Submitted by Christophe Witz on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 11:55
What I'm trying to do here is to provide a list of valuable science fiction books that can be used as a recommendation list for people who don't know anything about it but are interested and willing to read into this suject. And also as a starting point for a heated debate of Sci-Fi geeks, of course. 
However, I'll leave out Star Wars and Matrix because that's all to popular already, and also I'm not interested in film and TV series like Star Trek or Battle Star Galactica. (Sorry Corey ;-). Only good ole books. You know, these rectangular things with pages made of paper.
Here goes a subjective list of the most awesome Sci Fi authors of the last century:
Short List (= Hall of Fame)
- Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992): A russian immigrant to New York, with a strong scientific background. He is most famous for his Robot Stories. He's the inventor of the 'positronic brain' and the 'Three laws of Robotics'. His late 'Foundation' books pretty much sucked, so I'd recommend his short stories about the robotic theme instead.
- Stanislav Lem (1921-2006) Actually the only book I know by Lem is 'Solaris', but that was awesome enough to deserves a place on the list. Don't watch the movie! George Clooney obviously never read the book, neither did the director of this sorry effort.
-Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) Another classic. Heinlein coined the term 'to grok' for the ability to grasp something slowly, but surely (at least that's the meaning that I groked). It's from 'Stranger in a strange land', a true Sci-Fi classic. His best book (by far, some say). I read also 'The second Book Hiob', and it's good, but how can you beat 'Stranger...'? it's just not possible. There's a film adaption of 'Starship Troopers' which is quite fun also.
- Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) famous for writing the novel '2001- A Space Odyssey', spectacularly adapted to film by Stanley Kubrick. I must admit I never read the book, but it's plain obvious that Clarke belongs on this list. So here he is.
-Frank Herbert (1920-1986) Best known for Dune, a tale about space-faring species who rely on Spice, a special resource that can only be found on the Desert Planet, Arrakis. Without Spice, no Space Travel is possible. Thus, it is crucial for the Guild to have access to an continous reply of Spice. It's impossible to describe the rich background here in a nutshell. Suffice to say that Dune inspired lots of authors and musicians and other people :) Also there was a film adaption featuring Sting from The Police.
- Phillip K. Dick (1928-1982): Best known for the film adaption of his books like 'Blade Runner' or 'Minority Report'. But there is still lots of his books that cannot be viewed on DVD, you have to actually read them. (Exception here). This is amazing stuff, really. Take 'The Man in the High Castle' for example, a story about alternate realities, in which the Japanese & German forces won WW2 and control the world. Also 'Ubik' , in which God speaks to us through TV commercials. And I do hardly dare to mention VALIS.
- William Gibson (1948-) is the father of the 'Cyberspace'. He wrote about the WWW long before it was reality, on a typewriter. Can you believe that? 'Neuromancer' (1984) was the foundation of the 'Cyberpunk' SF subcategory, which some of you RPG nerds might have heard already. He's still publishing books, i.e. the 'Bridge Trilogy' (which was adapted to film as 'Johnny Mnemonic'). One of the craziest inventions (in Idoru, if I recall correctly) is a genetic mutant who develops an immunity to the AIDS virus and thus becomes the saviour of the gay culture (because he heals everyone he has sex with). I had no time to read his latest output, though, but I'm looking forward to it.
Special List: Political Science Fiction
- Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) for 'Brave New World'. In the year 2540 (the year of the Ford 632, Clones have replaced humans. There are different Castes, the Alphas who do the thinking and Epsilons who do the work on the assembly line. Everybody is happy on Eversmile(TM) pills, and there are no problems whatsover. Cough. The title of the novel stems from a Shakespeare quote.
- George Orwell (1903-1950) Anti-Totalitarian at its best. The Adult Cartoon Movie Animal Farm describes the Revolution of the Animals on a peasant's farm. After the humans are gone, the pigs take over the Farm and form a totalitarian regime even worse than the human's. Ah yeah. Animal tales are always a great way to get subversive messages across (see La Fontaine). And then of course 1984 the novel about Big Brother and the insane quality of [deleted for security reasons].
plus: Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 251, B.F. Skinner: Walden 2 (coming soon)
Long List: (Authors worth mentioning in the light of the Short List)
- Tad Williams (1957-). He began with Tolkien-like fantasy (The Dragonbone Chair), but has finished a Four-Volume Sc-Fi Saga as well. 'Otherland', as it is called, tells the story of Renie Sulayewo, a South African (black) woman who tries to rescue her brother who fell in a coma while surfing in the Net via a direct plug-in device connected with his brain. (This brain plug-in is quite common at the time in the future. Who needs monitor screens?). A big part of the Saga takes place in the Virtual Cyberspace, with the protagonists plugged in to the Computer, but they also interact in various places in the real world.
- Dan Simmons (1948-) (suggested by Robb Smith) Simmons is best known for the Hyperion Cantos, an epic Space Saga, taking place on several planets. He includes influences from Homer's Illias, Marcel Proust 'A la recherche du temps perdu' and Shakespears 'Storm' and weaves it all into a fascinating, knowledgable Space Narrative.
- Neal Stephenson (1959-) (suggested by Ambo Suno) Like Simmons, he wrote also books in other genres, like Historical novels, but always with the sensitivity of an SF author. With his latest book 'Anathem' he returns to classic Cyberpunk Science Fiction. He draws on the latest scientific and philosophical findings and includes them in his work, all the while going one step beyond them, as should do every good SF writer.
- Charles Stross (1964-) (suggested by me) He is pretty young, but he won a prize in 2006 and so I read his book (Accelerando) and it's promising. Not superbe, yet; but let's wait what he can do. He writes about Time Travel and Singularity. And such. You digg?
- Orson Scott Card (1951-) (suggested by david titterington) Winner of both the Nebula and the Hugo Award. The End's Game Saga takes place in the future of Earth when an insectoid alien race, the Formics, try to conquer the planet. Humankind quickly forms a international Space Ship fleet to enter War with the Formics. The main protagonists find themselves in a Space Ship Pilot School where they are trained to fight and kill. Reminds me a bit of those Manga 'Gundam' settings, but I'd have to actually read it first and not just paste and copy from WIkipedia.
(Something's missing? Something on the list is not justified in your eyes? Post it.)
