[HN Gopher] Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read
___________________________________________________________________
Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read
Author : axiomdata316
Score : 31 points
Date : 2021-11-25 16:45 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wired.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.co.uk)
| nicopappl wrote:
| I'll just put out my list since it's probably what people browse
| those threads for.
|
| I just finished it so I might be biased, but Miller's "A canticle
| for Leibowitz" is some of the best Sci-fi I've read. Extremely
| thought provoking, and you get the opportunity to read from
| someone coming from a very different place than your usual sci-fi
| writer. I loved the setting and the plot, monasteries are
| definitively a unique setting for Sci-fi (Think Il Nome della
| Rosa by Eco meets Mad Max)
|
| Philip K. Dick also has a very unique outlook and is worth a
| read, either through "Do Androids dream of electric sheep" or
| "Ubick" (warning: Ubick is extremely weird)
|
| Given my native tongue is French, I'll not forget Barjavel,
| excellent writing (although I read it in the original French).
| Like Miller, the philosophy is very different from your usual
| Sci-fi. La Nuit des Temps (or "The Ice People") and Ravage
| ("Ashes, Ashes") are great reads.
|
| For Gibson, I'd recommend the Bridge trilogy ("Virtual Light",
| "Idoru" and "All Tomorrow's Paties") over Necromancer. Gibson
| writes prose like poetry, it's the best English literature I've
| read. His writing has a literal taste, sweet yet with a nuanced
| and rich flavor. Once you are into a book, each sentence is a
| pleasure to read. But he doesn't make any compromises for
| newcomers. Necromancer is really hard to grasp. Since the Bridge
| books are set in a world more similar to our own, it may be more
| approachable to someone new to the author.
|
| Asimov and Clarke were very popular at their time. But I think
| they didn't age well. The recommendation in the OP of the
| Foundation series (though I recommend you limit yourself to the
| original trilogy) is alright. The idea is very unique, but the
| writing is poor, and well, gender has a weirdly backward role for
| a futuristic society.
|
| OP is missing Clarke. Classic author who is responsible for 2001
| A Space Odyssey. However, Clarke best work is "Childhood's end".
| Yeah, the new-age ending didn't age well, but it's still really
| good. "Rama" is good too, but the sequels do not hold up.
|
| Greg Egan is very obtuse, you need a very good level of math to
| understand some of his work. But not all of his novels are
| intractable. I loved "Distress", it introduced me to a very
| different way to think about gender identity.
|
| I'll second The Tchaikovsky recommendation from OP ("Children of
| Time") It's very high on my Sci-fi tier list. I'm surprised to
| see him in such a list, because he's not the conventional Sci-fi
| recommendation. But it makes sense, Children of Time is such a
| unique and excellent novel. The premise is insane, the story is
| excellent, and the writing tops if off. It works surprisingly
| well.
|
| I'm a big fan of Charles Stross. Accelerando and Glasshouse are
| definitively very good. But I'll go and recommend "Saturn's
| Children". It's more his style: Very much like Tchaikovsky, his
| premises are insanely ridiculous and almost outrageous, but
| perfectly coherent. His work is so much fun! It's a blast to read
| through his novels.
| ArtWomb wrote:
| Journey's through the Golden Age of Sci Fi led me back
| chronologically to its Victorian precursors. Just finished HG
| Welles' The Island of Doctor Moreau. And I have to say, it's like
| an ur-Text for all Sci Fi has to say about nature, reason and
| fate.
|
| There's a documentary about the 1996 adaptation of the novel. The
| story was an obsession of British filmmaker Richard Stanley's.
| And the circumstances that followed are like something right out
| of its pages.
| Rzor wrote:
| Very nice to see the Culture there. Very underrated. Everytime I
| try to convince my friends to read it they call me a commie
| bastard. Not cool.
| blippage wrote:
| Ubik, by Philip K. Dick.
|
| Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut.
| gandalfian wrote:
| The sci-fi masterworks series is well worth a browse.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks
| erik_landerholm wrote:
| Nothing by Alastair Reynolds?
| andrei_says_ wrote:
| I'd recommend _House of Suns_.
|
| I also love his short story collections - _Beyond the Aquila
| Rift_ for example.
|
| What would be your recommendations?
| mberger wrote:
| I enjoyed Pushing Ice.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| Some good picks on the list (Solaris, Kindred, VanderMeer,
| Chiang) but also some awful ones. The Martian is probably one of
| the worst popular and hyped books I've ever read, together with
| Ready Player One.
|
| If I had to pick one PK Dick book it wouldn't be _Scanner Darkly_
| but _Ubik_ or _Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said_.
|
| Also I think some important non-English fiction is missing.
| Yevgeny Zamyatin's _We_ is a foundational dystopian book,
| _Roadside Picnic_ is great, _20000 Leagues under the Sea_ and
| _Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights_ is a pretty
| wonky Japanese SF story. Also _Eumeswil_ by Ernst Junger for a
| niche German recommendation, not sure if this was ever
| translated.
| antegamisou wrote:
| Yes I was surprised _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas_
| did not make it to this list. But then most people have a very
| narrow view of what sci-fi is, boiling it down to cyborgs and
| space.
| andrei_says_ wrote:
| Two titles that I hope everyone reads and are not on the list:
|
| * The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
|
| * The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
|
| And a bonus:
|
| * Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler
| layer8 wrote:
| Seconding Lilith's Brood.
|
| Also, almost everything by Vernor Vinge.
| mindcrime wrote:
| I would add
|
| _Permutation City_ by Greg Egan
|
| _Glasshouse_ by Charles Stross
| aspenmayer wrote:
| I'd add the spiritual precursor to Glasshouse, Accelerando.
|
| I met cstross at a reading back in SF nearly 10 years ago or
| so. Still have a signed copy of Glasshouse loaned out
| somewhere. He's a delightful person in an affable curmudgeonly
| way.
|
| His blog is great.
|
| https://www.antipope.org/charlie/
| saganus wrote:
| Since we are adding our recommendations, I would mention
|
| More than human by Theodore Sturgeon
| Grakel wrote:
| Strange list- almost totally made up of weird, unapproachable
| stuff, and then also Andy Weir and Ted Chiang.
|
| I'm not knocking it, but these are edge case titles, certainly
| not what I would say everyone should read. Except Ted, who's
| maybe the best living short story writer.
| salamandersauce wrote:
| I wouldn't call Dune, Frankenstein or Jurrassic Park
| unapproachable or weird edge case titles. Is Margret Atwood
| weird and unapproachable? Robert Heinlein? Philip K. Dick?
|
| I don't think there's books that everyone should read but none
| of this seems weird or unapproachable.
| duskwuff wrote:
| This list feels like two lists got pasted onto each other.
| There's a bunch of historical SF (like _The Blazing World_ and
| _Frankenstein_ ), and a bunch of recently published SF (like
| _The Martian_ and _The Three-Body Problem_ ), but not a lot in
| between.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-11-25 23:02 UTC)