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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Recommend Me Some Fun Sci-fi

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04:39 / 13.06.05

I’ve recently been devouring Haruki Murakami and I need a break from acquiescent main characters and magic realism. I am looking for more fun, adventurey sci-fi. I want something with strange aliens and worlds, insane technology, endearing characters, and vibrant prose… got any suggestions?

06:15 / 13.06.05

'Magical Realism' is the stupidest fucking term. I despise it more than 'organic vegetables', I do.
Early Burroughs. Either, Burroughs. William or Edgar.
I'll recommend the later Heinlein 'World as Myth' novels, such as 'Number of the Beast' but probably nobody else'll back the sentiment.
'Finnegans Wake', and again, nobody's gonna back me on this.
'Snow Crash' has no aliens, but it does have a sword-wielding pizza delivery boy, a big fucking skin with a nuke on a bike, and a vagina dentata gag, so...
You might want to try the later HG Wells stuff, like 'The Sleeper Wakes', since hardly anybody gets to them and, for me, they're loads better than the early, having learnt to ignore the 'one idea per novel' marketing-plan, as well as getting nicely political and having fun with the sexual taboos of his time.
Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius fugues, in novel and short form, which can be understood more fully in a thread just recently brought back, right here on-site.
The 'Hitchhikers' Trilogy of five-and-a-short. Shame about Fenchurch, but other than that...

09:33 / 13.06.05

I'd recommend just about any Iain M Banks novel, although his earlier Culture novels are particularly space-operatic.
Lots of strange aliens, other worlds and insane technology. Oh, and rip roaring, page turny goodness to boot.

Finnegan's Wake? Not really what Impulsive's after, I suspect.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:37 / 13.06.05

Yeah, I'd go with the Banks. Or Ken McLeod's last one, "Newton's Wake" (well, any of 'em, really, but that's the most out-and-out "space opera"-y of the bunch). Peter F Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neitronium Alchemist and The Naked God) are quite fun, though something of a commitment at 3000-plus pages, and I'm currently reading his "Pandora's Star", which is quite fun too.
On a more "mystical" tip, but still fun and spacefaring with aliens an' that, David Zindell's "Neverness" sequence (Neverness, The Broken God, The Wild and War In Heaven) are also highly recommended.

semioticrobotic

11:43 / 13.06.05

I'll third Boboss' notion: try Banks. The Player of Games is one of the best things I've ever read. It has aliens, droids, new cultures and GAMES.

I'm re-reading Asimov's Foundation trilogy right now; you can't go wrong with the Grand Master.

If you're looking for something with aliens and unparalleled prose, you might want to try Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles.

12:20 / 13.06.05

Stoatie -is there a Ken McLeod trilogy? and if so what's it called? I remember someone telling me I should read it, but it was far too close to closing time for me to remember its name or anything other than all the things that made it sound very good indeed...

12:37 / 13.06.05

If you like hi-jinksy nonsense (with a little bit of didactic storytelling), you'll love Snow Crash. The main character's called Hiro Protagonist, for chrissake. It's fun, but not life-altering.

13:28 / 13.06.05

Samuel R. Delany's Nova is a great adventure story that's also about the death of the novel in the 1960s, the rise of mass culture, and American mythology. And a lot more. If you really want a challenge, try his "Dhalgren."

Gibson's "Neuromancer" is the old stand-by. In addition to being one of the ten most important American novels of the 80s, it's got ninjas in it!

Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy (Dawn, Imago, Adulthood Rites) is some of the smartest SF you will ever read, even if the prose is somewhat pedestrian.

Anything, and I mean anything, by Dick. (But I would especially recommend The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, UBIK, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, The Man in the High Castle, or the VALIS trilogy.)

If you want something a bit newer, try short stories by Pat Cadigan (collected in Patterns), Matthew Derby (collected in pseudo-novel form in Superflat Times), or Eliot Fintushel (not collected, some online).

The absolute best SF, IMHO, but also some of the most unsettling, is written by JG Ballard. Try Crash, The Atrocity Exhibition, his collected short stories, or his early disaster novels (The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Crystal World); they're out of print, by no too hard to come by.

Other favorites include Greg Bear's Blood Music, Stanslaw Lem's Solaris, Joseph McElroy's Plus, and Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (Which I like more than Snow Crash even if it's longer and not as SF).

Sorry, not all of that stuff is of the "epic" variety, but I got on a roll. (I teach most of this stuff, so it's never too far from my mind.)

13:48 / 13.06.05

Dan Simmon's Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion. This author is the true jack-of-all-trades. Not only does he write fabulous sci-fi, great epic fantasy, but he's also an award-winning horror writer. Let's not even mention the crime/mystery novels he does. I suggest Dan Simmons with much enthusiasm.

14:23 / 13.06.05

Wow, I wasn’t expecting this many suggestions so soon. I’ve read Snow Crash and love it. I’ve also read the masters (Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, Dick) and I’ve read Octavia Butler. Most of you have recommended Iain M Banks and never read anything by him. Now I’m curious. So where should I start? Culture, Player?

14:39 / 13.06.05

Okay, the Culture novels are set in a universe dominated by the all powerful Culture. A kind of socialist/liberal sci-fi utopia. Most of the novels stand alone although they are set within a timeline and do impact one another.

As for which one to read first, I dunno, depends what you're into. If it's action adventure you're after then I suggest you start at the beginning with Consider Phlebus, if you want big concepts try Player of Games or Excession.

Banks's sci-fi output isn't just limited to the Culture, however. He's written a bunch of self contained sci-fi novels of which his most recent The Algebraist is but one.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:13 / 13.06.05

Vincennes- re MacLeod, there're SORT OF two trilogies- the Fall Revolution sequence (The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal and The Cassini Division with a fourth, The Sky Canal, being kind-of-but-also-kind-of-not linked to the first three) and the Engines Of Light trilogy (Cosmonaut Keep, Dark Light and Engine City). There's also a thread here about him.

Funny someone just mentioned Simmons- I just bought (like, half an hour ago) "Olympos", his sequel to "Ilium" which, while nowhere near as good as the Hyperion books, was really quite fun too. (On a tangent- I read Children Of The Night, and thought it was absolute bollocks. Is his other horror stuff better?)

15:18 / 13.06.05

Yeah, I'd rock Consider Phlebas (my favourite book when I was 16) or if you want something more abstracty Feersum Endjinn.

How's his newer stuff? I read that one that was all a thinly veiled allegory of Indian society and've kinda fallen out of love. Is that Look to Windward any use? It has a 'Wasteland' quote in the frontispiece, just like Consider, so it must be good right?

On another non-Banks, but still Scottish tip, I thoroughly enjoyed Richard Morgan's hardboiled Altered Carbon and am having a pop at Broken Angels, the followup, just now.

18:00 / 13.06.05

Look to Windward is directly linked to the events of Consider Phlebus, although it lacks the urgency and rip roaring adventure of the first Culture novel. Would still recommend it, however.

Feersum Endjinn isn't a Culture novel, unless I'm very much mistaken.

19:05 / 13.06.05

All this talk of Iain M. Banks and no mention of Use of Weapons which is in my mind one of the best of his sci-fi novels.

I didn't like Broken Angels as much as Altered Carbon which was a great read, however the third book Woken Furies which features two Takeshi Kovacs does sound excellent.

19:11 / 13.06.05

I totally support the suggestions to pick up Snow Crash and Hyperion. Although, in my opinion, the Hyperion series starts slipping down in quality as it advances. It's only four books, but I am not a big Fan of the later two. The first one is great, though.

also, if you haven't read it yet, Ender's Game is pretty good as far as space sci fi goes.

And if I can include manga here, PLANETES is great.

21:55 / 13.06.05

I really liked the Lensman books, for good old fashioned and fun sci-fi stuff, by Doc EE Smith. Not sure if they are still in print, but they are easy enough to get ahold of through reselling on amazon.

Fritz K Driftwood

00:31 / 14.06.05

Wow, some really interesting stuff being suggested. I will have to give some of it a try.

Personally, I like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (Red -, Green -, Blue Mars). It made terraforming Mars and the politics involved on Earth & Mars seem very 30 minutes into the future. Also, his "Years of Rice & Salt" about an alternative Earth where Europe is totally wiped out by the Black Death, and Islam and China are the main superpowers was interesting, though there were some glaring weaknesses.

Keith, like a scientist

02:07 / 14.06.05

yay, just finished the Hyperion cycle...I found I enjoyed the Endymion books a lot more than the Hyperion ones...

Julian May's Galactic Milieu books are a good fun sci-fi read. You can either start with the Intervention books then move to the proper Mileu trilogy, or if you are truly ambitious and want to start at the VERY beginning, go for the Saga of Pliocene Exile (except the Exile books are a bit more Fantasy based...but they are good).

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

07:32 / 14.06.05

I would also recommend Stephen Donaldson's Gap Sequence, quite a nice read.

For something totally hilarious try Heinleins Glory Road

Didnt know there were so many Banks fans! Culture novels are my favourite, and conceptually quite strong. I would say just start at the beginning with Consider Phlebas.

07:39 / 14.06.05

For fun sci-fi I'd recommend Richard Morgan's books Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies. All damn good action-packed sci-fi with plenty of entertaining tech and sudden bloody violence. Quite funny on occasion too.

Iain M's always good.

08:08 / 14.06.05

I'd always recommend Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, simply because the last ten pages or so are the most amazing pay-off, and it's a great thriller about getting away with murder in a world full of telepaths. Really top-notch.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:14 / 14.06.05

matanza- I thought about suggesting the Gap novels, but personally didn't think they counted as "fun". I thought they were ace- some of the best space opera I'd read in years (recommended to me by an old boss at Forbidden Planet who I;d asked "I fancy reading something with big space ships and battles and stuff. What can you think of that's as UNLIKE Star Trek as is humanly possible?") But yes, they truly are fab- fantastic aliens, intricate plotting, and, of course, big space ships and battles and stuff (as well as the Wagner subtext)- but they're pretty relentlessly dark and unpleasant, I would say.

Depends what you mean by "fun", I guess, but for the most part I'm agreeing with you.

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

13:25 / 14.06.05

hmm, yes you're right about 'The Gap' not really being 'fun', but then again, maybe that also applies some of Banks or Simmons?
Anyway, its great how it brings across how Space is a Cold, Bleak, Lonely Forbidding Place, in a MajorTom-kinda-way..

One of my good old favorites is Joe Haldeman's Forever War. A bit old, but based on his Vietnam experiences and suddenly relevant again in these War on Terror days.

17:24 / 14.06.05

Man, I've tried two book stores and a library and no Consider Phlebus! I'm gonna try one more before I pick a different book.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

18:04 / 14.06.05

Personally, I'd go for Banks, specifically Feersum Endjinn - it's probably the most joycorish of his novels (I've found that they tend to suddenly turn really nasty at the end), and the ideas-per-page ratio is phenomenal, if you can hack your way through the Bascule sections, which are a bit of a challenge when you first encounter them. Also (hinty spoilers) the denouément bit made me laugh incredulously at the sheer audacity of the concept. Which has to be a good thing.

not-so-deadly netshade

23:47 / 14.06.05

Heinlein all the way. Start with "Starship Troopers" or "Time Enough For Love" for the most "big budget" in terms of adventure.

10:19 / 15.06.05

Impulsive, try Amazon.

I'm going to give those Gap books a look.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:26 / 15.06.05

Be warned, Boboss- the real epic space opera-goodness doesn't kick in until the second book. The first, The Real Story, is very short and VERY claustrophobic and nasty.

I'm gonna have to read these again!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:27 / 15.06.05

Oh, and while politically dodgy (not quite to Heinlein levels but still a bit... well...) Niven and Pournelle's The Mote In God's Eye is still an absolute classic.

13:49 / 15.06.05

I'm not necessarily looking for space opera. As long as the stories up to snuff, I don't really care.

I don't know anything about The Mote in God's Eye except that the 1st ed had a wicked cover drawn by Chris Foss.
What's it about?

15:40 / 15.06.05

I would recommend Gene Wolfe. I've read the four books of the Book of the New Sun (Shadow of the Torturer, Claw of the Conciliator, Sword of the Lictor and Citadel of the Autharch) along with Urth of the New Sun, which kind of rounds off the series and explains a lot of the ideas in the original four.
I really loved those books when I first read them when I was 15 and have later reread them with equal pleasure.

I haven't gotten around to reading others of his books, but they come highly recommended around the web.

17:17 / 15.06.05

A second vote for Starship Troopers. It's got influences of Space Opera, and there's some hilariously jingoistic persona-writing inside it, but the development of the main character is drawn fantastically - and it nicely brushes over the concept of a future wherein war is practically permanent, and alien races must be turned or burned.

It's fun like Ian Fleming's Bond is fun.

semioticrobotic

18:36 / 15.06.05

Starship Troopers is ace, but my favorite Heinlein is still Stranger in a Strange Land. I recommend that, too.

unheimlich manoeuvre

19:57 / 15.06.05

I recommend the Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin. It's ambiguous anarchist utopian goodness.

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