Your Science Fiction Classic Novels

[paulvonscott]

It's been a while since I've read anything, but I've had a quest for a few years to catch up on all those classic SF books that I've never read.  I've just finished Dune, which I really enjoyed (and it made some sense out of the films/TV shows), though I won't be bothering with all the sequals.

Anyone else got some all time classics they'd suggest, or a link to a good list of books?

Cheers

Paul

[Buttonman]

I am presently reading Anne Robinson's autobiography ahead of an impending Weakest link appearance, although I'm not sure that qualifies.

Two obvious ones that I've read more than once are 'The Day of the Triffids' and 'I am Legend'. Both paint a bleak and imaginable post apocalyptic world, and always offer something new. If you have a short attention span Wyndham's 'The Seeds of Time' is a cracking book of short stories all of which would make great, if slightly long, Future Shocks.

[Ignatzmonster]

Doing something very similar, mostly due to this forum getting me to read Alfred Bester. Just finished off Day of the Triffids, the plot points of which I found suprising (just expected the Triffids), and a few Philip K. Dick books.

Currently reading Left Hand of Darkness and am enjoying that.

[dweezil2]

Pretty much anything by Philip K. Dick-Counter Clockworld, We Can Build You, Time Out Of Joint, if you want some of his more accessible work. Alfred Bester's, The Stars My Destination, The Demolished Man. John Brummer's, The Sheep Looked Up or Stands On Zanzibar, if you want something meaty. Richard Matheson's classic, I Am Legend. Daniel Keyes', Flowers For Algernon is also a damn good read.
Check out the rest of SF Masterworks series for some classic SF novels.
Dweezil.

[radiator]

Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Pretty much anything in the Gollanz SF series - they're all really nicely designed books too.

[satchmo]

I'd second the shout out for Neuromancer, Gibson's short story collection Burning Chrome is great too. Red Star, Winter Orbit is probably my favourite.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is indescribably bleak but an amazing book, unforgettable.
Way Station by Clifford D Simak is one of my all time favourite books of all time, ever. Of all time.

[JamesC]

'Man Plus' by Frederik Pohl is 'kin ace!
Also 'Sirens of Titan' by Kurt Vonnegut is awesome - but then so is all Vonnegut.

Of course the ultimate classic if you haven't read it is '1984' although most of it now seems so familliar it hardly seems like SF anymore.

One I'd love to read but haven't managed to get hold of yet (it goes bit pricey on ebay when I've looked) is 'The Death Of Grass' by John Christopher.
Anyone read it?

[Buttonman]

'The Death Of Grass' by John Christopher.
Anyone read it?

No, but it does sound quite interesting. I see it is available for 'audition' on sites like this one. It's not really stealing if you can't buy it legitimately. M'lud.

//http://www.scribd.com/doc/2586284/The-Death-of-Grass-by-John-Christopher

[paulvonscott]

Death of Grass is a very good book, a very scary book too as it all seems so plausible.

Just wondering... should we create a list of board reccomended books?  Not just books we like, but books we think are stone cold SF classics.

We could rate them 1 point for each person reccomending them.   Not entirely pointless as then we could build up a good list of books for us to enjoy.  You'd just add a point to any you reccomend as well as any new books.  Just copy , paste and modify the list on your thread.

E.g. so the list so far would be...

The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester (3)
Day of the Triffids (3)
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (2)
Death of Grass by John Christopher (2)
Dune by Frank Herbert (1)
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl (1)
Sirens of Titan' by Kurt Vonnegut (1)
1984 by George Orwell (1)
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (1)
Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1)
Count Zero by William Gibson (1)
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (1)
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1)
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1)
Solaris by Stanislav Lem (1)
The Sheep Looked Up by John Brummer (1)
Stands On Zanzibar by John Brummer (1)
Flowers For Algernon by  Daniel Keyes (1)

Short Story Collections
The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham (1)
Burnign Chrome by William Gibson (1)

I've taken this list only from the posts so far, so feel free to remove or add boks you want to justify the 'classic' tag.

Pretty much anything by Philip K. Dick-Counter Clockworld, We Can Build You, Time Out Of Joint, if you want some of his more accessible work. Alfred Bester's, The Stars My Destination,   if you want something meaty. classic, .  is also a damn good read.
Check out the rest of SF Masterworks series for some classic SF novels.
Dweezil.
Pretty much anything by Philip K. Dick-Counter Clockworld, We Can Build You, Time Out Of Joint, if you want some of his more accessible work. Alfred Bester's, The Stars My Destination, The Demolished Man. John Brummer's, The Sheep Looked Up or Stands On Zanzibar, if you want something meaty. Richard Matheson's classic, I Am Legend. Daniel Keyes', Flowers For Algernon is also a damn good read.
Check out the rest of SF Masterworks series for some classic SF novels.
Dweezil.
Quote Ignatzmonster Re: Your Science Fiction Classic Novels
 by Ignatzmonster on Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:46 am

Doing something very similar, mostly due to this forum getting me to read Alfred Bester. Just finished off Day of the Triffids, the plot points of which I found suprising (just expected the Triffids), and a few Philip K. Dick books.

Currently reading Left Hand of Darkness and am enjoying that.
Doing something very similar, mostly due to this forum getting me to read Alfred Bester. Just finished off Day of the Triffids, the plot points of which I found suprising (just expected the Triffids), and a few Philip K. Dick books.

Currently reading Left Hand of Darkness and am enjoying that.
Quote Buttonman Re: Your Science Fiction Classic Novels
 by Buttonman on Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:29 am

I am presently reading Anne Robinson's autobiography ahead of an impending Weakest link appearance, although I'm not sure that qualifies.

Two obvious ones that I've read more than once are 'The Day of the Triffids' and 'I am Legend'. Both paint a bleak and imaginable post apocalyptic world, and always offer something new. If you have a short attention span Wyndham's 'The Seeds of Time' is a cracking book of short stories all of which would make great, if slightly long, Future Shocks.

[paulvonscott]

Balls, left it too long to edit that.

E.g. so the list so far would be...

The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester (3)
Day of the Triffids (3)
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (2)
Death of Grass by John Christopher (2)
Dune by Frank Herbert (1)
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl (1)
Sirens of Titan' by Kurt Vonnegut (1)
1984 by George Orwell (1)
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (1)
Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1)
Count Zero by William Gibson (1)
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (1)
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1)
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1)
Solaris by Stanislav Lem (1)
The Sheep Looked Up by John Brummer (1)
Stands On Zanzibar by John Brummer (1)
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1)

Short Story Collections
The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham (1)
Burnign Chrome by William Gibson (1)

I've taken this list only from the posts so far, so feel free to remove or add boks you want to justify the 'classic' tag.

[Leigh S]

Having made an effort to start to catch up on my sci-fi reading, I should have a suggestion or two, but for the mo, can I just add a vote to "The Sheep Look Up" - eco disaster that mightnt point at the right cause, but still feels disturbingly prescient.

Also tis BruNNer, not Brummer

[satchmo]

I thought it said John Bummer for a second

I would have recommended Triffids and Forever War but I was pretty sure you'd read them both Paul.
I love the Foundation books too.

[Jim_Campbell]

Balls, left it too long to edit that.

E.g. so the list so far would be...

The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester (4) <- Plus one from me
Day of the Triffids (4) <- Plus one from me
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (2)
Death of Grass by John Christopher (2)
Dune by Frank Herbert (1)
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl (1)
Sirens of Titan' by Kurt Vonnegut (1)
1984 by George Orwell (2) <- Plus one from me
Neuromancer by William Gibson (2) <- Plus one from me
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (1)
Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (2) <- Plus one from me
Count Zero by William Gibson (2) <- Plus one from me
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (2) <- Plus one from me
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (2) <- Plus one from me
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1)
Solaris by Stanislav Lem (1)
The Sheep Looked Up by John Brummer (1)
Stands On Zanzibar by John Brummer (1)
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1)

Short Story Collections
The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham (1)
Burnign Chrome by William Gibson (2) <- Plus one from me

I've taken this list only from the posts so far, so feel free to remove or add boks you want to justify the 'classic' tag.

Add:

Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
The Bridge Trilogy (Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties) by William Gibson
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K Dick

I really feel I should find room for an Asimov or a Heinlein, both of whom played an important role in my formative reading, but 20+ years down the line, I find myself unable to recall any of the novels in sufficient detail to be confident recommending them. Despite the dodgy politics (which, of course, passed me by at the time), I remember Starship Troopers being a cracking read, and I distinctly remember liking Asimov's short stories better than his novels.

(Plus, I also liked a lot of crap in my early teens. I have NO IDEA[/i], for example, why I liked the Lensman books which were fucking awful.)

Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room is brilliant and you should definitely cast all thoughts of Soylent Green from your mind before reading, since it related to the film "adaptation" only tangentially.

Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle is also well worth a read.

I may be back with some more after a bit more thinking ...

Cheers!

Jim

[Richmond Clements]

Planet of the Apes is a great book.
I's also suggest Hammer of God by Arthur C Clarke and The Island of Dr Moreau which is an astonishing book with one of the bleakest endings of anything I've ever read.

[LARF]

Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg

Use of Weapons - Iain Banks

Consider Phlebus - Iain Banks

Perdido Street Station - China Miéville

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke