Best science fiction *genre* novel you've read?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Best sci-fi *genre* novel you've read?

Highlighting genre to exclude literature that is arguably sf in subject, as opposed to main-line genre science fiction. (CHILDREN OF MEN, THE ROAD, FRANKENSTEIN, CAT'S CRADLE, NOVA EXPRESS, etc.)

(Irony alert: Both Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and William S. Burroughs's Nova Express were nominated for the Hugo Award in 1964, yet I use them as examples of non science fiction. Hmmm... But you probably know what I mean.)

I don't have a personal answer here. Phillip K. Dick's UBIK is a book I cannot shake, but is riding on the edge of the genre line.

I would have said GATEWAY at one time, but the last time I read it, it wasn't aging so well. (A little emotionally over-wrought.)

Despite the lamentable political views of Messrs. Niven and Pournelle I have to admit that THE MOTE IN GODS EYE is an unusually perfect synthesis of the classic sci-fi tradition.

[provis99]

1. Starship Troopers

Heinlein's fantasy of turning the world into a fascist's dream in order to fight communistic bugs. Just knowing there are conservatives who take his wacky political sci-fi ideas seriously makes this a classic in the field.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

11. Having re-read STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE FOREVER WAR recently

I was struck by the superiority of Haldeman's revisionist take to the original. Both are excellent books in their way, of course.

Maybe because Haldeman is a real Vietnam combat vet while Heinlein was a militarist who had only served in peace-time.

Heinlein was my favorite author, bar none, as a child. He's one of the authors I have read every word of. But over time I've come to recognize that he was serious! It's not a gag. The theories spun out by the stock wise-old-man character in each of his books are offered as serious political/social theory. I have a soft spot for Goldwater-type paleo-conservatives, but there are limits.

The movie of Starship Troopers, on the other hand, is a gag and one of the greatest satirical pieces of our time.

[Ohio Joe]

28. I always preferred All My Sins Remembered

Don't get me wrong, Forever War is definitely a classic but I found the whole concept of the spy/assassin so far undercover that he is barely aware of who he really is to be awesome. And the ending... well, it completely blew me away the first time I read it. Haldeman has done a bunch of really great books though, one of my favorite authors.

[Paladin]

31. Believe Me, There Are Plenty Of Heinlein-Heads Here At DU

Just state that you liked the movie of "Starship Troopers" better than the book (as I have) and behold the spittle-flecked responses you get.

Hey, any movie that makes nazis into full "citizens," puts large-breasted women in charge of space ships, and features Doogie Howser as a torture specialist in an SS uniform, is more than worthwhile as far as I'm concerned. God bless Paul Verhoeven......

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

33. Yes, the movie is one of the great works of our time

Not only a great film, but provided a dynamite litmus test for critics. The people who denounced it as pro-fascist are among the dumbest people on Earth.

It's a wonderfully faithful literary translation while completely undoing the original work. Post-modernism at its best.

(The best way to refute RW types is to take them seriously.)

[Paladin]

35. Well Said. (n/t)

[Orrex]

36. That's all well and good, but...

Did they have to cast Casper van Dien and Michael Ironside in the film? I mean, come on!

[villager]

2. Dune? Stranger in a Strange Land? I dig Edgar Pangborn's stuff

--especially "Davy," but that's kind of an SF/fantasy hybrid, if yer rules are strict....

A friend gave me "Ubik" and it's in the "to be read" stack now...

[rhett o rick]

48. Dune is one of my favorites as is The Jesus Incident. nm

[MrModerate]

3. No question, IMM: John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_on_Zanzibar

[lapfog_1]

6. Shockwave Rider - same author

or Larry Niven's Ringworld.

[Nay]

8. And don't forget his "The Sheep Look Up"

[billyoc]

4. I was just thinking about an early Heinlein novel yesterday while browsing at the bookstore.

"Have Spacesuit, will travel". Considered a "juvenile" novel, I read it as a small boy, but somehow
never realized it was Heinlein until about 35 years later. :rofl:

I'll pick "Starship Troopers".

[pitohui]

25. my first sf novel in 2nd grade was have space suit, will travel

for that i will forgive heinlein much, evil old bastard that he was

this story was truly something that opened a child's sense of wonder

[Technowitch]

5. Hyperion - by Dan Simmons

In this case, I actually have to include both books - Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, because they comprise a duology. I pretty much pick up anything Simmons writes, because I know I'll love the way he crafts his narratives, and composes the turns of phrase that make me go, "oh my god, that was put beautifully."

But to go further back to my teenage days, I'd have to cast a vote also for Niven & Pournelle's "Mote in God's Eye". I know politically they're both kooks (and I've met Niven...), but the two of them together always seemed to put together enjoyable stories for me.

Or anything by Theodore Sturgeon.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

12. Cool. I'll try Simmons.

[arKansasJHawk]

37. What about ...

The Rise of Endymion? That being the third book, thus making it a trilogy ... did you forget to add it, or never read it, or read it and hate it and decide to believe only the other two exist (as many Star Wars fans have tried to excise the memory of the prequels?)

[MrCoffee]

46. The Cantos is extraordinary

[Hekate]

7. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. He uses mythological material superbly.

Good Omens, which he wrote with Terry Pratchett, is also superb.

I will read anything by Ursula LeGuin, but her works bridge all the genres, so she's probably not what you had in mind.

Hekate

[codjh9]

18. Yes - American Gods is my favorite Neil Gaiman so far. Fun stuff.

[arKansasJHawk]

39. American Gods

May be my favorite book ever. It's certainly in my top five. But, I wouldn't call it science fiction. Urban Fantasy or Slipsteam, if a label is needed. (I only just discovered that "slipstream" was even a sub-genre, and I realized a lot of what I really like fits that label.)

[EndersDame]

63. Have you read Anansi Boys?

This is a wonderful and touching book. Gaiman follows the progeny of Mr. Nancy from American Gods.
I love Gaiman and his ability to weave a story

[northsongs]

9. Rendevous with Rama

is one of my all time favorites. Arthur C. Clarke, soon to be a major motion picture by the way.

www.rendezvouswithrama.com/

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

10. I reccomend the two sequels, with a caveat

The second RAMA book is junk for the first half, but the second half of II and all of III are very deep and moving.

[joshcryer]

22. So true about the second book.

I cannot believe where half of that irrelevant stuff came from.

[fadedrose]

13. C. S. Lewis trilogy about "Ransom"

There was a point in my life many years ago when I was very depressed over a personal loss and I sought out books sort of spiritual in nature. I read C. S. Lewis' trilogy about a guy named Ransom who went to a couple of planets, Mars and Venus, I think. Can't remember the titles - but main idea was good trumps evil.

I'm not a religious or spiritual person now, and maybe wouldn't enjoy the books should I read them again, but I sure loved them back then. Ransom smoked, as did C. S. Lewis, and at the time, so did I, and that probably had something to do with my enjoyment of the books, which were definitely sci-fi.

[YankeyMCC]

14. This may be controversal

because I know there are clear failings in character development but I have to stand by "Caves of Steele" or the Robot novels as a whole followed very very closely by the Foundation novels.

The universe Asimov created is rich and adventurous and although Asimov does not have the style of other authors that do such a wonderful job of painting the scene or even develop depth of character(although I do think Asimov's characters are better done than many give him credit for) they still bring out the heart of human struggle and adventure. They are grand no and ultimately hopeful even when the situations and settings seem as if on the surface they should be dark and hopeless.

Other possibles:

"Absolution Gap" one of the Revelation Space novels by Alastair Reynolds might qualify.

"Learning the World" by Ken Macleod

It's very difficult for me to choose between Dan Simmon's two big genre works (Hyperion and Illium/Olympos) but I'm going to go with Illium/Olympos because of the characters and more 'human level' themes (I know that might seem ironic given the robots, apparent gods and fictional characters, but hey that's how I see it :) )

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

15. CAVES OF STEEL may lack characterization, but it is socially rich

I agree that it is a great book.

First, it is THE prototype of the modern buddy movie... it's eerie how familiar it is reading it today.

Second, it's kind of a unique universe, neither utopian or dystopian... just everyday. Asimov's extrapolation from 1950s Brooklyn is pretty interesting, with communal dining and bathing facilities and people being considered stand-offish if they eat in their apartments to often.

From today's perspective no one would believe New York City was ever so open and communal, but in the early 1950s nobody thought it extraordinary for children to ride the subway alone and there were public rest-rooms everywhere. So CAVES is a great example of "how the future was;" an extrapolation of a bygone past.

[YankeyMCC]

16. "socially rich" I like that

thanks for giving me a good way to describe what I think is so good about the story.

[Rancid Crabtree]

17. Alfie Bester

Maybe I misunderstood the distinction, if any, "to exclude literature that is arguably sf in subject..." But I really enjoyed Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, as well as his The Stars My Destination. I liked how he arranged the words on the page, me, and in one scene to simulate the characters having a kind of conversation in their minds, some other cool stuff he did, the idea of a "jaunt" and maybe Vonnegut used the same kind of thing in...Sirens of Titan?...character is able to do a beam-me-up-Scotty trick from one planet to another, or starship to another.

[codjh9]

19. I enjoyed some of the other Niven/Pournelle books more than "Mote", such as

Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. Another great 'first encounter' book was Gordon Dickson's 'Way of the Pilgrim'.

[pokerfan]

20. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller

Also:

Childhood's End by Clarke
The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov
Dune by Herbert
The Stars My Destination by Bester
Ringworld by Niven

[Rancid Crabtree]

26. Question about one of 'em

Miller's, Canticle for Leibowitz...don't know if I read it or not. Woulda been '85 if I did...took a sci-fi course...but one of 'em we read, and it might have been CfL had a kind of Lazarus figure, just some dude walking across the landscape over the course of time that the story followed, a long time, as I recall. Bester's work is some of my favorite, as well.

[pokerfan]

29. That sounds like it

That's from the first of three parts. In the 26th century, a monk named Brother Francis Gerard is on a vigil in the desert.

After a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge against the day the outside world is again ready for it.

[nemo137]

41. Man, I have not read that in forever.

I think you just provided me with my Thanksgiving break reading.

[pinto]

21. I, Robot.

[RebelOne]

23. Nothing beats "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury

[pitohui]

24. red mars by ksr, the algebraist by banks, the martian time-slip by dick

like you i'm not sure if dick was truly "genre" or if he got pushed in the genre ghetto by chance but the martian time-slip is the best description of life in suburbia in a small package you'll get (you can get equally good in a big non genre package from oates or delillo)

red mars and the algebraist, altho frankly genre, must be among the most powerful books i have ever read

the mote in god's eye, sorry, absolutely forgettable, in fact i've forgotten it, i robot while wonderful when i read it in 6th grade and still has great sf fundamentals is not so much emotionally and aesthetically moving as it is a basic grounding experience in "how to read science fiction" -- without knowing the 3rd laws, you are missing a playful lesson in logic, still it's more like doing a crossword puzzle than a great aesthetic experience

think about the mystery genre -- was agatha christie a great writer, no, read her today as an adult and she's crap, but read her as a lightweight puzzle and a playful lesson in the drawing room mystery and you have fun getting an education that will make you a better mystery reader in the future

does that make her "best?" no there are scads of better mystery writers today but it simply makes her essential

that is your error with the niven/heinlein type books -- they have a place in history but they are not well written and if we're honest, read for the first time as an adult they don't move you the way banks or robinson or dick can move you

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

27. I find Heinlein all but unreadable today

Mote was cited as a perfect summation of a genre, with the limitations that implies. One could list hundreds of better books in the genre, but not better expressions of the genre itself. Like the perfect western movie... most of the finest films that are westerns transcend the genre so the platonic ideal of 'western' would probably be far down the list of best films with cowboys.


Thanks for the recommendation of algebraist!

[Ezlivin]

30. "The Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis

"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

"The Outer Buoy" by Jan De Hartog

"Mr. Spaceman" by Robert Olen Butler

[Paladin]

32. "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank

Brilliant chronicle of survivors of a nuclear Holocaust, offering something unexpected---actual hope.

Don't you dare sneak a peek at the the last page and spoil the shocker ending for yourself.....

[azul]

34. Cordwainer Smith's Nostrilla and Underpeople

and all his stories fit in a timeline of mankind's projected future, so they are somewhat tied together like a novel.

And for the most imaginative and funny thing I've read is Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time stories.

[comrade snarky]

40. Smiths' stories fascinate me.

He imagined a future so rich with background and possibility. I read "Scanners Live in Vain" as a kid and it's stuck with me my whole life. Interesting guy too. He grew up around the world, was educated in Japan and China and spoke 5 or 6 languages. That fits with his stories, they have an Eastern mythic flavor to them.

For funny I have to go with anything by Terry Pratchett.

[arKansasJHawk]

38. I've got a few ...

In what may be a case of most recent, most favorite, I have to start with Peter F. Hamilton's "The Reality Dysfunction." It's a great whacking book, the first of a great whacking trilogy. It's a space opera that veers into supernatural horror in a way that's totally believable and scary and amazing. I've yet to read the other two books in the trilogy (they're a little hard to get hold of in the U.S. for some reason) but I will.

I also have to say Neil Stephenson's "Snow Crash," Peter Watts' "Blindsight" (another sci-fi book with a horror twist, this time a vampire who takes charge of the space exploration of a strange and potentially deadly alien phenomenon), and Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon."

[Onceuponalife]

42. my picks

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton (this book made me an instant PFH fan)
The entire Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke (blew my mind and made me cry)
The Galactic Empire novels of Isaac Asimov
Anything by Stephen Baxter

And, although it probably is non-genre, I love Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan and have read it multiple times.

[Orrex]

43. Rama

I've heard that the latter two books weren't that great, but I enjoyed the first one so much that I'd be pleased to hear otherwise. Do you find that they compared well to the original?

Part of why I ask is that another Clarke/Lee pairing produced what I would describe as the second worst book that I've read in my adult life. But if their collaboration worked better for Rama, I'd call it a pleasant surprise.

[Onceuponalife]

44. The last two are the best

The second book, saddled with the unimaginative title of Rama II, kind of sets up the last two, Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed. While the first book is rather technical and shows very little of the alien presence, the last two are quite astonishing and mind blowing. The "revelation" in the last novel of Rama's purpose is both beautiful and moving. Sadly, it appears that the Rama movie isn't going to be made after all.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

45. "Time and Again"

The implications of time travel and the depictions of 1880s New York are fully imagined, and the ending is stunning, as in "Did he just do what I think he did? Oh, my God, he did!"

I haven't really followed SF since I finished graduate school lo these many decades ago, but that book has stayed with me.

[shimmergal]

47. THE SUMMER QUEEN by Joan Vinge.

I think Connie Willis's THE DOOMSDAY BOOK would run a close second.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

53. Is she good? I'm a big fan of Vernor Vinge.

I'm kind of surprised nobody's brought up any of his work yet.

[Salviati]

55. I just did...

And although I'm post #54, I did it before I read your post... lol

[Mz Pip]

49. One of my favorites

is "City" by Clifford Simak, that won the International Fantasy Award. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_(Clifford_D._Simak_novel)

Another is "Way Station" which won a Hugo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_Station_(novel)

[SheilaT]

50. There are so many good science fiction books out there.

The one I use to lure those who think they couldn't possibly like s-f is TIME AFTER TIME by Jack Finney. The sequel, FROM TIME TO TIME is also excellent.

TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG by Connie Willis, sort of a follow-up to THE DOOMSDAY BOOK is likewise a good read.

Anything and everything by Robert Charles Wilson is phenomenal, especially an early and out of print book A BRIDGE OF YEARS is one I always suggest.

THE END OF ETERNITY by Isaac Asimov is one I reread periodically. I wish they'd make it into a movie.

REPLAY by Ken Grimwood
A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE by Harry Turtledove
anything and everything by Robert J. Sawyer
TIME ON MY HANDS by Peter Delacorte

[GaYellowDawg]

51. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

Great book. I have to pick it up at least once every five years and reread it. It's such a rich book that as I change, the reading changes.

[GaYellowDawg]

52. Shoot, just noticed pokerfan's post.

I'm glad someone else mentioned it. I was starting to wonder...

[Salviati]

54. A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge

If you haven't checked it out, go get it right away and read it. Also check out the other book in the same universe: A Fire Upon the Deep. It contains one of the most original ideas for an alien race I've read about.

[RebelOne]

56. Any book by Ray Bradbury is the best sci-fi in my opinion.

"The Martian Chronicles" is my favorite.

[JitterbugPerfume]

57. Philip K Dick--Ubik

Miller--A Canticle for Liebowitz

Herbert--Dune

Foundation -Azimov

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

58. Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. Lots of great suggestions here!

:hi:

[Habibi]

59. Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy.

[tigereye]

60. The Hyperion trilogy - I think about the characters and plots all the time

[LWolf]

64. I'll second that. nt

[MicaelS]

61. The Mote in God's Eye

THE best novel of First Contact ever written. To quote Heinlein, "Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." Too bad it took them so long to write a sequel, The Gripping Hand, and that it sucked as bad as it did. Pournelle's CoDominium / Empire of Man is one universe I would gladly move to if the opportunity was given me.

[EndersDame]

62. Do you expect me to pick only one?

Lets see just off the top of my head

Any Heinlein-especially Starshiip Troopers
Any Asimov
Contact-Carl Sagan
Pastwacth: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus- Orson Scott Card
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Enders Game, and the Bean Series - Orson Scott Card
I am enjoying the Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton but have not finished it yet
Would you consider The Watchmen and V for vendetta (both by Alan Moore) Sci Fi?
Also even though he is not specifically sci fi- I have to give a shout to Neil Gaiman -one of my favorite authors/story tellers

[EmeraldCityGrl]

65. Not sure if this book qualifies as SF,

but I picked up a used copy of "The Traveler" over the weekend at a used book store. I missed the PR hype when this book
was published three or four years ago. What a ride! I've been glued to the pages for the last two days.

I ordered "Dark River", the second book of the trilogy last night and hope it's as consuming as "The Traveler."

The author supposedly lives off the grid and to this day his identity is unknown.