Bibliophile dramanauts, I was thinking about having a few recommendation threads according to genre, this one is Sci-fi but then we could go into horror, fantasy, realism, math textbooks, etc.
Here’s mine, or at least the few one’s I read.
HG Wells
“War of the Worlds”
Isaac Asimov
I robot
Foundation Trilogy
Frank Herbert
Dune
Dune messiah
Andy Weir
The Martian
Edit: I forgot about Robert Henlein, in his case “Starship Troopers”
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Larry Niven: Basically all of it, go in chronological order. The later stuff (90s+) isn't that great. Special attention should be given to:
Ringworld
The Ringworld Engineers
A World Out of Time
The Integral Trees
The Smoke Ring
Alastair Reynolds: Again basically all of it. Special note:
Chasm City
The Prefect
Ian M Banks: Again basically all of it. Special note:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn (weird writing style)
Use of Weapons
William Gibson:
Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Pattern Recognition
Henlein: I find the Henlein juveniles the most enjoyable of his works, his later stuff gets a bit weird. Note that these are really really old (1940-1950)
Waldo & Magic Inc.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Starman Jones
The Star Beast
Double Star
Alfred Bester:
The Demolished Man
The Stars my Destination
Joe Haldeman:
Pat Cadigan:
Nancy Kress:
Philip K. Peepee:
A Scanner Darkly
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (-> Blade Runner)
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (-> Total Recall)
Neal Stephenson:
Cryptonomicon
The Diamond Age
Snow Crash
Thomas Pynchon:
Gravity's Rainbow (set aside about a year, half in front)
Inherent Vice (this one's more straightforward)
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I dont like Niven and it's tough to recommend him to young people due to recursive influence, but this is a pretty good list for anyone getting in to the genre.
Stephenson is also questionable. Other than Snow Crash I haven't liked anything else from the author. Diamond age was fun but the guy has no clue know how to end a story and the novel really should have been edited for children.
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Also I want to add some dystopian staples that exclude the over-suggested 1984:
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Machine Stops by E M Forster
There's another one that should go in here but I can't think of it right now.
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It's bloated, they're all bloated. Snow Crash has so much waffle (all the scenes with the librarian expositing sumerians) that just can be skipped right over on a 2nd reading. TBH I really only like Cryptonomicon because it's a very familiar sort of adventure story that's just a fun read.
Any particular reason you don't like Niven or just doesn't vibe with you?
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I feel like those are Reynolds worst two books lol. If you're gonna read him (skippable tbh) I would prioritize Pushing Ice, Terminal World, and House of Suns. Also his fairly new book Eversion is pretty good.
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I've read Pushing Ice, I thought it was okay but not amazing. I haven't read the other two. You don't like the Inhibitor Cycle series then I take it?
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Well I should say that I've read all of them, so obviously I can't say I hate them.
I have a mixed mind about them. I really like the overall revelation space universe. I like the Ultras and Mending plague. I don't mind the conjoiners.
Unfortunately there are many reoccurring elements that I really can't stand like those fricking hyperpigs ( so dumb... why) and that memory water based things that show up whenever Reynolds needs to figure out how to advance the plot. (pattern jugglers? Something like that).
The characters are okay, I don't really mind Reynolds cynicism, but man some of those books are bloated. Like why did redemption ark need to be like 700 pages?
It's pretty funny that I was reading the final book after not having read anything in the series for like 10 yrs. I was super into it and then those fricking pigs showed up and I started remembering things. It's like the more the book became a revelation space book, the worse it got.
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Redemption Ark is a bit ponderous. I kinda agree with you that the longer they are, the worse they get.
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Snow Crash is great because it's probably the best book for describing a Cyberpunk setting. It wasn't the first in the genre, but it probably has the most complete description of the concept so it feels almost stale to read if you are familiar with the genre
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