What are some of your favorite science-fiction novels?

[Mark Baker]

Nobody's mentioned Greg Bear's Forge of God or its sequel Anvil of Stars. Forge was a great story but a bit depressing though. Anvil was a different style, fast paced and chilling too.

 

[UsableThought]

I loved the Otherland series by Tad Williams. It's set some 50 to 100 years in the future where the internet has been replaced by a vast series of ineractive virtual reality worlds. Utilizing this, a very powerful cabal of wealthy men and women create a secret world whose operating system is an Artificial Intelligence that is grown from the subconscious minds of millions of comatose children . . . it is able to sample a multitude of different science fiction and fantasy stories, from dystopian Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz, to some H.G. Wells stuff, or what the world would look like if Europeans never came to the New World, World War II, to completely novel worlds, like a kitchen inhabited by 1920s product logo characters, or a library the size of an entire world, so large it's AI inhabitants have yet to plot out all of its locations.

Hmm, "Matrix" meets "Alice" meets Jorge Luis Borges. Sounds potentially very cool - I've put a hold on the first of the series via our local library.

 

[PinkyMcFiddle]

Hmm, "Matrix" meets "Alice" meets Jorge Luis Borges. Sounds potentially very cool - I've put a hold on the first of the series via our local library.

Problem is it's the Matrix 2 Rave scene with the Tim Burton "Alice" big heads and Borges' jowls. Imagine being in a cringworthy rave with those massive jowls hitting you in the face.

 

[Battlemage!]

Hmm, "Matrix" meets "Alice" meets Jorge Luis Borges. Sounds potentially very cool - I've put a hold on the first of the series via our local library.

I hope you enjoy it. As I said it may not be for everyone, but I'm the type of person who enjoys that kind of sci-fi.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Hammer's Slammers and Falkenberg's Legion. (Yeah, I'm retired military.)

 

[Buzz Bloom]

What about some that are light, goofy, convoluted, entertaining, easy to read,funny and don't have creepy creatures,

Red Shirts by John Scalzi.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Relatively recent sci-fi movies among my favorites.

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Source Code (2011)
Ender's Game (2013)
The Age of Adeline (2015)

 

[WaxyChicken]

I don't know if anyone mentioned them yet, but the Wild Cards books
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards

there is a touch of fantasy in some of the individuals, but enough Sci and What-If to keep you glued... even through all 22+ books.

in short:
i'd try to give a brief on what it's about but it's much better than i'd make it sound, i promise.

 

[sappho.poiesis]

Relatively recent sci-fi movies among my favorites.

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Source Code (2011)
Ender's Game (2013)
The Age of Adeline (2015)

Since you mention movies (I totallyloved those) I would also add About Time (2013) it's similar to The Time Traveler's Wife and it's awesome.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Since you mention movies (I totally loved those) I would also add About Time (2013) it's similar to The Time Traveler's Wife and it's awesome.

Hi sappho:

I tend to find most stories and/or movies about time travel to be sufficiently flawed to make then unlikable, but there are exceptions.

The Time Traveler's Wife is a favorite because of the excellent handling of its complicated plot related to the lack of control of the time travel and the consistency of its consequences.

About Time is also good. I particularly liked the consistency of changing the past having subtle unintended consequences, especially having the protagonist's child becoming a different child.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[EnumaElish]

Currently reading Baxter's "Ring." Interesting premise, comparable to Tau Zero in its breadth. Fluent writing. Recommendable.

 

[DaveC426913]

Currently reading Baxter's "Ring." Interesting premise, comparable to Tau Zero in its breadth. Fluent writing. Recommendable.

I'm currently looking around for new good reads (again). I picked up Tau Zero last year on a recommendation (possibly even from someone here).

While I kind of enjoyed most of the book, the final conceit was - in my opinion - an egregious misunderstanding of cosmological geometry. Enough to tank the story for me. I put it off as an error due to the novel being many decades old - before we had a better understanding of how our universe might rebound. You can't just kinda stand off the the side!

Since "Ring'" is also several decades old, I'm very gun-shy about picking it up, lest it make the same mistake.

 

[enorbet]

It's probably been mentioned but since it has become an ongoing series and a good one at that, it's worth risking a re-mention -

Ender's Game - The film is decent which translates into nearly awesome when referring to the average Sci Fi film and the book is very good being both entertaining and thought provoking - A 21st Century analog for Heinlein's excellent "Starship Troopers" with the caveat that Troopers as a movie was absolute junk, while Ender's is commendable..

 

[Buzz Bloom]

I picked up Tau Zero last year on a recommendation

Hi Dave:

Thank you for mentioning Tau Zero (1970). I was a big fan of Anderson (along with Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Bradbury, Bester, and others) back in the 50s and 60s, and back then I read almost all of Anderson's stories. Somehow I never read Tau Zero, so after your post I read it. It was as good as he ever was in his hard SciFi novels, among the very best in keeping the science of the story consistent with science as it was known at the time, which very few SciFi writers bother to do. However, there was a flaw towards the end that violated science as it was known in 1970, and I think it likely Anderson did it anyway because he wanted the emotion of that particular plot element in his story.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[DaveC426913]

there was a flaw towards the end that violated science as it was known in 1970, and I think it likely Anderson did it anyway because he wanted the emotion of that particular plot element in his story.

Agree. But, like in a gedanken experiment, so it is with a story. You can only violate physics that is not critical to the main goal.

If he hadn't violated the physics, he wouldn't have had a story at all. (Or at least it would have ended with epic - and painful - failure.)In fact, one wonders if he found out part way through writing the story (some physicist would had to have come clean, and said 'dude, love the writing but ... not going to happen') but he was too far along to back out.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Agree. But, like in a gedanken experiment, so it is with a story. You can only violate physics that is not critical to the main goal.

Hi Dave:

I have a feeling we are not talking about the same "flaw". As we know today, the universe is not going to behave the way the story develops. I think in 1970 that way was still a possibility. The flaw I had in mind is about what they could observe at the critical point in the story. What the story said they observed would not be observable, and I am pretty sure that was known well before 1970.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Are you really trying to avoid spoilers in a book that old?

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Are you really trying to avoid spoilers in a book that old?

Yes.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

New Testament: Jesus dies.

 

[UsableThought]

Are you really trying to avoid spoilers in a book that old?

Yes.

I approve and am grateful. I'm just starting to get interested in picking up a copy.

I think a big purpose of this thread is recommendations of stories we like to those who may not have read them. Old stories are just as enjoyable as new stories.

 

[DaveC426913]

Hi Dave:
I have a feeling we are not talking about the same "flaw".

Spoiler: This flaw

For starters, I grant the premise that the universe could be closed, and could contract again. That's not my beef.

The flaw I'm talking about is the idea of being able to stay "outside" the Big Crunch to the new Big Bang..

In the same way "our" Big Bang was not an expansion in space, but an expansion of space - so it is that the Big Crunch will not be a contraction in space, it will be a contraction of space.

As they tried to keep themselves distant from the Big Crunch, they would find it impossible to do - because the universe would actually be shrinking toward a point. There would be nowhere to go. The whole universe would shrink down past 1 light year, past 1 AU, past 1 km and on down. Even if he ship could survive the radiation and gravity, eventually the universe would shrink till it's smaller than the ship! There is no "outside" a Big Bang.

 

[crueldeceiver]

Ender's Game and Ringworld.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Hi Dave:

Thanks for your clarification. We are then talking about the same flaw. We were only focusing on two different aspects.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[DaveC426913]

Thanks for your clarification. We are then talking about the same flaw. We were only focusing on two different aspects.

And reason this one bothers me so much is because it's a mistake only a complete noob makes. This misconception is so cosmologically basic it's a cliche.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Meh, they had this thing...

 

[chasrob]

Nobody's mentioned Greg Bear's Forge of God or its sequel Anvil of Stars. Forge was a great story but a bit depressing though. Anvil was a different style, fast paced and chilling too.

I liked both books too, but rated them the reverse. Forge was also a thriller, and an excellent example of that genre. Along with his Quantico and Mariposa. Bear is one of the very best SF authors. Hell, he rates well with anybody in any genre IMO.

 

[tholepin]

My favorite novel is "A Canticle for Leibowitz," written by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Isaac Edward Leibowitz was a scientist who managed to survive the Flame Deluge that destroyed civilization. He dedicated his life to the recovery and preservation of pre-deluge knowledge - until his martyrdom by the hands of a book-burning mob. The story illuminates the ending of the Dark Age and the renaissance. The archived knowledge ignited the seeds for an uncertain future.

Just finished G. Bear's "Eon" which plays out in an O'Neill's column. Lovely.

 

[sandy stone]

I'm too lazy to read through the whole thread, but if they haven't been mentioned yet I would list 'The Lathe of Heaven' by Ursula K. LeGuin and the incredible 'The Stars My Destination' by Alfred Bester. 'Out of the Silent Planet' by C. S. Lewis is interesting if a bit philosophical.