Your favorite SF book and author.

Originally posted by JackofBlades
I actually finished a book recently called Helliconia Spring, the first part of Brian Aldiss' Helliconia trilogy.

Yes i love Aldiss, i have a couple of his books i'll see if i can find them and let you know. I dont think ive read that one though, sounds interesting.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is my favorite contemporary book and author.

For older stuff, anything by Vernor Vinge. He wrote Truenames, one of the first real visions of what the Internet could become and so popular amoung early computer geeks that some of his terminology became used in computer programing and networking.

Phillip K. Dick was awesome, but scary, and I fear way too insightful into some of what our future may actually hold. It's also amazing how many movies have been made of his stories and concepts. He explored some pretty deep and dark parts of humanity. Not an optimist, I think.

Robert A. Heinlein was excellent but his writing got a little wierd at the end.

Can't complete a post like this without mentioning Issac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. They were masters.

Soooo many more.... who has the time to list them all?

sigh...


ANOTHER amazing series finished.

DOn't you just hate when you finish a good series and have to start something else, always wondering if it will be as good?

Anywho, they were originally one book entitled Succession but split into two, The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds, authored by Scott Westerfeld.

They deal with humanity far into the future after we have found a way to conquer death. By attaching a symbiant to a dead body, it can be reanimated and continue living. The person who discovered this did so in order to help his little sister, stricken with a wasting disease. He eventually found a way and for his achievement he was made Emperor of the Eighty Worlds, and his sister became known as The Reason. Over time, the 'Honoured Dead' become an elitist group. They control the majority of the wealth, the businesses, the arm and with the Risen Emperor ruling the worlds, they pretty much control everything, leaving the living as second class citizens.

The first book opens with The Reason being held hostage by a cybernetic species known as the Rix, and high overhead in space an Imperial ship tries to rescue her. However, during the rescue attempt the Emperor's cronies, the Apparatus, move to assist the recapture of The Reason, in order to protect something they refer to as "The Secret". Above, the ship's monitors go dark as the marines reach the Emperor's sister and erect a forcefield to protect her. Within the forcefield is The Reason, her marine saviours, an Adept of the Emperor, and a Rix corpse. Suddenly the ship regains contact and realises that the field was destroyed, and that the The Reason, along with her saviours, has been killed.

What follows afterward is an AMAZING conspiracy theory story (perfect for ATS ) in which the circumstances around the Reason's death are investigated, exploited and challenged. I suggest you read both books NOW!!!

Originally posted by JackofBlades

Anywho, they were originally one book entitled Succession but split into two, The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds, authored by Scott Westerfeld.

Yeh liked that series too.

Just received 'Next' by Michael Crichton as a belated xmas present from a friend, never been a huge fan but i'll give it a go.
Anyone else read this book yet, whats it like without giving anything away.

Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein holds the title for my all time favorite.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (dystopic science fiction)

The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach

My favorite Sci Fi book would have to be Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.

I love the entire Ender series, but if I had to pick one, that would be it.

Originally posted by Valdimer
My favorite Sci Fi book would have to be Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.

I love the entire Ender series, but if I had to pick one, that would be it.

I never really got into the Ender series, i preferred The Tales of Alvin Maker. His short story collections Maps in a Mirror were both really good too.

I have yet to read those, but I have read "Folk of the Fringe" by him which was very good.

My all-time favourite sci-fi is called 'The City and the Stars', by Arthur C. Clarke. I've had the paperback for close to 30 years, and every so often I go back and read it again. My son and I graduated from bed-time stories to just sharing some chill-time by reading before lights-out 'til he was 13. The last book we read was this one, and I gave him the hard cover that Christmas. A very cool book.

Another? 'A Winter's Tale' by Mark Helprin. Again, I go back every few years to recapture the magic. A very earthly sci/fantasy, though.

Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age for me. This book changed my outlook on the world. The story is set in a world in which nanotechnology rules, and its impact, along with other key tech-revolutions (eg, there is a different type of internet) has caused Earth in the late twenty first century to look rather different than how it looks now: The UN is gone, the US as a nation has fractured, as has China. And in the Diamond Age, Nations are no longer limited to being just a territory, as various clans, or 'phyles' have sprung up, and many of these Phyles have enclaves in all the major cities on the planet.

The story itself is loaded with points and philosophies, but the world in which it is set alone is worthy of high praise. Many people when they talk Stephenson go for Snow Crash, and yes Snow Crash is an excellent book, but The Diamond Age has much more depth to it, and takes itself much more seriously.

Hmm well i just stumbled into this thread (thanks to mojo linking me to it through one of mine) and though i havnt read much science fiction books i would have to say kurt vonnegut is my favorite author and my favorite book would probably have to be slaughterhouse five, i love sci-fi mixed with comdedy like that

another great one is hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, i read all 5? books in hawaii one week

ill have to take a look at some of the books mentioned on this thread

Walter Miller jr. wrote a novel in 1959 that has imagery that sticks with me
to this day.

"A Canticle For Liebowitz"

I read nothing but postapolyptic stuff for years.

Noddy by Enid Blyton

That's some really messed up funk, right there! Scares the pants off me.

Sorry, just playing!! Not really a SF reader, but plenty food for thought.

Thanks for the tips.

Originally posted by biotic
i love sci-fi mixed with comdedy like that

You'd love Terry Pratchett then, ive laughed til i had tears reading some of his books. I'd recomend 'Mort' from the Discworld series, that one had me in stitches.

mojo

Peter F. Hamilton gets my vote as my favorite SF author, but my favorite SF book is Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. No other book has made such a deep impact on me than that one.

All of Frank Herbert's work including a little known classic entitled "White Plague". In a post 911 world, it reads like a haunting prophecy.

Originally posted by Count
my favorite SF book is Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. No other book has made such a deep impact on me than that one.

I'm reading "Web of Everywhere" by John Brunner at the moment, he is an extremely thought provoking writer.