Best sci-fi book

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Travis

Travis

Striker
Gone from only reading ‘real crime’ and thrillers to Science-fiction of late.

Daemon - Daniel Suarez (read all of his now)
Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch
Plus books by Ernest Cline and Patrick Lee

Am I missing anything in this genre? Loved Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury when I was young but thought Sci-fi had gone a bit too geeky but there are some brilliantly written, innovative books out there.
 


Travis said:
Gone from only reading ‘real crime’ and thrillers to Science-fiction of late.

Daemon - Daniel Suarez (read all of his now)
Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch
Plus books by Ernest Cline and Patrick Lee

Am I missing anything in this genre? Loved Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury when I was young but thought Sci-fi had gone a bit too geeky but there are some brilliantly written, innovative books out there.
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Dune is top notch, get it read.
 
Pop said:
Dune is top notch, get it read.
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series fluctuates massively in quality - then takes a nosedive with the Brian Herbert / Kevin J Anderson books

Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton is really good (but meaty, 3 giant paperbacks)

but heres one to avoid - Kevin J Anderson (again) and his Saga of the Seven Suns, starts poorly and gets worse from there
 
Travis said:
Gone from only reading ‘real crime’ and thrillers to Science-fiction of late.

Daemon - Daniel Suarez (read all of his now)
Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch
Plus books by Ernest Cline and Patrick Lee

Am I missing anything in this genre? Loved Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury when I was young but thought Sci-fi had gone a bit too geeky but there are some brilliantly written, innovative books out there.
Click to expand...

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is probably my favourite sci-fi novel. I've never been massively into the literary side of the genre, but those people I've known that have been heavily into it have always raved about the Iain Banks Culture novels...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_Culture_novels

I tried one of them a fair few years back but they were a bit too hardcore sci-fi for me at the time.
 
William Gibson

Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Virtual Light
All Tomorrow's Parties

Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash
Anathem
The Diamond Age
The Baroque Cycle (although this is a cross between sci fi and a historical epic)
Cryptonomicon

Philip K Dick
A Scanner Darkly
Ubik
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Martian Time-Slip

Richard Morgan
Altered Carbon

Stanislav Lem
Solaris


Ursula Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed

Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles
Fahrenheit 451
The Illustrated Man

Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination (aka Tiger Tiger)
The Demolished Man

Kurt Vonnegut
The Sirens of Titan
Slaughterhouse 5

JG Ballard
High-Rise

Douglas Adams
The four book Hitchhiker Trilogy
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul

CJ Cherryh
Downbelow Station

Doris Lessing
Shikasta
 
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If you liked Ernest Cline you'll love Redshirts by John Scalzi.
 
Jack Mcdevitt (sp) Engines of God is the first one of 6 books. There are recurring themes as you would expect with any author, but f***ing hell what a series.

Cockney Mackem said:
William Gibson

Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Virtual Light
All Tomorrow's Parties

Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash
Anathem
The Diamond Age
The Baroque Cycle (although this is a cross between sci fi and a historical epic)
Cryptonomicon

Philip K Dick
A Scanner Darkly
Ubik
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Martian Time-Slip

Richard Morgan
Altered Carbon

Stanislav Lem
Solaris


Ursula Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed

Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles
Fahrenheit 451
The Illustrated Man

Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination (aka Tiger Tiger)
The Demolished Man

Kurt Vonnegut
The Sirens of Titan
Slaughterhouse 5

JG Ballard
High-Rise

Douglas Adams
The four book Hitchhiker Trilogy
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul

CJ Cherryh
Downbelow Station

Doris Lessing
Shikasta
Click to expand...

Will be hunting some of them, cheers. Not a fan of some of the authors at all, but you pointed me at Joe Abercrombie so I'm in.
 
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The End of Eternity - Isaac Asimov

Then read all of the Foundation, Empire and Robot books in the order recommended when he wrote the novels linking them together. It'll take years but you'll appreciate where about 60% of all the science fiction tv and film you ever saw came from.
 
Sir Lancelot said:
Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series is a good series. But don’t bother with the ones her son wrote by himself as they are not a patch on his mam’s.

Here’s a link to the publication and reading order for the series.

https://www.orderofbooks.com/characters/dragonriders-of-pern/

Here’s another series worth reading. Temeraire.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RI9DD8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
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have the first 3 temeraire books - excellent but in no way should they be described as sci-fi
 
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