The best science fiction novels/books

[stargazer01]

I love science fiction. It's my favorite genre. I've seen a lot of Sci-Fi movies and TV shows, but I haven't really read novels about it.

My question is, What are the best or your favorite stories you have read?


If there is a thread about it already, please let me know.

[GOLGO 13]

I am into Warhammer 40k.
"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only awesome."

[kjn]

Science fiction is an old genre, and has developed a lot and gained lots of subgenres. Generally speaking, it's a lot easier to give good recommendations if one knows a bit about the preferences and outlook to gear them towards. Like the comics you like, or the style of movies or tv series. Also, a lot of movies and tv series are based on various written works, which should be another good starting point.

In any case, we have a golden age of science fiction right now, with more published of higher quality than most times before, so I'd start with currently active authors rather than the classics.

In any case, the winners and finalists/nominees for the Hugo Awards is a good starting point. I would also recommend looking at the short fiction categories: a lot of the action in the genre happens there.

[stargazer01]

^kjn, thanks, I'm just interested in reading the really good stories, classics or modern.

[jb681131]

Easy, you must read the classics (In no order):

* Dune By Frank Herbert
* Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick
* The Man In The High Castle By Philip K. Dick
* A Scanner Darkly By Philip K. Dick
* The Foundation Trilogy By Isaac Asimov
* I, Robot By Isaac Asimov
* Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
* Nineteen Eighty-Four By George Orwell
* Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy By Douglas Adams
* 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea By Jules Verne
* Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Jules Verne
* The War Of The Worlds By H.G. Wells
* 2001, A Space Odicey By Arthur C. Clarke

As for other books such as comics and Manga (In no order):

* The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius
* Transmetropolitan By Warren Ellis and Darrick Robertson
* The Ghost in the Shell By Masamune Shirow
* Akira By Katsuhiro Otomo

Have fun will all that, none are boring reads !

[Kirby101]

This is a good starting point.

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Ficti.../dp/0765305372

Read all three volumes. The best stories and authors of the genre.

[kjn]

Be aware that a lot of classics are not very good stories, they're more classics because they introduced important concepts or were innovative (at the time) in various ways.

Anthologies are a good idea in any case, like the ones Kirby101 mentions. I have a soft spot for The World Turned Upside Down, but there are many more and neither is really superior to another.

Here are some books that I consider to be both good and central to the genre in different ways:

* The Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
* The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein
* The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
* Neuromancer by William Gibson
* The City and the City by China Miéville
* Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
* The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

I can really recommend Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan books, a now sprawling series that has been published since 1986. It won the inaugural Best Series Hugo in 2017, surprising absolutely nobody. Not that the other finalists were bad in any way, but the Vorkosigan books were collectively on wholly another level.

[Timothy Hunter]

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.

[Scott Taylor]

A lot of the stuff out there is just too complicated or too controversial/esoteric for me to recommend for someone just starting out with novels. Here are a few I'd consider introductory, and which are favorites, along with non-spoiler summations:

War of the Worlds by HG Wells

--Aliens do sciency, steampunkey stuff and make a HUGE miscalculation

Red Planet by Robert Heinlein

--A boy befriends a bouncy furball on Mars. Hilarity ensues.

Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward

--Spaceship encounters life on a neutron star. Hilarity ensues.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

--This is just a personal favorite. Farewell, hello, farewell, hello

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

--Science monks do secret sciency stuff, plus a little Space Rambo, in an overly mundane apocalyptic future

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

--Space techno-wizard and his crew learn how not to be assholes

[stargazer01]

Thank you everybody!

Be aware that a lot of classics are not very good stories, they're more classics because they introduced important concepts or were innovative (at the time) in various ways.

yeah I was wondering about how many older stories are still relevant today. The Twilight Zone has lots of episodes that are still relevant, IMO. I'm more interested in those stories, although I also enjoy dramatic/emotional stories that talk about life anywhere. All kinds of life. One of my fave movies is "Contact" with Jodie Foster. Felt like she found what she was looking for. Are we alone? No we are not. In that story at least.

The Foundation Trilogy By Isaac Asimov

I've heard about this before. What's the main theme?

[kjn]

yeah I was wondering about how many older stories are still relevant today. The Twilight Zone has lots of episodes that are still relevant, IMO. I'm more interested in those stories, although I also enjoy dramatic/emotional stories that talk about life anywhere. All kinds of life. One of my fave movies is "Contact" with Jodie Foster. Felt like she found what she was looking for. Are we alone? No we are not. In that story at least.

I've heard about this before. What's the main theme?

Foundation is one of the seminal space empire stories, in reality a loosely connected set of novellettes and novellas detailing the fall of a star empire and attempts to keep some civilisation going.

Contact was originally a novel by Carl Sagan; first contacts are a rather common theme in sf. I can really recommend the novella "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, that was the basis for the movie "Arrival".

[master of read]

might i suggest my novel for this? it's not on the level of guys like clark and asimov but people seem to enjoy it.

[Jack Dracula]

Everything written by Larry Niven.

[KOSLOX]

I enjoy the Culture series quite a bit.

I also second "The Fifth Season".

[JackDaw]

You won’t go far wrong if you look at the Millennium/ Gollanz SF Masterworks range of novels...they give a good sample of the best novels by a wide range of top SF writers.

A lot of the “usual suspects” have already been mentioned..Robert Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke, and Ursula Le Guin foe example. On Arthur C..I’d have to say I thought 2001 was one of his less entertaining novels, with stuff like Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, and the City and the Stars being more to my taste.

I’d strongly recommend John Wyndham..he did six or seven short incredibly readable and thought provoking novels such as Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes, The Trouble with Lichen, etc.