Science Fiction

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Little John
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Science Fiction

Post by Little John »

Scholar's post about the most influential Sci Books prompted me to look back through the archives here to see what sci Fi I had reviewed. I went back to around 2009 and was surprised that there were so few. Now that I'm retired, the only time I get to peruse books for sale is second hand book sales at our caravan club. I've had a few lucky finds but most of the the books are crime fiction.

The six I found looking back that were real Sci Fi, were:-

Three books in the "Bobiiverse Trilogy = excellent low budge books about the mind of a man brought back to life and installed in a computer who then pilots a space ship and keeps "Cloning" himself

The Book of Strange New Things = this was about a space misionery taking Christianity to a newly discovered race of people on another planet
Evening Empire - About the far future when humans have moved far and wide throughout the universe and even evolved into different creatures
Iliad - A very large rambling book about intelligent robots and human who evolved into "Gods" and are playing with Greeks and Trojans in the Tojan wars.

Of was also !Q84 and the Wind up Bird Chronicle which I'm not entirely sure would be sci fi but excellent all the same. And Terry Pratchet, of course to which the same thing applies. But I think I must have another look at Scholar's list and read a few more.
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Re: Science Fiction

Post by Scholar »

Little John wrote: October 17th, 2021, 11:23 am I think I must have another look at Scholar's list and read a few more.
If I may offer an opinion--
These books labeled "most influential" are not necessarily especially very enjoyable, or even well-written by today's standards. Several of them were listed because they were the first notable treatment of some ideas of great impact, and their ground-breaking nature made them influential.

I hold that much of the best science fiction stands as such because it is well written, and I would recommend such writers to you. Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Clifford Simak, Larry Niven, H. Beam Piper, Fred Saberhagen, and possibly Poul Anderson are names that come to mind. Asimov, Niven, and Piper are probably my top three.
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Little John
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Re: Science Fiction

Post by Little John »

I have read a couple of Asimov. I had a friend who was a great "I Robot" fan.
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Leigh
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Re: Science Fiction

Post by Leigh »

I would also add A.C. Clark and Frank Herbert to that List Scholar.
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Re: Science Fiction

Post by Scholar »

Leigh wrote: October 22nd, 2021, 9:58 am I would also add A.C. Clark and Frank Herbert to that List Scholar.
This is certainly a matter of taste and personal preference, but I found Rendezvous with Rama and Rama II (by Clarke) disappointing (but not so much that I didn't read them all the way through).

I like Asimov's writing, and read some of his non-fiction work, such as The Realm of Numbers. His science fiction was always entertaining to me (not to mention his mystery series). He is among the great sci-fi writers who have had other professional authors write on in the one or another of the universes of his novels, after his death.
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Re: Science Fiction

Post by Leigh »

Two books of the many that AC Clark has produced are not a good representation of his prowess. 2001, a Space Odyssey goes down as one of the classic Sci Fi Books of all time.
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