
Ask HN: What's your favourite sci-fi/fantasy book? - mkaziz
And why?
======
db48x
Almost anything by Vernor Vinge. "A Deepness in the Sky" in particular is
amazing. I was/am particularly impress by how he handles the idea of
fundamental limits on the scope of human achievement, and by how he weaves
that into the story so that it's there at all levels.

"Diaspora" by Greg Egan has a great story, huge ideas, and probably the most
cogent explanation of sentience/sapience ever written.

"The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" and "Accelerando" have
already been mentioned.

"Reteif!" Made me laugh out loud. Larry Niven's "Destiny's Road" points out
the difficulty of interstellar colonization. "Ringworld" blew my mind. Gene
Wolfe's "The Book of the New Syn" taught me to pay attention; "Dirk Gently's
Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams reinforced the lesson.

There are a lot of good ones; I could go on for ages...

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nl
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Deepness_in_the_Sky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Deepness_in_the_Sky)

It's easy to categorise these as wonderful and well written space opera, but
that undersells them. Their author (Venor Vinge) _invented_ the idea of the
Singularity, and worked as a computer science professor. Both won both the
Hugo Award.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender's_Game)

As good as people say it is.

Most of Richard Morgan's works (esp the
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Kovacs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Kovacs)
series). Not his fantasy books though.

For fantasy books, Patrick Rothfuss is doing good stuff. The Kingkiller
Chronicles is excellent. Read his other books _before_ "Slow Regard of Silent
Things", though, because that is one _weird_ story.

From more recent SciFi books:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl)
is excellent.

I'm currently reading _Ancillary Justice_ and I'm really enjoying it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancillary_Justice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancillary_Justice)

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pkinsky
Bruce Sterling's Distraction. He touches on net-smart nomads, technology-
driven disruption and the resulting unemployment, gridlock in congress,
something similar to the Occupy movement in DC, a trade war with China that
ended when they dumped all US IP online, a war referred to as 'Iraq 3', etc.

This is seriously impressive considering that it was published in 1998. My
current hypothesis is that he's a time traveller messing with us.

~~~
thenomad
+1 for Distraction, and indeed most of BruceS's works. Incredible, visionary
stuff.

"Heavy Weather" is probably the book of his that's most similar to Distraction
- also very very good.

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hoggle
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed)

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jimsmart
I have two ultimate faves:-

Accelerando (Charlie Stross) - truly epic, hard-scifi, from near to far
future, truly hardcore

Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson) - awesome tale, plenty of nanotech, almost
fairy-tale-esque

[Edit: formatting]

~~~
thejteam
Diamond Age is one of those awesome books where what you get out of it depends
on where you are in life. I read it both before children and after children. I
enjoyed it both times. But it was a different experience.

------
DanBC
I really like the ideas from Greg Egan, so any of his books.

I still love Gibson, even his later books.

I want to say one of my favourite books is "Salt" by Adam Roberts. I love the
characters and description of political views and the way the war between
factions plays out. Roberts' other books are pretty good too.

I loved REAMDE - I could have done with a bit more inside the game and a bit
less tramping through the woods. I love Stephenson's other books too.

Finally: Bruce Sterling seems to be under-appreciated. Hard to recommend one
of his books.

This question is perhaps a FAQ. Has anyone on HN ever scraped the answers
posted to the various threads, added information about number of mentions or
votes; with links to Amazon (and other book sellers)?

Having some carefully chosen adds and duplicating all the links with affiliate
links would turn this into a mostly passive income project.

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mswen
I have read and enjoyed many of the classics that others have mentioned. I
would give a shout-out to Wasteland of Flint by Thomas Harlan. I enjoyed it
for how it incorporated alternate history in our relatively recent past -
imagine a world in which the Inca and Imperial Japanese kingdoms became the
dominant superpowers and led the industrial revolution, Europeans were
conquered and fast forward into far future world with aliens, FTL space travel
all mixed with what the Inca and Japanese cultures might have evolved into in
that context and how those of European descent were seen as the lower caste.
Some interesting cultural reversals and twists mixed in with future technology
and ancient alien technology.

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dllthomas
A single book? Impossible. I don't think I could even name my favorite Zelazny
or PKD. Many of the works of both are in the running. As is "Dune", for sure.
Possibly "Snow Crash". "Protector" might not quite make the cut, but comes
somewhat close - from my recollection it _was_ my favorite Niven (not counting
short stories)... I'm currently finally getting around to "The Mote In God's
Eye". Further back, "Foundation" was pretty amazing, and I've a bit of a soft
spot for "Childhood's End". Bester's "The Demolished Man" is well worth a
read, but I think also doesn't quite make the cut.

------
mindcrime
_The Mysterious Island_ \- Jules Verne

 _Neuromancer_ \- William Gibson

 _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ \- George Orwell

 _Perdido Street Station_ \- China Mieville

 _Snow Crash_ \- Neal Stephenson

 _Ender 's Game_ \- Orson Scott Card

Foundation series - Asimov

among others...

------
rajacombinator
"The Golden Age" by John C. Wright - just awesome, and I agree with the values
of the main character

"Chronicles of Amber" by Roger Zelazny - for imagination and badassery

Favorite short story is "Understand" by Ted Chiang - mind-expanding ;)

Also in general the lesser known Heinlein books are amazing. Not a fan of
Stranger in a Strange Land. Named my current company after a reference to The
Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

------
codemonkeymike
"Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" As someone who simply cant sit down and read
a book this was the first book I have ever read and reread. First comedic
release, is littered everywhere in the book. Recurring jokes for those who pay
attention to detail are little nuggets of gold. There are social commentaries
that ring true today. Lastly all the characters are believably absurd.

------
mattivc
A great one that haven't already been mentioned is "Stranger in a Strange
Land" by Robert Heinlein.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land)

It's one of those books that just takes a while to digest after you are done
reading it. I highly recommend it.

~~~
partisan
Very good book and the one that got me started on Heinlein. I probably own
most of his hard sci-fi books now as a result.

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mithras
Lord of Light by Zelazny. It's on another level really and I love the
Buddhist, Hindu influence combined with the technology.

~~~
partisan
Thanks for this. I have read the Chronicles of Amber and really enjoyed
Zelazny's writing. I will put this on my list of books to read.

~~~
dllthomas
Lord of Light is a harder read than Amber. If you trail off partway through
don't kick yourself, just try again later. I think it took me three tries to
get into it, but once I did it's definitely high amongst my favorites.

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kele
"Ice" by Jacek Dukaj

Every time I read a novel written by Dukaj I start feeling smarter. The ideas
presented by characters are always worth considering and eye-opening.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_(Dukaj_novel)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_\(Dukaj_novel\))

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kristianp
One great book that hasn't been mentioned so far is the Forever War by Joe
Haldeman.

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fred_is_fred
I really enjoyed reading Snowcrash. It's no literary magic but it's a fun
read.

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partisan
Hard to say... had you asked me this question 15 years ago, I would have
answered without hesitation, The Hobbit and Ender's Game.

Today, it's a bit less clear, but here is what comes to mind.

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke

Worthing Saga - Orson Scott Card

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atmosx
Cryptonomicon, it's by FAR the best I've read!

EDIT: Come to think of it, I don't know is in the right category as Sci/fi.
Well if not cryptonomicon, then SnowCrash probably :-P

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kephra
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner is still my favorite novel while A Ticket to
Tranai by Robert Sheckley is my preferred short story.

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gadders
Some I have enjoyed:

The Left Hand of God Trilogy The Bad Company series Iain M Banks Sci-Fi Philip
Jose Farmer Riverworld

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pmoriarty
Ubik by Philip K Dick.

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lastofus
Hyperion Cantos is my personal favorite.

