june gloom on 12/2/2010 at 22:08
Quote Posted by Bionicman
I've not read too much, mostly Star Wars expanded universe
Oh god you don't even know what you've missed while reading that crap. There are two authors, in addition to what has already been mentioned, that you should be reading:
William Gibson, aka my favourite author in the whole world. Start with Neuromancer, move on to Count Zero, then Mona Lisa Overdrive. Those three books are hands down his best. His Bridge Trilogy- Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties- are decent, but they kind of lack the punch of the original Sprawl trilogy. If you're at all a fan of Thief (hard to tell, you don't post about your hoodie or call everyone taffers) then you're required to read The Difference Engine; and lastly, Pattern Recognition and Spook Country are pretty good, but I'm not sure I'd classify them as sci-fi.
Philip K. Dick. Dick is a bit hit-or-miss; some of his books would be a lot better with editorial oversight, but some of his hits will fucking gut you, an example being A Scanner Darkly. That one still fucks me up.
(I realize there isn't much in the way of "hard" sci-fi here, just throwing in my recommendations)
PeeperStorm on 13/2/2010 at 03:08
Quote Posted by Stitch
I would read Ringworld, but after ZylonBane's "doi" post I'm afraid it's simply out of the question.
You have something against the Department of the Interior? Besides, even ZB can be right
occasionally. Like when he agrees with me, for instance.
Bionicman on 13/2/2010 at 06:16
I have indeed read The Stars My Destination, it is one of my favorite books, though it has been a few years...I would probably get a little more out of reading it now that I'm older. I feel ashamed for defending my SciFi background and not mentioning Alfred Bester.....
Have read The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Heinlen as well, which was great until the whole time travel thing came into play and then it got too fucking ridiculous.
I can see I have quite the pilgrimage ahead of me.
PS. I've always wanted to read A Canticle for Leibowitz, seemed sort of Fallout-y. Worth diving into?
june gloom on 13/2/2010 at 11:20
YES.
PeeperStorm on 13/2/2010 at 19:46
A Canticle for Leibowitz is really good. So is Deus Irae, which is very similar in a lot of ways but is more, you know...Philip K. Dick-ish.
june gloom on 13/2/2010 at 21:13
Probably stating the obvious here but anything by the Strugatsky brothers is also quite good, including Roadside Picnic. Except if you live in North America you may have to import the book from Amazon.co.uk as it's been out of print here for years.
