What are some good science fiction books?

[Lemurakk]

I just finished Roadside Picnic and really enjoyed it so i'm interested in finding some other good scifi novels. I have also read the Maze Runner series when I was a teenager which I enjoyed, specially the world, shitty writing aside; and I have read Asiimov and Phillip K. Dick too but found those to be boring af.

 

[DuckofDoom]

I highly recommend some of Dan Simmons sci fi books, especially Hyperion and Ilium. If you enjoy Hyperion, the other three books in the series are also good reads. Ilium is possibly one of my favorite books and I highly recommend it. Its sequel, Olympos, however, is harder to recommend.
I know you said that you found Philip K Dick boring, and honestly, I've found several of his books to be absolute snooze-fests. If you wanted to give him another shot though, I'd recommend you try reading Ubik, as it is fairly short and I found it to be his most engaging read.

 

[Lemurakk]

I highly recommend some of Dan Simmons sci fi books, especially Hyperion and Ilium. If you enjoy Hyperion, the other three books in the series are also good reads. Ilium is possibly one of my favorite books and I highly recommend it. Its sequel, Olympos, however, is harder to recommend.
I know you said that you found Philip K Dick boring, and honestly, I've found several of his books to be absolute snooze-fests. If you wanted to give him another shot though, I'd recommend you try reading Ubik, as it is fairly short and I found it to be his most engaging read.

Thanks! I'll definitely check out Hyperion, looks pretty good. As for Ubik I did actually read that one and liked it, it has a lot of wasted potential imo, the world was pretty interesting and the characters too, shame it was so short. It actually led me to check out some of his other books, but they were straight up wastes of time.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Frank Herbert's "Dune" is the greatest scifi story of all time.

As for other recommendations, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell are good. The "Mote in God's Eye," "Lucifer's Hammer," and "Ringworld" were all good stories. I'd also recommend Michael Crichton if you haven't read his stuff already. Start with "Jurassic Park" of course, but "The Andromeda Strain" is also one of my favorite scifi stories.

As for Dick and Asimov, I guess it depends what you read. I enjoyed Asimov's "I, Robot," and Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and "Minority Report," for what it's worth.

 

[Grub]

I'll throw in another recommendation for the Hyperion series, it's really good. I'd also recommend the Riverworld series by Philip José Farmer. Also, Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny is a neat little time travel story I enjoyed.

 

[PHILLIP BANKS]

quality thread

 

[Butterschmalz]

Dune as mentioned. I read the first 3 of the whole series. Good stuff.
Not the biggest fan of Sci Fi though.
...
And Robert Heinleins Starship Troopers was enjoyable.

 

[Ken Barlow]

Would fully recommend the Red Dwarf series of novels.

• Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
• Better Than Life
• Backwards

All can be read over a weekend and are available through perfectly legal means.

Spastic Clock Edit: Audio books can be found below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIJOw5ojSrlf4WK-5ZUY7Tv4H5i05-saW

 

[Table Country]

Gaunt's Ghosts is definitely not boring, though a lot of people turn their nose up at 40k so your mileage may vary. I liked Metro 2034 too, though it's pretty light on the science side of science fiction.

 

[Epoch]

Frank Herbert's "Dune" is the greatest scifi story of all time.

I don't get why people recommend dune as sci-fi, although it technically is, its much more science-fantasy really. I barely made it through the book because I just found the politics boring.

"Ringworld"

The first and maybe second books are good, but in the 3rd the dude just started writing fanfiction about little girls having sex with everything (including giants) for some reason. Had to drop it after that.

I recommend Arthur C. Clarke's stuff, he ignores the 'boring' stuff and writes sci-fi that focuses on the larger story instead of characters, so if that's an issue just warning. I really enjoyed 'Rendezvous with Rama', it really feels like an adventure. Can't recommend the sequels that came after though, they ruined the mystery and just feel like a slog to read compared to the first.

Another series that skirts the line as being sci-fi, but is similar to Roadside Picnic is the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer (hes a woke cuck on twitter, just warning, doesn't come across in his work though). They are less sci-fi, more similar to weird fiction in the vein of Lovecraft, specifically 'The Color out of Space'. It's basically a story about exploring the unknown, with a very good interpretation of an alien, which is so different from us that we can't comprehend it.

'Gateway' by Frederik Pohl is something sort of in the vein of Roadside Picnic, in that its about exploring the remnants left behind of aliens, but used as a tool to explore the galaxy. Has more characterization and presents some interesting concepts.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

If you want pulp-y zap gun space adventure Captain Future was a fun series

 

[Table Country]

I recommend Arthur C. Clarke's stuff, he ignores the 'boring' stuff

Childhood's End notwithstanding.

 

[Epoch]

Childhood's End notwithstanding.

exception not the rule. Although the concept is interesting

 

[Jibbers Cribbers]

Your best choice of science fiction would be:
1984
Fahrenheit 451
Animal Farm
Brave New World
The Camp of the Saints
The Day of the Rope (unfinished)
Atlas Shrugged
The Fountainhead
The Martian Chronicles
Anything by Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury or Huxley would be of exceptional value to your genre.