The Greatest Science-Fiction novel of all time?

[Parson]

Well, one thing this conversation has done is that I've ordered an ebook of The Mote in God's Eye and intend to read it, perhaps as prelude to the sequels which I've never read.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Well, one thing this conversation has done is that I've ordered an ebook of The Mote in God's Eye and intend to read it, perhaps as prelude to the sequels which I've never read.

The Gripping Hand was a huge disappointment.

 

[Justin Swanton]

Well, one thing this conversation has done is that I've ordered an ebook of The Mote in God's Eye and intend to read it, perhaps as prelude to the sequels which I've never read.

Word of warning, the Empire is officially Catholic, the Navy especially so. Cardinals, priests, etc. Popery everywhere!

 

[Bick]

It probably says more about me than about the book, but I read Mote in 2007 and yet it seems to have left almost no impression. It would never have occurred to me, personally, to nominate it as the greatest sf novel.

My feelings too. It was good, but I don't see how its the greatest SF novel at all.

 

[Parson]

Word of warning, the Empire is officially Catholic, the Navy especially so. Cardinals, priests, etc. Popery everywhere!

Now that you mention this I do remember that detail. But, it will be a relief to find a SF navy which doesn't assume that we are without religious impulses.

 

[BAYLOR]

I can just about guarantee you we would have those things without SF "predicting" them. The cell phone is the obvious result of walkie-talkies. A PC is just the obvious response to the mainframe. Genetic engineering is a term, just like "cyberspace", that have nothing to do with the actual development of gene splicing or the internet. Terraforming isn't real any more than "lightsaber" is. Nanotechnology doesn't yet exist, but it is modeled on biology.

Sticking an idea in a story doesn't cause that idea to come into being, any more than writing it in your diary does. Coining a term isn't inventing the technology that later is labeled with that term. And suggesting that everyone grok a new way doesn't cause the population to discover new levels of consciousness. Fiction largely fails to create reality.

And the innovations that occurred in movie making isn't a product of the SF elements in the movie.


It would certainly be nice if well-meaning SF writers could lead the world out of all the crises we find ourselves in. But Handmaids Tale and any number of environmental SF novels are unfortunately failing to change society's trajectory.

In my case, I read Science fiction primarily for enjoyment and escapism. My view of the future is that it will be just like the present only with better technology but will not necessary be a better than the world we currently live in.

 

[Dave Vicks]

1984 and THE FOREVER WAR are both Classics.

 

[Dave Vicks]

On my RADAR I am looking to read Asimovs Foundation books and A Cantical For Leibowiz.

 

[tachyon]

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

 

[ThrawnOmega]

It's been a long time since I read Stranger in a Strange Land - need to revisit that one some time.

My two favorites for "consequences of man playing with forces of nature"
Frankenstein
Jurassic Park.

In the more "far future / high tech" vein of Sci-Fi, I liked the Hyperion Cantos.

 

[John stefan]

Nice thread everyone.

kind regards John Stefan

 

[psikeyhackr]

Since I am a left-field kind of person I will cheat.

The Quintaglio Ascension trilogy by Robert J Sawyer

Far-Seer
Fossil Hunter
Foreigner

This has no human characters but portrays dinosaurs transplanted from Earth into the roles of Galileo/Newton, Darwin and Freud.

 

[ThrawnOmega]

Since I am a left-field kind of person I will cheat.

The Quintaglio Ascension trilogy by Robert J Sawyer

Far-Seer
Fossil Hunter
Foreigner

This has no human characters but portrays dinosaurs transplanted from Earth into the roles of Galileo/Newton, Darwin and Freud.

WHAT!?!?! I have to look this up now.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Gripping Hand was a huge disappointment.

Seconded. Maybe the worst sequel to a good novel I have ever read.

 

[psikeyhackr]

WHAT!?!?! I have to look this up now.

HA!

That is one of the funny things I have noticed. I thought the QA trilogy was really good after I read it. But this was before the World Wide Web and I have been surprised that there has been so little mention of it on SF sites. I consider it to be on par with the Bobiverse series.

 

[tobl]

WHAT!?!?! I have to look this up now.

there's also books where the dinossaurs survived to this days and are inserted in disguise in our society

 

[psikeyhackr]

WHAT!?!?! I have to look this up now.

Yeah, dinosaurs have to stick together or they will deteriorate into birds.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Impossible to answer, but I think for me it's

Ender's Game

Joking and contrarianism aside I have to agree.

The psychological manipulation and conditioning of children in the real world is an issue. It is just presented more scientifically and with a specific objective in the story than what real life is actually like. My opinion after 13 years of Catholic school. SF was a kind of vaccination for me. SF writers were more intelligent than nuns.

Plus the politicking on the Net by Peter and Valentine was prescient though our internet has way more people producing BS.

 

[Elckerlyc]

What? How come I didn't jump in earlier, to shed some light on the Really, Really Greatest SF novel (of all time)? Probably because I haven't a clue, nor have I read all SF out there.
I can only name the novels that made the most impression on me, for different reasons, in different stages of my life.

Dune (Frank Herbert) - because of the world-building and scope of the novel, not the writing. (read when 18)

More Than Human (Theodore Sturgeon) - because of the writing and the story.
The Dreaming Jewels (Theodore Sturgeon) - the same as above.
The Beginning Place (Ursula le Guin) - as above (these 3 I read in my early twenties).

Lord of Light (Roger Zelazny) - brilliant story.

Hyperion + Fall of Hyperion (Dan Simmons) - world-building, the writing, the characters. I find especially 'The Scholar's Tale' unforgettable,
The Books of the New Sun (Gene Wolfe) - brilliant writing.
The Mote in God's Eye (LN + JP) - just a highly enjoyable, entertaining yarn.
Anathem (Neal Stephenson) - as above, really enjoyed it.

 

[BAYLOR]

Would you settle for a companion storybook? Han is in it, but no Luke, Leia or Fett.

It is, perhaps, not the greatest SF book ever, so I'll go with Dune or Player of Games or Blindsight.

That horrible Star Wars special is forever burned int my memory