Favourite sci-fi books?

[JÞB]

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@Ben wrote:

While I was in the Navy and at sea but not reading Tolkien (again) I read all of the Gor books that had been published up until 1979.

I realize they are hardly literary classics.

Spoiler

After being at sea for months at a time, the only thing I was interested in was hookers and beer.

Spoiler

When the topic of me being in the navy comes up my wife says "We all know about sailors."

Ben

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Thank you for the trip down "Amnesia Lane" The "LMB?" Not quite as thrilled!

I read the accounts of "Counter Earth" myself.  Isn't the aslo known a L-3?

[thoult]

Not really a sci find fan myself, but I loved William Gibson's books when I was younger.

[Henrik_Volkers]

Finished "Die drei Sonnen"  (The Three-Body Problem and wiki)  written by Cixin Liu and asked my wife to get the second book (The dark forest), now I can start reading the English edition she handed over to me with a smile or have to wait until next year for the german translation :D.

Really like it and recommend it. First Chinese author getting the Hugo award.

[Blokk]

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@Henrik_Volkers wrote:

Finished "Die drei Sonnen"  (The Three-Body Problem and wiki)  written by Cixin Liu and asked my wife to get the second book (The dark forest), now I can start reading the English edition she handed over to me with a smile or have to wait until next year for the german translation :D.

Really like it and recommend it. First Chinese author getting the Hugo award.

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Once I started to read a hard scifi book in English, well, I understood about 50% of the text 🙂 Even I read a lot physics articles in English, it did not help 🙂

I check this Chinese book, it got a Hungarian translation, thanks for the tip! 🙂

[JÞB]

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@Blokk wrote:

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@Henrik_Volkers wrote:

Finished "Die drei Sonnen"  (The Three-Body Problem and wiki)  written by Cixin Liu and asked my wife to get the second book (The dark forest), now I can start reading the English edition she handed over to me with a smile or have to wait until next year for the german translation :D.

Really like it and recommend it. First Chinese author getting the Hugo award.

---

Once I started to read a hard scifi book in English, well, I understood about 50% of the text 🙂 Even I read a lot physics articles in English, it did not help 🙂

I check this Chinese book, it got a Hungarian translation, thanks for the tip! 🙂

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OF Topic, but I was once tasked with reading War and Peace and Anna Karenina for a high school project (Surprisingly, Brit lit!) I even tried to go back to an original Russian copy.  All I can say is that was the best sleep I ever got.  (In fact I got an A+ for proving my thesis that the English translation improved the work noticeably but, I still prefer works about extraordinary people in extraordinary times)- Count Leo never wrote about that as a theme.   I didn't like Jack London either... You could always tell the story was finished when everyone died.

[Blokk]

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@JÞB wrote:

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@Blokk wrote:

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@Henrik_Volkers wrote:

Finished "Die drei Sonnen"  (The Three-Body Problem and wiki)  written by Cixin Liu and asked my wife to get the second book (The dark forest), now I can start reading the English edition she handed over to me with a smile or have to wait until next year for the german translation :D.

Really like it and recommend it. First Chinese author getting the Hugo award.

---

Once I started to read a hard scifi book in English, well, I understood about 50% of the text 🙂 Even I read a lot physics articles in English, it did not help 🙂

I check this Chinese book, it got a Hungarian translation, thanks for the tip! 🙂

---

OF Topic, but I was once tasked with reading War and Peace and Anna Karenina for a high school project (Surprisingly, Brit lit!) I even tried to go back to an original Russian copy.  All I can say is that was the best sleep I ever got.  (In fact I got an A+ for proving my thesis that the English translation improved the work noticeably but, I still prefer works about extraordinary people in extraordinary times)- Count Leo never wrote about that as a theme.   I didn't like Jack London either... You could always tell the story was finished when everyone died.

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When I was a kid, I was in love with gold rush and Alaskan stories, so I also read some Jack London 🙂 But my favourite book about Alaska and gold miners is the "Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899" from Pierre Berton. Historical documentary and real stories just were even better than the fictious ones from J London 🙂 Later when I started to study English, this was one of the first books which I bought in English in an antquar. I was lucky to find a good copy of the first UK edition. That time they still knew how to bind a book properly 🙂 

[jwscs]

so finally i'd like to chime in... here are my propositions:

  - hyperion (all four) (dan simmons)

  - commonwealth saga (pandora's star, judas unchained) (peter hamilton)

    - the void trilogy is ok, but not as good as the two above

  - culture novels (ian banks)

  - diamond age (i think my alltime favorite), anathem, (all, except baroque cycle) (neal stephenson)

  - spin (robert charles wilson)

  - illuminatus! trilogy (robert anton wilson, robert shea)

    - schroedinger's cat trilogy (robert anton wilson)

  - accellerando, laundry universe, merchant princess, ... (all) (charles stross) 😉

  - strugatzki brothers

  - lem

  - frederik pohl (gateway, ...)

  - larry niven (ringworld, ...)

  - heinlein (stranger in a strange land, moon is a harsh mistress, ...)

  - asimov

  - arthur c. clarke

  - vernor vinge (a deepness in the sky) (the first book with the dog-creatures ok but for me a magnitute lower than deepness in the sky)

  - lots of russian, german (gdr), eastern block older sci-fi (e.g. Der fliederfarbene Kristall)

i guess for more i have to have a look at my library at home, these came to mind atm 😉

and the list is in no particular order

regarding Liu Cixin (three-body problem, dark forest): i found the premise of the books  interesting, his kind of story telling was also different. am awaiting the paperback of book three (which might be out already)

also have a look at this nice community

https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/

ADDENDUM:

action packed, fast, very good novels

  - ancillary {justice,sword, mercy) (ann leckie)

  - nexus, crux, apex (ramez naam)

[jwscs]

almost forgot 😉 THE best comic ever (also it has the best cat ever)

Transmetropolitan (Warren Ellis)

[Ben]

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@jwscs wrote:

...regarding Liu Cixin (three-body problem, dark forest...

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Off-topic and old joke but it was a line by my better-half that answered a question about what it was like to attend NI Week with me years ago and she replied....

It was like finding myself in the middle of the Dork Forest.

Tah-dah-dum!

Ben

[jwscs]

glad i didn't misspell that one then 😉