Sci-fi novels/short story's

I don't read enough, I've made a couple of reading threads in the past, but here's another. Basically I would like some recommendations for sci-fi/space stories to read, I know there's bound to be a lot of good ones out there and I'm sure WATMM can recommend some excellent ones. I've heard a lot about I Have No Mouth, so pretty much will have to check that out.

The last sci-fi book I read was Brave New World and I loved it.

Also, don't just give me titles, describe a little bit, tell me why it's good. I'll wiki whatever, but I'd rather avoid spoilers as much as p[ossible.

someone posted a short story the other day, about AM(god). was very good. but very short.

personally i really enjoyed excession and look to windward by iain banks. im too short for time so i cant describe atm

Asimov has some good short stories, not to mention books. The Last Question is a nice short story.

All you Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein is a must read.

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Short Stories of H.G. Wells by H.G. Wells

  On 12/2/2009 at 11:06 AM, lala said:

someone posted a short story the other day, about AM(god). was very good. but very short.

 

personally i really enjoyed excession and look to windward by iain banks. im too short for time so i cant describe atm

That was I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. I just read that, extremely short but it was excellent. Incredibly bleak.

  On 12/2/2009 at 11:29 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

*cringes at "Story's" in title*

Holy shit, I didn't even realise I did that.

*bows head in shame*

That's it, my credibility is fucked. I'm going to write in l33t from here on out.

i love robert sheckley´s short stories.

this summer i read all of iain m. banks culture novels (except the collection of short stories 'state of the art'), also inversions which is set in the culture universe and enjoyed all of them. especially use of weapons, excession and inversions.

the whole idea of the culture as this utopian anarcho socialistic empire, where the citizens are free to just do about anything and where there is virtually no crime since there is no money is cool as hell. what the superintelligent AI Minds do instead is meddle in the affairs of less civilized worlds toward their culture. inversions was neat since it was told in the perspective of one person in one of these lesser worlds where the main character was unknowingly working with one of these culture agents. '

excessions was interesting as it mainly focused on the Minds and how they interacted with eachothers and it generally was cool ultra advanced sci-fi stuff. use of weapons was about this mercenary who just kept putting himself in all kinds of troubles and with flashbacks every other chapter showing why he was so destructive and has a neat twist in the end.

one other book i recently read was the latest neal stephenson book, anathem, which isn't exactly space opera, but more a fantasy/sci-fi thing. it dabbles in discussions about consciousness, metaphysics, quantum theories and parallel universes. pretty nerdy stuff but interesting nonetheless.

The Colour Out of Space by H.P Lovecraft, written in 1927

Not so much about space, but definitely early sci fi. Most likely not what you are after, but it is worth a read if you are interested in early science fiction. A lot of Lovecrafts stuff was quite scifi in a way. More terrestrial, and based on what came from the "beyond" or outer space, however you choose to look at it, as opposed to going to space etc.

  On 12/2/2009 at 11:45 AM, azatoth said:

this summer i read all of iain m. banks culture novels (except the collection of short stories 'state of the art'), also inversions which is set in the culture universe and enjoyed all of them. especially use of weapons, excession and inversions.

the whole idea of the culture as this utopian anarcho socialistic empire, where the citizens are free to just do about anything and where there is virtually no crime since there is no money is cool as hell. what the superintelligent AI Minds do instead is meddle in the affairs of less civilized worlds toward their culture. inversions was neat since it was told in the perspective of one person in one of these lesser worlds where the main character was unknowingly working with one of these culture agents. '

excessions was interesting as it mainly focused on the Minds and how they interacted with eachothers and it generally was cool ultra advanced sci-fi stuff. use of weapons was about this mercenary who just kept putting himself in all kinds of troubles and with flashbacks every other chapter showing why he was so destructive and has a neat twist in the end.

one other book i recently read was the latest neal stephenson book, anathem, which isn't exactly space opera, but more a fantasy/sci-fi thing. it dabbles in discussions about consciousness, metaphysics, quantum theories and parallel universes. pretty nerdy stuff but interesting nonetheless.

Those culture novels sound excellent. Do they have a consistent story or they just connected through the same universe? Just wondering if I should order the first one or a specific one you recommend?

  On 12/2/2009 at 11:52 AM, thanks robert moses said:

The Colour Out of Space by H.P Lovecraft, written in 1927

 

Not so much about space, but definitely early sci fi. Most likely not what you are after, but it is worth a read if you are interested in early science fiction. A lot of Lovecrafts stuff was quite scifi in a way. More terrestrial, and based on what came from the "beyond" or outer space, however you choose to look at it, as opposed to going to space etc.

Thanks man, I just found this - I'll give it a read today and report back.

I mean sci-fi in terms of sci-fi, not necessarily space. Something a little less grounded I guess? Might be a bad description.

Yeah I understand. I didn't want to generalize about sci fi explicitly meaning outerspace, but these days it gets muddy as to what is considered science fiction. So many people are enamored with the idea of imagining what aliens are like, what it will be like to travel in space (which is fine, i can get in to that too)etc, that people tend to forget that we are just interacting with these ideas in a very imaginative way, and the concept of space as a place to go/explore/live in is more often appealing to readers than the more fearful, dread inducing aspects of space, or what little we know of it. Lovecraft pulled a lot of the metaphysical science fiction off really well. At The Mountains of Madness is another one of his more popular sci fi stories, a bit like "The Thing" of the 30s, sort of... not really.. but yeah you get it.

lovecraft till i die.

Was it Lovecraft who was supposed to be a massive racist? Apparently a lot of his works contain not so subtle racist descriptions.

  On 12/2/2009 at 11:23 AM, Obel said:

  On 12/2/2009 at 11:06 AM, lala said:

someone posted a short story the other day, about AM(god). was very good. but very short.

 

personally i really enjoyed excession and look to windward by iain banks. im too short for time so i cant describe atm

 

That was I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. I just read that, extremely short but it was excellent. Incredibly bleak.

the point and click adaptation is good.

  On 12/2/2009 at 11:54 AM, Obel said:

 

Those culture novels sound excellent. Do they have a consistent story or they just connected through the same universe? Just wondering if I should order the first one or a specific one you recommend?

they are stand alone and just share the same universe, 'look to windward' makes some references to 'consider phlebas', but it isn't anything important plotwise. some of the spaceships/minds also make small cameo apperances in some of the stories. so it's possible to read them in any order. a good starting point to get into the culture world is 'player of games'. 'use of weapons' and 'excession' could also work. the first one i read was excessions.

Kurt Vonnegut's 1972 short story, "the big space fuck"

read it here

  On 12/2/2009 at 12:08 PM, Obel said:

Was it Lovecraft who was supposed to be a massive racist? Apparently a lot of his works contain not so subtle racist descriptions.

I haven't read too much lovecraft, but that seems possible. Though I also thing he describes pretty much everything in a lot of his novels as primitive and beastly due to his pessimistic view of humanity in general, so some his descriptions could seem misleading?

wasn't racism rather common during the time lovecraft was active.

he even made a racist poem

  Quote

When, long ago, the gods created Earth

In Iove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.

The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;

Yet were they too remote from humankind.

To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,

Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.

A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,

Filled it with vice, and called the thing a nigger.

  On 12/2/2009 at 4:05 PM, azatoth said:

  Quote

When, long ago, the gods created Earth

In Iove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.

The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;

Yet were they too remote from humankind.

To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,

Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.

A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,

Filled it with vice, and called the thing a nigger.

About that last couplet . . . Lovecraft wasn't much of a poet, was he? "Nih-gyur", or "fig-er"?

  On 12/2/2009 at 12:08 PM, Obel said:

Was it Lovecraft who was supposed to be a massive racist? Apparently a lot of his works contain not so subtle racist descriptions.

yeah. he harbored racist sentiments, especially after living in Brooklyn (see "The Horror At Red Hook") with his wife around the time of the second wave of immigrants to the United States (1920s)...which is weird, though, as his wife was a Ukrainian Jew.. There is no real way to justify it, obviously, but if you factor in everything about the guys life, having been a misanthropic Anglo American from the back woods of Rhode Island, you can sort of work out how and why he came to be that way. That said, it kept me away from his writing for a while . I am still not exactly sure how to take it.

  On 12/2/2009 at 6:18 PM, thanks robert moses said:

  On 12/2/2009 at 12:08 PM, Obel said:

Was it Lovecraft who was supposed to be a massive racist? Apparently a lot of his works contain not so subtle racist descriptions.

 

yeah. he harbored racist sentiments, especially after living in Brooklyn (see "The Horror At Red Hook") with his wife around the time of the second wave of immigrants to the United States (1920s)...which is weird, though, as his wife was a Ukrainian Jew.. There is no real way to justify it, obviously, but if you factor in everything about the guys life, having been a misanthropic Anglo American from the back woods of Rhode Island, you can sort of work out how and why he came to be that way. That said, it kept me away from his writing for a while . I am still not exactly sure how to take it.

It's a dilemma ain't it. Weird how that is. I try to seperate the artist from the art, appreciate it as its own thing but I can't lie, I'd feel so weird listening to Aphex Twin if it turned out he was a child molester.

  On 12/2/2009 at 11:52 AM, thanks robert moses said:

The Colour Out of Space by H.P Lovecraft, written in 1927

 

Not so much about space, but definitely early sci fi. Most likely not what you are after, but it is worth a read if you are interested in early science fiction. A lot of Lovecrafts stuff was quite scifi in a way. More terrestrial, and based on what came from the "beyond" or outer space, however you choose to look at it, as opposed to going to space etc.

Yep, great book. And I am not even into sci fi, but loved this story.

And the Shadow over Innsmouth by the same author.

Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, and Arthur C. Clark do it for me.