Science Fiction

[PeterL]

I've been a Science Fiction reader all my adult life and have never read any Kornbluth.
Maybe I will soon be thanking you for your recommendations?
I shall look for the Aluminium Man as well.

The Aluminum Man is hilarious.

Kornbluth is certainly worth reading.

[Dark Muse]

If you're not really-really-really into SF you may want to think twice about Iain Banks and his Culture books.
They're very hardcore SF and in a narrative style that isn't for everybody. I've read Surface Detail and The Hydrogen Sonata and at times was lost. You sort of have to just let the story wash over you sometimes, and not expect everything to make sense.

Thanks for the heads up, I might at least attempt the book I already happen to own just to see.

[Iain Sparrow]

Thanks for the heads up, I might at least attempt the book I already happen to own just to see.

Yeah, the Culture novels aren't the best entry level drug into the SF genre.

You may also want to stay clear of "golden age" sf. I noticed some recommendations by others that were written way back in the 50s, 60s and 70s, and simply put, they weren't written with young women in mind. Horribly sexist, subtly racist, and usually pretty silly. The modern era stuff is much, much better.

[Paulclem]

Thanks for the heads up, I might at least attempt the book I already happen to own just to see.

I recently re-read the Player of Games, which is a good read. The Guardian Book club recently discussed Use Of Weapons by Banks:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/aud...k-club-podcast

http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...banks-bookclub

I did like Surface Detail for its exploration of virtual possibilities - virtual wars to resolve conflicts and virtual hells for punishment.

I was a bit disappointed with Hydrogen Sonata, but that was because I enjoyed Surface Detail so much.

The Algebraist was a quirky and fascinating book, and my introduction to Banks' work. I really liked it.

The Culture novels are stand alone - as has been said, and posit a very ordered, safe super computer run environment for humans to live. The stories are set at the edges of this civilisation in brutal and often totalitarian planets which draw culture citizens to them in the same way that we are drawn to the fiction of these conflicting worlds. I wouldn't describe them as hard core sci fi, though perhaps I'm thinking of Hard Science there. The advanced culture technology acts as a kind of techno-magic - there are a lot of assumptions such as the possibility of "copying" minds in case of sudden death on a mission. Bodies can be regrown again, but the plots are interesting with lots of ideas and speculations. There are a few space opera ones such as Excession. I did like this too, but it depends upon taste.

I enjoyed The City and The City by Mieville - it is odd and fascinating too. I don't know if much interpretation has been done upon it, but I read it as a metaphor for the differences that exist within a society - or city - in the contrasts between the two.

You might like Perdido Street Station - a sprawling book which is hard to classify - dystopian, steampunk, sci fi, fantasy - all the labels fit parts of it. There is a word for it which I have forgotten, but it is multi-genre. I also liked The Iron Council by him, which grew on me as it progressed. That too is set in the same sprawling city. Mieville is well known for his socialist views, and these are evident in this book, though to cite it as political is to really address only a part of it.

[desiresjab]

The short book by Stanislaw Lem The Futurological Congress is a wondeful satire of not Science Fiction, but a future society reminiscent of directions today. Like all great satire, the book is a howl.

[Vota]

1. Dune by Frank Herbert. This is a sci-fi must read. Has strong elements of economics, politics, geology, theology and more in it.
2. Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. Humans meet alien object. They explore the object. Classic first encounter type book.
3. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. Pre-Vietnam war pro-military training and aliens combat book with political/social tones. Classic.
4. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Post-Vietnam war book about soldiers fighting aliens in space. The book is a futuristic allegory about Vietnam. Classic.
5. Sphere by Michael Crichton. Alien craft encountered. Lot's of stuff happens inside. WAY better than the crappy movie.
6. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. The Count of Monte Cristo in the future, with tattoos and psi powers. Bad *** classic.
7. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. Hard edged cyberpunk detective novel. Imho, classic.
8. Wool by Hugh Howey. Post-apocalyptic novel with an intelligent and pragmatic female protagonist. Good stuff.
9. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. Space chess/classic board game "War" on steroids and more. Fantastic.
10. The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. If I remember this is like a +3000 page trilogy, but imho, one of the most engrossing sci-fi reads I have ever read. The pages flew by for me.

[Calidore]

If you're not really-really-really into SF you may want to think twice about Iain Banks and his Culture books.
They're very hardcore SF and in a narrative style that isn't for everybody. I've read Surface Detail and The Hydrogen Sonata and at times was lost. You sort of have to just let the story wash over you sometimes, and not expect everything to make sense.

I don't think of Banks' Culture books as "hardcore SF", though I haven't read the two you cited. His earlier ones at least fall IMO well into the category of space opera. They are detail-heavy (Banks was both highly intelligent and very imaginative), but I always found them very accessible. They're also very funny.

1. Dune by Frank Herbert. This is a sci-fi must read. Has strong elements of economics, politics, geology, theology and more in it.
2. Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. Humans meet alien object. They explore the object. Classic first encounter type book.
3. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. Pre-Vietnam war pro-military training and aliens combat book with political/social tones. Classic.
4. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Post-Vietnam war book about soldiers fighting aliens in space. The book is a futuristic allegory about Vietnam. Classic.
5. Sphere by Michael Crichton. Alien craft encountered. Lot's of stuff happens inside. WAY better than the crappy movie.
6. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. The Count of Monte Cristo in the future, with tattoos and psi powers. Bad *** classic.
7. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. Hard edged cyberpunk detective novel. Imho, classic.
8. Wool by Hugh Howey. Post-apocalyptic novel with an intelligent and pragmatic female protagonist. Good stuff.
9. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. Space chess/classic board game "War" on steroids and more. Fantastic.
10. The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. If I remember this is like a +3000 page trilogy, but imho, one of the most engrossing sci-fi reads I have ever read. The pages flew by for me.

1. I found Dune a total snore, but it's an acknowledged classic of the genre, so feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt.
3. Haven't read this one, and I'm not much of a Heinlein fan in general, but I did enjoy The Puppet Masters a whole lot (though some of the writing of women and man-woman relations can be generously called dated). I remember Tunnel in the Sky, about a high school survival class final exam going very wrong, being pretty good also.
4. Forever War is good, though it's also straight-up military SF, so I don't know if it's what Dark Muse is looking for.
9. Still my favorite of the Culture books I've read.
10. Night's Dawn was terrific, but Hamilton is even more detailed than Banks, and this trilogy does require very attentive reading to keep up with it.

Haven't read the others Vota listed, though I'm not at all a Crichton fan.

[Paulclem]

I don't think of Banks' Culture books as "hardcore SF", though I haven't read the two you cited. His earlier ones at least fall IMO well into the category of space opera. They are detail-heavy (Banks was both highly intelligent and very imaginative), but I always found them very accessible. They're also very funny.

I thought they were very accessible too. Another British writer is Neal Asher who has written quite a few sci fi actioners. The best one was The Voyage of the Sable Keech with an elaborate, exciting plot and a story full of ideas.

I read and enjoyed Dune and a number in the series and a few years ago I returned to his son's Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson's writing. He's continued the Dune writing, but has gone back to do prequels such as House Corrino, House Harkonnen and House Atreides. They are less mystically influenced and are very accessible.

I started the Night's Dawn trilogy enthusiastically. The first book was excellent. I don't know why but the appearance of Al Capone put me off the second book. I completed it, but have not gone for the third instalment yet. I will probably read it sometime, but I was a bit disappointed. Great ideas and a thumping plot too.

A surprise was both Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke and Solaris by Stanislav Lem. Rendesvous was hard sciece but exciting and speculative. Solaris was reflective and more thoughtful about how unfathomable the alien entity may be.

[kev67]

I was reading a bit about C.P. Snow's famous Two Cultures speech today, in which he said he had been at a gathering of humanities academics where conversation had turned towards the lamentable literacy of their scientific colleagues. Snow complained that that was all very well, but their knowledge of science was hardly any better than their stone age ancestors. Ask them what the 2nd law of thermodynamic was and they'd just look blank, yet not knowing that would be the scientific equivalent of admitting you had never read a play by Shakespeare. I think things have changed since then. Even so, you could argue that science fiction was a way of bridging the two cultures. The only problem to me about that is that most science fiction has very little scientific explanation in it. It might as well be called magic fiction. One author I know who does not exactly write science fiction, but writes books that discuss technology is Ian McEwan. Solar was about a physics professor who steals an idea for synthetic photosynthesis from a PhD student. I would say that was almost science fiction. He wrote another book called The Innocent about an electronics engineer engaged on spying under the Berlin Wall.

[mal4mac]

J G Ballard is a must read if you want post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction - The Drowned World, as someone said, is a key work, but there's also Super-Cannes, The Wind from Nowhere, and several others... He drew on his childhood experience of Singapore under Japanese occupation. I read his auto-biography recently and that's also superb. John Wyndham is another dystopian Brit. worth reading - Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos,...

[Calidore]

I started the Night's Dawn trilogy enthusiastically. The first book was excellent. I don't know why but the appearance of Al Capone put me off the second book. I completed it, but have not gone for the third instalment yet. I will probably read it sometime, but I was a bit disappointed. Great ideas and a thumping plot too.

Capone surprised me too, but then I thought, well, why not? Maybe that's just local pride from a lifelong Chicagoan. Anyway, he's a pretty good character here. I can wholeheartedly recommend finishing the trilogy.

John Wyndham is another dystopian Brit. worth reading - Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos,...

It's sad that Wyndham is mostly forgotten now; his work was consistently very good.

[mortalterror]

Try these lists: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085...-fantasy-books and http://scifilists.sffjazz.com/lists_books_rank1.html

I'll personally vouch for:
Dune
Enders Game
1984
Stranger in a Strange Land
Fahrenheit 451
Neuromancer
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Slaughterhouse Five
Snow Crash
Lord of Light
Cat's Cradle
The Day of the Triffids
I Am Legend
Old Man's War
Starship Troopers (though the first chapter was the best part)
A Canticle for Liebowitz
Ringworld (could have been better)
The Forever War ( a little high on the list like Ringworld but not bad)
Midshipman's Hope (not on either list but a favorite of mine nonetheless)

[kimchi]

In the case of the OP I would recomande.

To say nothing about the dog by Connis Willis

Seeker by Jack Mcdevitt

A little suprised not to see Peter Watts rifter trilogy or John Varley millenium in this list seems to be close of what the OP is liking without being hardcore the ways banks is.

[Paulclem]

Capone surprised me too, but then I thought, well, why not? Maybe that's just local pride from a lifelong Chicagoan. Anyway, he's a pretty good character here. I can wholeheartedly recommend finishing the trilogy.



It's sad that Wyndham is mostly forgotten now; his work was consistently very good.

It was consistent with the returning dead, but I felt that the author was basically lazy to do this. On the other hand I finished it, and it was enjoyable in parts - though not as good as the first part. I think it must be difficult to keep the ideas fresh in sci fi, once the environment has been established, then it's down to the quality of the story.

I enjoyed Wyndham too - particularly The Trouble with Lichen, which was a very thoughtful book on an aging population.

My son and I are currently collecting the Gollancz Sci Fi Masterworks, which is a great way to catch up with some brilliant authors such as Pohl Anderson and the less well known of Philip K Dick's novels. My son intends to keep the collection - I've given up due to the constraints of space for a library.

[qimissung]

Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdhal. It's for young adults, but it is really good. Also Ender's Game.