bloodmusic was impressive. also Godmakers by
F Herbert (it's epic and it's like 200p).

If you want humor, go for Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy series

now what about ancient science fiction i mean the true inventors of the genre?

these i read when i was a kid so no idea today but eh! not everyone has read them..

jules verne:

• 20,000 leagues under the sea
• from the earth to the moon
• voyage to the center of the earth
• (dont know the name in english) "l'ile mysterieuse"
• around the world in 80 days (really you have to realize the train & the steamship & the suez canal were quite fantastic back in the day and the world used to be immense before cheap jet airfares)

he's got a ton others but not sure if michel strogoff qualifies as science fiction, ha ha, & these i recall best

h.g. wells

• war of the worlds
• the invisible man
• the time machine
• the island of dr. moreau

he's got a ton of other stuf i haven't read either. thought it was worth mentioning...

Actually, I'm one of the Admins over at a Science Fiction Message Board where we discuss this type of stuff every day.

My personal favorites include Alistair Reynolds, Stanislaw Lem, C. J. Cherryh (she does fantasy too, but her science fiction is quite good), David Brin, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Octavia Butler, Ian McDonald, Michael Moorcock, H.P. Lovecraft, Jack Vance, Greg Bear, J. G. Ballard, Barry Malzberg, Ursula K Le Guin, Samuel Delany.

I'm currently reading the latest Foreigner series book by C. J. Cherry, called, awkwardly, Deliverer. I like her Alliance/Union universe better than this one though.

oh oh oh oh... this is awesome. in that case i am looking for a reference and maybe you can help me?

years ago i read a jack vance book in translation. short stories, & i remember 2 quite vividly:

-transdimesional thought parasites that would take over a person's brain & create antagonism between the host species. they were invisible but the narrator was able to see them (i wonder if that's what possesses republicans?)
-some planet where there was no currency, but people traded on prestige through ritualistic social interaction-- they wear masks. the narrator is a foreigner who (i don't want to ruin this for the ones who haven't read it) has to learn how to survive here.

i wanted to read more but nothing else was available in that time & place-- could you help me find that book, or might you know the title of these short stories by any chance? ?? ??

on ancient SF- not really but close enough, check Lucian's (120 AD) "True Story"
Lucian
True_history

it's a travel to the moon w/ cloud-centaurs and

Sorry haven't read that one. Of my whole list, Vance is the one who I need to read considerably more of. It sounds a bit like the Durdane series, which I've begun but only read the first book, but then he used some similar devices in many books.

We do have a What Was That Book? Thread over on our Message Board, so why don't you post about it there. I'm betting you'd get results, as Vance is a major favorite among the other Admins and Moderators.

sweet, thanks. i'll get some breakfast & post my question.

I love "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem who inspired an impressionist Russian movie of the same title.
Ursula K. Le Guin is great, as well as J.G. Ballard.

Yes Solaris is an amazing book. I don't think either the Soviet movie nor the recent Soderberg Hollywood version really do the book justice. We had a massive group read and discussion of it on the science fiction board I'm an Admin at.

really? i haven't read the book, but the tarkovsky movie is fucking extraordinary though. the beauty of that film is out of this world (no pun intended).

--
ps- forgot to post on your board. and now im getting ready to crash...

Well, the thing is with the 2 movies and the book, it seems to often be the version one experiences first that leads to the strongest impression. I read the book for the discussion I linked above, and then I watched both movies. Tarkovsky's was definitely stronger than Soderberg's but both of them featured directors really taking over the book and changing it to fit their own agenda. This is of course what directors do, but as much as I love the book, I'd like to see somebody try to really translate it to film rather than use it for an idea for their own story.

latest rudy rucker novel is available for free at his site, and i know how you kids love to download anything free

http://www.rudyrucker.com/postsingular/

There's no bump , but anyway :
-Robert Merle : Malevil ( post-nuclear war , not science fiction )
-Asimov
-Poul Anderson

No love for Mr.Lovecraft?
I guess i'll have to wait till Hip Priest fiends this thread.

I read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (If thats scifi, i dunno) in 5 days which is some kind of record for me, so id say give that a go.

Alfred Bester: The Demolished Man & The Stars My Destination
Harlan Ellison: too many to name
Kim Stanley Robinson: Red/Green/Blue Mars series, The Years of Rice and Salt
J. Michael Straczynski: Babylon 5 (actually a tv-series, but considering he created it and wrote 94 of the 110 episodes I think it can be counted)
Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wav...nce_fiction%29

Coincedentally, I just started Brave New World last night. Bet be worth the pssing hype.

2001:A Space Oddessy is one I recommend. That and 2010 are in my top 10 books of all time. Brilliant books.

I didnt adore it, but then i dont read alot of Sci-Fi.
edit: It was good though

I'm not sure if its really even a SF book in the first place, but Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is an amazing book, which is soon to be turned into a surely less-than-amazing film starring Will Smith.

It was also turned into a film in the Sixties called The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, and as The Omega Man, which wasn't that bad at all, starring Charlton Heston.

Will Smith, ffs!

Ridley Scott was going to do it in the 1990s with Schwarzenegger

Which is almost as bad, but not quite.

I mean, Will Fuckin' Smith!

I'm actually really looking forward to that film...I'll get me coat?

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Di...nevermind

I did enjoy Altered Carbon, but I'd have to say Broken Angels is definitely my favourite of the series.

As far as SF reccomendations go, I'd have to say check out some David Drake. He's most well known for military-themed SF, and you might want to start with Grimmer than Hell or The Butchers Bill (a good introduction to the Hammer's Slammers series), but the first book I'd read of his was a collection of comedic stories called All the Way to the Gallows.

Also, I don't think anyone has mentioned Greg Egan yet. If you like hard SF and/or 'cyberpunk' type stories, he will blow your face off.

I'd recommend Axiomatic, Quarantine, or Luminous.

And Greg Bear is great... he goes from heavy SF, goes into Stephen King territory, has some fantasy-type stuff... it's super. If you ever read Hegira... you don't really know what 'type' of book you're reading until it's almost over :p

...And if you like things like Star Wars... and space-fantasy garbage type stuff... I've recently been sucked into reading Warhammer books, starting with the Gaunt's Ghosts series. The whole Warhammer universe is a big mashup of every other major science fiction property, like Dune, the Foundation books, Star Wars, Starship Troopers, the stories of HP Lovecraft, Aliens, and whatnot. Gaunt's Ghosts is World War 2 in space against evil posessed cults. The Horus Heresy books are also kind of fun to read so far.

Carl Sagan anyone?

Will Fuckin' Smith. I mean really.

Neal Stephenson rocks. Crytonomicon is also good. He also wrote a pretty interesting non-fiction book about user interfaces called In The Beginning... Was The Command Line.

R.U. Sirius and St. Jude of Mondo 2000 fame wrote an exploded post-novel / e-mail epistolary called How to Mutate and Take Over the World. I should finish reading it, but I was disappointed when I discovered it did not have the instructions I was looking for.

i just ordered altered carbon today. i can't wait to read it!

Childhood's End -Arthur C Clarke