Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan is one of my favorite books of all time, and if you like it there are 2 more in the series.
Very smart, noir sci-fi with a lot of heady concept play -- some consider it to be genre-defining.
What are your favourite sci-fi books?
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Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#102You realize not a single person has mentioned a female author? Let's fix that: The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis Among Others by Jo Walton Feed by Mira Grant The Hunger Games! The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin Grass by Sheri S Tepper Gate of Ivrael and Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh And the fabulous space opera: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Octavia Butler wrote some amazing stuff too.
So I'm told, although I haven't read any. I understand that quite a lot of it's pretty grim, so I need to be in the mood for it.
There's a reason most of the things listed here are basically adventure stories...
Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#103I'm currently working my way through Stephen Baxter's Manifold trilogy. His writing is incredibly insightful and psychedelic. I'd also suggest the Time Ships (only authorized Time Machine sequel) and anything from the Xeelee universe. Maybe start with Vacuum Diagrams?
David Brin's Uplift series is brilliantly written, and personifies non-human characters wonderfully.
Heinlein has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, and his writing always makes me giddy.
Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#104I have strong opinions about this. My criteria for a book being science fiction and not fantasy is that is must be based on scientific thinking. The author must have done some work to determine whether whats happening in his book is at least plausible according to real science, and then work out the details of how it would actually function. So I regard most "science fiction" books and almost all "science fiction" fi…
When I read your comment I'm strongly reminded of myself ten years ago. I held almost exactly the same view on hard scifi, and was similarly obsessed with Arthur C Clarke. But I've since loosened my definition of scifi for a couple of reasons: a) I now think of scifi as any work intended to do more than tell a story or explore a world. Focussing on just hard scifi causes great works of social and sociology fiction li…
Oh, I love some good world-building, and especially when there is a set of rules that's followed to their consequences. [Ayuc sums it up nicely in this comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9056594 ]
If you look at it this way, it CAN be done in fantasy. Check out Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker (a great one-off), or the Mistborn series. (There are quite a few similarities between them.)
Or Max Brooks' World War Z was great in this way, I think. Although it's been quite a while since I read that.
(I know this is an older thread, so I hope you'll find this comment. Made a HN account for this. :D )
Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#105A couple books that I'd recommend for their attention to biology and genetics as the scientific driver:
Julie Czerneda's Species Imperative Trilogy: Survival, Migration, and Regeneration.
Maragaret Atwood, anything, but recently the MaddAddam trilogy: Oryx and Crake, Year of the Flood, and Maddaddam.
Nancy Kress' Sleepless series: Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride.
Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#106I have strong opinions about this. My criteria for a book being science fiction and not fantasy is that is must be based on scientific thinking. The author must have done some work to determine whether whats happening in his book is at least plausible according to real science, and then work out the details of how it would actually function. So I regard most "science fiction" books and almost all "science fiction" fi…
Your opinion is very good. The "and then something magic happens" solution in fantasy is what really turns me off. But in SF it is sometimes hard to distinct magic from plausible albeit far fetched science. Is FTL possible given the science of tomorrow, or magic? If you want to have (imho) really, really good SF, chec out Ted Chiang. Very low production, but he takes science in SF very seriosly. His collection of sho…
You might like to check out Brandon Sanderson's work (if you haven't yet). It's all fantasy, but it tends to avoid the "and then something magic happens" problem.
I'd interpret the thing you dislike about fantasy as a violation of Sanderson's first law: "The author's ability to resolve conflicts in a satisfying way with magic is directly proportional to how the reader understands said magic."
http://stormlightarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Sanderson%27s_Laws_o...
Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#107What about Lois McMaster Bujold ?
4 Hugo Award gota count for something !
The Vorkosigan serie is space opera so not hard scifi but it's damn good.
Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#108Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon.
Last and First Men is incredible and one of my favourites. Also because of it's unprecedented time scale.
Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#109Kim Stanley Robinson's "2312" carries on from the Mars Trilogy.
Stephenson's "REAMDE", "The Diamond Age", "Cryptonomicon" and "Snow Crash"
Does alternate history count her? If so, Robinson's "The Years of Rice and Salt" is great
Re: What are your favourite sci-fi books?
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your opinion is very good. The "and then something magic happens" solution in fantasy is what really turns me off. But in SF it is sometimes hard to distinct magic from plausible albeit far fetched science. Is FTL possible given the science of tomorrow, or magic? If you want to have (imho) really, really good SF, chec out Ted Chiang. Very low production, but he takes science in SF very seriosly. His collection of sho…
You might like to check out Brandon Sanderson's work (if you haven't yet). It's all fantasy, but it tends to avoid the "and then something magic happens" problem. I'd interpret the thing you dislike about fantasy as a violation of Sanderson's first law: "The author's ability to resolve conflicts in a satisfying way with magic is directly proportional to how the reader understands said magic." http://stormlightarchive…
Sanderson's law is what I feel. Thanks for pointing it out.
I really enjoyed Karl Schroeders Ventus where the population saw technology as magic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventus
Nuttails Suffiently Advanced Technology is also a good example: http://www.amazon.com/Sufficiently-Advanced-Technology-Inver...