/lit/ - Literature

>>6532674
start with the greeks

Forever and always Dune

>>6532680
Epic

>>6532674
Neuromancer

>>6532674
Lem

>>6532674
Roadside Picnic is one of my favorite books and I don't even consider myself a fan of science fiction.

>Ask for recommendations only once you have browsed the wiki.

http://4chanlit.wikia.com/wiki/Recommended_Reading/Genre_fiction#Science_fiction

>>6532816
I'm familiar with the wiki. I asked for well-written sci-fi, not sci-fi. The wiki doesn't specifically cover the well-written type.

>>6532674
frankenstein

>>6532823
If it's in the wiki it's well written.

>>6532674
Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand

Start with the best of the ABCD, Asimov Baxter Clarke Dick

Hitchhikers guide

>>6532674
There aren't any. Sci-fi writers aren't aesthetes. They're concerned with ideas, conjectures about the future and cultural commentaries. Only read sci-fi if you're interested in the ideas explored. If you're reading for beautiful prose and insights into the human condition, just read some of the classics.

>>6532872
I'm mostly interested in the ideas and world building actually. I'm mostly just fishing for something that has the best of both worlds.

>>6532847
Who's Baxter?

ABCDG

>>6532886
Alright, then I suggest you read Iain Banks' Culture series.

Le Guin - The Disposessed, The Left Hand of Darkness
Wolfe - The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Book of the New Sun
Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others
Dick - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Mieville - The City & the City

Canticle for Leibowitz

>>6532872
You are an absolute shit head if you believe you can't have both.

What are you looking for?

For the classics, Foundation by Asimov is a great space opera, Clarke is great harder sci-fi. Heinlein is shit tbh, don't bother.

Bradbury is fucking based. His only real "sci-fi" is Martian Chronicles and even that's pretty light on the "science" part but isn't as openly fantasy as some of his stuff

Dan Simmons is real good for more modern stuff

Jules Verne

>>6533232
>Dan Simmons
is The Terror any good?

>>6532872
If you want Scifi with aesthetics read "Mean" Gene Wolfe

>>6533262
>The Terror
Hell yeah, mang, but it depends on what you're looking for. That's more scifi-horror. If you want full-blown space opera Hyperion's your bet. Also

>>6533286

>Gene Wolfe

How could I forget

Book of the New Sun is god tier

>>6532674
Ender's Game and the series is very well done.

>>6533299
i only ask about the terror because i picked it up like a year ago and never read it. same with book of the new sun. came back from uni for the summer to a stack of unread books, and a bookmark in blood meridian like 100 pages in with no recollection of anything that happened. not really sure where to start reading this summer. not OP btw

Embassytown by China Miéville
Pretty much anything by M. John Harrison

More Than Human
The Stars My Destination
Dying Inside

>>6533317
:^)

>>6532674
Riddley Walker
Dhalgren

>>6532872
>never read Kurt Vonnegut

>>6533413
I'd say that Vonnegut is well written but not very interesting sci-fi.

>>6532781
>>6533066
>>6533232
I can vouch for these, and would add Mary Doria Russell's the Sparrow to the list. It is probably my favorite novel.

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham.

Yes, I know, Michael Cunningham, but it's good. It has plenty of fantasy elements as well, but it is well written sci-fi. And in my opinion, the broad spectrum of sci-fi isn't geared toward writing style.

If you just want passable fantasy shlock that Bioshock novel that was released right before BI's release is passable as your typical greek tragedy.

Also I'm going to plug Fahrenheit 451 here.

>>6532674
Ubik - P.K.D
Plus - by McElroy. Still waiting or my order.

what does well-written even mean?

it honestly just sounds like a huge buzzword everyone uses because i've never gotten a clear definition of it

>>6533232
>Clarke is great harder sci-fi
Though his best novel is End of Evangelion: The Novelization

Cloud Atlas isn't strictly sci-fi, but it contains some elements of it and is very well-written

I am Legend is also fucking great

>>6533495
>and is very well-written

so in other words, you liked it?

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

>>6532683
I like that the donkeys legs look like dicks.

>>6533520
I second this, it's wonderfully constructed the way the intrigues between the rulers and Sam's plans are described in the language of a religious text

Any good or even halfway decent "historical" timetravel novels? I love the culture clash between eras, it's somewhat of an obsession. I read 1632 and even though it was trashy as fuck I still really enjoyed it.

>>6533631
Not really timetravel, but PKD's Man in the High Castle is a really cool alt-history novel, the premise being that axis won WW2 and US is into Japanese and Reich occupied territories.

>>6533631
Guns of the South sounds like something you'd like
>According to these markings these weapons were smithed in a land called "Yugoslavia"
>Whaaaa? But no such place exists on any map I can find.
Lots of shit like that.

>>6532872
You are full of shit.

>>6532674
This is an old and quite good anthology of short stories.

It's a good way to get turned on to a lot of different voices.

>>6532924
I assume he means Bester.

>>6533713
You said it man, the dude doesn't know shit.

>>6532674
Another EXTREMELY good way to find cool voices and good writers is to explore the Ace Science Fiction Specials series, in particular the second and third series edited by Terry Carr. Almost all of those novels fucking ruled; there's just a really high percentage of killers to be found there.

Oryx and Crake, the Year of the Flood - Atwood
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
The Road - McCarthy
Gene Wolfe's short stories and novellas
Babylon Babies - Maurice Dantec (was made into a terrible movie with Van Diesel)

I agree with pretty much everything the other Anons posted. It's funny SF is one of my favourite genres but I've barely scratched the surface of it. It's nice that there are so many books to read but at the same time I'm sad that I won't be able to crack all of their spines. I don't get the same feeling at all with video games, tv, or movies.

I enjoyed the Revelation Space universe.

>>6533631
Behold the Man

>>6533066
This.

You won't want to bother with sci-fi afterwards.

>>6533495
>I am Legend is also fucking great

:tips stake:

>>6532674
suicide

The Cyberiad. A fair number of the stories are kind of boring, but some, like "Prince Ferrix and the Princess Crystal" and "Tale of the Three Storytelling Machines of King Genius" are fantastic.

>>6533545
I can't recommend the series without qualifications, but John C. Wright does this on two levels (in-story mythology developing around superhumans, and an explicit analogy between certain Christian theological concepts and the capabilities of metahuman intellects) in his ongoing Eschaton books. I got a kick out of it, if you're into that kind of thing.

The Southern Reach Trilogy

>>6532680
haha got em!