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The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)

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Re: The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)

#281

Post by mentat »

mindcrime wrote: post #271
Alex3917 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"either convergent evolution, or things that just flat out come from different sources" I more or less agree with this. At the same time, when you look at Japan everything just looks better -- even though it isn't. So while I think much of it is convergent evolution or things that come from different sources, just having Japan being the way it is vaguely over there seems to be giving US leaders more self confidence t…

Part of it also though is that Japan has a history of taking ideas from other cultures and then perfecting them. As one example, a lot of the "japanese management techniques" stuff can trace its roots back to an American, W. Edwards Deming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's later reputation for innovative high-quality products and its economic power. He i…

It doesn't necessarily matter what the culture of the person who had the idea is. It matters who has the courage to do it. Execution trumps idea.

Re: The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)

#282

Post by mentat »

kisielk wrote: post #265
amalcon wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always maintained that there are two types of science fiction. There's the "Star Trek" kind that does social commentary, and tries to get the audience to think about something directly by sidestepping the trappings of modern society. Then, there's the "Star Wars" kind that is basically a far-reaching exercise in world building that only has a plot so that you're not reading a technical description. Stranger in a…

I wouldn't stick Dune solely in the second category. It has a great deal of social commentary, and touches on a number of environmental and ethical issues. Herbert simply went to great lengths to create an extremely detailed world in which to present these ideas. I think Stephenson's Anathem is a better example of the second category. It's almost purely world-building escapist fiction. There's not any obvious message…

I'm a bit shocked at your statement that there's no message in Anathem. The message I got out of it is to question my assumptions about the flow of history, most specifically about things that "everyone knows are true". For instance, why doesn't everyone know that you have to plan projects in certain ways if you expect them to get done at a certain time? Well, in part because the idea of getting done at a certain time is new to this half century (which is a small amount of time in history) and because the idea of project planning is about as young. Even now those ideas are getting disrupted too by other things that everyone's suppose to know are true.

Basically Anathem introduced me to the historical progression of ideas and the constant forgetfulness of that process as its practiced by at least Western society. You can make the argument that academics know that this isn't the case, but I'm not sure that they're not caught up in the same progressive forgetfulness as the "common person".

Re: The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)

#283

Post by mentat »

sid0 wrote: post #162
jtbigwoo wrote: post #25

I was pleasantly surprised to see two Neal Stephenson books on the list, but why did the second have to be Anathem? I thought Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle were much better books. Anathem's plot seemed like book-nerd wish fulfillment. Of course I still read all thousand pages of Anathem in, like, four days. :)

Anathem is fundamentally about the philosophy of mathematics. To someone like me who's actually interested in it, it was amazing.

Funny thing, I thought it was fundamentally about the nature of humans' interaction with history. (Though it also made me more interested in math.)

Re: The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)

#284

Post by kisielk »

mentat wrote: post #282
kisielk wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't stick Dune solely in the second category. It has a great deal of social commentary, and touches on a number of environmental and ethical issues. Herbert simply went to great lengths to create an extremely detailed world in which to present these ideas. I think Stephenson's Anathem is a better example of the second category. It's almost purely world-building escapist fiction. There's not any obvious message…

I'm a bit shocked at your statement that there's no message in Anathem. The message I got out of it is to question my assumptions about the flow of history, most specifically about things that "everyone knows are true". For instance, why doesn't everyone know that you have to plan projects in certain ways if you expect them to get done at a certain time? Well, in part because the idea of getting done at a certain tim…

Well, I guess it just goes to show that everyone gets something else out of reading a book and categorizing them using sweeping generalizations isn't a good idea :)

Re: The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)

#285

Post by rmc »

mindcrime wrote: post #272
redcap wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The zeitgeist of the 80s had a lot of concern about Japan becoming "number 1" - US manufacturing was falling behind and people thought that Japan was top of the world technologically. So while the authors are Japanophiles, they certainly tapped into the mood of the time - that the future was strange and asian-influenced.

I'm not sure it would be correct to use the word "xenophobia" here; but for those of us old enough to remember the 80's, what redcap says is very spot-on. There was a LOT of buzz in the 80's about how Japan (and Asian countries in general, to some extent) were kicking the US's arse in a lot of areas: computers, consumer electronics, cars, etc., etc. Talk about "competing with Japan" was used a motivational material t…

Just look at Back to the Future 2 (the one where they go into the future and have flying cars and no mobile phones). The older version of main character (Marty McFly) has a japanese boss, and when talking to him on the videophone he drops japanese into the convesation (opens with japanese IIRC).

Re: The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)

#290

Post by lardarz »

Good list, and I've read nearly all of them.

Getting past the first chapter of Pandoras Star is well worth it - Morninglightmountain is one of the most original, minblowingly awesome all time alien baddies, and the trepidation and sense of impending doom in that book and its's sequel Judas Unchained are superb. Would also recommend the Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton too - strong mix of scifi and an alternate fantasy world.

Missing in my view would be: Greg Bear - Eon (as people have mentioned, but also: M John Harrison - Light James Blish - Cities in Flight Battlefield Earth (awesome book, hopeless film) Brave New World for my ultimate "classic"

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