What is the best science fiction book, ever?

[JohnT]

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Remove the spaces in the tags.

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[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Except that every thread in the archives is closed.

And what should prevent them from reopening ?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by BlackCat
And what should prevent them from reopening ?

The fact that we don't have mod powers? That the whole purpose of the archives is to retire old threads?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by MrFun
And why didn't the author ever write a fourth book, Gay Pride Mars?

Because he thought that Pynchon had stolen a march on him with 'Gravity's Gay Pride Flag Rainbow'.

[OliverFA]

Many of the books mentioned in the thread are really good, and would deserve to be nominated as the best Sci-fi book of all the times. But only if Asimov books didn't exist

Asimov has at least three (probably more) books that IMHO are better than any other Sci-Fi book. The Foundation series and The Good Themselves have already been mentioned in the thread.

The problem with Foundation is that it is not finished :-( but I hae read the seven existing books over and over, enven the first prequel which is quite bad. Fortunately the second prequel is much better.

With The Gods Themselves he demonstrated to all his critics that he could write the best science fiction about aliens. That he could create aliens that were real aliens and not just humans with a few small diferences. I think we should be grateful to all Asimov's critics because if they never had acused him of being unable to write stories that featured aliens we could not enjoy "The Gods..." right now. Just like with "The End of Eternity". If he hadn't wanted to create something completely oposite to "The Foundation", what I consider the best sci-fi books of all times would not exist. I am surprised that noone mentioned "The End of Eternity" before in this thread.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by MrFun
And why didn't the author ever write a fourth book, Gay Pride Mars?

Well, there is Rainbow Mars by Larry Niven

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by JohnT
AH is definitely a branch of science fiction, especially because that's where I find the stuff and also because I say so. So there's two good reasons right there, Kuci.

Speculative Fiction (SF) is the genre.

Subgenres include (IMHO): science fiction, fantasy, alternative history, science fantasy...

Semantical arguments can be made where other matters fall. For example: Are space oprahs a category of science fictions or do they deserve their own subgenre?

[joncha]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Are space oprahs a category of science fictions or do they deserve their own subgenre?

lol Space Oprah LOL

/me fires up teh photoshop

[MrFun]

Originally posted by molly bloom



Because he thought that Pynchon had stolen a march on him with 'Gravity's Gay Pride Flag Rainbow'.

ah ha -- should have known

[Verto]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Semantical arguments can be made where other matters fall. For example: Are space operas a category of science fictions or do they deserve their own subgenre?

Maybe the main qualifying factor should be: is the story, when told with its scientific/technological aspects removed, still the same, or does it actually suffer? For example:

Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea: This book is all about the submarine, and the technology that powers it, that makes Nemo's underwater empire possible.

Fahrenheit 451: Remove what scientific/technoligical aspects are present in this book, and you are left with...the entire theme that Bradbury sought to convey.

etc.

Many books/movies use "Sci-Fi" as decoration, a backdrop for political discourse, satire, humor, etc.

Maybe I got sidetracked and never answered your post, but oh well. There is certainly a wide spectrum of science fiction upon which books can fall: the original science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells; hardcore science fiction, in which the former(science) is emphasized over the latter (fiction) - great detail, with the author trying very hard to convince the reader the technology is plausible, realistic, etc - IOW, closer to Verne, than to Wells. Star Trek and other sci-fi shows would fall under this category, along with Asimov, etc.

Other categories:

"Mainstream" Sci-Fi : the story told takes place in space, in the future, etc; advanced technology is present, but mainly used as tools to advance the storyline of the main characters. Ex: Star Wars

Alternate History: self-explanatory. I would say this is to us, what Jules Verne was to his time; whereas the readers of the 19th century looked forward at what could be, many of us today look back at what might have been. Space perhaps no longer holds us in such gripping fascination; perhaps with all our modern, every-day technology, our travels into space, many people can better escape from reality when reading about a world in which America had never unified, than space colonies on Mars. (Note: This is not to say space is no longer interesting to people, just a rambling opinion).

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by joncha
lol Space Oprah LOL

* joncha fires up the photoshop

Yeah, Space Oprah. Remember the scene in Star Wars IV:

Han Solo: The Tie fighters going behind that small moon,
Obi-wan: That's not a small moon.

[Verto]

You mean space opera, not oprah.

EDIT: And is that a joke about Oprah?

[Zkribbler]

Kinda obvious, wasn't it??

[Verto]

Obvious, perhaps; humorous, no.

[Zkribbler]

A friend once said to me:

The difference between your jokes and other people's jokes is that their's are funny.

...at least, I think she was a friend.