My favourite Sci-fi books

Logic deficit

I'm a big sci-fi fan. Just thought an interesting thread would be to see what people's favourite sci-fi books are. Mine are:

1. The Hyperion Omnibus - Dan Simmons
2. Surface Detail - Iain M. Banks
3. Use of Weapons - Iain M. Banks
4. Broken Angels - Richard Morgan

THe list goes on but Iain Banks appears a lot.

Ric.ie

Hah, funny that I just spotted this - I'm halfway through the fourth Hyperion book. (It's great! Though a lil flawed).

My list, in spite of not having read a huge amount of Sci-Fi:

1) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
2) Dune by Frank Herbert
3) The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
4) Chindi (+other Academy novels) by Jack McDevitt

Supermensch

While trying to keep the authors varied;

1. Ubik - Philip K Dick
2. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
3. The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
4. The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Dades

Again, trying to mix it up in terms of era (and in no particular order):

• Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke)
• Against a Dark Background (Iain M. Banks)
• The Forever War (Joe Haldeman)
• Dune (Frank Herbert)

Had to choose one of many for the Arthur C. Clarke and Bank's mentions!

mewso

Ooh a list thread. Are they allowed? I think all list threads should have a stipulation that the poster mention their age really. Anyway off the top of my head.

1. Foundation Series - Asimov
2. Hyperion Cantos - Simmons
3. The Gap Cycle - Donaldson
4. Consider Phlebas - by you guessed it

mcgovern

In no particular order

1) The Diamond Age (Stephenson)
2) Nightfall (Asimov) (the short story is better, but the novel is great too).
3) Revelation Space (Reynolds)
4) A Deepness in the Sky (Vinge)


The Jack McDevitt book was the only one mentioned so far that I haven't read, and pretty sure I accidentally read the 3rd one in the series a few years ago, so have to check them out.

PADRAGON

The Gap series - Stephen Donaldson
The stars my destination - Alfred Bester
Childhoods end - Arthur C Clarke
The forever war - Joe Haldeman

"they took me there and i never made it all the way back...";)

Dades

^^ The Stars My Destination was #5 on my (very similar) list!

AnCapaillMor

1. Hyperion and endymion by Simmons.
2. Pandora's star\judas unchained by Peter F Hamilton
3. The Forever war by Halderman
4.Saga of the Seven suns by Kevin J Anderson.

Funglegunk

I just finished The Forever War. Absolutely loved it. I'll have a stab:

1. Dune - Frank Herbert (All time favourite science fiction book.)
2. Use of Weapons - Iain M. Banks (Zakalwe, one of my favourite fictional characters.)
3. Hyperion - Dan Simmons (I've only read the first one, absolutely loved it. The scholar's chapter had me in tears....in an airport. Slightly embarrassing.)

Just started A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr, we'll see if it makes the list!

Logic deficit

Hi,

A good few books I haven't read there. My list of books I want to read has greatly increased. Just finished reading Neoromancer. Good stuff.

Raging_Ninja

- Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

- The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell (I highly recommend it, great military scifi, would get a fairly respectable score on the Mohs Scale of SciFi Hardness)

- I do enjoy the Honor Harrington books by David Weber

- Enders Game by whatshisname.

OwaynOTT

Forever War
Flowers for Algernon
Incredible shrinking man

Temptamperu

Hyperion Cantos - Simmons
Do androids dream of electric sheep - Philip k. Dick
Ubik - Philip k. Dick
Enders Game - Orsen Scott Card
Dune - Frank Herbert

jcrowbar

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
The City and the Stars - Archur C. Clarke
The Void Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton
Manifold: Time - Stephen Baxter
Foundation - Isaac Asimov

Funglegunk

jcrowbar wrote: »

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
The City and the Stars - Archur C. Clarke
The Void Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton
Manifold: Time - Stephen Baxter
Foundation - Isaac Asimov

Would you happen to know of an online, in-depth plot summary of The Dreaming Void? I bought and tried a number of times to read The Temporal Void, but just can't remember who half the characters are or what they did in the first book.

Cardinal Richelieu

The Uplift War- David Brin
Honor Harrington Series- David Weber
Posleen War Series- John Ringo

PADRAGON

Dades wrote: »

^^ The Stars My Destination was #5 on my (very similar) list!

Ha ! Asimov and Clarke both had a death grip on my #5

Elfinknight

My favourite Series would be

Saga Of The Seven Suns: Kevin J Anderson
The Lost Fleet: Jack Campbell
The Dune Series: Frank Herbert (Not the prequels)
Rama Series: Arthur C. Clarke
The Amtrak Wars: Patrick Tilley.

Goldstein

To pick 4x of my favourites that haven't been mentioned yet:

• Armor by John Steakley
• The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
• Sucession I & II by Scott Westerfield
• Gateway by Frederik Pohl

Redlimo

1. "Saga of the Exiles" by Julian May.
2. "Ringworld" by Larry Niven.
3. "Tau Zero" by Poul Anderson.
4. "Enders Game" , "Gateway" and "The Forever War" already mentioned!

giftgrub

+1 with The Gap Series
Island in the Sea of Time - SM Stirling
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlan
Use of Weapons - Ian M Banks
Night's Dawn Trilogy - Peter F Hamilton

Skatedude

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
The amtrak wars - patrick tilly
The Void Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton
the culture series by ian m banks
Ship of strangers by bob shaw
who goes here by bob shaw

ollie103

For 'goth'-sci-fi, you can't do better than:

- Perdido Street Station, and
- The Scar

both by China Mieville - stunning novels set is a bizarre setting (Bas Lang world). These novels are a bit different in tone to the (dare I say it) 'standard' sci-fi such as the Hyperion cantos etc. Definately worth checking out.

For 'harder' sci-fi (be warned - particle physics here!), I'd recommend:

- The Ring,
- Time, and
- Space

all by Stephen Baxter.

Finally, a really good and thoughtful sci-fi series is A Requiem for Homo Sapiens (3 book series) by David Zindell:

- The Broken God,
- The Wild, and
- War in Heaven.

MOH

Not sure I can pick 4 absolute favourites, but ones which haven't been mentioned:

A Scanner Darkly - Philip K Dick
Sea of Glass - Barry B Longyear
Kiln People - David Brin (or Kil'n People as the cover on my edition calls it)
Only Forward - Michael Marshall Smith

Think it's interesting how most of the books/authors already mentioned would also rank among my favourites. I probably would have expected from a random sampling of people that there'd be more that I hadn't read, or even heard of.

onewhogroks

A few of my favorites that come to mind.

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick
Foundation Series - Asimov
I also just finished Slan by A. E. Van Goth which is worth a read

opus

Think every one of my favourite books has already been ticked off in this thread! Only one I didn't spot was

Riverworld - Philip Jose Farmer

Will certainly be making a note of the ones I haven't read and putting them on my wishlist.

Ziphius

Some great books recommended. I don't think it's been mentioned so I'll add Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's the first part of a trilogy based on the near-future human colonization of Mars.

loremolis

Anything by Bob Shaw.
Night's Dawn trilogy.
Battlefield Earth. Don't bother with anything else from L. Ron Hubbard.
Anything by Bos Shaw.
Enders Game.

Godammit, I haven't read Sci-fi in years. I see the Amtrak Wars mentioned in an earlier post and I know I've read the series but I can't recall it.

Life's too short. I see Riverworld mentioned above and I know I've read that too but can't recall it.

Edit: Thanks fo this thread, i'm heading to the attic to re-live my youth.

InvisibleBadger

Excession and Look To Windward by Iain M Banks
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke

Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy
Dune
Flowers for algernon

I did love Forever war, though I won't put it at the top, same for ender's game