What's the best Sc-Fi book you've read?

[Jimi Ennis]

Pandoras Star and Judus Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton
Stars like dust and the end of eternity by asimov (also the first 3 Olivaw books)
and try to find some of A.E. Van Vogh's short stories

oh and the 1,2 and 4th ringworld books,

oh and sands of mars by arthur c. clarke

 

[omegawyrm]

Dune is absolutely amazing in scope and should really be required reading for high school or something. The novels get more out their with every successive installment, but if you follow the development of the universe, they're all extremely satisfying. At least up through Chapterhouse Dune, that's as far as I've read, though I randomly read The Butlerian Jihad and enjoyed that.

Slaughterhouse 5 is often recommended as one of the best sci-fi novels ever written, and it is very good, but I personally enjoyed Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle much more. I don't think I've ever seen a more biting satire.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Hitchhiker's Guide, and Speaker for the Dead have all been mentioned and are very good.

If you also like fantasy literature, I would highly recommend the Young Wizard's series, most of the entries in the series are sci-fi stories set in the trappings of a fantasy one.

If you like expanded universe fiction, I would recommend the Heir to the Empire trilogy for Star Wars, and Horus Rising for Warhammer 40k. Horus Rising was my recent first foray into 40k literature and is a great novel, every line drips with the dreadful irony of what's to come. It does everything that Star Wars: Episode 1 was trying to do but succeeds.

Also, it's not a physical novel, but Fate/Stay Night is my personal favorite novel, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

 

[Zero_ctrl]

Ender's Game.

 

[Joccaren]

One of my favourites is Charles Sheffield's 'Dark as Day'. It deals with more 'realistic' problems that we might come across when we start to explore the solar system. It follows the stories of 3 or 4 individuals, but he ends up tying the stories together.
It has been one of the few books I've bothered reading more than once. I recommend you give it a go at the very least.

 

[AfriXan]

Ok why has nobody mentioned "Altered Carbon" by Richard Morgan? That's probably the best sci-fi I have ever read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon


For a long, space opera feel you should read "The Gap Cycle" by Stephen Donaldson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gap_Cycle

I have to agree with previous posters in also recommending Ian M Banks. "Feersum Endjin" is my favourite but "consider phlebas" and "the player of games" are also very good.

Seriously though, for slightly more adult and dark sci-fi, Morgan is the best.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I've realised that I hardly have any Sci-Fi books and I've had enough of high fantasy lately.

What are some good Sci-Fi books?

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. Titles include: Warrior's Apprentice, Shards of Honor, Ceteganda, Vor Games, and Borders of Infinity. Note: I've only mentioned books early in the series - some of the later books are better, but you need the background from the early ones to get what's going on.

Also, while not "high" sci-fi, there's "Santa Olivia" by Jacqueline Carey - the story of the bi-sexual daughter of a Genetic Super Soldier and a Mexican cleaning woman who becomes a Mexican wrestler. No, I am not kidding.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I'm enjoying the New Jedi Order series of Star wars books at the moment. Vector Prime brought a tear to my eye

Stop reading when you finish The Unifying Force. Just trust me on that.

Anywho, I had a lot of fun with Tanya Huff recently, as an author. She has a lot of works out there which are good clean Sci-Fi fun.

Ben Jeapes The Xenocide Mission is an often overlooked gem.

Elizabeth Moon's Serrano Legacy. This will probably have a tendency to split people's opinions. I find the first three okay, the second two absolutely brilliant, the sixth is not bad, but tends to meander, and the seventh for me was a slog that I only finished so I could say I'd finished them all. If you like your science fiction deeply political (and I do mean deeply, this isn't some sort of vague analogy for modern day events it is a wholly realised world) then give it a shot.

Beyond that there's not much. The classics of course Do Androids Dream, Starship Troopers, The Time Machine. But the three I listed are from author's I think get overlooked, but are worth checking out.

"Time's Chariot" by Ben Jeapes

"The Xenocide Mission" by Ben Jeapes
.

You are literally the only other person I have ever come across who has also read Ben Jeapes. How did you even find him? I only knew because my dad knew his publisher way back when Xeonicide Mission was just being published.

 

[Caligulove]

Best single novel- either
[a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood's_End"]Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke[/a] absolutely perfect sci-fi story by the master of the genre.
or [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirens_of_Titan"]The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut[/a] one of the best novels of all time with Vonnegut's unique and often dark humor style of wriiting


Best series- the 'Revelation Space' series by Alastair Reynolds.
1 [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space"]Revelation Space[/a]
2 [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasm_City"]Chasm City[/a]
3 [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redemption_Ark"]Redemption Ark[/a]
4 [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolution_Gap"]Absolution Gap[/a]
5 [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prefect"]The Prefect[/a]

All of these novels, though, I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The writers of Mass Effect are definitely fans of Alastair Reynolds as well- actually made it even more of a joy to play through that series.

 

[AngryMongoose]

MORTAL ENGINES!

Seriously. The whole series jettisons pure cynical awesome all over your face from start to finish.

The prequels were good, but didn't quite live up the the original 4.

Though, this may be somewhat skewed by the fact that there are only 2 sci-fi series I can remember having read, and the other is HG2TG, which seemed like a boring answer.

 

[English Stew]

While Dune is technically the best as literature, I have a personal weakness for the works of Robert J. Sawyer. The actual writing's a bit low-level, but boy are there some high concepts in his work.

 

[Kron_the_mad wants to be deleted]

the ringworld series if you want some old school classic stuff or i think it was called red dust or something I forget because its been so long, basically Chinese/Martian Nano-Aug jesus with a hint of Red Faction

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I'm enjoying the New Jedi Order series of Star wars books at the moment. Vector Prime brought a tear to my eye

Stop reading when you finish The Unifying Force. Just trust me on that.

Are you saying don't read the Dark Nest trilogy, or that I should stop reading books altogether?

 

[Venereus]

"Fahrenheit 451" is still my favorite.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

i'm going to name few, they're not the BEST, but they're cool.

one's called "Rush" by Patrick Eris, it's some kind of Post-Apoc biker/agent story

there's another i don't remember the name but the jacket was blue with a golden triangle hole and the second had a ship on space... it was so great dammit!

besides that, Asimov's books are the best to me...

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Neuromancer.

But then again, it's the only true sci-fi book I've ever read (or at least the only sci-fi book I can remember clearly).

I'm not a big fan of Sci-fi books, so... yeah.

I might go pick up Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, if I have the time.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I'm enjoying the New Jedi Order series of Star wars books at the moment. Vector Prime brought a tear to my eye

Stop reading when you finish The Unifying Force. Just trust me on that.

Are you saying don't read the Dark Nest trilogy, or that I should stop reading books altogether?

I'm saying that as far as I'm concerned the Star Wars Expanded Universe started with Jedi Apprentice, ended with The Unfying Force, and after that moment the book publishing wing of LucasArts is now being run by the same pack of wild gibbons who seem to hate everything Star Wars related and wish to see it burn and die.

Or to be a little less hysterical, once you've read Traitor and Destiny's Way, in order to believe that the events of Legacy of the Force would stand even the remotest chance of happening you apparently had your brain inserted on opposite day. I have never seen such a complete misinterpretation of a character arc than what happens during the course of every book following The Unifying Force.

Whoever gave the go-ahead to write it was a moron, and whoever they got to write it was an even bigger moron. I recently had the chance to rearrange my library, and the only books I threw away were The Dark Nest Trilogy and The Legacy of the Force. The only books. Out of a personal library of hundreds. The only books.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep. It blew my mind a little bit, which is never a bad thing.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I'm enjoying the New Jedi Order series of Star wars books at the moment. Vector Prime brought a tear to my eye

Stop reading when you finish The Unifying Force. Just trust me on that.

Are you saying don't read the Dark Nest trilogy, or that I should stop reading books altogether?

I'm saying that as far as I'm concerned the Star Wars Expanded Universe started with Jedi Apprentice, ended with The Unfying Force, and after that moment the book publishing wing of LucasArts is now being run by the same pack of wild gibbons who seem to hate everything Star Wars related and wish to see it burn and die.

Or to be a little less hysterical, once you've read Traitor and Destiny's Way, in order to believe that the events of Legacy of the Force would stand even the remotest chance of happening you apparently had your brain inserted on opposite day. I have never seen such a complete misinterpretation of a character arc than what happens during the course of every book following The Unifying Force.

Whoever gave the go-ahead to write it was a moron, and whoever they got to write it was an even bigger moron. I recently had the chance to rearrange my library, and the only books I threw away were The Dark Nest Trilogy and The Legacy of the Force. The only books. Out of a personal library of hundreds. The only books.

Having read LotF before reading New Jedi Order I expect to feel reverse loathing for that series then.

I don't really intend to read all the Star wars books (and looking at Wikipedia that would take a bloody age) so do you know any good ones to read after I finish NJO? Though I'm only a quarter of the way through the 20 book series so that may take a while (what with other books coming out I want to read). I've already read the Legacy of the Force series, am up-to-date on the Fate of the Jedi, Darth Bane trilogy, and Survivor's Quest.

EDIT: Oh, and Death Troopers, Red Harvest, and the two Old Republic novels so far.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Probably Starship Troopers, the Foundation series, or even the Halo novels.(I like how they go into detail)

 

[Chemical Alia]

My middle name came from Dune, and I'm gonna have to go with The Lost World by Michael Crichton, lol.