SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hey :)
Just decided to give this site a try.... so here it goes-

I'm looking for a good SciFi. Something that makes your brain work after reading it for the whole day...

Any suggestions

Welcome!

I think you're in the right place :)

This is just the sort of thing I like, so I'll chuck a few ideas in your direction.

Top of the list has got to be Iain Banks Culture series. Superbly written and action packed, but deeply thoughtful and philosophical. My personal favourites are Look to Windward, Surface Detail and Use of Weapons. While there are a few links between the Culture books they are independent novels rather than a series.

Geoff Ryman is a superb writer of SF ideas and culture. The Child Garden, Air, Was. A must-read author.

Christopher Priest is best known for The Prestige, on which Christopher Nolan's film was based. His books are complex and literary and SF, usually, in a very understated way. Another one of those writers who should be FAR better known than he is.

I also have a particular love of the sort of social SF by writers such as Sheri S. Tepper and Ursula K. Le Guin: The Gate to Women's Country, Grass and Sideshow by Tepper, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven and The Hainish Cycle b le guin. Fantastic stuff.

I also have to put in a word for the great Gene Wolfe. His books are dense and wonderful. The Sun sequence (The Book of the New sun, of the Long Sun and of the Short Sun) are an absolute masterpiece.

That's probably enough from me to be going on with. I'm sure others will have more suggestions. Hope you find something to your taste!

I would recommend Le Guin's "The Dispossessed." One of its themes is about how even in a anarchistic society political power and influence pools around certain individuals and groups.

Another good one is Voyage from Yesteryear by James P. Hogan. I just re-read it after many years, and it still surprised me.

If you like some older stuff, I'd highly recommend C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.

Leonie wrote: "If you like some older stuff, I'd highly recommend C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength."

A nice memory jog. I went through a C. S. Lewis phase and read those stories years ago--probably found them in the high-school library, but it could have been later. I remember that I enjoyed them, but can't remember anything else about them. More items on my list now to go back and re-read.

'That Hideous Strength' was wonderful.

Any chance I could be so tacky as to plug my first novel? My second novel is more of a thriller, but the first novel was the Time Travel novel I always wanted to read but could never find.

It's called 'The Line.' Here's a Kirkus review of it.

If you're interested in something more recent, consider Wool Omnibus or The Petrovitch Trilogy.

I'd recommend China Mieville's Embassytown.

I'd second the Sheri S. Tepper suggestion, and also add The Sparrow.

This one feels like brain food, but I'm only just up thru Chapter III so far -



The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne. It's a new release, my library had it on order when I put a hold on it, so I got to be the first borrower at my library :D.

Older authors not already mentioned, David Brin, Margaret Atwood and David Eddings can engage the brain well. :-)

Seconding Embassytown!

Catherynne M. Valente is always amazing, but I believe that Silently and Very Fast is her only scifi. Octavia E. Butler is another author who writes consistently fantastic novels - I can vouch for Kindred and Parable of the Sower.

This may fall more into the speculative fiction genre than scifi, but it was so good that I want to recommend it anyway: Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist. Just finished it and loved it.

Light by M. John Harrison is also recommended.

Wow.. Thanks for the responses everyone..didn't expect so many. Now i need to open a new post just to sort out this one....kidding..

I love Harrison, but read most of him. So I'll start with those:

Voyage from Yesteryear by by James P. Hogan
Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
Air by Geoff Ryman
The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne
Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente

That's for starters...and I hit the "want to read" on them. don't really know what it does but ok.

Anyways, thank you all for your advise will definitely come back to this post in the future

Hard to tell what you mean when you say you want something that will make you think. That could be anything from the mind-blowing psychedelic freak outs, or philosophic/theological/paranoiac works of Philip K. Dick (who packs ideas into stories denser than anyone on an ideas/page level, but I can't really think of his works as "sophisticated")...
Ubik
A Scanner Darkly
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

...to carefully crafted hard science fiction of Greg Bear...
The Forge of God
Darwin's Radio

...to the near future/alternate history/political/post-singularity works of Ken MacLeod's The Fall Revolution series (which are really not your normal garden variety of SF, I quite liked them but others might not get them)...
Fractions: The First Half of The Fall Revolution
Divisions: The Second Half Of The Fall Revolution

So really there's a wide variety of thought provoking SF. But it's hard to tell what will make one person really think and what won't. Accelerando by Charles Stross I see on some lists of thought provoking books...but I found it a bit underwhelming in the realm of intellectual works. Too many basic flaws in his world creation.

**shrug**

"the windup girl" by paolo bacigalupi. "pattern recognition" by William Gibson. and such and so forth.

Holly, I will definitely read "The Sparrow" by by Mary Doria Russell, it got my curiosity...

Micah, you are right it is hard to tell.... I see myself as A SciFi enthusiast...I was raised on Asimovs books....so I am "hungry" almost for every genre you mentioned...The book list in this post is enough for now...So thanks a lot everyone!

E

I think the sci-fi book that makes my mind do the most work is Blindsight by Peter Watts. My husband and I seem to be able to talk about that book endlessly. Packed with cool ideas.

Just about anything by Kurt Vonnegut is going to leave you thinking. He's my favorite sci-fi author, definitely a huge influence for me.

Personally, I would recommend the Hyperion novels by Dan Simmons. Simmons' use of prose is about as literate as the genre gets and as an exercise in world building and mind bending its brilliant. Just don't necessarily expect to get it all first time!

What do you mean by "sophisticated"

The kind of sci-fi you read with your pinky out.

I know you have gotten a lot of suggestions (some of them are my favorite authors/books), but since you marked The Time Traveler's Wife as a favorite, I will also suggest Replay and the book I am reading (and really enjoying) right now: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, both very thought-provoking.

These are a bit older, but they explore some interesting concepts:
The Man Who Folded Himself
When Harlie Was One

The lack of real "thinking" scifi is one of the things that motivated me to start writing. I feel like the genre has fallen into a bit of a slump, and is filling up with overwritten books like "The Quantum Thief", and stuff where you check your brain at the door (all of the cheap Halo knockoffs for example).

Just look around, a lot of the stories I've seen come out lately seem to just be contrivances designed to let the author prattle on about an idea they had, or a favorite concept. The people are easily forgotton (quick, name your three favorite characters from a book you read last month), and they don't drive the story - they're just pulled along. Great characters make you love them, hate them, and think about them long after the book has been shelved.

Seriously, when was the last time a scifi book made the hair on your arms stand up, or made you cry? I personally have to think back years to find examples, and that's depressing to me.

Don't get me wrong though, writing something that stirs strong emotions in the reader can be incredibly difficult. I certainly have to work really hard at it during my own efforts. But authors like Arthur C. Clark, Heinlein, and Orson Scott Card have shown us how elegantly it can be done. So as readers, and authors, why are we settling for less?

For clever and well thought out Sci-Fi, I would say John Ringo and the Troy Rising trilogy. I don't know if I would call if sophisticated, but it is well thought out, has some really good ideas, and is a very good story.

Jason wrote: "Seriously, when was the last time a scifi book made the hair on your arms stand up, or made you cry? I personally have to think back years to find examples..."

I often ask the same thing about music. I'm not sure that's a sign that SF (or music) has gone down in quality, or a sign of how old I am!

];P

Jason wrote: "The lack of real "thinking" scifi is one of the things that motivated me to start writing. I feel like the genre has fallen into a bit of a slump, and is filling up with overwritten books like "The..."

Read Mieville's Embassytown.

And why classic rock survives just like classic scifi.

However, I have found new authors/artists that are creative and create good quality releases.

One of my favorite books and one I consider to be the height of the genre is Anathem. The book is incredibly clever and will keep you entertained as well as stimulated.

Gregor wrote: "I'd recommend China Mieville's Embassytown."

I was just going to suggest that. I am currently reading it and ouch. My brain.

I always liked the Saga Of the Seven Suns series by Kevin J. Anderson. I think it is good traditional SF like Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke used to write.

I'd second Christopher Priest for thought provoking fiction although I wouldn't class him as traditionally SF, more on the Speculative side

For a more traditional approach, you can't go wrong with Alastair Reynolds

My Top 3 Forgotten SciFi Books:

Rendezvous With Rama: This book won both the Hugo and Nebula in 1972. It is a little stodgy and curmudgeonly at times, but I thought it was good when I read it way back in 7th grade.

Camouflage: This book by Joe Haldeman was so good I read it all in a day. I should pick it up again and read it over 2 days. I recommend you do the same.

Red Mars: A lot of people aren't that fond of the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson but I think it's real good. This first volume is of course a sensible starting-off point.

Rendezvous with Rama

Camouflage

Red Mars

I was impressed with The Martian. The attention to detail gave this book a great deal of authenticity. It is that rare thing in literature, a thinking man's adventure.

Also, by Samuel R. Delany.

Phrynne wrote: "I always liked the Saga Of the Seven Suns series by Kevin J. Anderson. I think it is good traditional SF like Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke used to write."
I agree. Very good space opera with some interesting ideas.

Phrynne wrote: "I always liked the Saga Of the Seven Suns series by Kevin J. Anderson. I think it is good traditional SF like Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke used to write."
I agree. Very good space opera with some interesting ideas.

Hmm...I'm really leery of that author. Anyone even remotely associated with the piles of fetid dingoes kidneys that were the Dune prequels is immediately on my suspect list.

Micah wrote: "Phrynne wrote: "I always liked the Saga Of the Seven Suns series by Kevin J. Anderson. I think it is good traditional SF like Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke used to write."
I agree. Very good space ..."

I usually choose not to read prequels so I was lucky to miss the ones you are referring to. Where on earth did you get the reference to dingoes? I live in Australia and I have never heard that one :)

Phrynne wrote: "I usually choose not to read prequels so I was lucky to miss the ones you are referring to..."

All I can say is Anderson better have been paid a LOT to work on those Dune prequels. But I question his judgement in having his name placed on them. If it had been me, I would have demanded big $$ and put it in my contract that my name was never to be mentioned in print or anywhere else in relation to those books. Ghost writer and that's IT. Brian Herbert can shoulder all the blame for those things, thank you very much.

In case you didn't get my drift...they were BAD. REALLY.

Phrynne wrote: "Where on earth did you get the reference to dingoes?..."

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Micah wrote: "Phrynne wrote: "Where on earth did you get the reference to dingoes?..."

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Ah, That explains it! It's obviously time I read it again.

Micah wrote: "Phrynne wrote: "I usually choose not to read prequels so I was lucky to miss the ones you are referring to..."

All I can say is Anderson better have been paid a LOT to work on those Dune prequels...."

You read ALL the Dune prequels?