Sci-Fi Recommendations - for the unenlightened

[jenna]

how about Piers Anthonys Tarot trilogy really good sci-fi/fantasy cross over

IMO Piers is the GOD of sci-fi/fantasy crossover.
but for pure sci-fi, his Bio of a Space Tyrant series is fantastic.

 

[Brys]

Talking of SF/F crossovers, I'd have to mention:
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun
Michael Swanwick's the Iron Dragon's Daughter (though this is more fantasy than SF)

Anyway, one recommendation I have to make is
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller Jr.
It's the best SF I've read (of my admittedly very limited SF reading)

 

[Brys]

Ok, I said A Canticle for Leibowitz was the best I'd read. As I expected, that didn't last long. It's now the 3rd best SF novel I've read. Ahead of it are:
1) The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
2) The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

 

[Jimmy]

My must-must read, something essential, not only classical, what everyone who likes sf must read consists of:

Novels:
Isaac Asimov "Foundation" (only first three classical stories)
Pierre Boulle "Monkey planet"
Ray Bradbury "451 Fahrenheit"
David Brin "Startide Rising"
Arthur C. Clarke "Childhood's End"
Philip K. Dick "Man on the High Castle", "Ubik", "Eye on the Sky"
James Gunn "The Listeners"
Joe Haldeman "Forever War"
Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon"
Sergiej Lukjanienko "Лабиринт отражений", "Фальшивые зеркала" (The Deep series)
Walter M. Miller Jr. "Canticle for Leibovitz"
A. & B. Strugatsky "Monday Begins on Saturday", "Roadside Picnic"
John Wyndham "Day of the Tryfids"

Short stories:
Poul Anderson "Sam Hall"
Karl Michael Armer "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
Isaac Asimov "Bicentennial Man"
David Brin "Thor meets Captain America", "Crystal Spheres"
Kir Bulyczow - all stories about Guslar
Arthur C. Clarke - every short story is a masterpiece
Philip K. Dick - almost everything (I love "The pre-persons")
Philip Jose Farmer "Riders of the Purple Wage" from "Dangerous Visions"
Shin'ichi Hoshi "City like a Pastureland" (that title was in polish)
James Patrick Kelly "Monsters"
Bob Leman "The Time of the Worm"
Siergiej Lukjanienko "Поезд в Теплый Край"
George R.R. Martin "Sandkings", "For a Single Yesterday", "The Storms of Windhaven"
Sean McMullen "Colours of the Soul"
Frantisek Novotny "Madonna from the Wreck..." (? czech short story)
Frederik Pohl "The Gold at Starbow's End"
Lester del Rey "Evensong" from "Dangerous Visions"
Robert Sheckley - everything
John T. Sladek "The Happy Breed" from "Dangerous Visions"
Henry Slesar "Ersatz" from "Dangerous Visions"
James Tiptree Jr. "The Screwfly Solution"
A.E. van Vogt - almost everything
Connie Willis "Wind of the Marble Arch"
Timothy Zahn "Pawn's Gambit"

...and many, many more...

 

[HieroGlyph]

Apart from the brilliant Dune series, I would recommend Julian May's The Galactic Millieu Trilogy.

Ohhhh, well said!

 

[seerdon]

Day of the Tryphids, as Jimmy recommends - I love this book.
Also Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein, Dune which I'm sure has been mentioned, and the Helliconia trilogy by Brian Aldiss.

 

[Omega]

Sorry to pull you up on spelling it is "Day of the Triffids". I'll run before I get beaten.

 

[Brys]

I know it's been posted before, but it needs a post devoted entirely to it:
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
I've never read anything as good before in science fiction. It's about Charlie Gordon, janitor, IQ 68, and a mouse, Algernon. Science has come up with a way to artificially increase intelligence. Until Algernon, the intelligence didn't last long. Charlie enthusiastically agrees to be the first human subject. Simply an amazing psychological novel - written in the narrative style of a diary, by Charlie - starting off with his barely literate prose, and increasing gradually improving through the book.

Some early quotes I feel like highlighting:

I dint feel bad because I watched Algernon and I lernd how to finish the amaze even if it takes me along time.
I dint know mice were so smart.​

Punctuation, is fun!

 

[Neal Asher]

Hey, Rane Longfox, belated I know, but I like your recommendations list!

 

[seerdon]

Sorry to pull you up on spelling it is "Day of the Triffids". I'll run before I get beaten.

Thanks for that

We studied Flowers for Algernon in English three or four years ago, it's really interesting. I agree with Brys.

 

[WizardofOwls]

I enjoyed

Frank Herbert's Dune books
David Brin's Uplift books
Jack L. Chalker's Well of Souls books
Joan D. Vinge's books:
The Snow Queen
World's End
The Summer Queen
Tangled Up In Blue
Also her Psion series:
Psion
Catspaw
Dreamfall
Andre Norton's Starman's Son

 

[Brys]

Thanks for that

We studied Flowers for Algernon in English three or four years ago, it's really interesting. I agree with Brys.

Lucky! When I was still doing English the best novel we studied was the Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy) and a lot of Shakespeare and a few other unmemorable plays and novels.

 

[GOLLUM]

Lucky! When I was still doing English the best novel we studied was the Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy) and a lot of Shakespeare and a few other unmemorable plays and novels.

Yeh join the club as far as the unmemorable stuff goes altogiuh we did do a copuler of nityruging plays by Lord Dunasny although I didn't know who he was at the time...

Still I've done my best to readdress the balance since then...

 

[HieroGlyph]

Earlier, Brys promotes and quotes from:

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
"I dint know mice were so smart"...

Then various posts, and:

...Yeh join the club as far as the unmemorable stuff goes altogiuh we did do a copuler of nityruging plays by Lord Dunasny although I didn't know who he was at the time...

Still I've done my best to readdress the balance since then...

I had to do a take or four to work out if Id missed something, but I gave up through laughter

I make my own connexions, I guess

 

[Rane Longfox]

Hey, Rane Longfox, belated I know, but I like your recommendations list!

I thought you might Neal I don't read much classic sci-fi, but modern British sci-fi is my staple diet. Yourself, Peter Hamilton, Iain Banks and Al Reynolds are my pantheon of sci-fi gods
Good ego trip, this forum, eh?

 

[GOLLUM]

I had to do a take or four to work out if Id missed something, but I gave up through laughter

What happens when you're in a hurry somewhere GRRR........

 

[GOLLUM]

I make my own connexions, I guess

Inventing new words HUH?.....

*GOLLUM makes a note: My influence is rubbing off MUWHAHA!!!... *

 

[HieroGlyph]

lol
Check it out first please: nothing wrong with making or writing connexions!!!

 

[GOLLUM]

lol
Check it out first please: nothing wrong with making or writing connexions!!!

Just teasing....

Cool word as Dickens, Aristotle and Jane Austen appear to have made use of it..

 

[HieroGlyph]

Heh, are they recommendations for us unenlightened?
(I could make a bet that Socrates taught Aristotle... that they were NOT speaking or writing in English )