Favorte Science Fiction book other than Star Wars?

I am not a hard-core reader. I just read before I go to sleep at night. It takes me about 2 weeks most of the time to read a book.

 

My single favorite sci-fi book would be The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn, but I also enjoy anything by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, J.R.R. Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke, and many others.

 

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

 

Dan Simmons' Hyperionand Endymion novels.

Like Star Wars, it's a blending of mythological figures/hero journeys but with more far-future tech....

 

My three favorite science fiction books are:
1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
2. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (yes it is sci-fi, Vonnegut was a science fiction author despite what he's said)
3. Foundation by Isaac Asimov

 

Isn't Chanticle for Lebowitz about civilization after the Bomb?

Mine is the Rats Trilogy by James Herbert.

 

My favourite non-SW book (and my favourite book of all time) is "Sphere" by Micheal Crichton.

 

Zahn's conqueror's trilogy. Icarus hunt also.

 

A single choice is: "Dune" by Frank Herbert.
I HAVE TO ADD HERE: the new prequel novels in the series, "House Atreides", "House Harkonnen", and upcoming "House Corrino" are simply c-r-a-p. They are VERY BADLY written by different authors, and simply do not deserve by any stretch of the imagination to be part of the same saga as Frank Herbert's "Dune". Therefore, the first novel in the series is "Dune" just in case anyone wonders, while I STRONGLY recommend avoiding the prequels, or any other novels which maybe writtent claiming to be part of the "Dune" story, as long as the current talentless hacks are adding to the story (the hacks are our own KJA and Herbert's son).

Other great sci-fi is in no particular order (they are all great):

*"Lord Of Light" by Roger Zelazny (or just about anything else I have read by this author)

*The Childe Cycle by Gordon R. Dickson, I have started reading it with "Tactics of Mistake"

*The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, "Red Mars", "Green Mars", and "Blue Mars" (the title sequence refers to how the colours change on Mars as terraforming progresses), and now there is also a short story collection in the series

*The Riverwolrd series by Phillip Jose Farmer begining with "To Your Scattered Bodies Go"

*"Neuromancer" by William Gibson, and everything else I have read by him

*Some of the Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card, however I must caution you all that the last two novels in the original series, "Xenocide" and "Children of the Mind" are simply attrocioulsy bad, while in the new series "Ender's Shadow" is superb while the follow up "Shadow of the Hegemon" already starts going downhill. Card is simply a VERY INCONSISTENT writer in regards to the quality of his novels.

*there is also a new author who has just published a relatively very good first full novel "Gridlinked" by Neal Asher, though I am not sure whether the novels is yet available in the USA as the author is UK based, I think this one has a chance of becoming VERY GOOD author in sci-fi

*Asimov's Foundation/Robots series is also a must though I have not ready any of them for close to a decade

 

1984. THat is a great book!

I also like the Lucasfilm's Alien Chronicals.

 

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

 

Anything by Adam Douglas. May he rest in peace...

 

David Weber's Honor Harrington series.

 

Hey Simone in answer to your question, no not really.

I grew up in school as the unathletic, quiet, and introspective booknerd type so it was pretty much expected of me to read sci-fi books.

Now that I'm 22 however I do get the why don't you grow up and start reading John Grisham look. I wish I could put "Becuz I'd rather read something intelligent." into a look for an answer to them.

 

I like the classics!

Isaac Asimov - robot/foundation series, particularly The Complete Robot. Some great stuff in there.

Arthur C. Clarke - the Odyssey series was constantly excellent, but the Rama series was for more in-depth and indulging, if you take my point. There was more to it.

A Rama film [series!] would do really well given it's pedigree; technology has reached a point where all of the stuff Clarke describes is possible using good old computers (well actually nice fresh computers!)

 

So far my absolute favorite book would have to be Ender's Game or Speaker for the Dead.
Both books are very strong and very fluid in their story elements and presentation.
The characters speak out from many facets of great triumph, yet each are infested with some sense of compunction.

The science fiction element becomes fewer and fewer as the books go on, and as it was said before the latter half is very weak compared to the stellar first two books.
I'm still struggling through Dune, I just can't seem to get into that book.
It has an amazing sense of saintliness that gets on my nerves.

 

Would any like to see Ender's Game made into a movie? I would love to see that in a movie.

 

Dune

 

The Evergence trilogy by Sean Williams & Shane Dix.

 

I don't think there should be a movie of Ender's Game, I personally didn't like it (I kept hoping Ender would fail humilatingly).

 

Dune. I just finished reading it and it was a masterpiece.

I rented the new video but couldn't find the 1984 version. One of the only parts that made me mad was the complete absence of Thufir Hawat, one of my favorite characters. Plus the fact that they misspelled Muad'Dib (they called part 2 Maud'Dib, a scandalous error).

 

Either Brave New World, byt Aldous Huxley or The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells.

 

I have to strongly disagree with RASalvatore's post on the attempt at prequels for "Dune".

RASalvatore wrote:

"And of course, "Dune" stands up there, way up there! One note about the prequel novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson....despite early reservations by many, many people thinking that the magnificent "Dune" series should be left alone, those books have received almost universal praise in the science-fiction community. Great reviews and great sales!"

First of all. I am not one of the many who thought that the "Dune" saga should not be added to. This tries to imply that my highly negative assesment is based on ideology of purity rather than fact, to put it simply that it is based on fanaticism. Rather I have always desired new novels in the "Dune" series (I still do). The point being that the current effort at continuing the series has failed miserably quality wise. The quality of the new novels is so bad that they are below everything else I can think of: they far worse than your average ST novel; they are far worse than the worst SW novel, quite simply the prequels are worse than KJA's SW novels (some of which I do enjoy unlike some readers here); they are worse than any novel I have ever read and managed to finish; the story is worse than most comics books I have looked through. When you compare this low quality with the masterpiece that is "Dune", you can only laugh with derision at any suggestions that the prequels can have anything to do with the original story-wise.

The rest RASalvatore wrote is simply misleading - lying by omission. The novels have not received "an almost universal praise in the science fiction community". Name those who actualy praise the prequels, and in what words? What's the status of those praising it? etc. They have received diplomatic reviews which try to put the best spin on things while ignoring all the faults - usually by people who either want to sell them or can not offend the authors and publishers.

HOWEVER, if RASalvatore wants to be quoted as praising these novels, let him put his money where his mouth is. Can I quote you as praising the quality of the novels? That you think they are great? I have noticed that you have skipped around the question, saying that the "unnamed majority" thinks they are great, but you have not said directly what you yourself think on this.

As to sales. Yes. I can believe they are very good. Of course they were bound to be. After all the prequels promised to add to "Dune". Who among sci-fi fans could resist buying them? I could not. The two authors leeched on a huge existing market - their sales success does not mean the novels are good.

What I think should happen is that the current prequel effort should be scrapped. A new set of prequels should be written by a set of authors who actualy care enough to write a high quality material, and have more time than 2 years to write a long novel which is supposed to compare with a masterpiece. The current project is about making a lot of money by tricking "Dune" fans into buying novels that pretend to be something they are not. An opportunity lost to the greed of Herbert's family - why could they not act like the Tolkiens?!

 

Hi!
Okay, here are some of my favorites (all titles in their original language and version):
Enjoy ;->

The Survivors (4 all books of that Red Moon Stories) - by Marion Zimmer Bradley (and this time it's SciFi and not boring)
Nach dem grossen Feuer - Wolfgang Hohlbein
Das Geheimnis des Tempelplaneten - Simon Schott
The Ring Of Kether - by Steve Jackson / Ian Livingston

And {in my opinion} one of the best ever written SciFi books:
Sentenced to Prisma - by Alan Dean Foster

 

anything by dougas hill