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Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?

#121

Post by 45ure »

spoiler wrote: post #109
45ure wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have only watched the show. In hindsight, I should have read the books. However, as the show hasn't been greenlit for further adaptations, I have been debating if I should just follow through with Persepolis Rising and the remaining books or start from scratch including all the novellas.

The Novellas are amazing! So, I definitely recommend them. I loved The Churn personally, because I really enjoyed finding out more about Amos. I'd recommend reading all the books anyway. They flow quit differently to the show, even if they are a faithful adaptation. So, I think you'll enjoy the experience even if you think you know what's coming.

You have convinced me. I don't think I can glean much more from re-watching the shows at this point. It is good to know that the books have some added dimensionality.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?

#122

Post by 45ure »

MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #117
45ure wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the rec, put it on my tbr. I have only read True Names by VV.

True Names is excellent! A Fire Upon the Deep is also one of my favourite sci fi novels.

Thanks, added to my list. The afterword by Minsky made True Names even more memorable.

This might be considered a spoiler: https://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/TrueNames.Afterword...

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?

#126

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

blululu wrote: post #31

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. It feels more relevant now than ever and there is now a direct Polish->English translation.

Lem is one of the most interesting sci fi authors. He is deep and philosophical, but can also be very funny. Solaris is definitely not one of the funny ones.

I also love both the film versions of Solaris. The Tartovsky one is the best IMHO but very long, but I also really like the more recebt Soderbergh one with George Clooney.

For funny, try The Cyberiad. A collection of short stories of two robot inventors who try to outcompete one another.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?

#127

Post by MilnerRoute »

I was just reading William Gibson's short-story collection, "Burning Chrome." The first story is "Johnny Mnemonic", and the last one (a story also titled "Burning Chrome") is supposed to be the very first use of the word cyberspace.

And there's also three stories he co-wrote with other authors -- Bruce Sterling, John Shirley, and Michael Swanick.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?

#128

Post by nnf »

I've read Sphere by Michael Crichton several times and always enjoy it. I particularly like the way things are seen by some characters and then another character brings an alternate perspective that changes the reader's perception.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?

#129

Post by shoo »

thriftwy wrote: post #94
scruple wrote: post #79

Blindsight by Peter Watts. Canticle for Leibowitz by Henry Miller. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Blindsight is possibly my favorite book of all time. It stayed with me for a very long time and sincerely changed the way I view the world.

I'm highly confused by the popularity of Blindsight, but don't want to make a big deal of it. Instead, I will point out that "The Mote in God's Eye" has a quite similar setting and is overall one of the best S-F books.

On the one hand, there is similarity in that both "The Mote in God's Eye" and "Blindsight" are first-contact-with-aliens scenarios. On another hand, Niven & Pournelle's story is painted atop the background of interstellar human civilization, with colonies and wars and FTL drives and shields, while humanity in Watts' universe is firmly stuck on Earth with sublight travel in our local solar system -- with the quirk that humanity evolved alongside a near-human predator species, although one that can be harnessed toward corporate or organisational goals using modern science.

On the gripping-hand, the two books have rather different perspectives on how first-contact might go:

Niven & Pournelle's alien species and society is alien, but somewhat recognisable and relatable from a human perspective. Both species figure out how to communicate. The threat posed to humanity by the aliens is perhaps not so dissimilar to the threat humanity might pose to other species (c.f. Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar).

Watts' book explores intelligence, communication, sentience. Earth's first-contact team aren't all human. Many of the human specialists are far from neurotypical -- there's already considerable difficulty in them even being able to understand or emphasise with each other, even before introducing aliens. Blindsight takes a bunch of familiar assumptions underpinning how first-contact could play out, and challenges them, and asks what might happen if those assumptions were not true.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?

#130

Post by em-bee »

my favorite so far is The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series by Nathan Lowell.

but the best thing i have done to get good book recommendations is to join a scifi book club where we pick a new title every month.

here is what we read until now:

    Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary
    William Gibson: Neuromancer
    Theodore Sturgeon: More Than Human
    Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice
    Chen Qiufan and Kai-Fu Lee: AI 2041
    David Wellington: The Last Astronaut
    Nathan Lowell: Quarter Share
    Becky Chambers: A Psalm for the Wild-Built
    Octavia E Butler: Parable of the Talents
    John Scalzi: Kaiju Preservation Society
    David Brin: Kiln People
    Emma Straub: This Time Tomorrow
    Ursula K Le Guin: Left Hand of Darkness
    Dennis E Taylor: We are Legion
    Emily St John Mandel: Sea of Tranquility
    William Gibson: The Peripheral
    Dan Simmons: Hyperion
    Elisabet Moon: The Speed of Dark
    Alastair Reynolds: Eversion
    Adrian Tchaikovsky: Children Of Time
    Andromeda Romano-Lax: Plumb Rains
everyone of these was selected by popular vote from a handful of nominations, which means each is endorsed by half a dozen or a dozen people.

unfortunately i had to move and am no longer part of that club, and getting updates on their current selections is difficult.

anyone know of a similar club running online? (telegram, matrix or a forum maybe)

or is there interest in forming a club?

we could have a monthly HN post with recommendations, making selections by upvotes/downvotes, and a jitsi meetup to discuss the book afterwards.

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