favourite Sci-fi novels

[stewymartian]

So, apart from The War of the Worlds what are peoples favourite Sci-fi novels?

My top 3 would be;

'The songs of distant Earth' by Arthur C. Clarke

This is a beautiful story about the crew of the Magellan, the last spaceship to leave Earth before the sun went nova. You have to be in a calm mood for this work due to the complete lack of any space battles or evil aliens, but it is brilliant. I was first introduced to it in the same way that I came across WOTW, someone made a concept album about it. In this case it was Mike Oldfield, and his album complements the book perfectly, precisely caputuring the mood of the novel.

'Excession' By Iain M. Banks

I could have chosen most of the 'Culture' Novels (Consider Phlebas comes a close 2nd), but this is the one I pick up most often. I love Banks' characters and the way he uses whole slabs of the galaxy as his canvas for the book. The names that the minds chose for themselves make me laugh out loud, it's a wonderful example of how Banks blends just the right amount of humour into his works.

'Dune' by Frank Herbert

The original book is by far the best of the series, it has far more pace than most of the sequels (And I'm not going to make any mention of the Anderson/Herbert Jnr prequels...Oh damn I just did, must use flagellation to cleanse soul....). It is the depth of this novel that makes it so enthralling, Herbert created a universe with a complete history, mythology, and economy to go behind it. Every detail has been thoroughly thought out to enable Herbert to weave the perfect story that is Dune. It can be a little heavy going, but it's worth the effort.

Notable mentions; Hitchhiker series (Douglas Adams), the Nomad of the time streams series (Michael Moorcock).

[stewymartian]

Er, Nerfy, I think the language filter is a tad oversensitive on this thing. Michael Moorthingy somehow sounds dodgier than what I was trying to type ;D

[Scifishocks]

Yes I know, it's a thingy pain in the thingying thingy.
It is now sorted.

[andy120290]

My favorite sci-fi novel would have to be 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.

[bittersound]

Childhoods End by Arthur C Clarke.

Would make a great film.

[killraven]

Haven't got round to thinking about a "Top 3" yet, but some titles I definitely recommend a read include the following:

Harry Harrison - Lifeboat
John Wyndham - The Kraken Wakes
Colin Wilson - The 'Spiderworld' trilogy
John Christopher - The 'A Prince In Waiting' Trilogy
Any short story by Philip.K.Dick

Number one on my list of not-read-yet-must-reads has to be Christopher Priest's "The Space Machine"

KR

[David Faltskog]

Ah The Space Machine a worthy compedium to H.G.Wells War of the Worlds.

Anyway here's my list! in no particular order.

When Worlds Colide... Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer

At The Mountains of Madness...H.P.Lovecraft.

Earth Abides...George R. Stewart

First Men On The Moon...H.G.Wells.

Dune...Frank Herbert.

A Canticle for Leibowitz...Walter M. Miller, Jr

Load's more far to many to list!

D.F.

[leatherhead]

I loved Jurassic Park by Michael Chrichton, and Fantastic Voyage by Asimov as it settles some discrepencies that were in the movie upon which it was based.

[Lensman]

Oh, goodness, where do I start? Well, here are some:

Isaac Asimov: The Caves of Steel; The Naked Sun
John W. Campbell: The Black Star Passes; The Mightiest Machine
Arthur C. Clarke: Rendezvous with Rama
Hal Clement: Mission of Gravity
Philip Jose Farmer: To Your Scattered Bodies Go; The Fabulous Riverboat
Robert L. Forward: Dragon's Egg
Harry Harrison: The Deathworld Trilogy
Robert Heinlein: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress; Orphans of the Sky; Starship Troopers

James P. Hogan: Two Faces of Tomorrow
Larry Niven: The entire Known Space series, but most especially Ringworld. Other titles: World of Ptavvs; Protector; Ringworld Engineers; Ringworld's Children. And other novels outside the series: A World Out of Time; Smoke Ring

Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle: The Mote in God's Eye; Lucifer's Hammer
H. Beam Piper: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen; Little Fuzzy
Clifford D. Simak: City
E.E. Smith: The Lensman Series (Galactic Patrol; Gray Lensman; Second Stage Lensmen; Children of the Lens; First Lensman; The Vortex Blaster [aka Masters of the Vortex]); The Skylark Series (The Skylark of Space; Skylark Three; Skylark of Valeron; Skylark DuQuesne); Spacehounds of IPC

Harry Turtledove: Guns of the South
Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon; Journey to the Center of the Earth; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Vernor Vinge: A Deepness in the Sky; A Fire Upon the Deep
David Weber: The Honor Harrington series (On Basilisk Station; The Honor of the Queen; The Short Victorious War; Field of Dishonor; Flag in Exile; Honor among Enemies; In Enemy Hands)

H.G. Wells (other than the obvious): The Invisible Man; The Time Machine
Philip Wylie & Edwin Balmer: After Worlds Collide
.

[richardburton]

For me, Frank Herbert's Dune would be right up there. Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South is excellent too, as is Grunts by Mary Gentle (a mix of fantasy and sci-fi that one). Hitchhikers series are great too, as are one or two of the Red Dwarf books

[darkelastic]

Here are some of my favourites off the top of my head :-)

1. Adams, Douglas – THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
2. Adams, Douglas – THE RESTAURANT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE
3. Adams, Douglas – LIFE, THE UNVIERSE AND EVERYTHING
4. Adams, Douglas – SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH
5. Adams, Douglas – MOSTLY HARMLESS
6. Campbell, John W. – WHO GOES THERE?
7. Christoper, John – THE TRIPODS TRILOGY
8. Matheson, Richard – I AM LEGEND
9. Shatner, William – SPECTRE
10. Shatner, William – DARK VICTORY
11. Shatner, William – PRESERVER
12. Wyndham, John – THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS
13. Wells, H. G. – THE SLEEPER AWAKES

[thedonal]

Well- asides the obvious, I have-

William Gibson-

Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona Lisa Overdrive

Fantastic and inspired cyber-punk, way ahead of it's time

Alastair Reynolds-

Revelation Space
Chasm City
Redemption Ark
Absolution Gap

Compelling dark space Opera, comparable with....

...Iain M Banks

Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Excession

Fantastic stuff and what an imagination (though often twisted- the cannibalism bit in Consider Phlebas is particularly disturbing...)

Arthur C Clarke

2001 A Space Oddysey
Rendezvous with Rama

The rest of the series of 2001 gets patchier and patchier in my opinion, but still fantastic stuff

Isaac Asimov

The Foundation series

I never got around to I Robot, but love these books- though they do get rather cheesy in places

Frank Herbert

Dune

Read so often- I also enjoyed Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, but found God emperor a trail to get through twice, so gave up on the series...

Greg Bear

Eon

Just a great book. Nuff said.

Back to Alastair Reynolds, I also love Pushing Ice- not in the Revelation Space universe but still an awesome book- a refreshing space exploration book where everything that could go wrong does and the central characters are obviously flawed and often directly contribute to the disasters that occur.

[stewymartian]

thedonal said:

Frank Herbert

Dune

Read so often- I also enjoyed Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, but found God emperor a trail to get through twice, so gave up on the series...

I agree with you there, God emperor is certainly the lowest point in the series (and perversely also one of the longest). Not a lot happens in that book except for long political dialogues with the god emperor. The follow up, Heretics of Dune, is actually one of the better books in the series, so it's worth pushing through.

I like Dune messiah, the shortest in the series but also one that introduces new elements such as the Bene Tleilaxu. Oh, and the stone burner is a nasty nasty weapon.

[thedonal]

I may have another crack at it again- though I need to buy a new copy of Dune, as one I lent out never came back... Oh well...

Has anyone else read the Cities in Flight series byJames Blish? Very interesting read, but I found it quite depressing as well.

[Lensman]

thedonal said:

Has anyone else read the Cities in Flight series byJames Blish? Very interesting read, but I found it quite depressing as well.

Yes. Very well written, quite original, but as you say the series is rather depressing overall. Still, I'd recommend the second and third of the four novels to anyone.