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/lit/ - Literature

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Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:34:13 2013 No.3346586 [Reply] [Original]

Best science fiction series?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:37:13 2013 No.3346594 Enders Game.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:41:13 2013 No.3346611 Wheel of time.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:42:13 2013 No.3346614 Foundation

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:43:13 2013 No.3346617 >>3346594 Only if you like your SF as a thinly veiled medium to push ignorant ratfuck Mormon ideology.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:44:13 2013 No.3346623 Space Odyssey Series

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:47:13 2013 No.3346632 Book of the New Sun

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:48:13 2013 No.3346636 The Bible

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:48:13 2013 No.3346637 >>3346617 wut. Enders game completely ignores theology. Even the following books, which are philosophical and discuss religion, don't plug mormonism.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:48:13 2013 No.3346639 Discworld novels.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 18:52:13 2013 No.3346650 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 19:21:13 2013 No.3346749 File: 8 KB, 115x83, 8yqfY.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>3346636 the bible isnt science fiction, literally everything recorded in it happened. It was all recorded in several diaries and books at the time. stay edgy pleb

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 19:23:13 2013 No.3346753 >>3346749 Yeah, this thread isn't about fantasy fiction.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 19:30:13 2013 No.3346772 File: 59 KB, 503x485, 1355538113187.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>3346617 >Never read the Ender's series OSC may be a homophobic mormon pedofile, but when he puts pen to paper he writes Sci Fi gold.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 21:13:13 2013 No.3347030 >>3346632 Correct.

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 21:16:13 2013 No.3347036

>>3346753
Pretty shitty fiction anyway, if you ask me.
Genesis had some decent poetry, but the realism just wasn't there for me. The characters were one-dimensional, the scenarios were absurd, and the narrative was lacking in places.
3/10 would not read again

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 21:23:18 2013 No.3347054

Sprawl Trilogy, Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy, Old Man's War. Not the best, but the ones I like.
>>3346586
First book was great, went to shit once Frank died.
>>3346632
No, it isn't. The only thing I appreciate about it is that it was revolutionary for its time.
>Inb4 Wolfefags

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 21:36:13 2013 No.3347086 >>3346594 3rd and 4th book were terrible.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 21:36:13 2013 No.3347088 File: 40 KB, 562x437, HA_HA_HA,_OH_WOW.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>3347054 >Sprawl Trilogy, Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy, Old Man's War. All of those are awful.

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 21:49:13 2013 No.3347126

>>3347088
I said I liked them. Gibson has the best prose in all of science fiction. Richard K. Morgan's writing in the Kovacs Trilogy is a little pretentious, but his action it god-tier. And Old Man's War is just fun and interesting. So, yeah, fuck yourself.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 22:28:13 2013 No.3347209 >>3346586 Can we talk about Dune? I keep hearing it mentioned, but WHY? Why Dune?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 22:40:13 2013 No.3347252 >>3346586 Book of the New Sun. Book of the New Sun. Fifth Head of Cerberus. Book of the New Sun.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 22:41:13 2013 No.3347259 >>3346586 >series Something wrong with standalones?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 22:45:13 2013 No.3347271 >>3346632 This is the right answer. The Hyperion Cantos and LeGuin's "Hainish" cycle are fine too.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 22:57:13 2013 No.3347307 culture cycle - Iain banks full of fucked up ideas. mindbending

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 22:59:13 2013 No.3347312 >>3346632 >>3347252 that's more fantasy, or science fantasy, than science fiction

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:03:13 2013 No.3347318

>>3347312

If you're that into subdividing genres then yes, science fantasy is more accurate, but overall it's much more closely related to science fiction. The fantasy elements all arise from the fact that the series narrator doesn't understand the world he inhabits. The more the reader understands what is going on, the more the book is science fiction and not science fantasy.

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:04:13 2013 No.3347321

>>3347252
Yeah, can't argue with that. It's just light-years beyond anything else, as difficult as it is to place in the sci-fi/fantasy spectrum. There's no greater pleasure than a book that gets better with every re-reading. I just wish more people these days would read it.

Other than that, I'd put forward the Hyperion Cantos, although the first two books are significantly stronger than the last two. Zones of Thought is top-tier space opera as well.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:10:13 2013 No.3347340 >>3347318 there's no science though, it's all magic potions, magic gems, and magic being from other dimensions

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:10:13 2013 No.3347341 File: 22 KB, 432x288, 1357629314853.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>3347054 >>Inb4 Wolfefags >Inb4 Wolfefags

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:14:13 2013 No.3347348

>>3347340
That's like some medieval scholar describing cough syrup as a magic potion.

It has aliens, space travel, genetic engineering, all that typical sci-fi shit. It only looks like fantasy because as anon said earlier, the narrator doesn't really understand the mechanics behind the stuff.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:20:13 2013 No.3347361 >>3347348 There is some borderline fantasy, though. The Lovecraftian things like Abaia never really get an explanation.

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:22:13 2013 No.3347366

>>3347348

What also gets left out of discussions about New Sun typically is that the story is a deconstruction of the Chosen One/Orphan Savior trope, and is purposefully told with mythical grandeur. But, it is definitely science fiction. There is nothing supernatural in the story except *maybe* the questionable science of welding a vein of mercury down into the blood groove of a sword, and expecting the thing to stay in one piece when it hits something.

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:22:13 2013 No.3347369

>>3347348
science fiction should make some effort to explain fantastical occurrences by referencing scientific theories, anything is science fiction under your definition
it's not good enough to explain everything away by saying "well they came from another dimension," that is the same as saying "it's magic i don't have to explain shit"

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:24:13 2013 No.3347377 >>3347369 You expect a torturer, raised in the trade from birth, and who is only above average intelligence to be able to explain shit like The Claw? Or even alzabos for that matter?

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:27:13 2013 No.3347381

>>3347369

No, it is not the same at all. Arthur C. Clarke himself even said (paraphrasing) that any sufficiently advanced technology will appear magical to people who don't understand it. The book is a confession, told in the true first person (not omniscient), and one of its best qualities is that the world is colored by Severian's prejudices and beliefs about it... not all of them true, or accurate. This is the way real humans are including you and me.

Again, nothing in the book is supernatural. And the clues to find the explanations you're talking about are there if you take the time to look for them. They don't jump out at you, though. The whole thing about Severian's grandmother, for example, I missed on the first read through.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:28:13 2013 No.3347386 >>3347377 Actually, I thought he explained the Alzabo pretty well... natural selection > unique strategies of predation, dawg.

Anonymous Fri Jan 11 23:35:13 2013 No.3347406

>>3346586
DUNE wins this hands down.
Not only is the first book one of the most complex and imaginative world building pieces ever created, the sequels evolve the ideas of the original work at an amazing pace which no other series (I've come across at least) has since duplicated.

>>	Chris Jackson Fri Jan 11 23:53:13 2013 No.3347468 The novel "Hottie" by Jonathan Bernstein is a better book.

Anonymous Sat Jan 12 01:01:13 2013 No.3347704

This is as good a place as any to ask since it's talked about, and I don't want to make a thread about it.

What is the best order to read The Dune Saga in? I've seen a few different orders in which to read it but more info/opinions would be nice. I'm thinking about doing it by the Chronology on Wikipedia, but I am not 100% set on it.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 01:11:13 2013 No.3347739 >>3347271 This, this, this.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 01:13:13 2013 No.3347745 >>3347704 Read the original trilogy first.

>>	Spaghetti Lord of the Mid-Atlantic !!OvuwrWQX+xf Sat Jan 12 01:18:13 2013 No.3347751 >>3347704 Dude Dune Messiah Children of Dune God-Emperor of Dune Heretics of Dune Chapterhouse: Dune Basically, read all of the Dune books that ONLY Frank Herbert wrote, and in the order that they were published.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 01:29:14 2013 No.3347780 >>3347704 Publishing order

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 02:11:14 2013 No.3347908 >>3347271 >>3347739 Gentlemen.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 03:10:14 2013 No.3348054 >>3346586 >>3347209 Honestly, I don't have the eloquence to put into words why Dune is the best sci-fi novel. I just know that it is. Why is it? Can somebody else explain to this anon why Dune is the best?

Anonymous Sat Jan 12 03:14:14 2013 No.3348065

The biggest shame of Dune is that Frank Herbert died, and his son rose up and wrote it into shitty masturbatory juvenile fiction.

Even as every book took it further and further away from the glory of the original Dune, it was a great experience watching Herbert recreate a new universe with every novel.

If only Frank Herbert had lived 10 more years. . .

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 03:21:14 2013 No.3348082 >>3347088 And yet you wasted your life reading all the books in each series still just so you could have a qualified opinion? Child.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 06:56:14 2013 No.3348318 Asimov Robot's novels and short stories. Give me many feelings.

Anonymous Sat Jan 12 09:39:10 2013 No.3348572

>>3348082

Oh, no, I didn't finish any of those series. The first or first two books in those series let me know in no uncertain terms that they were awful. Bad writing, lack of characterization, all around lack of depth. As you pointed out, finishing the series would have been a waste of my life, so I didn't.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 11:50:17 2013 No.3348840 U srs Its hyperion cantos

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 12 12:01:14 2013 No.3348867 Majipoor

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