The best CLASSIC Sci-fi novel of all time!

[Soltan_Gris]

My vote is for Gateway by Frederik Pohl as well.

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

TBH, the book that has stuck in my mind the most over the course of my life is Recall Not Earth by C.C. MacApp. It's never been big, but it was damned good.

 

[clovis-man]

From my reading experience, I'd have to choose from a list including,
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells
Davy by Edgar Pangborn
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Gateway by Frederick Pohl

Good list. I haven't read the Pangborn. In fact I'm not all that familiar with him.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I used to say The Book Of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe, but now Brian Aldiss' Helliconia is up there too, tying for first place...

 

[archer26]

another vote for Dune....

 

[clovis-man]

I used to say The Book Of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe, but now Brian Aldiss' Helliconia is up there too, tying for first place...

All three or did you have a favorite?

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Mote in God's Eye (1974), the first collaboration between Niven and Pournelle.

This book was nominated for the Hugo but lost to The Dispossessed by LeGuin. From the perspective of the time I don't have much objection but from the state of the world today I think Mote is the better book. Though considering the state of the economy an argument could still be made. LOL

1974 was the year the planets population hit 4 billion. Now we are passed 7 billion. The year 2000 still looked rather far away in 1974. Well the future ain't what it used to be. In 1974 the 8080 microprocessor was introduced by a company no one ever heard of, Intel. One of the midshipman in The Mote pulled out a pocket computer to do astronomical calculations. So now we must deal with the population problems and technology portrayed in 1974. The technology has already gone in directions no one was predicting, better graphics in science fiction and fantasy movies. LOL

We are the Moties.

psik

PS - Robert Heinlein was involved in editing the story, so that gives it "Classic" credits too.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

All three or did you have a favorite?

All three. They really are exceptional; Aldiss' masterpiece.

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

totally Agree with Wolfe
Terminus Est

 

[clovis-man]

All three. They really are exceptional; Aldiss' masterpiece.

Yet each is unique unto itself. Perhaps that's the true value of them as a whole.

 

[Parson]

Hm, I've been thinking about this and I wonder where the cut-off comes for "Classic." Or "current" where novels are concerned. One answer might be "Is the book still in print." But for some books like the "Odyssey" and the "Iliad" which are thousands of years old that measure seems nonsensical. Is it a book that's more than a generation old? -- (a generation being 20 years) -- that seems too short a time. If it's left to the individual you are almost always going to get a sample that's skewed toward the more recent works. Books like "The Hunger Games" might well be classic, but they wouldn't seem to have the legs at this point to qualify, but random Joe or Mary on the street might well list them and without a tangible measure of what makes a "classic" a person couldn't say that it was wrong.

If I had to pick the best classic S.F. of all time it would probably be Ender's Game as I said before. But since its less than 40 years old, the short story was published in 1978 IRC, and it's never been out of print, I'm not sure it qualifies as classic.

Other contenders for me would be

Foundation
Gateway
The Mote in God's Eye

 

[J-Sun]

I think it's the other way around, almost - if something stays in print, that's an argument for its "classic-ness" - not that it guarantees it is or isn't either way. And I think 20-25 years is plenty if we're talking "classic of the field" vs. "classical Greece and Rome". But it is a good point: if you're going to say what the best X is, it helps to define X.

 

[Fried Egg]

Possible "1984" by George Orwell or "A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K. Dick. Or maybe "More Than Human" by Theodore Sturgeon. Then again I mustn't forget "The Death of Grass" by John Christopher.

Oh, I don't know. It's just too difficult.

 

[AE35Unit]

Flow my Tears the Policeman Said. The only PKD book Ive enjoyed! So good.

 

[clovis-man]

Possible "1984" by George Orwell or "A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K. Dick. Or maybe "More Than Human" by Theodore Sturgeon. Then again I mustn't forget "The Death of Grass" by John Christopher.

The Christopher book is a real sleeper in that it starts out as such a mundane account and morphs into an "end of the world" scenario. Well done in the way it plays on the good and bad sides of the human condition. But, like you say, hard to pick just one.

 

[Gramm838]

I think this is like picking your favourite ever song - it can change depending on how you are feeling, or whether something new comes along (More News from Nowhere by Nick Cave as it happens)...so I'm going with the book I look back on as the one(s) that got me into SF in the first place - the Lensmen books by EE Doc Smith

 

[BAYLOR]

Man Plus Frederick Pohl

 

[Gnrevolution]

Hyperion or Flowers for Algernon for me.

 

[Timba]

Cities in Flight by James Blish. This one sticks in my memory although I love so many more also.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Three Stigmata of palmer Eldridge Philip K Dick.