What are your favorite sci-fi and fantasy books? | Hacker News Reader

What are your favorite sci-fi and fantasy books?

20 pointsrayalez32 comments

Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's a masterpiece of hard SciFi, but not for the faint of heart. It will mess with your mind, on top of the generally scary subject matter.

It's also Creative Commons licensed on his website, despite some commercial success: http://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

Childhoods end - Humanity takes the next step in evolution

Anhilliation - Fish out of water like story of exploring a mysterious, horrific, environment (2 sequels drag on for too much after this one though)

Many Ray Bradbury stories (Martian chronicles, and the Everyman collection contain the best ones)

Infinite Jest (Alternate American future of a culture of addiction and depravity, partly mediated by technology)

The Circle (haven't read, but like the author, life inside the biggest tech company of the future)

http://www.amazon.com/Omega-Rising-Force-Book-ebook/dp/B00B7... Omega force book series is my favorites, and the new series the same author is making http://www.amazon.com/Warship-Black-Fleet-Trilogy-Book-ebook... both book series are great, second series only have 1 book, and both are sci-fi. :)

Stand on Zanzibar, Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, Childhood's End, A Cantilce for St Leibowitz, The Stars My Destination, Midnight At The Well of Souls, Nine Princes in Amber, Halting State, Strnger In A Strange Land, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

For Fantasy I loved the Thieves' World shared universe. The first 4 books were my favourites.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves'_World

While some of his work hasn't aged well, I am still quite fond of several of Michael Moorcock's Elric novels and the first Corum trilogy.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melniboné

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corum_Jhaelen_Irsei

Anything by Greg Egan; some of the things by Adam Roberts; i like William Gibson (the modern books too); I also really like Bruce Sterling.

HN has a lot of these style threads and you're going to get some good recommendations if you search for them.

I recently read William Gibson's "The Peripheral" and I really liked it. I think it's one of his best.

Discworld: Going Postal, Making Money, and Raising Steam (3 books total)

The Lies of Locke Lamora (and sequels, 3 books total so far)

The Name of the Wind (and sequels, 3 books total so far)

Ancillary Justice (and sequel, 2 books total so far)

All of Iain M. Banks Culture series

Old Man's War (and sequels)

Second all of these choices, and I will add Hyperion and its sequels to the list.

Just read 'The Martian'. I wouldn't even call it science fiction, its just science. A fictional but technical and realistic how-to guide on surviving Mars.

- Brave New World (dystopia/utopia, short read)

- Pandora's Star (futuristic (2380), humans are immortal through rejuvenation and are colonizing new worlds using worm hole tech(I think they have 50 or so worlds), long read - lots of sequels if you enjoy the universe)

- Ender's game (futuristic, the movie cuts off 1/2 the book that revolves around Ender's 2 siblings, both also are geniuses, short read - lots of sequels if you enjoy the universe)

Diamond age: a young ladies illustrated primer. Anathem. Halting state. Accelerando. Rant: an oral biography of buster casey. Enders game. The laundry files.

I just read these and am waiting for the third. http://www.wolfhoundcentury.com/ Peter isn't on Twitter, but he responds to email through his site. I hope there is a major motion picture in the works as he has created a very cool world.

It's easier to list some of my favorite authors than list their individual novels. Fantasy: Brandon Sanderson, Anthony Ryan, Kevin J. Anderson SciFi: Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton, early Richard Morgan Military SciFi: B. V. Larson, Dave Duncan, Evan Currie, Jerry Pournelle, John Ringo, Eric Nylund

Theatre of the Gods by Matt Suddain is an epic read. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is one of the few books I’ll reread every few years. Both are sci-fi.

And, while not technically a book but a manga, Appleseed by Masamune Shirow is another collection I reread every few years (precursor to Ghost in the Shell).

Iain M. Banks "The Culture" series. I only just found out about these books this summer and have not been able to put them down. Currently on book 9 of 10 and could not recommend them enough. I just can't get enough of the universe that Mr. Banks has created.

Ted Chiang is my favourite short fiction author, he doesn't write a lot but what he publishes is first notch.

Podcast of his short story Exhalation:

https://archive.org/details/ExhalationByTedChiang

I really enjoyed the Honor Harrington series by David Webber. I've also read most of the Safehold series, also by Webber, which has been excellent so far.

Currently half way through the Lost Fleet Series, which is pretty good too.

Quite different from the 3 series above, the Rho Agenda was very good.

Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Dune, Foundation series, Martian Chronicles & Illustrated Man, Ender's Game, Accelerando, Hyperion, The Forever War, Player of Games, Snow Crash

Not much fantasy here yet, so Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun tetralogy, republished as two books: Shadow & Claw and Sword & Citadel.

Favorite fantasy book far and away is "The Way of Kings" (a random Sanderson), favorite sci-fi book is Snowcrash (Neal Stephenson)

All-time favorite: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Recent favorite: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement

The Song and the Pendant by Magnus Von Black

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Any of Ursula K Le Guin's books, but particularly The Left Hand of Tomorrow.

Ancillary Justice.

Anything by Peter Watts or Iain M Banks.

If you like short stories I recommend Nine Tomorrows by Issac Asimov & The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

Old Man's War series by John Scalzi

The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons, nice mixture of sci-fi topics.

Deamon by Daniel Suarez

Daemon, and the follow up Freedom(tm) are a few fantastic books. Don't be fooled by the start - it seems like a bit of a clichéd cop procedural, but rapidly evolves to an interesting glance at near-future sci-fi and augmented reality.

...plus it's pretty darned cool.

Dune - IM not-so HO its the best sci fi novel ever.

Kevin Hearne - Iron Druid Chronicles

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