What is the best science fiction book, ever?

[ajbera]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi



Are you implying that I might like it?

You should give it a go, Ben. It was a good book, IMO. And something can be blasphemous and still be entertaining or worthwhile. Not to threadjack, but what were your opinions of, say, Dogma or The Last Temptation of Christ?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Silent Cal

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by Sikander

So EU2 is all one big Sci Fi game?

That is not for me to say as I have not played it, nor have I "created" the various sub-genres that constitute sci-fi. That being said, not everyone agrees about what sci-fi really is...

Check out the Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (editors Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn), especially chapter 15 (which is about alternate history).

Harry Turtledove is quoted as saying (and I hope I do nothing wrong now):

"Establishing the historical breakpoint... is only half the game of writing alternate history. The other half, and to me the more interesting one, is imagining what would spring from the proposed change. It is in that second half of the game that science fiction and alternate history come together."

My example about the Spanish Armada conquering England is from the story "The Signaller" by Keith Roberts (1966). In it radio is unknown in 20th century England, where long-distance communication is possible only through semaphore stations...

The reason is (this is from the same chapter) that Spain's victory ended the English Reformation and Renaissance... Church and state are one, and a rigid, dogmatic Catholicism is enforced in the country... The economy is dominated by medieval trade guilds and has not produced the same technological trajectory as we see today...

Science fiction or not? What say you?

Edit: A quote should be correctly spelled ("brekpoint" -> "breakpoint")...

Carolus

[Kuciwalker]

Not science fiction.

[Mr. Harley]

Altenative Historical Fiction - categorized with SF, which doesn't bother me at all.

[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.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well I find the Star Wars novels in the Science Fiction section as well .

[Kuciwalker]

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.

I find The Wheel of Time books in the science fiction section as well. And regarding your other point...

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Well I find the Star Wars novels in the Science Fiction section as well .

It doesn't meet Criteria #2.

[Nostromo]

So Philip K. Dick's The Man the High Castle isn't sci-fi, even though everyone seems to think its a classic of sci-fi. Here's the premiss:

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war--and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.

Awards:
----------

1963 Hugo Award Winner: Best Novel

1975 Locus Magazine: Best All Time Novel nominee

1987 Locus Magazine: Best All Time SF Novel nominee

1998 Locus Magazine: Best SF Novel before 1990 nominee

[MrFun]

I'm reading Red Mars for the first time, and I look forward to Green Mars and Blue Mars.

[Mr. Harley]

Nostromo pwns Kuci as to whether AH is SF.

[DarkCloud]

I bet that the Wheel of Time series is only there because your library lacks a Fantasy section and decided to combine the two.

[rah]

Originally posted by MrFun
I'm reading Red Mars for the first time, and I look forward to Green Mars and Blue Mars.

I did too, until I read them.

[MrFun]

How can Green Mars and Blue Mars be so badly written compared to Red Mars, when they're all part of the same trilogy and by the same author?

I noticed that Imran has also made this point but now I'm curious on what basis you two make this point.