Favorite Science Fiction Book

Dune by Frank Herbert and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

As a sidenote, Neal Stephenson's White Snow was an exhilirating and ultra-original read.

Nueromancer by William Gibson and I'll second Ender's Game.

All time favorite (I make no apologies, they were fun and fueled many youthful adventure dreams): A tie! - between Tarzan of the Apes (I guess anthropology fiction counts as science fiction) , and Galactic Patrol. Followed, I think, by White Dragon

Greatest impact: Probably Starship Troopers, closely followed by Stranger in a Strange Land.

drrider

did you mean Snow Crash? that'd be one of my favs.

and a second to Dune.

and a second to Ender's Game.

i just checked out C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, and i'm very excited to get to it (want to finish Galapagos first).

i also like Brave New World and 1984.

i guess the only other one i have is Blade Runner.

but picking an absolute favorite... i don't think i can.

also, to Knightblade05, Eon sounds pretty cool.

dystopic,

I wish you luck with Lewis (he's probably in the family somewhere, and he deserves all praise for his other literary achievements), but the Space Trilogy is NOT in the same realm of brilliance as Narnia. I almost never put a book down once started, but I could only get about half-way through the second one.

He actually wrote these some years before TLTWATW; he was not mature as a writer of fiction, and it shows. Unfortunately, the vast success of the Narnia books made ANY 'popular audience' novels by Lewis popular with publishers and booksellers, otherwise I think these would have faded away.

drrider

I haven't read much science fiction, actually, but i'll fourth(?) Ender's game.

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein easily takes my number 1 spot. For those who haven't read it, it is nothing like the movie. It is well written, clean (language and content), and quite intelligent (a good chunk of it deals more with civic duty and the virtue of sacrifice then actual sci-fi stuff).

Plus there's "Bugs, Mr. Rico, Zillions of 'em!"

(I've always loved how much Heinlein conveyed about the spirit and discipline of the MI with that one sentence. The guy is being overrun by a sea of ugly bugs, and it isn't "Help! Bugs!" and it isn't "Boss! Bugs!", and it isn't even "Bugs, Lieutenant, Bugs!" - it's "Bugs, Mr. Rico, zillions of 'em!" OK, a little betrayed excitement in that last part...but with proper form of address.)

drrider

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner.
Even more relevant today than when it was written.

Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke

One of the top ones for me was Battlefield Earth (nothing like that piece of garbage that John Trivolta was in) and Rama. But there are a lot of good Sci-fi out there.

Far too many good books to pick a favorite, but just about anything by C H Cheryh (sp?) is good. The entire series about Miles Vorkosigan by Mary-louis Bujold is very well written and has an unusual hero. I can't believe no one (especially in this forum) has mentioned David Weber's Honor Harrington series or Johnny Ringo's "March Upcountry" series, both are epic space sagas. Also how about Steven White's "Insurrection", and "Shiva Option" books, truly chilling space operas.

P.S. Seconded on "Snow Crash" excellant book.

Not to hijack the thread, but I've been trying to ID the name/author of a book I read 10 or 15 years ago and I thought maybe someone might be able to help me.

It's a story about a group of children who survive the destruction of earth (I believe the story has them on another planet at the time). These kids are then loaded onto an intelligent space ship and sent to exact revenge on the race that destroyed earth. I would've read it sometime in the early 90s, so I can bookmark '92 or so as the latest publishing date. I don't remember the book being that good, but it's one that has stood out in my memory as one I've lost track of.

Any help would be appreciated.

Oh, I need help too....there are some excellent books out there, but one i remember really enjoying was about space invaders attacking medieval earth and getting creamed by the knights. It was fun and funny and a real testament to the human spirit. If i remembered the name i'd try and buy it as a used book....its worth reading every 5 or ten years. Reading about aliens getting nailed by arrows and axes, it was quite enjoyable. I should post this is the geezer thread, for sure someone there has read this....

hmm well... that's kind of discouraging. still, i spent almost a year waiting for the whole series to be available at the library (i just couldn't justify placing a hold on them, since i wanted them for pleasure, and someone else may have been using them for research).

well, at least there's this: Narnia was a quick read, so if these are less developed, hopefully I can at least plow through 'em... i guess i'll find out.

My favorite - Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield.

My favorites were the cycle of foundation bay Azimov, and Starship Troopers.

I loved many books written by Azimov but that series kind of stand out to me.

I'm also a big fan of Asimov, but for more recent authors I'd go with Iain Banks. The Culture series of novels is very well written along with invoking some very interesting thoughts about the future.

Classic - Asimov's Foundation Trilogy (just finished re-reading it for the third time in my life, which is what brought me to GalCiv2 in the first place!)

Newer - Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter (though I did not think much of the sequels, especially Origin, at all)

I recommend David Brin's Uplift Series.

I prefer Asimov's Robot books over the Foundation stuff (but it's all good), and I also recommend his short story collections.

Frederik Pohl's Gateway novels ("The Heechee Saga")

Fred Saberhagen's Berzerker books/short stories

Clifford D. Simak seems to have become forgotten, but Way Station and City are well worth reading.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons was simply amazing. The rest of the series slips a notch or two, but that's not a big knock.

Ringworld - a classic by Larry Niven

The Mote In God's Eye - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

The Ender's Game books are all good. My favorite was actually Speaker For The Dead, book 2

Personally, I disliked Baxter's Manifold:Time and :Space enough that I won't be reading anything else by him.

Starship Troopers and then Gust Front by John Ringo

Duh

Edward E. "Doc" Smith, Ph.D.: Lensman Series and Skylark Series. It took me 20 years to find the last of the Skylark series. Then I got the SFBC Omnibus edition with all 4 in one volume. Lensman Omnibus is in 2 omnibus volumes. There is an Anime movie "Lensman" which is in principle based on the books. However, it STINKS!!! I have some other books by Smith, though he is best known for Lensman and Skylark.

Pern series, Crystal Singer series, Talent series, Darkover series.

Sector General series by James White, in 4 omnibus volumes - Sector 12 General Hospital is a multi species, multi environment hospital station in deep space.

Most books by Andre Norton, and many other authors.

The huge Perry Rhodan series by a group of German authors. When I was last able to get them in English, it was over 800 books long and still being written.

Many books by the orginators of science fiction: Verne and Welles.

Wizard series by Diane Duane.

Sometimes the older stuff is much better than the newer stuff.

I used to read a lot of SF in my younger days, but two stand out; Harry Harrison's "Make Room! Make Room!" which was the basis for the movie "Soylent Green" (loosely based on the book), and the other was Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End".

Oh... and how could I forget John Wyndham's "The day of the Triffids", "The Chrysalids", and "The Midwich Cuckoos". All equally great!

Currently reading Judas Unchained, sequel to Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton. Pretty good stuff and I have a hard time putting it down.
As for favorites, I actually loved the entire Foundation Series, the Hechee Saga and for something different James Hogan's Inherit the Stars books.