NationStates Jolt Archive

I've been looking for good sci-fi recently, and would like to know what the people of NS would recommend. I especially enjoy fiction about alien species, such as Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead" (which, by the way, along with Ender's Game, is my chief reccomendation)

I also would really like to find good sources of free, online fiction, such as the shadowrun based fiction pieces available here (http://www.magespace.net/fiction.html)

I'm wrapping up Harry Turtledove's Timeline 191 series, which i would recommend.

arthur C clarke's The city and the stars is brilliant, and it's aged very well. clarke's ideas for future technology are so far ahead of anyone else's now or then. Also his Rama series is good and has aliens although it's a little long-winded.

Isaac Asimov's The gods themselves is also brilliant if a little depressing, but it has aliens in. and everyone should read his Foundation series. and the robot books, Caves of steel is my favourite i think.

J G Ballard's The Disaster Area is a fascinating collection of short stories. not strictly science fiction, at least not in the classic space-age sense, but i don't know what else it would be called.

Frank Herbert's Dune series deserves a mention for sheer epicness and the diverting incongruity of feudal society with future technology.

And of course you can't read science fiction without reading Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, sometimes sci-fi just takes itself far too seriously.

And of course you can't read science fiction without reading Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, sometimes sci-fi just takes itself far too seriously.

...and you can't really see HHGTTG in context without reading some Robert Sheckley.

arthur C clarke's

...Also his Rama series is good and has aliens although it's a little long-winded.

Just read the first.

Ignore the ghostwritten sequels.

In fact, I'm sorely tempted to deny that they even exist in my timeline.

...and you can't really see HHGTTG in context without reading some Robert Sheckley.

i shall have to search some out. although i note that on sheckley's wiki page adams is cited as having said he hadn't read sheckley til after writing HHGTTG.

Just read the first.

Ignore the ghostwritten sequels.

In fact, I'm sorely tempted to deny that they even exist in my timeline.

to be fair i think i've only read the first one. might have read the others a long time ago but the first is the only one that sticks in the memory.

actually, i know i've definitely read Rama Revealed, the conclusion was deeply disappointing to me, why did they have to bring god into it? hmph.

One of the best depictions of an alien species in recent S.F. is to be found in Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky" - his "A Fire Upon the Deep" is also exceptional.

Also well worth a read for alien-lovers is "The Algebraist" by Iain M. Banks (all his other novels are brilliant too).

to be fair i think i've only read the first one. might have read the others a long time ago but the first is the only one that sticks in the memory.

actually, i know i've definitely read Rama Revealed, the conclusion was deeply disappointing to me, why did they have to bring god into it? hmph.

Ugh - just the mention of the Rama sequels makes me depressed. They're even worse than the 2001 sequels, and the endless Dune sequels. Bleh.

Really awful thing about them is that they take shelf-space in bookshops which could be filled by decent books. Every Waterstones has the whole Dune series, but how many have "The Godmakers" or "The Eyes of Heisenberg" or "The Dosadi Experiment" (all fantastic novels, also by Herbert)?

i shall have to search some out. although i note that on sheckley's wiki page adam's is cited as having said he hadn't read sheckley til after writing HHGTTG.

Possibly, but Adams has been shown to be a barefaced liar about many things concerning HHGTTG.

Possibly, but Adams has been shown to be a barefaced liar about many things concerning HHGTTG.

heh! didn't know that.

Larry Niven's Ringworld series, and his collaborative 'Mote in God's Eye' with Jerry Pournelle are great.

heh! didn't know that.

Oh i fuckin' did. Met him in person and asked him pretty pointedly, actually.
Almost kicked him down a flight of stairs. He had it comin'.
Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe.

Oh i fuckin' did. Met him in person and asked him pretty pointedly, actually.
Almost kicked him down a flight of stairs. He had it comin'.
Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe.

you have an incredible talent for confusing the hell out of me.

Eh. I hated Orson Scott Card's "Ender" series beyond Ender's Game. Ugh.

However, I've really enjoyed Lem and Asimov, though those are so traditional that they're probably not helpful recommendations, I know. ;)

...and you can't really see HHGTTG in context without reading some Robert Sheckley.

And you might not enjoy HHGTTG *at all* if you read any of the Ijon Tichy adventures first. Much better, I think. The Germans are making a t.v. series on it apparently - I'm kinda jealous. :p

I've been looking for good sci-fi recently, and would like to know what the people of NS would recommend. I especially enjoy fiction about alien species, such as Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead" (which, by the way, along with Ender's Game, is my chief reccomendation)

I also would really like to find good sources of free, online fiction, such as the shadowrun based fiction pieces available here (http://www.magespace.net/fiction.html)
A Stranger in a Strange Land is an excellent book, and, although it's more like fantasy, Glory Road.

The Man Who Folded Himself, and The War Against The Chtorr series, by David Gerrold.