I need Sci-Fi recommendations.

[Rob H]

Dune by Frank Herbert
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (Didn't enjoy Starship Troopers)
Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation by Asimov
Out of Control: The new biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World by Kevin Kelly

Any opinions on any of these authors/books are welcome. If you have any other suggestions, please post.

[metr0man]

The Foundation books are top class science fiction. Very good. Foundation and Empire (the 2nd I believe) is particularly good.

Here's another suggestion: Pandora's Star by Peter F Hamilton. Sprawling future sci-fi society epic. It's part of a duology (i haven't read the 2nd part, Judas Unchained yet). It's very very good.

[Buzz Dixon]

Make sure you read THE STARS MY DESTINATION (TYGER! TYGER! in the UK) by Alfred Bester. THE DEMOLISHED MAN, also by Bester, is also quite good, but TSMD is the gold standard of sci-fi novels.

Also FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Of the books you specifically inquired about:

DUNE by Frank Herbert is a marvelous read but the various sequels did little for me.

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA by Arthur C. Clarke is a dandy space opera/exploring new worlds type adventure; not the first of its kind of even necessarily the best of its kind (or even the best of Clarke's work) but thoroughly enjoyable and tons o'fun

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein was written just before they diagnosed his brain tumor and removed it. A very atypical Heinlein book of that era in his writing as compared to THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, my personal fave of all his novels.

FOUNDATION et al by Isacc Asimov occupies a position of great historical importance in the history of sci-fi but is rather flatly written and based on a now disproven historical theory.

Haven't read the Kevin Kelly book.

[Rob H]

Peter F. Hamilton(my friend raves on about this guy) and Alfred Bester are two more authors I'm keen to pick up. Thanks.

I've read Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Martian Chronicles. Two of my favorites.

[Donald M.]

I don't have too much to add to what's already been listed, I mostly read horror novels, thrillers and mysteries.

Do check out The Hitchhikers Guide books by Douglas Adams. I don't regret reading the whole series, but honestly you can stop after book two content in the knowledge you've read the best of it.

My personal favorite sci-fi novel would be Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human about a group of disturbed or otherwise abnormal mutant children who come together to form a single super-powerful gestalt entity. Great stuff.

[Rob H]

I've read the first Hitchhiker's Guide but nothing beyond that. The other four books in the series are gathering dust on my shelf.

[SamuraiJack]

Ben Bova's really good as well, although if you're looking for high adventure sci-fi I'd stay away from him. Most of his stuff deals with humanity's expansion into the stars, not so much with aliens and such.

Also, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote an amazing book called 'Footfall' about Earth being invaded by an alien species. Top-notch work that...

[sschroeder]

I read many of these a long time ago, so I hope my impressions are still valid.


Dune by Frank Herbert
Excellent. Herbert builds a galaxy in one book and fills it with interesting characters. I found the desert peoples and the Sandworms thrilling. Some petty rivalries drive the plot at times, but that is forgiveable. There is a fair amount of setting specific terminology that you'll have to keep up with while you read, a stumbling block for some. I never made it through book 2, but that does not dimish the greatness of the first.


Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (Didn't enjoy Starship Troopers)
I remember that this was pretty interesting, especially during the earlier stages. I have not read any other of his books.


Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation by Asimov
I never did read these, but I loved the Robot novels (Caves of Steel, Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire), and some of his short stories. The Robot books are detective stories and explore the three laws of robotics.


Any opinions on any of these authors/books are welcome. If you have any other suggestions, please post.
I remember really liking L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. Please forget about the movie they made from it. One issue with that book is that it is basically devoid of female characters of any import, so female readers might not like it.

[Sean Whitmore]

I'll throw in a recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. The plot is great (and filled with enough twists that I hesitate to get into it here), but it's the character work that makes me love this book. The character of Ender himself was strong enough to get me through the sequels, which were much, much weaker plot-wise.


SEAN

[Donald M.]

I'll throw in a recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. The plot is great (and filled with enough twists that I hesitate to get into it here), but it's the character work that makes me love this book. The character of Ender himself was strong enough to get me through the sequels, which were much, much weaker plot-wise.


SEAN

Of the serquels I've only read Speaker For the Dead, but personally I found it as enjoyable as Ender's Game, though a very different book.

As you say, I've heard the series only gets worse after that.

[Sean Whitmore]

Of the serquels I've only read Speaker For the Dead, but personally I found it as enjoyable as Ender's Game, though a very different book.

As you say, I've heard the series only gets worse after that.


The amount of mystic-techno babble and people standing around delivering exposition rages out of control. But Ender, Jane, and a couple of other characters remain interesting enough that I thought it was worth slogging through the rest to see what happens to them.


SEAN

[Karl J. Barnes]

Ben Bova's really good as well, although if you're looking for high adventure sci-fi I'd stay away from him. Most of his stuff deals with humanity's expansion into the stars, not so much with aliens and such.

Also, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote an amazing book called 'Footfall' about Earth being invaded by an alien species. Top-notch work that...

Agree about Bova though his stories can be pretty adventuresome like his novel,Orion. Totally agree about Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle' Footfall! Great story and characters. Also, try Niven's Ringworld and his excellent Intergal Trees.

[Karl J. Barnes]

And check out John C. Wright's The Golden Age fascinating look at the way humanity and virtual reality mesh together. Also, Sarah Zettel's The Quiet Invasion about an alien race that is looking for a new home. Her descriptions of the aliens culture and that of the future human culture are fascinating and her other novel that I have read Kingdom of Cages, this one just blew me away.

And of course, anything by C J Cherryh.

[Kirayoshi]

David Brin, pretty much anything, especially Earth or the Uplift novels. "Earth" is a strong enviromental-themed story about a group of scientists that discover a microscopic black hole embedded deep within the Earth's mantle, and a debate that rages among scientists, religious zealots and politicians whether to remove the threat to the Earth or let it run its course(some of the zealots believe that the imminent destruction of Earth is God's punishment and must run its course). All this amid a harrowing(and highly plausible) backdrop of the world as it may exist in the next twenty years or so if current environmental trends continue.

"Number of the Beast" by Robert A. Heinlein. A little heavy on titilation, but an entertaining romp, as four scientists find themselves hunted by aliens, and end up travelling to worlds created by famous works of literature(Oz, Wonderland, that sort of thing) to escape their pursuers.

[Karl J. Barnes]

"Number of the Beast" by Robert A. Heinlein. A little heavy on titilation, but an entertaining romp, as four scientists find themselves hunted by aliens, and end up travelling to worlds created by famous works of literature(Oz, Wonderland, that sort of thing) to escape their pursuers.

I think(THINK) that you are the only person to say ANYTHING positive about Number of the Beast. I personally loathed it for many reasons from the slow pace to the incest. I was wondering what you liked about it specificly?

[TransformersFan]

The cyberpunk novel Neuromancer by William Gibson. I still read this at least once a year, and while its over twenty years old still as relevant today. Gorgeous prose, and characters you never forget. Romantic and dystopian at the same time. Pulpy and mindblowing.

You can try his recent book Pattern Recognition. More about todays world and our axienties about the future, especially post-9/11.

[Rob H]

Gibson's genre has never really interested me but I'm willing to give it a go.

[Ryan Day]

Two authors I've really gotten into over the past year or so:

Richard K. Morgan: Writes some dark, noirish scifi. He's written three books in the same universe, where the major advancement is that everyone is implanted with a memory device at the back of their skull that allows them to be "reborn" into a new body (natural, clone, or artificial), at least as long as they can afford it. The main character is an ex-marine who's hired for a variety of dirty work, from Earth out to the frequently war-plagued colonies. Altered Carbon is his first, even though they're not really a "series" in the sense that one book has to follow the others (they do, but you won't be lost if you were to pick up Broken Angels or Woken Furies) Lots of double crossing and nasty people doing unpleasant things to one another - quite fun.

Alastair Reynolds: Written some big, galaxy-spanning books that start with the exploration of a civilization that was mysteriously wiped out thousands of years ago. Revelation Space is the first in the series, and it's okay, but I'd start with Chasm City, which is the second book but only loosely ties in to the overall picture - it's about a man who follows an assasin to a planet that's been wracked with a techno-biological plague. It's very hard sci-fi - Reynolds is an astrophysicist, iirc - but has a very good hand for character and plot.

[Paul McEnery]

Two authors I've really gotten into over the past year or so:

Richard K. Morgan: Writes some dark, noirish scifi. He's written three books in the same universe, where the major advancement is that everyone is implanted with a memory device at the back of their skull that allows them to be "reborn" into a new body (natural, clone, or artificial), at least as long as they can afford it. The main character is an ex-marine who's hired for a variety of dirty work, from Earth out to the frequently war-plagued colonies. Altered Carbon is his first, even though they're not really a "series" in the sense that one book has to follow the others (they do, but you won't be lost if you were to pick up Broken Angels or Woken Furies) Lots of double crossing and nasty people doing unpleasant things to one another - quite fun.

Alastair Reynolds: Written some big, galaxy-spanning books that start with the exploration of a civilization that was mysteriously wiped out thousands of years ago. Revelation Space is the first in the series, and it's okay, but I'd start with Chasm City, which is the second book but only loosely ties in to the overall picture - it's about a man who follows an assasin to a planet that's been wracked with a techno-biological plague. It's very hard sci-fi - Reynolds is an astrophysicist, iirc - but has a very good hand for character and plot.
Reynold's latest is just out, a stand-alone called Century Rain. It's great.

Also just out, John Courtney Grimwood's Stamping Butterflies. It's beyond great.

[Kirayoshi]

I think(THINK) that you are the only person to say ANYTHING positive about Number of the Beast. I personally loathed it for many reasons from the slow pace to the incest. I was wondering what you liked about it specificly?I'll admit that it wasn't his best, but it had its moments.

Actually, if you want Heinlein at the top of his game, I'd go with Friday, his novel about artifically created woman operating as a courier for an intelligence agency, trying to establish her own life while dealing with a constantly shifting political climate. A strong story, plus you don't have to bone up on his whole Lazarus-Long-future-history.

[Mark Wallace]

Dune by Frank Herbert
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (Didn't enjoy Starship Troopers)
Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation by Asimov
Out of Control: The new biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World by Kevin Kelly

Any opinions on any of these authors/books are welcome. If you have any other suggestions, please post.
Fred Pohl's Gateway.
One of the best Sci-Fi books ever written; brilliant and inspiring concept, and unsurpassable character work.

The sequels, however...

[Karl J. Barnes]

I'll admit that it wasn't his best, but it had its moments.

Actually, if you want Heinlein at the top of his game, I'd go with Friday, his novel about artifically created woman operating as a courier for an intelligence agency, trying to establish her own life while dealing with a constantly shifting political climate. A strong story, plus you don't have to bone up on his whole Lazarus-Long-future-history.
I've read Friday and agree that this was one of his novels that I really enjoyed. Not being a Heinlin afficando, I just don't enjoy his prose.

[Psychocandy]

I've been reading a lot of sci-fi lately and being the careful soul I am i've managed to maintain a 100% solid hit rate with the titles i've selected. The following are particularly outstanding and I recommend them wholeheartedly.

Flowers For Algernon - possibly the saddest book i've ever read.

The Forever War - a Vietnam war allegory that held me uttely transfixed from start to finish.

Gateway - an ingenious high concept idea executed very well...a joy to read.

[DoubleWide]

If you plan to read Stranger In A Strange Land, go for The Complete Edition, the origional was edited before publication.

May I also suggest John Wyndam's Day of the Triffids & John Christopher's Tripod Trilogy, The White Mountain, The City of Lead And Gold, & Pool of Fire. Christopher wrote a prequil called When The Tripods Came.

[cadmium_blimp]

May I also suggest John Wyndam's Day of the Triffids & John Christopher's Tripod Trilogy, The White Mountain, The City of Lead And Gold, & Pool of Fire. Christopher wrote a prequil called When The Tripods Came.
I read The Tripod Trilogy in the fourth grade. Interesting stuff it was at that time. I highly recommend Philip K. Dick. The man was a genius.

[DrewTheXenocide]

Of the serquels I've only read Speaker For the Dead, but personally I found it as enjoyable as Ender's Game, though a very different book.

As you say, I've heard the series only gets worse after that.

Yeah, I could hardly make a dent in the third one, and because of that, didn't even touch the fourth.

On the other hand, all the Bean books, I thought, were pretty damn good.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick was good too.

[Justin D.]

Awesome. I was looking for good science fiction books to read, and I get a bunch of them here.

I second the recommendation for Ben Bova's Orion. I have all five books in the series. While the series has it's fair share of downs, I have really fond memories of it and may get around to rereading it sometime soon.

Out of the few Heinlen novels I've read, I prefer Job: A Comedy of Justice the most and have read it about three times. Stranger in a Strange Land is good overall, but can get tedious in points as it seems to find itself in a new direction without a whole lot of connective threads.

Greg Bear's Blood Music is probably one of the best science fiction books I've ever read. Amazing twists happen throughout the book, especially one particular twist with one of the main characters that completely took me by surprise and impressed me with the boldness of the move.

Stephen L. Burns' Call from a Distant Shore is another great book. While it has it's flaws in plot development, the poetic, lyrical style that Burns writes in kept me turning pages and wishing he had more books out.

I've had Earth by David Brin sitting here for a few months, but cracked it open for some reason. Kirayoshi, yours is one of the few all-glowing reviews I've read. While I've read the book predicted many of the things to happen later in the real world, I've also heard it meanders on a bit without a whole lot of direction many times in the book.

Diane Duane wrote one of my favorite Star Trek books (Dark Mirror), but most non-Star Trek books I've seen by her are fantasy books. Anyone have any recommendations for some more of her books in the science fiction genre?

How about some good crossover books? Science fiction/(insert other genre or genres here) books?

[Kaiju]

I really enjoyed Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo. It's a story about a colony ship that has been drifting through space for centuries without any contact from any humans. They find a habitable planet but things soon take a dark turn. Then things get even stranger when they encounter a ship that doesn't appear to have been made by man. It's a good of sci-fi sprinkled with some Lovecraftian and Geigeresque horror.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Among current SF writers, I'm particularly fond of Greg Bear. I've never read anything by him that I didn't find both thoroughly enjoyable and quite thought-provoking. I'm particularly fond of QUEEN OF ANGELS and SLANT; in both, and in many of his other books, Bear does an exceptional job of extrapolting upon how things that are currently on the theoretical/cutting edge of technology might impact human society, psychology and identity.

Let me second Buzz Dixon's recommendation of Alfred Bester. Bester is among the very best classic SF writers.

I'll also second ENDER'S GAME. I do so with reluctance, as I personally loathe Card's anti-gay bigotry and am thus loathe to recommend anyone read, and thus support, such an individual, but none of that comes across in the book and damn, one can't deny that this is a fantastic work of fiction.

Probably the best single work of literary SF to date has been Gene Wolfe's THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN. Consisting of SHADOW OF THE TORTURER, CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR, SWORD OF THE LICTOR and CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH, this set is SF at its best. Wolfe is arguably the best author currently writing in the English language - and not just in SF.

Someone else mentioned Fred Pohl's GATEWAY. That's an excellent book. So is MAN PLUS, and excellent work of existential SF, dealing with how cybernetics, genetic engineering and the potential for customized or artificial bodies would impact humanity.

Finally, if you're interested in short SF, I can't possibly give a high recommendation to the various SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME volumes (I, IIa and IIb and III). The first volume is short stories written from the beginning of SF as a distinct literary genre to the establishment of the Nebula awards. Selected by the SF Writers of America, it contains the very best of the best stories by the best writers of that era. The next two volumes are novellas from that era. Volume III contains the early Nebula award winners. Containing works by the likes of Asimov, Clark, Sturgeon, Ellison, LeGuin, Farmer, Zelazny and Moorcock, these are must-reads. There isn't a single bad story among the volumes.

Of the works initially mentioned:
DUNE by Frank Herbert - a masterwork. Excellent book. Highly recommended.
RENDEZVOUX WITH RAMA by Arthur C. Clarke. Possibly Clarke's best, also highly recommended.
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein. The definite masterwork of a writer who wrote an awful lot of good stuff (FRIDAY is also quite good, btw). It's nothing like STARSHIP TROOPERS, so don't worry there. It's also nothing like anything else, really.
FOUNDATION TRILOGY by Asimov. I'm not a huge Asimov fan. Asimov was a concept writer, and the concepts are very big here, but he is less than stellar with characterization. This is particularly notable in this work. Some regard that as intentional, to focus on the epic scope of the concepts addressed in the books, and it may well be intentional on Asimov's part, but I'd argue it is still a mistake. It's hard to care much about the ideas when the characters are so forgettable. I won't say FOUNDATION, etc. are bad books, but I consider them more important - and they are very important to the history and development of SF as a subgroup of literature - than they are actually "good."

I've not read the Kelly book, so I can't comment on it.

You may also want to use the search function to look at other "recommended SF" sorts of threads on this board. There have been others over the years.

[Kirayoshi]

No votes for Spider Robinson? Shocking!

I whole-heartedly endorse "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon", "Time Travelers Strictly Cash" and "Callahan's Secret", three collections of short stories set at Callahan's bar (TTSC contains both Callahan's stories and a few other short stories and essays), where literally anything can happen. Also "Callahan's Lady" and "Lady Slings the Booze", involving Lady Sally's, the best little whorehouse in the galaxy. Later Callahan's books were good as well, but less so.

Also, the Stardance trilogy(Stardance, Starseed and Starmind), his collaboration with his wife Jeanne. A lyrical view of a group of space-bound dancers who end up using dance to communicate with aliens. Great stuff.

[Cleric of Hell's Brigade]

If I can throw my hat into this:




A King of Infinte Space, by Allan Steel was great, IMO.


But one of my favorites was Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series of books. Fun, fast paced, and action packed.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I, Robot by Asimov was great. I liked it better than Foundation. Foundation's still a great read but there's just something about robots that I love.

Larry Niven's Ringworld is another great read. High minded science mixed with great characters and witty dialogue. I didn't know if I would like it at first but after the first chapter I was hooked.

The Puppetmasters by Heinlein. Probably not my favorite work by him (that goes to a tie between Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers) but its still really good. What really stood out to me about it was that he doesn't really stand on his soap box in it like he does in all of his other books I've read. Also it helps give a sense of the paranoia that was felt during the Red Scares and Cold War.

And while not a novel, the short story collection Masterpieces which was edited by Orson Scott Card has a very good sampling of short stories by some of the best writers to have lived. It introduced me to several new authors ( I now have three scifi and one fantasy novels by Poul Anderson because of his short story in there) and gave me some good stories by ones I already knew.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I, Robot by Asimov was great. I liked it better than Foundation. Foundation's still a great read but there's just something about robots that I love.

Larry Niven's Ringworld is another great read. High minded science mixed with great characters and witty dialogue. I didn't know if I would like it at first but after the first chapter I was hooked.

The Puppetmasters by Heinlein. Probably not my favorite work by him (that goes to a tie between Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers) but its still really good. What really stood out to me about it was that he doesn't really stand on his soap box in it like he does in all of his other books I've read. Also it helps give a sense of the paranoia that was felt during the Red Scares and Cold War.

And while not a novel, the short story collection Masterpieces which was edited by Orson Scott Card has a very good sampling of short stories by some of the best writers to have lived. It introduced me to several new authors ( I now have three scifi and one fantasy novels by Poul Anderson because of his short story in there) and gave me some good stories by ones I already knew.