What are some of your favorite science-fiction novels?

Evo

The Sound of thunder (the original story) was excellent. Don't let the movie discourage you, the story is nothing like it.

Evo

He was an excellent writer. As with any of the older classics, you have to remember when they were written our knowledge of some things were different, but the quality of the stories is what's important.

genericusrnme

tehe

Jobrag

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Dune Trilogy

Greg Bernhardt

One I don't hear often is "This Perfect Day". It's a Orwellian style and super interesting. You also really care abut the characters.

OmCheeto

Snowcrash was recommended to me by both Evo & Char.Limit.
It was excellent.
I couldn't wait to get home every day from work to read it.

My other favorites were read over 30 years ago, so I only know that I liked them enough to devote their titles to memory:
Dune, Childhood's End, The Gods Themselves, and Foundation Trilogy.

Aero51

Blood Music- Greg Bare

OmCheeto

Ah! I had to stop reading the wiki entry, as I decided I wanted to read the book.

Do they still write dystopian novels?
Gads those were great: Animal Farm, Atlas Shrugged, Lord of the Flies, etc.....
I can't remember now if I read Fahrenheit 451, as the movie was incredible.

hmmm... if that isn't irony, then I don't know what is...

DennisN

Mmm...nostalgia . Reading this thread made me remember quite a few books I've enjoyed. But they are quite different from eachother, so I've categorized them.

Great stories:
20,000 leagues under the sea (Jules Verne; the first novel I ever read)
The Mysterious Island (Jules Verne; not exactly SF, but connected to the above)
Foundation Trilogy (Isaac Asimov)
The Currents of Space (Isaac Asimov)
I, Robot (Isaac Asimov)
The Caves of Steel (Isaac Asimov)

Great storytelling:
Dune (Frank Herbert (1965); wow)
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley; excellent story)

Entertaining:
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (Robert A. Heinlein)
The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton)
Sphere (Michael Crichton; good book, not so good movie)

Interesting/weird:
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson; short but excellent)
Solaris (Stanislaw Lem; original and weird)
Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C. Clarke; a masterpiece IMO)
The Werewolf Principle (Clifford D. Simak; original and weird)

Dystopias:
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley; classic)
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury; classic)
1984 (George Orwell; classic)

Also, Philip K. Dick has written many good short stories. I like all of the books I listed, but the must-reads would IMO be Foundation Trilogy, The Currents of Space, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde and Brave New World.

cobalt124

Plus:

On my "to read" list:

The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton)
Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C. Clarke)
Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom: Destination: Void, The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect and The Ascension Factor.
Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker

Recommend:
any John Wyndham
any H.G. Wells
Asimov: The Rest of the Robots
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle
Philip Jose Farmer: Riverworld Series, The Stone God Awakens
Olaf Stapledon: Sirius, Last and First Men
Joseph O'Neill: Land Under England
E. E. Smith: Lensman and Skylark series

turbo

If anybody reading this thread has not read Ender's Game, do it now. It is that good. Then follow up with Speaker for the Dead. OSC is a fantastic author. I have loved the works of Heinlen and Asimov (among others), but Card is in a league of his own, IMO.

Greg Bernhardt

ah thanks for the reminder. I met someone on one of my travels who recommended it too and of course I forgot. I'm going straight to amazon now! :)

Has anyone read the classics "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and "The Lost World"? I've been thinking of picking them up.

phyzguy

No Larry Niven fans in this crowd?? I'd highly recommend "Ringworld", "Protector", and "The Integral Trees". All are highly imaginative and represent what I think of as "hard" science fiction, as opposed to fantasy. Another novel I'd recommend is "Tau Zero" by Poul Anderson.

cobalt124

Read this a long time ago, dark, atmospheric, suspenseful and scary, definitely recommend.

Aziraphale

Nice suggestions. I'm addicted to the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series, but that's not Sci-Fi... I've been meaning to re-read Snow Crash for a long time, since I've forgotten pretty much all of it. Maybe I'll try to borrow it from you, Greg, if you're done by Xmas. As for my favorites, definitely the Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow series, although the more recent books are definitely not as good as the first in each series.

Ditto comments about KSR's Mars Trilogy. Very interesting story, but way too much filler.

Other suggestions: Margaret Atwood is great at good, old-fashioned social commentary through science fiction. I liked Oryx and Crake for its take on the possibilities of genetic engineering run amok. I'll come back and post more once I've had a chance to think...

OmCheeto

This thread needs to have the "edit" time limit eliminated, as I keep seeing books I've read that were simply incredible.

Rendezvous with Rama!

A really big cylinder, astronauts, and no aliens. How could anyone write an interesting story about that?

All I can remember is that I loved it.

SHISHKABOB

I just read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman and wow it was pretty great.