Your favourite Science Fiction book? I would have to say Roadside Picnic, I'm ashamed to say I only discovered it recently but I loved it. I did feel I had to read over sentences quite a lot due to some translation errors, or so I believe. Did anyone else get that?

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Anonymous Sat Oct 5 20:07:16 2013 No.4161329 [DELETED]

Your favourite Science Fiction book?

I would have to say Roadside Picnic, I'm ashamed to say I only discovered it recently but I loved it. I did feel I had to read over sentences quite a lot due to some translation errors, or so I believe. Did anyone else get that?

Anonymous Sat Oct 5 20:36:15 2013 No.4161365

Asimov's "The Complete Robot". It was one of the first real scifi books I read and I read it at a really young age. There are a few crappy stories in there and I guess on a technical level Asimov isn't the best writer out there, but he does create some really interesting moral problems and situations.

Kind of odd I'd like a book like that when I was like 7 or whatever.

Anonymous Sat Oct 5 20:41:07 2013 No.4161372

I've read it in german and didn't notice any translation errors. At least in retrospect. I liked the book pretty much but my favourite is Snow Crash. Even though Neal Stephenson sometimes needs to slow down on the weird sexual stuff. If I remember correctly one part in the Cryptonomicon was dedicated to hairy armpits or something.

Forgot about Philip K. Dick, Stanislaw Lem and Asimov. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is awesome.

Anonymous Sat Oct 5 20:51:07 2013 No.4161386

I'd go with Roadside Picnic as well. I read it a couple years ago and loved it. and yeah, the translation that's been around for a while wasn't that great. especially that last sentence or two of the entire book, that was laughably bad.

There's a new translation out that I bought last year but haven't actually gotten around to reading yet, but I can say the translation of the last page is loads better than the older translation.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 20:52:07 2013 No.4161389 I'm not huge on sci-fi but my favourite is Left Hand of Darkness.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 20:59:08 2013 No.4161403 >>4161386 Indeed, I was actually somewhat confused at the ending.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 21:02:08 2013 No.4161405 Probably Ender's Game (lol). I've never been able to get into Sci-Fi other than that book. However, I did 'try' to read Valis by Dick not too long ago. I just couldn't finish it though. It was too bizarre.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 21:16:10 2013 No.4161430 Ubik

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 21:50:09 2013 No.4161466 File: 1005 KB, 1941x1836, solaris.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] Solaris It was the first very technical sci fi that I read and really enjoyed it.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 22:21:09 2013 No.4161512 VALIS if that counts, if not, then probably The Forever War.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 22:22:10 2013 No.4161516 File: 25 KB, 320x522, The_Caves_Of_Steel_f.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>4161329 Stalkerfag here. Unfortunately didn't enjoy Roadside Picnic much. >>4161365 >>4161372 Asimov for life. The Expanse series is very good also.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 22:24:10 2013 No.4161524 File: 420 KB, 329x548, Lord_Valentine%27s_Castle[1].png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] Or maybe the sequel.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 23:15:30 2013 No.4161594 Best sci-fi out there is "Horace and the Moleman." Never heard of it? You will. A pirated copy is making the rounds. It's hilarious... It's up on Amazon now. Looks like the same version I got. Havent read anything like it since Hitchhikers.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 5 23:58:31 2013 No.4161686 best sci-fi at the moment is " Horace and the Moleman" Never heard of it? You will. A printout of the thing was going around the dorm. Its up on Amazon now. Same version from what i can tell. Havent read anything like it since Hitchhikers.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 00:02:30 2013 No.4161694 >>4161430 Oh, the archetypical, seminal Dick novel. Yes, it came after The Three Stigmata, but it's Ubik that blows your mind and reconstruct it in ways you'd never believe.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 00:02:31 2013 No.4161696 >>4161686 go to bed Cyrus

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 00:06:30 2013 No.4161700 >>4161686 promoting your book on 4chan? How desperate.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 01:47:27 2013 No.4161885 File: 100 KB, 600x616, foyle.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 07:54:54 2013 No.4162260 Has anyone else read Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief? Opinions?

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 08:09:29 2013 No.4162270 Stanislaw Lem's "Observation on the Spot". It's as intelligent as it's hilarious. Lem was a great sci-fi author.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 08:17:28 2013 No.4162274 >>4161885 This.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 08:19:29 2013 No.4162278 Anyone read Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men or Star Maker? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_and_First_Men http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Maker

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 09:53:31 2013 No.4162365 >>4162278 many times

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 11:38:07 2013 No.4162522 Hyperion cantos

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 11:59:06 2013 No.4162567 >>4161885 This thread is full of some awesome choices, but this is seriously the only reasonable answer.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 12:01:07 2013 No.4162573 I really liked Rendezvous with Rama when I read that.

Anonymous Sun Oct 6 12:02:07 2013 No.4162575

>>4162522
I'm tired of re-re-re-reading the book of the new sun. I'm tired of discussing and loving Hyperion to no end, and I'm not willing to read the follow-ups to TBOTNS right now.

What kind of similar (a choral cast of characters, intertwining stories and interesting and weird as fuck lore) short SF books are there?

With short I mean, for example:
TBOTNS: 4 books that are in total ~1100 pages, with a 300pages long coda
Hyperion cantos: 2 books that are in total ~1200 pages. (endymion is unnecesary).

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 12:21:07 2013 No.4162600 File: 38 KB, 316x480, 4532543541.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] sequel is great too

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 12:25:56 2013 No.4162605 >>4161885 Oh man, i love this one. Even today, I say something like "WE'RE ON OUR WAY TO DEMOLITION" in my head when something goes wrong or something awful is about to happen.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 12:27:55 2013 No.4162610 I'm not really into sci fi, but it's Solaris and Roadside Picnic for me.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 12:38:55 2013 No.4162621 Eight, sir; seven, sir; Six, sir; five, sir; Four, sir; three, sir; Two, sir; one! Tenser, said the Tensor. Tenser, said the Tensor. Tension, apprehension, And dissension have begun

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 13:13:42 2013 No.4162660 File: 32 KB, 190x291, the dispossessed.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] Pic related. I liked 2001 A Space Odyssey a lot too but I should re-read it. It's been so long. The Stars My Destination was a wonderful read as well.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 13:14:42 2013 No.4162662 >>4162621 Aaah yes! This one was another fantastic read! From >>4162660 Thanks for the post. Made me smile.

>>	FiRez !!tndrCZJHE+I Sun Oct 6 13:26:42 2013 No.4162683 Stories of your life and others. Best collection of short stories I've read too even better than Borges'.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 13:29:42 2013 No.4162687 >>4161516 Why did you not enjoy it? I liked the games and movie and loved the book

Anonymous Sun Oct 6 13:52:42 2013 No.4162728

close candidates are either hellstroms hive by frank herbert or for some inexplicable reason i love shades children by garth nix, read it as a kid and still enjoy it now, even though i find it cringey and cliched.

actual winner would be a scanner darkly - PKD if it werent for the fac that theres really no science fiction involved, so UBIK probably wins.

ive heard VALIS is great, but is it one of his more philosophical ones or not? i found the 3 stigmata of palmer eldritch abit theological for my liking.
pretty much all the books mentioned so far have been ace though...such a misjudged genre.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 13:57:48 2013 No.4162733 File: 46 KB, 356x500, stanislaw-lem-eden[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >ctrl+f Stanislaw >0 I disapoint /lit/.

Anonymous Sun Oct 6 14:20:48 2013 No.4162766
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I'd have to say this, though it's not without its flaws. Runner ups are Non-Stop and I Am Legend.

>>4161885
I always preferred the Demolished Man myself!

>>4162733
He's mentioned like four times, twice by his first name.

Anonymous Sun Oct 6 18:47:44 2013 No.4163418

Solaris for sentimental reasons, but otherwise...

Blindsight, probably. The ideas pack quite a punch, and the execution is close to flawless.

Same with Flowers for Algernon.

Glad to see the Bester love in this thread, he's brilliant. And so is (in his own way) Rajaniemi. So many Chekov's guns...

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 18:55:43 2013 No.4163437 >>4163418 sentimental reasons?

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 19:01:44 2013 No.4163448 >>4161386 how did the old translation end?

Anonymous Sun Oct 6 19:01:44 2013 No.4163449

>>4163437
One of the first sci-fi books of quality I've read (I was eleven), and I own an autographed copy.

I tend to re-read it every 2-3 years.

Doesn't mean I haven't come to regard some of Lem's other books as better, or that I don't have any problems with 'Solaris' now, but... yeah, sentimental reasons.

Anonymous Sun Oct 6 21:44:41 2013 No.4163769

>>4163448
Here's the old one
Look into my heart. I know that everything you need is in there. It has to be. I never sold my soul to anyone! It's mine, it's human! You take from me what it is I want... it just can't be that I would want something bad! Damn it all, I can't think of anything, except those words of his... 'HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY, FREE, AND NO ONE WILL GO AWAY UNSATISFIED!'
versus the new one
Look into my soul, I know--everything you need is in there. It has to be. Because I've never sold my soul to anyone! It's mine, it's human! Figure out yourself what I want--because I know it can't be bad! The hell with it all, I just can't think of a thing other than those words of his--HAPPINESS, FREE, FOR EVERYONE, AND LET NO ONE BE FORGOTTEN!

not a major spoiler but thought it best to use spoiler tags just in case.

>>	Anonymous Sun Oct 6 22:01:59 2013 No.4163793 >>4161885 First I've heard of this. Sounds fucking awesome, thank you for mentioning it.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 03:41:11 2013 No.4164311 Gateway/forever war, both hit the right chords in me. Both I really enjoyed.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 04:33:15 2013 No.4164368 >>4162278 I already read Last and First Men twice, fucking loved it, I'm just starting Star Maker now.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 05:55:06 2013 No.4164438 File: 34 KB, 500x282, Dune Cat The Spice Must Flow.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >Ctrl+F >No "Dune" C'mon, /lit/

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 06:00:07 2013 No.4164446 >>4164438 I love Dune, but I love it because of how it makes me feel. I don't think it's a very interesting book, the characters are dull as hell and the story is incredibly monotonous.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 06:14:07 2013 No.4164451 Permutation City, very powerful ideas.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 07:12:16 2013 No.4164496 >>4164311 god gateway sounds so interesting

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 08:14:16 2013 No.4164544 For me it's Chasm City, although I am yet to try the Strugatskys. Anyway, Reynolds writes the hardest sci-fi I know, everything seems so legit and interesting. On top of that the whole fable was really tight.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 08:28:35 2013 No.4164554 File: 163 KB, 800x1286, Lord-Of-Light.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] I loved Solaris, Neuromancer, Ubik, The Stars My Destination, Nova. Then I read Lord of Light. To this day nothing came close.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 08:31:35 2013 No.4164555 >>4161372 Fucking loved snow crash. The technical descriptions got me. I've been on a William Gibson binge recently though. On the last book of the sprawl trilogy. I'm not sure I enjoy how he plays with continuity, but it's an enjoyable read.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 08:40:35 2013 No.4164570 >>4164438 >>4164446 This. It's a pretty bland read, but the nostalgia and world building pulls at me. I was exposed to that shit when I was 11 and thanks to that I will forever romanticize the wasteland.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 08:49:35 2013 No.4164576 >>4162600 love this. can't wait for causal angel

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 08:50:35 2013 No.4164578 >>4162683 Ted Chiang is the shit too

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 08:59:35 2013 No.4164584 >>4162687 The book is only loosely connected to the Movie and while the games kind of have the same atmosphere they differ heavily in content.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 09:05:36 2013 No.4164601 Memoir Found in a Bathtub - Stanisław Lem I felt like this book was written just for me.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 09:23:36 2013 No.4164633 >>4164601 wow this was one of my very least favorite lem books, but to each their own

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 09:28:35 2013 No.4164644 A Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller, Jr. or Last and First Men by Stapeldon. >>4162733 muh nigga

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 09:32:11 2013 No.4164653 >>4163418 I'll also vote for Blindsight.

Anonymous Mon Oct 7 12:44:08 2013 No.4164938

I started reading the SF Masterworks collection a few months ago, so far I have read:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Man Plus
Ringworld

Now I am currently reading Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss, I've nearly finished it.

I think out of these I enjoyed Man Plus the most, and also Ringworld, but I like them all so far.

I would like some recommendations as to what I should read next.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 13:37:16 2013 No.4165014 File: 41 KB, 316x470, vacuum diagrams.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] dem timescales. I wish his writing was better but I can take it for the sake of the ideas.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 13:59:15 2013 No.4165047 File: 223 KB, 890x524, book_of_the_new_sun_by_palmerst-d4z6pfw.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] See Pic Related. The Fifth Head of Cerberus is also another Wolfe Classic.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 16:03:58 2013 No.4165275 >>4163769 What's so bad about the old one?

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 19:27:13 2013 No.4165785 >>4164653 Just finished Blindsight after someone on /lit/ recommended it and loved it. Sequel (Watts calls it a "sidequel") is slated for this August.

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 23:07:29 2013 No.4166282 >>4165785 Horey sheit, I didn't know that. Thanks, anon!

>>	Anonymous Mon Oct 7 23:11:48 2013 No.4166293 >>4165785 His website is a fucking mess, what's the book called?

>>	Anonymous Tue Oct 8 00:01:48 2013 No.4166413 File: 10 KB, 181x278, lastandfirstmen.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>4161329 The Last and First Men. Arguably the most important sci fi book in the English language. It inspired Arthur C. Clarke to write.

>>	Anonymous Tue Oct 8 00:06:48 2013 No.4166428 >>4162278 I read Last and First Men in one sitting, on my computer. It is the best hard sci-fi i have ever read. Starmaker looked promising, but i haven't gotten through it all yet.

>>	Anonymous Tue Oct 8 00:17:07 2013 No.4166447 >>4164554 I'll second this, it has some good humor in it. Yama-Dharma was my favorite character.

Anonymous Tue Oct 8 04:05:54 2013 No.4166882

roadside picnic is still on my to read pile, I will definitely read it after I finish my current book. I absolutely love the premise of it.

>A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. Cars drive off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, birds, and insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Old spark plugs and old filters strewn around... Rags, burnt-out bulbs, and a monkey wrench left behind... And of course, the usual mess—apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody’s handkerchief, somebody’s penknife, torn newspapers, coins, faded flowers picked in another meadow.

>>	Anonymous Tue Oct 8 19:17:32 2013 No.4168482 >>4166293 The novel is called Echopraxia. When you type his name into google the first sight that comes up is his first, now defunct blog; the second hit is his current website.

>>	Anonymous Tue Oct 8 19:27:32 2013 No.4168507 File: 411 KB, 601x908, Echocomp.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>4168482

>>	Anonymous Tue Oct 8 22:06:35 2013 No.4168846 Desolation Road by Ian McDonald. Relevant question: are there any other magical-realism sci-fi books? I love the combination.

>>	Anonymous Tue Oct 8 22:22:34 2013 No.4168900 >>4168482 Thanks, m8. I still couldn't find what the book is about.

>>	Anonymous Tue Oct 8 22:39:34 2013 No.4168943 File: 22 KB, 322x438, cover.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] After Life by Simon Funk

>>	MrThrills !aAnvD.FqpM Tue Oct 8 22:55:33 2013 No.4169001 File: 90 KB, 495x821, d-alexander-smith-marathon[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] Just started this. I like pulpy stuff; although I gotta say, I'm digging Marathon's first-contact scenario.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 16:07:42 2013 No.4170775 >>4168943 Cool cover. Tell us something about the book, anon.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 20:26:05 2013 No.4171451 File: 74 KB, 336x500, Forever War.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>4161329 Forever War.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 20:30:06 2013 No.4171465 File: 28 KB, 255x400, Childhoods End.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >control + F >no Childhood's End Seriously /lit/, do you even sci-fi?

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 20:35:05 2013 No.4171482 File: 13 KB, 200x328, Inverted World.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] Anyone else a big fan of Inverted World here?

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 21:00:05 2013 No.4171575 Just started reading Blindsight and I'm about 20% into the book (kindle masterrace). Was anyone annoyed by all the SF jargon? And I'm not unfamiliar with it either, I just found the narrative tone rather off putting. Also, vampires? What the fuck?

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 21:00:05 2013 No.4171576 >>4171482 What's this?

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 21:08:29 2013 No.4171606 >>4171575 Jargon? Could you give some examples? I wasn't annoyed at all. About the vampire: at first I thought it was going to suck, but have patience. The vampire aboard the ship has some pretty good science stuff around him.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 21:21:45 2013 No.4171649 >>4171482 I am!

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 21:40:46 2013 No.4171726 >>4162573 best science fiction book of all time. without a doubt

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 21:42:46 2013 No.4171734 >>4171726 It's good, but if you think that's the best, you should read more SF.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:09:03 2013 No.4171813 >>4171734 Agreed. Great book, but by far from the best. >>4171575 I thought the v ampires made it an interesting twist and they were made to fit neatly into the book.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:39:05 2013 No.4171917 >>4171734 What are your favorites anon? Interested in someone's view who has more experience in sci fi

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:43:06 2013 No.4171935 >>4171917 Blindsight Childhood's end I, Robot Forever War Starship Troopers Do androids dream of electric sheep Just to name a few that are better than "Rendezvous".

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:47:06 2013 No.4171950 >>4171465 The fact that End wasn't mentioned was part of the reason I was happy with the thread. God that book is terrible.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:48:05 2013 No.4171953 >>4171950 Why is it terrible?

Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:53:05 2013 No.4171969

>>4171953
The total lack of characterization? Mediocre writing? The fact that the "story" is just an excuse for Clarke to talk about humanity evolving? The fact that said human evolution is rambling new age blather? A huge disappointment given how often it's mentioned, I really found nothing redeeming in it.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:56:05 2013 No.4171984 >>4171969 Yeah, it's that kind of book. The events matter, not the characters. If you don't appreciate this structure in SF, it's not the book's fault. Stay away from Foundation, because it's more of the same.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:58:05 2013 No.4171989 >>4171984 I wouldn't mind that if the events weren't so stupid. Foundation, comparatively, is quite good.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 22:59:05 2013 No.4171994 >>4171989 Which events were stupid? I think the story is well tied and the ending is very good.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 23:01:06 2013 No.4171998 >>4171984 And also, that dichotomy is bullshit. I read The Lathe of Heaven by Le Guin on Monday, and it has both events of importance and fully realized characters. Failing to have one or the other might be a structural choice, but it's still a failure.

Anonymous Wed Oct 9 23:04:05 2013 No.4172015

>>4171998
It's not a dichotomy in any way. It's just the way some books are.
If the writer can write all aspects into the same story, better. If not, you must be able to understand what kind of book you are reading, instead of thinking that all books must develop it's characters.

Never read that book. What do you think of Left Hand of Darkness? I finished it this week.
I liked the premise, but I think Le Guin didn't do much with it and much of the book was wasted on that trip on the ice.

Anonymous Wed Oct 9 23:07:06 2013 No.4172028

>>4171994
Let's see, the whole Ouija board part was pretty dumb. Then there was the fact that all of a sudden there are psychic children, then those children are super beings, and then they all join in a huge hive mind so that they can become one with the universe. Then everything magically disappears, how amazing! New Age blather.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 23:12:05 2013 No.4172045 >>4172028 Well, I think the ending was a good explanation of why the aliens wanted Earth to evolve. The children were not sudden. The aliens were pushing evolution that way. I don't remember that Ouija board part, it's been a while.

Anonymous Wed Oct 9 23:19:08 2013 No.4172070

>>4172015
>If not, you must be able to understand what kind of book you are reading
You mean a poorly written one? Writers don't pull stories fully formed out of some realm of Platonic ideals, they craft them. If you come up with a story like Childhood's End where you have a concept you want to explore, as a writer you should create a situation where you can explore that concept AND have characters with characterization, as well as some half-way decent writing (though many science fiction writers aren't very handy with prose, so I guess we can cut them some slack on the last point).

I thought the Left Hand of Darkness was solid, but I agree that the premise could have been further explored and the trip took far too long. Lathe was better

>>4172045
And I think the ending was an excuse for Clarke to talk about humans becoming one with the universe and the given rationale was a poor one. The children were sudden, humanity went from normal to psychic-telepathic hive mind who in the end transcended their physical bodies in one generation. It makes the X-men look realistic by comparison.

>>	Anonymous Wed Oct 9 23:28:09 2013 No.4172113 >>4172070 And to get the thread back on track, some of my favorites: A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller) The Book of the New Sun (Wolfe) Fourth Mansions (Lafferty) We (Zamyatin) Stations of the Tide (Swanwick)

Anonymous Wed Oct 9 23:32:56 2013 No.4172129

>>4172070
Poorly written only if you are stuck in a formula for what a book should be.
I don't care for any of the characters in a book like this and I don't miss doing it. Plenty of people also don't.
This style of SF actually pleases me, because I read this genre because of the ideas and extrapolations, not because of characters.

I'm not saying Clarke could have written better characters if he wanted to. Maybe he didn't have what it takes, but I don't miss it.

A book like "Childhood's end" is like watching a documentary. The characters are there just to move the plot and provide a point of view. Again, it's a style that I love.

What you call an "excuse", I call a scenario he created. He wrote a book where aliens didn't want to kill and slave us and he provided a good reason for it. It was satisfying and surprising for me.

Did all children become "x-men" at the same time? Or just a few children around the world? I don't really remember how it went.

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 01:33:02 2013 No.4172394 >>4161329 Stanislaw Lem, A Perfect Vacuum.

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 01:43:21 2013 No.4172427 Starship Troopers. It got me back into reading during college.

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 01:52:20 2013 No.4172442 File: 86 KB, 640x512, 1381301345895.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>4172427 It wasn't at all what I expected after watching the movie first. Heinlein seems to actually believe in the facist ideas that the movie lampoons.

Anonymous Thu Oct 10 02:11:08 2013 No.4172471

>>4172442
More or less. The intent is pretty much exactly opposite, Verhoeven is using the movie to satirize the points the book is making (I've heard that he barely even knew the book before he made the movie). Which is okay, the book isn't a masterwork or anything.

If you really want some good space-fascism, read Jack Vance - it's not explicit or anything, except in The Grey Prince (which is pretty much an apologia for the Rhodesian colonial government), but he has quite a few of those traits (and just for clarification here, I am not at all saying that Jack Vance was actually a fascist, nor is this meant to be a critique of his skill as a writer, which it could hardly be anyway)

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 03:06:25 2013 No.4172536 >>4170775 Brain uploading taken to it's ultimate conclusion

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 03:09:56 2013 No.4172537 File: 104 KB, 614x1024, Blue Mars.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 03:48:01 2013 No.4172584 Tough choice, probably something PKD

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 06:52:56 2013 No.4172833 >>4164653 I three. Also, Permutation City was good.

Anonymous Thu Oct 10 09:42:04 2013 No.4173238

>>4172537
Really? Blue Mars?

Red Mars was very good, until its half.
Green Mars was just too boring.
I've started Blue Mars and I had to put it down before page 100.

This trilogy is in bad need of a good editor. If you count all landscape descriptions it will probably amount to 400 pages. Fuck this shit.

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 09:53:03 2013 No.4173253 Am I a nerd if I read science fiction?

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 10:43:28 2013 No.4173337 >>4173253 Is this b8?

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 10:46:29 2013 No.4173343 >>4173253 Yes.

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 10:49:28 2013 No.4173349 File: 49 KB, 404x600, 404px-Illuminatus1sted.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] The Illuminatus Trilogy

Anonymous Thu Oct 10 12:46:07 2013 No.4173569

Lem has been mentioned so many times here, yet I have to do it again: Cyberiad.
Am I the only person who likes the new Solaris movie and hates the old one?
Other favorites would be
Nonstop and Hothouse by Aldiss
Brave New World by Huxley
War With Newts by Čapek

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 17:07:50 2013 No.4174094 >>4171482 Christopher Lloyd quickly became a favourite sf author after reading that. It didn't seem to be anything spectacular, but it really stuck with me.

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 17:08:49 2013 No.4174099 >>4174094 Uhh, Christopher Priest*.

>>	Anonymous Thu Oct 10 17:10:49 2013 No.4174101 >>4173349 My fucking nigger!

Anonymous Thu Oct 10 18:01:32 2013 No.4174242

To whoever mentioned 'War With Newts' by Čapek - can we be bros?

Even if I am not all that enamoured of the new 'Solaris' movie (although it was better than Tarkovsky's shoddy effort, yeah).

I disagree about 'Hothouse' being a masterpiece. Too scientifically ludicrous - even at the time of publication - for me to get into, but admittedly a showy piece.

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 06:57:24 2013 No.4175244 >>4161329 I'm with you the experiment is also a great one. and solaris

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 06:59:23 2013 No.4175249 People don't like foundation?

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 07:02:23 2013 No.4175253 >>4175249 haven't read it yet, but I'm pretty sure I would like it

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 07:10:23 2013 No.4175263 File: 176 KB, 640x480, 1332273190254.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] The Doomed City, strugatzky anyone else here read this? I think it is one of the best they've ever written. At some parts I've nearly pissed myself from laughing

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 07:42:23 2013 No.4175303 >>4175249 >People don't like foundation? I don't. It's shit, even by YA standards. (Yes, you neckbeard, 'Foundation' is YA tripe.)

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 07:55:42 2013 No.4175336 >>4175303 I bet you don't even like short stories, faggot

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 09:55:57 2013 No.4175529 >>4175336 >I bet you don't even like short stories, faggot I don't. I'm glad that genre finally died.

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 10:00:17 2013 No.4175537 >>4175249 Most people like it. I do.

>>	Anonymous Fri Oct 11 10:11:17 2013 No.4175556 Slaughterhouse Five so it goes.

Anonymous Fri Oct 11 18:40:50 2013 No.4176461
File: 37 KB, 348x500, SYY.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Yukikaze.

There's something about it that just feels timeless. The occupation of Faery and the war with the JAM could've been constructed as a commentary on war, but that's more an unintentional element, second to the primary themes of the idea of human and inhuman; a conflict where man, with the aid of machine intelligences of its own design (albeit not necessarily of like mind), is seeking to keep at the very least a stalemate against an utterly incomprehensible and decisively inhuman alien... well, it's hard to say entity, or force, or just ascribe any sort of conceptualization to it.

But it's the machine intelligences that really got me. It left me feeling that the idea that we can totally predict and understand a true Artificial Intelligence is nothing more than human conceit; in fact, AI would be a misnomer for these things, which would operate according to their own perspective and world view conceptualizations that would lead them to act in ways incomprehensible to us humans. I left feeling that the field of AI may be best tackled not by trying to simply make an intelligent agent, but to foster the growth of... well, I'd use the term "digital organism." Whatever it will be, it's likely going to make Turing roll in his grave, being something obviously inhuman and yet very much alive... in some sense.

But yeah, Yukikaze.
And its followup Good Luck Yukikaze.
And I'd presume, if it would ever get translated, Unbroken Arrow Yukikaze.

Amazing shit.

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 12 07:17:55 2013 No.4177096 Axiomatic or Crysal Express. Yes, I like short stories. Scifi short stories > Scifi neverending sagas

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/lit/ - Literature