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Hi TL community. Since I think people on here generally have good taste, I decided to ask what SF book should I read next. I'm not at all an avid reader, though I would like to be, and really don't know where to begin looking for new authors.
The complete list of every SF I've read is:
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind - Orson Scott Card Nightfall - Isaac Asimov Foundation - Isaac Asimov (just the first one of the series. I found it interesting but not too riveting) Do Androids Dream of electric sheep? - Philip K. Dick A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
Thanks!
EDIT: I forgot to mention some other books for some reason. Maybe it's because they're often not found in the SF section. Maybe they're not considered SF:
Brave New World - Huxley 1984 - Orwell Farenheit 451 - Bradbury
I highly recomend any of those books
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Are you telling me you haven't read the 2nd best SF of all time (2nd to Ender)
Dune - Frank Herbert
I'm actually on the 2nd book :D
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Asimov - The Robot Trilogy (3) - Better than Foundation IMO, very relevant issues for today's society (connectedness without closeness, virtual sexuality, the double-edged sword of progress, etc). Detective Mysteries + Sci Fi - AWESOME. The titles are: The Caves of Steel The Naked Sun The Robots of Dawn
Fahrenheit 451 - must read. Also very relevant today.
Maybe not sci-fi, but The Giver by Lois Lowry is one of my favorite books.
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Dune, you absolutely must read Dune
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Some classic nerd literature:
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott Neuromancer by William Gibson Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein Dune by Frank Herbert Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
edit: arr too slow with the dune, whatever its a good book
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On August 09 2010 13:21 Meth wrote: StarCraft God no... those where the most poorly written books I have read.
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On August 09 2010 13:36 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: This. It is an awesome TvZ novel.
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On August 09 2010 13:30 Beloth(OD) wrote: Are you telling me you haven't read the 2nd best SF of all time (2nd to Ender)
Dune - Frank Herbert
I'm actually on the 2nd book :D
Many more to go then, I remember reading about 10 of them a few years ago ^^
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what can you suggest to someone like me who loves the Mass Effect universe? I just like the setting, with humanity relatively fresh in space travel and not on their own (found alien artifacts and reverse engineered them), plus I like very "semi-realistic" settings - I mean with stuff that is completely made up but sounds very reasonable - Mass Effect is mostly realistic, at least what their faster-than-light travel is based on sounds reasonable (basically an element with zero mass, that can bend spacetime if it's exposed to electric current, its supposed to be dark energy), they also explain why the different alien races look the way they do etc. (for example the krogan with their thick skin because of the high radiation exposure on their planet) ? It should not make an astronomy-buff sigh every second line because something is totally inaccurate.
Erm... with the exception of the ME books of course.
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On August 09 2010 13:30 Beloth(OD) wrote: Are you telling me you haven't read the 2nd best SF of all time (2nd to Ender)
Dune - Frank Herbert
I'm actually on the 2nd book :D
woah now, you must speak from ignorance, because although good, ender's game is definitely not the best sci fi book of all time.
as for my reccomendations: Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep Dan Simmons: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion, ilium and Olympos. Really anything by dan simmons is probably great, but I haven't read the rest of his books
Edit: to the guy above me, DEFINITELY try out A Fire Upon the Deep. It has an incredibly unique way of justifying the possibility of faster than light travel features a human race that is not the center of the universe, similar to mass effect. Although i'm only about half way through, the universe it creates is one of the most intriguing thought experiments in all sci fi i have come across.
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You actually have a dent list there; the stuff you have read is good. Keep in mind that there about 14 books in the Ender series, with many of them being set 3000 years in the future, and far more Science-oreinted.
I would prescribe... "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Charles Sheffield. It's good, hard sci-fi, and it is very entertaining.
I would also try the "Worthing Saga" by OSC.It has a mix of psycology, fantasy, and science that you cant quite get from Ender.
Dune is good... farenheit 451 is good... Foundation, Empire, Robots, and their crossovers are all excellent...
I would buy a "Best of" book. they usually have a tons of stories from a bunch of really good writers. HG Wells, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Verne, etc.
EDIT: And how dare I forget! The Homecoming Series y OSC is quite possibly one of the best series I have ever read. Extremely memorable, and very awesome all around. 5 books, best if you left out the last one.
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A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick VALIS by Philip K. Dick Starship Troopers
some of my all time most favorite books
EDIT: and don't forget one of the greatest sci fi novels of all time!
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
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gah, i was gonna suggest ender's game cause its an amazing book but you're already read it... have you read the rest of the series though? you only listed 4 of them and there's 6 total.
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I actually took an english course in university focused on science fiction. I kept the reading list. Most of these books I enjoyed. They are all sci-fi but very different types. I organized them as they were presented in my class. Hope these give you something to go on.
Misc Nathaniel Hawthorn - Rappaccini's Daughter Nathaniel Hawthorn - The Birthmark Mary Shelly - Frankenstine
Technology in Sci-Fi Aldous Huxley - Brave New World E.M. Forster - The Machine Stops Ray Bradbury - The Veldt Ray Bradbury - There Come Soft Rains Harlan Ellison - I have no Mouth and I Must Scream
The Futuristic Apocalypse Sheri Tepper - The Gate to Women's Country Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
The Alien in Sci-Fi John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids Ursula Le Guin - The Dispossessed Stanislaw Lem - Solaris Campbell - Who goes There?
The Superman/Cyborg/Robot in Sci-Fi Raniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon C.L. Moore - No Women Born William Gibson - Neuromancer Phillip Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Olaf Stapledon - Old John Theodore Sturgeon - More than Human Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
Time Travel in Sci-Fi H.G. Wells - The Time Machine James Tiptree Jr. - Houston, Houston, do You Read? Marge Piercy - Woman on the Edge of Time
Enjoy
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Snow Crash for sure. Brave New World is pretty good for something heavier.
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On August 09 2010 13:33 Thegilaboy wrote: Dune, you absolutely must read Dune
Yes, this. If you want to read sci-fi you have to read Dune. Seriously it's not optional.
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just about everything by james hogan or robert heinlein is good for light and interesting, though some of heinlein's get a bit deeper.
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