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Essential reading for Science Fiction class

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19 Jan 2016 16:55 #220273 by Malygris

JonJacob wrote: I'm now reading Norman Spinard's The Iron Dream and it's fascinating.

That's the worst book I've ever read in my life.
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19 Jan 2016 16:56 - 19 Jan 2016 16:57 #220274 by OldHippy

Malygris wrote:

JonJacob wrote: I'm now reading Norman Spinard's The Iron Dream and it's fascinating.

That's the worst book I've ever read in my life.


Clearly you're not very well read ;) I've seen much worse books on my way to work today.

... and I think it's hilarious personally.
Last edit: 19 Jan 2016 16:57 by OldHippy.

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19 Jan 2016 16:57 - 19 Jan 2016 17:00 #220275 by Cambyses
Others in this thread have already proposed some of the classics of the genre/trade paperback variety, so I won't list any of those. As far as I'm concerned, the following are absolute essential volumes for any science fiction best of list (I mean it, if any of you haven't read them yet, get on it!):

The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A Heinlein
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M Miller, Jr.

Of relatively new SciFi, I think Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon is criminally untalked about. It's also a 20XX take on Cyberpunk, so might invite some comparisons with Neuromancer (e.g., what was edgy for 1980s Gibson vs. what was edgy for 2005?)

Side note: Speaking of cyberpunk, stay away from Efinger's When Gravity Falls, unless you want to have a conversation about how future-looking Sci-Fi can end up feeing really dated due to real-world historical events since publication. Apart form being a poor imitation of cyberpunk, It's set in a future Arabian peninsula, only his descriptions of Islamic culture are sort of ridiculous in light of the West's heightened awareness of the Near East.

I'm not sure how many books you can assign, but these are some other things that I think pass the want-to-reread-it benchmark:

The Dispossessed, Ursula K LeGuin
Burning Chrome, a short story collection by William Gibson
Pax Romana, a graphic novel by Jonathan Hickman (who, incidentally, wrote the best run of Fantastic Four that will ever exist)

I'm a little surprised no one mentioned Dune yet, and Snow Crash is starts really strong (the first chapter is completely perfect literature) but falls apart by the end, in classic Stephensonian fashion.

Hope that helps give you some ideas.
Last edit: 19 Jan 2016 17:00 by Cambyses. Reason: clarity
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19 Jan 2016 17:41 - 19 Jan 2016 17:49 #220278 by Frohike
Pamela Zoline - "The Heat Death of the Universe"
Tom Godwin - "The Cold Equations"
James Tiptree Jr - great anthology of her stuff in Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Theodore Sturgeon - More Than Human
Philip K Dick
  • Ubik
  • A Scanner Darkly
  • Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Jack Womack's Dryco Chronicles (Ambient,Terraplane,Heathern,Elvissey). Or Random Acts of Senseless Violence (fucking depressing in how prescient it was).
J.G. Ballard - The Atrocity Exhibition
Gene Wolfe - The Fifth Head of Cerberus
Samuel R Delany - The Einstein Intersection, Trouble on Triton, Babel-17
Last edit: 19 Jan 2016 17:49 by Frohike.

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19 Jan 2016 19:02 #220279 by DukeofChutney
Some good books in this list. I'll offer a few contemporary titles.

The most popular modern Sci Fi writer is possibly Ian M Banks. He does space opera in a setting known as the culture. His highest rated books are probably Excession or The Player of Games, neither of which I like. I do like Consider Phlebas quite a bit though.

my favourite modern writer is Alastair Reynolds. Look at Chasm City, or the Revelation Space trilogy. He is a astronomy professor and so his work is hard as nails sci fi for the most part, but it makes space feel desolate and inhospitable which i really like. He has done more recent stuff I have not read.

I've also read Neil Asher and Peter F Hamilton books, neither are great, but they sell quite well. For a class, i'd recommend one Banks book simply because of the stature he holds in modern sci fi.

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19 Jan 2016 20:29 #220289 by Cranberries
I think I need to add The Stars my Destination although the rape scene is problematic.

Altered Carbon is cyberpunk fan fiction crammed into an Airport Thriller container, in my opinion.

Dune. You know, I love that book, but it has some problems.

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19 Jan 2016 20:36 #220290 by repoman

craniac wrote: You come in here with a skull full of mush and leave thinking like a nerd.


At least that's how I picture the first day of class.
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19 Jan 2016 20:45 #220291 by Cambyses

craniac wrote: Altered Carbon is cyberpunk fan fiction crammed into an Airport Thriller container, in my opinion.


Yeah, that's probably fair. Maybe that's one that I like in spite of its shittiness, like the Arnold action movie The Sixth Day.

craniac wrote: Dune. You know, I love that book, but it has some problems.


I think it's the right amount of problem-filled. Not like the later books…
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19 Jan 2016 20:51 - 19 Jan 2016 20:55 #220292 by Cranberries
Tell me your complaints about the later books. I really want to hear this. Oh, you mean the later DUNE books, not the newer books people are suggesting like Neuromancer. I'm responding to these at home as my wife is trying to tell me about her History of the Arabs readings.

I also teach in college. So I can't stack the deck entirely with militaristic old white guys.

My wife LOVES The Dispossessed and we used to live down the street from Ursula (ok, same city).
Last edit: 19 Jan 2016 20:55 by Cranberries.

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19 Jan 2016 21:04 #220294 by Grudunza
Someone mentioned Cat's Cradle, but I would say Sirens of Titan is much more of a sci-fi book for Vonnegut.

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19 Jan 2016 22:00 #220296 by Sagrilarus
This is a seven week course and you're considering Dune? It's like 400 pages, isn't it?

Frankenstein is a must-have since it's so thematically on the centerline of the genre, and is generally considered the first science fiction book. If you're going to go novels and have seven weeks Brave New World is likely a must-have as well as it's powerful and short. Disposessed is a great choice, Foundation, Space Merchants, over novels under 200 pages would be good selections given the length of the course. The short stories. Microcosmic God, Cold Equations, Nightfall if you don't do Foundation, The Gun Shop. That gives you a broad spectrum without assigning 2500 pages of reading.
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19 Jan 2016 22:50 #220298 by jason10mm
If you want to REALLY stretch your kids, assign them Peter Watts' "Blindsight". Or at least some of his short stories. Christian Cantrell is another really good recent sci-fi short story author. His "Containment" is more of a novella but is fantastic. Maybe the first 'book' of Hugh Howley's WOOL. Hard to say what the historic impact will be as this stuff is very new, but should lead to plenty of conversation in class.
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20 Jan 2016 00:21 #220301 by Feelitmon

jason10mm wrote: If you want to REALLY stretch your kids, assign them Peter Watts' "Blindsight". Or at least some of his short stories. Christian Cantrell is another really good recent sci-fi short story author. His "Containment" is more of a novella but is fantastic. Maybe the first 'book' of Hugh Howley's WOOL. Hard to say what the historic impact will be as this stuff is very new, but should lead to plenty of conversation in class.


I really like Blindsight, its sequels, and the Rifties books, but those might be too "hard" in their science fiction, if you catch my drift. The Things would be a great short story, but Watts has been condemned in some circles for his use of a double-plus ungood word in the last line of the story and the word might make the story a non-starter for your class. (It depends on whether your campus requires trigger warnings, I suppose.)

Another author whose work has been mentioned a couple of times already is Alfred Bester. I agree, The Stars My Destination may have too much objectionable stuff to make the cut. But definitely consider The Demolished Man. It was the first Hugo winner, after all, and it's no doubt the reason Babylon 5's recurring Psi Cop was named "Alfred Bester." Like The Stars My Destination it feels extremely modern, and I predict that your students would never be able to guess that it came out in 1952 if the copyright weren't in the book.
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20 Jan 2016 04:16 - 20 Jan 2016 04:25 #220306 by SuperFlySwatter
this is pretty good
The New Critical Idiom: Science Fiction
www.sfsite.com/04b/ar126.htm

This outstanding volume offers a clear and critically engaged account of the phenomenon of science fiction. Adam Roberts provides a concise history of science fiction also explaining key concepts in SF criticism and theory, in chapters such as Gender, Race and Technology. He examines the interactions between science fiction and science fact, anchoring each chapter with a case study drawn from short story, book or film, from Frank Herbert's Dune to Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black.
Introducing the reader to nineteenth-century, Pulp, Golden Age, New Wave, Feminist and Cyberpunk science fictions, this is the essential guide to a major cultural movement.

this site is good
www.sfsite.com/

i have this entire series except number 27 which my kids have hidden. not read them all yet but a lot of variety
www.sfsite.com/lists/orion01.htm


if you're looking for shorter novels, dont forget stuff like Asimovs foundation series, and also you need some "dick" fnarr fnarr.
Last edit: 20 Jan 2016 04:25 by SuperFlySwatter.
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20 Jan 2016 04:34 - 20 Jan 2016 05:08 #220307 by Vistula Lurker
The only one of these strange star stories we used to read in school was Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanisław Lem. I still remember the description of some wrecked gargantuan spaceship buried in the sand. The feeling of desolation was unbearable. I would also recommend Janusz Zajdel but I dont' think any of his books have been translated into english.
Last edit: 20 Jan 2016 05:08 by Vistula Lurker.
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