Best sci-fi book you've ever read

[The_Evermind]

This thread is simply full of ninjas, although it is nice to see that others appreciate such great books. My personal favorites include Hitchhikers, Enders Game, Dune, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, all wonderful books that I recommend to everyone (yes even you). I do need to read some more Asimov and Phillip K. Dick. Can anyone recommend me some Asimov, I've read some of his short stories and loved them, any full length novels by him I should look for?

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

Life, the Universe, and Everything. It's got all the best jokes in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy, it ties the plot up quite nicely while still leaving a logical opening for the sequels, and it has the starship Bistromath, the description of which is probably my favorite passage in the entire trilogy.

 

[TheBoulder]

A lot of Philip K. Dick's novels...If I had to choose though, It'd probably have to be A Scanner Darkly.

Although that's coming from someone who hasn't touched his copies of Dune or Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy yet.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, with 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama tied for second.

I like you guys. None of my friends have heard of Philip K. Dick, except from me.
OT: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is definitely my favourite sci-fi book, no other book has ever kept me as enthralled as that one has.

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Ummmmmm the Bible

Old, crappy, irrelevant joke. Let's move on, people.

Hmmm most likely A Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

 

[[Gavo]]

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are amazing.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[nothingspringstomind]

Probably the entire Time Odessey trilogy by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Alternatively, The Alan Moore Neonomicon series of comics including the novella/comic of The Courtyard.

 

[Link Yeah]

OMG! You made me sign in after 6 months. Six months. Simply because no one mentioned Ian M. Banks.

I mean really people: Ian M. Banks. Read "Excession" of course and read "Feersum Endjinn" too, but anything else really.

And also Charles Stross, but not nearly so much, read "Halting State".

Yes! Fuck, I just signed in for the first time since February to make this statement and you've already made it. I like Charles Stross, but much prefer Banks. His best book is Player of Games for me, followed by the Use of Weapons. However, Fearsum Enjinn is the only one I haven't read, along with State of the Art.

I really cannot sing Banks' praises enough. There are only 3 science fiction writers that are perfect: him, Asimov and Clarke.

Also, will people piss off with all the fantasy crap. Scifi and fantasy are distinctly unrelated. I loathe almost all fantasy but lurve scifi.

 

[omegawyrm]

I, Jedi isn't a bad pick from the extended Star Wars universe, but the best one is probably Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire series.

Also, I know everyone has read Ender's Game, but has everyone forgotten Speaker for the Dead? Ender's Game is a good novel, but even the author only thought of it as a semi-necessary prequel to Speaker, which had a lot more creative energy and imagination poured into it.

And no one likes Vonnegut? Slaughterhouse 5 was probably his most famous novel, but Cat's Cradle was by far my favorite.

Someone already mentioned Dune which is possibly my favorite traditional novel if I had to pick one. The 4th in the series, God Emperor of Dune, is great too.

Since we didn't disqualify comics, I want to also say that Alan Moore's Top 10: Season 1 is probably the best cop drama ever written.

 

[omegawyrm]

Probably the entire Time Odessey trilogy by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Alternatively, The Alan Moore Neonomicon series of comics including the novella/comic of The Courtyard.

Neonomicon, huh? I was under the impression that most people didn't like that one. I didn't have any problem with it, but I will say that there's a Visual Novel out there called Saya's Song (Saya no Uta) that does better pretty much everything that Neonomicon did, and even goes farther than Neonomicon was willing to at points.

 

[ElmerGlue]

Dune is my favorite

 

[Jared Domenico]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has rocketed itself to the top of my favorite's list, supplanting Dune.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Everything by Ursula K. LeGuin, especially The Lathe of Heaven (if that counts as sci-fi), and also The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness and pretty much everything else from the Hainish Cycle. (The Earthsea books are amazing too, but they're definitely fantasy, not sci-fi.)

I also really like Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, which is basically "what if the medieval-fantasy-with-dragons genre was all explained by science and therefore sci-fi," but I tend to like it more in concept than in execution. With the exception of Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, which are the best books she's ever written, by far.

 

[Zakarath]

I'll mix things up by saying Speaker for the Dead instead of Ender's Game. Apart from that, Dune also gets a mention, of course, as well as Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy.

Dragonsinger

Also that, definitely. McCaffrey's style can be a bit weird at times, and I can't say I go for the time travel/massively overpowered telekinesis powers she gives the dragons, but that book was great.

 

[Captain Ben]

Aside from the obvious Ender's Game and Hitchhiker's Guide, I'd say my favorite Science Fiction novel is The Windup Girl.

 

[DJTruthsayer]

OMG! You made me sign in after 6 months. Six months. Simply because no one mentioned Ian M. Banks.

I mean really people: Ian M. Banks. Read "Excession" of course and read "Feersum Endjinn" too, but anything else really.

And also Charles Stross, but not nearly so much, read "Halting State".

a) Iain M. Banks, not Ian.

b) If you want to read any of the Iain M. Banks culture books, you need to read Consider Phlebas first. the rest of the books dont make much sense if you dont read that first.

c) Feersum Endjinn is part written in phonetics. its horrible, and practicaly unitelligable.

As for the best sci fi ever, either the Foundation series by Asimov, the Rama series by Clark, H2G2 by Adams or the Culture series by Banks.

Terry Prachett writes the best fantasy. fact. Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Quartet are worth a read as well.

 

[ars731]

The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch or Ubik by Philip K Dick

 

[otakon17]

I have to say, The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. Not only that, it was a parting gift from a teacher of mine from high school before he moved and went to work at his new job. At NASA.

 

[Marowit]

Dune

The speaker for the dead is my next favorite

 

[Wilbot666]

I don't know if I'd call it the absolute best that I've ever read, but Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk/index.php?page=Pandora_s_Star is a great read, and I really must search out the second book in the series.

Great concept and lots of intrigue. Well worth a look.