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5 Best Sci Fi novels of all time
- Thread starter husker6
- Start date
Neuromancer
Foundation
Slaughterhouse-Five
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ringworld
Foundation
Slaughterhouse-Five
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ringworld
1. Solaris
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
3. Dhalgren
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
5. More Than Human
Yeah, Neuromancer is great. Just missed my list of five. Foundation (all of them) are really good, too, but more like twinned novellas stuck together than fully coherent novels. Vonnegut's also excellent, Sirens of Titan I think I like even more than SH-5. There are a lot of good ones, hard to make a list of just the five best.
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I was kind of thinking of the whole series when I listed Foundation, but even so, I think it's the strongest of them. Even with the structure that it has, it's still very powerful, and is still influential today.
Sirens of Titan is good, but I can't get over Slaughterhouse-Five. Too many things that felt like they were drawn out of my life, and just a hell of a sci-fi story. Cat's Cradle is probably my second favorite of his, and I don't think I've read one I dislike.
I've read pretty much everything Vonnegut wrote, and while I enjoyed them all, there were definitely some that I don't think were very good - Slapstick and Deadeye Dick, I'm looking at you.
See, for what they are, I like those. I can't read them with the same eye as his other works, because he's so eclectic of a writer. I look at some of his more obscure stuff, like those two, as pieces of art that need to be looked at from a different direction. I think I know exactly what about them you dislike, though, and I'm not going to argue that they're easy to dislike.
It's been 20 years since I read either, so I'm not sure even I could articulate exactly why I didn't care for them. I have first editions of both, as it turns out - bought them from the local library when I was in high school.
This book, and series, is just fantastic. If you haven't read it, and you like alternate worlds, give this series a go.
Never heard of that one, had to look it up. Some of the themes remind me of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series (sci-fi mixed with fantasy on another planet). Too many other things to read right now, but I'll try and remember it if I ever get a free space in my queue.This book, and series, is just fantastic. If you haven't read it, and you like alternate worlds, give this series a go.
Asimov
He'll Always be one of my faves, right there with Silverberg.
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The guy wrote over 500 books in his life, both fiction and non-fiction. Not all were great (how can they be, with that many), but a lot were incredible.
And he thought up the Three Laws, which are still used in popular culture today, even in things that have no relation to his works beyond broad story themes.
Here is my plug for some of the classics.
I'm a big fan of Jules Verne (partly because most of his books are available free on Kindle and Project Gutenberg). He had some very clever stories, but I mostly enjoy his technical insights/explanations (even if they were off-base).
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" basically was describing a nuclear submarine. "Journey to the Center of the Earth" I've always found to be a fun read. "The Mysterious Island" I think is lesser known, but worth a glance...it ties in a bit with "20,000" Leagues Under the Sea".
I'm not sure I would classify the Barsoom (aka John Carter aka "Princess of Mars") series by Edgar Rice Burroughs as science fiction (I would think more swashbuckling-fantasy if I had to make-up a category), but I enjoyed that series very much.
H.G. Wells' "Time Machine" is also up there with Jules Verne's stuff as one of my favorite reads...the 50s movie of it was pretty good as well. Speaking of which, I enjoyed the 50s "War of the World" movie more so than the novel. "The First Men in the Moon" by Wells was a pretty good read though.
I'm a big fan of Jules Verne (partly because most of his books are available free on Kindle and Project Gutenberg). He had some very clever stories, but I mostly enjoy his technical insights/explanations (even if they were off-base).
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" basically was describing a nuclear submarine. "Journey to the Center of the Earth" I've always found to be a fun read. "The Mysterious Island" I think is lesser known, but worth a glance...it ties in a bit with "20,000" Leagues Under the Sea".
I'm not sure I would classify the Barsoom (aka John Carter aka "Princess of Mars") series by Edgar Rice Burroughs as science fiction (I would think more swashbuckling-fantasy if I had to make-up a category), but I enjoyed that series very much.
H.G. Wells' "Time Machine" is also up there with Jules Verne's stuff as one of my favorite reads...the 50s movie of it was pretty good as well. Speaking of which, I enjoyed the 50s "War of the World" movie more so than the novel. "The First Men in the Moon" by Wells was a pretty good read though.
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Really liked '20.000 Leagues' as well as 'Time Machine'. Many a day in my youth was spent reading or thinking about one or the other. The concept of being that far under water and or time travel was mind twisting for a young kid.
