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butlerian
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Location: Korea
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 Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:02 am Post subject: Greatest Science Fiction Books/Authors of All Time |
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Here's my top five:
Frank Herbert - Dune
George Orwell - 1984
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Ben Bova - Orion
Asimov - Foundation
My Master's thesis was partly based on ways in which science-fiction novels can help us to predict the future of globalisation and it's effect on politics and culture. I'm always on the look-out for new and interesting books... |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:05 am Post subject: |
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Dude, theres just no question:
Stanislaw Lem - Solaris
The best Sci fi novel ever written. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:52 am Post subject: Sci Fi |
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HG Wells
Steven King (yes, I know his forte was 'horror' but he also wrote good Apocalyptic fiction sci fi crossover too)
John Wyndham. The Day of the Triffids
Harlan Ellison He wrote the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek. He's also credited with inspiring James Cameron's 'Terminator'
I recall reading a novel, decades ago, as a child, that had the plot of a crack in the world caused by a nuclear bomb, & most of the world's oceans drained into it, & changed the global climate. Did a quick google search, but only found the 1960''s movie.
Last edited by chris_J2 on Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:32 am; edited 1 time in total |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:53 am Post subject: Re: Greatest Science Fiction Books/Authors of All Time |
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| butlerian wrote: |
Here's my top five:
Frank Herbert - Dune
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Asimov - Foundation
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I liked all of Herbert's Dune novels. He also wrote some freaky stuff about a water world that I seem to remember enjoying a lot. His son has just pissed all over the Dune series with this prequels.
Card's Ender's Game is great along with the two or three follow ons.
Foundation (first three) are great. The fourth was okay. The rest just stunk.
David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series is pretty amazing.
http://www.amazon.com/Chung-Kuo-Kingdom-David-Wingrove/dp/0440613868
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Kuo
Never read Wheel of Time. I think it's pretty funny the author died shortly before he was to come out with the final book. The series seems to have attracted a weird die hard following. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:08 am Post subject: |
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I recall most enjoying the four books of J. L. Chalker's:
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| The series takes place for the most part in a solar system with several planets, including four habitable (and inhabited) ones... the four habitable planets were in a rare conjunction with each as the point of a diamond pattern. Each of these planets is named for a mythological figure, Charon, Lilith, Cerberus, and Medusa, and each novel takes place primarily on one of these four worlds. Each planet is ultimately ruled by a single individual, although their political systems vary. It is from these four lords that the series takes its name. |
I remember finding it so cool that one person had to transport himself literally into the body of four different people, one on each planet, one a woman too, and we get to see how his personality, decision making, life is altered based on the environment he finds himself in (though he has a mission he's pursuing on each planet, an overarching plotline that works well). |
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pastis
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:25 am Post subject: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/posting.php?mode=editpost&am |
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Asimov is a giant. I liked the Foundations, but always thought the Robot series was better (ie. the main trilogy with Elijah Baley and Daneel, or whatever the name is).
Philip K. Di-ck is another obvious one, but I've only read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (been meaning to read more of his for awhile).
Last edited by pastis on Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:55 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:42 am Post subject: Re: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/posting.php?mode=editpos |
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| pastis wrote: |
| Philip K. Di-ck is another obvious one, but I've only read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (been reading to read more of his for awhile). |
I also love Dick. I'd recommend (in no particular order):
The Man in the High Castle (alternative history in which the Axis won WWII)
VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth (both semiautobiographical novels about schizophrenic delusion)
A Scanner Darkly (about the War on Drugs) |
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soju pizza
Joined: 21 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:57 am Post subject: Re: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/posting.php?mode=editpos |
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| Son Deureo! wrote: |
I also love Dick. |
Well, I'm glad we got that out of the way.
Asimov. Phillip K. Dick. Herbert. Piers Anthony. Wells. |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:05 am Post subject: |
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Arthur C. Clarke was an excellent idea man.
Which was good since, like his peers, most of his plots existed to hang the ideas on. |
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butlerian
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:06 am Post subject: |
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Honourable mentions:
Iain M. Banks - the Culture novels, in particular Consider Phlebas.
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Joe Haldeman - The Forever War |
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arjuna
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:18 am Post subject: Re: Greatest Science Fiction Books/Authors of All Time |
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| butlerian wrote: |
| I'm always on the look-out for new and interesting books... |
I did this last week already. 
Olaf Stapledon - Star Maker, Last and First Men
Walter M Miller Jr. - A Canticle for Leibowitz
Italo Calvino - Cosmicomics |
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soju pizza
Joined: 21 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:19 am Post subject: |
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Adams bugs me. He's a cult favorite and a mainstream heavyweight, but his books annoy me. The style gets old fast. Especially later on in his career.
Banks, there's a man just a bit ahead of his time I think. He's awesome.
Honorable mention goes to Carl Sagan, and I want to put 7 names in mine to include Clarke and Banks. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:23 am Post subject: |
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I'll second the Stanislaw Lem mention. There are a whole slew of Russians who wrote under the Stalinist yolk and produced amazing science fiction and film (Tarkovsky most notably who also did Lem's Solaris in film). Even the contemporary writers, like Lukyanenko are far superior than anyone writing sci fi in the west.
Stranger in a strange land must be near the top, without a doubt. Robert Heinlein's Magnum opus .
DD |
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soju pizza
Joined: 21 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:25 am Post subject: |
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| This should be a top ten list |
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Hyeon Een
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:40 am Post subject: |
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| twg wrote: |
Arthur C. Clarke was an excellent idea man.
Which was good since, like his peers, most of his plots existed to hang the ideas on. |
That pedo who likes young Sri Lankan boys?
(kinda kidding, it was never proven..)
Oh yeah he came up with the idea of geo-synchronous Sateillites as a useful tool and helped develop radar into a useful tool though. Which is nice.
Last edited by Hyeon Een on Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:55 am; edited 1 time in total |
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