Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read
wired.co.uk
wired.co.uk
If I had to pick one PK Dick book it wouldn't be Scanner Darkly but Ubik or Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.
Also I think some important non-English fiction is missing. Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a foundational dystopian book, Roadside Picnic is great, 20000 Leagues under the Sea and Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights is a pretty wonky Japanese SF story. Also Eumeswil by Ernst Jünger for a niche German recommendation, not sure if this was ever translated.
It's not a profound book that explores any great ideas, but it was a fun main character, entertaining plot and a few good laughs.
I'm not knocking it, but these are edge case titles, certainly not what I would say everyone should read. Except Ted, who's maybe the best living short story writer.
I don't think there's books that everyone should read but none of this seems weird or unapproachable.
But I think we're getting into just differences of opinion, so firm handshakes all around.
I'm glad there's more out there to read every day!
There's a documentary about the 1996 adaptation of the novel. The story was an obsession of British filmmaker Richard Stanley's. And the circumstances that followed are like something right out of its pages.
Permutation City by Greg Egan
Glasshouse by Charles Stross
I met cstross at a reading back in SF nearly 10 years ago or so. Still have a signed copy of Glasshouse loaned out somewhere. He’s a delightful person in an affable curmudgeonly way.
His blog is great.
Sadly I don't think Charlie would like me very much if we ever met. I'm an (American style) Libertarian, and he seems to have a rather strong disdain for us. Shame, as he's one of my favorite authors and I would otherwise say that he's somebody I'd rather enjoy meeting.
I just finished it so I might be biased, but Miller's "A canticle for Leibowitz" is some of the best Sci-fi I've read. Extremely thought provoking, and you get the opportunity to read from someone coming from a very different place than your usual sci-fi writer. I loved the setting and the plot, monasteries are definitively a unique setting for Sci-fi (Think Il Nome della Rosa by Eco meets Mad Max)
Philip K. Dick also has a very unique outlook and is worth a read, either through "Do Androids dream of electric sheep" or "Ubick" (warning: Ubick is extremely weird)
Given my native tongue is French, I'll not forget Barjavel, excellent writing (although I read it in the original French). Like Miller, the philosophy is very different from your usual Sci-fi. La Nuit des Temps (or "The Ice People") and Ravage ("Ashes, Ashes") are great reads.
For Gibson, I'd recommend the Bridge trilogy ("Virtual Light", "Idoru" and "All Tomorrow's Paties") over Necromancer. Gibson writes prose like poetry, it's the best English literature I've read. His writing has a literal taste, sweet yet with a nuanced and rich flavor. Once you are into a book, each sentence is a pleasure to read. But he doesn't make any compromises for newcomers. Necromancer is really hard to grasp. Since the Bridge books are set in a world more similar to our own, it may be more approachable to someone new to the author.
Asimov and Clarke were very popular at their time. But I think they didn't age well. The recommendation in the OP of the Foundation series (though I recommend you limit yourself to the original trilogy) is alright. The idea is very unique, but the writing is poor, and well, gender has a weirdly backward role for a futuristic society.
OP is missing Clarke. Classic author who is responsible for 2001 A Space Odyssey. However, Clarke best work is "Childhood's end". Yeah, the new-age ending didn't age well, but it's still really good. "Rama" is good too, but the sequels do not hold up.
Greg Egan is very obtuse, you need a very good level of math to understand some of his work. But not all of his novels are intractable. I loved "Distress", it introduced me to a very different way to think about gender identity.
I'll second The Tchaikovsky recommendation from OP ("Children of Time") It's very high on my Sci-fi tier list. I'm surprised to see him in such a list, because he's not the conventional Sci-fi recommendation. But it makes sense, Children of Time is such a unique and excellent novel. The premise is insane, the story is excellent, and the writing tops if off. It works surprisingly well.
I'm a big fan of Charles Stross. Accelerando and Glasshouse are definitively very good. But I'll go and recommend "Saturn's Children". It's more his style: Very much like Tchaikovsky, his premises are insanely ridiculous and almost outrageous, but perfectly coherent. His work is so much fun! It's a blast to read through his novels.
* The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
* The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
And a bonus:
* Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler
Also, almost everything by Vernor Vinge.
Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut.
I also love his short story collections - Beyond the Aquila Rift for example.
What would be your recommendations?
More than human by Theodore Sturgeon