway of eternity !!! One of the most wonderful and surreal descriptions of time travel I ever read ... You don't know SF if you don't know Simak. alessandro |
07-11-2011, 10:02 AM | #55 | |
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Quote:
City was my all-time favorite for a long time, just edged out by Foundation Trilogy...but still right up there. It is one of the few books I've re-read multiple times. |
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07-11-2011, 12:20 PM | #56 |
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Anyone read Tad Williams Overland series? Its been recommended several times. When I see a set of massive books like that my first thought is a good editor is needed. I read that Tad considered the whole set 1 book that had to be broken up due to length.
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07-11-2011, 01:31 PM | #57 | |
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Quote:
NOTE: I've read huge books/series that I thought were too short, and I've read short-books that I felt were too long... so it's not just me disliking huge books or long series. Williams just tends to talk too much—which wouldn't be a problem if he had a lot to say—for my taste. Last edited by DiapDealer; 07-11-2011 at 02:25 PM. |
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07-11-2011, 01:37 PM | #58 |
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Thanks for reminding me.
Anne McCaffery Andre Norton Marion Zimmer Bradley All excellent authors but like you say some are more fantasy than Sci-fi |
07-11-2011, 01:42 PM | #59 |
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A Song of Fire and Ice-A Game of Thrones
I started reading this when the first book came out and have loved it. The HBO series has amped up the eroticism a bit to my mind but the story line is followed well just as in LOTR. I had hoped for a film version of The Sword of Truth but we shall see. |
07-11-2011, 02:57 PM | #60 | |
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I love ASOIAF, but I gotta say that it's epic fantasy. It definitely ain't SciFi. Its not even close to the line, the way McCaffery and MZB are. Just saying. Now there are a lot of people-GRRM among them- who would say that's a distinction without a difference, and if you like, we could have that discussion. Maybe the OP should have begun by defining what science fiction is.
For purposes of this thread, I think we should stick to novels that fall within the Wikipedia definition: Quote:
While its not the best science fiction novel ever written, I think that the most influential SF novel ever written was HG Wells' The War of the Worlds. Think of how many SF tropes were introduced or popularized by the book: * Life on other planets *Space travel *First contact with aliens *Alien invasion *Ray guns and hi-tech weaponry *War between planets *Colonization of other planets *Exhaustion of planetary resources and planet wide ecological catastrophe *Possibility of biological warfare * Political commentary ( Wells was commenting on European imperial policy) Indeed I would argue that HG Wells is the most important author in the history of SF, and that the genre is for the most part a commentary upon and an expansion of his works. Last edited by stonetools; 07-21-2011 at 10:43 AM. |
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