Science Fiction

[JimC]

I’m not going to attempt to divide my favourite SF into rankings, as I did with the fantasy thread. However, I’m going to start with the “classics”, which I read as a teenager or young adult, and I’ll discuss them via author.

Poul Anderson: In particular, his series of military SF about Dominic Flandry, a sort of James Bond of the spaceways… Definitely soap opera, but well written, some interesting planets, and some well described aliens.

Arthur C. Clark: In many ways, his short stories were the most significant, but then we had “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and “Rendezvous with Rama”, showing him to be a master of the novel as well

Isaac Asimov: Important not only for his SF (obviously I Robot, for example) but also for his science writing, which I have no doubt inspired a generation of science students.

Robert Heinlein: the third of “The Big Three”, and I liked some of his stories, but I could never really warm to him. I suspect Seth would regard him highly…

Frank Herbert: Dune was a magnificent achievement, but the sequels were a bit patchy, IMO. He has also written some other books, many of them with a strong psychological emphasis, and with a very trippy feel.

J.G. Ballard: He certainly overturned the field, with writing which had an almost hallucinatory feel. His worlds were strange dystopias, and nothing was as it seemed…

James Blish: Not as well known, but a powerful author and excellent short story writer. “A Case of Conscience” and “The Seedling Stars” are two I have.

Hal Clement: Possibly not well known, but an early example of a very scientifically knowledgeable author, who made alien biology very plausible. “The Nitrogen Fix” is an example…

Phillip K. Dick: Obviously, most people will think of the novel that inspired the film “Blade Runner” when they think of this author; the title of that book, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” wins the best SF title ever, IMO. However, he was a very prolific author, and a weird and somewhat tortured individual, from what I gather.

Phillip Jose Farmer: His “Riverworld” series was a classic, and many of his other stories were much more sexually explicit than was common in the genre in that era.

Larry Niven: One of my all-time favourites, an excellent exponent of hard SF, and someone who could really think big as evidenced by Ringworld, and the many diverse planets and aliens in his main imagined universe.

E. E. “Doc” Smith: With his Lensman series of frenetically paced galactic adventures, albeit very “Boy’s Own” he was a defining example of golden age space opera.

Roger Zelazny: An excellent author, IMO, with many books I still return to such as “Lord of Light” and “This Immortal”

I’ll leave it there; later I’ll post about some more recent authors. I have probably forgotten many classic authors of the golden age of SF; chip in and remind me!

[L'Emmerdeur]

Some of the authors you've mentioned are definitely more New Wave than Golden Age. For late Golden Age, Henry Kuttner shouldn't be forgotten, nor Alfred Bester, and I'm sure some others will come to mind. From the transitional era I would certainly want to mention Ursula Le Guin, Cordwainer Smith, Harlan Ellison, Thomas Disch, Samuel Delany, James Triptree Jr. (Alice Bradley Sheldon) and again, no doubt I've missed some.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Double post

[JimC]

Some of the authors you've mentioned are definitely more New Wave than Golden Age. For late Golden Age, Henry Kuttner shouldn't be forgotten, nor Alfred Bester, and I'm sure some others will come to mind. From the transitional era I would certainly want to mention Ursula Le Guin, Cordwainer Smith, Harlan Ellison, Thomas Disch, Samuel Delany, James Triptree Jr. (Alice Bradley Sheldon) and again, no doubt I've missed some.

You're right of course, I did stretch it out beyond the golden age. I mentioned Le Guin in my fantasy thread, but you're right, she was also an excellent SF writer, with a thoughtful political and anthropological bent; The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and many others.

And Alfred Bester - what a blast from the past! He had a strange, frenetic writing style, but he could really captivate a reader. Ellison, Disch and Delaney were classics as well - I have some of their books, but for whatever reason, am not often tempted to re-read... Tiptree was such a good writer, but a tragic life, I believe...

Cornier Smith was just extraordinary - such a different writing style to most of the genre!

[Brian Peacock]

[pErvinalia]

I haven't read much Sci Fi over the years, even though I enjoy it, generally speaking. I really enjoyed Clark's Rama series (haven't read 2001 yet). Have only read one PKD book - The Man in The High Castle, so that's not sci-fi really. Unlike most people, I didn't really like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series. I'm not even entirely sure why. I just couldn't get into it. I've only got through Red Mars, and couldn't be bothered reading any more.

I've actually got a few sci fi books in my collection that I've picked up from thrift shops and second hand bookstores over the years. Heinlein, Asimov, Herbert, Dick, and others. Sigh. Like all the hundreds of unread books in my collection, I'll get to them one day...

[pErvinalia]

Oh hang on, does Hitchhikers count?

[JimC]

Now we come to my quirky selection of more recent authors who have impressed me.

Greg Bear: I honestly think he is one of the major talents since the golden age. It’s hard to pick his best, but the twin novels Eon and Eternity would be up there, as would Blood Music. Not only imaginative, but an extremely skilled writer.

David Brin: I just love his series of novels set in the Uplift Universe. One of the absolute best at creating aliens with their own, very non-human agendas…

Orson Scott Card: An enigma to me, in some ways. A Mormon with a bias against gays (from what I’ve read) his novels bear no trace of typical religious or right-wing agendas. His major work, IMO, is Ender’s Game, an absolute triumph. Subsequent novels in the series don’t quite reach the same height…

Jack Chalker: Very inventive and prolific. His “Well of Souls” series is probably the stand out in his ouvre…

C. J. Cherryh: A fairly prolific author, but my pick is her Chanur Saga, where a number of intelligent space-faring races exist in a somewhat uneasy peace, trading with each other. The humans are minor players, for a change. The depiction of the aliens is one of the best around, IMO…

Jo Clayton: Many of her books are fantasy, but she has also contributed some excellent SF series, notably The trilogy beginning with “Skeen’s Leap” and the multi-book Diadem series. A feisty, feminist and lefty author…

Glen Cook: A major fantasy author, he’s also produced some good SF. The 2 series that stand out to me are the Darkwar Trilogy, and the Starfishers Trilogy, both very much worth a read.

Greg Egan: An Australian author, arguably the most intelligent and deep-thinking SF author of all times, with a superb knowledge of modern physics and artificial intelligence, his books make my head hurt. Try “Permutation City” as an example…

James H. Schmitz: A terrific author, with most of his stories set in the same universe, where humans have spread widely across the stars. Psionic powers, described in a very interesting way, feature heavily, as do intriguing aliens. Try “The Universe against her”, the first Telzey Amberdon novel.

Bob Shaw: Perhaps not very well known, but prolific and interesting. Try “Dagger of the mind” or “Medusa’s Children”

Brian M. Stableford: One of my all time favourite British authors, with a dry, cynical approach that appeals, plus an excellent grasp of evolution and ecology. Try the series about the voyage of the Daedalus, a starship designed to re-visit lost human colonies in space and help them with biological problems of adaptation to a new ecosystem, or the series about Star Pilot Grainger and the experimental starship, the Hooded Swan

[JimC]

OK, some others:

David Weber. He will not be to all people's taste, but to me, he is an excellent recent exponent of hard, space based SF, with a strong military and political bent

John Varley: In particular, the series starting with Titan

M. A. Foster: Several books, but his best was the series beginning with "The Morphodite"

Fred Saberhagen: Noted for his "Berserker" stories

William Gibson: King of Cyberpunk, notably Neuromancer and Count Zero

[Animavore]

I like Iain M. Banks' hedonistic future of people without needs. Though I think Wall-E's is closer to how this would pan out.

Ann Leckie is a contemporary sci-fi writer worth checking out.

Really loved Dune. The interaction of its characters, the inner monologues as they try to guess what each other is thinking, rivals War and Peace.

[Alan B]

Gosh! I still have all of Asimov. Read the Foundation series a couple of times. And as for I, Robot, well... Doesn't seem to age.

Have you tried Peter F. Hamilton?

Edit
I first came across Asimov's Foundation in San Francisco airport in 1957 en route to Christmas Island (now Kiribati).

[JimC]

Gosh! I still have all of Asimov. Read the Foundation series a couple of times. And as for I, Robot, well... Doesn't seem to age.

Have you tried Peter F. Hamilton?

Edit
I first came across Asimov's Foundation in San Francisco airport in 1957 en route to Christmas Island (now Kiribati).

Sure, I was going to include a mention of Hamilton sometime. Very good writer in structuring a novel, good imagination, but somehow there isn't much emotional connection for me, somehow...

[JimC]

Right, here we go with another selection from my library:

Gordon R. Dickson: A writer in the 50's, 60's and 70's. An interesting series is the Dorsai Trilogy, another example of the military style SF I enjoy (sorry Scot...)

Piers Anthony: I mentioned him in the fantasy section, but his trilogy that starts with "Split Infinity" straddles the boundary between SF and fantasy. Perhaps a bit lightweight, and sometimes corny, but clever and inventive.

James S. A. Corey (actually a pen name used by collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck): A great series called "The Expanse". I've only read the first 2, but will definitely read the rest. A modern take on space opera and alien intelligence, quite dark at times, well written.

Robert L. Forward: A physicist himself, he is a doyen of hard SF. Two books (each with sequels) stand out; "Dragon's Egg", about life on the surface of a neutron star, and "The Flight of the Dragonfly", about a scientific expedition to a neighbouring star.

Ryk E. Spoor: A series starting with "Grand Central Arena" is a wild ride through space opera territory, with a nod to writers of the past such as "Doc" Smith, a huge range of intelligent (and sometimes malevolent) aliens, and an interesting take on AI.

That'll do for the moment, more later...

[JimC]

And there's still more, folks!

Alan Dean Foster: Another prolific writer, perhaps slightly light weight, but usually entertaining. Try any of his "Flinx of the commonwealth" series

James P. Hogan: Another hard SF writer; try "The Genesis Machine" or "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede"

Jaqueline Lichtenberg: Author or a very bizarre series, starting with "The House of Zeor" - mankind has divided into 2 warring but mutually dependant mutant races. Weird stuff...

H. Beam Piper: "Little Fuzzy" - just try it...

Alexis A. Gilliland: Well written hard SF, a series starting with "The Revolution from Rosinante"

Phyllis Gotlieb: A little known author, but her "A Judgement of Dragons" and its sequels is excellent, IMO, with interesting aliens and mental powers...

Octavia E. Butler: A powerful writer, with an eye for the dark. Try "Mind of my Mind" or "Patternmaster"

John Brunner: A writer just after the golden age, with a very diverse range of books, mostly of excellent quality, IMO...

[Joe]

Not much for SF these days, but I liked John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, and Neal Shusterman's Unwind series, which my daughter recommended.