Best sci-fi book you've ever read

[prince_xedar]

David Weber's Honor Harrington Series. all the ideas in it are fully fleshed out and explained, its one of my favourites. Mentions also go to Enders game and Heinleins number of the beast and starship troopers

 

[Mr Thin]

I'm primarily a fantasy reader; I've never really sought out sci-fi series, they just come to me. So I haven't read very many, none of the famous ones like Asimov's works.

My favourite thus far is The Gap Cycle, by Stephen R Donaldson. It is one of the most brutal book series I have ever read, by one of my favourite authors.

 

[Zay-el]

I personally adore Asimov's Robot short-stories. Just about all of them are unique and interesting concepts, always playing around with his own 3 laws.

That, and Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series.

 

[JediMooCow]

Does Cyberpunk count? (It better).

"Snow Crash" for sure then. Best book ever. I can't believe it hasn't been made into a movie yet, though I guess it's set pieces are a bit epic for 2 hours. OH man! It would make a mind blowing game. 'Would make Deus Ex look like pulp.

Much as I resent the implication that Deus Ex could ever be made to look like 'pulp', I have to admit that, were the unthinkable to happen, it would be a Snow Crash game that did it.
Amazing book.

 

[Father of Worlds]

Anathem, Neil Stephenson. Only book I've ever read that literally made me dizzy from the ideas woven into its narrative.

 

[carpathic]

Psychohistorical Crisis. Bar none. Canadian Author too!

 

[Triangulon]

Dune! Frank Herbert's classic is one of the greatest examples of sci-fi there is: it should be to sci-fi what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy.

This. I love most Sci-Fi but Dune is head and shoulders above the rest for me.

 

[Reverend Del]

Mine is probably I,Jedi

Probably the best 'stand alone' Star Wars book.

But, for me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy


Amazing group of books, deep as anything you've probably read and just an amazing story.

Such a great series, really it is. Followed closely by his two book series Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained. Excellent writing.

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan, Stranger in A Strange Land by Heinlein, Absolution Gap by Alistair Reynolds, any and all of Iain M. Banks' Sci-fi stuff (also his non sci-fi stuff is worth a gander), Ringworld by Larry Niven, the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke. All these books and series qualify amongst the best I have read, you can't make me choose between them.

 

[notimeforlulz]

There's the gap cycle which is pretty damned messed up. The books were good though, paced well.

 

[jezcentral]

Pandora's Star is mine.

But Any of Neal Asher's Polity books come close.

 

[Declasm]

First four Frank Herbert Dune books, particularly 'Children of Dune' and 'God Emperor of Dune'

Also no one has mentioned 'The Forever War' by Joe Haldeman, an author who remembered to include relativity with his space travel

or anything by Greg Egan - I really liked 'Diaspora' but it's very 'hard sci-fi' but it blew my mind when they started to jump between dimensions.

Also need to mention 'Inverted World' by Christopher Priest - what a twist!

 

[Althus]

Dune! Frank Herbert's classic is one of the greatest examples of sci-fi there is: it should be to sci-fi what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy.

This. Even the new ones made by is son and friend.

 

[Gutkrusha]

Ender's Game. The best book I've ever read. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy come in second.

This. Followed Closely by Ender's Shadow for me. Then most of the Halo books.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Relatively hard sci-fi with great story telling. Black, bleak, sharp writing with great characters.

Liked that a lot, but I liked his Pushing Ice just a bit more.

 

[Reynaert]

Dune! Frank Herbert's classic is one of the greatest examples of sci-fi there is: it should be to sci-fi what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy.

Dune indeed, lots of character development in a amazing world unlike any i have ever read about. (Granted, i didn't read that much science fiction)

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Frank Herbert's Dune, with Starship Troopers a close second.

 

[Sindwiller]

im personally rather fond of "eve the empyrean age" (but it may be as i played the game)

How's the book's general mood and writing style like? I'm a bit afraid of buying "generic"/"low cost" scifi literature (I once bought a Star Wars sequel because it was on sale for a few bucks; wasn't even worth the few bucks I had thrown away), as I'm not really convinced of its quality.

 

[mb16]

im personally rather fond of "eve the empyrean age" (but it may be as i played the game)

How's the book's general mood and writing style like? I'm a bit afraid of buying "generic"/"low cost" scifi literature (I once bought a Star Wars sequel because it was on sale for a few bucks; wasn't even worth the few bucks I had thrown away), as I'm not really convinced of its quality.

the book is basically the Lore on the build up to the empyrean age expansion to EVE online. It follows a number of characters from all the races, each with their own stories and is about 500 pages long. However if you havent played EVE you may not like it so much as you wont know the background for all the races.

 

[9thRequiem]

Hmmm ... While I do like the Hitchhiker's, Dune, and Foundation series, my favourite is Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth saga.
Deals with the change in humanity in the future, where aging can be "reset", people's minds can be backed up, and interstellar travel is performed through gateways, and the change from this stagnant decadence to scramble to deal with a new threat.

 

[Jhonka527]

I'm in love with the Dune series because of the huge sweeping story. I'm not a huge fan of all of the "extra" books that have come out lately, but definitely the original series written by Frank Herbert.