View Full Version : Favorite Sci-Fi books?
dookie1481
10-07-09, 13:37
I saw LL's thread and didn't want to derail it.
What are your favorites?
I love anything by Dan Simmons (Hyperion/Endymion series, Ilium series), Neal Stephenson (particularly Snow Crash and The Diamond Age), Armor by John Steakley, and Orson Scott Card.
But my all-time favorite book is Neuromancer by William Gibson. I think I've read that book 15 times and it gets better every time.
Jay
sandman99and9
10-07-09, 13:47
I love the shanara series by Terry Brooks. Have read them many times and have epic battles in them. I like them better than the lord of the rings books. I also have all of the aliens/predator books and some of them are great. A few are just ok but I like the one about the aliens taking over earth.
S.M.
johnclark075
10-07-09, 13:51
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card is what really introduced me to Sci-Fi when I was a young teen. I've enjoyed the entire story, especially Enders Shadow. 1984 and A Brave New World are what really made me the Sci-Fi book reader that I am today.
Business_Casual
10-07-09, 14:05
The War Against the Chtorr.
M_P
dookie1481
10-07-09, 14:06
The War Against the Chtorr.
M_P
That sounds different. I'll have to give it a read.
Jay
dookie1481
10-07-09, 14:08
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card is what really introduced me to Sci-Fi when I was a young teen. I've enjoyed the entire story, especially Enders Shadow. 1984 and A Brave New World are what really made me the Sci-Fi book reader that I am today.
Me too, I thought Sci-Fi was gay until my friends convinced me to read Ender's Game. I stole it from the library of the USS Saipan and took it to Iraq with me LOL.
Jay
Gutshot John
10-07-09, 14:51
Dune and Dune Messiah by Herbert, Methuselah's Children and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, Rendevous with Rama and Something Wicked this Way Comes by Clarke, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Dick and of course The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Adams.
FlyAndFight
10-07-09, 15:37
I'm more "old school" sci-fi:
-Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy.
-George R. R. Martin's "Sandkings"
-Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey"
-Niven & Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer" (may not fall into the pure Sci-Fi genre?)
As for "Fantasy":
-J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", "Silmarillion", etc...
-C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia"
-Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" trilogy
-Patricia A. McKillip's "Riddle-Master of Hed" trilogy
-Stephen Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" trilogys (first two. Haven't read the latest..)
Earth by David Brin is an interesting near-future sci-fi novel. These tend to be my favorites. Some older Jerry Pournelle/Larry Niven novels like Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. Some of my more recent favorites include the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. While I enjoyed the War Against the Cthorr like the previous reader, nothing tweaks me off more that reading a series in the works that the author seems to abandon!
RogerinTPA
10-07-09, 16:22
I'm old school as well"
THX-1138
1984
I am Legend
Clockwork Orange
Dune
Fahrenheit 451
2001: A space odyssey
War of the Worlds
The Time Machine
Brave New World
Slaughterhouse Five
Lucifer's Hammer
And of course, Starship Troopers
Definately Starship Troopers. Required reading in some defense schools.
Try the Off Armagedon Reef series (three books so far) by David Weber. Excellent mix of action and battle of every imaginable kind.
John Ringo's "Legacy of Aldenata / Posleen War" series.
http://www.johnringo.com/Books/LegacyofAldenata/tabid/1623/Default.aspx
Oldie but a goodie, hard to find- Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
Glory Road
Starship Troopers
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Original version of Blade Runner
Anything by Phillip K Dick, you can tell when a movie is made from one his stories.
A Boy and His Dog
Some of Jerry Pournell and Larry Niven , not all of them but the majority of their work
NinjaMedic
10-07-09, 18:30
I will second any of David Webber's works in the military science fiction realm.
Cheesy Battletech themed novels :)
johnclark075
10-07-09, 20:08
I am Legend
Such a great book, it was disappointing to me that the movie didn't get the "I am Legend" idea across. Oh well, guess we are the privileged!
As far as Sci-fi goes:
1984
Brave New World
Dune series
Farenheit 451
2001: A Space Odyssey
Fantasy:
Lord of the Rings
Wheel of Time
Dragonlance Chronicles
The Legend of Drizzt Series (saved the best for last)
RogerinTPA
10-07-09, 20:32
Such a great book, it was disappointing to me that the movie didn't get the "I am Legend" idea across. Oh well, guess we are the privileged!
Agreed. It seems every time they move from book to film, they screw up the majority of the concept and barely resembles the book in the end.
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan is really good, as are the subsequent books in the series.
Chasm City was good, but very dark. Revelation Space took me a few reads, but that is just due to it being extremely technical.
The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson was awesome...huge fan of it, and need to read it again.
Just finished Kevin J Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns series. Very epic in scope (7 books had better be!), and a fun ride. Not as deep as some, but still enjoyable.
(By deep I mean technical, etc...my tastes run more towards hard Scifi)
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan is really good, as are the subsequent books in the series.
+1 Neal Asher's Polity series is also good, but very similar. Not sure who wrote theirs first. For those who like old school cyberpunk short stories, try to find a copy of Mirrorshades.
Random scifi book: Mission Tori
Edit: One thing about Asher's Polity universe that I find very intriguing: AI's run governments (ie, benevolent dictators).
Glory Road is a great one. Hadn't thought about it in years.
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, H. Beam Piper
Not science fiction, but Silverlock, by John Myers Myers is one of the greatest. Also, all of the original Conan books by Robert E. Howard.
"Prince of Mercenaries"
"Prince of Sparta"
"Go tell the Spartans"
Dune series... gives my escapism wood just thinking about it. the Mars series was great too- Red/Blue/Green Planet. Good science fiction is pretty damn hard to find.
there's a lot of good fantasy- good in that it tells a decent, creative story. but even good fantasy is still pretty ****in G-rated and tame. I really liked Feist's Riftwar and Serpent War series'... but the ultimate in fantasy is most definately George R R Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series. you want brutal violence? no "heros," just players? good-die-first kind of shit? Song of Fire and ice- most violent and graphic series i've ever read, and really well written. unfortunately, much like all series', the author is now trying to milk it and draw the story out- should have ended at book 3, but it's now going to 5 books i think.. but the first 3, especially the first 2 books were phenominal.
Grew up reading Bradbury, Vonnegut, and Orwell.
Others I liked:
Hitchhiker's Guide
A Clockwork Orange
Anthem
I Am Legend
Bored of the Rings (spoof of Tolkien's book)
littleshoe
10-08-09, 02:23
Started out with Have spacesuit and will travel and went from there. I prefer the space based vs the fantasy stuff.
Robert Heinlein
Starship Troopers
Time Enough for Love (Fav chapter: the man who was too lazy to fail)
Ian Douglas
Heritage Trilogy, Legacy Trilogy, Inheritance Trilogy
Rick Shelley
Dirigent Mercenary Corps Series
Bill Baldwin
The Helmsman Saga
David Drake
LT Leary series
Honor Harrington series
LOTR Series
To Read
John Scalzi-Old Man's War
Jack Campbell-The Lost Fleet series
As others have said, Philip K Dick was a genius. Of his:
-Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
-Flow my tears, the policeman said
-The Cosmic Puppets
-Any number of his short stories
Ray Bradbury - mostly his earlier short story collections like R is for Rocket, S is for Space, The October Country, The Illustrated Man, I sing the body electric! and of course Fahrenheit 451 and the Martian chronicles.
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
George Orwell, 1984 (though not sci-fi so much as dystopian near future)
H.P. Lovecraft, nearly anything (more fantasy/horror than sci-fi)
Tolkien's LOTR (again, more fantasy)
Hyperion was quite good.
George RR Martin is great, and he is still writing. Good stuff.
I wanted to like Ender's Game seeing as it came very highly recommended by a number of friends, but either I just don't get it or I thought it was a little clumsy on the topic of religion. It's been a few years, though, so I should probably reread it.
RogerinTPA
10-08-09, 07:58
Forgot V. The TV series was pretty good too.
In addition to many of those listed above
The Hammer's Slammers series by David Drake
Passage at Arms by Glen Cook
The various series by Ian Douglas
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia (humor horror written by a gun nut for gun nuts)
geminidglocker
10-08-09, 12:56
Most of my favs have been mentioned, Dean Ing wrote Pulling Through. It's a good one about nuclear war.
caelumatra
10-08-09, 13:39
Starship Troopers, Enders Game, Enders Shadow are my favorites
Dune and about anything Vonnegut
I thought the Dragon Riders of Pern series was fantasy till I read "The Dolphins of Pern" and found out the origin of the people. Then I read almost all of them. My favorite Pern novel is about the original landing of earth colonizers, can't remember the title.
My all time favorite is Starship Troopers. I hated that dam movie!
Anything by Heinlein. Time For the Stars, Between Planets, Tunnel in the Sky, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, I should go back and reread them, its been 45 years. Looked it up. "Star Conguerours". Now selling on the internet for 700.00 to 799.00, double wow.
Found Andre Norton about 1963. Didn't care much for her fantasy, but the Time Traders series was great.
Ben Bova had a first novel that he is to embarressed to reprint, that in 1963 I thought was great, something like The Stars at War. Thats not the title, can't remember it. Looked it up about five years ago and it was selling for 200+.00 on the internet, wow.
Outside of Sci-fi I really like John Masters autobiographical novels, "Bugles and a Tiger" and "Road Past Mandalay". He was commissioned out of England into the Indian Colonial Army in the Gurka's. He started WWII as a Cpt. and ended commanding one of Chindit Brigades behind Jap lines in the CBI Burma theater. He was one tough sob, and he had PTSD really bad.
Anyone like "The Old Man and the Boy" about the boyhood of an African big game hunter in the 1920's in S. Carolina. Robert Ruark.
Anyone read "A Rifleman Went to War" by Herbert Mcbride?
Semper Fidelis,
Terry
Most of my favs have been mentioned, Dean Ing wrote Pulling Through. It's a good one about nuclear war.
His Systemic Shock was quite good too. The sequels were okay.
Am I the only one here who reads Feist? I read the original Riftwar saga when it came out while in high school, and have read every other book in the series within a week of its being published. The depth and breadth of the storyline is just unimaginable.
Starship Troopers, a must read. Forget everything you saw in the movie.
Hitchhikers and progeny ... If you don't think they're funny, you should hang yourself with a towel.
Dalmas's Regiment, Regiment's War, and White Regiment ... fun action and extremely interesting philosophical underpinnings (a soldier is someone who works at war, a warrior is someone who plays aka "enjoys" war, etc.).
Steve Perry's The Man Who Never Missed and the rest of the series. Quick reads all, some books are less engrossing than others and by the end it's clear he's perhaps writing more for the paycheck than to advance the storyline. But the first book, especially, is something most of the folks on this forum could relate to.
The New York Times ... if that's not science fiction, I don't know what is.
mourneblade
10-08-09, 15:30
I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but I really like the "Hammer's Slammers" books by David Drake. They were supposedly inspired by his time in Vietnam. Ooops I did see one of you mentioned it before...
Gutshot John
10-08-09, 20:14
Forgot V. The TV series was pretty good too.
They're remaking "V" into a new TV series.
Good list guys...
Old school...
Dorsai series (Gordon R. Dickson)
Bolo series (Keith Laumer)
newer stuff...
Old Mans War (John Scalzi)
A lot of good novels mentioned, but a few I haven't seen mentioned are.....
Michael Moorcock's Elric series, C.J. Cherryh's Morgaine series, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Stephen Erikson's Tale of the Malazan series. A book I read recently that has me impatiently anticipating the next one is the first book of a new series by Patrick Rothfuss. The Name of The Wind. It was a really good read.
Am I the only one here who reads Feist?
nope!
I really liked Feist's Riftwar and Serpent War series
Anyone read "A Rifleman Went to War" by Herbert Mcbride?
Yep, not only did I read it, I own it and the companion book "The Emma Gees". Good stuff.
crusader4x
10-09-09, 03:21
+1 To Armor by John Steakley and Heinlein's Starship Troopers.
I have to admit though that, being able to separate the book from the movie, I actually ENJOYED the campiness of the Starship Troopers movie. There are plenty of reasons why the movie didn't win any awards but I found it enjoyable nonetheless.
A +1 to Dune and Ender's Game also BUT their sequels, Dune: Messiah, and Speaker for the Dead, were both PAINFULLY dry. As such, I could never finish them NOR their respective series.
One final series I've enjoyed is William Dietz' Legion of the Damned.
CharlieMike
10-09-09, 13:41
Lots of great books mentioned. I really liked "Altered Carbon" by Richard K. Morgan.
The other books in the series are eh -- not so good -- but "Altered Carbon" is a fun read.
ETA: Sorry -- this is a dupe. Someone already mentioned it.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, Honorverse series, Hammer's Slammers, 1632 or Ring of Fire series.
David Weber also has a new series of books, the so called "Safehold" series, that is really good.
I see I am not the only one who liked Ender's Game but didn't get/like the rest of the series.
I am pretty much a scifi and military history junkie when it comes to reading. Scifi and fantasy shouldn't be lumped together either, IMO.
Farnham's Freehold, Robert Heinlein
BillCutting
10-09-09, 22:51
"Dune" by Frank Herbert. My favorite fiction ever, period. Much more than entertainment. It will change you. "The sleeper will awaken" ;). I try to re-read it yearly.
I always said that if you bury a copy in the ground, and thousands of years from now its all they find from our culture, it will be up there with the Bible in cultural significance.
I'll add another I just read...
Fun, fast, cheesy, with lots of good gun action.
Check out Larry Correia and "Monster Hunters International".
Semper Fi
I've gone through most of the books in the prior posts. Dan Simmons with the Hyperion (all four books) is definitely at the top of my list. Orson Scott Card used to be at the top of my list before I got my hands on the Hyperion.
Couple more to add:
- Joe Holdman "The Forever War", "The Forever Peace"
- Vernor Vinge "The Fire Upon The Deep", "A Deepness In The Sky"
- Peter F Hamilton "The Reality Disfunction" and "Pandora's Star" series
- Greg Bear "The Forge Of God"
- David Brin's Uplift universe
- Larry Niven "Ringworld"
- Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber (although it is not a scifi)
- Heinline is great with "Door to the summer" being my favorite
- Azimov with Foundation series being one of the best ever written
NCPatrolAR
10-10-09, 22:57
Hammers Slammers
dookie1481
10-11-09, 00:35
I've gone through most of the books in the prior posts. Dan Simmons with the Hyperion (all four books) is definitely at the top of my list. Orson Scott Card used to be at the top of my list before I got my hands on the Hyperion.
Couple more to add:
- Joe Holdman "The Forever War", "The Forever Peace"
- Vernor Vinge "The Fire Upon The Deep", "A Deepness In The Sky"
- Peter F Hamilton "The Reality Disfunction" and "Pandora's Star" series
- Greg Bear "The Forge Of God"
- David Brin's Uplift universe
- Larry Niven "Ringworld"
- Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber (although it is not a scifi)
- Heinline is great with "Door to the summer" being my favorite
- Azimov with Foundation series being one of the best ever written
I really wish Simmons would do a series focusing on the Ousters. That was so fascinating to me; a sect of humanity that learns to adapt to space instead of terraforming is really interesting.
Jay
I like Richard K. Morgan and Neal Stephenson. My favorite novel of all time is Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, but that's not really SciFi. I'm working on Anathem right now.
They're remaking "V" into a new TV series.
The project looks to be effectively canceled. They made 4 episodes and then the network said "You guys take a break and we'll call you back to finish up if we're in the mood."
Yes I'm a huge sci-fi geek
The project looks to be effectively canceled. They made 4 episodes and then the network said "You guys take a break and we'll call you back to finish up if we're in the mood."
Yes I'm a huge sci-fi geek
I thought I saw an ad for it starting Nov. 3 on NBC, I believe.
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