The 2013 DTFH T-Shirt Contest is on! This year we're offering $200 and an autographed prize pack to the top 2 winners. Visit DuncanTussell.com/shirt for more info!
Good sci-fi books
-
Hey people.
Im wondering if anyone has any good recommendations for sci-fi books. There's way to much to choose from and a lot of it seems really slow.
Thanks everyone -
Snow Crash (cyberpunk), Neuromancer (cyberpunk), The Ballad of Halo Jones (space opera comic), Planetary (space opera comic), The Postman (post apoc).
-
Starship Troopers and The Forever War are great.
-
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a fantastic book...great sci-fi mixed with some bad ass political philosophy.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Moon-Is-Harsh-Mistress/dp/0312863551/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333572798&sr=8-1"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I will meet you there." Rumi -
http://duncantrussell.com/forum/discussion/comment/9850#Comment_9850
Read that thread for some good advice! -
Ender's game an unusually gifted child who is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future alien invasion.Film Adaptation in production now
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/books/endersgame/endersgame.shtml -
CheeseburgerEddie said:
Starship Troopers and The Forever War are great.
Gonna have to be a negative asshole here, but Starship Troopers is one of the worst books I've read in a long long time. Basically no action whatsoever. The whole thing is a love letter to fascism basically, or at least a military-centric society. And even THAT aspect of it somehow manages to be completely uninteresting.
-
Just finished The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick. Pretty mind bending and definitely given me pause for thought but not TOO out there for someone not yet wading in the deep sci-fi waters such as ourselves.
-
The foundation series by Isaac Asimov. fictional mathematical equations that predict the future of the galaxy + space wikipedia.
-
Hyperion !
-
you must read DUNE!
Stranger in a Strange Land
Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Kurt Vonnegut Sirens of Titan
...
Maybe not hard sci-fi, but I am big into planetary romance/pulp sci-fi
Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series being the standout (didn't see the recent movie, probably stunk)..it read more like fantasy but super fast paced, lots of ridiculous action. Great stuff if slower paced SF bores you. -
The first five John Carter of Mars books are free on kindle/nook, etc.
-
-
Thanks people. I'm going to read a lot of them. I appreciate it
-
Chasm City is a really good Sci-Fi book with the classic theme of a guy that has lost his identity and must fight down evil to.... wont spoil to much, a must read imo :D
-
Support for what has been said:
Ender's game (and even more so the next book 'Speaker for the Dead')
Snow Crash
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Foundation
Man in the High Castle
Additions (some by same authors):
Anathem (blew me away, by far my favorite Neal Stephenson I think he has grown quite a bit)
Basically any Phillip K Dick book but especially Valis, Radio Free Albemuth, Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Invisibles by Grant Morrison (comic but it falls into sci-fi imo)
Thiefs of Time by Terry Pratchet (he has a fucking ton of really fun easy to pick up books)
I know there is much more I should add, but I'm blanking and not at home to look over my bookshelves.
-
Is Ender's Game stand-alone, or are all the sequels and brancing stories a must?Post edited by thatdude21601 at 2012-04-10 12:42:06
-
Ender's game can stand-alone as a self contained story. But I would highly, highly recommend reading "Speaker for the Dead".
-
robert j sawyer has an amazing trilogy about consciousness emerging on the internet through a process that is not unlike what a lot of people think causes consciousness in humans. A blind girl gets a new implant that allows her to see, but also allows this consciousness to learn context and experience novelty from a perspective that allows a bridging of the gap to cognition of the outside world, its really interesting stuff.
I think Stranger in a strange land will resonate with DTFH listeners the most, its amazing. Pretty much anything by orson scott card, kurt vonnegut, rober heinlien, robert j. sawyer, and joe haldeman would be good.
The worthing saga by osc
cat's cradle by vonnegut
"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.'" - Kurt Vonnegut
Note, My name is Chris. -
Crap, how do you post pics? The Man Who Folded Himself is a badass time travel book
-
cowboy angels by paul mcsomething was really fun.
-
Wizard, Titan, and Demon by John Varley. It's a trilogy that's essentially a science fiction approach to fantasy. The Golden Globe is also fun, it's about a 100 year old child actor who packs himself in his own luggage so he can travel to Mars to play King Lear.
I would just recommend almost anything by Varley because he's pretty awesome at creating fun characters and he has a PhD in physics, which allows him to really explore the more mundane (but still compelling) aspects of living in space. Just stay the fuck away from Mammoth, it sucks. -
-
Dude.. The Ringworld-books. Amazing sci-fi about a group of explorers that explores a creaturemade Halo-world. Really great stuff. Im also a bit weak for the Saga of the Seven Sun-books, though they might be a bit more for the specially interested. Really great books though."Y'all white bitches are a buncha honky mahfahs fo' teasin' ma nigga cunt wit yo lobsta meat"
http://twitter.com/LCCNyhus -
I've been planning on reading the Ringworld series. I really liked Niven's "Lucifer's Hammer".
-
neuromancer... it was a completely surreal experience reading it, it took me several attempts on and off for months. I was never sure that I fully understood what was going on so after I finished the book I checked out the wikipedia entry. Turns out that I was dead-on. But it's one of those books... you really have to pay attention if you're used to reading mostly mainstream stuff.
-
Ten off the top of my head:
Ender's Game, Neuromancer, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, Pandora's Star, Dune, Snow Crash, Foundation, Ringworld, Illuminatus. -
reading The Illuminatus! Trilogy by RAW was like being pulled through a black hole. put it in your skull and become stronger.
-
@TomWithTheWeather I agree wholly. RAW changed my brain and made me realize that Agnosticism is the only true existence.
-
Like Grant Morrison said about reading The Illuminatus! Trilogy and RAW, "some of this has to be real"Post edited by kungfu2882 at 2012-05-04 14:26:38
-
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.
Hell, anything by Roger Zelazny (though the Amber series is more fantasy than sci-fi).I make websites sometimes, view my portfolio at Chromadile.com -
Not sure that it would be under the sci-fi category necessarily, but Slaughterhouse-Five (a classic, I know) was amazing. Just read it recently. Quick read, sci-fi elements with super deep meanings.
-
VALIS by PKD will trump a
ll of these -
Old Man and the Wasteland is worth reading. It's short story/novella about a scavenger in the wasteland that has a metaphorical WWSD (What would Santiago do) bracelet.
-
Philip K Dick
-
Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War"... not just one of my favourite sci fi novels of all time, but one of my favourite books, period!Post edited by LavenderLad at 2012-08-03 08:54:40
-
2001: A Space Odyssey
2010: Odyssey Twoनमः सप्तानां सम्यक् सम्बुद्ध कोटीनां। तद्यथा ॐ चले चुले चुन्दि स्वाहा॥
ओं मणिपद्मे हूं
राम -
minotaur said:
2001: A Space Odyssey
2010: Odyssey Two
There are four in the series but I thought the last two installments were disappointing. The first two are amazing though!नमः सप्तानां सम्यक् सम्बुद्ध कोटीनां। तद्यथा ॐ चले चुले चुन्दि स्वाहा॥
ओं मणिपद्मे हूं
राम -
Anything in Peter F Hamilton's world. I started with Pandora Star.
-
It isn't a typical sci fi but I really liked Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
-
The stars my destination by Alfred Bester. Pretty old, but I love it immensely. Iain M Banks writes awesome sci fi books, I've read his first three culture novels and loved them all.
The short stories of JG Ballard are also interesting. I'm about to read Vernor Vinges A fire upon the deep, and I think that will be a winner. -
Illuminatus! may be RAW's best work, but his most "sci fi" book was the Schrodinger's Cat trilogy. highly recommended.
http://rawilson.com/schrocat.htmlerleichda -
Here are two I think many people here will enjoy:
Stories Of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang - some really great short stories in this collection, the titluar one not the least of which (please excuse yoda speak)
Vurt by Jeff Noon- a novel in which a type of feather is drug -
I just started Dune, am like 80 pages into it, a bit hard to get into but I most great books are. Anyone else experienced a slow start with Dune?
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
- All Discussions7,420
- General5,232
- Current Events194
- Goals285
- Spirituality669
- Music654
- Book Club180
- Podcast Episodes153
- Site News and Help53
Theme Family Hour Chopper Special by Stig