What is the best science fiction book, ever?

[Zoid]

Originally posted by nostromo


I'll check this one out. I just read one of his more recent novels, Millenium People. Its not sf, btw. The premiss was intriguing: the middle-class revolts. But I felt he didn't carry it out very well.

High Rise is quite good. It sucked me in with the first sentence

Later that day as he sat on the balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months

That must be one of the best openings to a book I´ve ever read! Right up there with Tanith Lee´s "Don´t bite the sun"

My friend [name forgotten] had killed herself again

and Nikanor Teratologens "Äldreomsorgen i Övre Kågedalen" (The old-age care in Upper Kage Valley) which starts

This summer I killed a 10 year old child. We met at the carnival just as the Day of the Children turned into the Night of the Men

This sound a lot better in swedish of course...

[Straybow]

I've always liked Ben Bova's work (Martian Chronicles being already hailed in the thread I didn't mention it). I read Orion Among the Stars. You should, too.

The Orion series is fantasy, but this last book is soundly Sci Fi. It was so good. I had ignored the series, but now I'm gonna read 'em.

I should add, I haven't read a fantasy book since I tried to read Robert Jordan. I read the 3rd and 4th Wheel novels and realized neither the plot nor the characters had developed in any meaningful way and gave up.

[Kuciwalker]

Robert Jordan is utter crap.

[Straybow]

It was like reading Stephen R Donaldson but without any redeeming character.

[Kuciwalker]

However, A Song of Ice and Fire more than redeems the genre

[MosesPresley]

Originally posted by nostromo


You're obviously not a sci-fi illiterate



Wasn't it the book with the people who become Hindu Gods with the help of tech? I don't remember a Christian God... It sucked IMO. It was boring and uninteresting, IMO.

It was almost exclusively Hindu gods, but when Sam went to war with Heaven, he asked for the help of Nirriti, the Christian god. Whom he called a dangerous fanatic. Although technically Nirriti is a Hindu name and a goddess, Zelazny presents her as a him and a Christian to boot.

It was interesting to show the gods as normal people who were overwhelmingly technically advanced and enjoyed body swapping. They liked to keep the lower orders down by constantly destroying their technological advances, thus keeping them perpetually ignorant. They would reward the faithful by giving them new bodies. At one point they tried to sabotage Sam by giving him an epiletic body. That was too funny.

If a "god" stayed alive long enough, they would develop special and powerful attributes that they used to wage war on each other.

I thought it was full of cool ideas.

[Whoha]

Richter 10 by Clarke was pretty good.

[Mr. Harley]

Hueij - Brave New World was written in the context of communism and the ultimate triumph of command economies. I always had heartburn over the fact that humans are not communal to that degree (so creating retarded humans is going to make things even worse - "The drones need you, they look up to you" is more the result I see), and deliberating creating retarded humans that could not operate today's tech seemed absurd. Other authors have done a much better job, even with the inherent tech flaws, Gibson with Neuromancer does a much better job, ditto for Bradbury with Fahrenheit 451 (which I also didn't paticularly like, but I will grant it is well done).

[LDiCesare]

Most books out there are English-written. How many non English books get translated? One thousand of Hair Carpets is a great book for instance, but one rare example of German sci-fi that got transated in French.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc
Molly - you must by a true afficianado. The Einstein Intersection came out before you were born, hell I was too young to read it when it came out - I was more at The Hobbit and Farmer in the Sky stage.

I was born in 1963- Einstein Interesection won the Nebula in 1967.

I am however a big Delany fan- from the 'Fall of the Towers' trilogy through to 'Stars in My Pocket' and his autobiographical writings and his essay collections, such as 'Jewel Hinged Jaw'.

I even have his erotic novel, 'Tides of Lust'.... not for the faint hearted.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc
David Brin - Startide Rising. Best Aliens ever. The Tandu are just - well - alien.

The aliens in Dragon's Egg probably beat them easily for alien-ness.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
A Canticle for Liebowitz

A good serious contender.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Sikander


A good serious contender.

Yes, a big two thumbs up from me too. I also like his short stories in 'View From The Stars' and 'Conditionally Human'.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by molly bloom

Some of Asimov's ideas are good, but his prose is pedestrian.

Yes, and his characters are two-dimensional as well. Typically I found that his ideas (as interesting as they were) were incapable of carrying a novel.

I recently read Ender's Game and like an idiot several other books from that series. The only two worth reading in my opinion were Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. They were fairly interesting, but I can't believe they were the best thing to come out of Sci Fi that year. It was good, but not that good.

Heinlein is often entertaining and has a few good ideas, and more than a few wierd ideas. His books vary extremely widely in quality and sanity level. He should be famous simply because of his output over the years, but I can't really say that any of his novels that I have read deserve consideration as the best ever written.

I liked the LeGuinn that I have read (Earthsea Trilogy, Left Hand of Darkness), but it didn't have any sort of life changing effect on me, nor have I been interested in re-reading them in the approx. 30 years since I first did so.

There are so many famous authors who I haven't read yet, and so many famous authors who I have read and haven't been particularly moved by that I hesitate to make a recommendation. The only thing I am sure about in regard to the OP is that I have not yet read the greatest Sci Fi of all time.

[Mr. Harley]

Sikander - post your thoughts on the books you like, I enjoyed your analysis of both Asimov and Heinlein. Since we are close to the same age, I know you will have read authors that have fallen out of common reading, such as my reference to H. Beam Piper. It's not just the best books - yes, I know that's the thread - but good reads, too. I also concur about Ender's Game, it was a nice read, but great?