Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

here are mine, in no order, and subject to frequent change:

Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - James Tiptree Jr.
The Man in the Maze - Robert Silverberg
The Rediscovery of Man (collected stories) - Cordwainer Smith

These are subject to change, because I think if I read Dark Intelligence again it'll go to number 1. Something about that book appealed to every sci-fi loving bone in my body.

1. tie: Redshirts and Revelation Space
2. Dark Intelligence
3. Blindsight
4. The Martian
5. Robopocalypse

This was really, really, really, hard for me to pick; and I suspect my list would be different tomorrow - but this is my list as of today:

Native Tongue
The Sparrow
An Exchange of Hostages
The Time Traveler's Wife
Station Eleven

An Exchange of Hostages! oh man, I gave that book away unread a couple years back after holding on to it for years. I read the back cover and it just sounded like wall-to-wall torture, so I let it go. damn!

This is why I love lists like this. I get to see so many great reads that I've never heard of. I'm looking for An Exchange of Hostages at the library.

Here is my top five.
1) The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
2) The Windup Girl
3) The Caves of Steel
4) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
5) Ringworld

mark wrote: "An Exchange of Hostages! oh man, I gave that book away unread a couple years back after holding on to it for years. I read the back cover and it just sounded like wall-to-wall torture..."

It is very, very, very dark! Think of Miles Vorkosigan at his lowest point (perhaps in Memory) and then make it ten times worse.

I usually have no problem with dark but I remember my rationale at the time was Why would I want to read so many scenes of torture. sigh. weak!

Mickey wrote: "Here is my top five.
1) The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
2) The Windup Girl
3) The Caves of Steel
4) [book:The Moon is a Harsh M..."

The Diamond Age is an amazing work. Now I think I have to restructure my Top 5. ughh.

My top five as for now, in no particular order:
Dune by Frank Herbert
Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge
The Chanur Saga by C J Cherryh
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

There should also be a Le Guin book there (either The Left Hand of Darkness or The Dispossessed) but I read them a long time ago and should reread soon.

I need to reread Dune to put it on the list. Here are the top 5 of what I read as an adult, in no particular order.

Hyperion
A Deepness in the Sky
Blindsight
The Stars My Destination
The Player of Games

I completely forgot Hyperion. Now I have to redo the list.

Me too, Hyperion definitely should be there :)

mark wrote: "I usually have no problem with dark but I remember my rationale at the time was Why would I want to read so many scenes of torture. sigh. weak!"

Something else that vaguely falls into this category (although fantasy) is Carol Berg's Transformation. Have you ever read anything by her?

The Plague Dogs, Richard Adams
Songmaster, Orson Scott Card
The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri Tepper
Marune: Alastor 933, Jack Vance
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny

Though if we include story collections, Walter Miller would probably be in there.

On torture - I don't have a great problem reading about it, so long as it's not glorified. For example, I gave up on the show 24 after two seasons, because (in addition to being repetitive) it quickly became went from 'torture out of desperation' to 'torture solves all problems'. Even graphic torture can contribute to a story if it has purpose. (I myself have written a graphic torture story, but it's really about brotherly love).

In other words, I don't mind the prose so much as the political overtones of torture.

Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
Polaris by Jack McDevitt
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Coming of the Quantum Cats by Frederik Pohl

Scott wrote: "Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
Polaris by Jack McDevitt
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
..."

Dragonflight is sci-fi? I thought it was fantasy, but then again I've never read it.

I got to a certain point and couldnt narrow it down anymore....here is my top 8....If I really had to do it, Id probably take out Bear and Atwood just because these works are considered speculative rather than sci-fi, but since I dont agree with the distinction I am leaving them in!

Mieville...The Scar
Bear.......All the Windwracked Stars
Atwood.....Oryx and Crake
Stephenson..Zodiac
Dick........Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 3
Vinge.......A Deepness in the Sky
SImmons.....Hyperion
Bacigolupi...The Windup Girl


and like Metamorphis, if we include short stories, Id have to add Ted CHiang...Stories of Your Life and Others

@Maggie, @Teanka, @Packi
I'm always surprised when folks include Vinge. I read the first two books (Fire Upon the Deep, Deepness in the Sky) and found them adequate but in no way surprising. What is it that makes these books stand out for you?

A matter of taste I guess. I wrote a small review on A Deepness in the Sky. It’s not that he does something sensational. His stories simply are very well thought out and pull me in for the ride.

Jonathan wrote: "Dragonflight is sci-fi? I thought it was fantasy, but then again I've never read it."

Yes, it is SF, although it "feels" like fantasy because it is on a low-tech world with dragons. But the planet was colonized by humans and the creatures are bred to be as they are. More obvious SF aspects creep back into the stories in later books.

Near impossible to keep it to five:

Hyperion
The Forever War
I, Robot
The Time Ships
Non-Stop
The Reality Dysfunction - all three books
Revelation Space
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Red Mars- The entire trilogy

There are so many more that I can list.

I liked Revelation Space a lot. Still have to read the second novel.

Metaphorosis wrote: "@Maggie, @Teanka, @Packi
I'm always surprised when folks include Vinge. I read the first two books (Fire Upon the Deep, Deepness in the Sky) and found them adequate but in no way surprising. What i..."

A matter of taste, as Packi wrote I guess. I prefer epic books, and these 2 Vinge novels were certainly that, with a lot of characters and interesting aliens. Same applies to Peter Hamilton's novels, I almost included him on the list. And if I may ask, why did you add Card's Songmaster? I enjoyed it to a certain point, but to me it felt like an unfinished sketch of a book the author was in too much a hurry to flesh out. It should have been twice as long and told a complete story (it happened to some of Card's book IMO as he wrote too many in too short a time). A missed opportunity for me.

By the way, China Miéville never wrote a SF novel and The Scar is certainly a fantasy ('New weird').
Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss is also one of my favourites.
I also liked Revelation Space a lot once I passed initial one hundred pages or so. A very good book.

I'm intrigued by All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear and Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle, I have tried fantasy books by these authors and didn't like them much but might try their sci fi novels .

Frank wrote: "Near impossible to keep it to five:

Hyperion
The Forever War
I, Robot
The Time Ships
Non-Stop
The Reality Dysfunction..."

Another Alastair Reynolds fan. The Revelation Space universe he created is my fav of all time in regards to created universes.

I could easily fill this up with PKD books:

Ubik
A Scanner Darkly
A Maze of Death
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

But ignoring my devotion to his works (and in no particular order):

Hyperion
Dune
The Forge of God
Slaughterhouse-Five
Revelation Space

Not so sure about that last one. I've only read it once and need to revisit it. It's important to me as it was the first new space opera I had read and it opened my eyes to many of the great UK SF authors of recent years.

There are other contenders, too...but like Revelation Space, I'd need to revisit them. I could also have easily added some more Vonnegut (Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan).

Wow. Only 5, eh? That's really hard. Top 4 would be...

Stranger in a Strange Land
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Downbelow Station
Burning Chrome (short fiction anthology containing Johnny Mnemonic and The Winter Market)

My final selection would vary from day to day, but would probably be one of...
Bellwether
Red Mars
The Speed of Dark
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Shelter
Phases of Gravity

Oops, looks like TopTen. Better stop there.

Teanka wrote: "And if I may ask, why did you add Card's Songmaster?"

I first read this years back, in a brand-new Futura edition that was missing 23 pages right out of the middle. Incredibly frustrating, but it may have helped the book make its mark on me. (view spoiler)[I haven't read it for a while, but I remember that the scene where the boy is called on to do the assassination was very effective (and I liked the whole story). (hide spoiler)] Essentially, I think Card (politics aside) is an exceptional writer. I initially chose Capitol, but that's more a collection of stories.

Bellwether was definitely in contention for a spot on my list!

Teanka wrote: "Me too, Hyperion definitely should be there :)"

Hyperion would definitely be in my top 10, as well as Dune and Vinge's Fire and Deepness. possibly Bear's Eon as well.

Metaphorosis wrote: "(I myself have written a graphic torture story, but it's really about brotherly love)...."

same here! it got me into a high-level writing class. it pleased the professor but disturbed my classmates.

Alexa wrote: "Something else that vaguely falls into this category (although fantasy) is Carol Berg's Transformation. Have you ever read anything by her? ..."

I have not, but that book has been on my list for a while now. perhaps I should move it up a few notches.

Teanka wrote: "Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss is also one of my favourites..."

I just received this book in the mail! looks great.

OK. I'll play.

My top five based on today's whimsy:
Dune by Frank Herbert
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

@Clyde
Good choices! I've never heard of Kingsbury. I'll see if I can turn him up.

A lot of people are picking Dune, and I'm fully on board with Frank Herbert. I almost put him on my list, but I think I'd go with The Dosadi Experiment or The Jesus Incident (even though they're neither of them the first book in their sequence).

Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Snow Crash
Wild Cards
Robots of Dawn
A Scanner Darkly
Flowers for Algernon

The vagaries of taste continue to amaze me!

Metaphorosis wrote: "@Clyde
Good choices! I've never heard of Kingsbury. I'll see if I can turn him up."

Courtship Rite was nominated for the Hugo back in 1982. It is a powerful story. Some people find some of the themes in it disturbing.
Unfortunately, Donald Kingsbury has not been not a prolific writer. He spent most of his life as a professor of mathematics.

My top 10 could easily be drawn from the SF Masterworks (aka the "Compleat PKD") series:
1. Dune
2. The Dispossessed/The Left Hand of Darkness
3. Stand on Zanzibar
4. The Man in the High Castle or UBIK (or simply: PKD)
5. Babel-17
6. Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion
7. Forever War

Sorry, couldn't restrict myself to only 5 :)

Alexa wrote: "The vagaries of taste continue to amaze me!"

I'm so pleased you suggested this thread. it has been fascinating to read.

Andreas wrote: "4. The Man in the High Castle or UBIK (or simply: PKD) ..."

I think I felt similarly. I landed on Don't Androids Dream but really I could have put any number of PKD in my top 5.

I just realized I didn't put Jack Vance in my top 5. a sad surprise! especially because he is, overall, my favorite science fiction writer. I also could have put any number of Vance books on my list and would probably just pick the one that leapt out to me at the moment.

Completely impossible but here's 5 favourites across the decades
The time machine - HG Wells
World of Null A - AE Van Voght
Isle of the Dead - Roger Zelazny
Use of Weapons - Ian M Banks
Illium - Dan Simmons

Lot easier to pick truly terrible novels that some think are masterpieces eg
'Maze of Death' or anything by Ursula K Leguin

Bill wrote: "truly terrible novels that some think are masterpieces eg...anything by Ursula K Leguin "

Them's fightin' words.

Bill wrote: "Lot easier to pick truly terrible novels that some think are masterpieces eg 'Maze of Death'.."

not just Le Guin but even Dick doesn't escape Bill's definition of terrible! that's another one of my favorite PKD novels.

This is a really interesting thread. Here's my suggestion, in no order, and maybe I'll be back with five others:

The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein
Sailing To Byzantium by Robert Silverberg
Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick

It would also be interesting with a list of Top Five Short Works of Science Fiction (if that has not already been done), maybe here or in a new thread; I'll leave that decision to our Moderators and will wait to post my list.

mark wrote: "even Dick doesn't escape Bill's definition of terrible!"

Oh, I'm with him on that. :-;

@Jaro - Short works. Good idea. I've got two already...

I didn't say all PKD was bad, maybe 90 percent

Gee, only 90 percent terrible! Did you mean that to be as funny as it sounds from this end? Talk about damming with faint praise, "oh, he's only about 90% terrible."

Now, your opinion of Le Guin can't even put a smile on my face, just lots of pity for your poor pitiful view of the world - I would be a much poorer person without the insights on life I've gotten from Ursula K. Le Guin!