Favourite Sci-Fi Books?

[MiffedStarfish]

There's nothing better than a good sci fi book, except maybe playing KSP. What are some of your favourite Sci-Fi books? 

I don't have one favourite, but if I had to name a few, I really enjoyed the Enders Game books, (read about half of them) The Amtrak Wars, (a really interesting series about three different nations with different tech levels interacting after a nuclear holocaust) and the Star Wars EU, particularly the Thrawn Trilogy, and the Yuuzhan Vong War. Oh, and Hitchhikers.   

[cubinator]

The Clockwork Rocket is interesting, it explores a universe where relativity is slightly different, and different colors of light have different speeds.

The Planiverse describes how a two-dimensional society might function, including transportation, fishing, music, flying snakes, and elevators, with diagrams. 

Edited July 30, 2017 by cubinator

[MaxxQ]

Anything by Clarke and Asimov.  

Andy Weir's The Martian.

Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth series (also known as the Flinx and Pip series, but many books have nothing to do with those characters).

Just recently read all available (three so far) books in the Bobiverse.  This is a good fun read, but the science isn't bad.

And most importantly, to me at least, is the Honorverse series by David Weber.  This is a series of over twenty books that started out basically as Horatio Hornblower in space.  The main character in the mainline books (fourteen or so, with another due out early next year) of the series is named Honor Harrington.  There are three side series set in the same universe that are either set a few centuries prior to the mainline books, or set concurrently with the mainlines.  These are co-written by others (Eric Flint, Jane Lindskold, and Timothy Zahn) alongside Weber.  There are also five anthologies of short stories set in the Honorverse written by Weber and other authors.

There is also a series of three companion books planned, one of which, House of Steel, has already been published.  This book contain a Weber novella, I Will Build My House of Steel, which takes up about 1/3 of the book.  The rest is sort of like the Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual, with background info of the government and military organization of two of the major Star Nations, a list (including general specifications) of the ships and ship classes used by those two Star Nations' navies, and other information either not included in the books, or just alluded to.  The other two books planned are called House of Lies and House of Shadows.

The reason the Honorverse is so important to me is that I'm a contributor to the Companion books.  I'm with a group of folks called BuNine who work directly with Weber to create the content of those books.  What we come up with, after aprroval from David, is considered canon in the Honorverse.  We have current and former members of all branches of the military as BuNine members, a robotics expert, a lawyer who gives us insight for legal stuff in the series, a military awards and heraldry expert, an artist who's real-life job is working on Star Trek Online (and is the guy who got me interested in KSP), and me.  I'm one of the former military people (USAF), and I'm also a self-taught 3D modeler (not very good, but good enough, I suppose, to get me invited into BuNine).  I make models of the ships in the Honorverse (you can see one in my avatar, although that particular one is more or less obsolete, as we've been updating the originals with new detailing), which can be seen here: 

http://maxxqbunine.deviantart.com/

That's the main page, but here's a sample image:

The top ship is the one in my avatar, the HMS Fearless, a Star Knight class Heavy Cruiser.  The three battlecruisers below it are the largest ships I've done.  I still need to create the Dreadnought and Superdreadnought classes, as well as the Carrier classes for the not-yet-created Light Attack Class ships.  For reference, the Star Knight/Fearless at the top of the image is 523 meters long, and the Nike at the bottom is 1012 meters.

I also have a few videos I've made of the models in "action":

You can get to the other three through my channel.

Edited July 30, 2017 by MaxxQ

[HebaruSan]

I had a few suggestions on the previous thread:

 

[StupidAndy]

they're older, but still amazing

I started the 2001, a space odyssey series, I finished 2010, and I'm going to start 2061 once I go back to school

also, 42

[Just Jim]

My favorite of all time is the entire Dune series...

And anything by H.P. Lovecraft... although that's more like sci-fi/horror

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

3 hours ago, StupidAndy said:

they're older, but still amazing

I started the 2001, a space odyssey series, I finished 2010, and I'm going to start 2061 once I go back to school

also, 42

3001 is interesting 

[razark]

Robert Heinlein.

Aside from his well known novels, he's got some good short stories, as well.

[StupidAndy]

2 hours ago, RoadRunnerAerospace said:

3001 is interesting 

I kind of got a spoiler because I read the Wikipedia page for monoliths, so sad

but I plan on finishing the series before winter

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

Oh noes!

[adsii1970]

This is hard because I have a few... and these are in no certain order:

• Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.
• Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series
• Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series (2001, 2010, 2065, and 3001)
• Frank Herbert's Dune series
• Isaac Asimov's I, Robot series (it actually is a part of the Foundation "universe")

Without going to my bookcase upstairs, those are the ones I can think of the easiest.

[SaturnianBlue]

A couple more to add:

• The Expanse
• The Mars Trilogy (though I've only gotten about 1/2 way through the first)

Edited July 31, 2017 by SaturnianBlue

[Bill Phil]

I've read 2001 by Clarke, Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein, Ender's Game by Card, and a few others.

I really like the Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove, though. The premise is an alien invasion during WWII. But the very last book in the series, Homeward Bound, is my favorite of the bunch, mainly because of how hilarious the aliens are to me.

[TheSaint]

If you haven't read everything Neal Stephenson has ever written, you are doing yourself a disservice.

[tater]

I've read most of what has been posted here (many decades ago), and some of the series I quit after a while. Certainly Dune after a few became not so great,  IMO. Dune holds up though, since the tech is very much in the background.

Its been a while since I read many of the older books, but some don't hold up as well as I would wish due to technology changes. I think a lesson for anyone writing SF should be to not try and detail tech too much, except maybe the fantasy stuff like FTL. Most modern sf at least takes computing to plausible levels.

I am currently going through Iain M Banks Culture stuff, I'm up to the 4th one. Interesting space opera stuff, and the AI is interesting.

Stephenson is also good, though I always feels like he just gets sick of writing and ends things sometimes, lol.

I'm loathe to recommend many of the books I have in storage (4-500 SF titles) because unless I reread them, I am unsure how they hold up. It's a shame when you reread something that was important to you, and it no longer works, lol.

[tater]

I should add that the failure to anticipate modern comm/computer tech is what kills many older SF stories for younger audiences.

Any character not in constant communication at least on a given world would seem bizarre without explanation right now, as would the inability to be able to look up virtually anything, at any time. Anything in the even not too distant future should have intelligent systems at the very least, if not outright AI. 

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

So far, my favorite "old" scifi novel would be Isaac Asimov`s I, Robot (thats the title)

[TheSaint]

Just now, tater said:

I should add that the failure to anticipate modern comm/computer tech is what kills many older SF stories for younger audiences.

Any character not in constant communication at least on a given world would seem bizarre without explanation right now, as would the inability to be able to look up virtually anything, at any time. Anything in the even not too distant future should have intelligent systems at the very least, if not outright AI. 

I remember sitting at a round table discussion with Larry Niven back around 1996. The discussion had been about science fiction predicting the future, and then someone asked, "So what has science fiction gotten wrong?" and without hesitation he blurted out, "Personal computers. None of us saw this coming."

[tater]

I need to go though my boxes of books and curate out some that my kids will not think are hokey if they read them because of the computer problem. 

[TheSaint]

1 minute ago, tater said:

I need to go though my boxes of books and curate out some that my kids will not think are hokey if they read them because of the computer problem. 

I really don't think it's that big of a deal. If it's a good story, it will hold up well not matter what the technological setting. When you really analyze it, a good story isn't driven by the setting, or even by the plot (since, when you boil it down, there are only 36 plotlines anyway). It's driven by the characters. If you can write good characters, you can write about them being almost anywhere or doing almost anything and it will be a good story. If you can't write good characters, nothing will save you.

[tater]

While I agree it's all about characters, it's hard to get past things that the reader is intimately familiar with, but is wrong.

I have noticed this myself, even rereading old stories I already know. SF where characters talk to computers I can easily find myself lost in, if the character is preparing a punch card and it's not some steam punk alternate reality... not so much. It's a suspension of disbelief thing. A near-future SF story that had awesome characters and writing, but got the orbital mechanics wrong would be a non-starter for me as well.

[Just Jim]

1 hour ago, TheSaint said:

I remember sitting at a round table discussion with Larry Niven back around 1996

Seriously? You've actually met him? Wow!

[tater]

I haven't read them in a while, but books like Dhalgren, and A Canticle for Leibowitz spring to mind as stuff to read.

I always liked JG Ballard stuff as well. Kinda bizarre, however.

Clarke holds up well, IMO. Le Guin and Pohl are probably worth looking into (partially I'm making a personal list of stuff to bring home to reread).

 

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by tater

[Bill Phil]

Oh, and The War of the Worlds. Basically the perfect alien invasion. Humans can't win, the main character is just a bystander, and he has no idea where his wife is. Things just aren't good for us humans. Then the bacteria saves the day.

[TheSaint]

8 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

Seriously? You've actually met him? Wow!

I did, it was pretty fun, actually. I went to San Diego Comic Con (back when it was just insane, as opposed to Totally Insane) because I was a big Babylon 5 fan and Joe Straczynski was leading a fan panel for it there. My plan was just to go to the B5 presentation, walk around the vendor hall, then go home. But then I started reading the program and saw that they had a panel with Larry Niven about an hour after the B5 panel, and I thought, "Oh, that would be cool, I'll stick around for that." I went up and sat at the door for the room right afterwards. Which was good, because I thought it was going to be another one of these giant fan panels with a couple hundred people, but it was actually 15 people in a conference room with Larry Niven for an hour, it filled up about 45 minutes before it started. So, 15 of us got to sit around and chat with Larry Niven for an hour. The funny part is that we hardly talked about science fiction at all. We talked a lot about his and Jerry Pournelle's involvement with national space policy under the Reagan administration, the rise and fall (figurative and literal) of Delta Clipper/DC-X, how ridiculously difficult it is to get a Ringworld movie made in Hollywood. He didn't sign anything, his arthritis was getting really bad at that point, but he did hand out Megastructure Engineering business cards, I still have it tucked away somewhere.

From what I've heard, it's not that hard to meet Larry, he's a pretty approachable guy, goes to a lot of conventions. He and Marilyn used to host the San Fernando Valley Science Fiction Club at their house, although I think that ended some time ago.