Thread: Your favorite Sci-Fi books

I really got into Sci-Fi this summer and read 6 Sci-fi books in the span of 1 1/2 months.

They include:

1. Necromancer - William Gibson
2. Old Man's War - John Scalzi
3. Ghost Brigades (sequel to old man's war) - John Scalzi
4. Starship Troopers - Heinlein
5. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
6. I will fear no evil - Heinlein

My favorite book was probably Snow Crash. Loved reading ever moment of it and it was quite a wild ride.

I also enjoyed Starship Troopers as it was so far apart and so much better than the movie. I will fear no evil was the longest book I read and was quite an interesting read...learned a lot about women.

Neuromancer was the first Sci-Fi book i read and was probobly one of hardest Sci-Fi books so I might reread it later. It just went way over my head since I didn't really understand it.

Old Man's War and Ghost Brigades were easy reads and were very entertaining. Wasn't really too much philosophy like my other books. So they were alright none the less...good reads.

So what have you guys read

Also if any one wants to talk philosophy I ain't gonna stop em. Philosophical dance...."does it really exist or am I just imagining this dance"

If a philosopher fell down in the woods....would anyone care?

I haven't read anything lately that blew me away, but you can't go wrong with some classics:

Ursula K. LeGuin--The Left Hand of Darkness, or any of her Hain books

Arthur C. Clarke--Songs of Distant Earth, Childhood's End, or his recent Time Oddysey series w/ Stephen Baxter

Greg Bear--Blood Music (Moving Mars is also pretty sweet)

Orson Scott Card--Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus, and I can't fault Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, though the series goes south fast from there

Asimov + ??--The Positronic Man

Lawrence Manning--The Man Who Awoke (it's a rarer pulp novel from the '30s, but I think there's been a recent reprint)

And if you don't mind veering a bit into magical realism (I highly recommend that you do ),

Vonnegut--Cats Cradle

Italo Calvino--Cosmicomics (on a less sci-fi note, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller is probably the best novel I've read in the last five years).

Originally Posted by Taosaur

I haven't read anything lately that blew me away, but you can't go wrong with some classics:

Ursula K. LeGuin--The Left Hand of Darkness, or any of her Hain books

Arthur C. Clarke--Songs of Distant Earth, Childhood's End, or his recent Time Oddysey series w/ Stephen Baxter

Greg Bear--Blood Music (Moving Mars is also pretty sweet)

Orson Scott Card--Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus, and I can't fault Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, though the series goes south fast from there

Asimov + ??--The Positronic Man

Lawrence Manning--The Man Who Awoke (it's a rarer pulp novel from the '30s, but I think there's been a recent reprint)

And if you don't mind veering a bit into magical realism (I highly recommend that you do ),

Vonnegut--Cats Cradle

Italo Calvino--Cosmicomics (on a less sci-fi note, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller is probably the best novel I've read in the last five years).

which one of those was your favorite. I have heard of Asimov though i read the slightly newer books, although starship troopers was written in 1952 and neuromancer and I will fear no evil in the 70s. Snow crash was 1992 (it was written when the basic internet was prevelant thus is the most accurate depicition....as the metaverse actually does pretty much exist. Second life is a pretty faithful depiction of it and Uru online is more faithful but second life is a much more popular game.

Old man's war and ghost bridges are just fun novels.

It's hard to play favorites. Cats Cradle (1963) was my favorite book, period, through my late teens and early twenties. For just a fun adventure story, probably Time's Eye (2003), the first book of Clarke & Baxter's Time Odyssey. For a philosophical mind bender, Blood Music (1983). For more social commentary, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) or Pastwatch (1997).

Oh, and I left these out, but for crazy-fun-brain-candy-space-adventure, you can't beat David Brin's Uplift series ('90s-'00s)

My dad used to have a whole attic full of old scifi pulp from the 50's to the 90's, literally boxes and boxes full... i only managed to save a few... mostly asimovs and heinleins, some other assorted stuff. I loved the Foundation series by asimov, and there's this one book that blew my mind... I forgot what its called, my friend has it now... Some random author, but about discovering an orb so large it had a star in the middle, so you could live inside... ther was so much space, each species that discovered it eventually devolved from advanced spacefaring species to simple pacifistic agrarian societies because of the enormous amount of resources living space and energy inside the orb. Well i kinda spoiled it now but I really loved discovering that concept.

Originally Posted by CT

My dad used to have a whole attic full of old scifi pulp from the 50's to the 90's, literally boxes and boxes full... i only managed to save a few... mostly asimovs and heinleins, some other assorted stuff. I loved the Foundation series by asimov, and there's this one book that blew my mind... I forgot what its called, my friend has it now... Some random author, but about discovering an orb so large it had a star in the middle, so you could live inside... ther was so much space, each species that discovered it eventually devolved from advanced spacefaring species to simple pacifistic agrarian societies because of the enormous amount of resources living space and energy inside the orb. Well i kinda spoiled it now but I really loved discovering that concept.

A Dyson Sphere: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere

I think one showed up in Star Trek TNG, and maybe in Brin's Uplift series, too. Greg Bear's Hegira is along similar lines, as well, but heads in a different direction.

I have to read hitch hiker's guide within the next month or so, anyone have opinions on it?