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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - *OFFICIAL* Science Fiction Book Thread (Page 2 of 7)

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:40:01 PM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:
Dune

/thread

It's the only series I've read at least 5 times

.

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:42:19 PM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
"The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman

"Ender's Game" was pretty cool but I clued into the plot twister well before it was revealed. Still good, though.

Same here, I was a little disappointed when I found out I was right all along

.

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:42:58 PM EDT

[#3]

Ender's Game or Starship Troopers

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:45:22 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, was pretty awesome too.

Read it in a day. I wouldn't consider it sci-fi. More Fantasy.

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:49:05 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Gee I wonder what Arfcom will say...

My bet is the hive's consensus will be Starship Troopers.

That was a good one

I thought it was kinda meh as a sci-fi novel, honestly.

As a treatise on several of the author's beliefs with solid backing and explanation all the way around though, I found it extremely good and quite convincing.

Yeah, but that's like all of Heinlein's work. You do get tired of him screaming at you through his characters.

And wanting to fuck his mother.

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:49:21 PM EDT

[#6]

Dune

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:50:16 PM EDT

[#7]

The Fury series?
http://www.amazon.com/Fury-Born-David-Weber/dp/1416521313/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:50:51 PM EDT

[#8]

Of all time? Impossible to say. I know some good one's though.

Tau Zero is the best pure hard scifi ever written.

Rendezvous with Rama

Jules Verne's Mysterious Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Spin

Fall of Hyperion

Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep?

Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Forever War

A Deepness in the Sky

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:52:30 PM EDT

[#9]

Ringworld FTMFW.

Some of you need to learn the difference between fantasy and scifi. LOTR, though magnificent, is not scifi.

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:54:35 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:

I see a lot of classics, but I have to go with the Hyperion books by Dan Simmons. He also wrote the Illium and Olympos, which, while not as riveting as the first Hyperion books, were an incredible concept.

Shrike owns all things:

http://www.sefskillz.com/tree/tree/pictures/shrike.jpg

Simmons' great fault is in equivocating ultimate intelligence with ultimate power. If intelligence had in it's definition extension, Stephen Hawking wouldn't be in a wheelchair. So the battle between the UI's is farcical. He does have good imagery and dramatic buildup.

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:56:42 PM EDT

[#11]

I always have to give a shout out to my good friend's books...

http://www.sff.net/people/John-c-wright/

-3D

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:56:52 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:

Quoted:

I'm sticking with Dune, but Neuromancer was pretty good too... just surprised no one mentioned it yet...

I'm reading Neuromancer now. I'm desperately waiting for it to get good, because if not I'll have to face the fact that I 'just don't get it'.

Seriously, I can barely follow this thing. It's just a touch to styled for my tastes, I guess. Snowcrash was about a thousand times better and, so far as I can tell, it's the same basic premise and story.

It's one of those "Journey not the Destination" type stories. Didn't like it much either.

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:59:04 PM EDT

[#13]

Childhood's End

Posted: 5/2/2010 11:59:23 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:

enders game.

/thread

+1

Posted: 5/3/2010 12:00:56 AM EDT

[#15]

First person who wants to read Neuromancer IM me your address and I'll send it.

Posted: 5/3/2010 12:04:56 AM EDT

[#16]

Give The Book of the New Sun a try...

You will either love it, hate it, or pull your hair out, maybe all three.

Posted: 5/3/2010 12:10:12 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:

Quoted:

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, was pretty awesome too.

Read it in a day. I wouldn't consider it sci-fi. More Fantasy.

Yeah, you're probably right. Great book though.

Posted: 5/3/2010 12:23:39 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
I always have to give a shout out to my good friend's books...

http://www.sff.net/people/John-c-wright/

-3D

I bought & read all three of the Chaos series. Sorry, I just didn't get them. I kept hoping they'd get better. They never did. Then again, I like stories with a beginning, middle and end. YMMV.

(Hey, Dahlgren is hailed as a literary masterpiece. Did anyone *read* that POS?!)

Just finished "Between the Strokes of Midnight." That was a fascinating (Hard-sf) story.
oh, and the obligatory "Foundation series" by Asimov - should not be missed.

Posted: 5/3/2010 12:32:25 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Probably Dune.

This!

Posted: 5/3/2010 12:37:19 AM EDT

[#20]

Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut is one of my favorite books.

Posted: 5/3/2010 12:54:10 AM EDT

[#21]

Free Hold
Michael Williamson

Free here:
http://www.webscription.net//p-162-freehold.aspx

Just read it. ARFOCOM will thank me

ETA: Link hot

Posted: 5/3/2010 12:56:15 AM EDT

[#22]

My favorite now is the same as when I was a very small kid. The whole series of Danny Dunn books. God, I loved them.

Posted: 5/3/2010 1:01:06 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
Yeah, Starship Troopers.

+1 for the win.

Posted: 5/3/2010 1:09:44 AM EDT

[#24]

Perhaps I'm a little older than some of ya'll, but here goes.

My favorite sci-fi author is Edgar Rice Burroughs. I think the Tarzan series ranks at the top. If you've ever actually read them , you'll realize they are a 180 degree turn from the "Tarzan" movies and TV shows. Tarzan is an English Lord, whom is rich, speaks several languages, travels to mysterious places in Africa meeting all sorts of strange people. Jane is an American women. He does battle with ancient civilizations, native tribes, communists, Arabs, talking Gorillas, dinasaurs, fights in WWI and in WWII, he's a Colonel in the RAF, travels to the center of the earth. He has a beautiful but dangerous admirer in Princess La of the city of Opar..

I'll agree that a lot of the Tarzan stories are human drama, but there's enough sci-fi to classify it in the genre.

What about John Carters of Mars ? Burroughs gives us an entire planet full of warlike civilizations, time travel, strange creatures, Martian politics. I can't begin to describe all the adventures John Carter faced on Mars plus the beautiful Princess of Mars, Dejah Thoris.

Burroughs also gave us Carson of Venus and the Pellucidar series at The Earth's Core, the trilogy about The Land That Time Forgot. I personally feel the Pellucidar series is very underrated.

I'll also add Jules Vernes Mysterious Island, the book and not the goofy 1960's movie based upon it.

Posted: 5/3/2010 1:12:05 AM EDT

[#25]

The moon is a harsh mistress.

Neuromancer.

Stand on Zanzibar.

Take your pick.

Posted: 5/3/2010 1:17:32 AM EDT

[#26]

I'd rather take off my shoes and walk across a mile of broken glass than have to read starship troopers again. one of the few books I actually threw away after reading.

I'd have to say that the lester del-rey short stories collection I have on my shelf is one of the best i've read.

Posted: 5/3/2010 1:19:09 AM EDT

[#27]

Dune

Posted: 5/3/2010 1:31:27 AM EDT

[#28]

Best pure sci-fi I've read in a while is the "Coyote" series by Allen Steele.

For a series that combines sci-fi,Greek Mythology,Time Travel,it has to be Ilium/Olympos by Dan Simmons. Easily the most challenging/entertaining books I've read in 10 years,and I read a LOT!!!!

Posted: 5/3/2010 1:40:41 AM EDT

[#29]

Old Man's War is a great book.

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:23:24 AM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:

I bought & read all three of the Chaos series. Sorry, I just didn't get them. I kept hoping they'd get better. They never did. Then again, I like stories with a beginning, middle and end. YMMV.

(Hey, Dahlgren is hailed as a literary masterpiece. Did anyone *read* that POS?!)

Just finished "Between the Strokes of Midnight." That was a fascinating (Hard-sf) story.

oh, and the obligatory "Foundation series" by Asimov - should not be missed.

Read it, liked it the first time when I was 23-24. Tried reading it again at around 30 and only got about 1/4 in. It went with the next batch of books to Goodwill.

John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series is good, the Ender series is good, David Brin and Greg Bear are very good with Hard Sci-Fi. Chris Bunch and Allen Cole's Sten series should be read at least once. Brian Daley's Hobart Floyt and Alacrity Fitzhugh trilogy is lots of fun (but hard to find at a reasonable price, been out of print for a while). Dean Ing's WWIII trilogy of Systemic Shock, Single Combat, and Wild Country are very good. Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series is fun for the most part, a couple of the books are a little slow but overall still good.

When I have new fiction around to read I can exceed 500 pages a day. I mostly stick to sci-fi/fantasy, with a little historical fiction like WEB Griffin thrown in for good measure, and some mystery/detective as well, like J.A. Jance or Tony Hillerman. My wife reads mostly mystery and adventure (james rollins type), but also reads a lot of a fairly recent genre: Paranormal Romance, which is usually mystery/adventure with romance and psychics/vampires/werewolves/etc.... Although I'll give her this much, she is not a Twi-Tard.

Between us we average around 1300-1500 books at the house with turnover of about 100-200 a year. Because we both read so much she gets books from the LA City Library where she is there so often that they let her check out 10-14 books at a time. Even with that we purchase the ones we like at a rate of 10-15 a month so we can lend them to frends and family and hit them up again ourselves down the road.

ETA Can't believe I forgot David Drake, for both the Hammer's Slammers series and the Northworld Trilogy.

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:34:17 AM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
Free Hold
Michael Williamson

Free here:
http://www.webscription.net//p-162-freehold.aspx

Just read it. ARFOCOM will thank me

ETA: Link hot

Great book, another of my favorites. I also learned about it on arfcom.

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:40:37 AM EDT

[#32]

Complicated question.Asimov,Bradbury,Simok,Strugatsky bross..who to choose ?
here is my pick-ups:

The Inhabited island and the other books about Progressors and Wanderers:

The Ugly Swans,The Time Wanderers [original title "the waves pacify the wind"]

and of course:

Roadside Picnic [STALKER]

"Happiness For All, and No-one will be left out!"

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:43:53 AM EDT

[#33]

I don't know that I could narrow it down to one.
But if I absolutely had to, I think it would have to be Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams.

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:49:38 AM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:
Can't name just one... But here's a short list for me...

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Armor by John Steakley
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Artifact (can't remember the author's name)
Berzerker Wars by Fred Saberhagen

It was a great book, good sense of wonder.

Then later in the stories abot Ringworld he introduced cross-species sex and OBSESSED about it. Turned me completely off the whole thing.

Aldenata Series by John Ringo.
David Drake . . . just about anything he writes.

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:50:59 AM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
Read Ender's Game last week. Liked it a lot, didn't love it.
Reading The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis right now and Slaughter House Five is sitting here on the table next inline.

Read the rest of the Enders Game universe books. Not the sill stuff in Xenocide, either.

Enders Shadow, SHadow Puppets, etc. All great stuff.

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:54:50 AM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
I read a sci-fi book a few years back but I can't remember what it was called.

It was about this woman who joined a space marines type organization. The marines get all sorts of cybernetic enhancements. On here first mission, things really go to shit but she proves herself. She then fast tracks and ends up in the Delta SEAL ranger Elite guard of the universe and gets even more gooder enhancements that allows her to slow down time in her own head. After another shity mission where almost everyone dies, she calls it quits. Then while living on a remote planet, pirates come and kill everything she loves. She then makes it her life mission to hunt down the pirates. Somewhere along the line she gets an A.I. stuck in her head.

Anyways, that may not be the best sci-fi out there, but it is the one I enjoyed the most. Does anyone have any Idea what I'm talking about? What was that book called?

In fury born, by david weber

Second half of the book was originally a short book path of the Fury he wrote a prequel to as an omnibus for the second printing

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:54:56 AM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
I read a sci-fi book a few years back but I can't remember what it was called.

It was about this woman who joined a space marines type organization. The marines get all sorts of cybernetic enhancements. On here first mission, things really go to shit but she proves herself. She then fast tracks and ends up in the Delta SEAL ranger Elite guard of the universe and gets even more gooder enhancements that allows her to slow down time in her own head. After another shity mission where almost everyone dies, she calls it quits. Then while living on a remote planet, pirates come and kill everything she loves. She then makes it her life mission to hunt down the pirates. Somewhere along the line she gets an A.I. stuck in her head.

Anyways, that may not be the best sci-fi out there, but it is the one I enjoyed the most. Does anyone have any Idea what I'm talking about? What was that book called?

Path of the Fury is the second book. She ends up not with an AI, but the actual remnants of the mythological Greek Furies in her head.

WHen she called it quits with the Marines she didn't just walk away . . . she beat the Intel weenie who set her team up to be killed just to the edge of being dead.

Posted: 5/3/2010 2:59:00 AM EDT

[#38]

I don't care at all for his religous crap, but L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth"
is one HELL of a good book, as good a book as the movie sucked ass. It is
an epic book, IMO.

And the "Hammer's Slammer's " series by my homeboy, David Drake. My
personal favorite is "Paying The Piper."

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:04:55 AM EDT

[#39]

Some good ones already mentioned. All of the books I'd list are already mentioned, but there's a couple of series I'd add:

- The March to the Stars series by David Weber
- Really liking his Safehold series too
- Keith Laumer's Bolo series

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:06:30 AM EDT

[#40]

I'd have to go with Dune.

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:14:35 AM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:

I read a sci-fi book a few years back but I can't remember what it was called.

It was about this woman who joined a space marines type organization. The marines get all sorts of cybernetic enhancements. On here first mission, things really go to shit but she proves herself. She then fast tracks and ends up in the Delta SEAL ranger Elite guard of the universe and gets even more gooder enhancements that allows her to slow down time in her own head. After another shity mission where almost everyone dies, she calls it quits. Then while living on a remote planet, pirates come and kill everything she loves. She then makes it her life mission to hunt down the pirates. Somewhere along the line she gets an A.I. stuck in her head.

Anyways, that may not be the best sci-fi out there, but it is the one I enjoyed the most. Does anyone have any Idea what I'm talking about? What was that book called?

Path of the Fury by David Weber.

I'll wade in later with my list of the greatest Sci-Fi, off to work for now.

ETA: In Fury Born is the correct title now. The book was originally much shorter than it is now. The whole part about Alicia DeVries being a Marine and Drop Commando is all new and part of something like the third re-write of this book. It originally started with what is now Book Four of the current novel. Path of the Fury was the previous title. The re-write was very well done and added a nice prequel to what was already a good book.

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:18:38 AM EDT

[#42]

Quoted:
WASP

By Eric Frank Russell

"Wasp is a 1957 science fiction novel by English author Eric Frank Russell. Since its latest edition, published through Gollancz Science Fiction in 2000, Wasp has become controversial because the protagonist commits acts of terrorism in often humorous fashion.Notable author of the Discworld series of fantasy books, Terry Pratchett, stated that he "can't imagine a funnier terrorists' handbook." Despite this, Wasp is generally considered Russell's best novel.

The title of Wasp comes from the idea that the main character's actions and central purpose mimic that particular insect; just as something as small as a wasp can terrorize a much larger creature in control of a car to the point of causing a crash and killing the occupants, so the defeat of an enemy may be wrought via psychological and guerrilla warfare by a small, but deadly, protagonist in their midst."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp_(novel)

This. Awesome book about the virtues of one-person asymmetric warfare. The book is funny, clever, and very well done. It also shows just how bureaucracy can be turned against itself. Nicely done.

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:24:06 AM EDT

[#43]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I always have to give a shout out to my good friend's books...

http://www.sff.net/people/John-c-wright/

-3D

I bought & read all three of the Chaos series. Sorry, I just didn't get them. I kept hoping they'd get better. They never did. Then again, I like stories with a beginning, middle and end. YMMV.

(Hey, Dahlgren is hailed as a literary masterpiece. Did anyone *read* that POS?!)

Just finished "Between the Strokes of Midnight." That was a fascinating (Hard-sf) story.
oh, and the obligatory "Foundation series" by Asimov - should not be missed.

I was told to read it, get to the last sentence, and read it again. Yeah, not into reading about all the gay sex, thanks. The story reads like someone's idea of a bad acid trip, and takes about forever to slog through. "Nova" was FAR better, even "Triton" worked, where "Dahlgren" read like some guy trying to come out through his writing. Meh. Not even good sci-fi.

"Foundation" ROCKED. Awesomeness.

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:44:06 AM EDT

[#44]

The Golden Age/Phoenix Exultant/The Golden Transcendence by John C.Wright.

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:52:30 AM EDT

[#45]

Ender's Game simply because of when I read it. First got a hold of it when I was about 12 and it really spoke to me, being a smart kid in a dumbed-down public education system. I found much comfort in that book throughout my formative years.

Armor by Steakley is also a very good book. Recommend it if you haven't read it. I think I'll buy a new copy of that.

1984, what a classic.

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:57:43 AM EDT

[#46]

i enjoyed the Halo books

Posted: 5/3/2010 3:59:22 AM EDT

[#47]

"In death ground" and its sequel "The Shiva option"

followed by almost anything Ringo writes

or anything by Heinlein

ETA the Bolos series by Keith laumer