Science Fiction Books I’ve Read (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Science Fiction Books I’ve Read (2018)

fortelabs.co

32 pointsgauchojs83 comments

Personal all-time favorite, read it twice: Accelerando by Charles Stross

Set in three parts, exploring a future where people can upload themselves to computers, create digital copies, recombine, run minds faster than real-time, re-enter the non-digital world, travel to alien destinations, etc.

Free from the author: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/acceler...

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17863.Accelerando

It had better be good for the price, lol:

https://www.amazon.com/Accelerando-Singularity-Stross-Charle...

Amazon has this weird algorithmic automated price setting going on when books are out of print and only available second-hand or from leftover stock. It probably makes sense to whoever implemented the algorithm.

Usually the prices stop somewhere around the €75 mark though.

Well, that edition came out in 1602 so it isn't surprising it is so expensive! :-P

I like that Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red, Blue, Green Mars) are in red. That is my absolutely favourite Sci-Fi series of all time. It has aged amazingly well. He did an amazing amount of research for that book. It's very believable and the characters are incredibly complex.

So is "The Years of Rice and Salt" from him, though it's only one book, not a trilogy.

I feel like I actually learned something while reading it, but that is because I've read it on screen, while having Wikipedia and Google-maps open in the background while reading it, pausing to look up things there.

Thanks for this! It's right up my alley as a history-lover.

Thank you for the recommendation! From Wikipedia:

> Red Mars won the BSFA Award in 1992 and Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1993. Green Mars won the Hugo Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1994. Blue Mars also won the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1997.

I was reading a scifi book the other day, and it just seemed to tickle something familiar. I eventually realized I must have read it long ago and totally forgotten it.

I've read thousands of books, but I never kept a log and have no way of remembering them all.

The standout in my mind, however, is "War of the Worlds" by Wells. It is the first scifi book I ever read, picking it out at the library because it had a cool illustration of the tripod on the cover.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and like the purported first hit of heroin, the rest of my life I've looked for something that good again :-)

To me it's Alastair Reynolds, and then everybody else. When I read "Revelation Space" it was, er, a Revelation. In addition to the many books R.S. universe (spanning across great swaths of time) there is also the fun Revenger series, and several non-canonical short stores, etc.

Of course, Ian Banks (RIP) is also great fun.

I also enjoyed what I read of Revelation Space. I really liked how not having faster than light travel played a role. I kind of lost interest when so many of the books revolved around that same planet. There is a whole universe out there that I want to learn more about. I don't care about the rust belt or whatever it was called.

FWIR the R.S. universe wasn't planet centric and the books literally span one side of the universe to another, with timescales from one lifetime to entities measuring their lives in galactic rotations. Are you talking about Chasm City maybe? Anyway, it's about time for me to re-read -- I've been holding off as a treat - it's been 18 years since I read that first book!

I think “house of suns“, which is not R.S. is maybe one of the best sci fi books I’ve ever read. I’ve only also read chasm city by him but I thought “House of Suns” was leaps and bounds better

Disappointed this is just a list, with no information, ranking or anything else. I'm always on the hunt for good sci-fi, but unfortunately this isn't helpful.

There is a link for Part 2 of the article, which has more info - https://fortelabs.co/blog/what-i-learned-about-the-future-by...

I missed that, thanks!

Well the ones he really liked are underlined, that's a form of ranking. Not sure you need to know the nuance between #1 and #2, but knowing that there's 15 must reads on that list is a convenient way of showing that.

Just fyi, a great many of these books are award winners or otherwise considered classics, so if you're looking for good sci-fi, you could do worse than just randomly picking a book from this list. Though as other commenters have mentioned, modern sci-fi is rather under-represented.

It's like reading a list of books considered classics in the genre. I feel like the author is just checking off boxes. Also, needs some Iain M. Banks.

I am surprised he likes some of the classics as they hold up really poorly IMO. The Foundation books especially just... are not good viewed through a modern lens. I hate to pull the misogyny card, but I think there is only one woman in Foundation and she has no lines, just models a necklace for some space trader types. They also suffer from the classic sci-fi conundrum where a spaceman is flying at light speed while reading a newspaper and listening to a tape. It's not really excusable for me when people consider this like... the greatest sci fi book. Other authors were able to confront our social and technological future in a much more realistic and interesting way, not like, cowboys in spaceships.

Which authors/books would you recommend that have held up over time?

Bradbury & Vonnegut if you are gonna stay in the same time period. Delaney, PKD and Gene Wolfe are my favorites of all time, they are 10-20 years later but I think they raise social and philosophical issues that resonate to this day.

I liked the foundation books its just always been a pet peeve that Foundation, Enders Game, and Hitchhikers Guide are always listed as greatest of all time. They are super enjoyable books but not like... what I would choose to represent the genre.

You're missing the point. Sci-fi isn't about technology, it's about imagining life and existence from a non-earth non-human perspective. Also, Bayta Darell is a very central character with a significant role.

Granddaughter Arkady as well.

I wasn't arguing about what sci-fi is, its fairly amorphous. More just highlighting the laziness of creating a novel based around future tech and then having someone just reading a paper, its fine but not GOAT material imo. It is a space western/drama which is totally fine.

Now imagine that some sci-fi novels have no women in it at all. Or men for that matter. The nerve of the authors!

Books that have become dated can sometimes be quite interesting when read with the period they were published in in mind. Not just for the retro-effect they invariably invoke, but also to see how the thought experiments encapsulated in them would have appeared to people then.

Sci-fi classics are like any other classic books; you have to read them in the context of the author and his times. You can't read Conrad's Heart of Darkness ignoring the cultural and historical context either.

And honestly, sometimes a Heinlein juvenile makes for a nice change of pace between heavier works (either sci-fi/fantasy or any other genre).

I totally agree, I think Foundation is a fun book, it just does not deserve the accolades it receives. Same thing with Heinlein, can be kinda fun, but an alien sex cult with the leader hovering naked women into his lap is not that interesting. I just read Ubik and you can see some of these amazing time travel sci-fi concepts playing out, conversely in Heinlein's 'Time Enough For Love' the protagonist goes back in time, sleeps with his own mom, and tells her he is her son from the future. It just feels dumb to me.

Agreed, the author of this list could do well to expand his horizons beyond the classics a bit.

wholeheartedly agree. A female friend wanted me to recommend some classic sci-fi since it had influenced me so much. I knew they were going to have aged badly on social issues but, my god, they are unreadably awful. Even Bradbury whom I considered a good writer, not just a creative thinker - and it's the same problem. Same issue finding classic video games - pervasive, unavoidable, and utterly unnecessary biases that ruin the works.

I also didn't really get the love of Foundation. I like a lot of Asimov's short stories but just found Foundation to be kind of dry.

While reading it I also noticed that there were no female characters in the book. Since I didn't like the book I haven't read any of the others in the series but I seem to recall someone saying that when the lack of women was pointed out to Asimov that he made women central to at least some of the prequels?

Yeah, same here. I tried to read old American science fiction, the so-called western classics and the so-called eastern classics. All of that stuff is racist, sexist and bigoted. After many unsuccessful tries I decided that reading anything from other times and cultures is just too regressive to be worth it. After all, what can someone as bigoted and outdated as Asimov really teach us about society and technology in 2020? What can Jane Austen with her internalized misogyny tell us about human nature? I will stick to modern and progressive literature, thank-you-very-much.

And so should you. In fact, those old books can be downright dangerous and normalize regressive behaviors that will cause real harm. I mean, today we are rightfully worried about individual bigoted tweets and messages, but imagine someone reading an entire book of that stuff?

>I decided that reading anything from other times and cultures is just too regressive to be worth it. . . What can [they] tell us about human nature

Are you serious? You don't think there is any insight into human nature in the works of anyone, ever, except the exact values of the culture you happen to live in at this particular point in time?

Edit: ugh, I had to go look at your other comments to tell if this was sarcasm. It seems it was, and satire and reality have converged too much for me to differentiate.

> Are you serious?

No.

Are we already at the point where a suggestion to read nothing outside your own cultural bubble can be interpreted as a serious comment? If we are, this is seriously disturbing.

Yes, I've just realized that, my apologies. I can't tell any more.

We are in fact, sadly there. Poe’s Law in action. I totally thought you were being sincere. I was becoming more indignant with each sentence!

Great Sarcasm. I said 'I hate to play the misogyny card' and I do, because I knew people would hone in on that and ignore what I was trying to say, such is our political climate.

> I knew people would hone in on that and ignore what I was trying to say

You were forcing your reference frame onto a science fiction novel and presenting that as critique. Complaining about newspapers and tapes in space is actually more of the same thing, except explaining why it's not a good way to treat fiction would take way longer.

"Well actually" there's TWO (2!) women. One has one line, and she's talking to a man, so it still fails the Bechtel test. The other, like you said, models a necklace, and has no lines.

I seem to remember different, but that may be because I haven't read all of his stuff (not a fan), only picked some.

Anyways, in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Currents_of_Space there is this: https://www.9novelsread.com/read/the-currents-of-space/30353...

and more.

(just sayin')

Nice to see a recommendation for one of John Varley's works (The Golden Globe). There is one sci-fi author who is underappreciated. His writing has touches of Heinlein. His Gaea Trilogy is really creative too.

His stories "Equinoctal", "The Phantom of Kansas" [0] are big hits at scifi reading groups. And "The Persistence of Vision" is a well-known classic.

[0] https://varley.net/excerpt/the-phantom-of-kansas-full-text/

Two books I would highly recommend for their idea density and enjoyment are Deamon - Daniel Suarez and follow on book Freedom. Old Mans War - John Scalzi and really the whole series.

also really enjoy anything by Vernor Vinge

The first chapter of "A Fire Upon The Deep" is one of my favorite openings.

I didn’t care for Old Man’s War. I really liked the writing and characters, but found that the bleakness of a future that’s a War of All Against All bummed me out for several days after I finished.

Lacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_on_Zanzibar from John Brunner and following the "see also" there.

Furthermore at least https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chanur_novels from C.J.Cherryh.

For me they were a blast to read. I fevered/longed for the next book to be in print.

Similar thing for the "Company wars" and "Hinder Stars" listed in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._Cherryh_bibliography#The... / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance%E2%80%93Union_univers...

Go get this!

I reread (Audiobook version) the Hyperion Cantos a year ago and I was floored at how well it aged in the past 20+ years.

as a sidenote, I picked up on stuff on the rereading and am wondering how much of that is due to my increased maturity and how much is due to the format (paperback vs. audiobook).

As a result I'm rereading a lot of my favorites from the past . Not all have aged as well.

I have a similar list but with an attempt at writeups of their style and what is good about each individual author here: http://fuseki.net/home/ScienceFictionBookReviews.html

At a glance, I can't spot anything by Ken MacLeod, nor Iain Banks. Both are masters of hard SF. I read most of Ken MacLeod's work, some several times (yes, I really enjoyed them that much), and I am reading Iain Bank's Culture series these days.

Well, I wouldn't really say Banks wrote Hard SciFi, but the authors you mentioned are great.

I've read enough of the list that I think I'll hang onto it to check out stuff that I haven't read.

Obviously it's down to personal preference which of these are the best, but I'm curious how other readers feel about a couple of these (potentially contrarian views):

1. Speaker For the Dead is my favorite of the Ender stuff.

2. I like Endymion duo better than Hyperion. (maybe my favorite ever, actually)

3. The Stand is also an all-time great to me, especially in light of current events.

4. I think the author should read more Niven - I guess he didn't really like Ringworld, which is another of my favorites.

> 2. I like Endymion duo better than Hyperion. (maybe my favorite ever, actually)

Strong agree. The technical term for the advantage the Endymion books had is "a coherent plot". Also, using human reconstitution as a way to get around the acceleration constraints of space travel is awesome.

Simmons' Ilium and Olympos (SF interpretations of the Iliad and [sort of] the Odyssey) are also super well-conceived.

I personally liked the Hyperion duo better, but found all 4 books to be incredible.

As for Ringworld, I didn't enjoy it, but would be willing to give Niven another try if given a strong and specific recommendation. Maybe something that has more of a plot. Wandering around a big empty construction in space where nothing happens didn't really do it for me.

The author of this list and I seem to have very similar tastes. Most of his favorites are mine as well. The only favorite of mine that comes to mind as being left off this list is Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It's also striking that he hasn't listed any of the Culture series by Iain Banks.

People seem really divided on the Hyperion Cantos in terms of which books or book pair stands out for them. I am thoroughly in the 'all four of them combine to form an impressive epic'-camp. I found it pleasing how Rise of Endymion closes the last strands of the story begun in Hyperion.

Good call on Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Ringworld didn't do much for me either, but I do indulge in the Man-Kzin Wars spin-offs as a sort of guilty pleasure.

I put off reading The Three Body Problem because I wanted to make sure I was good and ready to be amazed.

I've read Cixin Liu's short stories and thoroughly enjoyed them. He comes up with some amazing ideas. I even really liked the movie based on Wandering Earth, despite how it converted the story to more action.

I barely made it through 3BP and I don't have much excitement for the sequels. The story just did not grip me at all.

The sequels have some big and original ideas that I don't regret being exposed to, but they were painful to get through. Especially the 2nd book. It took me months to finish because I just couldn't stay interested.

Yup, I did not enjoy the 3 body problem either. Haven't read any of his short stories, though, so I'll look in to that.

If you read 100 books in 2 years, is it a goal or are you still reading for the enjoyment of it?

Also a side question, I love reading but I'm very slow. I don't want to learn a lot of the 'fast' reading techniques because I have tried them and don't really retain much. Is there some low hanging fruit to reading just a little faster? (like, read in a good chair or use a kindle or something)

Read shorter books!

I set a goal of 50 books in 2018 and once I got into the habit it was purely for enjoyment. I ended up doing 86 in 2018, and upped my goal to 75 for 2019... then ended up doing 122 books that year. I'm somewhere in the 50s or 60s for 2020 right now.

I retain audio much better for most things (unless it's data-heavy), so getting into habits of keeping my headphones on me and actually starting a book when I had the brain-space to listen helped increase the quantity. No idea on tips for physical reading (though getting the room lighting right and using one of the paperwhite-or-better Kindle screens makes a big difference for me, anecdotally).

Good point on the room lighting.

Also, is that sort of what people do nowadays for reading? Meaning, when people say they read 100 books, they are also referring to have listened to audiobooks? Not judging, just curious if I'm not understanding the meaning of 'read'

Most people include that now, yeah. I think it makes sense, even if it's an evolution from the strict sense of the word. I certainly retain as much as those who read physical books, and if someone asks me if I've read a book, it seems needlessly pedantic to say "no, I listened to it."

100 books in 2 years comes out to about a book per week, which isn't too many to enjoy for someone who reads a lot.

But also, many of the classic sci-fi novels are actually very short, possible to get through in a couple days, even if you don't read particularly fast.

Alas, I don't have any tips to read faster...

I don't know if this is your problem, but I'm a habitual rereader. I'll go over the same passage repeatedly to double check if I understand it. It doesn't actually help, I usually end up tired and the passage starts to, if anything, lose meaning due to semantic satiation. What I've learned to do is just let go, keep reading and eventually I'll figure out what that passage meant. Kind of like how when you watch a movie in theaters, you may not catch every line of dialogue, but you'll still understand the movie.

Average American spends 34 hours weekly watching TV. Are they still watching it for enjoyment or is it a goal?

I have started reading more in the last few years, and much of it comes down to using goodreads - I hate the app & site, but I like keeping track of what I've read and whether I liked it. And you set a "reading challenge" every year. I've been aiming for 20-26 books per year, and the little nudges it gives me help me keep on track - I only missed one year since I started, and that was because I got bogged down in the fall reading a 1000 page book that I didn't like.

all that to say: I've been enjoying reading MORE since I've increased the amount I read - everything stays fresh, and I just devote a bit of time to reading each day and a bit less time to (the internet, mainly)

My favorite from this summer so far, and one I don't see mentioned much is "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" by Claire North (Catherine Webb). https://www.amazon.com/First-Fifteen-Lives-Harry-August/dp/0...

>The best books are bolded, the great ones are underlined, and my absolute favorites are in red.

What does that even mean? What's the cutoff for best and great and favorite?

Does anyone else find the language over the top? Like we've watered down our superlatives.

Maybe I'm being super picky, but why make a numbered list of the best things across a spectrum of their greatness and not use the numbers?

I understand what he means. He’s sorted alphabetically by author. Then has two categories. He probably doesn’t want to compare books beyond that. Their either okay, great, or his absolute favourite.

I'd shelve The Stand in horror, not scifi. It uses post apocalyptic scifi tropes, but ultimately the driver of the story is occult, not technological. There may not be a fundamental difference between a rogue AI and a demon as an antagonist ... other than where the book gets filed.

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