What is the best science fiction book, ever?

[mactbone]

Most of the stuff I find good/great has been mentioned but there are a couple of newer authors that I think deserve some mention.

Tad Williams' Otherland series was good, it explored online universes and the course that interactivity could go. It's not the best ever but worth a look if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is generally acclaimed and I like it quite a bit. Personally I like Diamond Age much better. It's a novel with nano-tech as the scientific focus and a backdrop of a basically Victorian type world. Cryptonomicon is also regarded as a very good book. I didn't think it was spectacular but I did enjoy some of the bits set during WW2 when they explain some concepts of encryption.

It's tough to say best ever because I want to give more consideration to old books but at the same time there are some original, thought-provoking, truly great books that have been written in the not so distant past. Maybe it's easier to know that the old books are good because they've stood the test of time.

I'd also like to say that Herbert's Pandora Series with Bill Ransom is really great. Unfortunately it's out of print but I was able to read most of the books at my library. Clones, a ship with sentience, genetic engineering, planet engineering, and some really interesting ideas. I may like this more than it's worth just because I've had a hard time getting the books - first I didn't know where to look and now I don't really have the money.

[Ben Kenobi]

Note that someone like BK would probably find it blasphemous, but it is witty with a series of highly original plot twists.

If I wouldn't like it, it must be good, eh?

[rah]

I agree that it's hard to pick ONE that's the best.
I've read over 3000 and many of the were real good. A lot of them have been listed here already. I'm surprised for newer authors that Flint hasn't been listed. His Belisarius series with David Drake was a great read. And his 1633 series with David Weber was also very entertaining. Maybe not the BEST EVER, but I don't think any single book can undisputably claim that title.

For a single book, "lucifer's hammer" is right up there.
It's good to read a book where the comet actually hits.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Lucifer's Hammer. God I read that so long ago. Pournelle right?

Personally I prefer the Mote series Niven and Pournelle IIRC.

[Mr. Harley]

BK - I very carefully didn't say you wouldn't like it - I just said that you would find it blasphemous.

Speaking of good series, Pournelle's Falkenburg's legion is quite good. Lucifer's Hammer is a collaberation between Niven and Pournelle, which IMHO is the best collaboration in modern times. Another excellent series for the military SF buff are the Honor Harrington series, by David Weber, a Horatio Hornblower meets FTL. Honorable mention to David Drake and his Hammer's Slammers series, but personally it never seemed quite as good to me as Pournelle. That may well be a function of my age when I read them, I read Falkenburg when I was a teenager but Drake as an adult.

edited to correct smilies just for BK

[rah]

Yes, Niven and Pournelle. I'd read anything they wrote together. I also liked the Mote Series, but I was trying to pull out a single book. And Hammer contains the most memorable scene for me from any book that I've ever read. The surfer. You know it's impossible for him to succeed, but when you finally start to believe he might..................... It would make a great scene in a movie.

And my wife, who is forever making fun of my favorite genre, enjoyed the book. A rare event.

[rah]

Yes Falkenburg's legion is better than the Slammers.

[rah]

Another very good series.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Vorkosigan Saga

[LDiCesare]

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is generally acclaimed and I like it quite a bit. Personally I like Diamond Age much better.

I share your opinion here. Snow Crash is very good, Diamond Age even more so.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by rah
Yes Falkenburg's legion is better than the Slammers.

Ahhh, Col. John Christian Falkenberg! It may be pulp fiction, but it's magnificient plup fiction.

My favorite scene is when his Legion has been utterly frustrated by bureaucratic interference. The rebels have driven cross the capital city, burning it as they go, and trapping the Legion in the Presidential Palace. The President has ordered Falkenbergs' Legion to leave the planet just before he himself resigns. The 1st VP is dead. The rebels are meeting in the sports arena to choose a new government. The wimp 2nd VP turns to Falkenberg and asks, "What are you going to do now?"

Falkenberg picks up his weapon and growls, "Now we're going to do what we came here to do."

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
I share your opinion here. Snow Crash is very good, Diamond Age even more so.

A big for Stephenson from me too. Anyone read his early novel, 'Zodiac' ?

I remember seeing it years ago, before 'Snow Crash', in one of the bookshops selling remaindered books on Charing Cross Road.

[Carolus Rex]

1984, hands down. A chilling read!

I also like Kallocain a lot, but I suspect it's only available in swedish. I also suspect I like it only because it's another version of 1984...

On the Beach (Neville Shute) is great too, although the women in the book (with one exception) are portrayed very stereotypically (I guess it was written in the 1950's). The feeling of doom as time runs out and how it ends always grabs me...

Carolus

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by Zkribbler

I too should have put 1984 on my list. What was I double thinking?

Carolus

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by nostromo

Am I the only one here who thinks Nineteen eighty-four is one of the greatest sci-fi books ever?

No.

Actually, it's my favourite book of all times and genres (not just science fiction)...

Carolus

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by Verto

The technology was a mere backdrop, used as a means to an end; the moral that George Orwell was trying to express was the primary purpose of the book; the technology and "sci-fi" aspects of the book received little or no explanation, other than "this is part of Big Brother".

Science fiction literature is not only about advanced technology and flying saucers (although that's what most people not familiar with the genre think of, and I'm not saying you're one of them).

Carolus