What's your favorite science fiction novel?

Question

I love Friday, Arena, and anything by Bova or Heinlein. Can anyone recommend any more books that they think I might like? I would really appreciate it! Thanks, Trilli

Answer 1

Try "Beggars in Spain" by Nancy Kress. And try "Conquistador" by S. M. Stirling.

Answer 2

Call from a distant shore by Stephen L Stine

Also anything by Ben Bova and Robin Cook

Answer 3

Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Loise Engdhal. Great sci-fi story that also poses some interesting questions about the history of our world. Was it has unique and random as we think?

Killing Time by Caleb Carr. Set in the year 2023, everything in the world is going wrong. Carr writes so well that sometimes I feel like the events of the book have already happened and I am reading about them in a historical fiction novel.

Answer 4

My FAVORITE-favorite Science Fiction book is 'I Will Fear No Evil,' by Robert Heinlein. As you've listed Heinlein as one of your favorites, I'll assume that you've already read that one.

Other science fiction writers that I like?

Orson Scott Card and his Ender's Game series is really pretty good. I also liked the Lord Foul's Bane series by Donaldson, and the Otherworld series by Tad Williams.

Guy Gavriel Kay has Tigana, which is really good, and also the Fionavar / Summer Tree trilogy, which is very similar to the Lord of the Rings trilogy...

Finally, The Sparrow and it's sequel, Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell, are technically fiction books, but they could easily pass for science fiction. And there is a definite spiritual undertone, but in a 'whoo-hoo' (for lack of a better way of putting it)-- it's pretty theoretical. I really liked both of those.

Answer 5

"The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman is a very fun, exciting easy read. And important.

"Venus on the Half-Shell" by Kilgore Trout (Philip Jose Farmer) is the funniest Sci-Fi book ever written. Vonnegut would get grouchy but "Sirens of Titan" is pretty funny, too.


"Ringworld," by Larry Niven is a terrific adventure and a good intro into his writing.
If you like Heinlein, you could easily become a Philip K Dick fan, too.

Of the three, Forever War is the only one I've re-read more than two times, so it's possibly a favorite.

Have fun. The world of Sci-Fi is rich.

Answer 6

Try "Jack of Shadows" by Roger Zelazny, and all the rest of Zelazny's work, especially the [10 book] Chronicles of Amber.

Read Andre Norton, Isaac Asimov, Jack Chalker, Michael Moorcock, and Piers Anthony. They will all blow your mind!

By the way, the person who recommended the Dune series by Arthur C. Clarke should know that it was written by Frank Herbert.

Answer 7

My favortie Sci-Fi is a series of three books by Garth Nix. The first book is called Sabriel. It's a fast moving, page-turner. The first time I read it I was 14, I've read it several times since then and enjoyed it more each time. Everyone I've recommended to who has read it has also loved it. The second book is Lireal and the last is Abhorsen. I promise you'll love them!!!

Answer 8

Check out the two all time classics, Dune by Frank Herbert and Foundation by Issac Asimov. They are actually series that form an amazing world. Must reads.
.

Answer 9

More fantasy than science fiction, but I loved King Fortis the Brave

Answer 10

I just finished "Life as we knew it", by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Very terrifying story about one family's survival for a year following a meteor strike on the moon which pushes it too close to the earth. Very thought-provoking.

Answer 11

anything by jonathan carroll. glass soup, sleeping in flame...
Mary Doria Russell --The Sparrow
"An enigma wrapped inside a mystery sets up expectations that prove difficult to fulfill in Russell's first novel, which is about first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization."