Good SciFi Books?

I am suddenly getting into SciFi reading. I read Dune last summer and am looking to continue this summer. I am looking for the classics. I was thinking about:

More of the Dune series
The Illustrated Man - Bradbury
On the Beach - Nevil Shute
Neuromancer- William Gibson
Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
Something by Philip K. Dick (can’t decide)

Anything to add?

Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy

Starship Trooper (not at all like the movie)

(don’t laugh outright) Doom: Knee Deep in the Dead. Not a conventional classic, but a great book to me.

-Dan

Shadows over inssmouth,by H.P. Lovecraft.
This should scare you out of a years growth.

[quote]nolecat wrote:
I am suddenly getting into SciFi reading. I read Dune last summer and am looking to continue this summer. I am looking for the classics. I was thinking about:

More of the Dune series
The Illustrated Man - Bradbury
On the Beach - Nevil Shute
Neuromancer- William Gibson
Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
Something by Philip K. Dick (can’t decide)

Anything to add? [/quote]

Oo, I love good SF. Also try:

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick (Bladerunner is based on it)
I Am Legend by (someone I can’t remember)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Aasimov
Iain Banks also has some good books.
The Book of the New Sun (a series by Gene Wolfe) is awesome, but very, very strange.

There’s a lot lot more. Check out the Internet Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy list for a good guide (it has Fantasy too, though. Not sure if you’re interested in that as well).

Science Fiction is a pretty broad genre though. There are lots of types of science fiction. It’s really just a setting - not here, not now. You can have science fiction drama, science fiction action, science fiction comedy, science fiction mystery, science fiction thriller, etc. Some of the books you’re targetting are “science fiction,” but their style and topics are pretty different (I’m mostly thinking of On the Beach vs Neuromancer…both great books, but for different reasons, IMO).

foundation series by Isaac Asimov

[quote]morepain wrote:
foundation series by Isaac Asimov[/quote]

I forgot about the Foundation series. I read the first one last summer. Loved it. A bit hard to keep up with all of the characters, but a real smart read. How about the Robot series?

Does Slaughterhouse Five count as sci-fi?

[quote]Cthulhu wrote:
Shadows over inssmouth,by H.P. Lovecraft.
This should scare you out of a years growth.[/quote]

Forgot about Lovecraft. Damn, these are some good suggestions. I may give up TV this summer and just read!!

I’m pretty sure Slaughterhouse Five counts as scifi. It’s been a while since I read it though.

I enjoyed Aasimov’s robot books as well (starting with I, Robot, then Caves of Steel, etc.).

Also, most of the suggestions so far have been for some of the older, “classic,” science fiction novels. If you want novels that are not (yet) classics, let us know. Then, I will bombard you with suggestions ;).

And another thing I forgot to mention: check out the Hugo and Nebula award winners. They’re almost always top quality. Don’t overlook short stories and novellas either.

The Illuminati Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. Or is it really fiction?

[quote]Cthulhu wrote:
Shadows over inssmouth,by H.P. Lovecraft.
This should scare you out of a years growth.[/quote]

Would never have taken you to be a Lovecraft fan
;-D Just out of curiousity what is your call like???

Tone

[quote]nolecat wrote:
morepain wrote:
foundation series by Isaac Asimov

I forgot about the Foundation series. I read the first one last summer. Loved it. A bit hard to keep up with all of the characters, but a real smart read. How about the Robot series?[/quote]

If I recall the first couple of the Robot series were great but then either I got bored with them or they became boring.

My favor Dick book has always been A scanner Darkly, can’t wait to see how the movie ends up.

The Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card. And Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by the same.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein, its a great read.

A big YES on the rest of the Dune books and Starship Troopers. If you waded through Dune, the others (original series by Frank Herbert) are more satisfying, less colossal.

Draka series by Stirling
Falkenberg’s Legion series by Pournelle
Warworld series edited by Pournelle
Armor by Steakley
(all military sci-fi)

Mote in God’s Eye, the Gripping Hand, and Footfall by Niven and Pournelle

Sims and Repairman Jack series especially The Tomb and All the Rage by F. Paul Wilson

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Hominids by Robert Sawyer
Humans by Robert Sawyer
-currently reading Hybrids by Sawyer, its pretty good too so far

Olaf Stapleton

“Starmaker”, " Last and first Men"

Neal Stephenson
John Ringo - be carefull some are campy
Larry Niven
S.M. Stirling
Donald E. McQuinn
John Dalmas
David Drake
John Barnes
Dean Ing
Steven Barnes
I have realy liked most books these guys have written. Finding some of them can be a challenge, and if you use Amazon you will be inundated with other similar authors. There goes your summer!