Category: book Nook
What is your all time favourite science fiction novel and why? What do you look for in science fiction?
I'll start. My favourite Science Fiction novel was _friday_ by Robert Heinlein. I like the characterisation, and I love the way Heinlein introduces new technology. You glimps it, but it fits into the story rather than distracting. I also enjoy the predictions of a future society that Heinlein makes; they are often apt, although not in the way that Heinlein was thinking. My favourite example of this that I transcribed was from his short story _life-line_. He wrote long before the RIAA court cases, but he thought up something quite similar, with a quote that applies today:
"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit. That is all."
I'm not sure its my all-time favorite, but i very much enjoyed Ender's game.
I love the Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey. I can't really pick a favorite from amoung them, but my least favorite was Nerilka's Story. I also like McCaffrey's Brainship series, especially The Ship Who Won and The Ship Errant.
I like the Pern seriestoo though sometimes it's a bit slow. It's definitely creative, and takes you into another world. I reently read a book called Souls of the Great Machine which I thought was really good. It was about Australia thousands of years into the future after a nuclear war. Again, the author takes you into a whole society, one of competition, dualing, war and love (well, more sex than love). Another book I recently read was called Starfish, where the author takes you under the sea. In this novel, the people under the sea are allput there for a reason. They have different kinds of mental disorders, and it is believed tat they would fare better than ordinary people.
Battestar Gallactica - Buck Rogers
Ender's game was a good novel, although I really disliked the other book in that series I read. The only McCaffrey I've ever read was the Freedom Series (Freedom's Challenge, Freedom's Choice, and Freedom's Landing...maybe that's the wrong order). I found them a little bit inaccurate for my tastes, but they were still a fun read. Some authors can Really suspend your disbelief and make you believe anything while you're reading it because you're just so involved. You'll look back later and wonder how you could've ever swallowed that, but it doesn't matter. I love that feeling. Piers Anthony is the King of suspending disbelief; the book _Refugee_ is the only place you'll ever find pirates with swords attacking spaceships. All of his other serieses have that quality of completely believable outragiousness as well. Anyway, I'm off to try and track down some of these books that I've never read!
If Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials count, or Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpions, that's my answer.
What are those books about?
I just finished the "Colonization" series by Harry Turtledove. If you like the "Alternative History" sort of sci-fi, read them! Another "Alternative History" book I enjoy is Kim Stanley Robbinson's "The Years of Rice and Salt". Speaking of Kim Stanley Robbinson, check out the "Mars" trilogy. I understand there's a companion book called "The Martians", a series of short stories that take place in that "universe".
The House of the Scorpions is really hard to explain. Actually they both are. In short, The House of the Scorpions is told from like the future, and it has to deal with cloning kind of. That sounds really boring but the story is way more involving and it's beautifully written. I can't begin to describe either of them! Lol...
well, my favorite non series science fiction book was a book called one. It's about a plage that kills almost everyone on earth and only a few here and there survive. My favorite series is piers anthonys' magic of xanth series. It's about the creatures and people in this world called zanth, and allcitizens of xanth had some kind of magic power. For instance, there was asoldier whose mother could read minds. She wasn't even in the story, but I thought that was interesting. His name was Cromby. Bink was the main hero of the first novel in the series, a spell for Cameleon. He was exiled from Xanth, because it couldn't be determined what his magic tallent was, and he meets the evil magician trent, who has plans to go back to xanth and take over as king, and he sees bink as a threat, and since his magic is the ability to turn people or objects in to other things, he kept trying to turn Bink into one thing or another, but he kept missing, and only succeeded in turning things around him into whatever he was trying to turn him into. So they figured his magic tallent was preventing people from doing him harm. He was going to do whatever he could to keep bink from warning the people of zanth of his intentions, but he had a change of heart, and in the end, he did get to be king. I like science fiction that's simple, and doesn't bog you down so deep in rocket science or genetics, that you need to have a knowledge of all sciences to understand it.
wonderwoman
Wow WW! This book sounds really cool...maybe it's on WEb-Braille!
Which one? the book about the plague is a few years old now, so I don't know if it's still available anywhere anymore. I think the magic of xanth might be still available, since I think they might be in the best sellers list, but again, don't hold me to it, I might be wrong.
wonderwoman
It's not easy for me to really say what I look for in science fiction. Really there's so much of it out there that I try to read as much as I can of it, including in the magazines available on tape. But I'd say some of my fave science fiction stuff is the Riverworld series by Philip Jose Farmer and the Mission Earth series by L. Ron Hubbard, which is also a satire. And although it's probably more comedy than hard science fiction, let's not forget the work of Douglas Adams.
I also loved xanth, although it's not science fiction strictly speaking; It's fantasy as it has no real dealings with science, rather being concerned with magic etc. The CNIB and or library of congress has many of these books recorded on tape. To the person asking about the Dark Materials books, they're about an alternate world where everyones soul shows itself as some sort of physical creature. The first book starts off with a girl called Lyra(sp?) and her adventures in this world. The second book introduces Will, a boy from modern England who finds his way into another world and meets Lyra and has adventures. These books are okay, but I find the author goes on an antireligion kick that is just way too strong for my tastes. Heinlein does this also, but at least he's open about it. In the DM books it's all hidden in symbols, and I dislike that. I'm not into alternate history books, but that's just me. I have a really crappy history education (long story) so don't have the grounding to appreciate anything before world war II.
Hi fast finge, sorry if I got slightly off the topic, well, not sure I read any books that strictly deal with science, most ofit is just too far over my head. I like stories about every day people hundreds of years in the future, and what family life might be like then. I read a book several years back called the edict, where the world was so populated, that the 3 rulers who were over the united states decided that having babies should be prohibited for 30 years, until the population had a chance to balance its self out. One woman finally broke that rule, but I forgot what they did topunish the ones who broke the law.
wonderwoman
Have you ever read _ghost_ by Piers Anthony? A similar thing happened on earth in that book: procreation between two people of the same race was outlawed. The theory was that forced interracial sex would begin to release racial tention world wide, and that marriage and thus kids would become less common as the cultural barriers would be much heigher. Xanth, even if it isn't sci-fi, is by a sci-fi author and a good series so it's all good. :-)
Hi fast finge, No, I haven't read that one, I think there are a lot of piers anthony books I haven't read, but I always liked stories about what life might be like 100 years from now, as long as the society isn't so high tech, that it doesn't bog me down. I even read a book oncethat was in the year 2035, and killing all life forms had been outlawed, which included insects, any kind of animals, and even brain tumors, because since a tumor was considered a growth, it was stilled considered living. Weird, huh?
wonderwoman
See, I'm not a big sci-fi person. I only ahve a few faves in that category. But whatever ahahha!!! Some of them are quite good, it's just not my favorite genre. Also never really liked Ray Bradubyr much? Dunno why... just thought I'd bring that up and get yoru guys' opinions.
well, when it comes to science fiction, I'd rather read the books from nls, because they're free, and you can send it back if you don't like it, I'd rather not take a chance on scifi, but rather take a chance on dramatic stories and suspense thrillers, because most of them are more likely to be good, unless they are about wars and espionage.
wonderwoman
Yes, I get tapes from the library and books from the braille center or nLS or whatever before i buy them in case i don'tl iek them. Sounds cheap but well ... I'm not made of money! Lol.
I get most of my scifi from www.webscriptions.net; first off, if Baen publishes it it's usually at least interesting if not a classic, and anyway the prices are so reasonable (about $15 US for all the books they begin in a month, usually about 4) that you're really not out that much if some of them suck. You can get the books in almost any format you could want. For those who are really strapped, Baen even offers lots of titles completely free! Just visit http://www.webscriptions.net/free/default.asp I particularly recommend _Rats, Bats, and Vats_.