h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What about the incomparable Jack Vance? Yep he's and old master for sure but what a writer, Araminta Station and the two follow ups or the Demon Princes series are hard to pass up as an introduction to JV.

Heres one if you have not already passed an eye over it: James Morrow's Towing Jehovah. God has died--and his enormous two mile long, organic body is floating somewhere on the equator. Naturally, a dying archangel manages to inform the Pope about God's demise, and so the Church, employing its immense resources, hires a disgraced oil tanker captain and a makeshift crew to tug God's body (in complete secrecy, of course) to a vault in the North Pole, where he can be preserved until...until... well go and read it!

Robert.J.Sawyer is a Hugo award winner and he is one of the leaders of the next generation of SF writers. His Neanderthal Parallax trilogy is gr8 and I think it was the first book of the trilogy that won the Hugo.

"Number of the beast" by Heinlein. I think that's the right spelling! It's difficul to get hold of though, I'm sure it's out of print.

also E.E. doc Smith's lensman series, and have you read any Kurt Vonnegut? Some could be classed as Sci fi. Em, Philip K Dick, "The Man in the High Castle", "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Thre's some, not all totally sci fi, but I'm a confirmed sci fi reader and they all had that sort of flavour!

Pow*

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - the basis of Blade Runner.

turvy

Hmm. I've just ordered a copy of The Compass Rose by Ursula K LeGuin, as an introduction to skiffy for a skiffy virgin.

Is this a good or a bad choice?

RF

I have not read that one, but I have enjoyed all the other Ursula Le Guin that I have read. They are never heavy science based, but more a look into the society and the interactions therein. I would probably recommend The Dispossesed or The Left Hand of Darkness, by her, as an entry point into scifi for someone, so a book of her short stories would probably do the trick

As for The Number of the Beast - I found it an enjoyable read, indeed have read it several times, but I would not class it under intelligent. An enjoyable romp through several favorite fictional universes, with the car being the best character I would go for Stranger in a Strange Land (even though it is not as enjoyable to read), or even Starship Troopers as having more to say (maybe nothing to agree with, but more to say).

I have just got Mary Gentle's Ilario, The Lions Eye. A sort of follow up to Ash, A Secret History (a contender for my fave book of all time, and what I would call intelligent too ). Hopefully it will live up to that promise Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

So that old right winger Heinlen is being discussed even today, well well well. The Catholic Church banned it's reading in the sixties and of course that just drove the Hippies and such like to pin the button..."I Grok Spock." to their anoraks and tiedyed cheesecloth.

I'm surprised 'Doc' Smiths Lensmen series (or any of his books for that matter) is still being read. What next an A.E.Van Vogt revival or early L.Ron. Hubbard dime novels?

Dicks one Hugo Award was for The Man in the High Castle, gr8 book and you only have to read 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep' to appreciate just how much better Bladerunner could of been if Ridley Scott had had the gumption to do it the way it was written.

If you like these old masters then try some Fred Pohl or the marvellous Clifford. D. Simak who was known as the pastrolist of SciFi in all his novels no one actually killed anyone and only the odd death usually because of natural circumstances occured. His enchanting "Waystation" deservedly won a Hugo and the little mute hillbilly girl who healed butterfly wings is a happy memory.

I will read just about anything, but really enjoyed the "Lensman" series, but the first time I started reading them I just couldn't get into it. I gave them another bash and thought they were fantastic!

As for Heinlen, I loved Number of the Bease because it took care of just about everything. I liked the idea that everything exists somewhere, because then I had an excuse to really believe fiction! Hey, the universe is vast, who knows?

The only other one of his I've read is the puppet master one, which was entirely different, but still very good.

I wish someone would come along and reprint all this stuff.

Pow*

I've read a lot of the books suggested (maybe all of them, it was long enough ago), and Simak, Dick and Vance are some of my faves. I think on some level I subconsciously "forget" books on purpose, just so I can read them again!

I've *got* to go through my bookshelves! I can't remember the title of my favorite Simak book, about the space traveler who goes to visit aliens and swaps minds with them; then, has to flee because they fear he's "gone native"! And I loved Waystation, too. This Dying Earth is one of my favorite Vance ones. Sigh. I know what I'm doing tomorrow...

But some *new* authors, that's the ticket...

Heinlein was definitely right of center on a lot of things. Some of his books, even though I read them, weren't ones I kept. Sixth Column and Farmham's Freehold come to mind.

I was at the same party with him once (for the L5 Society) and he didn't come across anywhere near as un-PC as some of his books, so go figure.

Hmmmm this thread is quite long so UI am surely jumping in right at the end with stuff already said but:-

Iain M Banks in general and "The Culture" novels in particular. For me they are about as good as modern sci fi gets.

Hmmm now read the whole thread....

Looks like I am gonna have to visit "Green Metropolis" on payday....

If you can, try to procure a copy of 'Grumbles from the Grave' Heinlen's autobiography edited by his wife (I think). As for him being out of print, I know here his books and many other Authors from not only the 'Golden Age'of SF but also most relevant ones from other decades are readily available from specialist SF/Fantasy Bookshops.

New authors, popular new authors, are a bit thinner on the ground these days with Fantasy having surged ahead in the sales department back in the middle eighties and staying there. SF reached it's pinnacle in the seventies and has been in a slow but steady decline since.
Nothing wrong with the authors content, just the perceptions of young men(the main demographic in relation to readership). Tie ins to movie and TV series get a guernsey in the sales figures but even then they pale against some of the best selling Fantasy titles.

One newish author is Tim Powers and he represents a good point of reference for the juxtaposition of the two genres, being equally comfortable in SF mode( but not hard SF) or quasi urban fantasy come cross over historical fantasy/SF (yeah I know its a mouthful)
'Last Call' represents the urban area of his writing and 'Stranger Shores' represents the historical, both particularly good paced, no excellently paced novels. Along with 'Anubis Gates' (an award winner from memory) these three would be a good introduction to the man.

Any perusal of the last four or five years Hugo Award winners list or the Nebula would point you in the right direction in regards to new talent.

I share with some in this thread a bit of a dislike of Heinlien. Whilst a teenager I lapped his stuff up but now I find it a bit more tiresome.

Gosh, I some to me turning into a one-man Heinlein defence league.

Heinlein's ideas are sometimes more interesting than his writings. HIs prose style could be a bit simple. Friday is one of the main examples of this.

'New' writers I would recommend - Robert Reed (out-there, mad as bats sci-fi), Alastair Reynolds (almost hard sci-fi, loads of ideas, a labour for the first 100 pages and then you click with his universe and cannot put it down), Ken MacLeod (a definate Iain M vibe, but the ones I have read have been more human, and post-human, focused), and Richard Morgan's Kovac books (looking at how bodyswap technology might change a society. oooh and it has a pretty good look at the begining of a grey goo scenario)

I do not dislike Heinlein, I just did not think that Number of the Beast was his best effort (even though I have read it multiple times)

On another note and though not new (printed throughout the '80's) I would highly recommend Hugh Cook's Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, (out of print now, but still available second hand) - an excellent look at a post-scifi world. Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

this is a great thread!

i love - and always have - sci-fi that makes you think, and usually that means i want a whole universe constuct to back it up.... read asimov as a kid, and still marvel at the way he seems to have foreseen sooo much.... Ian M Banks' Excession & Player of games are 2 of my more recent favs,... again, a brilliant universe, and i love the way the ships are so in control, a sort of ultimate playground where people (the culture anyway) have the ultimate hedonistic society...

Arther C clarke of course... the wind from the sun... superb... and, again, a true 'seer' really...

i think its the old classics like brave new world and 1984 that really shifted the boundaries a long long time ago.....

someone mentioned metropolis a good while back, and i've also got the copy with the naff synth-soundtrack... totally destroys it..

and GATTACA... well, what can i say, who knew danny devito had it in him... a beautiful beautiful filk, as much for the photograpy and soundtrack as anything else....

Did Iain M Banks write a book called "Consider Philebeas?" or something like that? There was a quote from a poem inside which said something about "...turn your face windward and consider Philebeas who was once as wise as you." I can't remeber it exactly, and I can't remember if this was the actual title of the book, but it was fantastic.

Phlebas. Personally I found his stories rather boring. A bunch of omnipotent creatures going around socializing and navelgazing.

pah!

youve mibbie just read the wrong ones... ( i thought the algebraist was a bit wiffy)

for my money "The Player of Games" is his best SF book, I also really liked "Inversions" and "Against a Dark Background"