your favorite scifi books? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ftransform
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 08:10:57 pm
content: I bet quite a few of the users here enjoy science fiction books. What are your favorite books?My top two are probobly-starship troopers (written by Robert Heinlein, who worked as a military radio technician prior to his work as an author).-the forever war (written by Joe Haldeman, who was a physics major)

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 08:21:40 pm
content: Well, I've read Arthur C Clarke's 2001 (which wasn't even really a novel until he adapte it from the screenplay) many times and love it, in many ways more than the film itself. I once had a compilation of short stories that I enjoyed. It had stories by Steve Allen (yesthatSteve Allen - called "The Hating") and a cool story by a Japanese writer called "The Savage Mouth." Definitely worth reading that one if you get a chance.

author: ablacon64
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 08:58:38 pm
content: I'm feeling so old... heheh... I started reading Perry Rodhan!

author: ErikTheNorwegian
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 09:40:47 pm
content: Any book by Sam J Lundwal.. a very unknown writer, Swedish, but has a good humor besides a good story..

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 10:32:25 pm
content: Well there's the trilogy in 5 books : Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy ....And there's terry prattchet's discworld series. One of these days i'm going to build me a Hex ...*** lemon lemon lemon ***out of cheeseplease reinstall universe

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 11:19:43 pm
content: Got started as a kid by reading Issac Asimov.

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 11:49:57 pm
content: I think I got started reading Arthur C Clarke and Ray Bradbury, but not the Martian Chronicles. I read that one only after watching the 70's TV miniseries with Rock Hudson. A couple I recall liking in High School were "The Terminal Man" and Heinlein's "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag." That one isn't strictly science fiction but it is trippy and has sort of a David Cronenberg feel about it.

author: GeoffS
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 01:32:11 am
content: Started as a kid reading Asimov, John Wyndham, Clarke. EE Doc Smith.Any book by Larry Niven, Roger Zelazny, Poul Anderson is worth the time to read. For fantasy, Fritz Leiber.Pratchett while not sci fi is in a class of his own.

author: bullet308
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 01:52:03 am
content: Poul Anderson, Frederic Poul, Jerry Pournell, Ann McCafrey, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein (when he wasn't hitting the magic 'shrooms too hard), basically all the hard SF masters of the '60s and '70s. Spider Robinson's Calahan's books or Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books for irreverent humor. Kurt Vonnegut was only a SF writer in a tangential sense, but still very influential.Most influential novel? Hmm...Harrison's Deathworld Trilogy? Anderson's Tau Zero? Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five? All important in my development, for better or worse.

author: Jimmy the Squid
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 02:45:52 am
content: I love Harry Harrison's Death world and Stainless Steel Rat novels. I have to say that my favorite are Lois McMaster Bujold's VorKosigan series. Unique and rich background, and truly likeable characters that you really care about.

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 03:14:15 am
content: Oh my gosh I forgot all about Vonnegut! Slaughterhouse Five might have been another of those early influences that led me to read in Jr. High. I remember seeing the movie on TV, back then they would actually show the whole thing so I was delighted by the sight of Vallerie Perrine's boobs bouncing across the screen which, of course, led me to the book.Another great Vonnegut read is Galapagos. That one really influenced my own ideas about writing. Vonnegut is awesome.

author: SgtRock
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 04:34:10 am
content: Dear Fouriert:--You picked a good one for your favorite. Starship Troopers is the out and out favorite SF Novella of military veterans by a mile. The movies made of ST are some of the worst crap I have ever seen. I like to call them Piss Ants With Popguns.--I highly recommend "Scanners Live In Vain" by Cordwainer Smith, a short story.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners_Live_in_Vain--And "The Stars My Destination" by Alfed Bester, a novel.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."Robert Anson Heinlein 1907 - 1988Best RegardsClear Ether

author: ftransform
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 05:58:11 am
content: you really should check out the forever war its the closest thing I have read to starship troopers but it offers a way different viewpoint, way more 70's.Orbital bombardment, time dilation & power armor are all included.

author: HackedFridgeMagnet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 06:23:32 am
content: Iain M Banks, has written some great books.very hard to get started but worth the struggle though.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 07:22:33 am
content: John Brunner. Especially "The Shockwave Rider" (the book that gave us biological terms applied to computer programs, like "virus" and "worm.")Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."Simak's "Way Station"Niven's "Protector." Other Niven as well; by himself Niven does a great job of extrapolating possible effects of technology. With Pournelle, he's different but still good.James Hogan had a nice take on "aware" computers in "the Two Faces of Tomorrow", and Sawyer in his "WWW:Wake" series.For more modern authors, I like Lois Bujold (but she's a world builder, so you have to read several books before you realize how wonderfully things are put together.), Varley, Vinge (hmm. Both of them, actually. But Vernor is the "hard sf" writer), Walter Jon Williams, and Terry Pratchett...

author: WhyMe
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 10:16:06 am
content: In no special order my favs are:Brave New World by Aldous Huxley1984 by George OrwellDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. DickHeechee Saga by Frederik Pohl (love this series!)The Mote In God’s Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle (love this too!)Starship Troopers by Robert HeinleinEnder’s Game by Orson Scott Card (a must read)HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas AdamsMake Room! Make Room! by Harry HarrisonThe Chronicles of Amber by Roger ZelaznyI Am Legend by Richard MathesonFlowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 10:31:51 am
content: Ok Sci-Fi people time to test your cognitive interpolation skillz!To what extent do you see your favorite writer's work becoming a reality? Give percentage and concrete examples.How do you imagine the future in the next 10 50 100 500 1000 years?You didn't read all this stuff just for entertainment right? You must have plans made for the future. You are technologists. Everybody on this forum is a technologist. Let us have an expert opinion.P.S: It is amazing that Herbert and Lem are not mentioned yet. Are people afraid of being too mainstream?P.P.S: Heinlein's Starship Troopers is the only work I have disliked so far. Too much island hopping invasion monkey to my taste. Not very relevant to the genre really.

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 10:32:22 am
content: Honor Harrington series by David WeberSolaris by Stanislaw LemStarfire series by David Weber and Steve White

author: bullet308
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 11:38:10 am
content: Heinlein is very much a mixed bag. You have your younger pseudo-fascisti militaristic Heinlein, and then you have your older, mushroom-laced weed-smoking hippy-esque Heinlein. Both had their strengths and weaknesses. Both could be enormously entertaining and/or frustrating.I tried reading Lem, but I don't think I was reading a very good translation from Polish to English.

author: HackedFridgeMagnet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 11:48:58 am
content: QuoteActually I think it was just for entertainment. But Iian M Banks and the 'Culture' struck me as more plausible than any other look forward scenarios.Oh.. that is apart from self inflicted extinction by the human race.http://io9.com/354739/welcome-to-the-culture-the-galactic-civilization-that-iain-m-banks-built

author: ciccio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 12:25:48 pm
content: Well, it is a deep question: my list could be too long, but Walter M. Miller Jr' "A Canticle for Leibowitz" is one of my favorites, and it is the SF book that any engineer should read: thre are blueprints, inside the story....Best regards

author: jsoderquist
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 01:23:18 pm
content: Enders Game -CardOld Man's Army -ScalziAlso, most Andre Norton novels.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 02:23:31 pm
content: Never red Leibowitz before but the audiobook seems to be the best audiobook recording I've seen to date!Thanks cicciohttp://www.archive.org/download/http://archive.org/details/ACanticleForLiebowitz

author: Kremmen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 06:13:07 pm
content: Probably read nearly the whole production of almost all of those mentioned up to this point, and more. Can't be many missing. Got to check Miller, haven't read him yet.Others i like, in no particular order:Frank Herbert: the Dune seriesMany titles by Stephen Baxter (but not all of them)William Gibson: Neuromancer and othersHarry Turtledove: NoninterferenceVernor Vinge: A Fire upon the DeepMike Resnick: Second ContactDavid Zindel: NevernessDavid Brin: The Uplift WarJohn Mc Loughlin: The Helix and the SwordWhile maybe not strictly science fiction, but close:Charles Stross: the Laundry series (Stross does good scifi too)Neal Stephenson: Anathem (and of course his great "Baroque Cycle" trilogy - Confusion; Quicksilver; the System of the World. Not scifi but in that spirit and well worth reading).Hands down favorite: Iain M. Banks. The depth of his Culture makes many others look almost infantile. I have read every scifi book of his with full satisfaction, and now bliss: just TODAY mail brought his newest "The Hydrogen Sonata" from Amazon.And let's not forget Terry Pratchett and the Discworld (TM) series. While good harmless fun, those books were written by a sharp mind.

author: Neilm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 09:06:17 pm
content: I was recently introduced to EE Doc Smiths Lensman series. Took me a while to realise that the computers that keep getting talked about in the space ships and star bases are men with adding up machines.Neil

author: HackedFridgeMagnet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 10:19:29 pm
content: How could we not mention the late <maybe not> great L Ron Hubbard and his Battlefield Earth decology.I must admit I read three of them, and really enjoyed the antics of his antihero.

author: GK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 12:40:25 am
content: So when do we get an E-meter teardown?I'm going to be a party-pooper and pick a fight. Fiction writing is crap. Life is too short to vegetate in a fantasy land, and I cringe at the way Arthur C Clarke is some kind of prophet for “non-believers”.So there!

author: perfect_disturbance
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 12:45:42 am
content: Quote from: GK on October 23, 2012, 12:40:25 am(Said in my best grumpy old man voice) And I don't like candy or birthdays or Christmas either(end old man voice)Sheesh somebody didn't have a happy childhood.

author: GK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 12:48:22 am
content: They forced me to readDay of the Triffidsin primary school. It was torture! I never recovered.

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 02:20:34 am
content: Read Dianetics. Then read Ellis' article on REBT. Dianetics came out in 1950; Ellis was published in 1956. Both are based on Jung, who rejected Abreaction because he said, basically, it was unreliable because the subject may invent details. But if those details were "real" or "invented" they still represent reality to the subject, so to the subject those "imaginary" details are just as real and, therefore, still influence behavior, emotion, and thinking.Get past the 50's racism and the bullshit about thetans and diabetes being character faults; focus just on the science and you can see Dianetics predates, and is, modern cognitive therapy made understandable for the lay person. Whatever you think of Hubbard, he was a communicator.