What is the best science fiction book, ever?

[LDiCesare]

Speaking of Matheson, I preferred his I am legend book about vampires over the Shrinking man. Neither really counts as sf, though, but since he did write some sf, you'll find his books in the sf (sometimes horror) category...

[ajbera]

I wouldn't say I preferred it, but I Am Legend is indeed an excellent book, and his attempts to attribute vampirism to a virus certainly suggests an element of sf. I think I liked The Shrinking Man so much because I was surprised at how much I actually liked it.

For those who don't know him, Matheson's short fiction is outstanding too. Many classic Twilight Zone episodes are based on his stories, my favorite being "It's A Good Life."

[Commy]

SMAC instruction manual...best sci-fi ever...

[Impaler[WrG]]

The SMAC instruction manual? Perhaps you mean the Back-story involving the awakening and breakup of the Unity crew. I remember reading that online when it was being released bit by bit. Its yet another one of the reason why SMAC utterly DRIPS with style.


I havent read most of what been mentioned as I like GePap tend to stick to know authors and Titanic figures like Asimov and Clarke at that. I would say that Dune is definatly the best when it comes to "Epicness" and Childhoods End is best at that "grand idea" quality. Another series that I have enjoyed is the Well of Souls by Jack L. Chalker.

This thread has inspired me to try a wider variety of Authors though, I think I will make it my goal to read all the Hugo and Nebula award winners for the last 40 years.

[Mr. Harley]

Impaler - don't forget to do the Short Stories and Novellas, also. There are some awesome works in those categories.

[Nostromo]

Not to mention the poetry

"Very well. Lets have a love poem, lyrical, pastoral, and expressed in the language of pure mathematics. Tensor algebra mainly, with a little topology and higher calculus, if need be. But with feeling, you understand, and in the cybernetic spirit."

[...] his electronic bard was already declaiming:

Come, let us hasten to higher plane,
Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn,
Their indices bedecked from one to n
Commingled in an endless Markov chain!

Come, every frustum longs to be a cone,
And every vector dreams of matrices.
Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze:
It whispers of a more ergodic zone.

...

Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad

[Mr. Harley]

I'll leave poetry to my fellow Apolytoners - that is an area I am very weak in, and I know it.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by nostromo
After I read "Lord of Light", I promised myself never to read Zelazny ever again. Maybe I should try to read it again one of these days.

His novel 'Isle of the Dead' is a wry and melancholy trip into the distant future, featuring a man who is worshipped as a god by an alien religion.

http://zelazny.corrupt.net/allreviews.html

[Kropotkin]

Most books I think of has already been mentioned, but I'll post anyway - just so I can see my own text on the internet. After that I can go look at myself in the mirror again.

When I was a young teenager I worked myself through the SF section of my local libary, the best love affair I had for many years. I don't read that much SF anymore, there's so much else to read as well. As others have pointed out, some of the best SF when I was a teenager is'nt really good literature. Asimov is a good example, even if he has some bright moments. It's a bit like Star Wars and Star Trek; sure you can be a bit nostalgic about it as it had some impact on your childhood, but it doesn't make it into good films/tv. The same goes for Asimov. I still like the idea of Asimovs books, but I don't want do destroy any memories by actually reading his works. Much in the same way I would not read Biggles-books today.

What do we have left? The Strugatsky brothers have survived a second reading - at least the few books I've found and re-read since. Probably because I often like russian literature in general and I also like that they don't really give much away about the so called wanderers. I guess some of their greatness gets lost in the translation, but I'm a bit to lazy to learn russian.

Karel Capek should always get a honorable mentioning. I mean, the man popularised the word 'Robot'. What would SF be without Robots? Really, 'War of the Newts' (Black Cat calls it War of the Salamanders) is one of the best satires ever written imho. If it's actually SF I don't really know...

Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughethouse 5' shouldn't be left out of the list either. Those funny-looking aliens are some of the best I've encountered in my reading as they question the base of our understanding of time and free will.

Finally - and let us for arguments sake say that 1984 is SF - I'd say that Karin Boye's 'Kallocain' is better that both 'Brave new world' and '1984' as a piece of literary (probably not easy to find outside Scandinavia). 1984 is important in a lot of other ways, but there's better writers out there for sure.

[Mr. Harley]

Karin Boye's "Kallocain"? Can you please fill in a generic plot, or review, that's the first new one for me in this thread.

[Zoid]

Boye's science fiction story, KALLOCAIN (1940), was a picture of a male-dominated totalitarian society around the year 2000. It was based on her impressions while traveling in Grmany and the Soviet Union. The introspective novel can be seen as a link between Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984. Boye set the story in a totalitarian state which has wiped out all individualism. Leo Kall, invents the eponymous truth drug, 'kallocain', which forces patients to betray their innermost thoughts. Besides its obvious negative uses, Kall realizes after some hesitation, the drug can be employed for good. It breaks down the defenses that prevent human contact. Linda, Leo's wife, reveals her opposition to official policy. Kall suffers then consequences in his own being, but in his tragedy is also a seed for hope. Kallocain reveals Boye's disgust of totalitarianism, the dominating ideology in the central Europe at that time. Although Sweden remained neutral during World War II, and was not ravaged by war, the political developed and outbreak of hostilities had a profound effect on Boye's mental condition.

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kboye.htm

[Sikander]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc

Zelazny I also Dilvish, the Damned plus Jack of Shadows. Not as good as Lords of Light and Darkness, but good reads. I also read The Dream Master. I didn't like the climax - but I was a teen when I read it and preferred happy or uplifting endings. It was an intriguing premise.

I love Dilvish the Damned (you've read the sequel "The Changing Land right?). I always wanted someone to do a movie of it. The Changing Land had a lot of really cool stuff (like spell hacking) and a lot of humor.

The Dream Master had one of Zelazny's best lines which was something like,

"How could a woman that tall be so well-proportioned?".

I immediately understood the attraction.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by ajbera

A good fantasy novel is To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust, a version of the revolt of Satan. High fantasy in Heaven, with a cast of famous characters - Yahweh, Satan, Michael, Rafael, Lucifer, Lilith, Belial, etc. Quite entertaining.

That does sound promising.

[Mr. Harley]

Sikander - I've read To Reign in Hell. I loved it. Note that someone like BK would probably find it blashphemous, but it is witty with a series of highly original plot twists. It is currently in print, but the original cover art is way better - with I believe it is a female on what appears to be a Black Dragon, I cannot say more without a partial spoiler. If you are lucky you may find it in a used book store.

[snoopy369]

Lord of Light/Darkness

To Reign In Hell (only know the new cover art tho)

Asimov, to me, is actually quite good as an adult (at least the Foundation stuff). Some of his stuff is written for teenagers or younger childred - his Norby or whatever it's called series - and some of it is falls into the Heinleinian class of adventure stories; but, just like Heinlein, Asimov has his 'classic' books, like Foundation, that stand up as novels regardless of the age level ...