The Orion SF Masterworks collection is much better, exhaustive, and actually published as a series (not in the US unfortunately). Take a look lots of awesome books you may or may not have read...
http://www.sfsite.com/lists/orion01.htm
I think Atlas Shrugged might qualify -- it takes place in an alternative universe and deals with the implications of a couple of fictional technologies (Rearden metal and John Galt's engine). Animal Farm is really pushing the definition, though.
Since I'm sure everybody's idea of the best three will differ, a list of 32 with summaries so you can pick out the three (out of those which you haven't read) which are likely to appeal to you is probably more useful.
In other words: 32 science fiction books by someone who has read most of the bestsellers in the last few years, and a few classics. Or is there some other reason that Accelerando and Spook Country are on the same list as PKD?
Yeah, I haven't read Spook Country but I did read Pattern Recognition...I don't like the direction Gibson's going in. Idoru and the Bridge series or whatever it was called was cool.
I was thinking about leaving it off because it is really, really bad for anyone who actually reads Sci-Fi. I put it on the list because despite the fact that it's almost completely unreadable because the Wal*Mart set needs their Sci-Fi too. I wanted the list to cover as broad a spectrum of sci-fi as I could without making it 100 items long.
I left off a lot of greats including:
Vernor Vinge Dan Simmons Arthur C Clarke Iain M. Banks
and other works by Stross and a few others
Why is Rand on this list? Well, besides the Bible (go figure) Atlas Shrugged is apparently the most influential book ever written. Do I agree with the whole Objectivist shtick? Not hardly but it is still worth mentioning.
The Giver? Like Anthem it's Sci-Fi for grade schoolers, worth mentioning because a lot of people were introduced to Sci-Fi with books like this.
Leave suggestions, as many as you want. If you don't see it on the list it probably would have been there if I had remembered it while I was compiling.
I personally love Stanislaw Lem's books. Two of my favorites:
- The Cyberiad: a set of short stories that read almost
like silly little fairy tales, complete with
probabalistic dragons, poetry machines, and kings,
and electroknights.
- His Master's Voice: A rather cynical look at
deciphering a message from the stars.
Also, I've heard some people describe Lem's "Solaris" as one of the few science fiction novels that also qualify as great literature, although I must admit I didn't enjoy it as much as Cyberiad.
There are a couple odd choices on that list. I thought Timeline was pretty entertaining, but it's a typical Michael Crichton made-for-tv story and probably not worthy of such a list. I guess it sort of makes quantum physics palatable to the average joe but you could hardly say it's pushed the boundaries of the genre.
It's also worth mentioning that Minority Report isn't even a novel. It's a short story than spans maybe thirty pages. Still, virtually anything by Philip K. Dick could make it onto a list of the best sci-fi.
Anyway, there's still quite a bit of good stuff there- even the ones that aren't exactly sci-fi.
Firstly, it's dated quite badly, since it was written in the recent past about roughly-now. He gets the technology pretty much right, but the speculation about how that technology will change society pretty much all wrong.
Secondly, Mr Protagonist, as a protagonist, annoys me in that he seems more like the kind of character that a fourteen-year-old boy would think was awesome (greatest swordfighter in the world, for no good reason!) than somebody I want to read a book about.
Cryptonomicon, on the other hand, is a must-read. I don't really even like science fiction that much, but Cryptonomicon is a must-read.
About that "greatest swordfighter in the world" part - there is a real good explanation for that one. He was the guy who wrote the software for the swordfighting simulation.
To my knowledge I might still be the best racer in the world in some racing game I wrote last year, so I can absolutely relate to that ;-)
I think it's great fun to read it now. Imagine thinking Meese would still be famous in 2008!
Part of the point of Hiro is that he's a loser and an asshole. There wouldn't be a plot if he started out as a good guy, because he wouldn't find himself mixed up in the mafia and cults the way he did.
i've enjoyed pretty much everything that he has done, with the exception of the Baroque Cycle, Confusion, System of the World series ( great reads, just an awful lot to digest and keep straight).
Here is a real list, shorter and MUCH higher quality:
1. The Cyberiad
2. Babel-17
3. The Stars My Destination
4. The Sheep Look Up
5. More Than Human
6. Lord of Light
7. To Your Scattered Bodies Go
8. Earth Abides
9. Dying Inside
10. City
11. Last and First Men
12. Slan
13. The World of Null-A
The Sheep Look Up++ - a book that makes it possible to imagine how bad things could get, a faculty that helps keep you alert, and out of thinking "How bad could it be? Everything will go on as normal". Funny, we have a lite version of it - we have risen+rising cancer rates, and chemicals being 'innocent til proven guilty' here in the States. Something that still awes me, though perhaps it shouldn't, is the way organic food fits the role of Puritan so exactly.
Neuromancer is even better than I remember. I saw it at a book sale for $1 and picked it up and started re-reading it. Its awesome. Very believable - gritty and messy like real life. Great characters and just flat out virtuoso writing by Gibson.
Timeline by Michael Crichton is only worth reading because of how it portrays history. As sci-fi or entertainment it’s horrible and it basicly assumes everyone is an stupid but it does show history far more accurately than most books.
The entire Timeline plot is a bit pathetic, your company builds a time machine and what does it do with it? Go back to the 1960s and buy Berkshire Hathaway stock? Of course not where is the money in that...
They go and study the 14th century using the time machine so they can build an accurate historical theme park.
There's a 2004 movie called Primer where the main characters made a time machine and the first thing they think of is making money off the stock market(though at lower levels, since their machine can only go back to the point it's turned on)
most of those got turned into movies. Speaking of which, I'd love to see Ender's game movie but it'll probably suck since it'll be a bunch of new young actors
An Ender's Game movie is in pre-production now actually. Apparently it finally happened because Orson Scott Card got a deal which included the level of creative control he required.
A lot of films never make it past pre-production so whether this film is actually finished is yet to be seen.
Good to hear he's still working on it, although as I recall they've been trying to get the movie made for decades now. (Meanwhile, Dune is being adapted for the third time...)
