[Closed] Can anyone reccomend a good Sci - Fi book?

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

One of my faves is "Whipping Star" by Frank Herbert - and his "Dosadi Experiment" is excellent too

Iain M Banks - The State of The Art. In fact any of his books!

Anything by Iain M Banks

A scanner darkly - Philip K Dick.....all his books were good.
Tiger tiger and The demolished man by Alfred Bester also worth seeking out.

Neuromancer.

The Gap Series by Stephen Donaldson. Get past the first book, the next four are top class. And the Hyperion books by Dan Simmons.

+1 for Iain M Banks, Consider Phlebas or Player of Games are both good starters, avoid Excession unless you're sure you like his writing!

Was looking for Tiger Tiger today in Waterstones, but didn't know the author's name...

Some interesting oldies if you can get them - Next of Kin or Prostho Plus (sorry, don't remember the authors, should be easy to find).

Fall of Moondust was a good Arthur C Clarke I read a while back, conventional enough survival story, but an interesting setting.

Stranger in a strange land - Robert Heinleim old classic ( just remember it was 1968)
+2 for Ian M banks modern classics.

Ender's Game is a classic, and most of the sequels are very good as well.

Richard Morgan's Kovacs books

Not read either of your favourites, but I'd read:

Rendevous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke
Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Clans of the Alphane Moon by Phillip K Dick
Vurt by Jeff Noon - not strictly Scifi, but odd enough and ace!

Only Forward, Spares and One of Us all by Michael Marshall Smith

Depending on taste,
Charlie Stross (Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise, Halting State, Accelerando, Glasshouse),
Ken Macleod (The Star Fraction, Execution Channel, The Night Session, Learning the World, The Engines of Light trilogy etc),
Alastair Reynolds (Century Rain, Revelation Space series),
Iain M Banks (Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, Against a Dark Background, Use of Weapons),
Michaal Marshall Smith (Spares, Only Forward),
Gary Gibson (Stealing Light).

All of them are very good, IMO, there are quite a lot of good British SF authors about as the mo (all of the above are Brits).

There are also the classic golden age authors, Heinlein (The Moon is a harsh mistress, Stranger in a strange land), Asimov ( the first 3 of the Foundation series, Robot series), Clarke, Philip K Dick, although the writing tends to be a bit variable.

David Brin's Uplift series is good as well, as is Greg Bear's Eon, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, Early JG Ballard, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling etc etc.

I read an awful of SF (and anything else really 😉 )

Edit: forgot Jeff Noon, he is very good, odd Mancunian cyberpunk.

Joe Haldeman's sequels to Forever War are absolutely atrocious, btw, give them a miss

David Brin's Uplift series is good as well

I've just decided to re-read that 🙂

Jack Vance is good if you like cheeky dialogue

I've just finished "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller, which was brilliant, and thought provoking.

I was immediately going to say The Forever War. Great book.

A

Jack Vance is good if you like cheeky dialogue

I don't read as much SF as I used to so don't have my finger on the pulse of the field. That being said, China Mieville is exceptional - easily the most impressive SF writer I've picked up in the last few years. [i]Perdido Street Station[/i] and [i]The Scar[/i] are just outstanding.

Gookin!

I can't work out if this is good or bad ?

I'd call China Mieville Fantasy more than SF, but if you like him, try Steph Swainston, she is writing fantasy with the same kind of grungy aesthetic.

The new Vance tribute book sounds interesting.

Thats a long list... I'll start with some of the classics i guess. Like Phillip K Dick, and Ian M Banks...

By the way, totally different genre, but i would highly reccomend reading 'Charlotte Gray' By Sebastian faulks, I just finished reading it a few minutes ago. Brilliant.

I enjoyed [URL= http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days?wasRedirected=true ]this[/URL] but and I'd agree with the suggestion above for "rendezvous with Rama" which I thought was great.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

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brilliant!

There is a lot of very 'obvious' and easy reading in those lists.
try a real classic, a great storey by a truly great author who knew how to craft a great novel:
'A Stranger in a strange land' or 'time enough for love' by robert hienlein.

emotionally and psychologically challenging but a strory a 15yr old could read. 😉

apologies for the spelling: too much blood in the winesteam....

'A Stranger in a strange land' or 'time enough for love' by robert hienlein.

unfortunately Heinlein turned into a prurient old man between writing these books

some great recommendations here.
Personally I'd go for, in order...

snow crash
consider phlebas.
Necromancer
The first ender's game, but the rest are not so good.
ringworld

edit: and to finish off

'A brave new world' is interesting, bit not brilliantly written.
Ditto 'farenheit 451'.

Heinlein can be a bit meh, to be honest, and he isn't all the great at characterisation, better than Asimov's cardboard cutouts*, but not fantastic. As SFB says, he did seriously lose the plot towards the end of his career, with his misogyny and "interesting" political ideas starting to get in the way of his ideas and stories.

A good writer for sure, and worth reading, as he, Asimov and Clarke were major influences on most of the writers that went after, even if they were reacting against them. He isn't a writer of the calibre of Ballard though.

*None of the classic authors were great writers, really, but their ideas and stories make up for it.

Consider Phlebas

its a great read

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein for sure, absolutely fantastic, I think if you liked the Forever War you'll love this. And Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner.

And then the holy trinity, Red Green and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Amazingly good. Lots of other good stuff already recommended, Banks, Stevenson, Ken Macleod...

Nobody recommended Richard Morgan yet?

Cities is Flight by James Blish is a very good read.

In fact have a look at most of the SF Masterworks series, lots of great books.

IMO you can't generally go wrong with Asimov/Clarke - must admit I haven't read much recent sci-fi. Interesting to see Demolished Man get a mention, that was one of my favourites (tho' I found another Bester - Golem100 a little disappointing, mebbe that's just me...)
Snow Crash is well worth picking up, if not for the corny joke about 'listening to reason'...

I cant believe nobody has mentioned the greatest SF writer of them all - Stanislaw Lem. Anything by him is superb but try 'Solaris' or 'His Masters voice'.

anything by iain banks

I can't really add much to that. However.

Peter Hamilton - quantum murder and others in that sequence,

Iain M Banks culture novels

Larry Niven Ringworld

i'd recommend "I Robot", think its by Asimov from memory, nothing like the rather pish film of the same name.

Obviously the hitch hikers guide, but I'm assuming you've read that already

I have read most of the Iain M Banks stuff and its all very good - read Excession three times -

Try Greg Bear - The Forge of God - that was a truly apocalyptic tale!

Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad is brilliant.
I'd forgotten about that.
And thanks for reminding me about Niven. The Mote in God's Eye - awesome.
Fred Pohl's Gateway is scarily brilliant.
+1 this entire thread

As advised, anything by Iain M Banks (my favourite is Look To Windward). His new novel 'Transition' under the name Iain Banks is also great with a strong sci fi element.
Also try the Commonwealth Saga' by Peter F Hamilton, a brilliant ongoing series made up of five books (four published so far) if you really want something to get your teeth into...

Definitely +1 for:
The Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
and
The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - it's like 'Jaws in Space'

I've not seen anything on this list I'd disagree with. But I'd add Niven's 'The Integral Trees', and anything by Roger Zelazny (although the Amber novels are more fantasy than Sci-Fi) - Roadmarks is my favourite. The Four Hyperion books by Dan Simmons are great, but 'Olympos' and whatever its companion was were disappointing by comparison. Iain M Banks culture novels are all brilliant, and I'm quite a fan of Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space books.

blip in the Matrix... premature launch...see next box....

Cor blimey! what a list, all of the above especially Iain M Banks, and most by William Gibson, his last book near/now future as opposed to Si Fi but oh so good, Alastair Reynolds, Greg Bear, P Hamilton, we have not had Orson Scott Card so far, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy was great... but really I am on here to log this list.... Amazon and my card will get hit later!!

"Peter Hamilton - quantum murder and others in that sequence"

Yeah, good recommendation that, seems to me that Hamilton started out decent and has got progressively worse as his books have got bigger 🙂 The Mandel ones were pretty good, then the Reality Dysfunction series had its good points and its bad point, but the latest thing is just a bit of a mess IMO. Far too many pointless parallel storylines, all they do is pad the things out and it's not like they were short in the first place.

we have not had Orson Scott Card

I saw Ender's Run mentioned...