Science fiction

[PrincessGarnet]

I can't say I've ever read anything in this genre and I didn't think much of it. However, I was having a conversation with some random person and they got me quite intrigued. Does anyone have any recommendations? He said the best sci fi writing was around the 50s and complained about the writing today. He did give me the name of some authors to check out but I have completely forgotten. I'm not really interested in wars with aliens etc, he talked about one book that was examining what it is to be human. Anyway, any recommendations?

[johnnie walker]

I'd recommend reading some asimov. the original foundation series especially.

the period from the 30's to the 50's is referred to as the golden age of science fiction. wikipedia has a great list of the authors who where writing at that time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_...cience_fiction

[Charlie Parker]

Most scifi is trash with the marketplace at the beck and call of fat fucks who like Star Wars.

The old guard born of the post pilp paperback boom include Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein,Harlan Ellison, Fritz Leiber, L Sprague De Camp, Henry Kuttner.

I can't advise on any individual books as I don't read the genre.

[poprock]

I was a wee kid when I was into reading that sort of stuff, but the ones that stand out in my memory are the holy trinity of Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke.

[Charlie Parker]

The stories I enjoyed the most were shorts, think you can get a mammmoth collection of old sci fi shorts in print

[poprock]

I, Robot is a good book of Asimov shorts.

[Zero]

And likewise, Minority Report is an enjoyable collection of Philip K. Dick's stuff.

[Stew]

Originally Posted by Charlie Parker

The stories I enjoyed the most were shorts, think you can get a mammmoth collection of old sci fi shorts in print

Aye, shorts got me into Sci-Fi back in the day. I think one of the first collections I got were by Ray Bradbury, called The Martian Chronicles.

[MarkMono]

Mick Farren
Phaid The Gambler
Exit Funtopia
The Armageddon Crazy

Norman Spinrad
Little Heroes
Bug Jack Barron

Philip K. Dick
A Scanner Darkly
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep

Neil Stephenson
The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's illustrated Primer

Iain M. Banks
The Player Of Games
Use Of Weapons
Against a Dark Background

Robert Sheckley
Mindswap
The Status Civilisation
The Alchemical Marriage of Alistair Crompton

Roger Zelazny
Damnation Alley
Lord Of Light

With the exception of Iain Banks, most of my favourite sci-fi authors did their best work in the 60s and 70s. I loved the older stuff growing up (Heinlein, Asimov etc) but to be honest it seems a little turgid to me now.

[Hammer]

There's a series of books called the SF Masterworks collection. It's made up of 60 odd books by roughly the same number of authors. Most of them are pretty good and it keeps hard to find sci-fi classics in print and circulation.

You can't go wrong with Arthur C Clark's short stories or Philip K Dick. Iain M Banks' stuff is amazing, but not the easiest to get into at first.

[MarkMono]

Originally Posted by Hammer

You can't go wrong with Arthur C Clark's short stories or Philip K Dick. Iain M Banks' stuff is amazing, but not the easiest to get into at first.

Out of the three writers mentioned you think Banks is going to be hard for a non-sf reader to get into?

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by MarkMono

Out of the three writers mentioned you think Banks is going to be hard for a non-sf reader to get into?

Same goes for some of Dick's stuff, but not all of it (in my experience). Clark is pretty easy to get into - he doesn't have the same kind of head fucks that Banks and Dick excel at.

[MarkMono]

Ah, right, I find books without any 'head-fucks' to be pretty dry.

I think it goes with the territory when you have a history of mental illness.