Best scifi books

Trojan · 05-06-2013 7:28pm #1

Some folks reckon this is primarily a Fantasy forum, so maybe we should list some of the best scifi we've read.

Here's a start - a mixed bag of the top sf authors that I've read, some of the classics and some from the modern era. I've only listed one book per author so it's my favourite* book from each.

H. G. Wells: The War of the Worlds
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
George Orwell: 1984
Isaac Asimov: The Caves of Steel
Arthur C. Clarke: The Songs Of Distant Earth
Robert A. Heinlein: Starman Jones
A. E. Van Gogt: The Weapon Shops of Isher
Frank Herbert: Dune
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos
Douglas Adams: The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Larry Niven: The Mote in God's Eye
Greg Bear: Eon
David Brin: The Uplift War
Patrick Tilley: Cloud Warrior
Piers Anthony: Refugee
Iain M. Banks: Use of Weapons
Peter F. Hamilton: Fallen Dragon
Charles Stross: Singularity Sky

* Although my favourite is something that fluctuates. I was tempted to list "A Fall of Moondust" or "Rendevous with Rama" for Clarke, and "Day of the Triffids" for Wyndham. I'm sure many will disagree with "The Caves of Steel" and "Starman Jones" as choices to represent those authors

Agree or disagree with my choices? List your own favourites.

mcgovern · 05-06-2013 10:58pm

Some series/collections to add off the top of my head, that aren't covered above:
Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books.
Neal Asher's Polity books.
Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space series.
Vernor Vinge's Zones of Though.
William Gibson's Sprawl.
Ender/Shadow by Orson Scott Card (especially the earlier ones)
Dan Simmons Hyperion.
Isaac Asimov's Foundation
Stephen Baxter's Manifold and Xeelee.

Non-series
Snow Crash and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
Most of PKDs work.
Richard Mattheson's I Am Legend.
Starship Troopers by Heinlein.

ixoy · 06-06-2013 12:04am

'Dune' - It's the basis for my username and a classic that ages very well. Very original.

'1984' - So infamous it should seem clichéd but yet still works.

Neal Asher's Polity series - Can't pick out one because, to benefit from something like 'Orbus' you should read a lot of the others!

Peter F. Hamilton's 'Void Trilogy' - His 'Night's Dawn' trilogy has too much of a let down of an ending so I'm putting this as the pinnacle of this work.

Stephen Donaldson's 'Gap' sequence

Manach · 06-06-2013 12:37am

A mix of high and low scifi:

Foundations of Paradice - Arthur C. Clarke.
Jerusalem Fire - R.M. Meluch.
Lensman series - Doc. Smith.
Muntineer's Moon - David Weber
Uncertain Midnight - Edmund Cooper
Old Man's War - R. Scalzi
Have Spacesuit will travel - Heinlein
Forever War - Joe Handleman
Finally - The High Crusades by Poul Anderson, a bit of humour.

I'd also agree with other posters on
The Caves of Steel, Dune, Ender's Game and Void Trilogy.

Goldstein · 07-06-2013 1:26am

Gun to my head if I had to pick a favourite it would be Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. The man wrote as a force of nature. You don't read that book; you open the cover and Bester's fists grab you by the collar and pull you into the raging mind of Gully Foyle. I've never found anyone else who could bring a protagonist or their strength of will to life so forcefully with his writing. Ben Reich felt like a relation of his in many ways in the equally superb The Demolished Man.

Interesting you bring up A Fall of Moondust. I couldn't say conclusively but it might well be my favourite Clarke book of all, and it's not exactly your typical science fiction tale by any stretch. In fact you could remove all the sci-fi elements and the story would still work - always a sign of greatness. It's one of the only "it's 5am but I can't stop reading until I finish this" obsessively compelling and outright edge of your seat (bed) gripping books I've ever read. I remember when I eventually finished it and possibly due to being borderline drunk with tiredness I had a moment of clarity and decided to give up smoking there and then. That was 5 years ago so cheers Mr. Clarke.

Trojan · 07-06-2013 4:22am

Manach wrote: »

Lensman series - Doc. Smith.

I loved these. And it reminded me I needed to add:

A. E. Van Gogt: The Weapon Shops of Isher

Manach wrote: »

Old Man's War - Scalzi

Pretty good, but not sure I'd put him up there with the other names on this page. Maybe I'm being unfair

Manach wrote: »

Forever War - Joe Handleman

Yep, and Forever Peace is very good too.

Goldstein wrote: »

Interesting you bring up A Fall of Moondust. I couldn't say conclusively but it might well be my favourite Clarke book of all, and it's not exactly your typical science fiction tale by any stretch. In fact you could remove all the sci-fi elements and the story would still work - always a sign of greatness.

I loved it, but I think that's one of the reasons I wasn't sure about listing it here. That said, one of the best thing about Asimov's Robots books was the detective thriller aspect.

Goldstein wrote: »

It's one of the only "it's 5am but I can't stop reading until I finish this" obsessively compelling and outright edge of your seat (bed) gripping books I've ever read. I remember when I eventually finished it and possibly due to being borderline drunk with tiredness I had a moment of clarity and decided to give up smoking there and then. That was 5 years ago so cheers Mr. Clarke.

Awesome!

HivemindXX · 21-06-2013 4:01pm

A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
Foundation (first three, not the rest) - Isaac Asimov
Ringworld - Larry Niven
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
Gateway - Frederick Pohl
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement
Wild Seed - Octavia Butler
Fiasco - Stanislaw Lem
Excession - Iain Banks
Uplift (trilogy) - David Brin

I could easily name 100 science fiction novels that I consider to be great.

A major feature of the genre is the strength of the short form though. I recently got a tablet and realised I can get old anthologies like Gardner Dozois' Best New SF all the way back to 1984. I've been reading volume one and Hardfought by Greg Bear really blew me away.

Trojan · 21-06-2013 4:30pm

HivemindXX wrote: »

A major feature of the genre is the strength of the short form though. I recently got a tablet and realised I can get old anthologies like Gardner Dozois' Best New SF all the way back to 1984. I've been reading volume one and Hardfought by Greg Bear really blew me away.

I love the short stories collections. Anthonology is one of my favourites.

Zapp Brannigan · 21-06-2013 4:47pm

Apologies if this has been asked before;

What would be a good SciFi book to read to introduce myself to the genre? I've never been into any SciFi, don't like movies that revolve aorund the concept really but I kinda want to give a SciFi book ago to just make a change from Fantasy.

HivemindXX · 21-06-2013 5:00pm

That's quite a hard question to answer to be honest. What is Science Fiction can be hard to pin down and one person might love X and hate Y while another person is the reverse, where everyone will agree that X and Y are both Science Fiction.

Perhaps if you said what sort of Fantasy you like and what sort of Science Fiction from TV and/or movies you like or dislike it might be easier to home in.

Failing any sort of input I'm going to recommend A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge which I was just thinking about in relation to this thread. It is a doorstop of a book (which Fantasy fans tend to like), it's action packed, has a great scientific concept without requiring you to know a lot of science to appreciate it and has some really creative protagonists and plot points. It is also, basically, a struggle between plucky under dogs (pun not intended - and won't make any sense until you read the book) and a terrible evil.

Based on your avatar I want to recommend something a Futurama fan might like but all I can't come up with anything that strikes me as a perfect match. Perhaps The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem or Bill the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison. There are definitely plenty of humourous SF books out there, if I come up with something better I'll get back to you.

Trojan · 21-06-2013 5:05pm

I'd recommend starting with something like Iain M. Banks - Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games.

Zapp Brannigan · 21-06-2013 5:52pm

The kind of fantasy I read are authors like RR Martin, Erikson, Lynch, Rothfuss, Abercrombie etc.

Nody · 21-06-2013 5:56pm

Asimov Foundation and Dune (epic scale like Martin or Abercrombie, Foundation split in multiple shorter stories and Dune being huge scale and time over multiple books with huge depth to be discovered) or if you want more action packed you have Richard Morgan (basically close to our future based stories starting with Altered Carbon or singles such as Market Forces, Wall street don't compete in the market anymore but go out and kill each other using super hyped cars, all legal).

Andy-Pandy · 21-06-2013 9:40pm

zapp, you can't go wrong with Richard Morgan, Neil Asher or Ian M Banks. three brilliant authors, all have completed series as well so no waiting around.

Zapp Brannigan · 21-06-2013 9:55pm

I might give Asimov's Foundation ago. I seem to have heard of it before. Will be awhile before I get to it though, currently rereading The Wheel of Time to finally finish it!

Dan_Solo · 22-06-2013 4:48pm

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

I might give Asimov's Foundation ago. I seem to have heard of it before. Will be awhile before I get to it though, currently rereading The Wheel of Time to finally finish it!

I'd certainly have this on this list of "Must reads" as it is pretty central to the SF canon, but I probably would read something more contemporary first.

keane2097 · 22-06-2013 5:27pm

Read Prelude to Foundation a few weeks ago, first of them I've read. Thought it was great.

Dades · 24-06-2013 5:09pm

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

The kind of fantasy I read are authors like RR Martin, Erikson, Lynch, Rothfuss, Abercrombie etc.

I would say Dune is a good start.

Deserved of it's status, and very much a crossover between Fantasy and SF.

Martonio · 27-06-2013 10:00pm

Richard Matheson-"I am Legend" is a fantastic book.
"Tiger Tiger" also by Alfred Bester is literally a work of art and so far ahead of its time.

ChrisM · 25-07-2013 12:34pm

The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester
The Dancers at the End of Time Trology: An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and The End of All Songs by Michael Moorcock
Childhoods End by Arthur C. Clarke
The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Timescape by Gregory Benford
Man Plus by Frederick Pohl
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Neuormancer by William Gibson
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

These are some of my favourite Sci-fi books. Most were very easy to read, and extremely enjoyable. Timescape is a bit hard sci-fi but well worth the effort.

I have taken note of a few books that haven't hit my radar before, so they are on the list.

salacious crumb · 12-08-2013 2:58pm

Spares by Michael Marshall Smith is one of my favourite books. Would have made a great movie too, until Dreamworks f*cked him over and took one tiny part of it and turned it into The Island

nyarlothothep · 15-08-2013 2:25pm

The Doom qaudrilogy

[DF]Lenny · 24-08-2013 6:25pm

Peter Hamiltons Nights Dawn trilogy is a good starter , similar in style to some of the fantasy you mentioned

Tristram · 27-08-2013 5:26am

[DF]Lenny wrote: »

Peter Hamiltons Nights Dawn trilogy is a good starter , similar in style to some of the fantasy you mentioned

Excellent recommendation!

seagull · 29-08-2013 3:34pm

Iain Banks I've found hit and miss. Some of them, I've really enjoyed. Feersum Endjinn is one of a very small group of books that I couldn't finish.

I've enjoyed L E Modesitt's SF books. I was first introduced to him with the Recluce series, and then found he also writes some pretty good SF.

salacious crumb · 29-08-2013 3:59pm

Weirdly I've read a lot of his non sci fi novels, but none of his sci fi. Hmmmm.

smacl · 06-09-2013 8:43am

Enjoyed a lot of the stuff already listed, notably Haldeman's Forever War, and Cards Speaker for the dead. Other favourites from my younger days include Cliff Simaks, The Way Station, Harrison's Deathworld trilogy, and Heinleins Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. I also love sci-fi short stories as much as the drawn out epics, including the likes of Flight of the horse, Larry Niven, Days of Perky Pat, PK Dick, and Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Fred Brown. Not to everybody's taste, but also a big William Burroughs fan, and would include The soft machine high in my list of sci-fi faves.

Only started reading sci-fi again recently, with the Enders Shadow series, which I'm finding very hit & miss, and no where near the quality of the first series. Any recommendations for decent reads from the more modern authors?

Nody · 06-09-2013 10:18am

smacl wrote: »

Only started reading sci-fi again recently, with the Enders Shadow series, which I'm finding very hit & miss, and no where near the quality of the first series. Any recommendations for decent reads from the more modern authors?

Altered Carbon series by Richard Morgan (he also has some stand alone books) could be an interesting start,

RDM_83 again · 22-09-2013 10:37pm

This may sound like blatant product pimping (and it is

), but anything I have read published on the Gollancz SF masterworks brand has been at a minimum pretty good.

ChrisM · 23-09-2013 9:37am

RDM_83 again wrote: »

This may sound like blatant product pimping (and it is ), but anything I have read published on the Gollancz SF masterworks brand has been at a minimum pretty good.

I couldn't agree more. I owe my return to reading science fiction to this fantastic list :-) I have read about 20-25 books from the list and every single one has been fantastic.

salacious crumb · 23-09-2013 12:15pm

+1 for Gollancz

vasch_ro · 29-09-2013 10:48pm

smacl wrote: »

Enjoyed a lot of the stuff already listed, notably Haldeman's Forever War, and Cards Speaker for the dead. Other favourites from my younger days include Cliff Simaks, The Way Station, Harrison's Deathworld trilogy, and Heinleins Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. I also love sci-fi short stories as much as the drawn out epics, including the likes of Flight of the horse, Larry Niven, Days of Perky Pat, PK Dick, and Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Fred Brown. Not to everybody's taste, but also a big William Burroughs fan, and would include The soft machine high in my list of sci-fi faves.

Only started reading sci-fi again recently, with the Enders Shadow series, which I'm finding very hit & miss, and no where near the quality of the first series. Any recommendations for decent reads from the more modern authors?

The new one FROM Brandon Sanderson "STEELHEART" is really really good, thoroughly enjoyed it, his Fantasy stuff is great, but now has moved to the sci fi genre

keane2097 · 30-09-2013 4:19pm

I've gone through Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation and Foundation in that series so far and thought they were great. Must jump into the next one at some stage.

returnNull · 01-11-2013 7:33pm

Im surprised alasitair reynolds hasnt been mentioned.One of my favourite authors.

giftgrub · 04-11-2013 2:32am

My few...

Iain M Banks - "Use of Weapons"
SM Stirling - Island in the Sea of Time
Max Brooks - World War Z (I count it as sci-fi)
Neal Asher - Agent Cormac Series
Stephen Donaldson -The Gap series
Robert Heinlan - Starship Troopers
China Mielville - Perdido Street Station
and I'll +1 Michael Marshall Smith

beauf · 05-02-2014 1:29am

Long time since I read the foundation series I though it was little predictable at the end. Long time ago though. Dune was good but looong. Started back into ScFi/Fantasy recently. I read the halo books. Lightweight but I enjoyed it. I was thinking I'd like to re-read the Amtrak wars again.

shazzerman · 24-03-2014 9:01pm

No mention of Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz? Criminal. Also think Asimov's The Gods Themselves and Pohl and Kornbluth's The Space Merchants are worthy of inclusion in a Best of Sf list. I recently read Cecilia Holland's Floating Worlds, and that was a stunner.

Trojan · 25-07-2014 6:01pm

Another list of top 50 sf!

https://forbiddenplanet.com/picks/50-sf-books-you-must-read/

Manach · 25-07-2014 6:18pm

Trojan wrote: »

Another list of top 50 sf!

https://forbiddenplanet.com/picks/50-sf-books-you-must-read/

14/50 - I'd think most posters would have some variations on that list.

Trojan · 25-07-2014 6:26pm

There's quite a few older sf that I'd view as "ground-breaking", but aren't actually great reads - just that they were so imaginative for their era.

Dan_Solo · 25-07-2014 8:57pm

Trojan wrote: »

Another list of top 50 sf!

https://forbiddenplanet.com/picks/50-sf-books-you-must-read/

How in the pray tell does Ender's Game make these best of lists? It's a terrible novel on just about every level.

daUbiq · 14-08-2014 12:28pm

Manach wrote: »

14/50 - I'd think most posters would have some variations on that list.

33/50 - favourite is probably The Reality Dysfunction by Peter Hamilton which is the first book in a lengthy and compelling space opera series or The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin; fantastic atmosphere in her books and very well written.

Zapp Brannigan · 02-09-2018 5:30pm

After watching the Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay I kind of want to get in to cyberpunk as a genre. What are some must reads?

Nody · 02-09-2018 7:32pm

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

After watching the Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay I kind of want to get in to cyberpunk as a genre. What are some must reads?

Neuromancer is the obvious one of course; beyond that you got Altered Carbon series and Snow Crash (not for everyone) on the top of my head.

smacl · 06-09-2018 11:34am

Nody wrote: »

Neuromancer is the obvious one of course; beyond that you got Altered Carbon series and Snow Crash (not for everyone) on the top of my head.

Daemon and Freedom are also worth a punt. I found them highly entertaining without being earth shatteringly brilliant. Neuromancer is excellent and has a few other related books in the series (Mona lisa overdrive, Count Zero). Haven't read it in years so no idea how well it stands up today. Ready player one is also worth a read and IMHO far better than the film.

DeborahLQ · 19-04-2019 1:13pm

My top list:

Iain M. Banks - The Culture Series
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space series
Isaac Asimov - Foundation series
Dan Simmons - Hyperion trilogy
Peter F. Hamilton - The Void series
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky
N.K. Jemisin - The Fifth Season trilogy (more fantasy, but awesome nonetheless)
Charles Stross - Glass Houses
Ursula LeGuin - The Lathe of Heaven
Cixin Liu - The Three-Body Problem trilogy
Jay Allen - Crimson Worlds series
Neal Asher - Polity series

If you're new to sc-fi, or looking for new books that are really, really fantastic, those would be a good place to start.

mcgovern · 19-04-2019 1:22pm

DeborahLQ wrote: »

My top list:

Iain M. Banks - The Culture Series
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space series
Isaac Asimov - Foundation series
Dan Simmons - Hyperion trilogy
Peter F. Hamilton - The Void series
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky
N.K. Jemisin - The Fifth Season trilogy (more fantasy, but awesome nonetheless)
Charles Stross - Glass Houses
Ursula LeGuin - The Lathe of Heaven
Cixin Liu - The Three-Body Problem trilogy
Jay Allen - Crimson Worlds series
Neal Asher - Polity series

If you're new to sc-fi, or looking for new books that are really, really fantastic, those would be a good place to start.

I've read almost everything on your list and really enjoyed most of them. Based on this I just bought the first book in the Crimson Worlds series.

cdgalwegian · 04-06-2019 9:16am

DeborahLQ wrote: »

My top list:

Iain M. Banks - The Culture Series
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space series
Isaac Asimov - Foundation series
Dan Simmons - Hyperion trilogy
Peter F. Hamilton - The Void series
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky
N.K. Jemisin - The Fifth Season trilogy (more fantasy, but awesome nonetheless)
Charles Stross - Glass Houses
Ursula LeGuin - The Lathe of Heaven
Cixin Liu - The Three-Body Problem trilogy
Jay Allen - Crimson Worlds series
Neal Asher - Polity series

If you're new to sc-fi, or looking for new books that are really, really fantastic, those would be a good place to start.

Some of these are fantasy novels, and need to be distinguished from science fiction proper.

Not a big fan of fantasy novels, through read 'Peter F. Hamilton - The Void series'; I'd started it, found they were ok/good, so finished them.

Someone else said that Iain M. Banks - The Culture Series is hit and miss, and I'd have to agree; these books are massive!, so it's a big time investment, and hence annoying when they fall short of the mark.

Not on this list, but mentioned in a previous post is Neal Stephenson- Snow Crash- my favourite hard sci-fi novel (usually referred to as being in the steampunk style). They've been trying to get that made into a film for years:

"Snow Crash is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's other novels it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics and philosophy."Wikipedia

All of this in a hard sci-fi thriller!

aismac · 31-08-2019 10:00pm

giftgrub wrote: »

My few...

Iain M Banks - "Use of Weapons"
SM Stirling - Island in the Sea of Time
Max Brooks - World War Z (I count it as sci-fi)
Neal Asher - Agent Cormac Series
Stephen Donaldson -The Gap series
Robert Heinlan - Starship Troopers
China Mielville - Perdido Street Station
and I'll +1 Michael Marshall Smith

Only took six years for me to see this post and find the first person I’ve ever come across MMS. I’ve been hanging in the wrong places.

I really enjoyed the Rama series back in the day (A C Clarke) and Eon by Greg Bear. These days it feels like everything I read is kind of sounding the same, and books of old - their predictions are all coming true. Anyone come across any really different/imaginative sci fi lately? Aisling

ferrigan101 · 31-08-2019 10:32pm

aismac wrote: »

Only took six years for me to see this post and find the first person I’ve ever come across MMS. I’ve been hanging in the wrong places.

I really enjoyed the Rama series back in the day (A C Clarke) and Eon by Greg Bear. These days it feels like everything I read is kind of sounding the same, and books of old - their predictions are all coming true. Anyone come across any really different/imaginative sci fi lately? Aisling

I read Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky after seeing it recommended on here somewhere recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was a nice change from the space opera and hard sci-fi I've been reading of late. You could have a look at Children of Time by him too if you haven't already.

Mickeroo · 31-08-2019 11:14pm

ferrigan101 wrote: »

I read Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky after seeing it recommended on here somewhere recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was a nice change from the space opera and hard sci-fi I've been reading of late. You could have a look at Children of Time by him too if you haven't already.

Dogs of War is very enjoyable too.

Best scifi books

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