Recommended Science Fiction Reading

[Dubslow]

Each to his own. I wasn't saying you were wrong -- just that in the comparison, Canticle wins in my book (so to speak). In class, it was part of the "Religion and SpecFic" unit.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Each to his own. I wasn't saying you were wrong -- just that in the comparison, Canticle wins in my book (so to speak). In class, it was part of the "Religion and SpecFic" unit.

I didn't take it ill. 'Canticle' is truly outstanding. Once you brought it up I had to consider the comparison. Though I mentioned a personal "Top Ten", I would be hard put to populate it definitively. As I said, I've read a lot of scifi in my life. "The Left Hand of Darkness" is one of my absolute favorites: another I've read several times over.

However, if 'Canticle' made such an impression, you might like the aforementioned "Anathem" by Stephenson. It has a rather different twist on monastic orders, and not exactly in a religious sense. Of course, those terms are used rather flexibly.

[Dubslow]

Heh, the number of SF books that I've read is definitely < 20. There are more mentioned in this thread than that.

[Xyzzy]

This series is not SciFi, and it is written at the 5th or 6th grade reading level, but it is one of the best series we have ever read:

http://www.michellepaver.com/wolf-brother

Wolf Brother ⇒ Spirit Walker ⇒ Soul Eater ⇒ Outcast ⇒ Oath Breaker ⇒ Ghost Hunter

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Heh, the number of SF books that I've read is definitely < 20. There are more mentioned in this thread than that.

The number in my library is well over 200. I've really no idea how many there are in total, but it extends to well over seven metres of shelf space and, AFAIK, I've read all of them at least once. I've read a good number of books of which I don't possess a copy.

All I'm really saying, of course, is that I've been reading SF for many years longer than you.


Paul

[xilman]

Originally Posted by xilman

The number in my library is well over 200. I've really no idea how many there are in total, but it extends to well over seven metres of shelf spacel

I've just counted 20 books in half a metre of shelf space. Assuming this is a typical sample, there must be 300 or more books on the shelves.

Paul

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

This series is not SciFi, and it is written at the 5th or 6th grade reading level, but it is one of the best series we have ever read:

http://www.michellepaver.com/wolf-brother

Wolf Brother ⇒ Spirit Walker ⇒ Soul Eater ⇒ Outcast ⇒ Oath Breaker ⇒ Ghost Hunter

It sounds interesting. LeGuin has some young adult books of which I've read two. Well written books can transcend the seeming limitations of reading level. In the end, adults face many of the same problems and conflicts which beset younger people.

I sometimes wish that there was a more-inclusive category than SciFi. The differences between Fantasy, etc. and SciFi often come down to not much more than settings and technology levels. And remember, one person's technology is magic to one who doesn't understand it. There's sometimes a fine line between Classic SciFi, and Sword and Sorcery Fantasy tales.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by kladner

And remember, one person's technology is magic to one who doesn't understand it.

Clarke's third law.

Its corollary is that any technology which is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

Ob-SF-recommendation: Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series.

Paul

[bsquared]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

This series is not SciFi, and it is written at the 5th or 6th grade reading level, but it is one of the best series we have ever read:

ditto to these, which are a mix of SciFi and Fantasy:
Myth Adventures
Phule's Company

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by kladner

Dan Simmons: Written a good bit. The Hyperion tetralogy is my favorite.

I agree fully.

Simmons is a surprisingly versitile writer.

His "Joe Kurtz" series is also worth a read (although not SF).

And his "Prayers to Broken Stones" (a collection of his early short-story work) is an interesting insight to the writer's development.

("The Crook Factor" and "Darwin's Blade" are also an interesting read; skip "A Winter Haunting" and "Drood".)

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by kladner

I sometimes wish that there was a more-inclusive category than SciFi. The differences between Fantasy, etc. and SciFi often come down to not much more than settings and technology levels. And remember, one person's technology is magic to one who doesn't understand it. There's sometimes a fine line between Classic SciFi, and Sword and Sorcery Fantasy tales.

I told you my class was called Speculative Fiction; to elaborate, it included all of the above. Supposedly (according to my teacher), in the literary world of people with Literature degrees (with a big L), 'SciFi' and its variations are a 'derogatory' or 'insulting' whatever word, and Speculative Fiction is the preferred name, which includes Fantasy. Us in the class, not being literary people, just used SciFi, Fantasy, SpecFic, or most ambiguously and succinctly, SF.

I personally preferred the SciFi parts of the class, but I'm not adverse to a good fantasy, and certainly there was a decent chunk of the class that preferred fantasy. (And then of course there's always the crossovers.)