Great Science Fiction Books
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Another list created to provide suggestions on good Science Fiction novels. I find that its truly hard to find good ones.
I am hoping that others will contribute to the list to add some of their favourites to help me find something new to read on the commuter train 
See this geek list for historical fiction: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/40591
[edit: fixed spelling]
[edit: Such a great list guys! thanks for all the great contributions! keep them coming! there is so much on here now that I HAVE TO READ!]
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Dan Shirley
United Kingdom
hemel hempstead
Herts
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First Contract, by Greg Costikyan http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/498 explores the effects of a contact by 'friendly' aliens of super-advanced technology, and how it instantly ruins the economy of the Earth.
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Nick Blank
United States
Unspecified
Ohio
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Souls in the Great Machine
and the sequals:
The Miocene Arrow
Eyes of the Calculor
Set after the final war, mankind has mostly lost its knowledge and technology. Machines are clock driven, wind powered, or muscle powered. There are still automated war fortresses in orbit, and whenever someone tries to build an electrical macine (radio, computer, etc) or tries to make a vehicle over a certain size or that can travel over a certain speed the sattellites deliver a powerful EMP burst or weapons fire (they think the war is still on). Unfortunately, before the final war a project was started to counteract global warming, nanobots were set loose on the moon to get raw materials for a sun shield. Global warming is no longer a problem, what with no technology and all, but automated construction of the sunshield continues (hello eternal ice age).
A librarian (librarians are cool here, they fight duels with pistols to settle disputes over cataloging and the like), attempts to figure out how to defeat the orbiting sattelites with the aid of a giant mechanical human powered computer called the calculor. Any criminals with mathematical ability are dumped into the machine to serve out their sentences.
All the while a mysterious force periodically supresses people's consciousness and draws them to walk toward the sea, everyone outdoors has automated anchors that drop to the ground if not reset after a period, hopefully snagging you on something during "the call" preventing you from walking into a ditch or off a cliff while unconscious.
Great story, great world, fantastic characters, and plenty of humor.
The other books were harder to get into for me at first (they go in directions I didn't expect), but they were excellent as well.
He also has a fantasy series (Moonworlds) that was good.
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Judd Vance
United States
Wichita
Kansas
Now when I say, "Who's the master?" You say, "Sho Nuff!"
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If you liked Babylon 5 (the TV show, not the game), check these out -- all of them are cannon:
Psi-Corps Trilogy: By J. Gregory Keyes
Dark Genesis: The Birth of Psi Corp
Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant
Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester
This tells you Earth telepaths came to be, the creation of psi corps, the rise and final fate of Bester.
Legions of Fire Trilogy: By Peter David
The Long Night of Centauri Prime.
Armies of Light and Dark.
Out of the Darkness.
These tell you what happened on Centauri Prime after the show: the keepers, Londo, the rise of Vir, and what happened to David Sheridan and that gift Londo gave him.
The Passing of the Techno-Mages Trilogy: by Jeanne Cavelos
Casting Shadows
Summoning Light
Invoking Darkness
These are the best B5 books. This tells all about how the Techno-Mages work their "magic" and how they fit into the Vorlon-Shadow war, as well as Galen's past (from the "Crusade" series), and best of all, how Morden survived the nuclear blast on Z'ha'dum. Lots and lots of good B5 info here.
All the trilogies are based on outlines from J. Michael Straczynski.
Two more worth checking out:
-The Shadow Within - By Janne Cavelos: this is like a prequel to the Techno-Mage trilogy. It tells what happened to Anna Sheridan and Morden and the crew of the Icarus on their doomed mission to Z'ha'dum, as well as Sheridan's first command of the Agenemnon.
- To Dream in the City of Sorrows - by Kathryn Drennan. (also known as Mrs. JMS). This tells what happens after Jeffrey Sinclair was re-assigned to Mimbar and how he became the head of the Rangers, and what happened to his fiancee.
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Jon Greisz
United States
McKinney
Texas
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Jack Chalker's Well of Souls Series
1-Midnight at the Well of Souls
2-Exiles at the Well of Souls
3-Quest for the Well of Souls
4-The Return of Nathan Brazil
5-Twilight at the Well of Souls
Great stuff.
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Oliver Harrison
Canada
Kamloops
British Columbia
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The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M Robinson. One of my favorites of all time. Unconventional, different and tense with a fascinating lead character. I wish he'd written more sci-fi.
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131.
Board Game: Titan
[Average Rating:7.08 Overall Rank:335]
Remy Gibson
United States
Kewanee
Illinois
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John Varley.
I just finished re-reading the Gaean Trilogy, which is interesting more for its world-building than for its people.
Many of his short stories and novels are set in the so-called "Eight Worlds" universe, where Earth and Jupiter have been taken over by the Invaders and humanity has been forced to take up residence in the other nooks and crannies of the solar system. The residents are long-lived and apt to change genders on a whim. Of particular note are Steel Beach and The Golden Globe. I've read each of them several times and always enjoy them. He's great at inserting humor to good effect in his work.
I would recommend that anybody find Press Enter, a truly creepy early-80s computer yarn.
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Bill Allen
Australia
Ngunnawal, Canberra
ACT
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Great list of books, but is still misisng my all-time favourite - The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith ... a collection of short stories set in the same future. Hard to explain what made them so special - they were just written differently. Definitely worth reading.
I also recommend Wolfbane (Pohl and Kornbluth), Gateway (Pohl), The Book of Skulls (Silverberg) and Behold the Man (Moorcock) ... among others ...
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Joe Geerkin
United States
Eden
New York
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I think reading Jules Verne or HG Wells is a lot of fun. The stories are still great and it's facinating to see the past's vision of the future. (It's kinda like Tomorrowland before they remodeled it.
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Shane Beck
Australia
Not Applicable
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Not great Sci Fi books, but I'm going to go trashy and put in the novels set in the Warhammer 40K universe. I plead guilty to reading these kind of books from time to time.....
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Jesper Rugård Jensen
Denmark
Copenhagen
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I have only read two novels by Jon Courtney Grimwood, but I am going to get more. 9tail Fox and Stamping Butterflies are both very different books, but I found the plot and the language very engrossing. Stamping Butterflies is both a time travel(?), space opera, and contemporary history novel in one book and is good to boot. 9tail Fox was the first I read, and is also some kind of combination this time of horror, noir and science fiction. Very recommended.
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ian morris
United Kingdom
lichfield
staffordshire
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The Engines Of God, by Jack McDevitt.
A fine body of work, but this is his best. Mankind tries to find The Monumentmakers, and stumbles upon an ancient threat to all civilisations.
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ian morris
United Kingdom
lichfield
staffordshire
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No Greg Bear yet ? Then try Legacy, his sci-fi version of Conrad's Heart Of Darkness. Most of his stuff is well worth reading.
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Joe Baptist
United States
California
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James White's "Sector General" series - about a multi-environmental hospital for alien species are brilliant.
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Joshua Kenney
United States
North Haledon
NJ
I like shorts. They are comfy and easy to wear.
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Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.
The classic novel that inspired a number of other projects, such as 28 Days Later (but is it really "inspiration" when you rip off the plot point for point?). It's a chilling story with some of the creepiest "monsters" in SF.
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Craig Phillips
United States
Columbia
Missouri
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Old Man's War by John Scalzi This was a pleasant surprise from out of nowhere. It has a fascinating set-up and a lot of action.
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Deep Thought
United States
Columbus
Ohio
"How hard can it be?"
"That's... not gone well.."
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Since he hasn't appeared yet, I'll add John Barnes, particularly his Thousand Cultures books, starting with A Million Open Doors.
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Steffan O'Sullivan
United States
Plymouth
NH
A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. -- Groucho Marx
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Eric Frank Russell. Now *this* is classic Science Fiction. He has some novels, such as "Wasp", but he shines in short stories. Read "Plus X" sometime, or "Allamagoosa" or "Metamorphosite" or "Men, Martians and Machines" or "Diabologic" or "Dear Devil" or "I Am Nothing" or any of dozens of others.
I believe there's an anthology of his still in print - well worth hunting up.
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Pretentious? Moi?
United States
Pocomoke
Maryland
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The Soul Rider Series by Jack L. Chalker
(aka. "Flux & Anchor"):
"Spirits of Flux and Anchor"
"Empires of Flux and Anchor"
"Masters of Flux and Anchor"
"The Birth of Flux and Anchor"
"Children of Flux and Anchor"
Several of his series have already graced the list, but I found these books particular interesting in that they:
Spoiler (mouseover to reveal): appeared to exist in a Fantasy setting throughout the early novels (heightened by the fact that the inhabitants believe they're living in a "magickal" world), but is revealed in the later books to be completely technological in nature, with a believable rationale .
Chalker was probably my favorite author, throughout high school. IMO, he did a better job with his lengthy series, than with his stand-alone novels. Although, I seem to remember enjoying a few such as, "Downtiming the Night Side" & "And the Devil will Drag You Under." YMMV.
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Pretentious? Moi?
United States
Pocomoke
Maryland
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. has been mentioned several times in the comments, but had no entry. Sooo, here's Cat's Cradle, which introduced Ice Nine, the karass, and the pseudo-religion, Bokononism.
(Although, I could have easily listed: Slaughterhouse-Five; Breakfast of Champions; God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; or the short story, Harrison Bergeron.)
Like many of his works, the character development makes it easy to forget that events are taking place in a Science Fiction setting.
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Eric Kuha
United States
North Dakota
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I'm going to do that thing.
Two sf novels that are frequently compared:
1984 by Orewell
Brave New World by Huxley
The question I'm sure everyone's debated is which novel is closer to the world we live in today? My money's on Huxley.
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C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy is a very interesting read, mingling spirituality with space travel.
The first book Out of the Silent Planet describes a visit to Mars which is very different than the Mars we know.
Perelandra describes a visit to Venus which is just beginning as a full world.
That Hideous Strength takes place on Earth and describes a frightening society rising to power, almost as though it is showing how the world of 1984 may have come to be.
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Ian Walker
United Kingdom
Liss
Hampshire
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Leige Killer by Christopher Hinz
Another one of my favorite books. I picked this one up on a whim when in America along time ago. It was a fantastic read, a very well written sci-fi thriller set in a future society. A specially bred assassin from an earlier, more violent time (a Paratwa with two bodies but one mind) is on the loose and doing what it does best. A couple of old Paratwa hunters are taken out of stasis to help deal with it.
Action, intrigue, sci-fi gadgets and kit galore ..
This one would make a good movie ... and the two sequels were pretty good too.
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Mark Slater
United Kingdom
Newport
Newport, South Wales
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Time Ships, Steven Baxter's authorized sequal to the Time Machine. Where the narrator takes a second trip in time to try again, to save Weena, good stuff.
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Not exactly a novel, a graphic novel, but good story all the same. The complete Elquest series is really great! Quite entertaining!
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gm j
United States
Carrollton
Georgia
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I can't believe this hadn't been added before now. Did I miss it?
I actually owned this at one time. I'm old.
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) and The Ballad of Lost C'Mell (more cats!)
Durham
North Carolina
Matsudo
Chiba
I would also add the Clarke Award
The Clarke Award burned me. So I will disagree with you there. I blame it for making feel safe buying Perdido Street Station (I had already been disillusioned by Hugo and Nebula, but surely the Clarke award can be trusted!).
I think all these awards are just phroo-phroo like the Oscars and Academy Awards. You know publishers are working the system behind the scenes in order to sell books. It's all political.
Speaking as someone who has voted in a number of these awards (BSFA and Hugo) I have to say I have had no publisher make any attempt to sway my vote. SF fandom is a small field and for the fan voted awards we would hear about any such attempts. In fact there was one instance of someone trying to influence the award - the book was Black Genesis by L. Ron Hubbard and it finished in last place on the shortlist. Of course because it is voted for by fans - we have our favourites and there is often a home-town bias (Canadian authors do better when the con is in Canada).
Well, if what you say is indeed true, then I guess Hugo has no excuse for the less than good recommendations they've made. To their credit, they are fewer than the good ones. But forgive me if I am still skeptical of the process. After all, I don't know you or what your influence is voting on these awards. Are you on a panel of 10 judges whose vote matters? Or are you voting among hundreds of people at a convention? And, hypothetically speaking, if your vote were swayed in the past, would you really admit so here?
Not trying to slam you or anything. Just being a healthy skeptic. And indeed if you can convince me I am wrong, I will modify my criticism accordingly (just PM me cause I won't be reading this thread much longer).
As many others have stated above, go to the SF/F Masterworks Lists for starters. These are books that have typically stood the test of time (although by no means do I agree with all their selections). And since many of the books on the list didn't sell well enough to continue being printed, that just proves the Masterworks List more credible.
I don't think that many of the books went out of print because they didn't sell very well. The business of publishing is such that all but a very tiny percentage of books go out of print from time to time.
Also the list misses too many good books out. Basically the SF Masterworks series are only those books to which Orion (the publisher) have the rights to. I don't think that they went out and bought any new rights - hence why Dune only exists as a hardcover in the range.
On publishing, I totally beg to differ. Books do go out of print all the time. There are books we have never and will never hear of that are going to get pulped because they didn't sell. But that's getting off what I think is your central point which is whether Orion SF/F Masterworks books went out of print or not because they didn't sell well.
Your next statement is subjective, I think. But I'd still be interested to know what books you think are left out of the list.
Otherwise, what you say is sound. So, let me go back and support my initial argument. There were some entries obviously missing that appear to have been recently acquired, so Orion has obviously shown it is willing to go for books that it might not currently have the rights to. For example, only now does their fantasy list have HP Lovecraft. That would seem to imply they had to acquire some rights to publish him. I also still believe that some titles did not do well. Though I was certainly glad to see Grendel on the list, last I checked they weren't printing it anymore. John Gardner is not a fantasy writer and Grendel is not a fantasy book, masterpiece though it is. I imagine their target market did not pick up on it. And people, like me, who would buy Grendel would probably buy it from a different publisher (I did).
In regards to their hardback editions, you may be correct there. Any argument I would make is purely speculative.
So again, I appreciate your input and dissent, but I still hold the opinion that these awards are phroo-phroo. I'm a stubborn old man that way, I guess.
Dublin
So if someone wanted to read all the great SF books out there they would have to do a lot of research to decide what they wanted and would end up getting books from a variety of publishers. I think some of them would come from the Orion or Gollancz collections. If someone like me, who has read a lot of SF and is looking for good books that they have not previously heard of then going to these collections is a good idea. Certainly I don't think I've read any bad books when I dipped in to these collections. I should also mention that I've read a lot of books that are highly recommended in this geeklist and by my friends and I consider them to be the SF equivalent of the fantasy 'epic' (ie: my subjective opinion: crap).
Peterborough
Unspecified
So if someone wanted to read all the great SF books out there they would have to do a lot of research to decide what they wanted and would end up getting books from a variety of publishers. I think some of them would come from the Orion or Gollancz collections. If someone like me, who has read a lot of SF and is looking for good books that they have not previously heard of then going to these collections is a good idea. Certainly I don't think I've read any bad books when I dipped in to these collections. I should also mention that I've read a lot of books that are highly recommended in this geeklist and by my friends and I consider them to be the SF equivalent of the fantasy 'epic' (ie: my subjective opinion: crap).
Yep I can go for all of that (including your opinion of the dodgier recommendations in this list). Gollancz has tried this type of marketing of reprints before in its Gollancz Collectors' Editions series (about 10 years ago) and Classic SF (about 20 years ago). They also do a Future Classics series (paperback reprints again) with funky covers.
Egg Harbor Township
New Jersey
...but then, after seeing the hard work and great recommendations that had gone in the list, something almost unheard of happened - I was moved NOT to make a sarcastic post in a geek list, and actually instead attempt to contribute something useful! (though how useful I was is debatable, I suppose...)
Anyway, don't tell anyone - I'd hate for it to get back to the SCA (That's Sarcastic Comments Anonymous, not the other one!) about what I did here...