Best Si-fi ever

[Avalive]

What's the best sicence fictions?
If you read any. Please recommend.

[emily655321]

I don't read a whole lot of sci-fi, but I'm a big fan of Charles Beaumont. And of course my heart belongs to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy." But my all-time favorite is Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester. It's an absolutlely wonderful example of absurdist philosophizing, i.m.o.

[edit] I haven't read any of his stuff yet, but it seems everywhere I turn I hear wonderful things about William Gibson. "Neuromancer" is his most famous, and if I'm not mistaken, it's the book the Matrix movies are based on. Actually, he's been labeled the founder of a sub-genre known as "Cyberpunk," and a lot of people practically worship him, but I guess there are others who think of him as more of an MTV, popularly-accessible kind of sci-fi author. But that's not necessarily a bad thing -- there's a need for all kinds, especially if you're looking for some gateway stuff into the genre.

[scottb]

That is a broad question.

You can look Farenheit 451, Childhhood's End, or the Martian Chronicles as sci-fi political statements.

You can look at Rendevous with Rama as fantasy.

I would be wiiling to discuss this topic but we need to narrow the topic.

scottb

[Avalive]

Then narrow it.

I don't really like fantasy. I want something(books)that predict the future. Somthing like that.
WISDOM & CREATIVITY wanted.

Thanks a lot

[emily655321]

There's really no end to the varieties of Sci-fi that exist. Edgar Allen Poe actually did a few stories, about ballooning for instance, and of course there's Jules Verne. My favorites are the realistic but surreal stuff, like "Vintage Season" by Kuttner and Moore; and the more absurdist-leaning, like Alfred Bester and Stanislaw Lem. A lot of great drug-inspired sci-fi came about in the sixties, like Anthony Burgess's work, a drastic change from the Forbidden Planet type of stuff that proliferated in the 40's and 50's.

Scott's right, it's an extremely broad genre. What kind of topic are you most interested in, Avalive? What writing style?

[Miranda]

I love sci fi but haven't read any for ages. I haven't been here too long and don't like to make suggestions..but its very tempting to suggest having a sci fi book of the month to read. Maybe it would be too much for the forum to handle though cos reading one book a month is quite hard when they are long and it might take people away from reading the main book which would be a shame. I am really good at talking myself into things and then talking myself out of them again!!

[Avalive]

Originally posted by emily655321
There's really no end to the varieties of Sci-fi that exist. Edgar Allen Poe actually did a few stories, about ballooning for instance, and of course there's Jules Verne. My favorites are the realistic but surreal stuff, like "Vintage Season" by Kuttner and Moore; and the more absurdist-leaning, like Alfred Bester and Stanislaw Lem. A lot of great drug-inspired sci-fi came about in the sixties, like Anthony Burgess's work, a drastic change from the Forbidden Planet type of stuff that proliferated in the 40's and 50's.

Scott's right, it's an extremely broad genre. What kind of topic are you most interested in, Avalive? What writing style?


Amazing. Thanks Emily and ya'll.

U read a lot. Cool. They are like treasure in mind. I like realistic but surreal stuffs. Things about the space and all. Everything that is thought-enlightened. I started this topic. However, I basically know nothing about it, since I hardly read any before. So you guys can continue with this, discuss whatever u want related to the si-fi genre. And,I'll read and learn from it.

[Diceman]

If your interest is indeed the "decription of future" aspect of sci-fi, then I'll echo the recommendation to look into the cyberpunk sub-genre. However I didn't much like Neuromancer. Gibson's imagination and ability to describe future technology is without equal, but he is a god-awful story teller. I recommend "Burning Chrome", which is Gibson's collection of short stories. I found these to be excellent - they don't become boring as did Neuromancer.

More generally I recommend Robert Silverberg. I find his sci-fi to be thoroughly engaging, often with some underlying themes hiding underneath the story.

[IWilKikU]

Miranda, a sci-fi book of the month? Thats a bit heavy when most of us have school reading, book club, and a little something recreational as well. But you can nominate a sci-fi for the club book. Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep almost won last month.

[random_hero]

While I have not read a single book by Gibson, his problems with story arise from the fact that he does not have a set story line, he just sits down and starts typing. He said so on an interview on the screen savers, a really good tech talk show.

[imthefoolonthehill]

DUNE, Jules Vernes, HG Wells are all very good.

[emily655321]

I saw that interview too, RH. (But it was Unscrewed with Martin Sergeant, btw. :D) Yeah, he was saying how writing screenplays stifles his creativity because the producer demands he know the ending before he hires him. How unreasonable, eh? :p Of course there's something to be said for just letting the ideas flow and surprising yourself, but if you get to the moment when the reader should be thinking, "Oh gosh, how will our hero ever get out of this one?" generally one would hope the author isn't thinking the same thing.

[imthefoolonthehill]

Steven King writes about authors quite a bit... and in Misery, the author plays a game where he gets his characters into a mess, then thinks up a way to get them out.

[subterranean]

Poe made me love this genre, though some categorized his works as proto science, I'd say that his works are the the best classic ever. I don't really love Verne...Ray Bradbury with its Martian Chronichles is all time fav...Wells is also cool...

[scottb]

These are a few of the choices from the English 254: Literature of Science Fiction course at Colorado State University - Pueblo. It is a distance education course and the student is required to read eleven books from a list of about one hundred books. I am thinking about taking the course.

These are all futuristic.

"The Difference Engine"
"Lest Darkness Fall"
"The Proteus Operation"
"He, She, and It"
"The Lathe of Heaven"
"Dream Master"
"The Handmaids's Tale"
"Those Who Hunt the Night"
"The Waterworks"

[Avalive]

Great. . .

[Capnplank]

I don't know much about predicting the future, but the sci-fi that has always stuck out in my mind seemed somewhat prophetic. That is, if it's even sci-fi by most standards. I've never been really good with the finer lines involved.

1984, by George Orwell - A future in which every move is watched through cameras, every word is heard through microphones, every action is policed so fiercely that there is little freedom.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury - A future in which the written word is illegal, and all print is burned.

The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury - A collection of shorter stories woven together to more or less make one story. One of my favorites was an automated house that continued to function and take care of a family long after anyone was left.

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley - A future in which love is somewhat impractical, so society has learned to do without it. Same with sadness and any other emotion that can have an unpleasant side effect.

The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells - The nice folks on Mars start invading Earth. This supposedly predicted several warfare practices that were used shortly after to kill large and tidy sums of people like air warfare, germ warfare, lasers, blitzkriegs, etc.

Planet of the Apes, Pierre Boulle - Unlike the movie(s), the book is not good because it's terrible. It's good because it's excellent. And because it's not much like the movie, other than the very basic premise of apes having inherited once-human society.

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Ice-Nine is a reconstructing sort of thing that reorganizes any compound with water in it to take on the same properties as ice. Can't imagine how that'd go wrong...


Dunno, they all seemed sort of sci-fi to me.

[IWilKikU]

Planet of the Apes, Pierre Boulle - Unlike the movie(s), the book is not good because it's terrible. It's good because it's excellent.

Uhhh... could you maybe give a little bit more objective analysis :).

I liked the original series w/Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell, but the new film with Mark Wahlburg sucked soooooo bad. Was anyone else infuriated by it?
Marky Mark is such a dork.

[Avalive]

Originally posted by Capnplank
I don't know much about predicting the future, but the sci-fi that has always stuck out in my mind seemed somewhat prophetic. That is, if it's even sci-fi by most standards. I've never been really good with the finer lines involved.

1984, by George Orwell - A future in which every move is watched through cameras, every word is heard through microphones, every action is policed so fiercely that there is little freedom.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury - A future in which the written word is illegal, and all print is burned.

The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury - A collection of shorter stories woven together to more or less make one story. One of my favorites was an automated house that continued to function and take care of a family long after anyone was left.

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley - A future in which love is somewhat impractical, so society has learned to do without it. Same with sadness and any other emotion that can have an unpleasant side effect.

The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells - The nice folks on Mars start invading Earth. This supposedly predicted several warfare practices that were used shortly after to kill large and tidy sums of people like air warfare, germ warfare, lasers, blitzkriegs, etc.

Planet of the Apes, Pierre Boulle - Unlike the movie(s), the book is not good because it's terrible. It's good because it's excellent. And because it's not much like the movie, other than the very basic premise of apes having inherited once-human society.

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Ice-Nine is a reconstructing sort of thing that reorganizes any compound with water in it to take on the same properties as ice. Can't imagine how that'd go wrong...


Dunno, they all seemed sort of sci-fi to me.

Only read "Brave New World". Liked it.
Planet of Apes. I saw the movie too. It's just an OKAY movie.

[imthefoolonthehill]

you think you could have taken up a little bit more space with less to say?

[emily655321]

An award-winning achievement in forum anarchism, I'd say. ;)

[Avalive]

Originally posted by imthefoolonthehill
you think you could have taken up a little bit more space with less to say?

ME?

Sorry. I just didn't know how to quote it.

[emily655321]

Sorry, didn't intend to be mean, Avalive. It's okay. :D Just teasing you.

[JediFonger]

i tried reading it for the first 20 or is it 30 pages. i can't remember. although the story was starting to get interesting his writing seemed to have been run over by a train and left for dead. i mean this william gibson just can't write if his life depended on it. i just couldn't go on... no matter what. it's similar to tim zahn and the starwars books he has written. the story is awesome (i did finish the 5 books) but his writing is borderline poor.


[edit] I haven't read any of his stuff yet, but it seems everywhere I turn I hear wonderful things about William Gibson. "Neuromancer" is his most famous, and if I'm not mistaken, it's the book the Matrix movies are based on. Actually, he's been labeled the founder of a sub-genre known as "Cyberpunk," and a lot of people practically worship him, but I guess there are others who think of him as more of an MTV, popularly-accessible kind of sci-fi author. But that's not necessarily a bad thing -- there's a need for all kinds, especially if you're looking for some gateway stuff into the genre.

[Ender]

Sci-Fi = Isaac Asimov

[simon]

So Ender what's it like playing those games as a child? How did it effect your emotional upbringing, having been uprooted from your family and dubbed a protoge, and always getting picked on?

[Ender]

Oh, you know, same old. Quite well adjusted besides the whole "living for thousands of years" thing, but all in all, it's helped me understand my life and others' quite well.

[Taliesin]

My favourites:
Simak- "The City"
The Strugatski brothers - Maksim Kammerer trilogy
Asimov - "Foundation" series
Le Guin - practically everything is good
Simmons - his Hyperion series are just awesome
Zelazny - "Lord of Light" and the Amber series
Charles de Lint "Someplace to be flying"

and many more. Sci-Fi is in my opinion too big to have one favourite.

[Avalive]

Anybody read <The Cage of Steel>?

[GatsbyTheGreat]

Im shocked no one has mentioned Arthur C. Clarke yet (2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010, 2061, 3001, amongst others I have yet to read). I never really liked Sci-Fi until I read the space odyssey quartet, and now I thirst for it. Someone once told me there is a difference between science fiction and sci-fi, so if there is I guess Arthur C. Clarke writes science fiction. It isn't like normal sci-fi, with robot wars and alien invaders. It is more based around discovery, knowledge and speculation. As far as classic literature goes, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are both very good, The Island of Dr. Moreau and Journey to the Center of the Earth being my favorites.

Zooming back to the present, I've heard great things about Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy and other Douglas Adams books, though I havent read them myself.

[Avalive]

=GatsbyTheGreat]Im shocked no one has mentioned Arthur C. Clarke yet (2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010, 2061, 3001, amongst others I have yet to read). I never really liked Sci-Fi until I read the space odyssey quartet, and now I thirst for it. Someone once told me there is a difference between science fiction and sci-fi, so if there is I guess Arthur C. Clarke writes science fiction. It isn't like normal sci-fi, with robot wars and alien invaders. It is more based around discovery, knowledge and speculation.


*Awake*

Agree with you. I wanna emphasis on this "It is more based around discovery, knowledge and speculation". That's why I love sience fiction. (sometimes,I'd rather to read some science books. They are not boring. Not to me. My mind is pretty active to'em). I prefer the creative prophecy based on sience and truth.