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pointnull @lemmy.world

What are your top 10 science fiction books?

I'm new to scifi books, and books in general. (only got into reading 3 years ago) I've read dune, the dispossessed , a fire upon the deep and the stars my destination. I'm currently reading the left hand of darkness . What should i read next? Suggest me some of your must-reads.

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  • Anyone who likes Iain Banks, should give Anne Leckie a try. I've never had that special kind of "Iain Banks feeling" again until I read her books. But Banks is still the GOAT, of course.

  • Everone always praises Asimov’s Foundation, but I found his robot stories (collected both in “I, Robot” and “The Complete Robot”) more entertaining. While Foundation is more of an adventure story, the robots pose interesting philosophical questions are are always good for a last-minute reveal. They’re also usually quite short, so they’re a good read when your time is on a budget or you’re not an avid reader in general.

    I wish I had learned earlier that short stories can also be entertaining and not just the artsy bullshit you’re forced to read in school.

    • Speaking of Asimov and robots, I really enjoyed The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, which is based on Asimov's novelette The Bicentennial Man.

  • In no particular order:

    Forever War. This is a good companion piece and counterpoint to Starship Troopers. As a book I find it more engaging and easy to get through than Starship Troopers. There is a lot of interesting contemplation about society and government structures in the book.

    Foundation. A classic novel that tackles the idea of the "great man" theory of history. The next two follow-up books round out a great trilogy. There are more books after that, but those belated sequels don't have the same spark.

    Dune. It's Dune.

    Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. This book and the sequels are the funniest scifi out there.

    Ender's Game. A great book about a child prodigy in military strategy, and the consequences of a government which uses him.

    At The Mountains Of Madness. Humanity is either a joke or a mistake.

    Tactics Of Mistake. Decently breezy military scifi. It takes The Art Of War and turns many of its principles into a scifi plot.

    Hyperion. Strange, scary, weird.

    Old Man's War. Another military scifi that is accessible and easy to get through. Great central concept.

    The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Robert Heinlein's best book. An uprising, but on the moon.

  • The Dispossessed (Anarcho-Communist lunar colony re establishes contact with the rest of the world after 100yrs due to making a huge scientific breakthru) or any other Ursula le guin novel.

    xenogenesis series by octavia e. butler. Humans wiped themselves out, horny aliens offer a deal, they restore earth and in exchange humanity interbreeds and merges with the aliens.

    House of the scorpion king: drug lords have annexed Mexico and collapsed the us, the king pins live forever using clones for organ harvesting and have a mentally stunted slave class to do the farming. It's a very heartwarming story in my opinion.

    Project Hail Mary, by Andy weir who wrote the Martian (also good book). It's hard to describe the book without spoiling it, but essentially slightly more advanced society than ours pools the whole worlds resources to send the protagonist on a one way interstellar mission to discover a way to save earth.

    I also just finished the three body problem series, I enjoyed the second book in particular, its beautifully written and well translated but I felt like the series is severely hurt by the authors sexist themes.

  • A Fire Upon the Deep represent! Now you must read A Deepness in the Sky. Must.

    In a spider related vein, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, plus pretty much anything else by him. I cried my eyes out about those little spiders.

    Snow Crash and Seven Eves by Neil Stephenson

    Andy Weir's novels are light and entertaining: Project Hail Mary and The Martian, for example. They're palate cleansers for after the 1984s of literature.

    Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is a great read.

    Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott is close to sci-fi and from the 1880s. It's a short read and, being a math nerd, I really enjoyed it.

  • Frederick Pohl Heechee series.

    Hyperion Cantos

    Saberhagen's Berserkers, the first few books

    Keep going on Vinge's zones of thought; well worth finishing

    Dragonriders of Pern is escapist as hell

    Dune: the Frank Herbert stuff, nothing his son wrote was good. In fact, I'd probably stop at God Emporer

    Majipoor Chronicles.

    Larry Niven: Ringworld series, Known Space and Kzinti Wars

    David Brin's Uplift books

    Steven Baxter Xeelee Sequence and his Long Earth series.

  • The Stars My Destination was a pretty good one. I don't have a ranked list, but i'll throw in some recommendations anyway.

    Allen Dean Foster is one of my favorite authors, wrote many many books set in the universe of the Humanx Commonwealth, although several books work as just stand alone novels with their own things going on. If I had to pick just one: Sentenced to Prism.

    Lois McMaster Bujold wrote the Vorkosigan Saga, another series with many books. The main series follows Miles Vorkosigan, who essentially has to spend his entire illustrious career talking his way out of increasingly absurd shenanigans.

    Tad Williams wrote Otherland (and other works as well, but I only read the one). It's a single story split apart 3 books, with some good cyberpunk shenanigans.

    If you're willing to dip into warhammer 40k, there's some good stories although it's a lower reading level. the Eisenhorn trillogy is a good introduction to the setting, also something of a spy thriller. The Infinite And The Divine is probably my favorite though, features two geriatric immortals harassing each other over thousands of years trying to steal/use a mcguffin, 10/10 shenanigans.

59 comments