32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list • Hacker News Board

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#11

Post by marcus » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 4:35 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #4

Interesting list. Timeline by Michael Crichton is only worth reading because of how it portrays history. As sci-fi or entertainment it’s horrible and it basicly assumes everyone is an stupid but it does show history far more accurately than most books.

The entire Timeline plot is a bit pathetic, your company builds a time machine and what does it do with it? Go back to the 1960s and buy Berkshire Hathaway stock? Of course not where is the money in that...

They go and study the 14th century using the time machine so they can build an accurate historical theme park.

Fail

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#12

Post by huhtenberg » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 4:40 PM UTC

With all due respect, and it's a great novel, Animal Farm is not a science fiction.

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#13

Post by LogicHoleFlaw » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 4:41 PM UTC

vaksel wrote: post #8

most of those got turned into movies. Speaking of which, I'd love to see Ender's game movie but it'll probably suck since it'll be a bunch of new young actors

An Ender's Game movie is in pre-production now actually. Apparently it finally happened because Orson Scott Card got a deal which included the level of creative control he required.

A lot of films never make it past pre-production so whether this film is actually finished is yet to be seen.

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#14

Post by xlnt » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 4:48 PM UTC

huhtenberg wrote: post #12

With all due respect, and it's a great novel, Animal Farm is not a science fiction.

Neither is Atlas Shrugged.

anyway, who wants to add 32 books to their reading list all at once? it's more useful to know which are the best 3.

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#15

Post by byrneseyeview » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 5:00 PM UTC

In other words: 32 science fiction books by someone who has read most of the bestsellers in the last few years, and a few classics. Or is there some other reason that Accelerando and Spook Country are on the same list as PKD?

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#16

Post by omouse » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 5:16 PM UTC

byrneseyeview wrote: post #15

In other words: 32 science fiction books by someone who has read most of the bestsellers in the last few years, and a few classics. Or is there some other reason that Accelerando and Spook Country are on the same list as PKD?

Yeah, I haven't read Spook Country but I did read Pattern Recognition...I don't like the direction Gibson's going in. Idoru and the Bridge series or whatever it was called was cool.

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#17

Post by kungfooey » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 5:31 PM UTC

Snow Crash is awesome. I finished it and "The Diamond Age" last week and I can vouch for them as a worthy read.

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#18

Post by sah » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 5:38 PM UTC

chuchurocka wrote: post #2

Really, really glad to see that Down and out in the Magic Kingdom made the list!

If you liked Down and Out, you should try John Varley's short stories, especially The Phantom of Kansas.

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#19

Post by socalsamba » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 5:39 PM UTC

So why did Timeline make the list?

I was thinking about leaving it off because it is really, really bad for anyone who actually reads Sci-Fi. I put it on the list because despite the fact that it's almost completely unreadable because the Wal*Mart set needs their Sci-Fi too. I wanted the list to cover as broad a spectrum of sci-fi as I could without making it 100 items long.

I left off a lot of greats including:

Vernor Vinge Dan Simmons Arthur C Clarke Iain M. Banks

and other works by Stross and a few others

Why is Rand on this list? Well, besides the Bible (go figure) Atlas Shrugged is apparently the most influential book ever written. Do I agree with the whole Objectivist shtick? Not hardly but it is still worth mentioning.

The Giver? Like Anthem it's Sci-Fi for grade schoolers, worth mentioning because a lot of people were introduced to Sci-Fi with books like this.

Leave suggestions, as many as you want. If you don't see it on the list it probably would have been there if I had remembered it while I was compiling.

Re: 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list

#20

Post by hugh » Wed, Jul 02, 2008, 5:46 PM UTC

xlnt wrote: post #14

huhtenberg wrote: post #12

With all due respect, and it's a great novel, Animal Farm is not a science fiction.

Neither is Atlas Shrugged. anyway, who wants to add 32 books to their reading list all at once? it's more useful to know which are the best 3.

I think Atlas Shrugged might qualify -- it takes place in an alternative universe and deals with the implications of a couple of fictional technologies (Rearden metal and John Galt's engine). Animal Farm is really pushing the definition, though.

Since I'm sure everybody's idea of the best three will differ, a list of 32 with summaries so you can pick out the three (out of those which you haven't read) which are likely to appeal to you is probably more useful.