What's Your Favorite SciFi Novel?

[JHalpin]

Ender's Game brought me back to reading Sci Fi. It has affected me more than anything else I have read in the past 20 years. Card has a website with the first paragraph of almost all his books available to read for free. Check it out Here

 

[unclebud]

thanks for links

 

[mcveigh]

Robert A. Heinlein by far. Lazarus Long/ Woodrow Wilson Smith is the most interesting character ever!
"Rocket Ship Galileo" was the earliest sci-fi book I remember. (one of his early works just after WW2, it was about boys who build a rocket in their back yard and goto the moon only to find Nazi's there!)

Armor--best war novel I ever read really got into the man's head
does anyone know if john steakley ever wrote anything else?

If you like military sci-fi try David Drake especially his "hammer's slammer's" series shows how cold hearted war and death can be.


datalink7--- "read the moon is a harsh mistress" another book you don't hear much about is "Friday" a little different from most of his works.
also
The Door into Summer( I admit it made me cry)
Citizen of the Galaxy
Job: A Comedy of Justice
I Will Fear No Evil
To Sail Beyond the Sunset ( read this after all others w/ lazarus long, it was his last work)

I envy you

 

[ShotgunSteven]

<< Another vote for Armor by Steakley.

If you could call it sci-fi, Vampire$ by Steakley would be my number 1. John Carpenter did a gigantic hack job to Vampire$ when he made the movie. IMHO the book is a thousand times better. Leaving out Felix was a sin!
>>



Been wondering about that since I saw the movie by Carpenter. The main character in the movie was named Jack Crow, as was one of the characters in ARMOR. What is the connection?

Hammer's Slammers kicks some serious ass, as well. So do the works of Niven &amp; Pournelle.

 

[huggiebear]

Asimov:
Foundation Series
Robot Series

Dan Simmons:
Hyperion
Carrion Comfort (Very good, a favorite)

Short Story:
The Cold Equations, Tom Godwin


Anybody know the short story where four guys are traveling away from Earth in separate ships heading for their doom and talking to each other about all the bad stuff they did (slept with your wife..etc). It was in one of those Sci-Fi Hall of Fame books.

 

[kduncan5]

Currently re-reading:

Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven &amp; Jerry Pournelle


Favorites:

Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkein
Dune - Frank Herbert
Weave World - Clive Barker
Dragon's Egg - Robert Forward
Armour - Jon Steakley
Alien - Alan Dean Foster
Psychomech series - Brian Lumley
Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelasny
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
DragonRider series - Anne McCaffrey
Dragonlance Chronicles - Margaret Weis &amp; Tracy Hickman
Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers - Larry Niven

.....and lots more, and not necessarily in that order! -kd5-

 

[Mountain]

The original &quot;starship troopers&quot; rocked. the movie SUCKED!!!!!

 

[MrChicken]

<< Been wondering about that since I saw the movie by Carpenter. The main character in the movie was named Jack Crow, as was one of the characters in ARMOR. What is the connection? >>



Vampire$ is set after Armor, but Steakley doesnt elaborate on the Antwar, except that Felix owns a bar called the &quot;Antwar&quot;. Vampire$ does have a bit about Felix saving Jack's butt down on the border, Jack flashes back to that and realizes that Felix is the guy his vampire team needs, a gunman.
I think there is mention that they were involved in the Antwar together. I dont think Steakley put much thought into building a timeline continuity between the two books. Or if he did, I didnt see it. Still, two great reads....

 

[LadyNiniane]

Offline to the forums over the weekend, so I'm late getting back in here.

datalink7, you might try Job: A Comedy of Justice, or better yet, Friday. Then go back and find as many of Heinlein's old &quot;juveniles&quot; as you can (those were short novels written specifically for the youth/school library trade, published originally by Simon &amp; Schuster). Podkayne of Mars is great, as is Red Planet (and try to get copies of the old and the new versions - the differences related to what was considered to be &quot;acceptable&quot; behavior and actions for girls vs. boys then and now are rather telling...).

IIRC, Grumbles from the Grave gives a complete list of his published works, as well as offering information about old vs. new versions of several of them. (Podkayne, Red Planet, The Puppet Masters, and Stranger are the ones that show significant differences.)

And I was asked a question offline about the McCaffery Pern series, which answer I will repeat (in part) here. If you are not familiar with Pern, you need to start with The Dragonriders of Pern, a trilogy that includes Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. If you can also lay hands on the Harper Hall trilogy as well (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums), so much the better. (It's out of print, but available through the usual used book sources.)

Those six books define the Pern universe - all of the rest are pre-history or add-ons, and do make assumptions about your basic knowledge of all that is Pern.

Happy reading!

Edit: I own at least one copy of everything sci-fi RAH has written that was published in book form over the years. (That includes just about all of it; there may be one or two short stories that never made it to book format, but my library pretty well matches the list from Grumbles.) I'm happy.

Lady Niniane

 

[RossGr]

Naturally, Anything by Azmiov, Hienlien, Niven &amp; Pornelle,

A couple by Niven and/or Pornelle (maybe just one of them) that has not been mentioned is &quot;Integral Trees&quot; and &quot;Smoke Ring&quot; Both of these are execellent SciFi.

My vote for best SciFi writers would go to Niven and Pornelle, Yes even better then gods Azimov and Hienlien

 

[Brutuskend]

&quot;The Jesus Incident&quot;
&quot;The Lazarus Effect&quot;
Both by Frank Herbert
There is a third in the set, started by Herbert but finished by someone else after his death. Not as good, but OH WELL.

Anything by Herbert

Though I've read most of the other authors mentioned here.

 

[SendTrash]

I like the Star Wars novels.. the ones with stories not in the movies... I just like the idea of reading up and imaging what happened to the gang after return of jedi

 

[paruhd0x]

Timeline

 

[datalink7]

Thanks to LadyNiniane and mcveigh for the suggestions!

Also, just to let some people know, LOTR is not a Sci-Fi book. It is from the Fantasy Genre. Same thing with, in general, books about wizards, dragons, castles, etc.

 

[AaronP]

Choose Your Own Adventure #36 : Space Patrol