Favorite Science Fiction Books

[Timerover51]

Since we have a thread for favorite science fiction themes, I thought that one for favorite science fictions books would be good. The rules are:

1. Must be science fiction, no Lord of the Rings or Narnia series (I love both of the series, by the way, but they are fantasy, not sci-fi.)

2. No more than one by any given author.

3. Must list no more than 5.

Note, I am not looking for what you regard as the greatest science fiction story of all time, just what are your favorites. Ones that you read and re-read on a regular basis.

My five, in no particular order are:

1. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement

2. Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. Van Vogt

3. Witches of Karres by James Schmitz

4. Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper

5. Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton

 

[Vargas]

Mirror Dance, Bujold (Having to limit the choice of her works to one is . . . painful)
The Mote in God's Eye, Niven and Pournelle
Starship Troopers, Heinlein
Haze, Modesitt
Dune, Herbert

 

[Thanos]

IF we did list something like LotR, could it be as LotR or would it have to be Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King? I guess trilogies as the trilogy or as the individual books?

 

[rancke]

I'd have a hard time paring it down to five authors, but here goes:

A Civil Campaign, Bujold
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein
The Tower of Zanid, de Camp
Araminta Station, Vance
The Demon Breed, Schmitz


Hans

 

[Khan Trav]

Heinlein, Drake etc..

Heinlein Novels
Igniting the Reaches, David Drake
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Armor, John Steakley
Hornblower, C. S. Forrester

 

[Spinward Scout]

Asimov's Mysteries - Issac Asimov
Jack the Bodiless - Julian May
Prime Directive - Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
3001: The Final Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke

 

[aramis]

Young Miles (Bujold.){Omnibus}
Integral Trees (Niven)
Ender's Game (Card)
Harper Hall Trilogy (McCaffrey) {Omnibus}*
The Prince (Niven & Pournell) {Omnibus}

*Yes, it's sci-fi. Despite the use of dragons. pushes the edge, but later in the series it becomes inescapably Sci-Fi

Truth be told, each is a series starter. I tend to buy omnibus editions rather than single novels

I chose integral trees over ringworld by a small margin. Likewise Harper Hall over Dragonriders.

I tend to reread series at a time, rather than a single novel.

 

[CosmicGamer]

I almost never re read fiction novels, but I don't want to be left out.

The usual Norton, Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke.
I'll throw in the mix
Battlefield Earth - L. Ron Hubbard

 

[mike wightman]

Julian May - Intervention (but I regularly read the lot)

Peter F Hamilton - Fallen Dragon (but again I read everything)

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game (...)

Iain M Banks - everything Culture, there is no way I can pick a best.

Frank Herbet - Dune

 

[Timerover51]

IF we did list something like LotR, could it be as LotR or would it have to be Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King? I guess trilogies as the trilogy or as the individual books?

A trilogy counts as one book. For Van Vogt, I could have used Triad, which has Voyage of the Space Beagle, The World of Null-A, and Slan. However, my favorite of the three is Space Beagle.

@Aramis

MaCaffrey's Pern series I count as science fiction.

 

[Enoff]

Andre Norton - Solar Queen series
Gordon R. Dickson - Dorsai series
William Gibson - Sprawl series
Poul Anderson - Flandry series
William H. Keith - Carrier series

 

[aramis]

A trilogy counts as one book. For Van Vogt, I could have used Triad, which has Voyage of the Space Beagle, The World of Null-A, and Slan. However, my favorite of the three is Space Beagle.

@Aramis

MaCaffrey's Pern series I count as science fiction.

Many who have only read the Harper Hall and/or Dragonriders trilogies don't.

 

[leo knight]

Hmm, so many to choose from.

Some of these are series, but here goes:

Planet of Adventure (4 books, published in a big omnibus) by Jack Vance
The Zero Stone & Uncharted Stars (as above, 2 books) by Andre Norton
Nova by Samuel R. Delany
The Rolling Stones by Robert Heinlein
Northwest of Space (actually a collection of short stories) by C.L. Moore

I could easily read anything by the above authors. I also could happily read almost anything by Pournelle, Niven, Clarke, Asimov, Weber, and many more, but I've read the above five over and over.

 

[Baron]

This is very difficult, but let's try. This is what comes to mind, and what I get by glancing at some shelves.

'Ten Points for Style,' Walter Jon Williams (which is a compilation of three novels)
'Gateway,' Frederick Pohl
'Day by Night,' Tanith Lee
'The Mote in God's Eye,' Niven and Pournelle
'Ringworld,' Larry Niven (but these got weirder and less satisfying as they went on)

I like a bunch of SF by Norton, of course, but I guess they don't get in the top five. And I enjoyed the Cherryh series about the Chanur, but I've lost track of which ones.

 

[Thanos]

Cosmic Computer- Piper

Foundation Trilogy- Asimov

Dragon Rider Trilogy-McCaffery

Logan's Run- William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson

Sprawl Trilogy- William Gibson

 

[darue]

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Stand on Zanzibar/Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

Cities in Flight by James Blish

Quarantine/Permutation City/Distress/Diaspora by Greg Egan

Crystal Express/Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling

 

[Dagrill]

5. Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton

I would go with
Frank Herbert - Dune
Isaac Asimov - The Star's like Dust
Jerry Pournelle - King David's Spaceship
Frank Haldeman - The Forever War
and
Jack Vance - Emphyrio

I've left out May and Norton as I prefer their fantasy books, although the boundary's not always clear

Regards

David

 

[aramis]

I've left out May and Norton as I prefer their fantasy books, although the boundary's not always clear

There are whole subgenres which are intentional blurring of the lines...

Techno-fantasy (some of Vance, much of Steampunk)
Space Fantasy (Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars, several anime series)
"disappeared from Earth" (Lost Regiment series, Stargate, John Carter, Thomas Covenenant, a handful of short stories)

The disappeared from earth subgenre needs more explanation: generally, such stories posit a historical disappearance without findable wreckage was actually sucked into either another dimension or through a wormhole to another world, or even by aliens via transporter beam or equivalent. They often involve snatched humans subjugated by aliens for various reasons, and the resultant rebellion when the wrong group gets taken. Stargate, it works as very much Sci-Fi, except for the whole ascension arc involving Daniel Jackson. In the Lost Regiment, it's treated as a historical with mild steampunk overtones, and an implausible sophonotophagic species using humans as cattle; the method of snatching is not, in the volumes I've read, given a sci-fi rationale, and is essentially magical. Several of them are "modern man gets taken to a magical world" - Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, John Carter of Mars).

For example, I'd not call John Carter Sci-Fi - it's a fantasy with a thin veil of technobabble. I don't consider Star Wars to be Sci-Fi.

The recent ALA labeling convention "Speculative Fiction" for Sci-Fi and Fantasy eliminates a not really that artificial distinction.

 

[Hemdian]

So many I want to list ... so many ... here's just ten:

• A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold
• Oath of Fealty - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournell
• Neuromancer - William Gibson
• Emergence - David R. Palmer
• Foundation - Isaac Asimov
• Still River - Hal Clement
• A Crucible of Time - John Brunner
• Practice Effect - David Brinn
• The Voyage of the Space Beagle - A.E. Van Vogt
• Dune - Frank Herbert

 

[BlackBat242]

I've left out May and Norton as I prefer their fantasy books, although the boundary's not always clear

Regards

David

There are whole subgenres which are intentional blurring of the lines...

.....

The recent ALA labeling convention "Speculative Fiction" for Sci-Fi and Fantasy eliminates a not really that artificial distinction.

And returns things to the way they were in the 1930s-early 1960s, when the terms were used fairly interchangeably.

For example, I have a copy of the 1961 Ace printing of Andre Norton's Galactic Derelict (original publication 1959) that has at the top of the front cover the following blurb:

"Fantasy at its best." - Cleveland Press

So, in 1961 a novel about a US time-travel team that goes back about 12,000 years, brings an intact alien starship back to our time (~1975 in the story), and end up making a voyage to 3 different alien worlds (using a hyper-drive) before finally getting back to Earth... this is described as a "Fantasy'!