2001: A Space Odyssey

Interesting, I actually watched the final 10 minutes of the film a few minutes ago. I almost get the sense that it is a bit dated? Wikipedia does not seem to answer this question, care to elaborate on the book?

The novel and film script for 2001 were written simultaneously by the great Arthur C. Clarke. The screenplay was altered by Stanley Kubrick to be much more vague and pretentious, as was his "artistic" style. The less you tell, the more of an artistic genius you seem right? If you liked the movie you should really check out the novel. It is far superior and doesn't have the ambiguities that mask the movies purpose. The space-gate chapter was incredible!

Clarke wrote three more novels to extend the Odyssey story, which were quite good as well.

This. Only read the first two parts (2001&2010) and I greatly enjoyed both of them. Also recommended: H.G.Wells - The Time Machine.

Like anon said, 2061 and 3001 aren't up to par with the first two novels. However, they're worth reading if you want closure on the story. Check out Rendezvous with Rama. It's even better than 2001 imo.

The last 2 odyssey books are terrrrrrible. 2001 and 2010 are really good, but don't bother with 2061 or 3001. Waste of your time. Clarke in his older age went way downhill. Definitely stay away from the latter 2 odyssey books. Outside of that, the only good Arthur Clarke is Rendezvous with Rama. Check out the Foundation trilogy by Asimov. IMO it's all that's worth reading by him since I'm not into robots (if you like robots, you will LOVE Asimov--so many fucking robot books;if you don't like robots, the foundation trilogy is all he has that's really worthwhile). The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (if you like it, try Stranger in a Strange Land or Starship Troopers). And that's really it for the "big 3" of the golden age of sci-fi. If you're looking for more epic space operas, check out some Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space, House of Suns, Chasm City. If you're willing to read it, check out Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. It's very long, but epic as hell. Also, the Void trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Both very awesome if you're willing to dive into it. I haven't personally read any Vernor Vinge, but I've heard really great things about A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, and Marooned in Realtime. The Forever War is another I haven't read but hear amazing things about. Iain Banks' culture series is INCREDIBLE. If you're willing to put in the time, you will be greatly rewarded. I'm about to read The Wasp Factory by him also, and I've heard it's pretty violent so hooray! The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursela K. Leguin are pretty good. Stay away from Paul McAuley, he's no good. :P

Give Dune a try if you want something a little more fantastical. Perdido Street Station and The Scar by China Mieville are also really fun reads, and extremely well-written (he's writing a space opera next). If you like Mieville, check out some Jeff VanderMeer: Finch, City of Saints and Madmen, Veniss Underground, Third Bear. He's awesome, very readable. Check out some Harlan Ellison. He's got more short story collections than anyone I know, and they're insane and just awesome. If you like Harlan Ellison, check out Lafferty's The Fourth Mansions. It's trippy. And definitely check out J.G. Ballard's Crash, High Rise, and The Drowned World. Check out Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity's Rainbow. Definitely check out Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. It's crazy--the good crazy. Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is really good, too. If you like Faulkner, you should check out Cormac McCarthy. I would read No Country for Old Men and then his masterpiece, Blood Meridian, and if you like them then check out The Road (most polarized of his works--you either love it or you hate it). Child of God, Outer Dark, Suttree, and The Border Trilogy are also really good if you decide that you like McCarthy, but definitely start with Blood Meridian or No Country. You'll see Faulkner's influence in a lot of his work as well. I'd stay away from the classics unless you were really into literature. A lot of it is realllllly well-written, reallllly boring stuff (James Joyce...). Kafka is interesting, but Camus is much more compelling. And if you read Camus, don't even bother with Sartre. Maybe some Tolstoy (War and Peace. In keeping with the Russians, after Tolstoy try Dostoevsky's The Idiot, Crime and Punishment, or Notes from the Underground. House of the dead is pretty meh, and I've never touched Devils (Demons). But the best Russian writer there is or ever was... Nabakov! Despair, Lolita, Invitation to a Beheading. They're all great. Anton Chekov's short stories are really good. Knut Hamsun's Hunger and Growth of the Soil are both incredible and well-worth the time/money/library trip/whatever. Phillip Roth is really good. The Dying Animal and The Human Stain are both excellent. Labyrinths by Jorge Borges is realllllly good if you get into short stories. I've never read A Hundred Years of Solitude but others swear by it. Same goes for Master and Margarita.

It's not really sci-fi, but I was really affected by Johnny Got His Gun. If you like the war/anti-war genre, check out The Things They Carried, and The Painted Bird. I've never read Thin Red Line before, but it sounds alright. City of thieves, war-themed, but never read it; hear good things though. Don't waste your time with Catch-22. Save yourself the time and skip it.

Whatever you do, stay away from Neil Gaiman and William Gibson. William's Gibson's style is so uneven and boring it will put you to sleep. His writing is also painfully dated. And Gaiman is for kids. :P And Palahniuk is for an even younger audience! Or at least his writing would make you think so.

If you like Dune and decide you want to scratch more of a fantasy itch, the only thing you need to read is A Song of Fire and Ice series. That's really the only fantasy series worth reading. Considered by far the best fantasy to date. You may as well not continue with Dune since Herbert died and left the series unfinished. And whatever you do, don't read anything from his son, Brian Herbert. It's just bad, and a blemish on the good Dune name. Everything Frank wrote was good, just it's unfinished and will leave you dying for more.

Don't read Snow Crash or Neuromancer. Altered Carbon is good if you get the craving for some cyberpunk. Save yourself the boredom. Also, a lot of people like Hyperion and the Ender series (Ender's game, etc.) but I've never read either so I can't personally vouch for them but the Ender series sounds completely stupid and Hyperion actually sounds fairly interesting. Lord of Light by Zelanzy is pretty good, and Dhalgren by Sam Delaney is good too. A Canticle for Leibowitz is worth reading. American Psycho is extremely repetitive but if you can get past that, it's got its moments. Murakami may be considered "hipster" material, but I thought Norwegian Wood was fantastic. Most consider Wind-Up Bird Chronicle his best, but the English translation is missing entire chapters, so... yeah. William Burroughs' Junky is really good. If you know what to expect going into Naked Lunch, it's good. And if you like more of his cut-up style, he's got a lot more. If you're looking for some short reads, check out Nadja and Paris Peasant. Steppenwolf is really good. Check it out. Some people think Infinite Jest is a modern-day masterpiece, so I'm waiting to tackle it.

If you want some horror, stay away from King od Koontz. Just pick up some Jack Ketchum to get you warmed up and then move on to Edward Lee books and Poppy Z Brite's Excquisite Corpse. Crazy stuff. Not written very well, but they're pretty intense/gory. :D

I tried to give you a taste of everything so you can see what you like and go from there. Hope this helps! Happy reading!

Holy balls, that is quite an elaborate reply. Thanks so much. I think i will go with the Culture series.

As for the non sci fi; already wasted my time with Catch-22, and Nabakov's books are on my wishlist.

Just gonna say 2 things :
. avoid Snow Crash like the plague, it's a fucking comics stretched over 500pages and the real interesting stuff is completely different than the 400 pages surrounding it.( like some ultra cheap movies made out of 2-3 other movies with bs telephone scenes to link the different parts )
. read Neuromancer. yeah, Gibson is uneven but this one isn't outdated at all ( it does sound a bit naive though but that was 25+ years ago. )

yeah that was off topic but I couldn't let someone say you should skip reading Neuromancer :D

Man! Never seen so many Snow Crash haters in one place! WHAT! That book was fucken unbelievably good considering how common bad books are in the sci-fi genre. Only a few writers really rise above the negative stigma associated with sci-fi and Stephenson is one of those writers.

I'm not that much of a book reader anymore so most of the sci-fi stuff I read comes straight out from the bookshelves of my father, who started his collection around 40 years ago. And France has a pretty weird story with the whole sci-fi genre so I may have a strange view on it.

Yeah culture!!!

Fantastic reads.

Quite often he spends the first half of the book explaining and creating the culture universe, all the while there are around 4 parallel plots running, and the end of the book is just epic. I just loved excession, the algebraist, and the player of games.

I've read every one, and enjoyed them all. Apart from maybe the last one, it was just a bit dissapointing :(

But yeah I heartily recommend the culture series of novels :)

Rendezvous with Rama was definitely Clarke's best work. It was immersive and adventurous. Odyssey fan's should check out Clarke's short story "The Sentinel", which was the basis for 2001.

I do not grok this: "Don't read Snow Crash or Neuromancer."

I couldn't disagree more. Snow Crash is epic and so intricately detailed you feel as though Stephenseon has been their himself -- its one of those rare books I've read where I get the distinct feeling this guy could've written a 10-volume series with the content packed between Snow Crash's narrow covers. And GIbson's style of writing is fantastic in Neuromancer as well as the book was wayyyy ahead of it's time. Maybe not these days with all the many knock-offs there are, but I advise anyone who enjoys scifi to pickup Neuromancer. Both these books are on my short list for top scifi.

I probably haven't read as much as you in the sci-fi genre (mostly PKD, Herbert, Heinlein, SIlverburg, Gibson, Stephenson, Card, and of course Clarke and Asimov), but sci-fi is really one of those genres where writers really enjoy (probably too much) what they write but often because of this its a sacrifice of content over substance (and this is typically the "harder" scifi).

One of the few, I think, unheard of legends in scifi/fantasy that no one (it seems) has read is Gene Wolfe. Not only is he a top-class writer (in ANY genre, not just scifi/fantasy) but all his writings have a distinctly ancient, earthy and epic feeling that makes me feel like I'm reading something thats a cross between HP Lovecraft and Homer (see: Book of the Long Sun series or the Latro series).

Snow Crash is so poorly-written I just couldn't enjoy it. Maybe if it had been something more original, and less childish, I could have looked past his awful writing, but it wasn't. Anyone well-read in cyberpunk won't find anything new in Snow Crash, just elementary writing. And Neuromancer may have been ahead of its time when it was written, but now days, anyone who knows anything about computers and networking will read Neuromancer and think it's just stupid. And I still maintain that Gibson's writing is uneven and lots of times boring in that book. But that's just my opinion, and yours is your own, and that's fine. At least we can all come together and be nerds and talk about sci-fi books! :)))) <3

Not quite sure why you hate on Stephenson but then suggest Heinlein (who, self-admittedly, wrote his books for a more "common" reader in the same McDonald's way that King/Koontz write)... But okay. We are entitled to our opinions, regardless of how ill-informed we are or however much we attempt to mislead or misrepresent books when giving people advice on what to read.

Gene Wolfe is quite simply unique, no-one writes like he does. One of the best contemporary American writers.

I almost forgot one of the best books I ever read! Journey to the End of the Night. Death on the Installment Plan (Death on Credit) is supposedly really good too, but I can't find it at the library.

Also, I second everyone saying Dune and Iain Banks' Culture series. And Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds. But whoever said Ender's Game, don't listen to them. You'll thank me. Phillip K Dick is alright sci-fi, but not space opera. A lot more trippy sci-fi about identity and reality. Cool stuff, but I find is writing pretty substandard at times. A Scanner Darkly is baller though. :) He's good entry level sci-fi.

And again, if you decide you get into Dune, listen to tBone and stay away from his son's work. It's just awful.

Correction: PKD's earlier, pre-schizophrenic stuff is easy scifi. His later stuff (the VALIS series) is unbelievably strange (and tragic knowing that this man was losing his mind at this point in his life).

Frank Herbert - Dune ( scifi equivalent to Lord of the Rings )
I think reading only the first part of the series is enough. The sequels are not nearly as good as the first one.

Thanks, it seems to be one of those books that always come up in book conversations.

The first 2 volumes were pretty good, the rest of the bunch is way overrated imo.

Agreed. The first one is really great, the second one is average/somewhat good, the third one I didn't like, and I didn't read the rest.

I would say that the first 6 books (written by Frank Herbert) are worth reading. My favourite one is the 4th one, for example. However I would recommend staying away from anything written by his son. They are terrible. (And I have read them.)

God Emperor of Dune is my favourite too. The sheer scale/scope of it is so insane!

Narcissists in Action: Jamerio

I said I had enough non fiction. :P

I think you'll find most things to do with Jamero are infact fiction

I think you'll find that the u-ni-verse pretty much covers...

http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html <-- one of my favorite short stories

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect was a pretty cool concept...
http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiidx.html

stupid multivac was far too late. if only it were overclocked..

scrolled down to last line, stupid story to impress christians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game_(series)

Agreed. Best scifi book ever, I can¨t understand how a nutty mormon with such dumb politic beliefs has written that.

wtf?
havent read anything about the author so far, maybe i should
the book are really great though anyway, very character driven for sci fi story

Yeah he's pro-every-war-by-bush and thinks homosexuality is a sin etc etc.

But agreed, Ender's game is like The fountainhead of sci-fi with one of the best endings ever. I haven't read any of the sequels but i have been meaning to read the speaker for the dead since forever.

i recommend reading the entire series
speaker for the dead is a lot different from the first book but its still great, xenocide good (only the second half was really interesting) and i am still reading children of the mind

will read up on the author, cause so far the books seemed to have a critical look on conflict and religion and i am kidna surprised ;)

I think you'll find most YA Science Fiction is character driven like Ender's Game. See Heinlein's early YA SF novels, Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker or John Scalzi's books for example.

YA ?

Young Adult.

I will have to try these out.

Have you tired banks? how to these compare to his stories? I love Banks.

I tried "The reality Dysfunction" by Peter Hamliton..... science fantasy is definitely not for me

It's very different.

Ender's Game is Young Adult SF and it shows, not that that's a bad thing but compared to Banks or Reynolds the scope is fairly limited. It's still a classic SF novel and a great read, and by virtue of being a YA novel it's a quick easy read.

I personally wouldn't recommend the sequels though.

Maybe try some Dean Koontz - it's sort of thriller science fiction. Downfall is a decent read.

Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F. Hamilton
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks

i tried to get into the "The reality Dysfunction" but the whole space whales/super ships thing was off-putting.

Does it get better? I prefer the more believable science fiction.

I might try the eve online inspired books

I wouldn't say believability is the strongest point for Peter F. Hamilton. For believability, you'd be better off looking into Hard SF rather than Space Opera. In the Hard SF genre, I'd recommend:

Mars Trilogy (best books about the colonization of Mars) - Kim Stanley Robinson
Schild's Ladder - Greg Egan
Revelation Space (and sequels) - Alastair Reynolds
Tau Zero - Poul Anderson

Those are good Science Fiction books, with for the most part fairly rigorous science behind the ideas.

I wouldnt reccomend Asimov. Nor anything labeled "idea-driven scifi". That term just means the author lacks writing and stroytelling skills and usually dont do any interesting character develpment at all. Like Lem. I have read most of this 60ies&70ies stuff and found it disappointing. Maybe its because of the translation (i read some contemporary russian scifi too, sucked as well) or maybe its because physicists usually just suck at writing fiction at all.

Philip K. Dick is an amazing author. Maybe start with his short stories, he has written dozens and dozens of them and at least half of them are absolutely great. They're very easy to read too, and I think starting with them is a good way to familiarize yourself with him before you start reading his novels. Two recurrent themes of his are "what makes one human?" (see for example his work "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" which became the movie Blade Runner) and "what is reality?". He's brilliant at exploring these themes. He's also notably written several post-WW3 short stories (after/during a war between the USSR and the US). I cannot stress enough how great of a writer I think he is.

while I agree that PKD is a great author, why would you recommend him when the request was for Space Opera type SF?

Yeah my bad I read "SF" and replied too fast. PKD did write some very interesting stories about mankind and space travel but I guess it's not exactly the kind of SF the OP is looking for.
The Hyperion/Endymion saga by Dan Simmons is not bad (although not amazing either imo, but it's still an entertaining read), and I liked the Foundation series by Asimov (the first half more than the second half and the prelude, which I recommend reading last).

Agreed on Hyperion/Endymion, really good series. I wasn't too impressed with Foundation, I never read it when I was young but read it for the first time recently, I felt it didn't age very well compared to modern science fiction.

Dune -- greatest space opera of all time

Yeah Dune is awesome, one of my favourite series of all time. Shame the writing is a bit clumsy in parts.

Yep yep The Man In The High Castle is a great read ^^

Nah i hated that from start to finish

overrated for sure.

I'm somewhat embarrassingly reading the book mogworld right now. It's the one written by the fella who does zero punctuation. It's alright so far.

I didn't read past the title btw soz

Don't worry Liam, <3

watch the movie, reading is bollox

why troll? =(

its piss boring unless its a popup book you can move the eyes n shit on dinosours or whatever

times better spent chain smoking and lifting some weights with a whiskey n ice

love you

you probably haven't try it in your adult life, i thought books was boring too when i was young but then i grew up.

Same here, just got into reading about 2 years ago. Now my bookshelf is full, about 60 books on my wishlist and now I want to explore new genres. Don't think I have wasted one second of my life. While I don't smoke, I do enjoy a whiskey with the reading every now and then. :)

So true =)

Reading is a habit and once you get into its awesome :D

Thanks for the recommendations so far.
Anyone familiar with the works of Jack Mcdevitt? His Academy series is intriguing.

hating on the Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy = blasphemy ban.

Not hating. Just not what I am looking for :)

BAN!

The Courtier and the Heretic -- very good if you're interested in philosophy and history. Charts the paths of two exceptional philosophers (Spinoza and Leibniz) and the book eventually culminates in their face to face meeting in 1676.

Nice, will consider that when I am again in the mood for some history and philosophy.

Isaac Asimov

Robots & Foundation series, the suggested reading order is there:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/links/cool_s...ding-order

Wow did not know about that reading list. Read Foundation when I was in school, total classic. I've got a bit of homework to do it seems lol

I disagree with that reading order (even though it's Asimov's), imo reading the Foundation prelude before the series will spoil a good deal of the content of the other books (the first ones of the series in particular).

Ian M Banks

Try Consider Phlebas first to ease you into the Culture.

Also you can try "The state of the Art" for some short stories and an introduction to Dizeit Sma who fucking owns :))

Banks paints images so vast in depth and scale you will need to re read certain passages to just grasp what he has imagined.

His new one comes out soon as well \o/

Sounds real interesting after a quick read on wikipedia. Think I will have a go with Consider Phlebas.

Yeah, can't wait for Surface Detail to come out!

Have you tried any Alastair Reynolds, I think you'd like Revelation Space.

yeah i'll give that a try :)

First chapter of Surface Detail was published as a preview today:
http://www.orbitbooks.net/surfacedetail/

my bro loves this guy, has loads of his books. I'm borrowing 'matter' off him at the mo but not started it yet.

its the worst one :(

the algebraist, excession, player of games, or pretty much any other culture book owns that one imo :(

I HATE that shell world...

The Dark Tower ofc

william gibson - neuromancer

great Space Opera right there! :P

ohh yeah :)

do you know if the other two books of the sprawl trilogy are worth reading (in comparison)?

I'd say they are purely because the last book, Mona Lisa Overdrive, was my favourite of the three, but I didn't really like Count Zero so YMMV.

Mass Effect story sucked. c:

I know, but I love the setting.

you could give the Star wars universe a shot, I guess. Not really "hard sci fi" but pretty easy reading, though.

Thrawn trilogy is probably the best of the bunch.

Neither is Mass Effect "hard sci-fi".

yes, but h asked for it and I thought I'd wrote the disclaimer before someone else does it for me ;)

I have never managed to get into Star Wars, but then I have only watched some of the films. I struggle to take it seriously or to really care about any of the characters, it is perhaps just too soft. The recent Stargate Universe I found quite enjoyable though. So something in that line I would enjoy more.

well, these books are quite a bit different from the movies.
And I think the main bad guy in this trilogy is one of the best examples of the evil mastermind. Sometimes, you end up hoping he wins cause his plans are just so awesome :D

I don't think you'll have a problem to take it seriously.

The Gap Cycle by Stephen Donaldson!

This looks promising, thanks.

Brilliant characters, really enjoyed what I've read from it. It's gritty and exciting!

Another favorite of mine is The Saga of The Exiles by Julian May. I think I've read the series about 4 times... Really can't say enough good things about it!

i rly enjoyed the BattleTech Bookseries back in the day. Definitly something to look into. Also last winter i read "His Dark Materials" from Phillip Pullman which consists of 3 rly good Books; 1. The Golden Compass 2. The Subtle Knife 3. The Amber Spyglass

Thanks people. Time to visit the library and bookshops.

Much <3

This thread is great

I had stopped reading books some years now, but now I made a list with 8 books from this thread that I want to read :)

Yup, much more to these ESR folks than spraying on GTV. :D

Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama
Pohl - Gateway
Stephenson - Snowcrash
Reynolds - Revelation Space
Haldeman - The Forever War
Niven / Pournel - The Mote in God's Eye
Vinge - Rainbows End
Clarke - Childhoods End
Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl
Simmons - Hyperion (don't bother with Endymon !)
Herbert - Dune (book 1+4 in particular)
Asimov - Foundation
Heinlein - Stranger in a strange land



^ Sci-fi books that I <3

Can anyone make any recommendations for me? Iain Banks isn't for me (although I've only read Consider, Phlebas and I didn't really enjoy it), I haven't really taken to any of Reynolds other books (they're good but not that good) and I'm really trying to avoid Hamilton's work (mainly thrown off by the covers + the blurbs on the back of his books..). I need some good sci-fi to read, help me ESR! :)

Try Jack McDevitt Academy series and report back. :D

Read the first need to read the others

working my way through the Hyperion books atm

Also whats up? long time no see

I somehow didn't like Gateway that much, although it's widely acclaimed. In case you're not only into space opera sci-fi I recommend you read some Philip K. Dick (I mentioned him earlier in the thread), starting with his short stories.

Neal Asher

Polity series - excellent space opera - welcome our machine overlords

Agent carmac (polity universe) - a good series and little to "hero" driven

Spatterjay (polity universe) - excellent concepts - good story driven series.

David Brinn - uplift novels - interesting story concept

i can also recommend alastiar reynolds - good stories if a little wordy.

Ugh, Neal Asher :(

I read - well, tried to anyway - Prador Moon, probably the most clunky, clumsily written book I've read in ages. I couldn't even finish it despite how short it is.

Richard Morgan is a much better writer.

The Forgotten soldier by Guy Sajer

If your into it this type of genre as described:

This devastating first-hand story of a young German soldier trapped in the lethal machinery of total war on the Eastern Front in World War II captures the real experience of modern war in all its shattering terror.

I recommend War & Peace, part II. There's nothing like warp-speed and lightsabers to exemplify the tragedy of war (and peace).

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
was a thoroughly enjoyable book and also one to make you think. I haven't read the other three in the series but have heard they aren't as good.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi
also a very enjoyable and easier read, not so much as one to inspire great thought but still entertaining. Read the sequels, not quite as good and he tried to get all philosophical and religious.

Anyone read anything by Ian McEwan? Apparently has a new novel out called "Solar." - "a satire about a man researching climate change." - maybe kind of relevant, and possibly even interesting?

Is there a metacritic or rottentomatoeslike site for books? Or even an imdb-like thing? I guess goodreads is kinda like imdb. But anything else? *aside from amazon of course*

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1771113

lulz

If you're looking for something like metacritic, there's http://www.sffmeta.com/ but it's strictly SF/F.
You mention goodreads, but I personally think the reviews on http://www.librarything.com are generally better.

Those are good sites. thanks

Too bad the first isn't more comprehensive. It's pure stupidity on part of the world if such a site does not exist.

i havent read much space opera, but the one i did read was enjoyable.

It was the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton. Its also quite hard scifi with lots of pewpew laser stuff and cool interesting tech. The beginning is really fun and he took a quite interesting take on the whole transport between different planets that i havent really seen in any other Sci-fi books that ive read.

also Hamilton loves to write so they are pretty large books, but i think its more or less exactly what your looking for.