|
Favourite Science Fiction Book
|
|
| Marcus | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 01:12 | Message # 1 |
|
Astronaut
Group: Users
United Kingdom
Messages: 44
Status: Offline
| This thread is here to share thoughts and opinions on sci-fi books you may have enjoyed or disliked.
My favourite has to be Red Dwarf, then Hitchhiker's. Both are freaking awesome imo!
AMD Phenom II x4 960T @3.6GHz
8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Kingston Hyper X Blu
MSi R6850 Cyclone 1GD5 950MHz Core 1150MHz Mem
Gigabyte GA-880GM USB 3 motherboard AM3+
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 01:51 | Message # 2 |
 Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| I'm not sure if I can pick a single favorite. I'm drawing a blank and forgetting a lot of books that I've read, but I'll try to name a few. I'll add more as I remember them.
Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Contact by Carl Sagan
Ringworld by Larry Niven
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Green Mars (my favorite of the Mars trilogy) by Kim Stanley Robinson
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
For some reason, I can't pick between great sci-fi books. I could easily name one or two favorite fantasy books, but good sci-fi all runs together for me.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
Edited by HarbingerDawn - Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 10:55 |
| |
| |
| pebble | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 02:34 | Message # 3 |
 Astronaut
Group: Users
United States
Messages: 76
Status: Offline
| I love so many books. But here are some favorites.
Contact by Carl Sagan
Everything John Varley ever wrote
The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
William Gibson's cyberpunk stuff
Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
The books The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, and Always Coming Home by Ursula LeGuin
Frank Herbert's Dune series
The books Blood Music, Eon, and Eternity by Greg Bear
Up The Walls Of The World by James Tiptree, Jr. (pen name of Alice Sheldon)
The War Of The Worlds and The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Last and First Men, and The Star-Maker, by Olaf Stapledon
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The John Grimes novels set on the galactic rim, by A. Bertram Chandler
And about a thousand other books.
|
| |
| |
| Joey_Penguin | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 03:24 | Message # 4 |
 Pioneer
Group: Users
United States
Messages: 311
Status: Offline
| I haven't read that many, but I'd have to say Expedition, by Wayne Barlowe. It's what got me so interested in space and alien life 
Careful. The PLATT Collective has spurs.
|
| |
| |
| Antza2 | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 10:03 | Message # 5 |
 World Builder
Group: Global Moderators
Finland
Messages: 1049
Status: Offline
| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Algebraist.
Go to antza2.deviantart.com for cool photos!
|
| |
| |
| apenpaap | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 10:24 | Message # 6 |
 World Builder
Group: Users
Antarctica
Messages: 1063
Status: Offline
| I have a hard time picking a single favourite sci-fi book, but Arthur C. Clarke's are probably my favourites:
The 2001 series by Arthur C. Clarke, particularly 2010: Odyssey Two are really great, and I love their more or less realistic depiction of spaceflight and their view of the future Solar System (Well, past Solar System in the case of the first two books by now :o)
Rendez-Vous With Rama, also by Arthur C. Clarke, is wonderfully mysterious, and again, I love its depiction of the future Solar System, which I can only hope reality will be similar to; as well as a realistic way humanity might have First Contact with an alien species and a beautiful, unexpected ending that really puts us in our place. Too bad Clarke never wrote any sequels to it.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
|
| |
| |
| SpaceEngineer | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 10:26 | Message # 7 |
 Author of Space Engine
Group: Administrators
Russian Federation
Messages: 4800
Status: Offline
| I like all Arthur C. Clarke books, espetially Rendezvous With Rama and The Space Odyssey series.
Our Russian sci-fi writer Vasili Golovachov also writes good books, I shuold mention The Vague Time ("Смутное время") series - The Scourge of Times ("Бич времен") and its sequels. I am not sure if English translation of these books available.
I want to read Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy, but there are no Russian translation available, so sad ((
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 10:41 | Message # 8 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Quote (SpaceEngineer) I want to read Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy, but there are no Russian translation available
That is very unfortunate. It is such a great, popular, and successful trilogy of books, and Russian is a widely spoken language. I'm surprised that there is no translation. Hopefully they make one someday...
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
| apenpaap | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 10:42 | Message # 9 |
|
World Builder
Group: Users
Antarctica
Messages: 1063
Status: Offline
| Ugh, I know how annoying that can be, a few years ago I could almost never find Dutch translations of sciene-fiction. So I was forced to read them in English; though in the end that turned out well, as I speak English like a native nowadays and even prefer to read in English.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 10:47 | Message # 10 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Thank you guys for reminding me! Possibly my favorite sci-fi book of all time is "Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne. One of my long-term goals is to learn to read French fluently and read the book in its native language 
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
| Aerospacefag | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 15:51 | Message # 11 |
 Pioneer
Group: Users
Russian Federation
Messages: 401
Status: Offline
| In my computer, I have a huge library in my native language(several GB of .txt and .doc files) that I've got somewhere in my local net several years ago. I never bought any sci-fi book in my life 
In general, I do not have a favorite book of any author, I just enjoying every story in a new universe. And I terribly hate any fantasy stories.
My favorite writer (apart from Strugatsky brothers from USSR) is Clifford Simac, I even downloaded a collection of books in English to read them in the original.
Ray Bradbury
Larry Niven's "Known Space"
Arthur C. Clarke's works
Isaac Asimov "The Caves of Steel"
Victor Pelevin and Sergey Lukyanenko - from my country
"Doorways in the sand", "Coils" by Roger Zelazny
"The Postman" by David Brin
"The Invincible" by Stanisław Lem
"Passage at Arms" Glen Cook
And "Contact", of course, too - before last year, I've never thought that apart from movie there's original book.
By the way, William Gibson is one of my latest discoveries.
|
| |
| |
| pebble | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 17:26 | Message # 12 |
|
Astronaut
Group: Users
United States
Messages: 76
Status: Offline
| Quote (apenpaap) Rendez-Vous With Rama, also by Arthur C. Clarke, is wonderfully mysterious, and again, I love its depiction of the future Solar System, which I can only hope reality will be similar to; as well as a realistic way humanity might have First Contact with an alien species and a beautiful, unexpected ending that really puts us in our place. Too bad Clarke never wrote any sequels to it.
You're in luck. There actually are sequels to Rama. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama They were written by Gentry Lee with Clarke as copilot. I haven't read them, myself. I have heard they're not quite as good, but your mileage may vary.
Edited by pebble - Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 17:27 |
| |
| |
| apenpaap | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 18:31 | Message # 13 |
|
World Builder
Group: Users
Antarctica
Messages: 1063
Status: Offline
| http://xkcd.com/566/ 
In all seriousness, yes, I have read Rama II and thought it was bloody awful, which is why I specified sequels written by Clarke. I prefer to think of those sequels as pieces of author-approved fanfiction, really.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
|
| |
| |
| Talyn | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 18:47 | Message # 14 |
 Explorer
Group: Users
Portugal
Messages: 207
Status: Offline
| Quote (apenpaap) as pieces of author-approved fanfiction
I'm affraid I have to correct you there my friend
The book Rama II was written by Clarke and Lee on an e-mail cooperation
Granted the book looks and feels "bellow average" for a Clarke book. But the fact is that the book Rama II acts as a launch pad for the next 2 books, creating the much needed background for all the characters.
Try to get past that awfull feeling you get when readind it, make an effort and then go for the last 2, and I promisse you won't be disapointed. I loved the way he finnished the series but I will not talk about it here 
Edit: On the book Rama II, you can actually tell who wrote each chapter by the style alone. I felt that the ones written by Clarke were far easier to read the the ones by Lee
PC: Intel Core2Duo E6850 @ 3.00 GHz & 4GB DDR3 @ 1333 - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS with 640 MB VRAM
Laptop: Intel Core2Duo T9400 @ 2.53 GHz & 4 GB DDR @ 1066 - NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Edited by Talyn - Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 19:05 |
| |
| |
| SpaceEngineer | Date: Tuesday, 07.08.2012, 19:00 | Message # 15 |
|
Author of Space Engine
Group: Administrators
Russian Federation
Messages: 4800
Status: Offline
| Quote (pebble) You're in luck. There actually are sequels to Rama. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama They were written by Gentry Lee with Clarke as copilot. I haven't read them, myself. I have heard they're not quite as good, but your mileage may vary.
I have read them. Well, Rama II is very boring, first half or 2/3 of it may be skipped without harm to one's understanding. But the next two books are pretty nice - interstellar flight, well described aliens and their culture...
So you may read the content of Rama II somewhere on wiki for example and start reading Rama III.
*
|
| |
| |
ENG
New site
United Kingdom 
United States 
Finland 
Antarctica 
Russian Federation 
Portugal