Personal all-time favorite, read it twice: <i>Accelerando</i> by Charles Stross<p>Set in three parts, exploring a future where people can upload themselves to computers, create digital copies, recombine, run minds faster than real-time, re-enter the non-digital world, travel to alien destinations, etc.<p>Free from the author: <a href="https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/acceler...</a><p>Goodreads: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17863.Accelerando" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17863.Accelerando</a>
I like that Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red, Blue, Green Mars) are in red. That is my absolutely favourite Sci-Fi series of all time. It has aged amazingly well. He did an amazing amount of research for that book. It's very believable and the characters are incredibly complex.
I was reading a scifi book the other day, and it just seemed to tickle something familiar. I eventually realized I must have read it long ago and totally forgotten it.<p>I've read thousands of books, but I never kept a log and have no way of remembering them all.<p>The standout in my mind, however, is "War of the Worlds" by Wells. It is the first scifi book I ever read, picking it out at the library because it had a cool illustration of the tripod on the cover.<p>I thoroughly enjoyed it, and like the purported first hit of heroin, the rest of my life I've looked for something that good again :-)
To me it's Alastair Reynolds, and then everybody else.
When I read "Revelation Space" it was, er, a Revelation.
In addition to the many books R.S. universe (spanning across great swaths of time) there is also the fun Revenger series, and several non-canonical short stores, etc.<p>Of course, Ian Banks (RIP) is also great fun.
Disappointed this is just a list, with no information, ranking or anything else. I'm always on the hunt for good sci-fi, but unfortunately this isn't helpful.
It's like reading a list of books considered classics in the genre. I feel like the author is just checking off boxes.
Also, needs some Iain M. Banks.
I am surprised he likes some of the classics as they hold up really poorly IMO. The Foundation books especially just... are not good viewed through a modern lens. I hate to pull the misogyny card, but I think there is only one woman in Foundation and she has no lines, just models a necklace for some space trader types. They also suffer from the classic sci-fi conundrum where a spaceman is flying at light speed while reading a newspaper and listening to a tape. It's not really excusable for me when people consider this like... the greatest sci fi book. Other authors were able to confront our social and technological future in a much more realistic and interesting way, not like, cowboys in spaceships.
Nice to see a recommendation for one of John Varley's works (<i>The Golden Globe</i>). There is one sci-fi author who is underappreciated. His writing has touches of Heinlein. His <i>Gaea Trilogy</i> is really creative too.
Two books I would highly recommend for their idea density and enjoyment are
Deamon - Daniel Suarez and follow on book Freedom.
Old Mans War - John Scalzi and really the whole series.<p>also really enjoy anything by
Vernor Vinge
Lacks <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_on_Zanzibar" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_on_Zanzibar</a> from John Brunner and following the "see also" there.<p>Furthermore at least <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chanur_novels" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chanur_novels</a> from C.J.Cherryh.<p>For me they were a <i>blast</i> to read. I fevered/longed for the next book to be in print.<p>Similar thing for the "Company wars" and "Hinder Stars" listed in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._Cherryh_bibliography#The_Alliance%E2%80%93Union_universe" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._Cherryh_bibliography#The...</a> / <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance%E2%80%93Union_universe" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance%E2%80%93Union_univers...</a><p>Go get this!
I reread (Audiobook version) the Hyperion Cantos a year ago and I was floored at how well it aged in the past 20+ years.<p>as a sidenote, I picked up on stuff on the rereading and am wondering how much of that is due to my increased maturity and how much is due to the format (paperback vs. audiobook).<p>As a result I'm rereading a lot of my favorites from the past . Not all have aged as well.
I have a similar list but with an attempt at writeups of their style and what is good about each individual author here: <a href="http://fuseki.net/home/ScienceFictionBookReviews.html" rel="nofollow">http://fuseki.net/home/ScienceFictionBookReviews.html</a>
At a glance, I can't spot anything by Ken MacLeod, nor Iain Banks. Both are masters of hard SF. I read most of Ken MacLeod's work, some several times (yes, I really enjoyed them that much), and I am reading Iain Bank's Culture series these days.
I've read enough of the list that I think I'll hang onto it to check out stuff that I haven't read.<p>Obviously it's down to personal preference which of these are the best, but I'm curious how other readers feel about a couple of these (potentially contrarian views):<p>1. Speaker For the Dead is my favorite of the Ender stuff.<p>2. I like Endymion duo better than Hyperion. (maybe my favorite ever, actually)<p>3. The Stand is also an all-time great to me, especially in light of current events.<p>4. I think the author should read more Niven - I guess he didn't really like Ringworld, which is another of my favorites.
I put off reading The Three Body Problem because I wanted to make sure I was good and ready to be amazed.<p>I've read Cixin Liu's short stories and thoroughly enjoyed them. He comes up with some amazing ideas. I even really liked the movie based on Wandering Earth, despite how it converted the story to more action.<p>I barely made it through 3BP and I don't have much excitement for the sequels. The story just did not grip me at all.
If you read 100 books in 2 years, is it a goal or are you still reading for the enjoyment of it?<p>Also a side question, I love reading but I'm very slow. I don't want to learn a lot of the 'fast' reading techniques because I have tried them and don't really retain much. Is there some low hanging fruit to reading just a little faster? (like, read in a good chair or use a kindle or something)
My favorite from this summer so far, and one I don't see mentioned much is "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" by Claire North (Catherine Webb). <a href="https://www.amazon.com/First-Fifteen-Lives-Harry-August/dp/0316399620" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/First-Fifteen-Lives-Harry-August/dp/0...</a>
>The best books are bolded, the great ones are underlined, and my absolute favorites are in red.<p>What does that even mean? What's the cutoff for best and great and favorite?<p>Does anyone else find the language over the top? Like we've watered down our superlatives.<p>Maybe I'm being super picky, but why make a numbered list of the best things across a spectrum of their greatness and not use the numbers?
I'd shelve The Stand in horror, not scifi. It uses post apocalyptic scifi tropes, but ultimately the driver of the story is occult, not technological. There may not be a fundamental difference between a rogue AI and a demon as an antagonist ... other than where the book gets filed.