Ask HN: What's your favourite sci-fi/fantasy book? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's your favourite sci-fi/fantasy book?

24 points_rjlt29 comments

And why?

Almost anything by Vernor Vinge. "A Deepness in the Sky" in particular is amazing. I was/am particularly impress by how he handles the idea of fundamental limits on the scope of human achievement, and by how he weaves that into the story so that it's there at all levels.

"Diaspora" by Greg Egan has a great story, huge ideas, and probably the most cogent explanation of sentience/sapience ever written.

"The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" and "Accelerando" have already been mentioned.

"Reteif!" Made me laugh out loud. Larry Niven's "Destiny's Road" points out the difficulty of interstellar colonization. "Ringworld" blew my mind. Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Syn" taught me to pay attention; "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams reinforced the lesson.

There are a lot of good ones; I could go on for ages...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Deepness_in_the_Sky

It's easy to categorise these as wonderful and well written space opera, but that undersells them. Their author (Venor Vinge) invented the idea of the Singularity, and worked as a computer science professor. Both won both the Hugo Award.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game

As good as people say it is.

Most of Richard Morgan's works (esp the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Kovacs series). Not his fantasy books though.

For fantasy books, Patrick Rothfuss is doing good stuff. The Kingkiller Chronicles is excellent. Read his other books before "Slow Regard of Silent Things", though, because that is one weird story.

From more recent SciFi books:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl is excellent.

I'm currently reading Ancillary Justice and I'm really enjoying it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancillary_Justice

Bruce Sterling's Distraction. He touches on net-smart nomads, technology-driven disruption and the resulting unemployment, gridlock in congress, something similar to the Occupy movement in DC, a trade war with China that ended when they dumped all US IP online, a war referred to as 'Iraq 3', etc.

This is seriously impressive considering that it was published in 1998. My current hypothesis is that he's a time traveller messing with us.

+1 for Distraction, and indeed most of BruceS's works. Incredible, visionary stuff.

"Heavy Weather" is probably the book of his that's most similar to Distraction - also very very good.

The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed

I have two ultimate faves:-

Accelerando (Charlie Stross) - truly epic, hard-scifi, from near to far future, truly hardcore

Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson) - awesome tale, plenty of nanotech, almost fairy-tale-esque

[Edit: formatting]

Diamond Age is one of those awesome books where what you get out of it depends on where you are in life. I read it both before children and after children. I enjoyed it both times. But it was a different experience.

I really like the ideas from Greg Egan, so any of his books.

I still love Gibson, even his later books.

I want to say one of my favourite books is "Salt" by Adam Roberts. I love the characters and description of political views and the way the war between factions plays out. Roberts' other books are pretty good too.

I loved REAMDE - I could have done with a bit more inside the game and a bit less tramping through the woods. I love Stephenson's other books too.

Finally: Bruce Sterling seems to be under-appreciated. Hard to recommend one of his books.

This question is perhaps a FAQ. Has anyone on HN ever scraped the answers posted to the various threads, added information about number of mentions or votes; with links to Amazon (and other book sellers)?

Having some carefully chosen adds and duplicating all the links with affiliate links would turn this into a mostly passive income project.

I have read and enjoyed many of the classics that others have mentioned. I would give a shout-out to Wasteland of Flint by Thomas Harlan. I enjoyed it for how it incorporated alternate history in our relatively recent past - imagine a world in which the Inca and Imperial Japanese kingdoms became the dominant superpowers and led the industrial revolution, Europeans were conquered and fast forward into far future world with aliens, FTL space travel all mixed with what the Inca and Japanese cultures might have evolved into in that context and how those of European descent were seen as the lower caste. Some interesting cultural reversals and twists mixed in with future technology and ancient alien technology.

A single book? Impossible. I don't think I could even name my favorite Zelazny or PKD. Many of the works of both are in the running. As is "Dune", for sure. Possibly "Snow Crash". "Protector" might not quite make the cut, but comes somewhat close - from my recollection it was my favorite Niven (not counting short stories)... I'm currently finally getting around to "The Mote In God's Eye". Further back, "Foundation" was pretty amazing, and I've a bit of a soft spot for "Childhood's End". Bester's "The Demolished Man" is well worth a read, but I think also doesn't quite make the cut.

The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

Perdido Street Station - China Mieville

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Foundation series - Asimov

among others...

"The Golden Age" by John C. Wright - just awesome, and I agree with the values of the main character

"Chronicles of Amber" by Roger Zelazny - for imagination and badassery

Favorite short story is "Understand" by Ted Chiang - mind-expanding ;)

Also in general the lesser known Heinlein books are amazing. Not a fan of Stranger in a Strange Land. Named my current company after a reference to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

"Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" As someone who simply cant sit down and read a book this was the first book I have ever read and reread. First comedic release, is littered everywhere in the book. Recurring jokes for those who pay attention to detail are little nuggets of gold. There are social commentaries that ring true today. Lastly all the characters are believably absurd.

A great one that haven't already been mentioned is "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land

It's one of those books that just takes a while to digest after you are done reading it. I highly recommend it.

Very good book and the one that got me started on Heinlein. I probably own most of his hard sci-fi books now as a result.

Lord of Light by Zelazny. It's on another level really and I love the Buddhist, Hindu influence combined with the technology.

Thanks for this. I have read the Chronicles of Amber and really enjoyed Zelazny's writing. I will put this on my list of books to read.

Lord of Light is a harder read than Amber. If you trail off partway through don't kick yourself, just try again later. I think it took me three tries to get into it, but once I did it's definitely high amongst my favorites.

I have the Chronicles of amber on my reading list. Glad to be able to recommend Lord of Light, you won't regret it.

I would pick Dune, Lord of the rings, and anything by Zelazny and Steven Brust as my two followups.

"Ice" by Jacek Dukaj

Every time I read a novel written by Dukaj I start feeling smarter. The ideas presented by characters are always worth considering and eye-opening.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_(Dukaj_novel)

One great book that hasn't been mentioned so far is the Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

I really enjoyed reading Snowcrash. It's no literary magic but it's a fun read.

Hard to say... had you asked me this question 15 years ago, I would have answered without hesitation, The Hobbit and Ender's Game.

Today, it's a bit less clear, but here is what comes to mind.

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke

Worthing Saga - Orson Scott Card

Cryptonomicon, it's by FAR the best I've read!

EDIT: Come to think of it, I don't know is in the right category as Sci/fi. Well if not cryptonomicon, then SnowCrash probably :-P

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner is still my favorite novel while A Ticket to Tranai by Robert Sheckley is my preferred short story.

Some I have enjoyed:

The Left Hand of God Trilogy The Bad Company series Iain M Banks Sci-Fi Philip Jose Farmer Riverworld

Ubik by Philip K Dick.

Hyperion Cantos is my personal favorite.

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