Your favourite Sci-Fi books

I have several favourites, as do probably most of us and they cross the genre.

My top is probably still Dune by Frank Herbert, but followed pretty closely by The Many Coloured Land and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the unbeliever. More on the fantasy side, was the Anne McCaffrey Dragon series and the Ice Rigger series.

I guess that my initial interest was sparked by comic strips like Dan Dare and short story series like Perry Rodan (I still have most of the series), then the early Asimov books and the classic 2001 Arthur C Clarke Film.

There are many more I love, but will leave them until later. :)

Perry Rhodan was a fad at my secondary school, a lot of oneupmanship on book issues by the Dungeons and Dragons club members. I started, but found the stories got somewhat repetitive.

I was really interested in the EC Tubb series that led to Space 1999 with Gerry Anderson at about the same time. And of course UFO that went a few years earlier.


I might move some of Nets last thread over as it got hijacked by the usual subjects along the way. it mentions books in a bit more detail. I cant get on with a long book, of any type, must be the MTV era affected me more than most.

By the way if you look at the following link

http://www.kruse.co.uk/asimov.htm

scroll down to the foot of the page, there are a number of links to the worlds better known writers of Science Fiction

Elsewhere the main URL site of Mr Kruse has a lot of useful data on the Net and how it can improve your business, so give it a whirl.

As an aside Bill is going into hospital very soon for quite a major eye operation and so this link may not be updated for a while.

I know I'll be leaving a lot out but some that come to mind immediately are the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, the Cities in Flight series by James Blish and, I seem to recollect, almost anything by Poul Anderson.

Later on some of Harlan Ellison's books are worth reading (I loved the name of his house - Ellison Wonderland) and more recently Steven Baxter is worth hunting down.

PaulR

I did read a lot of SF, and of course I like the "classics". But my secret tip for any SF lover would be to look up books by Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger is his real name).
He is considered one of the best and most imaginative writers from the good old days of the 50.
I can strongly recommend "The best of Cordwainer Smith" and "Norstrilia"...

I just bought one on e bay for £1.60 .... O-Ha

With me its almost anything by Azimov!

Clifford Simak (Way Station, Time & Time Again City etc...)

Philip K Dick especially UBIK, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep aka Blade Runner)

Harry Harrison

John Wyndham (The Chrysallids, Triffids, Village Of The Damned, Consider Her Ways etc..)

Edmund Cooper

Arthur C Clarke (Rama Series)

James White

But if I was to pick a few that really affected me !

UBIK (by Dick)
The Chrysallids (Wyndham)
Way Station (Simak)
Monsters & Medics "Second Ending" (White)

Getting a bit all nostalgic now........

Skip

Aha, real sci fi (nowt wrong wi’ Star Treck, it heap big fun, but pretty much “cowboys ‘n injuns in space”).

Yeah, Way Station great. Sit comfortably in your house, and have the universe pass through it (metaphor for television?). Also other Simak, esp Ring around The Sun, and All Flesh Is Grass (where flowers talk on telephones, oops I’ve given the plot away!).

Phil Dick (of course), but esp Tim Archer, his last and best.

Some Heinlein, esp Number Of The Beast (fine romp!), “future history” short stories, and Magic Inc, but can’t stand his right wing politics.

Norstrilia (bloated sheep!), but don’t like other Cordwainer.

Venus Equilateral, from George Smith, who invented telecom satellites (not Arthur Clarke!).

Most Silverberg sci fi (not later fantasy stuff, when he’d “given up”). Vornan 19, earlier and much better than KPAX. But best of all, Up The Line, hilarious, must be best ever time travel novel.

Scheckley’s Immortality Inc, satire on 1950s corporate USA, and the most chilling thing I’ve ever read. (also Journey of Jones, comedy sf, much better and earlier than over-hyped Doug Adams!).

Limbo 90 (who else has read that?).

1960s Brit Sci Fi. Especially John Lymington, not brilliant, but very atmospheric, sort of updated MR James. Chris Hodder William (98.4, Fistful Of Digits). Chris Priest, espec Dream of Wessex (and short story Boulter’s Canaries). John Wyndham’s “cosy catastrophes” (“world just ended, love? Never mind, put kettle on, let’s have a cuppa”).

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Originally Posted by spine

Norstrilia (bloated sheep!), but don’t like other Cordwainer.

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:eek: well, at least you know him. I actually read several times over the past 20 years " The best of Cordwainer Smith" and still liked it...

I've got Cordwainer's 4 main novels, plus some short stories. But, just can't "get into" his world of "underpeople", cat people, dog people, etc.

i understand he worked for the CIA, is there some hidden "political" message in there somewhere?

Well, I tell you what, when I first read it it was around 1978 or so, I was just about 15 or so and I liked it. But then when I read it again it really hit me how his vision of animals bred to a human like appearance to do the dirty work for humams could really happen. I mean, when he was writing it in the 50ies, there was no Dolly the sheep, and cloning etc. I am sure somewhere in the world in the next 50 years some idiot is going to try to breed a chimpanze with a human and create a cheap labourer. I mean, already now people are breeding embriyos for future use or spare parts...So if we have half human half ape you get EXACTLY the situation he describes.
So I am not sure there is a hidden agenda or some political stuff, maybe just a very clever man who saw what would happen in the future??

The humans have already used dolphins to attach mines to ships, so its feasible that mans best friend, or a relative could be next in line for help.

I prefer the idea of carcases with minimal brain stems working on production lines myself

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Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

The humans have already used dolphins to attach mines to ships, so its feasible that mans best friend, or a relative could be next in line for help.

I prefer the idea of carcases with minimal brain stems working on production lines myself

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Dont most of those already work in the Sky call centres?? ;)

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Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

The humans have already used dolphins to attach mines to ships, so its feasible that mans best friend, or a relative could be next in line for help.

I prefer the idea of carcases with minimal brain stems working on production lines myself

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The problem is that the minute you got creatures like these who think or feel, you are going to have to give them their "human" rights....actually, just read the book!!! It is good! O-Ha

I first thought it was disguised social criticism, but yeah, TG is right, with biological engineering we'll probably get something like that. Arthur Clarke also tackled it, with "battery operated animals" in Rama, and "simps".

Maybe it was social critisism as well, as he grew up in the east and was familiar with the then popular racism that people in the US had against yellow, black or red. I am not really in a position to judge that, I need to read the book again (which I am going to do very soon).
But, any book that targets the issue of human rights or social injustice (don't forget that when he wrote the book the USA was still deeply segregated (!)) is a good book in my book! I was just thinking about this the other day when I read a book about early black music in the US, founders of popular music and giants of Jazz weer not allowed to pi*s in the same bowl in the 60ies. Land of the free....

Very interesting, thanks for that info, must look him up via Google ....

Asimov the Foundation triligy of course, raised on Jules Vern and Harry Harrison stainless steel rat books, no ones mentioned Michael Moorcock, Jerry Cornelius cure for cancer and all that... erm... Ray Bradury.? Fahrenheit 451 was a good book (oh and another hawkwind song :rolleyes: ) I kinda like the Illuminati Robert Anton Wilson books as well do they count..

blimey theres loads...

Loop. :-Loop

Just bought on ebay THE UNDERPEOPLE, can't wait to read it again!

Downside of this is I am going to have to bid against you guys soon when ebaying for Crdwainer :-lmao

Dug out my Norstrilia (old Gollancz hardback, sold for 20p by local library, shame on them!). Slow start, but I persisted this time. Giant mutant sparrow attack quite good. Got to where he arrives on Mars, having been chopped into bits and transported there in pieces. Looking good.

hey don't tell !!!! I am going to read it againas well! AS I can't remember much of it it is like reading a new one O-Ha

This is the benefit of age, you can read a good book several times and enjoy it every time as if it was the first....Coming to think of it, wouln't this be useful for other areas of life?..... Humping

Good point, sorry, I won't outline any more plots ..... (2nd apology today, whoops!).

ref above posts, don't like Bradbury or Moorcock (but did enjoy the Oswald Bastable trilogy, Warlord Of The Air etc, good reads).

Yep, foundation trilogy great. Also robot short stories, Elijah Bailey novels. Not so sure about Asimov post 1975. More carefully constructed, maybe, but less exciting.

In line with 1960s "Brit" sci fi, I hugely liked Dan Morgan's telepathy novels, The New Minds, The Several Minds, The Mind Trap (he also wrote The Uninhibited, rather more bizarre, seems to have given Lobsang Rampa the idea for his ridiculous The Third Eye).

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Originally Posted by spiney

Good point, sorry, I won't outline any more plots ..... (2nd apology today, whoops!).

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lol never mind! My Underpeople arrived today, 4.25 £ from e bay. First edition 1968 US Paperback....

Will start on it soon!!

Nice purchase!

I Googled Cordwainer, amazing! A dedicated website, and some stuff on many others. Seems he's taken very seriously, and becomming fashionable. One review claims Norstrilia is "copy" (ripoff?) of The Stars My Destination, can't see that myself. It's also claimed he's a "Christian" writer, can't see that either, never mind.

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Originally Posted by spiney

I've got Cordwainer's 4 main novels, plus some short stories. But, just can't "get into" his world of "underpeople", cat people, dog people, etc.

i understand he worked for the CIA, is there some hidden "political" message in there somewhere?

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Well, I started "Underpeople" yesterday, and maybe you do have a point. In one instance Rod MacBan, who is dressed up as a cat man to avoid detection, needs to go to the toilet, but he can't use a "Human" toilet because that is strictly forbidden....now that does sound like the 60ies in Alabama....Maybe you are right and it has a message against racism and segregatism in it....I will finish it tonight!!

yeah, I just feel it's really about something else ....

For instance, P Dick's books are sci fi, and the better for it, but you can see what he's on about. Valis is comment on religous revelations (specifially, St Paul), The Simulcra is about The Kennedy Presidency, etc, all recognisable references. But, what's Norstrilia about?

We're discussing Cordwainer a lot, hmm, I wonder if sales of Norstrila are rising .... ?

Just to add, my copy of Norstrilia says Norstrilia = The Planet Buyer + The Underpeople, so maybe TG and me were reading somewhat different books? Unfortunately, i liked 1st bit best, and that's the Planet Buyer bit. Oh well. There's no accounting for taste, you like something, or you don't, giving "reasons" for it won't convince other people!

2 things did strike me about Norstrilia. Those darn poems (which make Vogon poetry look good!). And the Aristocracy, supposedly based on British class system 15,000 years earlier!

S'funny, s'interesting. Quite a few USA sci fi authors seem to like the Brit class system, apparently because it might be "stable" over 100s of years, so would tend to prevent wars etc (but wouldn't it cause them instead, don't kings always fight one another?!). The Mote In God's Eye has a similar setup. As does Lensman series.

Cordwainer's universe reminds me of Dune, quite similar stuff, hereditary aristocracy, "underpeople", economy of galaxy revolves around 1 particular resource, etc.

(There's also a huge similarity to Lord Of The Rings, which came out first!).

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Originally Posted by spiney

Just to add, my copy of Norstrilia says Norstrilia = The Planet Buyer + The Underpeople, so maybe TG and me were reading somewhat different books? Unfortunately, i liked 1st bit best, and that's the Planet Buyer bit. Oh well. There's no accounting for taste, you like something, or you don't, giving "reasons" for it won't convince other people!

2 things did strike me about Norstrilia. Those darn poems (which make Vogon poetry look good!). And the Aristocracy, supposedly based on British class system 15,000 years earlier!

S'funny, s'interesting. Quite a few USA sci fi authors seem to like the Brit class system, apparently because it might be "stable" over 100s of years, so would tend to prevent wars etc (but wouldn't it cause them instead, don't kings always fight one another?!). The Mote In God's Eye has a similar setup. As does Lensman series.

Cordwainer's universe reminds me of Dune, quite similar stuff, hereditary aristocracy, "underpeople", economy of galaxy revolves around 1 particular resource, etc.

(There's also a huge similarity to Lord Of The Rings, which came out first!).

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OK, finally managed to read the "Underpeople". It was a good experience, because it had been a while since I read any Cordwainer. One thing that is clear that the overall message has to do with the "underpeople" being oppressed, looked at by people as soulless "things" rather than beings with feelings etc. It has a strong smell of anti-racism, and to me he shows to be influenced by Ghandi. As he has strong connections to the east (family) this would make sense. I am going to get the other ones now and keep reading.

Very nice though, I like the way that the richest person in the Universe is still a pawn in the hand of the "Instrumentiality", if there ever was a "them" or "they", the Instrumentiality must be the mother of them all..

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Originally Posted by T_G

I like the way that the richest person in the Universe is still a pawn in the hand of the "Instrumentiality", if there ever was a "them" or "they", the Instrumentiality must be the mother of them all..

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Didnt they try that scenario in The Matrix ?

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Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

Didnt they try that scenario in The Matrix ?

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Well, in a way yes. But Matrix was man against machine, here we are talking man against humified animals bred to work by giving them intelligence etc. I suppose the moment when someone tries to impregnate a chimp with a human is not too far. First it is to create spare livers, and then cheap labour...

And anyway, there is a theory which states that there are only 7 types of stories anyway....

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Originally Posted by T_G

I suppose the moment when someone tries to impregnate a chimp with a human is not too far. First it is to create spare livers, and then cheap labour...

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and there was I thinking it was on one of the adult channels next week. I have no doubt somebody tried it.

I read everything I can find (have a lot of crap:-DOH! )

But every now and then I find something good

I have just re read the "Scanners live in Vain" out of "the best of Cordwainer Smith" which was written in 1950. What I liked is that he already mentioned the dreaded text message style that is so commonplace:

"He did not use his voice again. Instead he pulled his tablet up from where it hung against his chest. He wrote on it using the pointed fingernail of his right forefinger-the talking nail of a scanner - in quick cleancut script: Pls, drlng, whrs crnching wire"

In another text he writes "Yr" instead of "you are"...
The pointed fingernail reminds me of the plastic tipped pen strapped to the finger of bikers that is used for writing on touchscreen GPS systems, as does the tablet.

I still don't like Cordwainer, but did read "Scanners" some years ago, and liked that one (wasn't it the storyline for Cronenberg's film? Im a huge Cronenberg fan ...).

The scanners - despite their abilities - were yet another "underclass".

yes, there's certainly a message about tolerance of (unspecified) minorities, various people who might make the ruling classes feel uneasy.

Interestingly, in Baby Makes Three (more than human) there's actually a Down's Syndrome baby!

People seem to think "txt mssgng" is quite recent, but for many years people sent "cables", costed on length, so these could be very cryptic! (the famous one: "How old Cary Grant"? Reply: "Old Cary Grant fine, how you?"). Big organisations had their own "codes" - books full of single word abbreviations for commonly used phrases - I seem to remember these in one of Flemming's James Bond books!

(examples, see www.houwie.net/ntelegrafie/ntele03.html ).

(for in use, see http://homepage.usask.ca/~rhf330/tele.html ).

As an "intelligence operative", I'm sure Cordwainer was well familiar with such things!

I read The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov the other day, it was also mentioned earlier in this thread. I got it from Ebey, it was a hardcover from 1951 or so, very old with really thick dull paper. I must say that for stories written more than 50 years ago they are still very good. When reading it you don't get the same feeling as when watching movies of the same area. Even the technology they describe (mostly Atomic based) is still valid SciFi, as we have not made such a great technological leap since then (we are still burning oil and the Atomic energy we are using is not fundamentally that much different from the 50ies, maybe a bit cleaner and safer) .

Anyway, I recommend this book to any SciFi fan, you won't be disappointed.

I ought to start reading again, I have loads of Scifi books (including the full Foundation series from memory) sitting in boxes in the garage.

The foundation series was brilliant.

I have found in my latest work, that I have about an hour or so spare per day between jobs, which means I now keep a sci-fi compilation book of shorts in the van.

Trouble is, the bloody phone keeps ringing.

While we talk SF, I do remember a short story teller named Brown ?(I think it was, must investigate my shelf) He wrote some good very short stories with an unspected ending. Maybe a little bit to the horror side but still SF.

Anyway, I do like space stories as well, some are rather good, and easy ro read. U don´t have to read the whole book instantly, U could start in the middle after a week or 2 but they where fun.

I must have over 100 books and novels, re-read the best every now and then. Just restarted Waldo, Magic Inc. He was into the second world and more universe looooong time before the scientist talked about it.

And Ray Bradbury, strange guy LOved Mars, was more of a poet than a SF writer but combined the 2 into something good.

Asimov, if U just read it - He was way ahead with his Robot stories.

Heinlein was more of a boy scout-telling fancy stories but still, sometimes he wrote a gem

Like someone else said, Tons of them, many still unread by me, and some even not written yet but I keep my eyes open for any newcombers:)

BTW strange that this thread attraced so many sky pirates :-rofl2

The future is still ahed of us